Vice – ‘Untangling the Web’ was a bizarre testament to the NSA’s understating of the how the internet worked. The National Security Agency’s 2007 guide to the internet begins with a description of an ancient Persian library and a fragment of analysis of a Jorge Luis Borges short story. This introduction to the 650 page document, titled ‘Preface: The Clew to the Labyrinth,” contains 8 footnotes and ends on a word of caution. “As we enjoy, employ, and embrace the Internet, it is vital we not succumb to the chauvinism of novelty, that is, the belief that somehow whatever is new is inherently good, is better than what came before, and is the best way to go or the best tool to use,” the NSA said of the internet...Though the document was originally made public in 2013, it’s been getting some new attention on The Government Attic, a repository of government documents..”
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Daily Archives: May 5, 2021
The Statistical Secrets of Covid-19 Vaccines
Wired – “…The key here, though, is that Absolute Risk Reduction does change according to how at-risk the groups of people were in the first place. And this pandemic has widely varying risks across populations, and those change over time. (For example, viral variants change how infectious Covid can be, and young people’s risk of… Continue Reading
How one phony vaccine website tried to capture your personal information
Tech Republic – “In a news release published Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland revealed that it had seized a website called freevaccinecovax.org. Allegedly the site of a real biotechnology firm developing a COVID-19 vaccine, it was actually set up to collect personal data from visitors and use that information for… Continue Reading
Twitter’s latest bot will flag “harmful” language before you post
Ars Technica: “Want to know exactly what Twitter’s fleet of text-combing, dictionary-parsing bots defines as “mean”? Starting any day now, you’ll have instant access to that data—at least, whenever a stern auto-moderator says you’re not tweeting politely. On Wednesday, members of Twitter’s product-design team confirmed that a new automatic prompt will begin rolling out for… Continue Reading
This map shows the climate impacts on every county in the Western US
Fast Company – “…Climate change looks different everywhere. A new interactive map shows a detailed list of likely impacts by county, starting with the Intermountain West, the region bounded by the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Cascades and Sierras on the west. The tool was designed specifically for people who manage parks, and… Continue Reading
Least and Most Expensive Cars to Keep on the Road
Consumer Reports – “We asked our members how much they spent on repairs and maintenance to keep their cars on the road over the past 12 months. Below, we show the most and least expensive 2011 models, with the cost for work during that year. (See the average costs compared by brand based on 5-… Continue Reading
The Lawyers of Substack
LawSites – “This week, David Lat, who founded the blog Above the Law in 2006, and who earlier, in 2004, started the anonymous blog Underneath Their Robes, and who left blogging two years ago to take a job as a legal recruiter, is returning to writing as a full-time livelihood. But this time, Lat will… Continue Reading
How to Power Up Your To-Do List
The New York Times – The free task-reminder app on your phone can keep you and your projects on track. “Getting organized is serious business, judging by the number of checklist and chore-tracker programs available. If you’re new to mobile task-manager software, Apple and Google have their own free apps that combine the convenience of… Continue Reading
These were the top publishers on Facebook in April 2021
NewsWhip: “We looked back at the top publishers on Facebook for the month of April 2021, ranked by their total engagement. The month saw a slight decline in engagement for most publishers and in the levels hit by the top articles, but the level of interactions did increase for some individual publishers. As usual, we… Continue Reading
Assessing the social and emotional costs of mass shootings with Twitter data
Brookings Blog – Assessing the social and emotional costs of mass shootings with Twitter data, Mary Blankenship and Carol Graham. May 5, 2021. “Mass shootings that result in mass casualties are almost a weekly occasion in the United States, which—not coincidentally—also has the most guns per capita in the world. Viewed from outside the U.S.,… Continue Reading
A Beginner’s Guide to Propagating Plants
LifeHacker – “When you’re starting out with a garden, buying enough plants to cover the ground can seem really expensive. Instead, do what the pros do: Cut and plant stems and leaves, divide roots, and use ground layering to grow more of the plants you already have. Aside from the money and trips to the… Continue Reading
College student sues Proctorio after source code copyright claim
The Verge – Lawyers claim Erik Johnson made fair use of Proctorio’s software code in a critical Twitter thread: “The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a lawsuit against the remote testing company Proctorio on behalf of Miami University student Erik Johnson. The lawsuit is intended to “quash a campaign of harassment designed to undermine… Continue Reading
