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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,065 posts.
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Websites people say have changed their lives
I asked Kottke.org readers if they had ever seen, heard, or read something on the web that literally changed their lives. Fourteen people said no. Sixteen said
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My Brush With a Patent Troll
Back when the web was only a limited affair and the most exciting thing on it in the realm of imagery was the ‘coffee pot webcam’ I came up with a way to make a real live video stream that worked in a browser. A few months earlier I’d made a very basic version of this using ftp upload of images to a server and then a…
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Reports that Bassel Khartabil has been sentenced to death
Bassel Khartabil, a leading figure in the Syrian Open Source software community, has been imprisoned by the Syrian government since...
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Help Fight Patent Trolls – Support the SHIELD Act
This week brings promising news in the fight against patent trolls. We have written before about how a broken patent system has led to an explosion of lawsuits by patent trolls (companies that assert patents as a business model instead of creating products). In the hands of trolls, patents become a...
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In defense of flat earthers (2020)
The first time I heard about Flat Earthers, I thought the idea was a joke. Surely nobody would believe something so crazy. I didn’t think about it again for a while. Until I started seeing celebrities, including famous basketball players, claiming the world is flat The rise of this phenomenon puzzled and concerned me…
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Don't contribute anything relevant in web forums (2020)
Don't Contribute Anything Relevant in Web Forums Like Reddit
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RFC: Let's Disrupt Dating Apps
This is a new series I’m going to start doing, much in the same spirit as YC’s Request for Startups . RFC doesn’t mean “ Request for Comments ” — although comments are of course welcome — but rather “Request for Co-founder.” RFC posts will be deep-dives on products and problems I find interesting or that I’m…
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Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead
Why the poorest people in the world spend fortunes burying their dead
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Problems with Japan's Covid-19 reports
The Japanese government seems incapable of getting their act together so that they can provide meaningful data to the public.
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The Next Generation Bends Over
Mint’s sale to Intuit really pissed me off. Why should I care? Because I think it’s indicative of a VC-induced cancer that’s infecting our industry and killing off the next generation. I don’t know the full backstory, but I’d bet this sale was encouraged by a Mint i…
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ARRL hails FCC action to remove symbol rate restrictions
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
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Mondrian Entered the Public Domain. The Estate Disagrees
The Mondrian Trust claims a 1930 painting is still protected—citing "dual copyrights," Spanish law, and a misreading of the Copyright Act.
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Entropic Engineering DEFCON 32 Statement
Entropic Engineering was approached in January ‘24 by the DEFCON Badge Team, who were looking for a small company to partner with. They expressed that they specifically wanted to work with us as a woman-owned, queer- and POC-driven engineering firm to develop an electronic badge with a gaming element for this year’s…
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How airline reservations are used to target illegal searches
One of the most detailed pictures to date of how the US government uses airline reservations to target illegal searches is provided by documents released recently by the US government as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit brought by David House , an activist with the Pvt. Manning Support Network .
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ISP Association Nominates Mozilla as “Internet Villain”
ISPA Awards Join us on Thursday 26th November at black tie event in the Art Deco Sheraton Grand London Park Lane hotel as we announce the winners of the ISPA Awards 2026. We only have a few tickets left so if you are planning to join us, secure your tickets now…
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Caltech Awards 10,000th PhD Degree
On Friday, October 30, Caltech conferred degrees on 51 graduate students by a vote of the Board of Trustees as part of a special allowance made for students impacted by coronavirus-related campus closures.
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Intent to issue €2.5M fine to Disqus over GDPR breaches
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority has notified Disqus Inc. (Disqus) that we intend to issue an administrative fine of NOK 25 000 000 for not complying with the GDPR rules on accountability, lawfulness, and transparency.
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iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon
Lesson 6 includes my “Amazon River” technique, in which I show students how I use a couple of useful bits of Amazon’s website software and the Amazon database to figure out how to find alternative genres for their books if they aren’t having any luck selling it in the genre they wrote it for. I’ve successfully used…
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World's largest association of pilots boycotts body scanners
Big Brother Watch exposes and challenges threats to our privacy, our freedoms and our civil liberties at a time of enormous technological change in the UK.
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Dulce et Decorum Est (1921)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And…
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VMware GPL Enforcement Suit in Germany Continues
Software Freedom Conservancy is pleased to provide updated information regarding the ongoing GPL enforcement lawsuit for Linux, funded by Conservancy, that Christoph Hellwig has brought against VMware in Germany. Information about the suit is available on the FAQ page.The lawsuit continues to progress. VMware has…
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Help me distribute $100,000 to new entrepreneurs in Africa
I love the idea of microlending, small loans of a few hundred dollars made to entrepreneurs in impoverished areas so that they can start or...
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Microsoft will be carbon negative by 2030
The scientific consensus is clear. The world confronts an urgent carbon problem. The carbon in our atmosphere has created a blanket of gas that traps heat and is changing the world’s climate. Already, the planet’s temperature has risen by 1 degree centigrade. If we don’t curb emissions, and temperatures continue to…