Curating the Internet: Science and technology micro-summaries for August 26, 2019

A response to Google's proposal for web privacy; A Steem essay on the limitations of technology for sensory augmentation.; When the public feared that contagious diseases could be spread through library books; Greening in China and India caused by land-use management, climate change, and CO₂ fertilization; In a TED talk, actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, argues that attention-craving is harmful to creativity


Straight from my RSS feed	Whatever gets my attention

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

pixabay license: source.

Deconstructing Google’s excuses on tracking protection - Responding to Google's post, Building a more private web, Princeton professors, Jonathan Mayer and Arvind Narayanan coin the term "privacy gaslighting" to describe Google's arguments against blocking 3rd party cookies in the Chrome browser. According to the professors, Google's argument is disingenuous for a variety of reasons. The essay claims four main points: (i) blocking cookies does not diminish user privacy, and Google's claim to the contrary is like saying you can't stop pick-pocketing because pick-pockets might switch to mugging. This is a form of gaslighting; (ii) There is little reliable evidence on the marginal value of tracking-based advertising; (iii) Google's so-called "new" approach is really a rehash of old techniques that it previously claimed were impractical; and (iv) Google's attempt to "punt to the web standardization process" is a form of stonewalling that will delay progress for years. Importantly, the authors point out that the design intention - specified in RFC 2109 - was that browsers are supposed to block 3rd party cookies.

STEEM Programming Senses? - In this short essay, @jdkennedy responds to a question about a previous article, "Might there be any limitations to what can be programmed that we otherwise would rely on our senses for?". The essay lists specific examples where technology solutions enhance our five senses, but also acknowledges that each example has its limitations. (A 10% beneficiary setting has been applied to this post for @jdkennedy)

When the Public Feared That Library Books Could Spread Deadly Diseases - During the late 1800s, the UK and a number of American states all implemented laws against borrowing a library book when sick, and in 1895, the tuberculosis death of a librarian ignited the ongoing public fear that contagious diseases could be spread by borrowing books from the library. In a time when libraries were otherwise growing in popularity, these fears and regulations put a damper on growth, to the point that places like Scranton, PA, and Massachussets ordered libraries to stop lending during epidemics and recommended the burning of books that were thought to have been at risk of infection. These fears peaked in the early 1900s, but lingered throughout society until the 1940s. h/t RealClear Science

China and India lead in greening of the world through land-use management - The journal, nature sustainability, reports on work by Chi Chen and 14 co-authors finding that in addition to generalized greening, food production has increased by 35% in China and India since the year 2,000. The food increase is attributed to size increases in the harvested area, multiple cropping, fertilization, and irrigation. The generalized greening is attributed to land-use management as a direct factor, with climate change and CO₂ fertilization effects as the dominant indirect factors. The results suggest that the direct factor accounts for approximately 33% of the greening. h/t Daniel Lemire

How craving attention makes you less creative - In this TED talk, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (A famous actor, apparently) argues, with examples from his own life, that craving attention causes a loss of creativity because it causes the person to start second-guessing their own creative process and self-censor the things that might lead to a loss of attention. He weaves anecdotes of addiction to platforms like Twitter and Instagram and Facebook into the discussion, and even suggests Jaron Lanier, one of my favorites, for more information on the topic. In particular, his main thesis is, "If your creativity is driven by a desire to get attention, you're never going to be creative." Adding to that, he also adds that collaboration can be the antidote to attention-seeking.

In order to help make Steem the go to place for timely information on diverse topics, I invite you to discuss any of these links in the comments and/or your own response post.

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About this series

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