Subscriptions (digital) to keep me up to date

I subscribe to several medical information services because for years I was a veterinary medicine librarian and sort of got hooked on the genre. (I was also a librarian for Russian and Soviet studies, Latin American studies, and Agriculture in earlier jobs.) However, I've seen quite a change in the last 20 years. I also get the printed version of JAMA. It's really disappointing to see science going the way of intersectionality.

I subscribe to research from START (The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism) which "prides itself on the diversity of research conducted across the Consortium to bring a holistic understanding to the study of terrorism, counterterrorism and community resilience. START researchers based throughout the United States and around the world bring varying perspectives, experiences, and academic disciplines to their analysis." It doesn't live up to its advertising of mission statement.

I subscribe to beSpacific "Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002" And so liberal I sometimes scream at the screen when I see what she's covering. Librarianship, gotta love it. It's mostly political bias, but at least you know what you're up against.

The good old days

Whether nostalgia or bad memory or politicians, you may be wrong about "the good old days," crime, climate, income gaps, etc.

"According to a YouGov poll last year, between 21 percent and 45 percent of respondents across the Western world thought that climate change “likely” or “quite likely” will make the human race extinct. At the same time, both the absolute numbers and the proportion of people dying from natural catastrophes like storms, floods, droughts, or wildfires has plummeted over the last century – and that includes all kinds of natural disasters (such as earthquakes and tsunamis) not just the ones that climate change may have worsened."

https://www.humanprogress.org/nothing-is-more-responsible-for-the-good-old-days-than-a-bad-memory/?

A few years ago I recall a report that asked people what percent of the population was homosexual, and many guessed 20-25%. The correct answer was a little over 2%. But it was the topics and characters of films, books and TV programs that caused them to make that wrong estimate. There are some people who think 50% of people who get Covid19 die (99.75% recover).  I think 24/7 news and social media are worsening our memories.

What does Amazon know about you?

BBC News article includes extensive history, narrative, graphics, photos and insight into how and why Amazon collects massive amounts of data Amazon on users through multiple channels of e-commerce and devices – by Leo Kelion –

“You might call me an Amazon super-user. I’ve been a customer since 1999, and rely on it for everything from grass seed to birthday gifts. There are Echo speakers dotted throughout my home, Ring cameras inside and out, a Fire TV set-top box in the living room and an ageing Kindle e-reader by my bedside. I submitted a data subject access request, asking Amazon to disclose everything it knows about me Scanning through the hundreds of files I received in response, the level of detail is, in some cases, mind-bending. One database contains transcriptions of all 31,082 interactions my family has had with the virtual assistant Alexa. Audio clips of the recordings are also provided. The 48 requests to play Let It Go, flag my daughter’s infatuation with Disney’s Frozen. Other late-night music requests to the bedroom Echo, might provide a clue to a more adult activity…” . . .

That’s the introduction to a difficult to read, white on charcoal scrolling screen.  It’s a very scary universe.

“We find ourselves being shot backward into a kind of feudal pattern where it was an elite, a priesthood, that had all the knowledge and all the rest of the people just kind of groped around in the dark,” says Shoshana Zuboff, a Harvard professor and author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.”

How Google controls your information

90% of internet searches use Google, and 95% of searchers drop out after the second page.  I began blogging in 2003 and remember when my blog entries came up within the first or second page.  In the code, bloggers/web page designers put in tags that describe the most typical topics and your search picks up on that. With Google’s manipulation of search results that could never happen today.  I’m a big believer in capitalism, and the founders of Google, one of which is a Russian immigrant, have done a good job for the investors in their company.  That said, when successful companies get too cozy with the government, it’s called crony capitalism.  That’s how legislators get rich and CEOs beat back the competition by getting what looks like stiff controls, but only they are wealthy enough to meet the standards.  Any search that involves any information about the government or President Trump will bring up pages of New York Times, Washington Post (owned by another tech giant, Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest man in the country), Daily Beast, Huffington Post, and other far left media sources. This results in an informed public that has read/heard only part of the story. The conservatives then flee to other sources and also risk knowing only part of the information. When I log in, I automatically get Google News, which always leans left.  Sometimes I do click on a story, especially  if it’s none political, but then may just encourage the bias by taking the bait.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/google-search-results-show-pervasive-anti-trump-anti-conservative-bias/

https://pjmedia.com/trending/facebook-censors-articles-from-salena-zito-jenna-lynn-ellis-saying-they-look-like-spam/

If you search anything about Trump on Google you’ll probably get referred to CNN, which falls far behind Fox in popularity and viewership. And if you are in an airport, exercise facility, or doctor’s office, good luck seeing anything other than CNN.

