The training/maintenance regimen of these women athletes was and is astounding! And, this video is when the ‘mermaids’ wore masks most of the time and didn’t wear binding mermaid tails.
Posts tagged online
What’s Old is New: from the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
What’s old is new: war time food posters at artvee.com
What’s Old is New: Exploring the Prelinger Archives
The K-12 school system needs support and funding to ensure freedom and democracy:
Nuclear bombs can destroy the world:
Your experience of the online world is more limited than you think
I was recently recommended an article by a colleague, “Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms” (Head, et al, 2020). The article reviews survey information to ascertain how aware students are of the effect algorithms have on their research activities and socializing online. I was actually surprised to read that the students surveyed were well informed, but felt relatively helpless in changing the situation. Then I got ruminating over my own experiences. I also feel well informed about this topic. I take precautions: I have my browser clear all cookies, history, and cache upon closing the program; I don’t interact much with social media; I use alternative search engines to Google. However, I know that I am still being shown a tiny bubble designed to my tastes. I don’t think about it all of the time, but every now and then it rankles me, as it did in a previous post about Big Data Insults and Failures.
I was surprised that the article reported a high level of student awareness because I don’t quite believe they are at all times cognizant of how their online activities are feeding into search engine and social media algorithms that, in turn, are used to manipulate them into online activities that fit the algorithms. I don’t really believe any one of us is aware, all the time, of how online services have been built to manipulate our behavior. The stated purpose of these algorithms may be to show us what we want to see, and, maybe, to sell us items we want to buy. A helpful purpose; a purpose that helps the hapless searcher wade through an infinitude of search results. What the algorithms are doing, however, is giving me an echo chamber that consistently tells me my views, my experiences, my values, and my desires are right, and normal, and common among my colleagues, friends, neighbors, family, and community.
Echo chambers can be comforting, like talking out a day’s frustration with a friend who sees your point. But, in this age of aggressive partisanship, protest, and ‘fake news,’ echo chambers are dangerous. My tiny bubble, my echo chamber, does not give me truth. It does not give me objectivity or the benefit of a wider viewpoint. The algorithms that build my echo chamber bubble are only attempting to manipulate me into thoughts and actions that fit the bubble. I’m not sure if it matters who wrote the algorithms, or why I am being manipulated. What matters is that I am trapped.
You Are Trapped, Too
You reside in your own tiny echo chamber bubble no matter how carefully you go about your online activities. Your search results do not show you everything. They do not bring you truth. We each must seek truth and objectivity for ourselves. We must question the answers we find and look for dissenting opinions. Most of all, we must realize that everyone we speak and connect with is equally blinded by their own bubbles. It’s not that your neighbor stubbornly refuses to see the truth of the matter, it’s that your neighbor is incapable of seeing the same truth that you have been fed and vice versa. In this world of manipulated information, how is it possible for anyone of us to say with certainty that we are correct and that they are incorrect.
I’m not going to go all out and say believe nothing and trust no one. But I do think that once we realize how our experiences are being manipulated, it behooves us to work a little harder to verify the information we are given before we adopt it as our own truth. We have to work a little harder to give each other the benefit of the doubt.
Readings
- Head, A.J.; Fister, B.; MacMillan, M. (2020) Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms: Student Experiences with News and Information. Project Information Literacy. https://www.projectinfolit.org/uploads/2/7/5/4/27541717/algoreport.pdf
- Merrill, J.B. (2016) “Liberal, Moderate or Conservative? See How Facebook Labels You.” New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/us/politics/facebook-ads-politics.html
Know thyself
I was long overdue in looking at the junk mail folder to which my email client automatically moved emails that fit a certain profile so I didn’t see this email until recently.
It’s terrifying right? This duder’s malware gave them access to all my accounts and my web cam! I am aware of several situations where people have been legitimately blackmailed by individuals who had gained access to their computers and accounts. How do I know this is a fake designed to get me to go to where-ever Googling their keyword would take me and also to give them money? I mean, they did really have an old password of mine. Well, I know me, and I know that I change my passwords frequently. I make sure my browser and operating system are kept up to date. I know all the web cams in my house are covered by stickers.
