For all its faults, we must celebrate 2021 a lot. Why? Because of its abundance of palindromes. Palindromes are one of the most delightful phenomena of language. They are words (and phrases) that read the same way no matter where…
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On America’s roads and highways, they drive strong. In America’s TV commercials, they dazzle us with their new features. From America’s history, they remind us of transportation. They are, simply put, cars and trucks. When it comes to 2021, cars…
From the tragic to the extraordinary, the news of 2021 was defined in part by extremely large numbers. We read statistics that boggled our minds, while also reading of advances in wealth and technology that boggled our minds. All these…
What is there to say about cryptocurrencies? Quite a lot, to be honest! In 2021, this new form of currency captivated our imagination and inspired our society in ways that would have been unimaginable even ten years ago. From the…
Some call them “rebels.” Others call them “heroes.” Some may know them as geniuses, while others are content to describe them as brilliant. Who are these people of which I speak? They are the INNOVATORS. Innovators have a habit of…
2021 was defined by uncertainty and sweeping changes. Is it any wonder, then, that paperweights — with their reassuring stability — were in much demand throughout the year? When chaos swirls all around you, a sturdy paperweight can help anchor…
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) may be considered one of the great achievements of humankind. We rely on these systems to provide indoor air quality of an acceptable level in order to thrive. HVAC systems can be as simple…
When times are tough, music can help us make it though the night. When times are good, music can help us celebrate. When times are scary, music can comfort us. When times are funny, music can laugh along with us.…
Our fifteenth annual International Day Against DRM (IDAD), might be over, but the fight against Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) continues. Each year, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and its Defective by Design campaign distill what we've learned throughout the year in our anti-DRM activism on one special day: a day especially supportive to those retailers and publishers who rightly refuse to foist DRM on their customers, and a day especially critical of those who haven't gotten the message that our real digital rights cannot be restricted. For those of us steeped in the Defective by Design campaign, IDAD never fails to provide moments that inspire us in our work for the coming year.
Raising interest rates in an attempt to control inflation is a myth that could, instead, lead to a price spiral
If 2021 taught us anything, it was that today’s television landscape is different than it used to be. Many years ago, if you wanted to watch TV, you’d have to physically sit in front of a large box in your…
Cancel Culture was out of control in 2021. From the most elite colleges to the hottest podcasts, 2021 was the year when smart people simply stated the facts and then found themselves being yelled at and called dumb more than…
“One of the first things you have to decide on with a musical is why should there be songs.”
The person speaking is Stephen Sondheim, the writer of some of the best songs for musicals in the 20th century, who died in November aged 91.
You can put songs in any story, but what I think you have to look for is, why are songs necessary to this story? If it’s unnecessary, then the show generally turns out to be not very good.
I’m no Sondheim, but as an editor I won’t put a graph into any story unless it is absolutely necessary to tell the story.
When I do, the picture can be worth at least the 800 words that accompany it.
So here are my 10 favourites from the business and economy stories I edited for The Conversation in 2021.
Some of the best graphs remove doubt
This graph, from the Bureau of Statistics, leaves no doubt about what happens to consumer spending when lockdowns end.
If 2020 saw a dip in restaurant attendance, 2021 was the year restaurants came roaring back! From the finest steakhouses to the lowliest salad bars, in 2021 if you wanted to go out to eat, RESTAURANTS were your number-one choice…
As we become ever more remote from ‘meatspace’, it’s worth considering the role the scalpel and the needle may play in that development.
If a society consisted of human beings who had been partly engineered or edited, would we think about human life in the same way or would we lose a sense of reciprocity with others?
‘As sure as guns is guns, if we let in coloured labour, they’ll swallow us. They hate us. All the other colours hate the white. And they’re only waiting till we haven’t got the pull over them. They’re only waiting. And then what about poor little Australia?’
The last few years have seen an uptick in working from home and telecommuting. Our computers, phones, tablets, and other devices are now central to our professional and personal lives. These devices — and the apps and programs that run…
I was a teenage telemarketer. Reading from a script, I attempted to raise money for St. Jude’s Hospital for Leukemia-Stricken Children. I was fired after three days for departing from the script. We were supposed to hard-sell, no matter what the person on the other end of the line said. But when the people I […]
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This may be hard to believe, but as recently as a few years ago people were announcing the death of rock ‘n’ roll. “Rock,” they said, “is dead.” The music of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin ……
As a wise poet once wrote, “I learned all there was to learn, and much besides, from the books in my library that I have.” Books may not be the latest form of technology, and they certainly may not be…
Gossip is a tradition as old as mankind. It is human nature to gather in circles and whisper about the goings-on of one’s neighbors and movie stars. Such discussions are a way of establishing behavioral norms and reminding one’s community…
I can’t believe I have to spell this out, but:
free/libre/open-source software developers and open web activists selflessly running independent services online are people too.
It seems this idea is especially difficult to grasp for researchers (including, apparently, whoever reviews and green-lights their studies). The latest kerfuffle with the Princeton-Radboud Study on Privacy Law Implementation shows this well.
“Not a human subject study”
The idea of that study seems simple enough: get a list of “popular” websites (according to the research-oriented Tranco list), send e-mails to e-mail addresses expected to be monitored for privacy-related requests (like privacy@example.com), and use that to assess the state of CCPA and GDPR implementation. Sounds good!