As expected, NYT denies any bias with Google, and instead accuses Google of different biases. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/technology/bias-google-trump.html

https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/july-2018-ratings-fox-news-marks-25-consecutive-months-as-most-watched-cable-network-in-total-day/372050

https://www.mrc.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/2014/MBB2014.pdf

Old lady learning. . . slowly

             

I am feeling so. . .techie.  Today I unsubscribed to maybe 10 e-mails I never read, and am pretty sure I never signed on to, changed a few passwords, learned to recharge my husband's FitBit and I finally used my MD's message portal so I can look at the results of my exam on Tuesday. But nothing, nothing, feels as nice as a book and a #2 lead automatic pencil.  It seems I'm not going to be able to fix my LiveWriter, a blog publishing application developed by Microsoft which I just love and use for blogging.  It is no longer being supported.

On to the i-pad mini I got for Christmas.

 http://www.hanselman.com/blog/AnnouncingOpenLiveWriterAnOpenSourceForkOfWindowsLiveWriter.aspx

Internet users say they are better informed than 5 years ago

I'm definitely better informed about some rather specialized things than I was 5 years ago--my 2nd cousins once removed, Beyonce and the Kardashians, crazy scandals of the Obama administration, but I think I know less local stuff since we no longer get a newspaper. I did all my research for my new kitchen appliances on the internet, and they still are not properly installed and we're looking at January 2015 (purchased in September). I don't use a cell phone except to call my son, but I saw a woman at Kohl's this morning doing amazing things with hers that I didn't even know were possible. I'm using the internet more for recipes, and my own file less. Data isn't information isn't knowledge isn't wisdom, as the sign in my office used to say.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/12/08/better-informed/

Report is based an online probability survey conducted September 12-18, 2014 among a sample of 1,066 adult internet users, 18 years of age or older.

Isn't that just like a mom?

"The mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Wednesday she was distressed by an international police alert for her son's arrest and did not want him "hunted down and jailed.""

If you steal something (that means it doesn't belong to you), or you put the lives of others in danger, it's called a crime, mommy, and maybe it's time for little Julian to grow up and face the music. There's no evidence that he's had a break with reality--like the local guys in Michigan and Ohio who have killed their own children in the last few weeks. The fact that he's decided he personally knows better than all the people who've elected leaders, worked for change, and negotiated treaties, shows he's just as much a megalomaniac power obsessed weirdo as those he's decided to expose. Sorry mommy. You've raised a monster.

Wikileaks: Interpol puts Julian Assange on 'Wanted' list over 'sex crimes' - Telegraph

U.S. Faces Hard Bid to Prosecute Leakers - WSJ.com

Did WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange commit a crime? - CSMonitor.com

Getting by with too much help from their friends

When the whole IT and computer thing really kicked in with 20-somethings making money in start ups I thought young women were well positioned to go right to the top. They'd had special math and science boosts since the beginning of the 70s, workshops, summer camps, special tutoring, all manner of "leadership training" from supervisors and teachers and professors. The government went after them with Title 9 (1972). But thud. What a dud. It hasn't happened according to this article. Back in the 90s when I was still reading Wired regularly (dropped my subscription went it became mostly about hi-tech bikes and apps on phony baloney stuff) I'd look over the photos of the geekdom, or the lists of names, and really didn't see many women even though they could work from anywhere and any hours they wanted and you didn't need to worry about the good-old boys network and playing golf or tennis. Nope. Didn't happen. So now--more of the same.

"Women comprise a mere 30 percent of the information technology workforce, hold fewer than 7 percent of all IT patents and underperform in just about every measure of entrepreneurial activity in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines."

If being "risk averse" is a problem, maybe part of success is struggle--figuring out what to do on your own when it's your passion? Maybe the women who would have gone to the top have been stuck in two-fer jobs to make the masthead look good to suit all the laws and regulations? You know, vice-president for IT, just like blacks got shoehorned into vice-president for human resources.

Getting by with a little help from their friends : Ohio State onCampus

Don't look at me. I never liked math and science, and no amount of luring me into summer camp would have changed that. I sat in high school algebra II for two weeks and transferred. I'm just telling you what I observed in the last 40 years (women's movement aka modern feminism). I loved my career, lowest of the low paid (library science). And my advice to women starting out is: "You can have it all, you just can't have it all at the same time."

The Pope wants to hear from you

Pope Benedict XVI says priests should start using web sites and blogs, Facebook and YouTube. At Pope2You.net you can go on Facebook and send the Pope a message. Since I'm a Lutheran, I probably won't do that, but it sure is a jazzy web page. And you can choose from 5 languages.

