Fake News Is Free
As my students often remind me, news tends to be behind paywalls, while fake news is free. Global health expert Jonathan D Quick, of Duke University in North Carolina
IT Failures
Parts of Hanford nuclear waste site have not been inspected in 50 years
Yet again, Parts of Hanford nuclear waste site have not been inspected in 50 years The former defense site in Washington state has a troubled past. The latest lapse involves the Energy Department’s failure to analyze the cause of a tunnel collapse. washingtonpost.com Aaron Gregg
Disinformation For Hire: How A New Breed Of PR Firms Is Selling Lies Online
I get a digest of the latest news on news and reporting from the Pew Research Center. One recently caught my interest was from Buzzfeed on the new “Black PR firms” who will, for a fee, generate, structure and support any lie you wish. Scary isn’t a strong enough word, terrifying is more apt. It … [Read more…]
PFAS – Trump administration threatens to give forever chemicals another reprieve
Over at the website for the Union of Concerned Scientists, Kathleen Rest posted this “Profiles in Cowardice: Chemicals, Climate, and a Toxic Disregard by the Trump Administration” which is worth the time to read.
Amsterdam Y2K
It was 20 years ago today … we were new to Europe. I had gone ahead in October of 1999 to find an apartment and get some basics set up. A stayed behind in Northern California to wind things down and take care of the odds and ends before coming in November to our new … [Read more…]
United States of Plastic
In the Guardian June 2019, very nicely done graphic on plastic and what we’re not doing about it:This is the illustrated story of where it’s gone by Susie Cagle in San Francisco and the series UNITED STATES OF PLASTIC can be found here. Thu 2 Jan 2020 07.46 EST, in the Guardian, another article The … [Read more…]
A Few Notes About the Future of Work
Seems that themes come in batches, the newest theme for me is the old Jetson’s promise of leisure time replacing work, somewhere in the future we’d all work at what we’re good at and there would be enough (food and other goods and money) to go around. I’m firmly convinced that since the dawn of … [Read more…]
Read Sacha Baron Cohen’s scathing attack on Facebook in full: ‘greatest propaganda machine in history’
The Guardian published the contents of a speech by Cohen: In a speech last night at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen attacked Facebook and other social media platforms for enabling the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation. The speech was striking in its sincerity – Baron Cohen appeared as … [Read more…]
The White House didn’t like my agency’s research. So it sent us to Missouri.
By Andrew Crane-Droesch – Washington Post – 10/21/19 … Out of the blue, in August 2018, agriculture secretary George “Sonny” Perdue announced that my agency and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture would relocate from Washington, D.C., to some yet-to-be-determined location. He claimed that this would lower costs and bring us closer to “stakeholders.” … [Read more…]
Swiss Solution:New Alternative to Bitcoin Uses Negligible Energy
From IEEE Spectrum: New Alternative to Bitcoin Uses Negligible Energy 15 Oct 2019 | 15:00 GMT New Alternative to Bitcoin Uses Negligible Energy Novel algorithms are secure like blockchains, but simpler, faster, and more energy-efficient By Charles Q. Choi A nearly zero-energy alternative to Bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies that promises as much security but … [Read more…]