— Peter De Vries, born in 1910 a year before Jozef Imrich senior
Fact-check things before you share them on social media...it takes less than a minute to do so. (Whenever I don't do this, it bites me ...)
Praising in good and bad time fatboy slim
Treachery and the Cold War - Mail Online - Peter Hitchens blog
Top secret clearance a two-year wait
Why Workers Are Losing to Capitalists Bloomberg
Digital Transformation Agency chief Gavin Slater has described the stark differences between the public service and his previous employment at NAB
Public service a large and complex beast
WHEN bankruptcy trustees were appointed over a hectic weekend late in 2008, there seemed no end to the losses caused by the collapse of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Cash in the bank was no more than $150m. But the losses have been less, and the assets available for compensation greater, than had been feared. On February 22nd Irving Picard, the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the liquidation of Mr Madoff’s firm, announced that a fund set up to reimburse customers would make its ninth distribution, of $621m, bringing the total handed out so far to $11.4bn. Another $1.8bn in held in reserve for contested claims. This is on top of a separate distribution of $723m last November from a separate fund run by the Department of Justice. Another $3bn remains to be distributed in that fund and the bankruptcy trustees hold out hope that substantially more will be recovered and returned.
The concerted attack on public sector union workers is a coordinated effort financed by wealthy donors Economic Policy Institute
Praising in good and bad time fatboy slim
Treachery and the Cold War - Mail Online - Peter Hitchens blog
The Artist Whose Medium Is Big Data
Laurie Frick imagines a future in which your smart watch will know how your body is responding to someone. Then it will combine with Facebook data about their personality. And that will let you know whether that person makes you lethargic, raises your blood pressure or depresses you. "If you start training people that, 'Look at what's happening to your inflammation levels or whatever. This is the best thing for you and you can let go of the guilt.' " … Read More
Go figure: Treasury policy analysis needs wider view than just economics ...
Lloyd
makes calls on free speech and union-bargaining policies.
Penny Wong vs the APS commissioner, round two. If an MP "casts aspersions" on a public servant personally, it's only fair they can discuss the matter with friends over office email. And if it comes out in public, that's OK too.
Penny Wong vs the APS commissioner, round two. If an MP "casts aspersions" on a public servant personally, it's only fair they can discuss the matter with friends over office email. And if it comes out in public, that's OK too.
When Art Became A Commodity, Things Turned Ugly
As contemporary art is increasingly viewed as an asset class—alongside equities, bonds, and real estate—Georgina Adam sees artworks often used as a vehicle to hide or launder money, and artists encouraged to churn out works in market-approved styles, bringing about a decline in quality. … Read More
"Google Prevails In Suit Over Blog Post": Wendy Davis of Digital News Daily has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued today
ICAC warns NSW govt to better screen new hiresTop secret clearance a two-year wait
Digital Transformation Agency chief Gavin Slater has described the stark differences between the public service and his previous employment at NAB
Public service a large and complex beast
WHEN bankruptcy trustees were appointed over a hectic weekend late in 2008, there seemed no end to the losses caused by the collapse of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Cash in the bank was no more than $150m. But the losses have been less, and the assets available for compensation greater, than had been feared. On February 22nd Irving Picard, the bankruptcy trustee overseeing the liquidation of Mr Madoff’s firm, announced that a fund set up to reimburse customers would make its ninth distribution, of $621m, bringing the total handed out so far to $11.4bn. Another $1.8bn in held in reserve for contested claims. This is on top of a separate distribution of $723m last November from a separate fund run by the Department of Justice. Another $3bn remains to be distributed in that fund and the bankruptcy trustees hold out hope that substantially more will be recovered and returned.
Mr Madoff, who will turn 80 in April, is serving a 150-year
sentence in a North Carolina prison. At his... Money stolen by Bernie Madoff is still being found
Florida shooting misinformation
Last
week’s shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 dead and several injured
spawned the usual hoaxes that follow American tragedies: fake
images of the shooter, posts claiming he was a member of Antifa, false
identifications and phony screenshots of his Instagram account. Then there were
those that aren’t so typical.
Imposter
tweets targeted
journalists attempting to cover the shooting, leading to a cascade of
online harassment. Twitter at first denied that was against their policies,
then said the rules should
be revised. Conspiracy theories about students organizing gun control
demonstrations took
off, trending
on YouTube and populating search
results (at least for
a while). There was an incorrect
story that led to careless sharing by professionals and many corrections. Another
story led to a congressional aide being fired.
Some
students took the conspiracies in
stride, but as Snopes’ Bethania Palma put
it, “we’re living in a dystopian hellhole of false information.” So what’s
the solution?
·
POLITICO Magazine asks:
“Are we putting too much pressure on the Parkland survivors? We shouldn’t
expect quick wins on gun control — we should be preparing these kids for a
long, bitter fight.”
$120 million drug shipment hidden in highlighters seized at border
This is how we do it
- Africa Check fact-checked this week’s State of the Nation Address in South Africa.
- The Duke Reporters' Lab released a new fact-checking census this morning, with many new projects from around the world.
- How do you fact-check a six-year-old mistake? Here’s what NPR did.
This is bad
- An anti-abortion campaign in Ireland misappropriated a fact check that questioned one of their claims.
- Newsweek and RawStory reported this week that bots forced Sen. Al Franken to resign. But those stories got key details wrong — leading to retractions.
- Lawmakers are worried about the rise of fake video technology, and so are people who study national security.
A closer look
- The New York Times has a deep dive into Brazil’s anti-fake news efforts.
- Where are the Japanese fact-checkers?
- Discuss: “Media literacy programs in schools are so outdated, they’re backwards.”
Coming up
- PolitiFact has two job openings — one for a media fact-checker heading up its PunditFact project, another for a one-year audience engagement fellowship. Apply by March 23.
- The Web Conference will be held April 23-27 in Lyon, France. Here’s a sneak peak at the accepted papers about misinformation.
This is fun
- ESPN “fact-checks” Lonzo Ball’s rap lyrics.
- Other sites have fake news. SoundCloud has fake music.
- A local fact-checking project in Nevada is using Abe Lincoln for its ratings.
If you read one more thing
Fake news is an existential
crisis for social media.
Quick fact-checking links
The
Pope was
fact-checked, and it did not turn out well for him. // The
Secret Service is fact-checking now? // Will the Bad
News video game help kids spot fake news? // Buyers of political ads on
Facebook will be verified with postcards
this year. //
The Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism has
launched two fact-checking websites, Udeme and Dubawa.
//
The American Bar Association fact-checks politicians’ blathering about treason. // Social media platforms need to
admit they
are trafficking in “automatic weapons,” says John Battelle.
// Italy
is trying to combat Russian influence on its upcoming
election. //
By far, Facebook
and Instagram were the go-to sites for Russian interference
in the 2016 election, says the Justice Department. // Broadcast personality Afia
Schwarzenegger will host the “Political
Police” comedy fact-checking show on TV Africa. // A
good thread on what conspiracy theories offer to believers.
//
This game teaches how
people spread online misinformation. // Here’s a
fact check of what a Facebook executive said about Russian
disinformation. // What we still
don’t know about fake news and its growth. // Twitter fact-checks a “Hulk
Hogan” interview.
Until next
week,
via Daniel, Jane and Alexios