I didn’t see that coming … I still remember a time where this was UNTHINKABLE!!! ?
Category: English
Snowden, Chomsky and Greenwald Discuss Privacy
Social Media ? Depression
Surprise: heavy use of social media is highly correlated with depression (actual study). o.O But they’re not yet sure which is the cause and which is the effect. They provide arguments for both.
Allwissender Beobachter
Ein allwissender Beobachter, der in unser Gehirn blicken und alle relevanten Faktoren erfassen könnte, wäre in der Lage, unsere Entscheidung vorherzusehen.
Diese Aussage ist so dumm und offensichtlich bekannt, dass es jeder Beschreibung spottet. Er steht auch noch unter dem Titel „Neurowissenschaften: Gedankenlesen noch in weiter Ferne.“ … m(
Babies Know, They Don’t Know
It looks like babies at the age of 19-21 months already have a concept of when they don’t know something and ask for help if it’s available.
Ethnic Affinity
Facebook started targeting ads based on its perception of a person’s race or ethnicity, but just to be safe without actually taking into account their race or ethnicity. The magic PR BS word they invented for it is “ethnic affinity.”
They want to monetize every aspect of your identity, whether that’s an ethnic affiliation or a preference for bean thread noodles.
The problem is that profiling somebody’s ethnic affinities has a lot more cultural baggage attached to it—to say the least—than profiling somebody’s taste in restaurants. And that’s why Facebook’s multicultural targeting scheme is getting a lot more pushback than the company bargained for.
Data Is A Toxic Asset
Bruce Schneier also finds data is actually a toxic asset. ?
Look At This Baby Bird
http://lookatthisbabybird.tumblr.com/post/139884086966/snoutzadventures-cute
Politicians
This line from Matt Taibbi sadly sums up what “high-profile” politicians have become.
[…] they’re not even people, but are […] just robo-babbling representatives of unseen donors.
— Matt Taibbi in How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable
“Defense Wins”
Nicolas Weaver explains how a “defense wins” policy in a combined offense and defense environment doesn’t sound not very convincing (case in point: the NSA reorganization).
Instead, NSA seems intent on ensuring that they will never be trusted again. The objective reality is this: from the perception of those outside the government, merging the IAD and SIGINT missions is tantamount to eliminating IAD entirely. Trust is a matter of perception as much as reality. “Defense wins?” Whatever the actual truth, for now, the rest of the world says “HA!”