Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
An enormously popular YouTube video, uploaded last month by an account called Ridddle, explores a bong-rip hypothetical: What if someone detonated a thermonuclear bomb in the depths of the Marianas Trench? In the seven minute clip, a gravelly-voiced narrator uses convincingly scientific-sounding language — at least at first. As it goes on, though, the video’s…
Twitter “Just an Ass-Backward Tech Company”: How Twitter Lost the Internet War Twitter faces more challenges than most technology companies: ISIS terrorists, trolls, bots, and Donald Trump. But its last line of defense, the company’s head of trust and safety, Del Harvey, isn’t making things easier. “Del overcomplicates things . . . and you can…
Facebook’s Campbell Brown and Adam Mosseri.Image: code media/recode By Karissa Bell and Kerry Flynn2018-02-13 03:28:39 UTC Facebook is famous for the mantra “move fast and break things.” But these days, the tech giant is all about time well spent, and with that comes a new tagline for everyone to follow: If you don’t like us,…
Facebook executives on Monday defended the recent controversial changes to the types of stories that appear in users’ feeds, acknowledging that the company is staking out a “very clear point of view” on some — but not all — questions. Facebook has no problem weighing in on things like hate speech and sensationalist news, the…
It was whispered like some secret oracle: Sidecat, sidecat is coming. Negotiations over the tax incentive deal began in Ohio in early spring of last year, and only a cabal of quasi-state officials were in the know. Even after the $37.1 million in incentives were approved by state officials on July 31, 2017, the company…
A film critic was suspended for allegedly buying fake Twitter followers. Justified or overreaction? By Paul Farhi January 31, 2018 at 4:03 PM The greatest asset for all journalists is their credibility — the track record of accuracy that makes news consumers believe what they have to say. At the same time, journalists are profoundly…
Image: Wikimedia/Facebook/Gizmodo As the FBI’s investigation into Russian election interference reaches a fever pitch, Facebook rolled out a new News Feed alert Monday night. The bulletin told users who followed pages created by Russian trolls that those pages have been removed. And some of the affected users did not like this. A brief search revealed…
The real Jessica Rychly is a Minnesota teenager with a broad smile and wavy hair. She likes reading and the rapper Post Malone. When she goes on Facebook or Twitter, she sometimes muses about being bored or trades jokes with friends. Occasionally, like many teenagers, she posts a duck-face selfie. But on Twitter, there is…
The joy-sucking iPhone X. Photo: Getty Today’s kids are better behaved than ever. They’re having less sex (and more safely when they do), committing less crime, and doing fewer drugs. But research has also started to show they might be unhappier than previous generations of youths. A new study published today in Emotion adds more…
Buying ads from Facebook doesn’t always mean those ads will run on Facebook. They could appear across Facebook’s Audience Network of third-party apps and sites. Even on Facebook they could show up inside an Instant Article or in the middle of a publisher’s video — all without the advertiser knowing where its ad appeared…