April, 2018 archive
“The Best People” 0
Dick Polman takes on a personnel matter.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Get a drop on politeness.
The brief report does not say, but I suspect the weapon in question was a large calibre rapid-fire stupid.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Elie Mystal points out that Kris Kobach is a courting disaster.
QOTD 0
Averell Harriman:
Conferences at the top level are always courteous. Name-calling is left to the foreign ministers.
Aside:
How very quaint.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
Now it’s “partisan” to condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy.
As I said a few days ago, they aren’t even trying to pretend any more.
Facebook Fakebook Frolics
0
Heh.
“Within the last year, the social media site has published over 50 fake Martin Lewis adverts which are regularly seen, likely by millions of people, in the UK,” complained Lewis. “The most prevalent are get-rich-quick schemes currently titled ‘Bitcoin code’ or ‘Cloud Trader’, which are fronts for binary trading firms based outside the EU.”
More at the link.
Everybody Must Get Fracked 0
Well, almost everybody.
White Coffee (Updated) 0
The Des Moines Register’s Daniel Finney tells a story. Here’s how it starts:
He wore a gray hoodie, baggy pants, a ball cap pulled down to cover his eyes and about five days’ worth of growth on his face.
He picked up two newspapers — retail value: about $5 — and sat down at a table. He purchased no food.
A Starbucks employee cleaning countertops and taking out the trash said, “Hello.”
The man nodded but did not speak.
He proceeded to read the newspapers he had not paid for.
Follow the link to see how it ends.
Addendum, Later that Same Afternoon:
At Psychology Today Blogs, Stephen Greenspan offers some thoughts.
Facebook Frolics 0
Sunday’s New York Times had another article about Facebook and its effects on the discourse. The article focused on ethnic and religious divisions in Sri Lanka and a series of hate crimes and lycnhings.
As the briefest thumbnail, the authors examine how Facebook’s algorithm, designed to promote engagement with Facebook and consequently more on-line time for users, has a side effect of promoting hate speech; the authors theorize that this is because posts that incite strong negative emotions tend to be the posts that generate the most views. )To put it another way, hate sells.) They also discuss the obstacles Sri Lankan authorities encountered in trying to get Facebook’s attention to the issue.
The article is quite long, but I think it is worth your while. An excerpt:
