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Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,064 posts.
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H5N1
Most of the time, we worry far too much about tail risk. We worry about terrorist attacks and necrotizing fasciitis, but not much about heart disease or car crashes. But in 2011, 17 US citizens...
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DRM Is Toxic to Culture
In pursuit of market control now, deployers of DRM are robbing us of our culture in perpetuity by enclosing the future commons. It’s possible that you think that unauthorised use of copyright…
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So much of academia is about connections and reputation laundering
1. Statistics / numerical analysis / data science is a lot harder than you, the reader of this blog, might think.
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Funding for Covid-19 Projects
I’m trying to fund startups/projects helping with COVID-19, because it’s basically the one thing I know how to do that can help. I think we will soon have enough testing capacity, so now I’d like...
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HPV vaccination: How the world can eliminate cervical cancer
HPV vaccines offer a rare opportunity to effectively eliminate one type of cancer. By taking this opportunity, it’s possible to save hundreds of thousands of women each year.
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The UK is still trying to backdoor encryption for Apple users
The Financial Times reports that the U.K. is once again demanding that Apple create a backdoor into its encrypted backup services. The only change since the last time they demanded this is that the order is allegedly limited to only apply to British users. That doesn’t make it any better.The demand...
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The untold impact of cancellation
Warning: towards the end of this post are references to suicide, which may be distressing to some readers. Discretion is advised.
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Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection
(And everyone knows it)
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Friday night’s near-disaster at JFK airport
The American plane, a 22 year old Boeing 777-200 (registration N754AN) crossed in front of the Delta jet that was in its takeoff roll. Air traffic control saw this happening and at almost the last possible moment called out to Delta to abort takeoff, out of fear the two planes would collide ("Shit! Delta 1943 cancel…
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Apple vs. Meta: The Illusion of Privacy
Learn how Apple and Meta use psychology and UX to collect your data while creating an illusion of privacy.
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After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off
The purpose of this article is to share my story in hopes of connecting to the right people at Facebook who can help me save my businesses…
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Bitcoin is a Cult
The Bitcoin community has changed greatly over the years; from technophiles that could explain a Merkle tree in their sleep, to speculators driven by the desire for a quick profit & blockchain startups seeking billion dollar valuations led by people who don’t even know what a Merkle tree is. As the years have gone on…
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Inside the Mirrortocracy
There's a problem with Silicon Valley and the subcultures that imitate it. It's a design bug woven into people's identities and sense of self-worth. Fixing it will be painful. Influential and otherwise very smart people will deny till their last breath that it even exists. But I believe it should be fixed before it…
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GCC: The customer has nuclear weapons. They do not do “bounty”
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Why do old statues have such small penises?
Reader question: “Why do all old statues have such small penises?” The reader who sent me this felt that it was a question that was maybe too silly for my blog, but – firstly – there ar…
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LLMs are steroids for your Dunning-Kruger
ChatGPT and LLMs amplify both insight and illusion. They are not knowledge engines, but confidence engines shaping how we think and learn.
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Reddit takes a new direction
Several months ago, reddit shook with the news that longtime subreddit /r/jailbait -- dedicated to, well, you can probably guess …
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Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations
Wikipedia is the backbone of knowledge on the internet. Learn how the Wikimedia Foundation is safeguarding it under the UK Online Safety Act.
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How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap
Multinational organisations are collaborating in the open on OpenStreetMap
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Automakers Say You Don’t Really Own Your Car
EFF is fighting for vehicle owners’ rights to inspect the code that runs their vehicles and to repair and modify their vehicles, or have a mechanic of their choice do the work. At the moment, the anti-circumvention prohibition in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act arguably restricts vehicle...
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62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share
50% of strong liberals support firing Trump donors, 36% of strong conservatives support firing Biden donors; 32% are worried about missing out on job opportunities because of their political opinions.
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The Global Dollar Short Squeeze
Published February 2020 There is currently a short squeeze affecting most of the global economy, slowing its growth. This has been the case well before the impacts from the trade war and the coronavirus. A short squeeze occurs when something that is heavily shorted goes on to rise sharply in price for one reason or […]