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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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Publish and Perish
Coronavirus gain-of-function research comes from playing the "Science Game"
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Archive.org Seeks Summary Judgment in Lawsuit Filed by Publishing Companies
The Internet Archive has asked a federal judge to rule in our favor and end a radical lawsuit, filed by four major publishing companies, that aims to criminalize library lending. The motion for summary judgment, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by the Electronic Frontier…
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Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible
Software is degrading all around us, for obvious reasons. I've written about this before. All else equal, if you increase your code production by 10x but you don't reduce your error rate by a factor of 10, then your production app is buggier than it used to be. I've seen threads where people also have...
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Lawyer cites fake cases invented by ChatGPT, judge is not amused
Legal Twitter is having tremendous fun right now reviewing the latest documents from the case Mata v. Avianca, Inc. (1:22-cv-01461). Here’s a neat summary: So, wait. They file a brief …
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The casino in your pocket
A very rough statistical analysis of a casino trick used by games on your phone (n=28).
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We will not ‘walk out’ of UK, nor comply with any request to bypass encryption
Tutanota: We will not 'walk out' of UK like Signal. Nor will we comply with any request to bypass our encryption.
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Resisting Cognitive Surrender
Working Notes: a commonplace notebook for recording & exploring ideas. Home . Site Map . Subscribe . More at expLog . — Kunal
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The FBI proves again it can’t be trusted with Section 702
The FBI doesn’t believe that either our rights or the limitations that Congress has placed upon them matter when it comes to the vast amount of information about us collected under FISA Section 702. The latest exhibit in this is in yet another newly declassified opinion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court…
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Software Freedom Conservancy files GPL lawsuit against Vizio
The Software Freedom Conservancy provides a non-profit home and services to Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects.
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Creativity requires solitude
Perhaps it will turn out that you were called to be an artist. If that is your fate, then accept it and deal with it, the highs and the lows, the burden and the greatness, without ever worrying about external rewards.
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Why Does DARPA Work?
I'm doing some reconstruction. If you are not redirected automatically, follow this link .
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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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Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States
On July 30, 2025, the U.S. government issued an executive order titled “Termination of De Minimis Treatment for All Countries” regarding mail to the United States.
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When McDonalds Came to Denmark
Every few months, a prominent person or publication points out that McDonalds workers in Denmark receive $22 per hour, 6 weeks of vacation, and sick pay. This compensation comes on top of the general slate of social benefits in Denmark, which includes child allowances, health care, child care, paid leave, retirement…
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Why We Disagree with The New York Times
In the early days of mobile, we built a set of APIs that enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience. This is very different from the public APIs used by third-party developers.
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Trees not profits: we're giving up our right to ever sell Ecosia (2018)
Because we believe that the world would be a better place if more businesses were driven by a meaningful cause instead of greed.
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American Red Cross Asks for Ham Radio Operators for Puerto Rico Relief Effort
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
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Facebook doesn't like privacy countermeasures
German tech-news site Heise changed their "Like" buttons to be locally-hosted images that only transform into real Facebook "Like" buttons once you click them -- meaning that if you don't click anything, Facebook can't track you, and that actually "liking" the page requires two clicks. (Also presumably meaning that…
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But I'm Not a Lawyer, I'm an Agent
Just over a quarter century ago, when I was a young scribbler traipsing around the metro desk of the Baltimore Sun, I had an early opportunity to learn a lesson about money, about ethics, about capitalism and, in particular, about the American entertainment industry. And Dorothy Simon, she raised no fools. I only…
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Mastodon now a non-profit organisation
In June, I was able to officially register Mastodon gGmbH after nearly 8 months of legal work (“gGmbH” means “non-profit limited liability company”). A non-profit limited liability company in Germany is structered and operates similarly to a for-profit limited liability company with a few key differences. The founding…