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Why is no one making a new version of old Facebook?
12 Challenges readers Thandeka Xaba and Toby Mather raised some great points in the comments for yesterday’s Typology piece (thanks so much!).
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 694 posts.
452
Apple Rejects the Hey Calendar from Their App Store
There should at least be a standard of double jeopardy when it comes to the app store monopoly regimes. If you’ve managed to overturn a rejection of your service once, they can’t come after you on the same service again later. We could have used that today! But unfortunately there is no rule of law with the app…
453
The Acid Test Clause (2017)
“A contract is only as good as the people who sign it,” was a saying often quoted by an elderly attorney I worked with for the first fifteen years of my practice and I always nodded in his general direction when he said that and smiled as if agreeing. I liked and respected him, he […]
454
Tire-related chemical responsible for salmon deaths in urban streams (2020)
A team led by researchers at UW Tacoma, UW and Washington State University Puyallup has discovered a chemical that kills coho salmon in urban streams before the
455
Polyamory doesn't liberate; monogamy doesn't protect
Reflections and community quotes from a decade in the Bay Area dating landscape.
456
Fossil fuels could have been left in the dust 25 years ago
Gordon Moore’s famous prediction about computing power must count as one of the most astonishingly accurate forecasts in history. But it may also have been badly misunderstood — in a way that now l…
457
Peer review is an honor-based system (2008)
It would take too long to expose all of the flaws of peer review, here are some: some work is just flat wrong because the reviewers cannot analyze all of the mathematical results, and because they cannot redo the experiments; numerous researchers cheat, sometimes in small ways ("2 out of 3 experiments agree with by ……
458
The game theory of seduction and marriage with Jane Austen
The enduring success of her early 19th century novels are in large part due to their persistent relevance
459
Debt-related driver’s license suspensions in Ohio
More than 60 percent of Ohio’s driver’s license suspensions do not stem from bad driving; instead, they arise because the driver owes an unpaid debt. Debt-related suspensions (DRS) could prevent people from getting to work where they could make the money needed to repay the debt. In this report, we investigate whether…
460
Wildlife monitoring technologies used to intimidate and spy on women
Camera traps and drones deployed by government authorities to monitor a forest in India are infringing on the privacy and rights of local women.
461
Balancing Outdoor Risky Play and Injury Prevention in Childhood Development
Free play is essential for children’s development and for their physical, mental, and social health. Opportunities to engage in outdoor free play—and risky play in particular—have declined significantly in recent years, in part because safety measures have sought to prevent all play-related injuries rather than…
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Turning Everyday Gadgets into Bombs Is a Bad Idea
I think turning everyday gadgets into bombs is a bad idea. However, recent news coverage has been framing the weaponization of pagers and radios in the Middle East as something we do not need to concern ourselves with because “we” are safe.
464
Why Google Takeout is sooo bad
Author: IdeogramAI Prompt: The image shows a typical Google Takeout interface with a large error message indicating that the service is unavailable. In the background, there are frustrated users trying to download their data with unsuccessful attempts, represented by repeated “Failed” and “Retry” notifications. My…
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The optimal amount of fraud is non-zero (2022)
Counterintuitively, businesses, customers, and society prefer having fraud to what they'd need to do to not have it.
467
Urban renewal left the U.S. too scared to build
The destructive nature of urban renewal left the U.S. too scared to build anything at scale ever again.
468
Google Reneged on the Monopolistic Bargain
A funny thing happened on the way to the enshittocene: Google – which astonished the world when it reinvented search, blowing Altavista and Yahoo out of the water with a search tool that seemed magic – suddenly turned into a pile of shit.
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Women Who Code Closing
Women Who Code started as a community group in 2011 by a small team of engineers in San Francisco who were seeking connection and support for navigating the tech industry. The movement grew…
471
Can ketones enhance cognitive function and protect brain networks?
Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester have identified mechanisms in the brain’s hippocampal network that are rescued by ketones. These findings build on previous research showing that ketones can alleviate neurological and cognitive affects.
472
Nutrient levels in retail grocery stores
A counterintuitive conclusion
473
The US fiscal mess: Some unpleasant fiscal simulations
Based on recent projections, the US federal debt is expected to grow to historic highs over the next decade. This column uses the FRB-US model to simulate fiscal scenarios for the US. Across all fiscal consolidations considered, the debt/GDP ratio and interest bill increase at least until 2026-2027. Growth is not a…
474
Emoji History: The Missing Years
During my research into vintage Japanese drawing software, I came across some devices that had built in sketch or handwritten memo functions. I bought a coup...
475
How the Great Green Wall is holding back the Sahara desert
The Great Green Wall being built in Africa to halt the southern progress of the Sahara Desert is a favorite public works project of mine — it’s massive, ambitio
476
A Guide for Prospective Tea Monks
Inspired by Becky Chamber's Monk & Robot Series
477
The “simple” 38 step journey to getting an RFC
The Internet is built on the mutual understanding of network protocols and practices, and most of those protocols are defined using Request For Comments (RFC) or Best Common Practices (BCP) documents.
478
It's the land, stupid: How the homebuilder cartel drives high housing prices
Henry George was right about land values. And today we have a homebuilder cartel rooted in control of land and financing.
479
What is the point of an online conference?
My experience of online conferences has mostly been underwhelming. They typically borrow the form and structure of an in-person conference without considering whether those still make sense online, and whether the goals of an online conference should even be the same as an in-person conference.
480
JSTOR is Now Available in 1k Prisons
JSTOR is now available in 1,000 prisons across 4 continents, supporting the education and growth of more than 550,000 incarcerated people.