Mammon category archive
Facebook Frolics, Phoning Home Dept. 0
Pap and Farron discuss how Facebook has “scraped” phone calls and contacts using its Android app.
A Troll under the Internet 0
In the Hartford Courant, Matthew Kauffman tells a fascinating tale of how he toyed with an internet fraudster for two weeks. From the opening of his article:
Give it a read.
The Pusher Men 0
Warning: Language.
The Skrelli Syndrone 0
Robert Reich notes a malignancy in our society, one exemplified by the “Pharma Bro, Martin Skrelly. A snippet:
He’s contemptuous of anyone who gets in his way — whether judges, prosecutors, members of Congress or journalists. He remains unapologetic for what he did. He is utterly shameless.
Sound familiar?
It’s All about the Algorithm 0
Zeynep Tufekci noticed that, when she started watching political videos, whether left- or right-leaning, YouTube’s recommendations for additional videos skewed more and more radical. She wonders why. Here’s a bit of her article:
What keeps people glued to YouTube? Its algorithm seems to have concluded that people are drawn to content that is more extreme than what they started with — or to incendiary content in general.
Follow the link for the rest, then stop following YouTube recommendations.
Responsible Fiscals 0
The Trump administration is indeed draining the swamp, but not of swamp creatures–they are thriving and, indeed, proliferating–but of our money.
It’s All about the Algorithm 0
In a court case in which Google is contesting the EU’s “right to be forgotten” law, Great Britain’s Information Commissioner contemns Google’s contention that its search results are somehow “journalism.” A snippet:
In plain English, humans (mostly) don’t decide what appears in search results so calling Google’s activities “journalism” is just plain wrong, according to the commissioner.
Abdicating the Common Good 0
There’s an excellent and entertaining science fiction book series called “Traders Tales” set in a future in which corporations own everything, including planets. (You can find the audio books at Scribl.)
It starts when the narrator’s mother, a college professor employed by the corporation that owns her planet, dies in an accident. As he no longer has a tie the planet, the owning corporation tells him he has to leave, thus starting his journey through space and the experiences that form the series. Refreshingly, the story focuses on day-to-day life aboard a space freighter, not on Star Wars-like war and adventure.
It is not a dystopian tale, as were Brave New World or 1984, but I always found premise to be creepy. Under corporate ownership, as under Republican governance, there is no such thing as the common good; there is only mammon.
Will Bunch suggests those days may be closer than you think.
Profiteers of Misery 0
Part One.
Part Two:
Aside:
Brodock is quite correct about doctors’ not knowing how much health care costs. When I told my doctor how much one prescription he gave me cost, he nearly fell off his chair. It was almost 10 times the cost of an equivalent over-the-counter nutritional supplement. He okayed my using the OTC product.