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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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No, you can’t save £30 per year by switching off your “standby” devices
Every few years, a dodgy stat does the rounds claiming you can save £££ if you switch off all your gadgets at the wall. The standby mode of your TV is bleeding you dry!!! Energy Saving Trust@EnergySvgTrustA quick way to #saveenergy at home is to turn off tablets, laptops and consoles as soon as you stop using them…
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Why YC went to DC
A few weeks ago, I went to DC to start engaging policymakers and be the voice of little tech. Here's why.
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Legal win
Just got word that the court dismissed several of WP Engine and Silver Lake’s most serious claims — antitrust, monopolization, and extortion have been knocked out! These were by far the most signif…
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YouTube algorithm recommends videos that violate its own policies: study
Conducted using data donated by thousands of YouTube users, research reveals the algorithm is recommending videos with misinformation, violent content, …
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AstraZeneca vaccine doesn't prevent B1351 Covid in early trial
Two doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine were ineffective against mild-to-moderate infections with the B1351 variant first identified in South Africa, according to a phase 1b-2 clinical trial published today in the New England Journal of Medicine .
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EU chat control law will ban open source operating systems
Update: Open source OSes might be saved from being covered depending on the interpretation of EU regulation 2019/1150 2.2.c.
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US Supreme Court Just Blew Up EU-US Data Transfers
The US Supreme Court decided that the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may not be independent anymore – with major implications for EU-US Data Transfers.
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Meta Files Patent for Facial Recognition, Automatic Recording of People
Meta filed for a patent that includes a "memory recall" system that appears to detect people via facial recognition and record them automatically, and show you a highlights real later.
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How traffic actually works
Every so often this article makes the rounds and it annoys me. That isn’t how traffic works and the proposed solutions won’t fix anything. Maybe you can eliminate the annoying stop-and-go, but no one gets home any faster. In fact you can prove that you and everyone behind you get home strictly later than if you had…
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You can build a skyscraper anywhere in Davis, California
Update: Everything in this article about Davis is also currently true in the following cities:
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Weak Men Are Superweapons (2014)
There was an argument on Tumblr which, like so many arguments on Tumblr, was terrible. I will rephrase it just a little to make a point.
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Four fears for authoritarians
“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it” Aung San Suu Kyi: Freedom from Fear Recent events in the UK have been disturbing for believers and s…
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If Sapiens were a blog post
A cut-down summary of Sapiens covering the major points.
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Some notes on influenceering
The ups and downs of publishing non-commercial content on the internet.
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JSTOR Statement on Aaron Swartz
We are deeply saddened to hear the news about Aaron Swartz. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Aaron’s family, friends, and everyone who loved, knew, and admired him. He was a truly gifted person who made important contributions to the development of the internet and the web from which we all benefit.
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John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)
Visit the post for more.
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Why is it so hard to build an airport?
Airports are a critical piece of modern infrastructure.
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Odin, Wikipedia and engagement farming
Imagine one day you wake up, you drink your morning glass of milk, brush your teeth, sit on your computer, stare your own diffuse image on the display, while reflecting on your own gingerness. You turn on the nerd machine while doing the daily "no updates" Windows pray. The computer is finally on, and what is that…
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Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff
Cliff-edged fitness functions and the evolution of schizophrenia
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The cult of the free must die
For a terrible half an hour last night I thought Firefox was on the brink of disappearing as an independent browser and rendering engine. I was frightened silly by the rumour that Mozilla laid off significant portions of its browser team. The official press release being full of useless corporate open web blah didn’t…
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Netflix Prices Went Up Again – I Bought a DVD Player Instead
As of this month, Netflix prices are going up again.
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Humans can't endure temperatures and humidities as high as previously thought
Penn State researchers found that the maximum wet-bulb temperature humans can endure is lower than previously thought — about 31°C wet-bulb or 87°F at 100% humidity — even for young, healthy subjects. The temperature for older populations, who are more vulnerable to heat, is likely even lower.