Category: media
-
How Zeynep Tufekci Keeps Getting the Big Things Right – The New York Times
—
How Zeynep Tufekci Keeps Getting the Big Things Right (Published 2020) Dr. Tufekci, a computer programmer who became a sociologist, sounded an early alarm on the need for protective masks. It wasn’t the first time she was right about something big. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/business/media/how-zeynep-tufekci-keeps-getting-the-big-things-right.html “It’s charmed that I get to do this, it feels good,” she…
-
The Interrupters – Get Down Moses
—
Link: “It’s charmed that I get to do this, it feels good,” she said. “But in the ideal world, people like me are kind of superfluous, and we have these faceless nameless experts and bureaucrats who tell us: This is what you have to do.”
-
Donald Trump Jr. Is Ready. But for What, Exactly? – The New York Times
—
Donald Trump Jr. Is Ready. But for What, Exactly? (Published 2020) Of all the president’s children, he has the strongest connection to the politics, voters and online disinformation ecosystem that put his father in the White House. What will he do with it? Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/magazine/donald-trump-jr.html The two men had for years had a difficult relationship.…
-
Juan Carlos’s Fall from Grace in Spain and the Precarious Future of the World’s Monarchies | The New Yorker
—
Juan Carlos’s Fall from Grace in Spain and the Precarious Future of the World’s Monarchies Whether from the onward march of Western-style secularism and global consumer culture or from public revulsion at the kinds of corruption that social media helps reveal, monarchy seems under increasing threat of extinction. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/juan-carloss-fall-from-grace-in-spain-and-the-precarious-future-of-the-worlds-monarchies Even after…
-
Opinion | Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Night 1 – The New York Times
—
Opinion | Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Night 1 (Published 2020) Our columnists and contributors give their rankings. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/opinion/rnc-best-worst-night-1.html Peter Wehner There are three notable themes that emerged. One is that on the first day of the R.N.C. we witnessed a cult of personality that at times rivaled Jonestown, minus (thankfully) the…
-
With Hacks and Cameras, Beijing’s Electronic Dragnet Closes on Hong Kong – The New York Times
—
With Hacks and Cameras, Beijing’s Electronic Dragnet Closes on Hong Kong (Published 2020) Under a new national security law, the police are targeting the social media accounts of executives, politicians and activists. American internet giants are struggling to respond. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/25/technology/hong-kong-national-security-law.html When officers swarmed him at a Hong Kong shopping mall last month, they pulled…
-
Navy F/A-18 Squadron Commander’s Take On AI Repeatedly Beating Real Pilot In Dogfight – The Drive
—
Navy F/A-18 Squadron Commander’s Take On AI Repeatedly Beating Real Pilot In Dogfight Everyone has an opinion when it comes to the stunning results of DARPA’s AlphaDogfight trials, now hear what the skipper of a fighter squadron thinks. via The Drive: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/35947/navy-f-a-18-squadron-commanders-take-on-ai-repeatedly-beating-real-pilot-in-dogfight In true gamesmanship fashion, the guns-only BFM engagement was the setting for the…
-
Why Facebook Is Bad, Twitter Might Be a Little Bit Good, and Social Media Is Rotting Our Brains | GQ
—
Is Social Media Good For Anything At All? Tech oracle Jaron Lanier saw the evils of social media platforms before anyone else. Now he talks about whether Twitter activism really works, how to fix Facebook, and why he won’t be joining Silicon Valley’s overlords in New Zealand. via GQ: https://www.gq.com/story/jaron-lanier-tech-oracle-profile Every day Google and Facebook…
-
James Lomax · Diary: In Ashgabat · LRB 30 July 2020
—
James Lomax · Diary: In Ashgabat · LRB 30 July 2020 Phillips had been waiting for me to arrive for half an hour. He was desperate to talk to someone, even if that person… via London Review of Books: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n15/james-lomax/diary was sitting next to a Coca-Cola sales exec on the flight to Ashgabat. ‘I hope…
-
Why Did YouTubers Myka and James Stauffer Give Up Huxley?
