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Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
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Diversity and Startups
Sexism in tech is real. One of the most insidious things happening in the debate is people claiming versions of “other industries may have problems with sexism, but our industry doesn’t.” Both men and women claim this, even though it keeps getting harder to do in the face of shocks like the Tinder texts. We know there…
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UC Berkeley makes course video content unavailable to public
Here is additional information about upcoming changes to UC Berkeley’s library of legacy public Course Capture (classroom lecture) content
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Study shows N95 masks near-perfect at blocking escape of airborne Covid-19
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – In a head-to-head comparison of masks worn by people with active COVID-19, the inexpensive “duckbill” N95 came out on top, stopping 98% of COVID-19 particles in the breath of infected people from escaping into the air. Led by researchers from the University of Maryland School of Public Health…
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How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in
In the previous article, we explored the importance of standards: how the unspoken agreements governing electrical sockets, paper sizes and file formats form the foundations of a world in which choices remain open and power is not concentrated in the hands of a single player. We concluded with a question: if open…
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GPT-2: 6-Month Follow-Up
We’re releasing the 774 million parameter GPT-2 language model after the release of our small 124M model in February, staged release of our medium 355M model in May, and subsequent research with partners and the AI community into the model’s potential for misuse and societal benefit. We’re also releasing an…
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Egypt Blocks Access to Telegram
Technology and Law Community "Masaar” documented the blocking of the Telegram website and application by the Egyptian authorities on 22 October 2020. The authorities blocked Telegram on three of the Internet service networks operating in Egypt. These networks included “We”, “Vodafone” and “Orange”. Masaar learned…
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Emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal now endangered
Gland, Switzerland, 9 April 2026 (IUCN) – The emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal are now both Endangered, according to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. Climate change in Antarctica is leading to changes in sea-ice that are projected to cause the emperor penguin population to halve by the 2080s, while…
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Chaos Computer Club saves the German healthcare system 400M Euros
Zur Verbindung mit dem Gesundheitsdatennetz „Telematik“ sind in deutschen Arztpraxen spezielle Router vorgeschrieben. Nach nur fünf Jahren Laufzeit soll nun ein Gerätetausch alternativlos sein – so...
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Hacker News Highlights: January 2017
Here are some of our favorite recent posts on Hacker News. Quantum computers ready to leap out of the lab in 2017 [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13317716] A handful of quantum computing researchers bump into each other. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13317716] A large slab of ice is breaking off an…
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Pooling and Sharing of wealth makes everyone's wealth grow faster
A central puzzle in evolutionary biology is that of spontaneous altruism. When two creatures interact, why might one sacrifice something of value in order to help the other? Why, if I'm rich, might I want to help the poor? In one view of the problem, there's n
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Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names – With Examples
40 common false assumptions programmers make about names, debunked with real-world examples from global naming systems and identity practices.
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Health effects of the use of non-sugar sweeteners: a review and meta-analysis
Non-sugar sweeteners have been developed as an alternative to sugars and are widely used both as an ingredient in pre-packaged foods and beverages and added to food and beverages directly by the consumer.
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What’s the best way to spend $20K to help the common good?
I recently came across the following question posted by Paul Buchheit (the founder of Gmail): Assume that I'm going to get rid of $20,000 and my only concern is the "common good". Which of these is the best use of the money: give it to the Gates foundation, buy a hybrid car, invest it in a promising startup, invest it…
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AI Slop Report: The Global Rise of Low-Quality AI Videos
Kapwing’s new research shows that 21-33% of YouTube’s feed may consist of AI slop or brainrot videos. But which countries and channels are achieving the greatest reach — and how much money might they make? We analyzed social data to find out.
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Tinder’s pricing algorithm can charge users up to 5x more for same service
Tinder Plus users around the world must engage with an opaque and unfair personalized pricing algorithm, according to new research by Mozilla and Consumers International.
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The American-Western European Values Gap
American values differ from those of Western Europeans in many important ways. Most notably, Americans are more individualistic and are less supportive of a strong safety net than are the publics of Spain, Britain, France and Germany. However, Americans are coming closer to Europeans in not seeing their culture as…
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Abandoned land drives dangerous heat in Houston, study finds
Research highlights how a lack of vegetation and shade exposes vulnerable residents to heightened health risks.
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Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early
Within a few days of the announcement that libraries, schools and colleges across the nation would be closing due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, we launched the temporary National Emergency Library to provide books to support emergency remote teaching, research activities, independent scholarship, and intellectual…
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The Miracle of Wörgl
When entertaining the idea of communities issuing their own money (called complementary currencies ), people often wonder if that idea has been successfully done before. In doing our research into the concept, we encountered a number of stories where communities issued their own currency and produced a prosperity…
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