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Surveillance Publishing – Posted by John Baez – “Björn Brembs recently explained how “massive over-payment of academic publishers has enabled them to buy surveillance technology covering the entire workflow that can be used not only to be combined with our private data and sold, but also to make algorithmic (aka ‘evidenceled’) employment decisions.” Reading about …
Miani, A., Hills, T. & Bangerter, A. LOCO: The 88-million-word language of conspiracy corpus. [free full text PDF] Behav Res (2021). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01698-z “The spread of online conspiracy theories represents a serious threat to society. To understand the content of conspiracies, here we present the language of conspiracy (LOCO) corpus. LOCO is an 88-million-token corpus composed …
Washington Post: “Tools are expensive, and most of them spend way more time collecting dust in our basements than in use. Enter the tool library, a lending hub that allows people to take home tools and appliances, usually for a week, then return them. Some tool libraries across the country are free, and some charge …
Pew – “Americans are spreading their book consumption across several formats. The share of adults who have read print books in the past 12 months still outpaces the share using other forms, but 30% now say they have read an e-book in that timeframe. Overall, 75% of U.S. adults say they have read a book …
Washington Post: “As the world enters 2022, public libraries are emerging as one of the bright spots — literally. An abundance of new and newly renovated libraries have opened their doors in the past two years. In addition to being breathtakingly beautiful, many are exemplars of what great community spaces can and should be. Indoors, …
“Dear Democratic Colleague, As we enjoy the Holiday Season with loved ones, we are preparing to mark one year since the January 6th assault on the Capitol. I write to make you aware of the activities that will be held that day. The House will not be in session, but a full program of events …
The New York Times: “A new slogan has emerged in the culture: “Do your own research.” On internet forums and social media platforms, people arguing about hotly contested topics like vaccines, climate change and voter fraud sometimes bolster their point or challenge their interlocutors by slipping in the acronym “D.Y.O.R.” “Two days after getting the …
Reasons to Be Cheerful – This is a wonderful read not least because amidst the upheavals of life in the time of COVID, individuals and groups around the world have chosen, in a myriad of ways to create change in innovative and impactful ways that benefits the lives of millions around the world. A sustainable …
The New York Times, Dec. 28, 2021: “In October, as we marked the Book Review’s 125th anniversary, we invited readers to nominate the best book published during that time. This was a nod to our history: In its first few decades, the Book Review often asked readers to anoint the best books, the best short …
Hyperallergic: “There’s no better way to observe the dawn of a new year of the roaring 2020s than celebrating Public Domain Day. On January 1, 2022, cultural items in the archive dating from 1926 shed their copyright and made their proper full and proper entrance into society. In 2022, for the first time, a swath …
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting – Janine Jackson interviewed librarian Caleb Nichols about defending public libraries for the December 17, 2021, episode of CounterSpin. [Caleb Nichols is a librarian as well as a writer, poet and musician, currently course reserves coordinator at Cal Poly/San Luis Obispo. His eye-opening article, “Public/Private Partnerships Are Quietly Hollowing Out …
The New York Times: “The most exquisite holiday windows on Fifth Avenue might be inside the New York Public Library’s flagship building at the corner of 42nd Street. Walk up the stairs past the stone lions, through the marble entrance court and into the ornate Gottesman Hall, and you can peer into dramatically lit cases …
