Mammon category archive
Doing It Buy the Book 0
Afterthought:
Back in the olden days when I was in college, when college was affordable for normal middle class families, before the middle class started to disappear and before massive college loans became the norm, I paid $100 to $150 per semester for books. And I was a history major with usually six or seven books (one text and several additional reading) per class.
Origins Issues 0
David and Robert Larson explode the myths about the origins of Silicon Valley corporations.
The Environmental Pollution Agency 0
The gutting of environmental protections by environmental predators continues apace.
The attorneys general say the rule not only violates the Clean Air Act, but also eliminates key safety measures for such explosions, fires, and poisonous gas releases. New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin all signed on to the suit filed in U.S. District Court, as did the District of Columbia.
The New Know-Nothings 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Robert McCauley discusses a recent New York Times report about the Trump Administration’s attempt to sideline science. A snippet:
They also document a variety of ways in which the current administration has moved to discourage, if not eliminate, the application of scientific findings, standards, and methods to empirical questions pertaining to a variety of public policy issues.
Inviting Big Data into Your World 0
The EFF reports that there is a Ring of eyes recording all you do. Here’s an excerpt; follow the link for the rest (emphasis added).
The danger in sending even small bits of information is that analytics and tracking companies are able to combine these bits together to form a unique picture of the user’s device. This cohesive whole represents a fingerprint that follows the user as they interact with other apps and use their device, in essence providing trackers the ability to spy on what a user is doing in their digital lives and when they are doing it. All this takes place without meaningful user notification or consent and, in most cases, no way to mitigate the damage done.
How Far Did Wells-Fargo? 0
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Lee Schafer, pretty damn far.
Them What Has . . . . 0
Gene Nichol looks at the effect of Donald Trump’s economic it-would-be-dressing-them-up-in-Sunday-go-to-meeting-clothes-to-call-them policies. A snippet:
Millstones 0
I went to college a long time ago, when parents were often able to pay most, if not all, tuition and fees, before student loans became a self-perpetuating scam.
No Place To Hide 0
At the San Francisco Chronicle, Joseph W. Cotchett note the efforts of Big Data to weasel out from under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Here’s a snippet (emphasis added):
Face, we have admitted–nay, invited–these parasites into our most private lives and now, like electronic bed bugs, they have no intention of leaving.
__________________
*A distinction without a distinction, methinks.
Facebook Frolics 0
Shorter Facebook press release: Fact? What is this thing you call “fact”?
Spin Cycle, Tariffs Dept. 0
David explains how tariffs work. It’s not how Donald Trump claims they work, despite the Trumpettes’ spin.
