Nick Cohen on why Boris Johnson is so suspicious of the media:
I suspect there is a strong element of projection at play. It is because Johnson was a partisan columnist that he is an enemy of press freedom. He assumes all journalists are like him, and that they will twist, distort and censor accordingly.
Good insight that makes a lot of sense.
Rob Beschizza: Study: Facebook quitters report more life satisfaction, less depression and anxiety
Not a surprise. I nearly joked that it could prove to be the mental health equivalent of smoking - and then realised that was no joke.
Well, this reads like the opening of a horror novel: Inaccessible first-floor Wisbech property for sale for £100
Yes, please: A return to blogs (finally? sort of?)
If you haven’t been paying attention to just how massive the bushfire crisis is in Australia, this set of information and links will open your eyes.
And possibly your bowels.
Oooooh, Matron…
Operio collection by Dead Lotus Couture aims to put latex “in every wardrobe”.
Dave Winer on journalism’s narrative around Facebook:
Saying online is dangerous is like saying the subway is dangerous. But if you live in New York, you probably want to take the subway. Driving is dangerous. Everything is. Life itself isn’t safe. It’s a mix. You have to learn to discern.
I did not know this:
Why Saying “Namaste” is Culturally Insensitive and NOT Just a Yoga Term.
Carbios' new factory will use enzymes to biorecycle plastic:
In a matter of hours, the enzymes decompose the plastic into the material’s basic building blocks, called monomers, which can then be separated, purified, and used to make new plastic that’s identical to virgin material. Later this year, the company will begin construction on its first demonstration recycling plant.
This sort of innovation could change the whole debate about plastics. Exciting stuff, if it works.
Report: Students Who Take Latin Have Better Chance Of Summoning Demon Later In Life::
“According to our data, children who studied Latin in grade school were far more likely to contact, summon, and then raise a damned soul from the underworld,” said classics department chair Emily Greenwood, adding that students who learned Latin tended to be more adept at chanting ancient incantations, opening up portals, and comprehending Demonic screams.
My old Latin master was also head of the school Christian Union. Makes you think… 🤔😂
Fascinating bit of tech nostalgia: This is How Film Cameras Added Dates to Your Photos:
This is one of the features of iOS13 I’m really looking forwards to having.
But I’m still waiting for iOS13.1…
Six Colors, Dan Moren: 13 Features of iOS 13: Video editing
This is utterly glorious film photography geekery: New Website Sets the Record Straight: There is No Such Thing as 120mm Film
Boing Boing, Rob Beschizza: Disney almost bought Twitter but backed off because “the nastiness is extraordinary”
🤷🏼♂️
Rachel Sylvester makes an important point in The Times:
Democracy is about persuasion rather than obliteration and there are rules underpinning political conflict that don’t apply in military combat. The prime minister seems to have forgotten that, far from being the nation’s commander-in-chief, he is only “first among equals” in the cabinet and depends for his power on the House of Commons. The scorched-earth approach being pursued by No 10 will make it almost impossible to unite the Tory party, let alone the country, when the skirmishes are over.
There is an autocratic streak in a lot of current politics that should concern anyone who values democracy.
Jeremiah Owyang : Chances are, you’re probably a serf.:
To modernize the last word of Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin’s famed quote; “In antiquity, slaves were, in all honesty, called slaves. In the middle ages, they took the name of serfs. Nowadays they are called users.”
To Understand Facebook, Study Capgras Syndrome:
This withering of primate familiarity in the face of technology prompts us to mistake an acquaintance for a friend, just because the two of you have a Snapchat streak for the last umpteen days, or because you both like all the same Facebook pages. It allows us to become intimate with people whose familiarity then proves false. After all, we can now fall in love with people online whose hair we have never smelled.
A couple of great quotes from a piece by Owen Williams on Medium (shudder):
But when we lose the weird internet, we don’t just lose a space where people could tinker and make things for themselves. We seem to have lost the curiosity that inspired that weirdness in the first place.
And this:
The internet made it possible to build something out of thin air without millions of dollars in funding. It’s important we don’t forget that, because it’s the best way to learn and evolve.
Well now. I did a vlog from Scotland. Vlogging is really not my thing. What do you think?
The Global Economy Runs on Parties You’re Not Invited To:
As went the ad business, so will go the rest of the economy: The robots may take over — but for a certain class of moneyed titan, the beaches will always remain topless, the drinks bottomless and high-end schmoozing will never die.
Disturbing look at how the internet didn’t dis intermediate elites — it just allowed a whole new class to develop.
No two companies have done more to drag private life into the algorithmic eye than Google and Facebook. Together, they operate the world’s most sophisticated dragnet surveillance operation, a duopoly that rakes in nearly two thirds of the money spent on online ads. You’ll find their tracking scripts on nearly every web page you visit. They can no more function without surveillance than Exxon Mobil could function without pumping oil from the ground.
This is a fundamental, unavoidable truth of both their business models.
This starts off as road crash viewing of a middle-aged meme warrior - but actually goes somewhere interesting.
This Vox profile of Heather Armstrong — Dooce — is a deeply melancholy read:
In the time that Armstrong had been absent from her site, bloggers had been almost wholly replaced with social media stars who relied on Instagram to gain a following. The word “influencer” had taken over, and quickly. Bloggers had risen to fame thanks to deeply personal posts; Instagram personalities operated in a much more visual medium, relying on photos of cute kids and beautiful homes for likes.
It’s both affecting in its coverage of her mental health issues, but also in how clear it makes it that we lost something profound in the shift from blogger to influencer.
Lots to think on.
What’s that sound? Oh, it’s the influencer bubble popping:
”Most global internet users lack confidence in what they see and read online, with only 8% believing that the bulk of information shared on social media is true, dropping to 4% when it comes from influencers.”
Ooops.
My goodness, but these are appealing to me.
