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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.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,065 posts.
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Wild Ideas
A wild idea is one that many people think is obviously quite unlikely. I'd say at least a third of these wild ideas are likely true. (Parenthetic links are to more of my writings .)
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No minimum parking requirements? No problem for Fayetteville, Arkansas
This article is part of the series The Costs of Parking Mandates Find audio versions of Sightline articles on any of your favorite podcast platforms, including Spotify, Google, and Apple. In 2015, the city council of Fayetteville, Arkansas, adopted a radical but simple idea: do away with minimum parking mandates and…
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Michael Lewis and the parable of the lucky man taking the extra cookie (2017)
In 2012, Michael Lewis gave a commencement speech at Princeton University, his alma mater. In the speech, Lewis, the author of Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, and The
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You advocate a ________ approach to calendar reform (2013)
You advocate a ( ) solar ( ) lunar ( ) atomic approach to calendar reform. Your idea will not work. Here is why: ( ) solar years are real and the calendar year needs to sync with them ( ) solar days are real and the calendar day needs to sync with them ( ) the so...
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Norway to switch off FM in 2017
The Ministry of Culture has announced a national FM-switch off, to complete the transition to digital radio. Norway is making...
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The future’s so bright, I gotta wear blinders
“This is only the beginning,” writes Kevin Kelly in an essay in Wired’s 25th anniversary issue. “The main event has barely started.” He’s talking about the inter…
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Canada
I've been visiting the US a lot these days: for work, for conferences, and simply to see friends. Commensurately, I've been also thinking more about what Can...
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How to defend yourself when your photo is ridiculed on Reddit
I was going to write a rant. But I'm tired. Plus it's better to be nice in situations like these. And I can't take on any more of the Inte...
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How I would sell OpenBSD as a salesperson
Let's have fun, I'm now a salesperson and I have to convince customers to buy OpenBSD, here is how I would proceed.
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Sufficient Decentralization for Social Networks
A design pattern to reduce centralized control and change incentives in social networks.
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Worst Ed-Tech Debacles of the Decade
For the past ten years, I have written a lengthy year-end series, documenting some of the dominant narratives and trends in education technology. I think it is worthwhile, as the decade draws to a ...
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NASA Is Worth Saving
Casey Handmer June 2025 Download a printable PDF. NASA was founded in 1958 in response to Sputnik and the emerging necessity of a robust, government supported space exploration and technology devel…
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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…
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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.
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Social media addiction linked to cyberbullying
Research links cause of cyberbullying to social media addiction, hours spent online and identifying as male.
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New antibiotics effective against resistant bacteria in mice
Researchers from Inserm and Université de Rennes recently identified a new bacterial toxin which they transformed into potent antibiotics active against various bacteria responsible for human infections.
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Wildlife monitoring technologies used to intimidate and spy on women
Camera traps and drones deployed by government authorities to monitor a forest in India are infringing on the privacy and rights of local women.
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Nerdsniping: A glimpse into a stubborn mind
The blog of &yet, a design and web software company that strengthens your customer relationships through creative technology.
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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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Betting on the Pope was the original prediction market
500 years before Polymarket, the Vatican fought to stop gambling on papal affairs. Should we worry that it’s back?
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DHS Quietly Testing Mandatory Facial Recognition of Passengers Exiting U.S
We’re all used to having to identify ourselves as we enter a country. It is the only way we can hope to have any attempt at a secure border. But, so-called “exit controls,” wher…
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Finding Sociopaths on Facebook
On his blog, Scott Adams suggests that it might be possible to identify sociopaths based on their interactions on social media. My hypothesis is that science will someday be able to identify sociopaths and terrorists by their patterns of Facebook and Internet use. I’ll bet normal people interact with Facebook in ways…
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Mobile Device Management invades privacy
With BYOD, companies are more than ever keen on protecting their data. MDM tools, like Google Apps, do more than that; they invade your privacy.
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Patents: how and why to get them
Some of my points are a bit naughty. But I maintain that they're based in fact and fairly widely known. So well-known, in fact, that I'm surprised to have never read it somewhere else.
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Apple Is Trying to Shut Down Hey
Apple deserves the antitrust scrutiny that they’re getting for their anti-competitive App Store policies.
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George Eliot's reflections on AGI from 1879
Forgotten musings on the economics of AI, an intelligence explosion, and machine consciousness
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