Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
The Illinois Republican Party is condemning the man poised to be its nominee for Congress in the state’s third congressional district as a Nazi. So how did he end up on the ballot? The answer points to failures of democratic safeguards on every level, from a state party unable to recruit an alternative candidate in…
President Trump and congressional Republicans have spent much of the past year trying to connect a giddy stock market rally with their economic agenda, but stocks’ precipitous plunge in the past five days has delivered a sobering reality: What goes up can come back down — quickly and with little warning. With Monday’s steep fall,…
PepsiCo’s CEO suggested in a podcast, that the company may be manufacturing a new line of Doritos designed for women. Here are some other “female” products that seemed ridiculous to many. (The Washington Post) The American woman, if you go by commercials, is a bizarre creature. To write, she wants pink pens; to choose a…
When it starts in May, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires consent for use of personal data from visitors to websites and apps. For this function, Janrain, Evidon and others are coming out with user-facing solutions. But brands also need to be concerned about what happens behind the scenes, in their site/app code —…
The publisher of Newsweek and the International Business Times has been engaging in fraudulent online traffic practices that helped it secure a major ad buy from a US government agency, according to a new report released today by independent ad fraud researchers. IBTimes.com, the publisher’s US business site, last year won a significant portion of…
A film critic was suspended for allegedly buying fake Twitter followers. Justified or overreaction? By Paul Farhi January 31, 2018 at 4:03 PM The greatest asset for all journalists is their credibility — the track record of accuracy that makes news consumers believe what they have to say. At the same time, journalists are profoundly…
Spotify, the world’s largest paid music service, will begin offering news and political coverage to lure listeners away from radio and podcasts from rival Apple Inc. Eight companies, including BuzzFeed and Refinery29, have agreed to produce programming for the new initiative, called Spotlight. One of the first shows will be a four- to seven-minute daily…
Just after noon on January 2, I was loading up a Vox Media site on an iPhone simulator to test something when I got a popup that excitedly said: Congratulations! Amazon.com User! You’ve been selected for a chance to get the $1000 Amazon Gift Card, Apple iPhone X 256G or Samsung Galaxy S8! Please Click…
Vox Media is investigating how a new weapon might eliminate malicious ads from its sites by 2019. Earlier this month, the publisher of sites including SB Nation, Vox and The Verge began testing sandboxing, a technique that loads its sites’ advertisements in separate windows, called iframes, to ensure the ads can’t do things like redirect…
AP Amazon Go, the company’s new Seattle-based automated convenience store that opened up to the public on Monday, allows customers to zoom on in, grab whatever their hearts desire, and get out, all without having to deal with a checkout line or a human manning the register. It’s the latest innovation in convenience from the…