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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 913 posts.
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Egypt Blocks Access to Telegram
Technology and Law Community "Masaar” documented the blocking of the Telegram website and application by the Egyptian authorities on 22 October 2020. The authorities blocked Telegram on three of the Internet service networks operating in Egypt. These networks included “We”, “Vodafone” and “Orange”. Masaar learned…
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Tracking systems of TV streaming devices
Watching you watch: the tracking ecosystem of over-the-top TV streaming devices, Moghaddam et al., CCS’19 The results from this paper are all too predictable: channels on Over-The-Top (OTT) s…
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A case for ending lockdown
Introduction [DISCLAIMER: The original author is a layperson without medical/scientific credentials and this post represents a best-effort attempt to synthesize relevant research and unpack the policy implications of the “lockdown” approach as compared with the proposed alternative.] [Note: See the very last section…
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The K-shaped recovery
This installment of The Pomp Letter is free for everyone.
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It’s dangerous to think humans have a destiny outside Earth
The President has otherworldly priorities for a potential second term, but colonizing space is a fantasy used to maintain the status quo.
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Mars Problems vs. Venus Problems
Posted on Wednesday 23 Sep 2020. 825 words, 7 links. By Matt Webb.
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Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early
Within a few days of the announcement that libraries, schools and colleges across the nation would be closing due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, we launched the temporary National Emergency Library to provide books to support emergency remote teaching, research activities, independent scholarship, and intellectual…
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Software should be designed to last
And why I am trying to minimize my dependence on external libraries (whenever possible).
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The Infosec Apocalypse
The rise of tooling for vulnerability detection combined with pressure driven by Vendor Due Diligence is causing a massive enterprise freezeout for non-mainstream technologies across the board. Of particular concern is the impact this will have on the adoption of functional programming in enterprise and small business…
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Bahamas Company Registry Leaked
The people are the best thing about a life in science fiction – eclectic, bright, opinionated, talented – people like Elise Mathson: writer, jeweller, and all-round brilliant person (she's up for a Hugo this year).
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A Text Renaissance
There is a renaissance underway in online text as a medium. The Four Horsemen of this emerging Textopia are: Roam , a hypertext publishing platform best…
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OpenWrt Joins Software Freedom Conservancy
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Hours
A novelist friend introduced me to a productivity technique I’ve found effective. I spread it to my friends, and now to my horror management types have discovered it. A friend just told me he…
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Corporate Socialism: The Government Is Bailing Out Investors and Not You
(With Mark Spitznagel)
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Long-acting injectable is effective in preventing HIV acquisition in women
The HIV Prevention Trials Network study (HPTN 084) on the safety and efficacy of the long-acting injectable antiretroviral drug cabotegravir (CAB LA), for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in HIV-uninfected women, was stopped early by the trial Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) as results showed CAB LA to be…
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Microfinance Is Mostly a Scam (2015)
I might be well behind others on this subject, but I’m trying to catch up. I just finished a book entitled Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic: how microfinance lost its way and betrayed th…
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Chevron Is Refusing to Pay for the “Amazon Chernobyl”
At a time when so many black Americans, Indigenous peoples, people of color, and white allies are protesting at systemic racism, we'd like to highlight a different story of marginalized people speaking truth to power on behalf of their most basic human rights. It's the story of how "big oil" is now using Harvey…
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Accused spy Alexander Yuk Ching Ma evidently beat the polygraph
On Thursday, 13 August 2020, FBI Special Agent Chris Jensen filed under seal a criminal complaint against Alexander Yuk Ching Ma of Honolulu, Hawaii, charging him with “Conspiracy to Gather and Communicate National Defense Information of the United States to a Foreign Nation.” On Monday, 17 August 2020, the complaint…
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The End of the American Internet
For its first two decades, the consumer internet was American - American companies, products, attitudes and laws set the agenda. That’s not so true anymore - there are more smartphones in China than in the USA and Western Europe combined. Software creation and company creation is diffusing, and atti
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Taxpayers may have to pay $280B in plugging costs for oil and gas wells
Industry guarantees cover only 1% of estimated costs. NEW YORK, October 1 – By failing to require that oil and gas companies provide sufficient financial assurance when drilling new wells, U.S....
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Technology as It Should Be
Purism makes premium phones, laptops, mini PCs and servers running free software on PureOS. Purism products respect people's privacy and freedom while protecting their security.