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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,064 posts.
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The age of Pump and Dump software
A new worrying amalgamation of crypto scams and vibe coding emerges from the bowels of the internet in 2026
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An inside look at NSA tactics, techniques and procedures from China's lens
Since I reside in a Five Eyes country (Australia) and have publicly presented four cases I led on China’s APT41 attacking organisations in ASEAN , particularly concerning China’s cyber and political strategies, I was curious to explore what China publishes about Five Eyes operations. This led me down a rabbit hole of…
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Internet Users of All Kinds Should Be Concerned by a New Copyright Office Report
Outside of the beltway, people all over the United States are taking to the streets to demand fundamental change. In the halls of Congress and the White House, however, many people seem to think the biggest thing that needs to be restructured is the Internet. Last week, the president issued an...
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Important women in CS who aren't Grace Hopper (2018)
I’m tired of hearing about Grace Hopper, Margaret Hamilton, and Ada Lovelace. Can’t we think of someone else for once? I went ahead and compiled a bunch of really important women according to some fairly arbitrary rules: There’s a specific thing you can point to and say “That. That’s their contribution.” This leaves…
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Harold and George Destroy the World
I have been thinking a lot lately about these two fellows. If you are not lucky enough to know them already, those are Harold and George from the Captain Underpants series of books (among others)…
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New U.S. college grads now have higher unemployment than the average worker
A recent U.S. college degree long meant lower unemployment than the average worker. That edge flipped in 2019, and the gap is now the widest on record.
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The least impactful way to spend $300M?
Buying status is as close to bad as a good act can be.
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AI 2040 and the cult of intelligence
I used to be one of these people. I read Yudkowsky and was like, OMG recursive self improvement hard takeoff AI is coming. Then I joined the real world and actually tried to do things. At comma, we ship a hardware product of similar complexity to a cell phone, and it’s really hard. Reality has lots of finicky details…
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The muscular imagination of Iain M. Banks: a future you might want
A future you might actually want to live in.
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Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
Does explicitly acknowledging bias make us less likely to make biased decisions? A new study examining how people justify decisions based on biased data finds that this is not necessarily the case.
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AI may be making us think and write more alike
Large language models may be standardizing human expression and subtly influencing how we think, says study led by USC Dornsife researcher
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The Brief Origins of May Day
Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers' Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don't realize that May Day has its origins here in this country…
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Utility poles
From the highly eclectic blog of Mark Dominus
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38% of webpages that existed in 2013 are no longer accessible a decade later
A quarter of all webpages that existed at one point between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible.
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AI slop, suspicion, and writing back
On developing an involuntary reflex for spotting AI slop
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Country Time Lemonade Will Pay Legal Fees for Unlicensed Lemonade Stands
Are you thinking of helping your kid setting up a lemonade stand this summer? Apparently, some young entrepreneurs are getting shut down due to a lack of small business permits. In a very savvy PR move, Country Time Lemonade has offered to reimburse any permit fees or fines (up to $300) that are incurred while…
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Shipping Culture Is Hurting Us
Yet another programming blog. Thoughts on software and related misadventures.
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The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
Alex Danco's Newsletter, Season 3, Episode 2
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Urbit: The good, the bad, and the insane
A whirlwind tour through the bucket-load of fail that is Urbit.
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Snoop unto them as they snoop unto you
The official videos from DEFCON 31 have been posted! Below you can watch our talk “Snoop unto them as they snoop unto you”. The talk, slides, files
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New iPhone age and identity checks restrict internet freedom in the UK
A recent iPhone software update is quietly changing how millions of people in the UK access the internet — and most people don’t yet realise the scale of what’s happened. With the release of iOS 26.4, Apple has introduced mandatory age and identity checks at the operating system level. In simple terms, your iPhone may…
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Drug addiction: The complex truth
We’re told studies have proven that drugs like heroin and cocaine instantly hook a user. But it isn’t that simple – little-known experiments over 30 years ago tell a very different tale. Drugs are …
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Facebook: We don’t need your consent
The world's largest social network believes it has found a way to bypass Europe’s strict privacy laws.
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Biggest drop in Facebook organic reach we have seen
Facebook is testing radically different Explore Feed in six countries than in the rest of the world.
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How to solve the problem that the topmost comments get all upvotes
[[Update: As of August 2015, I have partly implemented the approach in the first example below (but not the second example). ]]
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On Corpspeak
Syncing Up, Circling Back, Learnings and Asks, Oh My