As discussed previously, this is my weekly Twitter roundup. Note that tweets of articles generally include header images from the articles, which I don’t include here unless their creators happen to have released them for use under a free license. Most have not. But I now add most of my commentary here, where I don’t feel restricted by the message length.

diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week

I also don’t generally attach pictures to posts with quotations.

9:02 – Mon 08 August 2022

Who Is Collecting Data from Your Car? from The Markup

…from the car manufacturer to companies known as “vehicle data hubs” and on through the connected vehicle data marketplace.

After decades of gutting public transportation and dragging its feet on introducing new convenience and safety technologies, the automotive industry has also decided to sell out its customers, who can’t generally afford to opt out.

12:03 – Mon 08 August 2022

Things true and evident must of necessity be recognized by those who would contradict them.

Epictetus

9:04 – Tue 09 August 2022

Fueled by virtually unrestricted social media access, white nationalism is on the rise and attracting violent young white men from The Conversation

…the number of arrests of white supremacists and other racially motivated extremists has almost tripled since he took office in 2017.

If you read here regularly, you know why this has expanded through social media: The hatred and fear of white supremacists makes for high-quality “engagement” with the system, wearing people out so that they look at ads without much skepticism.

12:02 – Tue 09 August 2022

It is intolerable that a silly fool, with nothing but empty birth to boast of, should in his insolence array himself in the merits of others, and vaunt an honor which does not belong to him.

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

9:05 – Wed 10 August 2022

Americans tend not to know about AI in journalism from Futurity

Today, AI machines designed to perform the communicator role are generating news content independent of humans.

In other words, expect the quality of journalism to continue to drop, especially political reporting. While human journalists can get caught up with the “team sports” angle to politics, and that sells, AI can only write stories from that perspective, because no editor will supply their software data that talks about how political policies harm different groups or what alternatives exist.

12:05 – Wed 10 August 2022

Men’s minds are generally ingenious in palliating guilt in themselves.

Livy

9:03 – Thu 11 August 2022

Advocacy groups in the Americas focus on tackling rising surveillance technology from Global Voices

The report also highlights companies behind these tools that they consider “dangerous” and the policies and practices governments are putting in place through which people’s rights are being undermined.

I like projects along these lines, especially if they can bridge the gap to explain why ordinary people should care.

12:04 – Thu 11 August 2022

The world, dear Agnes, is a strange affair.

Jean Baptiste Molière

9:01 – Fri 12 August 2022

‘Very Inspirational’: MAGA Crowd Swoons For Strongman Against ‘Mixed-Race’ Society from VICE News

Even before Orbán’s speech on Thursday, CPAC attendees were willing to shrug off his “mixed-race” comments.

You notice that the party doesn’t quite think that it can get away with open white Christian nationalism, so it imports them to test the waters.

12:01 – Fri 12 August 2022

The rose-garden, which today is full of flowers, when tomorrow thou wouldst pluck a rose, may not afford one.

Firdausī

Bonus

Because it accidentally became a tradition early on in the life of the blog, I drop any additional articles that didn’t fit into the one-article-per-day week, but too weird or important to not mention, here.

Why some kinds of birds are more intelligent from Futurity

…the team found that the species with the higher numbers of neurons in the pallium were also likely to be the most innovative.

I don’t have much to say about this. Animal cognition just interests me.

Credits: Header image is Circular diagrams showing the division of the day and of the week from a manuscript drafted during the Carolingian Dynasty.