—
Why Did These YouTubers Give Away Their Son? Myka and James Stauffer adopted a toddler from China and shared every step of the process with their online audience. Except the last. via The Cut: https://www.thecut.com/2020/08/youtube-myka-james-stauffer-huxley-adoption.html In the Stauffers’ case, most of the vitriol was aimed at Myka. One Instagram account, Cancel Myka Stauffer, which goes…
-
Opinion | Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Night 2 – The New York Times
—
Opinion | Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Night 2 (Published 2020) Our columnists and contributors give their rankings. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/opinion/rnc-best-worst-night-2.html Héctor Tobar Trump’s signing a pardon and staging a naturalization ceremony, with grateful people of color. These prime-time acts of White House theater were a cynical attempt to erase years of race-baiting and…
-
At the Republican National Convention, a Dubious Pompeo Speech for an Empty Trump Foreign Policy | The New Yorker
—
A Dubious Pompeo Speech for an Empty Trump Foreign Policy A taxpayer-funded trip was used to aid the President’s reëlection effort. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/at-the-republican-national-convention-a-vacuous-pompeo-speech-for-an-empty-trump-foreign-policy As Trump seeks reëlection, some of the toughest criticism on his foreign policy is from other Republicans, including a scathing joint condemnation last week by seventy-five senior Republican officials…
-
Opinion | Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Mike Pence Night – The New York Times
—
Opinion | Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Mike Pence Night (Published 2020) Our columnists and contributors give their rankings. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/opinion/rnc-best-worst-night-3.html Matt Labash Like most Americans, I lost sleep, staying up all night waiting to receive the words of the electrifying Mike Pence. (JK! I’d rather watch fingernails grow.) I wouldn’t buy a…
-
Mike Pence’s Big Lie About Trump and the Coronavirus at the Republican National Convention | The New Yorker
—
Mike Pence’s Big Lie About Trump and the Coronavirus at the Republican National Convention The great irony, and outrage, of Pence’s speech is that, as the head of the White House’s coronavirus task force since February, he’s had a unique and closeup view of Trump’s actual response to the pandemic. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/mike-pences-big-lie-about-trump-and-the-coronavirus-at-the-republican-national-convention…
-
Opinion | Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s Big Night – The New York Times
—
Opinion | Republican Convention: Best and Worst Moments From Trump’s Big Night (Published 2020) Our columnists and contributors give their rankings. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opinion/rnc-best-worst-trump-night-4.html Ross Douthat The inability of any speaker, civilian or politician, to resolve the tension between the usual incumbent claims that Things Have Never Been Better and the grim reality of the Covid-19…
-
The Malign Fantasy of Donald Trump’s Convention | The New Yorker
—
The Malign Fantasy of Donald Trump’s Convention Using the White House as his prop, the President makes war on Joe Biden, and pretends the pandemic is all but defeated. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/the-malign-fantasy-of-donald-trumps-convention The problem, of course, is that America as we know it is currently in the midst of a mess not of…
-
How Peter Meehan Allegedly Created a Toxic Work Culture at LA Times Food and Lucky Peach – Eater
—
The Boundary Pusher Peter Meehan’s transgressive vision helped redefine food media with the groundbreaking Lucky Peach, and later transformed the LA Times’s food coverage. But that vision came with a toxic management style characterized by intimidation, a barrage of sexualiz via Eater: https://www.eater.com/2020/8/21/21376709/peter-meehan-allegations-la-times-lucky-peach While Lucky Peach’s culture was casual and frequently profane, former staffers say…
-
How Wagner Shaped Hollywood | The New Yorker
—
How Wagner Shaped Hollywood The composer has infiltrated every phase of movie history, from silent pictures to superhero blockbusters. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/31/how-wagner-shaped-hollywood When Charlie Chaplin watched “Triumph of the Will,” his immediate impulse, according to Luis Buñuel, was to burst into laughter. The orator onscreen seemed to be an insane variation on Chaplin’s…
-
How Jared Kushner Became Trump’s Most Dangerous Enabler – The Atlantic
—
The Good Son Polished, soft-spoken, and a self-styled moderate, Jared Kushner has become his father-in-law’s most dangerous enabler. via The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/how-jared-kushner-became-trumps-most-dangerous-enabler/615169/ Polished, soft-spoken, and a self-styled moderate, Jared Kushner has become his father-in-law’s most dangerous enabler.
-
A Church. A Viral Video. A Campaign To Discredit Black Lives Matter.
—
Viral Video Seemed To Show BLM Storming A Church. The Real Story Is Much Darker. “What people need to know is we’re not protesting churches. We’re protesting this church.” via BuzzFeed News: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/viral-video-seemed-to-show-blm-storming-a-church-the-real The day of the video, the church was hosting its second AR-15 “raffle” in two days: In the middle of a neighborhood…