It’s All about the Algorithm 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Nigel Barber takes a look at mounting evidence that “social” media isn’t. A snippet (emphasis in the original):
The Hateful Algorithm: Do Lots of Evil and Get Richly Rewarded
Contrary to the “do no evil” motto, social media companies can, at times, amplify political divisions and hatred. Their algorithms promote content that grabs attention, and the most effective way of doing this is often by boosting hateful speech that garners outrage and engagement. So, social media platforms are not just giving a megaphone to paranoid conspiracies but generally profiting from such dangerous rants because greater engagement translates into more advertising dollars.
I commend his piece to your attention.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness again becomes child’s play.
Police received a 911 call about 1:13 p.m. from the child’s father, who reported that his son was outside playing when he found a firearm and accidentally shot himself in the hand, according to the Hartford Police Department.
We are a failing state.
Meta: Down at the Farm 0
This site was broken for a few minutes.
Thanks to the WordPress help pages, I was able to diagnose the problem and put a bandaid on it by disabling one of the plugins from the backend by renaming it in the phpMyAdmin file manager.
Whew!
A Tune for the Times 0
(Warning: Mild language.)
Republican Family Values 0
Thom suggests that the damage isn’t collateral.
Stray Thought, Still Rising Again after All These Years Dept. 0
The legacy of Richard Nixon’s odious southern strategy lives on.
In our politics, we no longer have a left-wing, a middle-of-the-road center, and a right-wing.
We have a slightly-left-of-center-wing, a characterless mush-in-the-middle that believes in nothing other than that in between is the place to be, and an unabashedly white-wing that wants to turn the clock back 160 years.
The Voter Fraudster 0
Have you noticed that, when someone actually gets done for intentionally voting illegally, it’s almost always someone who voted Republican?
QOTD 0
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach:
I would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with falsehood.
Misdirection Play, Numbers Gaming Dept. 0
Over at Juanita Jean’s, Nick Carraway dissects the deception.