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Bollards: Why and What
Naming something we see and benefit from every day
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 694 posts.
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The quiet death of Ello's big dreams
Ello launched in 2014 with big dreams, but the artsy social network suddenly shut down last year, deleting nine years of posts without warning. What happened?
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Apple announces new accessibility features, including eye tracking
Apple today announced new accessibility features coming later this year, including Eye Tracking, Music Haptics, and Vocal Shortcuts.
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The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
Why did mental health fall off a cliff at the same time and in the same way in the USA, The UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? Part 1 of 3.
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How America's universities became debt factories
This essay first appeared in my newsletter. Sign up here if interested in F'ing up the status quo and fixing education. Here's a puzzle: how do you create a trillion-dollar debt bubble that can't be popped? Answer: make student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy. Now, here's a trickier one: how do you fix this mess…
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Embezzlers Are Nice People (2017)
We spend a lot of time suing embezzlers. All over the world. Week in and week out. Big embezzlers, small embezzlers, smart embezzlers and very smart embezzlers… That’s right, no dumb embezzlers because almost all the embezzlers we encounter are smart. Some are very smart. Some are brilliant. And, almost always, most…
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Taking my diabetes treatment into my own hands
First of all, this blogpost is kinda long. Let me prove to you reading it will actually have some payoff:
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The Internet Archive's last-ditch effort to save itself
Connect with Lunduke and other members of Lunduke community
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Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)
Surviving 3 years in North Korea as a foreign diplomat was not easy. Living and working in the Hermit Kingdom was certainly the unique experience of a lifetime.
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In Memory of Stiver
On October 20, the original author of the Fernflower Java decompiler, Stiver, passed away after a long fight against glioblastoma. Stiver was a German programmer of Russian origin, primarily devel
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Ants recognise infected wounds and treat them with antibiotics
The African Matabele ants are often injured in fights with termites. Their conspecifics recognise when the wounds become infected and initiate antibiotic treatment.
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Judges rule Big Tech's free ride on Section 230 is over
Algorithms are no longer a Get out of Jail free card. The Third Circuit ruled that TikTok must stand trial for manipulating children into harming themselves. The business model of big tech is over.
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Maybe Bluesky has "won"
November has sucked so far. One upside of the terrible nonsense is that more people are fleeing X. Many are choosing Bluesky. I’ve seen a bunch of takes about this recently, but I keep seeing things I disagree with. I figure that’s a good enough excuse to write more about this weird-assed social network.
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What can LLMs never do?
On goal drift and lower reliability. Or, why can't LLMs play Conway's Game Of Life?
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Learning not to trust the All-In podcast
Gross incompetence or purposeful deception?
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The gigantic and unregulated power plants in the cloud
Recently a Dutch hacker was able to take control of 4 million solar panel installations (FTM (Dutch), Euractiv, Victor Gevers). And this wasn’t the first time something like this has happened either (PV Magazine). As usual, huge thanks are due to the many beta readers and experts who helped improve this article with…
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Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
Why is this economy so difficult to manage? The macro statistics are hiding the experience of being cheated.
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Over the edge: The use of design tactics to undermine browser choice
In order to be able to choose their own browser, people must be free to download it, easily set it to default and to continue using it - all without ...
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Companies embracing SMS for account logins should be blamed for SIM-swap attacks
[UPDATE Since this was posted in 2024 : Major US telcos like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have suffered a months-long breach (the ongoing Salt Typhoon attack). These companies, of course, pass along the unencrypted SMSes vital to countless log in flows, account re-activations, and password resets. They are now known to…
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Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war
Editor’s note: In keeping with CPJ’s methodology, data will be updated as new information becomes available. See CPJ’s database for the most current data on killed journalists. As of September 24, 2026, CPJ’s preliminary investigations show that at least 247 journalists and media workers are among the more than tens…
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It’s an age of marvels
From the highly eclectic blog of Mark Dominus
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Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics
Due to UK disclosure requirements, it's possible to examine the P&L of the privately owned/controlled OnlyFans. And the results are shocking.
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The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs
A metascience post of sorts that argues we should take human capital more seriously
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The day I canceled my Spotify subscription
I used to be a big fan of Spotify. Today I cancelled my subscription.
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Recall: Stealing everything you've ever typed or viewed on your own Windows PC
Photographic memory comes to Windows, and is the biggest security setback in a decade.
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