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Weather forecasts have become more accurate
A four-day forecast today is as accurate as a one-day forecast 30 years ago.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 694 posts.
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EFF’s concerns about the UN Cybercrime Convention
Update: This post has been updated to clarify the scope of the compelled assistance provisions and the broad nature of criminalization and electronic evidence gathering. The final version of the draft convention can still be used to expand the reach of repression under the pretext of combating...
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Czech republic sets IPv4 end date
On 17 January 2024, the Government of the Czech Republic approved the material "Restarting the implementation of DNSSEC and IPv6 technologies in the state administration". On the basis of this decision, the Czech state administration will stop providing its services over IPv4 on 6 June 2032. Thus, the Czech Republic…
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The 'Return to Office' Lies
i vent about return to office bullshittery.
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Project Hammer: reduce collusion in the Canadian grocery sector
Project Hammer aims to drive more competition and reduce collusion in the Canadian grocery sector.
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A common urban intersection in the Netherlands (2018)
Can urban intersections be designed in such a way that motor traffic, cycling and walking flow smoothly and that the potential conflicts of these very different types of traffic crossing each other…
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Who is Marcellus Williams: Execution in Missouri despite evidence of innocence
Mr. Williams is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 24. Gov. Mike Parson has the power to stop this tragedy now.
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We need to liberate the Postcode Address File
This is the Pentagon Papers for the UK address database
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Facing reality about the EU is a core requirement for good management
Writing at the end of the world, from Hveragerði, Iceland
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Land value tax in online games and virtual worlds (2022)
A high-level how-to guide by Lars Doucet and Dan Cook for game designers and game economists working in large multiplayer online games and/or virtual worlds.
131
The beautiful dissociation of the Japanese language
An extra dimension that you can play with
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Bluesky signups are now open to the public
Sign up for Bluesky! No invite code required.
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The EdTech Revolution Has Failed
The Case Against Student Use of Computers, Tablets, and Smartphones in the Classroom
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Up to $41B in World Bank climate finance unaccounted for, Oxfam finds
Up to $41 billion in World Bank climate finance —nearly 40 percent of all climate funds disbursed by the Bank over the past seven years— is not being properly tracked due to poor record-keeping practices, reveals a new Oxfam report published today ahead of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington D.C.
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Reddit banned me for developing Geddit
Currently, I'm working as an AI Engineer @ amber . But mostly I'm an open-source software developer. That means I work on software projects that are free to use, modify, and distribute. Why? Because I believe knowledge should be free and open to everyone.
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Should this be a map or 500 maps?
500 priests, cartographic n00bism, and the limits of scale
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FTC Report Confirms: Commercial Surveillance Is Out of Control
A new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report confirms what EFF has been warning about for years: tech giants are widely harvesting and sharing your personal information to fuel their online behavioral advertising businesses.
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United States discloses nuclear warhead numbers; restores nuclear transparency
The Federation of American Scientists applauds the United States for declassifying the number of nuclear warheads in its military stockpile and the number of retired and dismantled warheads.
142
Diseconomies of scale in fraud, spam, support, and moderation
If I ask myself a question like "I'd like to buy an SD card; who do I trust to sell me a real SD card and not some fake, Amazon or my local Best Buy?", of course the answer is that I trust my local Best Buy 1 more than Amazon, which is notorious for selling counterfeit SD cards. And if I ask who do I trust more, my…
143
Hey, wait – is employee performance Gaussian distributed?
A data scientist’s perspective
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Doctors Without Borders declares the war in Gaza as genocide
Amid continued attacks, siege, and blockade, Israel is destroying conditions of life in Gaza.
145
If English was written like Chinese (1999)
The English spelling system is such a pain, we’d might as well switch to hanzi — Chinese characters. How should we go about it?
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Why it's impossible to agree on what's allowed
On large platforms, it's impossible to have policies on things like moderation, spam, fraud, and sexual content that people agree on. David Turner made a simple game to illustrate how difficult this is even in a trivial case, No Vehicles in the Park . If you haven't played it yet, I recommend playing it now before…
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Cement recycling method could help solve one of the big climate challenges
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a method to produce very low emission concrete at scale – an innovation that could be transformative in the transition to net zero.
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Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees
The photo to the right is of the Staples parking lot behind the York Road store in Baltimore, a classic example of a place that needs to be turned back to urban forest — or developed into a m…
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