Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Often top referrers to articles in our network include a mix of the usual suspects: Google search, Google News, Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, Drudge Report. But one day at the beginning of October I was looking at a story in Currents and noticed another referrer in the mix: SmartNews. SmartNews is an app that aggregates and…
Anyone who isn’t an expert on the internet would be hard-pressed to explain how tracking on the internet actually works. Some of the negative effects of unchecked tracking are easy to notice, namely eerily-specific targeted advertising and a loss of performance on the web. However, many of the harms of unchecked data collection are completely…
Mozilla’s user research, and research conducted by universities and independent experts, consistently shows that most people who use the web do not approve of many of the ways in which their personal data is collected and shared for targeted advertising. In fact, people consider some practices to be invasive, creepy, and even scary. User tracking…
The Skimm co-founders Carly Zakin (left) and Danielle Weisberg (right). Photo: Dina Litovsky In early September, the whole staff of the Skimm, a current-events newsletter aimed at millennial women, gathered on gray couches for an all-hands meeting. Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, the Skimm’s CEOs and founders, were dressed in the TV-ready sheaths they’d put…
Recode, a technology website that was among the first in a wave of journalist-led media startups, is being folded into sister site Vox.com, its parent company said Thursday. Vox Media publisher Melissa Bell said in a memo that Recode would relaunch as a section of Vox.com starting next year. Recode will continue to exist as…
The new web video, tweeted by the President five days before the midterm elections, is the most extreme step yet in the most inflammatory closing argument of any campaign in recent memory. The Trump campaign ad is the latest example of the President’s willingness to lie and fear-monger in order to tear at racial and…
President Trump said Wednesday that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if billionaire philanthropist George Soros or someone else is funding the caravan of Central American migrants moving toward the U.S. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Trump told reporters outside the White House when asked if “someone” is paying for the caravan. “George Soros?” a reporter interjected. “I don’t know who,…
What do Joe Biden scented candles smell like? Certainly not Joe Biden, unless he walks around smelling like an orange all the time. The $22 candles are the best-selling item at the Delaware History Museum in Wilmington, regularly selling out thanks to still-strong home state “Joementum” even nearly two years after the former vice president left…
FERGUSON, MO – AUGUST 10: Demonstrators, marking the one-year anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown, protest along West Florrisant Street on August 10, 2015 in Ferguson, Missouri. Mare than 100 people were arrested today during protests in Ferguson and the St. Louis area. Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on…
New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. hates water so much he’ll fight through painful cramps rather than hydrate. “When you get that stomach — it’s all slushy,” he told reporters. “I’m trying to stay hydrated, but sometimes I just gotta get an IV.” Lori Cheek, however, has him beat: She’s landed in the…