Aug 31 / Sept 1
As August gave way to September, we were away at a friends house over the weekend for a barbeque. There was a lot of good talk and interesting (and completely random!) things mentioned. I made a few notes so I wouldn’t forget to follow up on a few things.
anorak (n.)
- Eskimo’s waterproof, hooded jacket, 1924, from Greenland Eskimo anoraq. Applied to Western imitations of this garment from 1930s
- also, parka (n.) 1780, from Aleut parka, from Russian parka “a pelt or jacket made from pelt,” from Samoyed.
Nicaragua’s $50bn canal plan sinks after six years
- I’d actually forgot about this as there’s been no talk about it for years. It brought to mind another massive project that nothing ever came of:
- Huge China trading hub in Athlone approved by planners (May, 2012)
- Whatever happened to… A massive Chinese business centre in Westmeath? (Dec, 2016)
Women at Work: 40 years of change
- I mentioned the marriage bar in Ireland to someone recently and had to go back a read up on it.
Introduced in the early 1930s, it prevented women in the Civil Service from working after they married. The bar extended to many private companies. Although the marriage bar was abolished in 1973 (and earlier for women teachers), it took some time for the number of women to rise again in the workforce.
Pamela Duncan
This also came up over the weekend; I find it mesmerizing. His voice, accent, and the cúpla focail thrown in, along with the sacramental reverence with which he handles the ingredients, create a surprisingly engaging video. I’d like to see a whole series like this. How does Gay Byrne / Mary Robinson / Micahel D make a ham sandwich?
“bread was never meant to be triangular. It was meant to be square like a good field.”
Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh
The Other Emerald Isle – ‘Black Irish’ Of The Caribbean
I was also told a story about someone wounding the pride of an Irishman by talking about our involvement with the slave trade on Montserrat. There are a few bits below about this: the accents in the video are absolutely amazing!
Some incredible facts about the ‘Black Irish on Montserrat’:
- Back in 1678, more than half of the island’s population was Irish.
- St. Patrick`s Day is celebrated on Montserrat not only to commemorate the island`s Irish history but also to remember the March 1768 slave rebellion.
- The Caribbean Island of Montserrat is the only place outside of Ireland where St. Patricks Day is a national holiday.
The above reminded me of this piece which I referred to in class when we were discussing the concept of “whiteness”
Sept 4
14 shootings in Toronto over the August long weekend [The Star]
- Someone mentioned this to me yesterday and I hadn’t heard about it. He was wondering if there was some kind of “spillover” into Canada from the ongoing gun violence in the US.
Americans Are Starting to Love Unions Again [Jacobin]
- This is an interesting piece, particularly when looked at alongside the recent American Factory documentary.
Labor union approval is now higher (60%)than at nearly any point in the last 50 years. The reasons: shit pay, teacher strikes, and Bernie Sanders
Regulators Fine Google $170 Million for Violating Children’s Privacy on YouTube [NYT]
- “the video site had knowingly and illegally harvested personal information from youngsters and used that data to profit by targeting them with ads. “
- But… “No individual accountability, insufficient remedies to address the company’s financial incentives, and a fine that still allows the company to profit from its lawbreaking,”
Sept 6
Unprepared for unpublishing? Here’s how some newsrooms are rethinking what lasts forever [Nieman Lab]
Eighty percent of news outlets surveyed had established unpublishing policies, but almost half of those policies were not in writing and only two percent were shared beyond the newsroom.
“It really comes down to: How long does somebody have to pay for a mistake?”
- Some interesting statistics in this article. It connects well some things I mentioned last month:
- PODCAST: ‘The right to be forgotten,’ by Radiolab, it takes a look at why some journalists are unpublishing stories from the internet.
- Right to be forgotten: Cleveland.com rolls out process to remove mug shots, names from dated stories about minor crimes
Sept 7
Here’s How Much Pornhub Knows About You [Vice]
What this all means is that you could create a hyper-specific ad that is only seen by people watching gay porn in Bristol who are browsing in Spanish between 6 and 7AM, looking for content with the keywords “threesome” and “outdoor”.
The secrets of controlling your internet profile [BBC]
- More about the right to be forgotten and, specifically, reputation management companies which can keep those who can afford it “clean” while others are forever tied to their past mistakes.
Sept 11
My YouTube account was suspended overnight. My 5 subscribers will be devastated, my Mom doubly so given that she is two of them!
While this is not a problem for me, I understand how this kind of news can seriously affect people. I don’t know why my account was suspended – I wasn’t engaged in “spam, scams or commercially deceptive content” – but I have to go through the appeal process which should be interesting in itself. I’m curious if they provide a reason for the suspension or if the just reverse it and I just carry on without knowing what happened.
