Month: January 2022
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How Trump Coins Became an Internet Sensation – The New York Times
How Trump Coins Became an Internet Sensation Getting to the bottom of a modern mystery. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/technology/trump-coins.html What became clear was not just the coin’s unusual origins, but an entire disinformation supply chain that relied on falsehoods and misinformation at nearly every step. Fueling the coin’s success were fake social media accounts that pushed false…
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Opinion | Did We Miss Biden’s Most Important Remark About Russia? – The New York Times
Opinion | Did We Miss Biden’s Most Important Remark About Russia? Putin has something bigger to worry about at home than anything that happens in Ukraine. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/opinion/president-biden-russia-ukraine.html “An unseasonably rare forest fire has engulfed the Russian tundra as the country faces significant changes from climate change, Interfax reported.” Some 900 acres “are burning despite…
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Sean Hannity Told Trump After Jan. 6: ‘No More Stolen Election Talk’ – The New York Times
After Jan. 6, Sean Hannity Advised Trump: ‘No More Stolen Election Talk’ The Fox News host discussed with the White House press secretary how to dissuade the president from pursuing claims of voter fraud, newly disclosed documents show. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/business/media/sean-hannity-donald-trump-january-6.html In another exchange included in the letter, Mr. Hannity urged Ms. McEnany to keep the…
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Jordan Thomas’s Army of Whistle-Blowers | The New Yorker
Jordan Thomas’s Army of Whistle-Blowers The lawyer and his clients have made millions by exposing one Wall Street crime after another. But are they changing the industry? via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/24/jordan-thomas-army-of-whistle-blowers Nicoll, who is an expert on the study of brain slices, told me he was shocked to see Cassava assert that it had…
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The Outsized Entrepreneurial World of Trump Merchandise | The New Yorker
The Outsized Entrepreneurial World of Trump Merchandise At Trump’s first rally of the year, the former President wasn’t the only person selling a fantasy. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-outsized-entrepreneurial-world-of-trump-merchandise The former President made good use of the office’s opportunities for merchandising. The “SHOP” section of Trump’s Web site features hats and T-shirts, as well as…
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How A.I. Conquered Poker – The New York Times
How A.I. Conquered Poker Good poker players have always known that they need to maintain a balance between bluffing and playing it straight. Now they can do so perfectly. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/magazine/ai-technology-poker.html Erik Seidel, a pro who learned the game in the 1980s, told me that if players like Koon traveled back in time just 15…
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When N.F.T.s Invade an Art Town | The New Yorker
When N.F.T.s Invade an Art Town Marfa, Texas, is known for its highbrow arts scene. A new gallery is unsettling that image. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/when-nfts-invade-an-art-town “I’m feeling super depressed right now,” the visual artist Magalie Guérin said. “I’m hearing no conversation about criticality. What makes this art?”
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Eastern Europe Tests New Forms of Media Censorship – The New York Times
Eastern Europe Tests New Forms of Media Censorship With new, less repressive tactics, countries like Serbia, Poland and Hungary are deploying highly effective tools to skew public opinion. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/17/world/europe/serbia-media-censorship.html Serbia no longer jails or kills critical journalists, as happened under the rule of Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s. It now seeks to destroy their…
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The Soldiers Came Home Sick. The Government Denied It Was Responsible. – The New York Times
The Soldiers Came Home Sick. The Government Denied It Was Responsible. U.S. service members and veterans have long insisted that the military’s garbage-disposal fires in war zones made them ill. Why were their claims stonewalled for so long? Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/magazine/military-burn-pits.html A burn pit is exactly what it sounds like: A hole is dug in the…
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Joe Biden, Back Into the Breach | The New Yorker
Biden, Back Into the Breach A year after the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, the President delivered the speech that he never wanted to give. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/joe-biden-back-into-the-breach In unsparing terms rarely uttered by one leader of the United States about another, Biden castigated the man he referred to sixteen times only…
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How the Denver Shooter’s Digital Trail Exposes the Violent Fantasies of the ‘Manosphere’ – bellingcat
How the Denver Shooter’s Digital Trail Exposes the Violent Fantasies of the ‘Manosphere’ – bellingcat The shooter had already described his deeds and victims in a graphic self-published novel series — just one part of a revealing digital trail. via bellingcat: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2022/01/06/how-the-denver-shooters-digital-trail-exposes-the-violent-fantasies-of-the-manosphere/ Far-right mass shootings are an increasingly international phenomenon. Although many killers act alone,…
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Afghanistan Has Become the World’s Largest Humanitarian Crisis | The New Yorker
Afghanistan Has Become the World’s Largest Humanitarian Crisis Four months after the Biden Administration withdrew U.S. troops, more than twenty million Afghans are on the brink of famine. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/afghanistan-has-become-the-worlds-largest-humanitarian-crisis The face of a commander from the southern city of Kandahar was so badly burned that his nose was a smooth, flat…
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Election Falsehoods Surged on Podcasts Before Capitol Riots, Researchers Find – The New York Times
Election Falsehoods Surged on Podcasts Before Capitol Riots, Researchers Find A new study analyzed nearly 1,500 episodes, showing the extent to which podcasts pushed misinformation about voter fraud. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/technology/apple-google-spotify-podcast-election-misinformation.html Mr. Bannon’s show was removed from Spotify in November 2020 after he discussed beheading federal officials, but it remains available on Apple and Google.
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Money in the Metaverse | The New Yorker
Money in the Metaverse In a virtual world full of virtual goods, finance could get weird. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/money-in-the-metaverse Listening, I wondered, Could I make this my life? Banking dashboards, cryptocurrency wallets, ledgers and spreadsheets. I tried to imagine myself in a corporate-owned and venture-funded metaverse: a virtual axolotl in a virtual sweater,…
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Opinion | The Viral Lies About Covid That Keep Killing Us – The New York Times
Opinion | The Viral Lies That Keep Killing Us Why 2021 wasn’t the year we beat the pandemic. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/opinion/covid-vaccines-misinformation.html Alert readers will have noticed that these Republican claims, in addition to being false, contradict one another in multiple ways. We can ignore Covid thanks to vaccines, which by the way don’t work. Vaccination is…