61
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 318 posts.
62
63
Steve Yegge: Have you ever legalized marijuana?
It seems like there's actually a model we could use for legalizing marijuana. From 1919 to 1933 alcohol went from being legal to illegal back to legal again. It happened. Lots of people died when alcohol was illegal. More probably die now that it is legal. And technically, marijuana is legal in California for medical…
64
4chan hacker discusses the manipulation of the Time poll
There’s a scene toward the end of the book Contact by Carl Sagan, where the protagonist Ellie Arroway finds a Message embedded deep in the digits of PI. The Message is perhaps an artifact of …
65
66
Noam Chomsky: Education is Ignorance (1995)
The Noam Chomsky Website.
67
How Cook's Illustrated thrives while others are dying
Not all publications are on a financial deathwatch. Cook’s Illustrated takes no ads and charges for access to its recipes online. According to “Let’s Invent an iTunes for News,” the publication has 900,000 print subscribers (and 100,000 newsstand buyers) and is thriving online with …
68
SF author Greg Egan reviews Avatar
Avatar Review by Greg Egan
69
70
Student challenges prof, wins right to post source code he wrote for course
[BRADYcore] TARGETED TRAINING. REAL RESULTS.
71
Dear Palm, it's just not working out
301 This blog has moved to jwz.org . This post has been archived here . Please update your links. 301
72
73
74
Boston College Campus Police: "Using Prompt Commands" May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity
On Friday, EFF and the law firm of Fish and Richardson filed an emergency motion to quash [pdf] and for the return of seized property on behalf of a Boston College computer science student whose computers, cell phone, and other property were seized as part of an investigation into who sent an e-...
75
Schneier: The Value of Privacy
Last week, revelation of yet another NSA surveillance effort against the American people has rekindled the privacy debate. Those in favor of these programs have trotted out the same rhetorical question we hear every time privacy advocates oppose ID checks, video cameras, massive databases, data mining, and other…
76
Herd Mentality
It’s not just that Apple *is* different among computer makers. It’s that Apple is the only one that even *can* be different, because it’s the only one that has its own OS.
77
78
79
80
Adieu google
The first thing I searched for in Google, back in 1999, was probably "linux", followed by my name.
81
82
83
All we want are the facts, ma'am.
I've never been involved in a detective interview, but occasionally I'm interviewed by a journalist. Some publications use a quaint procedure known as fact checking ; for example, the New Yorker had a wonderful piece by John McPhee in their Feb. 9th issue on their fact-checking process. (My favorite part was about…
84
Rogue Amoeba abandons iPhone because of App Store approval insanity
Visit the Rogue Amoeba blog to read more.
85
86
Googling for Sociopaths
One of the best things about capitalism is the way it handles sociopaths. Major executives look up to Alexander the Great and apparently try to follow in his footsteps. But instead of leading a murderous campaign across Asia, they decide to make something people want: newspapers and movies and television shows. True…
87
88
89
90