2551
This map is not upside down
While conventional and commonplace today, maps have not always had north at the top. And they don't need to.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,064 posts.
2552
MIT and Harvard file suit against new ICE regulations
MIT and Harvard have filed a lawsuit in response to the ICE and the DHS announcement that international students on F-1 visas will not be permitted to take a full online course load this fall while studying in the United States.
2553
Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
Ahmad Haghighi’s personal page.
2554
New DHS policy on demands for passwords to travelers’ electronic devices
US Customs and Border Protection, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, today posted a revised policy on Border Searches of Electronic Devices and a Privacy Impact Assessment of some of the changes made by the new policy.
2555
2556
2557
Google is now a Visionary Sponsor of the Python Software Foundation
Our top sponsors—companies who step forward to make the biggest investment in Python and its community—not only use Python for their own internal development, but also offer Python as a crucial part of the products they offer to their own customers. That is certainly true of Google, the Python Software Foundation’s…
2558
2559
Facebook Disabled My Account After I Criticized Them
Facebook unfriended me. Why? So far as I can tell, it’s because I’ve been using Facebook to advocate for decentralization of social media. And apparently th ...
2560
Good ideas do not need lots of lies in order to gain public acceptance (2008)
A subtle change has been made to the comments links, so they no longer pop up. Does this in any way help with the problem about comments not appearing on permalinked posts, readers? Update: seemingly not Update: Oh yeah!
2561
2562
What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014
What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2014? Under the law that existed until 1978 . . . Works from 1957 The books On the Road, Atlas Shrugged, and The Cat in the Hat, the films The Bridge on the River Kwai, Funny Face, and The Prince and the Showgirl, the play Endgame (“Fin de Partie”), […]
2563
Reflections as the Internet Archive turns 25
A Library of Everything As a young man, I wanted to help make a new medium that would be a step forward from Gutenberg's invention hundreds of years before. By building a Library of Everything in the digital age, I thought the opportunity was not just to make it available to everybody in the world,
2564
Illegal Production and Use of Banned CFC-11 in China's Foam Blowing Industry
We investigate and campaign against environmental crime and abuse
2565
Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
Here is a photo of my family. I love them more than anything. Images have power, I hope. Normally we try to be pretty private, but in this case I am sharing a photo in the...
2566
Europe's Software Problem
This article is part of a series on (European) innovation and capabilities. Europe’s communication needs are currently almost exclusively delivered by Chinese hardware that connects us to US-based platforms. For a variety of reasons, this is not a good idea. As stated recently by Charles Michel, President of the…
2567
2568
Simplicity of IRC
During discussions with my friends and colleagues, whenever the topic of chat protocols comes up, I often remark how simple the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) protocol is and how this simplicity has fostered creativity in the lives of many young computer hobbyists growing up in the late 1990s and early 2000s. For many of…
2569
The realities of being a pop star
According to my experience...
2570
This Is 2016 Not 2012
Her eyebrows knot themselves. A pencil grates back and forth on her legal pad. Scratch. Scratch. My back itches; a tiny incessant itch that demands more at
2571
Will Smith's concert crowds are real, but AI is blurring the lines
Will Smith is being accused of generating fake fans with AI, but it's complicated: the crowds are real, but the videos were manipulated by Smith's team and YouTube itself.
2572
Peer-reviewed papers are getting increasingly boring
The number of researchers and peer-review publications is growing exponentially. It has been estimated that the number of researchers in the world doubles every 16 years and the number of research outputs is increasing even faster. If you accept that published research papers are an accurate measure of our scientific…
2573
EARN IT Act undermines the privacy, security, and safety of law-abiding users
Yesterday, TechFreedom sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee raising concerns about the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2023 (EARN IT Act). As it did when introduced in each of the past two sessions of Congress, the EARN IT Act undermines the privacy, security, and…
2574
OpenStreetMap: Welcome Apple
Yesterday Apple launched iPhoto, its photo management app, for the iPad and iPhone… and we’re rather pleased to find they’re the latest to switch to OpenStreetMap.
2575
2576
How Zidisha (YC W14) Is Misleading the Public About Its Interest Rates
Of all the microcredit innovators in recent years, one of the most interesting has been Zidisha.org. As Wikipedia explains , "Zidisha is...
2577
TPP Text Confirms Massive Loss to Canadian Public Domain
The New Zealand government posted the official Trans Pacific Partnership text today after years secret negotiations and occasional leaks of the text. It is an enormous deal with dozens of side letters between countries - Canada alone has eight side letters on intellectual property with seven TPP countries - that will…
2578
1.5 TB of Dark Net Market scrapes
Mirrors of ~89 Tor-Bitcoin darknet markets & forums 2011–2015, and related material.
2579
Living, in Limbo
Kind people already sent donations that will make my childrens' lives easier, when I'm not there any more. Thank you enormously! :-)
2580
The 'Return to Office' Lies
i vent about return to office bullshittery.