Before you get your backs up, this is not about politics, and sung to the tune of ‘Let’s Talk About Sex:’ It’s about tech, baby, it’s about you and me, it’s about all the good things and the bad things that can be, It’s about tech. Let’s talk about tech.
At the dawn of the Age of Social, it was widely proclaimed that we, the users, were the product. Is a shift underway at a tectonic level?
Two men engaged in a conversation on X’s Spaces last week and the audience numbers were off the charts. Live, watched later, or simulcast over various sites, it was reported that between a quarter billion to a billion people tuned in.Read More...
There’s an old German proverb that says that all things have an end, except for a sausage, which has two. Well, all things have a beginning, too, including environmental issues. Especially since it seems everyone’s concerned with solving the problems, but that perhaps we’re quickly offered solutions that aren’t.
PFAs
Example: plastic straws were outlawed/removed from many fast-food establishments as they tended to end up in the oceans, endangering marine life. Enter paper straws, but as xatakaon reported, “Paper Straws Are Often Touted as a Great Alternative to Plastic, But There’s a Small Problem: They’re Toxic… After analyzing 39 brands of straws made of various materials such as plastic, paper, glass, stainless steel, and bamboo, a team (of scientists) found that paper straws contain the most perfluoroalkylated and polyfluoroalkylated substances, also known as PFAS. These synthetic substances are considered harmful to humans, animals, and the environment.”
PFAs are ‘forever chemicals’ that “can lead to health problems such as liver damage, thyroid disease, obesity, fertility issues and cancer,” according to the European Environmental Agency, and they’re also found in packaged foods, fabrics, paints, electronics, and pizza boxes, to name just a very few.Read More...
It’s August, a time when our part of the world kicks back to enjoy the last gasps of summer and the warm weather. The crickets are chirping, the mosquitoes are drawing blood, and make sure to check yourself for ticks, if you’re spending time in the great outdoors. The last thing you want is Lyme Disease – take it from someone who’s been there, done that.
This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot going on in tech, from what we’re seeing reported, but since it’s August, it’s a good time to kick back a bit and take a look at reporting itself.
We know about disinformation/misinformation. Old news. What we’re talking about is the media’s focus on non-news and even obfuscation, or as we like to call it, to take a page from a once-venerated news organization: all the news that we feel is fit to print.Read More...