President Obama wants to hear from you

Really. He said so many times. Not all blacks voted for him. Not all gays are liberals. Not all women are feminists. Not all Hispancis crossed the border in this century. Not everyone at the tea parties were Republican retirees. He says you should speak out, you should effect change, so JUST DO IT!!

Here are the president's words, and a link where you can go to write a letter to your local papers (based on your zip code) so you don't have to reenter the information several times.

“I have always said that I don’t think that the LGBT [insert your group here] community should take its cues from me or some political leader in terms of what they think is right for them. Real change comes from the bottom up, not the top down. As your President, I will fight to make LGBT equality a reality at the federal level. But it is the LGBT community [insert your name, family, group, church here] that has to decide what is in their best interest, and to help make it happen by engaging actively with the political process.”
Barack Obama, April 30, 2008


"This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up. And in this election, your voices will be heard.

Because at a time when so many people are struggling to keep up with soaring costs in a sluggish economy, we know that the status quo in Washington just won’t do. Not this time. Not this year. We can’t keep playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result – because it’s a game that ordinary Americans are losing….

The politics of hope does not mean hoping things come easy. Because nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened unless somebody, somewhere stood up when it was hard; stood up when they were told – no you can’t, and said yes we can."
Barack Obama, February 13, 2008


". . . it’s so important that you continue to speak out, that you continue to set an example, that you continue to pressure leaders — including me — and to make the case all across America.
Barack Obama, October 10, 2009

Let's take him at his word. He wants us to speak up, stand up, demand no more same old, same old, from corrupt, pork crazed, deficit deranged politicians!

Then go to this link, it's extremely easy to fill out your message to your local papers, (it's Obama's own website) and be clear, specific and polite.

Here's mine--and I think I clicked on the Columbus Dispatch, WSJ and USAToday. Whether their editors are honoring these, I don't know. But it certainly is easier than contacting each one and trying to figure out different templates. It has a preview before you send, with an easy editing feature. Of course, Obama will have your home address and e-mail, . . . but oh well, did you think he wouldn't know?

Easy solutions for fixing health care [subject line you fill in]

[Message] Our system will work much better if competition across state lines is included in the plan. Once we eliminate the fraud from Medicare and Medicaid we will have a template for reform; but let's not add to that plate until we've cleaned it up. People in this country illegally are breaking the law and should not be eligible for any plan, not employers, not public option. The government should not be silencing people who have alternative views any more than it should be taking over private businesses and running them. And that includes insurance companies, car companies, banks, small businesses, large businesses. That's statism, and it's not the hope and change Americans voted for. Also, Democrats and Republicans both seem much too cozy with lawyers and don't want to consider tort reform. Why is that?

Also, legislators who have broken laws--ethics or tax--should be excluded from the process until they are cleared.

Only about 10% of our citizens are without health care in any given week/month. That's probably about the number who also want vaccines. When we get the vaccine campaigns correct without fear, scare tactics and declared national emergencies, maybe we can move to larger targets.

Did you know 4.0

But turn off the music--it will drive you crazy and you don't need it.

HT Rob Darrow

Presidential Pixels

Reason has posted an article by a man who did at-home computer piece work for the Obama Campaign for under $3.00 an hour; the promised "transparency and sunshine" for legislation we were supposed to be able to see before Congress voted, has never materialized (nor does our congress read the bills); the scary fly over of Air Force One could have easily been photoshopped by any high school kid, so there are rumors that wasn't the real reason, but the official (who says it was discussed in front of Obama) has taken the fall; webpages with campaign promises are being altered to fit the crisis of the moment; the viewing of ARRA money infusing the economy isn't up yet because the economy is recovering without it. [This one is "total gross outlays = zero, but you can check others--not that they shouldn't be careful in spending, only that with or without planning it will make no difference]. In some ways, it's business as usual--good 'ol boys, back room deals, calling in your markers. In many other ways, we've never seen anything like this in the history of our country. It's always been easy to be a criminal in office; but technology has certainly given that a big boost.

The Obama Campaign was oh, so high tech--remember? Ridiculed John McCain, the old fogy who let others do his e-mail (he has crippled arms, but the Obama campaign teeny-boppers didn't notice his war time sacrifices). They hired ChaCha to do the work which was farmed it out [but to American workers we assume].

"For every query I expedite, I make three cents. If traffic is heavy, and when I'm in top form, I can average four queries per minute, or $7.20 an hour—but these high volume periods are rare. I calculate my career average to be approximately $2.85 per hour. That's less than half of the federal minimum wage. ChaCha Search Inc., in other words, is a high-tech 21st century sweatshop.

Headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, ChaCha has approximately 55,000 home-working guides and expeditors under contract. The expeditors are all paid the piece rate described above; the guides receive 10 or 20 cents per query, depending on the quality of their answers and their level of expertise. It's a young, hip company whose advertisers have included AT&T, McDonald's, and the Barack Obama presidential campaign.

The Obama campaign's use of ChaCha was simple and brilliant. Messages would go out advising customers to vote early for Obama and to text back the keyword OBAMA for more information. That would direct them to pro-Obama websites such as VoteForChange.com. If the keyword failed to trigger the automatic response, an expeditor like me would route it to a guide."

Unintended consequences of having too much

Not money, but information.

". . .we have found that no matter where students are enrolled, no matter what information resources they may have at their disposal, and no matter how much time they have, the abundance of information technology and the proliferation of digital information resources make conducting research uniquely paradoxical: Research seems to be far more difficult to conduct in the digital age than it did in previous times." Project Information Literacy Progress Report, Feb. 2009

I used to teach research skills and methods--whether it was called BI (bibliographic instruction), User Education, or graduate research seminar. Here was my method. Begin with a wide survey using tertiary sources (textbooks, essays, encyclopedias), narrow and redefine your topic, move on to secondary sources (bibliographies, databases), further refine, then tackle the primary sources (original research). What I didn't usually include in my lectures and handouts is that I myself never used that method. Oh, I suppose if you assigned me a topic on how to hit a golf ball, I might read up on it first, but for my own self-selected topics, I started with my own conclusion then worked backwards to justify it. If it had to be changed along the way, so be it; if not, I was happy. Then I relied as a fallback on serendipity--those items I might have on my office shelves, or which spoke to me ("here I am, take a look") as I wandered through the stacks in a particular call number range. One of my most successful projects, from which I got a number of published articles and which lead to further research, was a box of my grandmother's scrapbook clippings and a box of handwritten index cards for my grandparents' library. That pushed me into all kinds of areas about 19th century publishing, church history, serials and farm magazines, and reading patterns of rural people.

The only time I really relied heavily on information technology to write and publish an article was in writing about how to do it, and I tracked what I did to prepare for a speech at a conference (even where I was and how long it took to receive off campus material) and then wrote about it. It helped me in my teaching, however, I've since forgotten what it was I wrote about.

Research--it's tough to explain to people who don't do it or like it.

Today's new word is JAILBREAKING

I don't have an iPhone, but do have an iTouch, which I haven't yet figured out. Today I saw the following: "For quite possibly the first time ever, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has publicly stated that it believes that jailbreaking an iPhone is against the law -- not against its end-user agreement for iPhone use with Apple's services like iTunes, its App Store, or MobileMe -- but against the law. More specifically, Apple contends that jailbreaking an iPhone infringes on its copyright. That's right, copyright."

Jailbreaking, then, is opening up your iPhone's file system so it can be accessed from your computer.

About.com says, "Jailbreaking your iPhone means freeing it from the limitations imposed on it by AT&T and Apple. You install a software application on your computer, and then transfer it to your iPhone, where it "breaks open" the iPhone’s file system to allow you to modify it. Once you do it, you're on your own. You may have voided your warranty, so you can't rely on AT&T or Apple to fix any problems you encounter."

Girls they just wanna have fun--in libraries

Can hardly believe that after almost 40 years of the current women's movement, we still need special programs to "fix" girls who chose interests other than boys. How sexist is that? It's the old "gender divide" we heard about in the early 90s.. . before these girls were born! And they still can't get teen girls to think computers are fun? Aren't they text messaging, talking on cell phones, sharing it all on FaceBook or what ever social site is popular now, downloading the latest teen music? I think they are techie enough to suit their needs. Give up and let the girls be girls.

Farmer, Lesley S.J.. "Girls and Technology: What Public Libraries Can Do" Library Hi Tech News 25(5)(June 2008) - Public libraries that have computers labs, offer free internet access, IT training programs and console games that all enjoy high usage may make the mistake of not analysing the use and effectiveness of those programs. After all, if it ain't broke (people are using the library and facilities are booked out) then why fix it (why waste time analysing success)? Farmer's article is a call to public libraries to ensure that their programs are meeting the needs of an underserved cohort of library members -- teenage girls. Farmer's assertions that "even in the twenty-first century, a gendered digital divide exists" and "libraries offer a safe learning environment for girls to explore technology" should remind public library managers, childrens' and youth services librarians and IT librarians to ensure that their IT programs and facilities include this important group of library members. An easy-to-read article backed up by statistics, an outline of principles to consider when planning IT programs, and some examples of successful public library programs.
Summary from Current Cites, August 2008

Maybe someone should suggest books to the teen girls. I hear they still like Jane Austen. It might just be innovative enough to work!