“Outrage is a substitute for religion: It convinces us that our existence has some kind of meaning or significance beyond itself, that is to say beyond the paltry flux of day-to-day existence, especially when that existence is a securely comfortable one. Therefore we go looking for things to be outraged about as anteaters look for ants. Of all emotions, outrage is not only one of the most pleasurable but also one of the most reliable.”
Theodore Dalrymple, “Better Left Unsaid” (Taki’s Magazine, Dec. 31, 2016, courtesy of Patrick Kurp)
Google and Facebook will grab 70 per cent of digital ad spend by 2020
Google and Facebook will grab 70 per cent of digital ad spend by 2020
A passenger was violently dragged off a flight, but it’s even worse than you thought
CHARLIE MARTIN: How United Happens
CHARLIE MARTIN: How United Happens
As Robert Conquest once said, “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.”
Stewart, Daxton, Killer Apps: Vanishing Messages, Encrypted Communications, and Challenges to Freedom of Information Laws When Public Officials “Go Dark” - Broken link (April 13, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=
“In the early weeks of the new presidential administration, White House staffers were communicating among themselves and leaking to journalists using apps such as Signal and Confide, which allow users to encrypt messages or to make them vanish after being received. By using these apps, government officials are “going dark” by avoiding detection of their communications in a way that undercuts freedom of information laws. In this paper, the author explores the challenges presented by encrypted and ephemeral messaging apps when used by government employees, examining three policy approaches – banning use of the apps, enhancing existing archiving and record-keeping practices, or legislatively expanding quasi-government body definitions – as potential ways to manage the threat to open records laws these “killer apps” present.”
A New, More Rigorous Study Confirms: The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel Harvard Business Review
The relentless push to add connectivity to home gadgets is creating dangerous side effects that figure to get even worse. MIT Technology Review
Competition: The Cyber Crime Blogging Prize
Straley finds poetry in herring, taxes, and corndogs
“If I wanted to, I could be offended all the time. But I’m not.”
"What does the junior Supreme Court justice do? Kagan tells Gorsuch it starts in the kitchen." Robert Barnes of The Washington Post has this report
Rich Americans live up to 15 years longer than poor peers, studies find The Guardian
Pew Report – “Many experts fear uncivil and manipulative behaviors on the internet will persist – and may get worse. This will lead to a splintering of social media into AI-patrolled and regulated ‘safe spaces’ separated from free-for-all zones. Some worry this will hurt the open exchange of ideas and compromise privacy..Since the early 2000s, the wider diffusion of the network, the dawn of Web 2.0 and social media’s increasingly influential impacts, and the maturation of strategic uses of online platforms to influence the public for economic and political gain have altered discourse. In recent years, prominent internet analysts and the public at large have expressed increasing concerns that the content, tone and intent of online interactions have undergone an evolution that threatens its future and theirs. Events and discussions unfolding over the past year highlight the struggles ahead..”
"What’s most
convenient isn’t always what’s most effective. New research finds that people
tend to overestimate the power of their persuasiveness via text-based
communication, and underestimate the power of their persuasiveness via
face-to-face communication." (HBR: A face-to-face request is 34 times more successful than an email)
"Joining high court, the real Neil Gorsuch set to stand up": Nancy Benac of The Associated Press has a report that begins, "Somewhere between the Republican caricature of the next justice of the Supreme Court as a folksy family guy and the Democrats' demonization of him as a cold-hearted automaton, stands Neil Gorsuch."
NEWS YOU CAN USE: 1860s series of photos illustrating the ‘5 stages of inebriation’
Larry Miller’s take is both more modern and more accurate.
“The most important thing I thought students needed was the one thing you’re never allowed to teach.”
“The most important thing I thought students needed was the one thing you’re never allowed to teach.”
Kassel, A. (2017, January). Disruptive Technology: Selected Sources, Musings, and a Bit of Speculation, Online Searcher 41 (1), 31-35.
Via the author: “I address topics such as:
1. What disruptive technology means for information professionals
2. Why it’s important to incorporate Web research.
2. Why it’s important to incorporate Web research.
Academic librarians may need to address and update policies and work with faculty to make changes. Valuable resources, wherever you find them, should be incorporated into teaching and training, imo. I make the point that not all questions can be easily or fully be answered using academic resources alone. Quoting the article, I think the flowing sentences are particularly pertinent to your questions
Centrelink’s
notorious method of contacting citizens and suggesting they might owe a debt to
the government is an example of poor public administration that fails to meet
the requirements of administrative law, according to the Ombudsman’s office.
“We found there
were issues with the usability and transparency of the system,” acting
Ombudsman Richard Glenn said in a brief statement. “There were deficiencies in
DHS’ service delivery and communication to customers and staff when
implementing the system.”
The oversight
agency has been prodding the Department of Human Services into making
incremental “positive changes to the system” since it began its investigation
into the much-maligned system in mid-January. But its final report, published
this week, backs up complaints about the Online Compliance Initiative and says more
improvements are needed to fix a list of problems that could have been
prevented through better planning, testing and risk management.