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William Cook has died
Dr William Cook, who along with Warren Harris designed and developed AppleScript for Apple back in the early 90s, has sadly passed away at age 57.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 1,050 posts.
722
“Does induced demand apply to bike lanes?” and other questions
And what this tells us about what the common buzzword really means.
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Arrests of Hong Kong democrats shows why EU must reject China investment
On 6 January 2021, 53 people were arrested in Hong Kong under the National Security Law, including the organisers and candidates in last July’s democratic primaries where over 600,000 Hong Kongers voted for pro-democracy candidates for the upcoming Legislative Council elections. On the morning of 6
724
Online ID / age verification: the death of online search
Neil note: I’ve published this with the hope that others familiar with what this could entail will give feedback. As such, what you read now might not be the final version. If I make material changes, I’ll indicate them.
725
Identify a Facebook user by his phone number despite privacy settings set
The goal of this blog is to share write-ups about bugs i have found in Facebook and reported to them under the Facebook bug bounty program.
726
Portugal proposed law tries to sneak in biometric mass surveillance
Whilst the European Parliament has been fighting bravely for the rights of everyone in the EU to exist freely and with dignity in publicly accessible spaces, the government of Portugal is attempting to push their country in the opposite direction: one of digital authoritarianism. The Portuguese lead organisation in…
727
Surely you're joking, Comrade Beria
The Rosatom historical website has an entire section devoted to "Atomic Fun" — jokes and stories from the Soviet nuclear program. It's... something.
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Mushroom leather and how it is made (2020)
We love innovative materials which can replace our use of animal leather. But what is mushroom leather? and how is mushroom leather made? Read our complete guide to Mushroom leather and find out how this natural, earthy material can help lower our fashion footprint.
729
(L)Awful Interception
One of democracy's foundations is the fact that all human beings have certain inalienable rights and freedoms. Suspended by trust and shared values. Today, trust and shared values are being replaced by “control and surveillance”.
730
Why nobody hires junior developers and what happens next
While the number of job opportunities for software developer skyrockets together with salaries all around the world, fresh grads and junior developers struggle to even get invited for the interviews. Why does it happen and can we do anything about it?
731
Bruce Perens: On Non-Judicical Punishment of Individuals
Non-Judicial Punishment is a key part of democracy and free-market capitalism, and highly problematical, at the same time.
732
HIV vaccine trial starts at Oxford
The University of Oxford today started vaccinations of a novel HIV vaccine candidate as part of a Phase I clinical trial in the UK.
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Inequality, Interest Rates, Aging, and the Role of Central Banks
Bad things lead to more bad things. But (some) bad things can be fixed.
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Getting High-Speed Rail Wrong
Now that there’s decent chance of US investment in rail, Randal O’Toole is resurrecting his takes from the early Obama era, warning that high-speed rail is a multi-trillion dollar money…
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Jeanne Calment’s 122-year old longevity record may be fake (2018)
Did Jeanne’s daughter get away with stealing her mother’s identity?
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Syria’s exam-related Internet shutdowns
To prevent cheating in exams many countries restrict or even shut down Internet access during critical exam hours. For most of June Syria is having planned Internet shutdowns during critical exam periods.
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Amazon Co-founder Mackenzie quietly gave over $4B to 384 organizations in 2020
“” is published by MacKenzie Scott.
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YouTube starts to require a credit card or ID to verify the age in EU (2020)
We’ve taken important steps to make YouTube a safer place for families. We’re announcing a continuation of these efforts.
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Once we can see them, it’s too late
[updates: here’s the paper, and here’s Robin’s brief response to some of the comments here] This month Robin Hanson, the famous and controversy-prone George Mason University econo…
743
Back to EU
While the UK has now left the EU, Cronofy is about to re-join. The UK government's plans to weaken data privacy laws is the final straw.
744
Social media addiction linked to cyberbullying
Research links cause of cyberbullying to social media addiction, hours spent online and identifying as male.
745
Products vs. Protocols: What Signal got right
There is a significant difference between developing and promoting a protocol (such as XMPP) and a product (such as Signal). Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. This post details how and why Snikket aims to strike a balance between the two.
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EU legislation allows emails, messages and other communications to be scanned
On 6 July, the European Parliament adopted in a final vote the derogation to the main piece of EU legislation protecting privacy, the ePrivacy Directive, to allow Big Tech to scan your emails, messages and other online communications.
748
The Lightness of Windows
The Windows 11 announcement was fun and interesting, but there is a reason that Windows is no longer the center of Microsoft’s business.
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We Can't Let People Work from Home, for Stupid Reasons
Stupid reasons to not allow remote work. Dumb reasons to reject remote work.