The Preserving Virtual Worlds project addresses a long-standing, ironic problem of online life: its resistance to archiving. Interactive media are highly complex and at high risk for loss as technologies rapidly become obsolete. The Preserving Virtual Worlds project will explore methods for preserving digital games and interactive fiction. Major activities will include developing basic standards [...]
Even Nicholas Kristof is acknowledging animal rights as a legitimate, opposed to ‘absurd’ or ‘radical’, cause. He even muses over the historical nature of what we happen to consider a self-evident, obvious ‘right’. For most of history, all of this would have been unimaginable even to people of the most refined ethical sensibility (granted, for [...]
Popular culture tends to think of ultrasound imagery as objective, immutable, authoritative when, in fact, it’s but one stage in a long historical process of ‘embryo visualization’, as scrupulously documented in the current Making Visible Embryos exhibition: Developing embryos were first drawn in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Modern medicine and biology exploited technical innovations as pictures [...]
An essential animal-friendly personal care product that’s often overlooked: Contraceptives may have been tested on animals or contain animal-derived ingredients. Condoms are usually made from latex. Although not present in the finished product, most condoms utilise casein, a milk protein, during processing. Some also contain milk powder. Glyde health are registered with The Vegan Society and [...]
A history of wages in the financial sector: “Wages and Human Capital in the U.S. Financial Industry: 1909-2006″ by Thomas Philippon, Ariell Reshef Abstract: We use detailed information about wages, education and occupations to shed light on the evolution of the U.S. financial sector over the past century. We uncover a set of new, interrelated [...]
Not only does lobbying pay well, it can be measured: “Measuring Rates of Return for Lobbying Expenditures: An Empirical Analysis Under the American Jobs Creation Act” by Raquel Alexander, Stephen Mazza, Susan Scholz Abstract: The lobbying industry has experienced exponential growth within the past decade. The general public, the media, and special interest groups perceive [...]
Isn’t this a whole lot more practical, and ethical, than inspiring vague fears in teens and jobseekers — that everything they do and write will come back to haunt them, that they’re constantly being watched, that their future depends on keeping-up appearances (a problem I go over here)? You won’t find Amegy Bank of Texas [...]
Interesting case of ranking algorithms as covert mechanisms of inclusion/exclusion: A “glitch” on Amazon.com has caused the sales rank to be removed from gay- and/or lesbian-themed books by James Baldwin, Gore Vidal and others. (via, April 12th)
Documents & Studies