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The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 1,050 posts.
As an enlightened, modern parent , I try to be as involved as possible in the lives of my six children. I encourage them to join team sports. I attend their teen parties with them to ensure no drinking or alcohol is on the premises. I keep a fatherly eye on the CDs they listen to and the shows they watch, the company…
In a statement this morning, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of the Interior announced that Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish has been executed. His family received no advance notice, and found out Mustafa had been executed by reading the news online. Mustafa was arrested in May 2015, and charged with offences related to his…
Note – This is a true story based on my own experiences and what I’ve heard from the people involved, but for privacy, all of the names have been changed. Note 2 – This is an old piece, repub…
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
2021 is shaping up to be a big year for our efforts to secure your right to fix your stuff.
Maybe because what countries think of as a "tech industry" isn't always the same
IRS guidance for thieves, drug dealers, and corrupt officials. IRS illegal activities guidance helps taxpayers determine how to report their income.
The backlash from privacy and human rights advocates to Apple's new plan this month for scanning photos on user devices to detect known child sexual abuse images has been loud and nearly unanimous. The tech raises press freedom problems, too.
As we head into another gifting season and more and more connected devices make their way onto gift guides, I want to offer a cautionary note. The smart home is like a cat — mostly self-sufficient and nice to have, but also possessing a mind of its own that can lead to frustration and confusion […]
Uber is a bezzle ("the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it"). Every bezzle ends.
We respond to a question posted for us on Reddit about a stroad that seems unfixable—and maybe that’s because it is.
One of the guest lecturers aboard the ship [1] (Donald Gibbs, of Pearl-Harbor conspiracy-theory infamy) gave a very interesting talk a few ...
Fifty years after the War on Drugs was officially declared and psychedelic substance prohibition began in contravention of evidence supporting therapeutic use, the California State Senate has taken the first Legislative step to dismantle psychedelic prohibition with a 21-16 vote on June 1, 2021, in favor of Senate…
If you sell culture war all day, don’t be surprised by the real-world consequences
Debit cards are a core piece of financial infrastructure and drive much of the innovation happening in fintech.
This report is the first independent expert application of the 1948 Genocide Convention to the ongoing treatment of the Uyghurs in China.
Cases are growing exponentially across the world. Again. If you don’t know where this is going, a historical refresher might help. India has suffered about two million COVID deaths, the majority of them during its latest surge caused by Delta.Victims of COVID-19 are cremated in funeral pyres in New Delhi.
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When tech companies take it upon themselves to arbitrate what is or isn't misinformation they think they're the patricians of internet discourse. The reality is they're the plumbing. Meanwhile, most of the mainstream media coverage around the pandemic can be classified into five logical fallacies.
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority confirmed that Grindr did not receive valid consent from users and announces a fine of 100 Mio NOK (€ 9.63 Mio) on Grindr.
Troll Research Station maintains one of the southernmost airports in the world. See how the Norwegian Polar Institute operates an airport in Antarctica.
Here's a funny story: I've been using and teaching Python for over 20 years, and designed its built-in set module, but nobody would hire me as a Python programmer when I was laid off by RStudio in February. I was "too senior" for every developer role I applied for, even when the first paragraph of my cover letter said…
Tech firms and financial institutions, working together, have in the recent past made core financial services much better for consumers.
A public and free DNS service for a better security and privacy
