Topics /
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 1,050 posts.
A 18-year-old Tennessee man who helped set in motion a fraudulent distress call to police that led to the death of a 60-year-old grandfather in 2020 was sentenced to 60 months in prison today.
Final Installment of the Misinformation Trifecta
Does cola contain a drug to prevent you from throwing up from the sugar? And is Mexican Coke somehow better than American Coke?
01 Intro One of the favorite activities of tech analysts, VCs and similar Twitter armchair experts is to predict what the next big technology platform might be. The usual suspects that come up in these conversations are VR/AR, crypto, smart speakers and similar IoT devices. A new contestant th
Reckoning with the U.S Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste concludes plastic waste in the U.S. is ubiquitous and increasing. Worldwide, at least 8.8 million metric tons of plastic waste enter the world’s oceans each year — the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute — and in 2016…
In partnership with the Uyghur Human Rights Project, the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs gathered cases of China’s transnational repression of Uyghurs from public sources, including government documents, human rights reports, and reporting by credible news agencies to establish a detailed analysis of how the…
The best new phones come with the ability to shoot 108 megapixel photos, record 4K video with stereo sound, and pack the results into a terabyte of onboard storage. But what do you do when that sto…
A couple of months ago a new paper was released that examined the lead-crime hypothesis. Its conclusion is that there's little evidence for an association, and if there is one it's pretty small. I haven't commented on it, but not because of its negative conclusion. It's because the paper is a meta-analysis. I'm fairly…
The Long-termist's Field Guide: 1,000 Ideas For The Next 1,000 Years
Over the summer, the Los Angeles City Council Public Safety Committee approved a proposal to expand Fire District 1, an anachronistic planning overlay that would effectively ban wood-frame construction in much of the city. Superficially premised as a measure to improve fire safety, the motion has been heavily promoted…
This new political battle does not break down along left v. right lines. This is an information war waged by corporate media to silence any competition or dissent.
Roblox is a global platform where millions of people gather together every day to imagine, create, and share experiences with each other in immersive, user-generated 3D worlds.
Some thoughts on the New York Times' Slate Star Codex profile
The Minnesota board that regulates engineering licenses is abusing their power in order to stifle the free speech of Charles Marohn and retaliate against the Strong Towns movement for their advocacy on transportation, infrastructure, and engineering reform. Strong Towns has filed suit in federal cou
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.
[Note: if you prefer audio, you can listen to this essay narrated by Grognor on his excellent podcast Second Enumerations . —Ed. ]
September 30, 2009 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Japanese History , Japanese Technology
In my last post , I took issue with the TV show Mr. Robot for not being weird enough. Although imaginative and compelling, its universe is well-ordered: everything happens for a reason.
Sir Frank Williams – the longest-serving Team Principal Formula 1 has ever seen – has died at the age of 79.
We are the ones creating these massive network effect businesses. So it's up to us to write new social contracts for the people who use them.
How I used Python to get back at an online scammer - and what I discovered in the process
MINNEAPOLIS - People who consume high levels of vitamin C and E in their diet may have a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease than people who get only small amounts of these nutrients, according to a new study published in the January 6, 2021, online issue of Neurology ® , the medical journal of the American Academy of…
We discovered yet another phone model with pre-installed malware provided from the Lifeline Assistance program via Assurance Wireless by Virgin Mobile.
The Judiciary Committee voted 21-20 to split up Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. What happened was unbelievable.
In previous posts I said that the extent to which "Fund people" works will depend on the distribution of scientific talent. Think about the following …
This event is when censorship overstepped a very serious mark.
