State surveillance and the COVID-19 crisis (via cabinet.the-syllabus.com).

States have long recognized the value of controlling information in times of crisis.

Migrazine: Online Magazin von Migrantinnen für alle.

The Online Magazine by Migrant Women for Everyone.
Onlajn magazin migrantkinja za svakog.
Revista online de mujeres migrantes para todes.
Kovara Online ji Jinên Koçberan bo Herkesî.
Magazine de mulheres migrantes par tudos.
Göçmen Kadınlardan Herkes için.

Why Web Scraping Is Vital to Democracy.

The fruits of web scraping—using code to harvest data and information from websites—are all around us.

TeX: A tale of two worlds.

Here is where the timelines diverge. In one, TeX was just the beginning. Computer typography evolves rapidly as the decades go by, building on Knuth’s prior work and taking advantage of the million-fold increases we’ve seen in computing power. Browsers, e-readers, and word processors deliver beautiful type to every person who looks at a screen, with almost no effort from authors.

In the darker timeline… none of this happens.

Misinformation Has Created a New World Disorder (via scientificamerican.com).

Stress testing technology in the context of the worst moments in history might have illuminated what social scientists and propagandists have long known: that humans are wired to respond to emotional triggers and share misinformation if it reinforces existing beliefs and prejudices. Instead designers of the social platforms fervently believed that connection would drive tolerance and counteract hate. They failed to see how technology would not change who we are fundamentally—it could only map onto existing human characteristics.

Vietnam, Mongolei, Ruanda, Senegal, Uruguay.

Die Corona-Bändiger, die der Westen ignoriert.

Den ärmsten Ländern der Welt wurde in der Pandemie die Katastrophe vorhergesagt. Dabei haben einige von ihnen das Virus besser im Griff als viele Länder des Westens. Und ja: auch besser als Deutschland. Was haben sie anders gemacht?

git wip: What the heck was I just doing?

[alias]
  wip = for-each-ref --sort='authordate:iso8601' --format=' %(color:green)%(authordate:relative)%09%(color:white)%(refname:short)' refs/heads

Valley Novela.

Technology Review read the paper that Jeff Dean used to force Timnit Gebru out of Google.

Gebru, a widely respected leader in AI ethics research, is known for coauthoring a groundbreaking paper that showed facial recognition to be less accurate at identifying women and people of color, which means its use can end up discriminating against them. She also cofounded the Black in AI affinity group, and champions diversity in the tech industry.

rachelbythebay’s list of magic numbers.

The UX of Among Us: The importance of colorblind-friendly design.