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Are dangerous internet trends threatening democracy?

The man who invented the internet thinks so. The internet recently celebrated its 28 th birthday, but instead of celebrating, Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, voiced apprehension and concern. He outlines several major issues that could threaten democracy, and are preventing his creation from fulfilling its “true potential as a tool which serves all of humanity.” Topping the list is the loss of control over our personal data, the spread of misinformation, and lack of transparency in political advertising. More and more we are getting our news from social media sites and search engines. These sites constantly collect our personal data and us it to create the algorithms that decide what to show us. This is problematic for several reasons says Berners-Lee: “The net result is that these sites show us content they think we’ll click on – meaning that misinformation, or ‘fake news’, which is surprising, shocking, or designed to appeal to our biases can  spread lik
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Tweeting Excersise

Tweeting Exercise The layoffs described in the December news conference exercise at the National Widget Company: @AndyBryce (Prez of National Widget Company) announcing layoffs of 2,000 Canadians effective immediately #NWClayoffs National Widget Company lay offs hit Victoria hardest, w/400 out of 2000 jobs lost #NWClayoffs #yyj National Widget Company layoffs attributed to Uzbekistan flooding widget market #NWClayoffs #UzbekistanWidgets The rehiring at the National Widget Company described earlier in the term: @AndyBryce announcing today National Widget Company re-hiring 200 employees laid off in June #NWClayoffs #NWCjobs National Widget Company rehiring 200, 50 in Victoria over next few weeks #NWClayoffs#NWCjobs#yyj @AndyBryce announced rehire @8AM “We have sent recall notices to all employees who were laid off in June” #NWCjobs An expansion at the National Widget Company: @AndyBryce announcing NWC expansion after recently rehiring 200 of 400 laid off in 2016 #NWC
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Straddling the Chasm: A brief introduction to Jason Motz

It’s hard not to be impressed by Jason Motz. At only 33, being managing editor of Positive Living Magazine and a successful freelance writer are just the most recent on his list of accomplishments and accolades. More importantly, his honesty, candor and unique perspective of the world will inspire anyone who has ever had ever had a dream. J: “The inspiration to be writer is tough to isolate as it's something I have done (privately for the most part) since high school. Being a writer always seemed like nice vocation but hardly practical”. K: So what makes you different? What does it take to be a successful writer? J: “As far as being a successful writer, that's a tough nut. Define success? Bob Dylan once said ‘What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.’ But to better address your question, there are certain skills any aspiring writer must yield: Tenacity, curiosity, an op
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Canada's Future: Free Tuition

Should post-secondary education be free in British Columbia? The answer is yes. Education is a basic right, and should be available to everyone, not just the people who can afford it. Could you imagine living in a society where health care was only available to those who could afford it? Our economy is changing rapidly, and more opportunities should be provided to allow this generation, and generations to come, access to education so that they could thrive not just in our economy but the global economy as well.   Free tuition is a good idea because it is an investment in our future as a nation, and it would offer a solution to sky rocketing student debt as well as the financial barriers facing students attending post-secondary school. Glenn Burley and Adam Awad illuminate some very sobering facts in The Impact of student Debt :  “From 1990 to 2014, national average tuition fees have seen an inflation-adjusted increase of over 155%. The broader effects of high levels of student deb
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Terminate this

I remember when Schwarzenegger got into politics and it caused quite the fuss. What qualifies an Action Movie star to represent the people? At least he married a Kennedy, whats Trump's excuse. http://boingboing.net/2017/02/02/trump-mocks-arnold-schwarzeneg.html
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Smart People who believe Dumb Things

Have you ever known a smart person who believed false information? I know I have. In psychology it's called "Confirmation Bias", and it's a common practice that explains how even intelligent people can have false beliefs, in fact they might even be more susceptible to this behavior because they are used to being right. It comes down to ego in the end...check out this psychology blog you'll be surprised at some of the common manifestations of confirmation bias (like nurses who believe a full moon means a busy night in the ER!)  http://www.spring.org.uk/2015/04/confirmation-bias-how-intelligent-people-develop-totally-incorrect-beliefs.php
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Do you feel tortured?

Have you ever tried to preform under pressure? recall a memory with a gun to your head? How can you verify that what someone says under sever duress is even the truth..people will say anything if you push them far enough. There are countless studies in neuroscience and psychology that prove the memory recall portions of the brain are disrupted or damaged (maybe even permanently) by prolonged stress and pain. The bright side is that now maybe by the end of Trumps presidency I won't remember it at all. Yup, this is torture. You have to check out this blog..very interesting http://www.factcheck.org/2017/01/trump-on-torture-again/
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Trump is the expert on religious discrimination

In a ridiculously ironic twist, president Trump claims that Christian Refugees from Syria have been unfairly discriminated against. Am I missing something? Check out this blog it has some illuminating facts http://www.factcheck.org/2017/01/christian-refugees-unfairly-kept-out-of-u-s/
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The internet present: Digital Minimalism!

The discussion and promotion of digital minimalism would only exist on a minute scale without the internet. Irony! Discuss... http://calnewport.com/blog/2017/01/28/on-value-and-digital-minimalism/
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Idiocracy: The Great Dumbing Down

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This movie probably went straight to video..even though it had some good actors in it. I completely forgot about it until I saw an advertisement for a game (for children) based solely on fart sounds. I went back and watched the movie again and it chilled me to the bone that satirist mike judge had a more realistic grasp on what was coming our way. A monkey in a suit could be a better president than trump..at least everyone would have free bananas. Tired of trump? me too. but at least this blog has funny things to say about it. Laugh until you cry as they say..   http://chasemeladies.blogspot.com/2016/11/in-u.html
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Read into this.

For me, Attwood's post:   http://blog.codinghorror.com/because-reading-is-fundamental-2/   promotes quality over quantity, listening instead of talking and ultimately the pointless battle against people who will just read until they find a trigger to preemptively opine. By outlining blog readers' inability to sit through an entire post he illuminates a general theme of today's society, an inherent inability of a unwilling audience to be attentive, absorb, process then intelligently respond. I have ADHD, but I love to read so..two of the reasons I thought that blogging would be a bit of a struggle for me. Fortunately...he has a good point, people should take the time to read the whole article. If posting often gains precedent to the content then we might as well support a reality tv-star as the leader of the free world...oh well..All the more important that we read what he has to say. Reading= Listening, and listening instead of talking is how we will ultimately learn mo
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