The Attack on Truth – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education

“One likely candidate is the Internet. It facilitates not only the spread of truth but also the proliferation of crackpots, ideologues, and those with an ax to grind. With the removal of editorial gatekeepers who can vet information, outright lies can survive on the Internet. Worse, those who embrace willful ignorance are now much more likely to find an electronic home where their marginal views are embraced.”

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Attack-on-Truth/230631/

The Bad News About the News | Brookings Institution

“News as we know it is at risk. So is democratic governance, which depends on an effective watchdog news media. Both have been undermined by changes in society wrought by digital technologies—among the most powerful forces ever unleashed by mankind. We have barely begun the Digital Age, and there is no point in trying to predict just where it will take us. News certainly has a future, but what that will be is unclear. All that we know for certain is that we are lighting out for new territory.”

http://www.brookings.edu/research/essays/2014/bad-news#

‘The Dorito Effect,’ by Mark Schatzker – NYTimes.com

?One particularly wonderful thing about Schatzker’s thesis is that if flavor is the voice in which the nutritional benefits of the natural world call out to us, then the impulse to eat taco-flavored Doritos, Caesar wraps and maple-flavored ribs is not the opposite of but rather akin to impulses toward $6-a-pound heritage-breed chicken, or dandelion greens.”

Paul Ford: What is Code?

This is a truly amazing piece of writing from my old friend, Paul Ford. His storytelling craft is some of the best in the world. BTW, if you get through this whole thing (38,0000 words) you can skip the first year (maybe two) of computer science classes in college.

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/