Research in the Internet Age: Karber and China’s Nuclear Arsenal
My son is a student at our local public high school. As a rule, his teachers do not allow him to use Wikipedia as a source in his research papers because the information it contains can be unreliable. Students are instead expected to find and evaluate the original source material on which the statements contained in Wikipedia entries are based. They are taught that evaluating sources is the essence of competent scholarship.
Unfortunately, the standards for academic integrity appear not to be as high at Georgetown University.
Heart N' Stomach: Drinked and Dined: Macaron Sweeterie (Lexington, MA) →
If you follow Massachusetts Avenue past Back Bay, over the river, through Cambridge and Somerville, and even beyond Arlington the scenery will begin to change from dense, multi-use buildings to wide open lots and country homes. Sidewalks will disappear, lanes will narrow, and the road will…
Seven
When I read Om’s post today celebrating 10 years blogging, it made me think back to when I began. Oddly enough, in three days, it will be exactly 7 years since I started blogging as well.
I actually remember the timing and the thought process. I had recently graduated from college and had just left everything and everyone I knew back east and drove 2,000+ miles by myself out to California. I had been living in Los Angeles for about three months and thought the new chapter in my life was a good time to start doing something new.
In other words, I was bored.
I recall debating setting up the blog for a couple of weeks. On one hand I was worried it would look lame to friends back home — “blog” seemed to be something of a derogatory term at the time (at least in the circles I hung out in). More importantly, I was sure I would have nothing to talk about. Certainly nothing that mattered. For several months, that was very much the case.
About The Finger →
Last night when I posted about my outrage over Google taking down my middle finger profile picture I was being a bit facetious. It was a little annoying, sure. But I found it more humorous because it seems to be a silly policy with a lot of gray area that will be hard to enforce (and time shouldn’t be wasted enforcing it). I also didn’t like that Google removed my picture without warning, but I suppose that’s their right per their TOS.
But Rob Beschizza of BoingBoing took my predicament and made what I think is a much better point:
But Google describes Plus as “sharing in real life”. It describes it as an “identity service”. The middle finger, pointed at no-one in particular, is hardly a scandalous gesture; here it triggers a vaguely-defined policy that’s being applied to a service marketed heavily as a public venue for free expression.
Google could be more honest about Plus being no such thing, or it could allow Plus to become what it claims to be. The former seems an odd proposition, given that it’s so huge. But here we are, with the finger-detection squad in fine form. But is the latter really so hard? The present dissonance between representation and reality gives life to a caricature—that Plus is a sterile marketing research zone—which already seems to lurk widely in the imagination.
Google continues to walk this oddly vague line when it comes to Google+. At first it was all about real identity, like Facebook, but then when people complained, they backtracked from that. Now it’s all about “sharing in real life” — but it’s not real life. It’s some sterile representation of real life.
In real life, I give my friends the finger sometimes when they’re taking a picture of me. Childish? Sure. But funny for us too. I also call a few of them “fuckers” sometimes. Again, maybe not the most mature thing in the world, but lighthearted. And real.
If Google wants to create a sterile sharing ground, that’s fine, it’s their service. But don’t paint it as “real life”. It’s not.
My coverage of the State of the Union address
Bonus tweets from the GOP response, and I (briefly) hopped aboard the Herman Cain train.
Columbia | SIPA: Promoting a Political Voice in Georgia →
Marissa Polnerow (MIA ‘12) and Alexandra dos Reis Stefanopoulos (MIA ‘12) interview the Deputy Chairwoman of the Georgian Parliament Rusudan Kervalishvili.
Two SIPA students got the extraordinary opportunity to sit down with a high-ranking leader from the Republic of Georgia –…
New Texas law restricts Latina’s access to health care, say groups
In Texas, some women’s health clinics such as Planned Parenthood are no longer approved to provide services for thousands of women. (Photo/Getty Images)
Starting today, low-income women in Texas enrolled in the state’s Women’s Health Program cannot use Planned Parenthood clinics for medical care. Under a new law passed by the Texas legislature, any clinic which may have ties to abortion services or providers is excluded from the network of state-approved clinics, even if by law these centers do not use government money for these services. Texas lawmakers also cut 70 million dollars in women’s health care funding last year during budget reductions.
“This is politics, but do they really know what is happening to women and their families?” says Lucy Félix, who works in the Rio Grande as coordinator of the Texas Latina Advocacy Network.
