2019 archive
And Now for a Musical Interlude 0
Afterthought:
I must say, Gracie Fields reminds me of one of my favorite fictional detectives.
If you like mysteries, get to know her. Her author, Kerry Greenwood, makes words dance.
Beta Dog 0
Farron points out the the United States’s international ratings have been thoroughly Trumpled.
All the News that Fits 0
Foxy shady, one more time.
Facebook Frolics 0
Mark Zuckerberg recently announced efforts to clean up Facebook’s act.
The AP’s Frank Bajak urges us to take that announcement with several pounds of salt. He suggests that it’s Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes for a shifting strategy from the Zuckerborg for assimilating its victims users. Here’s a bit from his report:
Facebook “wants to be the operating system of our lives,” said Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of media studies at the University of Virginia.
Aside:
When have any of Facebook’s promises to stop misbehaving come to pass?
Mark Zuckerberg is the Eddie Haskell of Silicon Valley.
All the News that Fits 0
It’s time to stop worrying about “fake news” and start worrying about fake newspapers.
Snopes reports that wealthy right-wing donors are setting up websites pretending to belong to local newspapers and designed to look like local newspaper websites for newspapers that do not, in fact, exist. Here’s a snippet (emphasis added):
Remember, just because you see it on a computer screen, it ain’t necessarily so. Check the bona fides of sources you use for news.
One technique is to check the purported news stories for links to sources; no links indicate dubious or nonexistent sources. Also, links from random Facebook Frolickers and twisty Twitter Trolls are hysterically unreliable.
H/T to The Bob Cesca Show for this news item.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your partner.
As the deputies continued their investigation, they learned the shooting had been sparked by a domestic violence issue between Morin and her boyfriend. Morin reportedly shot the victim because he was snoring too loudly.
Lies and Lying Liars 0
Gina Barreca considers the wasteland of liars in our political discourse-doesn’t-really-seem-like-the-correct-term and remembers some liars she has known personally. An excerpt:
(snip)
But when you launder a lie, pass it along as the truth, put it into cultural and social circulation, it’s as if you’re handling dirty money. You hope nobody looks at it too closely or holds it up to the light for examination. It’s Gresham’s law, adapted: The counterfeit currency of lying will inexorably drive out the more valuable currency of truth.
Follow the link for more.
