The New York Times – “The year 2021 opened with the promise of vaccines, and the belief that we would all return to “normal” after the tumultuous year of the pandemic. But the year instead took off with an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, and saw a summer of carefree gatherings derailed by a fast-spreading virus. Governments fell, democracies were challenged, and climate-related destruction was unleashed, all while the casualties of the pandemic continued to amass. The vaccine saved some lives, but human passions, hopes and fears did their usual work to create a year that was anything but calm, and is ending with the prospect of a new variant upending plans once again. This is the story of 2021 told visually, through the eloquent universal language of photography…”
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Daily Archives: December 15, 2021
Four Resolutions for a Healthier Tech Life in 2022
The New York Times: “The coronavirus pandemic has been packed with plenty of nasty tech surprises. We ran into the problem of a perpetual scarcity of hardware, like game consoles and graphics cards. Apple this year announced a major change to its data practices, including a tool to scan iPhones for child pornography, which critics… Continue Reading
National Archives Releases New Group of JFK Assassination Documents
“In accordance with President Biden’s directive of October 22, 2021, the National Archives today posted 1,491 documents subject to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act). Released documents are available for download. The John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection, established by the National Archives in November 1992, consists of… Continue Reading
Portmanteaur Portmanteau Generator
“The Portmanteaur Portmanteau Generator is a tool for making Portmanteaus. New algorithms are currently undergoing development!” [give this a try – it is delightful] Continue Reading
Leave fact-checking to the fact-checkers
NiemanLab: “The Washington Post does it. So do The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, and The Daily Caller: fact-checking. In fact (no pun intended), fact-checking is so successful/important/sought after/self-reproducing (take your pick) that in 18 years, the number of fact-checking organizations has grown from one in 2003 to 349 worldwide in 2021, according to… Continue Reading
DC Attorney General Introduces Legislation to Stop Algorithmic Discrimination
EPIC: “[On December 9, 2021] District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine introduced landmark legislation to strengthen civil rights protections for DC residents and prohibit companies and institutions from using algorithms that produce biased or discriminatory results and lock individuals, especially members of vulnerable communities, out of critical opportunities, like jobs and housing. “At… Continue Reading
How Black women reclaimed country and Americana music in 2021
NPR: “If 2020 was the kickstart of a reckoning—of country/Americana music (and, really, all of America) being forced to come to terms with its history of racism and exclusion—2021 was the year of reclamation. Even as sustainable, systemic change remains elusive, Black women, in particular, have leveraged the power of streaming platforms and social media… Continue Reading
A behind-the-scenes look at PolitiFact’s ‘Lie of the Year’
Poynter: “We live in a time when misinformation is rampant. Politicians lie. Cable news pundits twist the truth to fit their agenda. And citizens use the wild west of social media to either consciously or inadvertently spread conspiracies that simply are not true. For the past 13 years, Poynter’s PolitiFact has sifted through all the… Continue Reading
This Is A Film About The James Webb Space Telescope
Kottke.org: “In this entertaining, informative, and charmingly goofy video, Dr. Kevin Hainline tells us all about the James Webb Space Telescope. The JWST is a bigger and better version of the Hubble Space Telescope and will allow scientists to peer deeper into the universe and farther back in time than ever before..” Continue Reading
A beginner’s guide to bitcoin and cryptocurrency
CNET: “Cryptocurrency reached a peak in 2021. Bitcoin once again notched an all-time high valuation, surpassing $65,000 (earlier in the year, it had dipped below $30,000). And this year bitcoin — and cryptocurrency in general — penetrated deeply into financial services as well as the culture, gaining an expanding foothold in popular art, commerce and… Continue Reading
