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Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,065 posts.
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Cryptocurrencies’ Carbon Footprint Underestimated
Back in April I wrote Cryptocurrency's Carbon Footprint about the catastrophic carbon emissions of Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies such as B...
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Is the Russian Air Force incapable of complex air operations?
More than a week into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Air Force has yet to commence large-scale operations. Inactivity in the first few days could be ascribed to various factors, but the continued absence of major air operations now raises serious capability questions.
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The Bermuda Triangle of Wealth
Three points motivated me to write this — forming a Bermuda Triangle in which the average American’s savings disappear without any apparent cause. 1. Considerations on Cost Disease — the observation that certain costs (Education, Medical Care, Housing) have increased many times fas
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Harvard discrimination lawsuit: data show penalization of Asian-Americans
Harvard and Students For Fair Admissions (SFFA), which is suing Harvard over discrimination against Asian-American applicants, have relea...
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Reasons to fight cashless contagion
Total payments uberfication is a virus, and we need to build resistance to it
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AI Police Reports: Year in Review
In 2024, EFF wrote our initial blog about what could go wrong when police let AI write police reports. Since then, the technology has proliferated at a disturbing rate. Why? The most popular generative AI tool for writing police reports is Axon’s Draft One, and Axon also happens to be the largest...
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Mastodon and the challenges of abuse in a federated system
This post will probably only make sense to those deeply involved in Mastodon and the fediverse. So if that’s not your thing, or you’re not interested in issues…
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An investigation into egg prices
'More hens, less income!' So said the United Egg Producers' economist Donald Bell in 1994. The industry has gotten more consolidated ever since. And avian flu is just the latest excuse to hike prices.
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China is mass-producing hypersonic missiles for $99,000
The Radical Asymmetry of Modern Warfare (P2)
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Lawyers automate this, so why don't airlines?
My working title for this blog post was “Why I’ll Never Fly With easyJet Again”, but that was far too clickbaity. Also it’s probably worth prefixing this post with two things. The first being the caveat that whether or not i ever fly with easyJet again is immaterial to their business, given that the model of budget…
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Licensing is neither feasible nor effective for addressing AI risks
Non-proliferation only benefits incumbents
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Covid and the Heart: It Spares No One – Johns Hopkins
New evidence suggests anyone infected with COVID is at higher risk for heart issues—a risk that persists even in relatively healthy people long after the illness has passed.
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Google, nobody asked for a new Blogger interface
I'm writing this post in what Google is euphemistically referring to as an improvement . I don't understand this. I managed to ignore New ...
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The Rent Seeking Economy
If you're the site owner, please check your site management tools to verify your domain settings.
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Gemini is a little gem
AndreGarzia.com website
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PRC elites voice AI-skepticism
Executive Summary: Rapid advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) has become a point of national pride in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), driven in part by a cohort of accelerationist advisors who view technology as a transformative solution to the country’s economic ills. Lauding it as a “new productive…
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Arabian Nights
“It hath reached me, O King of the Age, that there dwelt in a city of the cities of China a man which was a tailor, withal a pauper, and he had one son, Alaeddin hight. Now this boy had been from h…
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Why Gas Is So Expensive Today (Hint: It’s Not Libya)
If you’re visiting this page it’s probably because you’ve come here to read my post about the impact of commodity speculation on oil prices.
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A glitch in an online survey replaced the word 'yes' with 'forks'
Dating back to at least early 2023, a bizarre and alarming technical glitch started popping up in some organizations’ online surveys and forms.
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I won't be renewing my Pinboard subscription
A personal blog of diverse opinions.
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Prediction Markets
My prediction/betting strategies and track record, reflections on rationality, prediction judgments
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Klout Is Odious
The positioning of Klout is gross, turning ordinary social interactions into some sort of game with a competitive score. Of course there are meaningless achievements . But what’s most loathsome is the primary purpose of Klout is to offer “Perks” (aka “ads”) to you based on your Klout score. Yes, I can get a free…
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Mastodon’s 2 Year Anniversary
Mastodon was first announced to the public through Hacker News, a link aggregator site for programmers, on October 6, 2016. Now we’re celebrating the 2 year anniversary! 🎉
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Our fight is far from over
Four months after the disappointing decision on summary judgment in Hachette v. Internet Archive, a number of papers were filed today in the district court, and then the judge is expected to make his final judgment. We expect that, at least while the appeal is pending, there will be changes to our lending program, but…
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