I am currently watching the second part of the documentary series “In Europa”. This series focuses on news stories that did not gain so much attention, but could perhaps be seen as a sign of what was to come. With this in mind I find these news articles about China expelling American journalists as an example of such a news story of history in the making.
This move seems to signify a striking change in international relations. Read the full articles:
Kristina Jacobsen at Sapiens.org provides us with an anthropological perspective on music making and songs circulating coronavirus lockdown in Italy. Especially interesting is the new dynamic between the harder hit North of Italy versus the Southern regions.
Two interesting articles from The Fast Company:
One article about how a popular chart of the coronavirus and flattening the curve: “The story behind ‘flatten the curve,’ the defining chart of the coronavirus”
And another article on the history of an important technology in this pandemic: “the mask”: “The untold origin story of the N95 mask”
Christien Klaufus writes at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research blog on burial places of large metropolises in Latin America:
What have we learned from the examples of burial place policy in Latin American metropolises? Poorly regulated logistics for burial plot allocation can result not only in emotional suffering, but also in public health risks. Many large burial places in cities all over the world were built in response to a disaster or epidemic. In some cases, these then became the cause of more deaths. By carefully monitoring the existing capacity, combined with tight logistics and behavioural regulations, we can prevent burial places from becoming another risk factor during the crisis.
Read the full article here.
The trolley problem though experiment of ethics in coronavirus times:
You can divert the runaway trolley, but doing so would disrupt the trolley service causing the company to lose profits. pic.twitter.com/1jyJCPZr6y
— Ethics in Bricks (@EthicsInBricks) March 25, 2020
“Outtakes” from interviews by David Hoffman on the streets of New York in the late 70s when he was doing a documentary on the coming of the information age.
Christopher Nehring at Deutsche Welle writes about the surge in conspiracy theories and rumours that circulate during pandemics such as the current coronavirus:
These, and other conspiracy theories, however, rely on arguments that are never weighted in evidence. The conspiracies tend to emerge in the early stages of a pandemic — when little is known about a pathogen’s origin and spread.
The digital revolution, meanwhile, has amplified the dissemination of rumors and disinformation. Online posts are shared much quicker on social media and through messenger apps than any medical or health authority can refute them. The digital age has allowed conspiracy theories to go viral.
From the A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto (Eric Hughes, 1993):
“Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. … We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy … We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. … Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and … we’re going to write it.”
Self-described cypherpunk Harry Halpin talks with Coindesk about his company’s (Nym Technologies) vision for privacy solutions at the network level a world where privacy is gradually being eroded. His vision of why we need privacy in order to be able to change the world is inspiring.
In an article by Standpoint Magazine Joseph Rachman uses insights from author Umberto Eco to understand the rise of new far right movements. I found the following quote interesting because it describes how the far right now also uses the “Semiological Guerrilla Warfare” tactics that Eco proposed.
Today’s far Right is also counter-cultural, setting itself against existing institutions, seeing the media, universities, courts and parliaments as lost causes or compromised. Far-Right supporters form networks on social media where news is reinterpreted into evidence of the conspiracy they ‘know’ exists. They also show impressive sensitivity to the media’s weaknesses. When the far Right claim, semi-ironically, common symbols such as the OK sign and the Facebook “trash dove” as their own, they garner media attention and force liberals to worry about previously innocuous signs.
Read the full article here.