The Oracle Isn’t All Knowing - Aeon has an article on how algorithms pick up on their creator’s biases. The idea that algorithms are all knowing perfect mathematical beings is overstated.

Saving Publishing From Itself - The social media advertising model has made almost every site you go to a vacuum for your personal data. Doc Searls looks at the state of ad tech, and how it isn't that different than Facebook. Getting the power back to publishers is a good start, but we're going to need more substantial and more sustained consumer outrage to understand these changes. Possibly government regulation will be the only thing that does the trick.

Quintessential Film Hipster - A guide to the quirks and signatures of Wes Anderson. Love him or hate him, he is likely the most stylistic filmmaker in the mainstream.

Kick Him When He's Down - Facebook continues to get crap for its role in the election. The left seems keen to pin the entire thing on data manipulation and Russian trolls. They miss that misinformation was generated for and against both candidates, and people's tendency to believe anything that reinforces their worldviews. To save its ass Facebook has already stepped back from news and politics, but the Cambridge Analytica scandal has forced their hand. Again the idea that this did anything but play into people's worse tendencies is an exaggeration. Exploiting the data available to them to create extremely targeted advertising. The amount of data they had on everyone shouldn't shock anyone and calling it a breach is entirely disingenuous. Facebook has the most data on you, but the type of profile Cambridge created is more common than you think.

Worst Tease Ever- Joe Lally and Brendan Canty have a new band out and have been doing the rounds to promote it. Of course, no one is going to interview either one of them without talking about Fugazi. On the other hand, this is a just a cruel way of getting everyone's hopes up. The NME knows every nerd like me clicked because of the headline. Jackasses.