- UPDATE: I lost my “appeal” so now I am locked out of YouTube for life! I will write more on this as learn more about the causes and consequences of incidents like this. I can still use YouTube, I just can’t sign in anymore so I can’t have playlists, “like” content, upload content etc.
Sept 15
We watched the movie Yesterday (2019; IMDB) a couple of days ago and really enjoyed it. Directed by Danny Boyle, with the brief description of ” A struggling musician realizes he’s the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate timeline where they never existed”, it was a perfect lazy weekend movie.
Navigating the politics of identity [ABC Australia]: interesting podcast episode recommended to me by my mate Barry in Australia.
What Canada’s simple but effective privacy model can teach the U.S. | Opinion [Newsweek]
Canada, like the rest of the world, is feeling the impact of the GDPR. In 2001, Canada became the first country outside Europe to be judged “adequate” for the export of European personal information. However, by 2020 the European Commission will begin reviewing the adequacy status of those countries who now enjoy it, including Canada. Canada is now feeling the pressure to change its privacy legislation to something more like the GDPR in order to retain that “adequacy” status.
Sept 17
Managing your online reputation [Law Society Gazette]
Embarking on a legal career is an expensive and time-consuming process. The last thing a junior solicitor wants is the risk of being struck off for a poorly worded tweet or an inappropriate Instagram post. But this is the reality members of the profession face, as revealed by a string of recent cases at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
- ~Embarking on a [career] is an expensive and time-consuming process. The last thing [anyone] wants is the risk of being [fired] for a poorly worded tweet or an inappropriate Instagram post. But this is the reality members of the profession face, as revealed by a string of recent cases [of people getting fired for “inappropriate” social media posts~.
There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few that will catch your heart. Pursue them. –Unknown
- Are “western” countries transition to shame-based rather than guilt-based culture?
found guilty of professional misconduct and ordered to pay a $26,000 fine and cost award by the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association (“SRNA”) for comments she made on Facebook that were critical of the care her deceased grandfather received at the end of his life.
The BCCLA intervened in this case to speak to the potential chilling effect and improper encroachment on private life that results from professional regulators disciplining their members for off-duty speech that is critical of their profession.
Sept 18
Last night we really enjoyed watching “The Biggest Little Farm” which tells the story of a couple’s “successes and failures as they work to develop a sustainable farm on 200 acres outside of Los Angeles.” This morning it brought to mind Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring [Wiki] and the parallels between her message, initially opposed by big business (chemical companies) and dismissed as alarmism, and that of Greta Thunberg who has received significant backlash by those who oppose the scientific consensus on climate science.
Sept 20
25 Years Ago Today: The Tian Mingjian Incident [Radiichina] – A quarter of a century ago today, Beijing witnessed a mass shooting incident from a rogue PLA soldier
- Hadn’t heard about this before, though I do remember people remarking many times while I was living in China how it was important that civilians don’t have access for firearms. There are, however, regular incidents of mass stabbings, quite often at kindergartens (see here for more on this).
Sept 21
Listened to this Joe Rogan podcast episode with Jonathan Haidt and took a lot away from it.
“You almost never hear of a student coming to someone else in private because you don’t get credit for that; you only get credit when you call them out publicly and so that’s why we’re all walking on eggshells”
” I have to teach to the most sensitive person in the class “
I found the idea of “prestige economies” as it relates to “call-out culture” particularly interesting. I have found that there is a lot of sensitivity to identity issues at UBC and I have found this to be an eye-opening experience as I reflect on own journey and the privileges I enjoyed along the way; especially how being a white male colored my time in China. However, I have also become quite guarded in what I say out of a fear of being taken in the wrong way and causing offense unintentionally. I have met a lot of great people over the last couple of years from whom I’ve learned a lot, but I have also met several people for whom “recreational outrage” seems to be their primary occupation. This has created a kind of chilling effect on how I express myself, not for fear that my opinions would actually cause offense, but out of a fear that someone w0uld “experience” what I say as offensive or derogatory.
- Discussion points: Antifragility ~ unsupervised free play ~ can’t say “crazy” ~ no SM until high school ~ solidarity between parents ~ teaching children how to think ~ social censorship/shaming ~
- Utah’s ‘Free-Range’ Parenting Law Protects Parents So Kids Can Roam [NPR]
- SSRI = Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor = antidepressants
- BOOK: All Minus One – John Stuart Mill’s Ideas on Free Speech Illustrated [PDF]
Reading again about Andrew Feldmar, a Canadian psychotherapist who – in 2006! – was banned from entering the US for life after a border guard Googled his work and learned that Feldmar had taken LSD in the 1960’s.
- LSD as Therapy? Write about It, Get Barred from US [The Tyee; 2007]
- The Nation’s Borders, Now Guarded by the Net [NYT]
- Whatever Became of Andrew Feldmar? [Vancouver Observer; 2009]
- The Net never forgets [Salon; 1998 – “Digital Tattoo” origin?]
