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Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 663 posts.
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Internet Association Endorses Internet Censorship Bill
A trade group representing giants of Internet business from Facebook to Microsoft has just endorsed a “compromise” version of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), a bill that would be disastrous for free speech and online communities. Just a few hours after Senator Thune’s amended version...
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What makes the perfect office?
In 1923, the father of modern architecture, Le Corbusier, was commissioned by a French industrialist to design some homes for workers in his factory near Bordeaux. Le Corbusier duly delivered brigh…
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Why Do DMT Users See Insects from a Parallel Universe?
The molecule DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) is a psychoactive chemical that causes intense visions and can induce its users to quickly enter a completely different "environment" that some have likened to an alien or parallel universe. The transition from our world to theirs occurs with no cessation of consciousness or…
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Girl Scouts Embraces STEM and Adds New Badges
What begins at Girl Scouts can take you anywhere you want to go. Explore who you are and what you can accomplish as a Girl Scout.
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Sexism at Uber from Female Management
My last days at Uber in San Francisco were filled with disrespect, condescending managers, and sexism.
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Laptop Ban a Reaction to X-Ray Equipment Stolen by ISIS
On March 21st, 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ordered airlines flying to the U.S. out of 10 airports, mostly in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East, to refuse to transport …
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The Government Is Keeping a U.S. Citizen Secretly Locked Up Without Charges
For nearly two months, the U.S. military has been detaining an American citizen at a secret jail in Iraq, denying him access to a lawyer and even refusing to release his name. The Trump administration is calling the citizen an “enemy combatant,” claiming he was fighting for ISIS in Syria, but it has not presented any…
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Supporting Hypothesis
Stripe is supporting the development of Hypothesis, an open-source testing library for Python
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20,000 UC Berkeley Lectures Made Illegal, So We Irrevocably Mirrored Them
Update 12/21/2019: just looking to access these videos? Check out the @UCBerkeley channel on lbry.tv or download the app and…
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The TSA's Selective Laptop Ban
Last Monday, the TSA announced a peculiar new security measure to take effect within 96 hours. Passengers flying into the US on foreign airlines from eight Muslim countries would be prohibited from carrying aboard any electronics larger than a smartphone. They would have to be checked and put into the cargo hold. And…
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Contra Grant On Exaggerated Differences
I. An article by Adam Grant called Differences Between Men And Women Are Vastly Exaggerated is going viral, thanks in part to a share by Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg. It’s a response to an e…
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Is Spending Time on Social Media Bad for Us?
With people spending more time on social media, many rightly wonder whether that time is good for us. Do people connect in meaningful ways online? Or are they simply consuming trivial updates and polarizing memes at the expense of time with loved ones?
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The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial
A few months ago, while dining at Veggie Grill (one of the new breed of Chipotle-class fast-casual restaurants), a phrase popped unbidden into my head: premium…
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Basic Security Precautions for Non-Profits and Journalists
Basic security precautions for non-profits and journalists in the United States, early 2019.
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The Internet of Things – A Disaster
It's bullshit, no question, let's get past that part. How did Nest screw up this finished product?
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Suicides in Rural America Increased More Than 40% in 16 Years
America's GDP is shifting from small-town America to the cities, and at the same time the opioid overdose epidemic has hit rural states, like Kentucky and West Virginia, especially hard. As a result, from 1999 to 2015 suicides in rural America have increased over 40%, according to the CDC.
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Better than Free (2008)
[I’ve revised and condensed this short essay into an updated version, which you can read on my Substack here: https://kevinkelly.substack.com/p/better-than-free] The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we … Continue reading →
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Crypto for kids
When, in the spring of 2030, he almost incidentally invented the most terrible biological weapon known to humanity it took him about three seconds to realize that should his invention fall into the hands of one of the superpowers -- or into the hands of any common idiot, really -- it could well mean the end of the…
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Standing Up to a Dangerous New Breed of Patent Troll
On March 20th, Cloudflare received our first patent infringement claim: Blackbird Tech LLC v. Cloudflare, Inc. Today we’re filing our Answer to that claim in a federal court in Delaware.
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Dutch Data Protection Authority: Microsoft breaches law with Windows 10
Met deze test controleren we of u een mens bent. Hiermee voorkomen we ongeoorloofd gebruik van deze dienst.
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Programming won’t be automated, or it already has been
I’m afraid of a robot taking my job. I don’t care about the job part much, I’m afraid of the actual robot. To replace my job it’d need to exhibit human level intelligence. That’s scary. Before that happens though, maybe some of its infantile, and less scary, brethren can make my job a bit easier. […]
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Wading Through AccuWeather’s Response
AccuWeather issued a statement regarding the controversy over their app sending location-identifying information to a monetization firm. It’s a veritable mountain of horseshit