931
Why Is Claude Turning into an a**Hole?
Let's hope this trend reverses
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 1,046 posts.
932
The worst acquisition in history, again
Warner Bros.
933
The Glass Famine
Spies, war, industrial subterfuge and secret recipes. And it all really happened. Honestly, what more could you ask for?
934
Scientists solve 200-year-old puzzle of how tobacco plants make nicotine
Scientists have uncovered how tobacco plants naturally make nicotine, solving a mystery that has puzzled researchers for nearly two centuries.
935
How Block Blast harvests its players for ad money
Rules downloaded from their server decide your pieces, your score and your ads. One waits for an expensive ad, then asks for a hand you can’t place.
936
Every fucking website: 2026 edition
Every AI-generated landing page, all at once, labelling itself as it goes.
937
I am leaving the AI party after one drink
Personal website of Lara Aigmüller. Thoughts about web frontend development, music, and more…
938
939
Rome is studded with cannon balls (2022)
Did you know that Rome is studded with cannon balls? Not many know that the city is full of sites where you can still see cannon balls. We’ll accompany you and share with you the story of the many cannon balls you can see around the city. Come and have a look for yourself! Come to Rome to see the city and its cannon…
940
Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
Compare live air quality rankings for major cities worldwide. See real-time AQI levels and pollution conditions by location.
941
LA Metro has some of the slowest escalators
LA Metro’s design specifications state that its escalators go 90 feet per minute, slower than nearly everything we found.
942
It is a sign of the times that Amazon gets to call this fair use
This 404 report justly been getting considerable coverage. Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training dat...
943
Let's all meet up in the Y2K
Back in 2024 I posted a few of these on Twitter (thread reader) after digging out old photos from the dot-com boom. I was working in London at a digital agen...
944
An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – Forensics and More Fallout
Context: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into acceptin…
945
The GDR and Vietnam: From Fake Coffee to Coffee Empire
New stories from the East German specialists behind this Cold War project
946
Wikipedia Workers to Seek Union Recognition
COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION 24/06/2026 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wikipedia workers in Britain are setting a “global first” by becoming the first body of workers at the online encyclopaedia to seek union recognition. British-based employees at the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) wrote a letter to mana
947
"I'm Embarrassed on Behalf of the Tech Industry"
That’s something Ben Thompson said a recent episode of Dithering . He was referring to how he felt while trying to help his mom get control of her digital…
948
Toyotas and Terrorists: "Why are ISIS's trucks better than ours?" (2023)
One of the hottest commodities in the military, or even for civilian contractors, is having a vehicle down range when you are deployed in the Middle East. Anyone who is someone has their own Ford
949
California's Digital Age Assurance Act, and FOSS
These solely represent my own interpretation and opinions. Some parts might be wrong — actually — some parts will be wrong. Please tell me somewhere.
950
Travel locally, where you are
Many people dream of traveling to faraway places to experience new cultures and sightseeing.
951
On The Need For Understanding
I saw this Mastodon post from Andy Wingo recently: in these days of coding agents and what-not, i often think of gerald sussman's comm...
952
LLMs are a 400-year-long confidence trick
In 1623 the German Wilhelm Schickard produced the first known designs for a mechanical calculator. Twenty years later Blaise Pascal produced a machine of an improved design, aiming to help with the large amount of tedious arithmetic required in his role as a tax collector. The interest in mechanical calculation showed…
953
Never talk to the police
Always talk to a criminal defense attorney before you tell the police anything or consent to a search without a warrant. When I was a prosecutor, the first think I would ask when given a case was, "did he say anything?"
954
When online commenters detect my art as AI
Here is a collection of screenshots (obfuscated) of dozens and dozens of online comments from many platforms (Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook) containing accusations or confusion that my artworks and comics are AI-generated. Despite creating every piece by hand, despite sharing timelapses, the comments keep…
955
Latent Space as a New Medium
Lately I’ve been asking myself: what might artificial intelligence be good for besides answering questions and writing code?
956
AI didn't break copyright law, it just exposed how broken it was
How generative AI exposes the gap between copyright law and everyday enforcement, from fan art and private creation to commercial competition.
957
The Future Worth Building Is Human
AI built for autonomy crowds people out, making us passive observers of what’s coming. We’re building toward a different future.
958
Ants: Who looks after the injured in a colony?
Carpenter ants amputate the injured legs of fellow ants to minimise the risk of infection. A new study involving a Würzburg researcher shows that this task is primarily carried out by ants switching from indoor to outdoor duties.
959
I'm building a parallel internet, and it's called The Thinnernet
Since 2020, I've taken on a Steve Jobs alter-ego (on a very, very part time basis, and often for humor purposes ). The firs...
960
I don't know if my job will still exist in ten years
In 2021, being a good software engineer felt great. The world was full of software, with more companies arriving every year who needed to employ engineers to…