“Do we really want a white-breaded, Brexited flatland? A country that is losing the will to welcome the world? The ‘hostile environment’ took its toll at Womad … a number of events were seriously affected by visa refusals. By definition, a festival of world music requires visas for many bands. What on Earth is the Home Office doing refusing them? Is music the new enemy?”
Author: Douglas McLennan
Why The Social Media Platforms Are Going To Lose Their InfoWars Battles
The battle over InfoWars illustrates how what was once these tech giants’ greatest strength has become their greatest weakness. For years, Facebook and YouTube spent so much time defending anyone’s right to say almost anything on their platforms, they forgot to remind users that it wasn’t really a question of rights at all. Only the government can violate a person’s First Amendment rights, however wrong or hateful that person may be.
Are You Ready For The Information Wars?
We discuss counter-messaging, treating this as a problem of false stories rather than as an attack on our information ecosystem. We find ourselves in the midst of an arms race, in which responsibility for the integrity of public discourse is largely the hands of private social platforms, and determined adversaries continually find new ways to manipulate features and circumvent security measures. Addressing computational propaganda and disinformation is not about arbitrating truth. It’s about responding to information warfare.
Artists Builds Le Corbusier Replica, Then Sinks It In Fjord
There’s a sizable chunk of French Modernism sitting at the bottom of a Danish fjord. “Flooded Modernity” is a faithful 1:1 mock-up of a corner of the French architect-idealist Le Corbusier’s 1927 modernist masterpiece, Villa Savoye. Conceived by Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsenfor the Vejle Art Museum’s Floating Art Festival, Havsteen-Mikkelsen says his work is a commentary on his disillusionment with the current political climate
Egyptian Orchestra Of Blind Women Plays On
The Light and Hope Orchestra has performed in public hundreds of times. Its success has taken it on foreign tours all around the world, and earned it countless awards. Al Nour Wal Amal is Arabic for ‘Light and Hope’ and the orchestra is part of a non-profit association that gives blind women educational opportunities and professional training.
The Cognitive Biases We All Have That Lead Us Astray
When people hear the word bias, many if not most will think of either racial prejudice or news organizations that slant their coverage to favor one political position over another. Present bias, by contrast, is an example of cognitive bias—the collection of faulty ways of thinking that is apparently hardwired into the human brain. The collection is large.
Sure, Cheer Alex Jones’ Legal Woes. But Be Careful How This Will Change Free Speech Laws
For the most part, this push and pull between internet and legal norms is a good thing—as long as it continues to evolve. “We adjusted the law to deal with the mass market media era of television and newspapers. It’s clear that First Amendment doctrine needs to evolve, not to undo freedom of speech, but to ensure the values of public debate and of democratic self-government continue in a digital environment. That might mean adjusting what it means to be a public figure, so victims of tragedy don’t feel unable to express their feelings on social media.
When Dick Cavett Ruled Thinking America’s TV
For three decades, Mr. Cavett was the thinking person’s Johnny Carson, embodiment of an East Coast sophisticate. He wore smart turtlenecks and double-breasted blazers, had more cultural references than a Google server and laced martini-dry witticisms into lengthy, probing talks with 20th-century luminaries including Bette Davis, James Baldwin, Mick Jagger and Jean-Luc Godard. A Renaissance salon in a rabbit-ears era, “The Dick Cavett Show” was woke some 50 years before the term came into vogue.
Will The Growing Forests Of Skyscrapers In The UK Ruin Skylines?
Planners, objectors and developers tend to agree that tall buildings can be intrinsically fine things. What matters, they all say, is that they are well designed and in the right place. The precise meaning of this bland statement is unfortunately also the thing on which no one can agree – it becomes an increasingly threadbare banner under which planning battles are fought. Projects with ever more vaporous claims to be well designed and in the right place end up getting approved and built.
Oxford Scholar Disputes Salvator Mundi Authenticity
Matthew Landrus, a Leonardo scholar, believes most of the painting is by the artist’s studio assistant Bernardino Luini, whose own work generally sell for less than £1m. “This is a Luini painting,” Landrus said. “By looking at the various versions of Leonardo’s students’ works, one can see that Luini paints just like that work you see in the Salvator Mundi.”