- How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life [NYT; 2015]
- ‘Overnight, everything I loved was gone’: the internet shaming of Lindsey Stone [Guardian; 2015]
- BOOK: Is Shame Necessary? New uses for an Old Tool, Jennifer Jacquet, 2015.
I just learned that Google removed the “sort by date” feature back in April. It’s going to take some time before I can explain why this freaks me out.
Sept 23
One Brother Stabbed the Other. The Journalist Who Wrote About It Paid a Price [NYT]
- Concerning story about the right to be forgotten being used to the letter, rather than the spirit, of the law. Concerning stuff for journalists, archivists, and the greater public.
“There has been real mission creep with the right to be forgotten,” said Daphne Keller, a lawyer at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society. “First it was supposed to be about information found using search engines, but now we see it affecting news reporting.”
Big decision on the right to be forgotten coming tomorrow:
- EU free speech vs right to be forgotten case to be heard next week [Reclainthenet]
- Europe’s top court to rule on ‘right to be forgotten’ Google case on Sept. 24 [Financial Post]
“The case highlights the continuing conflict between national laws and the Internet which does not respect national boundaries,” Cumbley said.
Sept 25
‘Right to be forgotten’ on Google only applies in EU, court rules [Guardian]
Google does not have to apply Europe’s landmark “right to be forgotten” law globally, the continent’s highest court has ruled… However, it added that a search engine operator must put measures in place to discourage internet users from going outside the EU to find that information.
- ” Google says it has received 845,501 “right to be forgotten” requests in the past five years, leading to the removal of 45% of the 3.3m links referred to in the requests. Although the content itself remains online, it cannot be found through online searches of the individual’s name. “
Sept 26
Should Canadians have the right to be forgotten? Most would follow Europe on Internet search law [Angus Reid Institute poll, 2018]
- Nearly one-in-five Canadian adults (18%) – the equivalent of roughly 5 million people – know someone who has a problem similar to González’s, with negative information following them around online.
- Further, fully half of Canadians (51%) say they believe people should have the right to have certain information about themselves removed from search results, and a slightly larger number (56%) would support legislation enshrining the right to be forgotten in Canadian law.
Rethinking “craft” in the age of digital reproduction [CBC]
- “Technology has meant that there can now be “mass customization,” meaning that the designs and spaces can easily be tailored to individual projects. “
On The Craftsman by Richard Sennett [Guardian]
- “pressure to deliver has diminished the capacity for contemplation”
- “Ruskin tackled the by then fixed division of society into artisans who laboured and gentlemen who thought – or failed to do much thinking. Isn’t there still a residue of such class divisiveness about?”
- “Doctors’ and nurses’ attitudes to patients are innately craftsmanlike, driven by curiosity, investigating slowly, retaining an ability to ‘learn from ambiguity‘”.
Sept 29
The Week in Tech: Why Californians Have Better Privacy Protections [NYT]
California was the first state to pass laws requiring companies to disclose data breaches and the first to grant minors the right to erase their online posts and photos.
- This attention to the need to protect minors from being saddled with a potentially harmful digital tattoo for life is extremely important. At the moment, I am reading a lot about memory and around the concept of forgiveness. The idea of “Forgiveness 2.0”, in an age where it is increasingly apparent that there is no possibility of societal forgiveness, is worth exploring. If a public figure comes out and reveals something potentially damaging to themselves, they will be vilified. If they say nothing and it comes out later, they will be vilified. There is currently no “win” in being honest and no way to escape past errors of judgment.
- I have been kicking around the idea of “www.digitalforgiveness.com” where one might “confess” to a transgression, explain their new understanding of what they did [they/it/society is different now], admit their mistake, and apologize. This apology is encrypted and logged into the system. If, at a later date, the person’s transgression is brought to light in a way that seeks to harm or undermine them, a record of the apology is then released detailing that the issue has been “processed”: the person had explained, apologized, and moved on. Interestingly, the longer the period between the “confession” and the revelation of such, the greater the value of the apology is. Something like this might encourage people to “clear the decks” to get ahead of elements of their past that may come back to haunt them
The Perilous State of the University: Jonathan Haidt & Jordan B Peterson
- 10:00 – Innate = “structured in advance of experience”, but is socially modified thereafter.
This has long been one of by bugbears too. MORE
Pope Francis hates adjectives: ‘I am allergic to those words’ [Newsweek]
WOTD: Nocive: Adjective (comparative more nocive, superlative most nocive) (archaic) hurtful; injurious Origin Latin noceo (“I harm”).
Scary stuff: Swedish navy returns to vast underground HQ amid Russia fears [Guardian]