“Making a living is nothing; the great difficulty is making a point, making a difference–with words.”
— The first sentence in “Grub Street: New York”, Hardwick’s article in the first issue of The New York Review of Books, February 1, 1963
— The first sentence in “Grub Street: New York”, Hardwick’s article in the first issue of The New York Review of Books, February 1, 1963
Internet Can’t Stop Laughing At These Cops Who Ticketed A Car Made Of Snow With This Note Bored Panda
The Iliad, the Odyssey, and theEpic of Gilgamesh were preserved through oral tradition. What has been gained, and lost, from writing things down?... Socrates envisaged a time when we would forget how to remember
Writers Love Routines. So I Followed Famous Writers’ Routines. It Wasn’t Pretty
"For one week, I would spend each day following a different writer’s routine. Now, I know that in changing it up every day I would no longer be participating in a routine, per se, but my rationalization was that this would be akin to a workout schedule, where you do different exercises each day—getting a little stronger, faster, and more flexible with each session. Even if none of these became my permanent routine, I’d still have a solid week’s worth of writing to show for it. At least, that’s what I thought." … Read More
Tale of 2 polls: What do librarians have that journalists don’t?
This should be the golden age of free speech. And it is, if you can believe your lying eyes. Zeynep Tufekci explains. Ach Irony - Here’s to not buggering it up
Intelligence Community Contractors Gain Whistleblower Protections Government Executive
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANY SATIRIST TO COMPETE WITH REAL LIFE FOR ITS PURE ABSURDITY
Kirti Bakshi: “Data mining is known as an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and basically is a computing process of discovering patterns in large data sets. It is considered as an essential process where intelligent methods are applied in order to extract data patterns. Given below is a list of Top Data Mining Algorithms…”
↩︎ The Washington Post
"Ninth Circuit Shines Light on Feds' Spying Equipment": Matthew Renda of Courthouse News Service has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued yesterday
"Ninth Circuit Shines Light on Feds' Spying Equipment": Matthew Renda of Courthouse News Service has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued yesterday
It’s the [Democracy-Poisoning] Golden Age of Free Speech: “..In today’s networked environment, when anyone can broadcast live or post their thoughts to a social network, it would seem that censorship ought to be impossible. This should be the golden age of free speech. And sure, it is a golden age of free speech—if you can believe your lying eyes. Is that footage you’re watching real? Was it really filmed where and when it says it was? Is it being shared by alt-right trolls or a swarm of Russian bots? Was it maybe even generated with the help of artificial intelligence? (Yes, there are systems that can create increasingly convincing fake videos.)..Here’s how this golden age of speech actually works: In the 21st century, the capacity to spread ideas and reach an audience is no longer limited by access to expensive, centralized broadcasting infrastructure. It’s limited instead by one’s ability to garner and distribute attention. And right now, the flow of the world’s attention is structured, to a vast and overwhelming degree, by just a few digital platforms: Facebook, Google (which owns YouTube), and, to a lesser extent, Twitter…”
“GANG VIOLENCE.” Swedish PM does not rule out use of army to end gang violence. “Sweden will do whatever it takes, including sending in the army, to end a wave of gang violence that has seen a string of deadly shootings, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said in Wednesday. Sweden’s murder rate is relatively low in international terms, but gang violence has surged in recent years and Swedes are worried that the police are unable to cope.”
Human Rights Watch Report – Secret Origins of Evidence in US Criminal Cases
“In the United States today, a growing body of evidence suggests that the federal government is deliberately concealing methods used by intelligence or law enforcement agencies to identify or investigate suspects—including methods that may be illegal.
“In the United States today, a growing body of evidence suggests that the federal government is deliberately concealing methods used by intelligence or law enforcement agencies to identify or investigate suspects—including methods that may be illegal.
“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and mobile security company Lookout have uncovered a new malware espionage campaign infecting thousands of people in more than 20 countries. Hundreds of gigabytes of data has been stolen, primarily through mobile devices compromised by fake secure messaging clients. The trojanized apps, including Signal and WhatsApp, function like the legitimate apps and send and receive messages normally.
