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How bad are satellite megaconstellations for astronomy?
Over the last number of years, our planet has become encircled by Starlink, OneWeb, and other “megaconstellation” satellites.
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Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 694 posts.
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Is English a “creole Language”?
September 28, 2024 @ 5:50 am · Filed by Mark Liberman under Linguistics in the comics
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Don't bet on the joys of pokies (2011)
When I was working in the Cairns Casino I’d often arrive on the floor to replace a guy who had been in the industry as long as casinos had b...
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OpenAI's comment to the NTIA on open model weights
OpenAI’s comment to the NTIA on open model weights This comment was submitted by OpenAI in response to NTIA’s March 2024 Request for Information on Dual-Use Foundation Models with Widely Available Weights.
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AI-Implanted False Memories
We present three interconnected studies examining how artificial intelligence technologies can induce and amplify false memories in human subjects. Our re…
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Up to a Quarter of Rental Inflation Is Due to Price-Fixing
From 2020-2024, rent prices spiked by a third. How much of that is due to collusion by corporate landlords and a software coordinator? And where is the Fed?
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Apple Silicon MacBook batteries can't be replaced under warranty by third party
I bought a new M1 MacBook Pro in April 2022. A little over two years later, I'm seeing a service recommended message, and the maximum capacity of the battery is now down to 78%. Admittedly, my MacBook Pro experiences heavy usage: basically all day, every day. The batteries in my previous 2014 Intel MacBook Pro, which…
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Vision 1993
I’ve plowed through the first wave of AVP (Apple Vision Pro) reviews, and it seems pretty obvious that, at the current price and form factor, it’s not gonna be a best-seller. But I remain a strong believer in Augmented Reality (the AVP is VR not AR, for the moment). As I was diving into the reviews, a little voice in…
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Simplicity of IRC (2022)
During discussions with my friends and colleagues, whenever the topic of chat protocols comes up, I often remark how simple the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) protocol is and how this simplicity has fostered creativity in the lives of many young computer hobbyists growing up in the late 1990s and early 2000s. For many of…
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An Interview with Robert Caro and Kurt Vonnegut (1999)
Kurt greeted us in his beautiful 19th century house and in his bare feet (of which more later). As the interview progressed it grew sort of
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Speeding Slows You Down (By a Lot)
I often drive between Boston and New Haven. While on the road, I find myself pondering a simple question: If my only goal is to arrive as fast as possible, how fast should I drive? Ignoring things …
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Glasgow 2024 Hugo Awards Statement – 22 July, 2024
22 July, 2024
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The business of wallets
How digital wallets work, and how payment costs drive a lot of product decisions inside and around them.
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The Albuquerque "Broken Arrow" Nuclear Accident
In 1957, a B-36 nuclear bomber accidentally dropped a Mark 17 hydrogen bomb while landing at Kirtland Air Force Base just outside of Albuquerque NM. Mark 17 hydrogen bomb, on display at the Nationa…
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Openly Licensed Streetview with Panoramax
A video of Panoramax in action. Starting out with a map view which has small orange lines for where images are available. Then going into the actual 360 degree images and moving around. Above: a video showcasing the panoramax viewer, with a map to see where (most[1]) images are, and...
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U.S. women are outpacing men in college completion in every major group
Today, 47% of U.S. women ages 25 to 34 have a bachelor’s degree, compared with 37% of men.
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Solar will get too cheap to connect to the power grid
The cost of solar panels is plummeting, and this will flood the power grid with cheap electricity. But that’s just Act 1. We won’t stop building solar at the limits of the grid - we’ll build a lot more. This post explains why we'll keep building more,
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Notes on Cruise's Pedestrian Accident
This is a set of notes on the Quinn Emanuel report on Cruise's handling of the 2023-10-02 accident where a Cruise autonomous vehicle (AV) hit a pedestrian, stopped, and then started moving again with the pedestrian stuck under the bottom of the AV, dragging the pedestrian 20 feet. After seeing some comments about this…
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How many High Streets are there in London?
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KYC. No, Thanks
KYC was sold as a way to stop criminals. In practice it excludes the unbanked, leaks personal data on dark web markets, and surveils everyone else.
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America’s Transit Exceptionalism
The rest of the world is building subways like crazy. The U.S. has pretty much given up.
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Why did clothing become boring?
An investigation into when, how, and why everyone started dressing the same — and what it was like when they didn't
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OpenAI and journalism
We support journalism, partner with news organizations, and believe The New York Times lawsuit is without merit.
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A parliament of owls and a murder of crows: How groups of birds got their names
Language is an instrument of great precision and poignancy — our best tool for telling each other what the world is and what we are, for conveying the blueness of blue and the wonder of being…
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Full EU chat control proposal attack on digital privacy and encryption
The French news service contexte.com has today published the latest Belgian Presidency's proposal for introducing indiscriminate chat control scanning of private messages for illegal content. The proposal covers the entire regulation and is therefore ready for endorsement. The proposal is to be disc
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Any Technology Indistinguishable from Magic Is Hiding Something
Odes & Satires, and other matters of stuff & things.