British Library: What is left behind? Exploring the Olympic Games legacies through the UK Web Archive. “The Olympic Games happen every four years. This means that every four years a city has to be chosen as a host city. It is easy to think about the impact of hosting such a big event in your own country. Usually governments have to prepare everything for their guests and be aware that the local population is expecting something that will remain as a legacy after the event ends. But what are people actually expecting? What usually happens after the Olympics? Are people happy or unhappy with the legacy left behind with the end of the games? We can try to answer these questions by reading what was published on the internet before, during and after the games in these countries that have hosted the Olympics.”
Research & Opinion
Greater Good Magazine: What Happens When You Take a Facebook Break
Greater Good Magazine: What Happens When You Take a Facebook Break. “On Monday, November 18, at 1 p.m., I embarked on my own Facebook and Instagram sabbatical—for research purposes, of course. Admittedly, I was curious how I’d spend the extra time—and whether all the curly hair gurus I follow were giving me an inferiority complex.”
The Guardian: Uncovered: reality of how smartphones turned election news into chaos
The Guardian: Uncovered: reality of how smartphones turned election news into chaos. “Ask the average 2019 voter where the problems with political news lie, and you might hear a few familiar claims: fake news. Russian interference. The biased BBC. But take a look at their smartphones, and you might discover a different, more chaotic world – in which news is being shaped less by publishers or foreign agents but by social media algorithms and friendship groups.”
JSTOR Daily: An Epidemic of Retractions
JSTOR Daily: An Epidemic of Retractions. “Nicolas Chevassus-au-Louis’s new book, Fraud in the Lab: The High Stakes of Scientific Research (translated by Nicholas Elliott) tackles the issue of scientific fraud head-on, with some tough love for the scientific community. The book should be read by everyone interested in the sciences. Chevassus-au-Louis offers a welcome reminder that scientists are human, too, subject to the temptations of ambition, to career pressures, and to plain old greed.”
Engadget: NIST preserve JFK assassination bullets with 3D scans (updated)
Engadget: NIST preserve JFK assassination bullets with 3D scans (updated). “The 56th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was last month. Early next year, you’ll be able to see, in almost nauseating detail, the bullets that took his life. The National Archives will upload high-definition 3D images of the projectiles to its online catalog.”
The Verge: Google’s third era
The Verge: Google’s third era. “Alphabet was formed in 2015 as a weird holding company for Google, designed in part to distance Page and Brin’s various pet projects from Google’s core business. That’s when Pichai was put in charge of Google as the CEO. Since then, I think Pichai’s tenure has been marked by a few major stories that are really the same story: he has spent a significant chunk of his time cleaning up the messes that resulted from Google’s culture up to that point.”
New York Times: Fake ‘Likes’ Remain Just a Few Dollars Away, Researchers Say
New York Times: Fake ‘Likes’ Remain Just a Few Dollars Away, Researchers Say. “Companies like Facebook and Twitter are poorly policing automated bots and other methods for manipulating social media platforms, according to a report released on Friday by researchers from the NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence. With a small amount of money, the researchers found, virtually anyone can hire a company to get more likes, comments and clicks.”