I did change my passwords again, just to be safe, but the point is, if I hadn’t already learned good online habits, or I did the Google search as they told me to, I may have fallen victim to a real blackmail scenario. So I thought I’d share, just in case this reminder might be helpful to you.
The IT Crowd – FriendFace
Just one more reason why the IT Crowd is awesome!
National Jukebox LOC.gov
I was fishing around in the 78RPMs and Cylinder Recordings at the Internet Archive, finding wonderful things, when I found some really poorly preserved recordings of really wonderful songs. Searching for a better copy lead me to the Library of Congress National Jukebox:
National Jukebox historical recordings from the Library of Congress project. You can now play this collection of old music from the early 20th century online. | Library of Congress LOC.gov
Source: National Jukebox LOC.gov
And, if you, like me, end up spending all day listening to old tunes and still can’t get enough, the University of California, Santa Barbara Special Collections Department has a fabulous Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.
What Jane Saw
A historical art exhibit, rendered in colored drawing, capturing the perspective of a famous writer. What more could you want? Source: What Jane Saw
Historypin | Mapping emotions in Victorian London
Mapping Emotions in Victorian London is a crowdsourcing project designed to expand possibilities for research in the humanities. The project has invited anonymous participants to annotate whether passages drawn from novels, published mainly in the Victorian era, represented London places in a fearful, happy, or unemotional manner.
Terms and Conditions aka why I left Facebook
Hello! How are you? Me, I’m keepin’ on and experiencing yet another bleed from my professional life into my personal one. This semester has sent me quite a few more requests for copyright guidance than last semester. Sometimes the answers to these questions actually involve contract law, which is a different beast entirely – as any electronic resources librarian can tell you. What companies put in their contracts can make allowances for more or less use than copyright law allows.
And, I hear you saying, yeah, so what. How is this a personal issue? Our memberships, customer accounts, use of software and apps are all regulated by terms and conditions or EULAs (End User License Agreements) that are meant to govern our uses and interactions (beyond just copyright). Some companies are putting crazy things in their EULAs now a days. Example one: Palmer vs. Kleargear, where-in Company A declares that they can hold you financially liable and take various actions against you, like ruining your credit, if you tell your friend they suck. That was an extremely simplistic summary but the truth is no less scary. Example two: EULAs that explain that your download of a free media player means your agreement that their constituent will take over all your browser programs and change the settings for your search and home pages (you know who you are!).
Given these happenings, I have been trying to be more mindful of what I am actually agreeing to by using websites and services. I had a read of Facebook’s terms and conditions (that were supposedly updated over the holidays), and decided that what they said was not for me. I couldn’t agree, and since using the service equated agreement, I have deleted myself from Facebook. I’ll miss all the friend creeping, but bye.
Inspirograph
There are people who end up sitting in front of a computer with nothing worthwhile to do, or nothing worthwhile they want to do. Inspirograph, though maybe not made specifically for those people, can bring beauty and a little fun creativity to them.
Earth at Night 2012 : Feature Articles
Have you seen NASA’s new pics of the world at night? If not, then leave here right now! and go to: Earth at Night 2012 : Feature Articles.
The Console Living Room at the Internet Archive
I have the Atari system I fondly remember set up in the kitchen of my Dad’s house. It is all packed up in a box in my closet. I have not yet found the adapter that will make it work with my new flat-screen TV.
Why was it in the kitchen that seemed barley 8′ by 8′ from wall to wall? Why was the TV it was connected to on top of the fridge? Us kids would stand in the middle of the room with the controllers (the few moments a day when it wasn’t being used for food preparation) looking up at the screen. The ridiculousness of this set up makes me question my memory, but there you have it.
I do remember that I, being very young and destined to take very little interest in video games at all, had games that were mine and mine alone. My favorite was Strawberry Shortcake. It was reminiscent of those fashion plates where you changed the head, torso, and legs of a character to make something new. I don’t think there was much else to the game. Should I figure out how to play it again, I don’t have to wait to get my Atari hooked up again. I can play on any computer nearby, because the The Console Living Room at the Internet Archive has made streaming versions of all those old Atari games (and more).