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Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,064 posts.
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The Nobel Prize and the Laureate Are Inseparable
The medal and the diploma are the physical symbols confirming that an individual or organisation has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize itself – the honour and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
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Financial innovations brought by technology
Tech firms and financial institutions, working together, have in the recent past made core financial services much better for consumers.
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German Court Rules Against Internet Security Non-Profit Quad9
A public and free DNS service for a better security and privacy
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Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
The prevalence of dementia in places where more than one language is spoken is 50% lower than in regions where the population uses only one languageA study has shown that Alzheimer's patients with a higher degree of bilingualism receive a later diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment
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A US Visa in 937 Days
Here's the complete timeline of events. From my first denial to travel to the US until I eventually received a tourist visa. And then I can't go anyway. December 5-11, 2016 I spent a week on Hawaii with Mozilla - my employer at the time. This was my 12th visit to the US over a … Continue reading a US visa in 937 days →
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Victory at the High Court against the government’s use of 'general warrants’
Today, the UK High Court has quashed a decision by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), and ruled that section 5 of the Intelligence Services Act (ISA) 1994 does not permit the issuing of general warrants to authorise property interference and certain forms of computer hacking.
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The government uses targeted advertising to track your location
The online advertising industry has built a massive surveillance machine, and the government can co-opt it to spy on us.
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How cops can get your private online data
Can the cops get your online data? In short, yes. There are a variety of US federal and state laws which give law enforcement powers to obtain information that you provided to online services. But, there are steps you as a user and/or as a service provider can take to improve online privacy.Law...
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California needs real math education, not gimmicks
A guest post by Armand Domalewski.
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China
The most important story of 2014 that most people ignored was the Chinese economy overtaking the US economy. (This is using the purchasing power parity metric, which incorporates differences in...
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Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern
The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behaviour of the virus. The TAG-VE was convened on 26 November 2021 to…
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Nintendo Files Suit for Infringement of Patent Rights Against Pocketpair, Inc
Press release of Nintendo Co., Ltd.
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AlphaCode as a dog speaking mediocre English
Tonight, I took the time actually to read DeepMind’s AlphaCode paper, and to work through the example contest problems provided, and understand how I would’ve solved those problems, and how A…
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Your online identity is owned by your email provider (2019)
Your email provider owns your online identity by controlling your email address. You can’t port your email address to another provider as with phone numbers.
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The social obligation to be bad at things
This page has moved to https://drmaciver.com/notebook/2020/02/the-social-obligation-to-be-bad-at-things/ .
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French Appeal Court affirms decision that copyright claims on GPL are invalid
This article follows the case of Entr’Ouvert vs Orange on a GPL copyright violation. The case went to the Tribunal de Grande Instance in 2019 and went to the Cour d’Appel recently in 20…
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Be critical or be corrupted
I recently rewatched "The Wire". The show's central theme is about counter-productive metrics and their corrupting influence on institutions. I've noticed hints of this pattern in software engineering, too
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European standards bodies are inaccessible to Open Source projects
Europe’s standards bodies have no functional relationships with Open Source charities and do not consult them.
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LG Smart TVs log USB filenames and viewing info to LG servers
Earlier this month I discovered that my new LG Smart TV was displaying ads on the Smart landing screen. After some investigation, I f...
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Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know
Fastmail is the latest email provider to be blocked by Russia.
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Apple's "notarisation" – blocking software freedom of developers and users
The EU’s Digital Markets Act is supposed to shake up the power of tech giants by giving developers and users more choice. Apple’s “notarisation” of mobile ...
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Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was big tech's "top priority"
New documents show the tactics Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok execs used to disrupt learning, prey on minors, and co-opt the PTA to control the narrative with parents WASHINGTON, DC – Today, The Tech Oversight Project published a new report spotlighting newly unsealed documents in the 2026 social media addiction…
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What We Get Wrong About Technology
Blade Runner (1982) is a magnificent film, but there’s something odd about it. The heroine, Rachael, seems to be a beautiful young woman. In reality, she’s a piece of technology — an organic robot …
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I invited strangers to message me through a receipt printer
Not only did I give internet strangers unrestricted access to send me completely anonymous physical messages, but I also self-hosted the entire site on a Raspberry Pi
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Violating Terms of Use Isn’t a Crime, EFF Tells Court
Have you ever violated a website’s terms of use, such as by using something other than your real name on a website that requires one, or by sharing your account password with a family member when doing so is prohibited? Probably. Have you ever clicked “I agree” without actually reading the terms in...
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Google, Our Patron Saint of the Closed Web
Lately there’s been a barrage of articles about how Apple is destroying the open web (because “app store, lol”) and it is Time Something Was Done About This: Apple’s paranoid appr…