Notable

I knew Burger King had started trying out meatless burgers but didn't know McDonalds had jumped on the bandwagon too. This was the most astounded thing in the article though:

Beef-eating crashed along with the U.S. economy starting in 2008, but has picked up fitfully year by year and is back up to the equivalent of 229 burgers a year, or 4.4 burgers a week
US Agriculture Department

Imagine what your body must feel like after eating 4.4 burgers a week. Even just replacing one of them with a vegan or vegetarian alternative has got to be a lot better for you. Or, you know, vary your diet some more.

Posted 10th May 2019 @ 12:40

It's time to break up Facebook

Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes:

Mark is a good, kind person. But I'm angry that his focus on growth led him to sacrifice security and civility for clicks.

Not sure 'kind' is the right word to use to describe a person that wields this kind of power, unopposed and unapologetically. Facebook's biggest friends are those that are abusing it's reach and platforms.

Facebook engineers write algorithms that select which users' comments or experiences end up displayed in the News Feeds of friends and family. These rules are proprietary and so complex that many Facebook employees themselves don't understand them.

In 2014, the rules favored curiosity-inducing “clickbait” headlines. In 2016, they enabled the spread of fringe political views and fake news, which made it easier for Russian actors to manipulate the American electorate. In January 2018, Mark announced that the algorithms would favor non-news content shared by friends and news from “trustworthy” sources, which his engineers interpreted — to the confusion of many — as a boost for anything in the category of “politics, crime, tragedy.”

Curation is hard, but it should be up to the user to curate by following or unfollowing the people and topics that interest them, not the platform. These algorithm driven timelines are a menace.

Posted 10th May 2019 @ 10:00