As of Thursday morning in Australia, Facebook has blocked all news content from around the world to be shared on its social media platform! There was an Australian law set to go into effect where Facebook, and other social media platforms, would have to pay fees to news publishers for news content shared on their platforms, either in deals directly with the publishers, or directly to the Australian government. Google has complied, as described in this BBC article with Robert Murdoch’s News Corporation, among others. Facebook, meanwhile, has opted to go the other way, which, as far as I’m concerned, is bad news for Facebook unless it changes because I don’t think it’s going to win this one… and this could be the first step in likely many, to Facebook’s demise. I’m not saying that demise will happen fast or anything, as they’ll go down fighting, but if they stick to this mentality, they’ll be going down because unlike other big tech giants, they don’t have a lot of other revenue sources than advertising. That was partly why I proposed Apple build its own privacy-enhanced social media platform, because they have other revenue streams and can “starve out” Facebook. But beyond all that, here are some other consequences to Facebook’s decision.
News
Why Trump’s COVID-19 Diagnosis Could Be His Own Fake News
It’s so sad that the first thought I had when I heard of Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis was that it was a convenient lie to bolster many of his agendas, his own “fake news”, if you will. What’s sadder, though, is that we have not only someone willing and capable of doing this, but that someone is leading the United States of America. Furthermore, what’s saddest is that it is to try and usurp one of our most cherished institutions – democracy.
So what has the farting Trumpeter got to gain by faking a COVID-19 diagnosis? Let me count the ways:
A Privacy Impact Assessment Before Blogging About My 23andMe Genotyping Results
In July, I submitted a saliva sample for genotyping with 23andMe. I saw an opportunity to learn a lot about myself to improve my life, and motivation to finally learn genetics. I also saw getting genotyped as a life changing event of a rare kind. It offered a peek into the future with odds of potential life changing events like on set of major diseases, a look into the past through ancestry information, and a lot of things to deal with in the present like drug profiles. Besides science, there would also be opportunities to write about life, spirituality, humour and all kinds of issues from economics to politics. I’d also have to write it simply enough that most people could understand as the average adult reading level is only about grade nine or ten.
It’s Been a Bad Few Days for the Armstrong Clan, RIP Neil and Lance
First, Lance Armstrong quit the drug fight and basically took his place among the cheaters as far as I’m concerned. He had a bigger ego than any of them, but not all of them combined, apparently.
Now, Neil Armstrong has left Earth for good. I wonder if they’ll scatter his ashes in space or land it on the moon or something?
I will be sad to never hear from Neil again, but there will always be that historic recording I could listen to over and over again.
I would be glad if I could never hear from Lance again, but I’m afraid I’ll still hear him yapping about his supposed innocence over and over again.
Neil was class.
Lance was ass.
Rest in peace, Neil.
Rest in tease, Lance.
Either way, let’s hope the Armstrongs will have better days ahead!
Peyton Manning Joins the Denver Broncos… and Why This Guy is Glad He Did!
The Peyton Manning Sweepstakes is over! Peyton has chosen to sign with the Denver Broncos, a team with a horse mascot like the Indianapolis Colts, for whom he had played for 14 seasons. Maybe he has a thing for horsey teams. Regardless, that means I’m going to be switching favourite teams because I was only in for the Colts to follow Peyton from the University of Tennessee, where he played college football. But now that Peyton has left, I go with him.
A lot of reasons were mentioned why Peyton chose the Broncos, see story link above, but here’s why I am glad he chose them. Some of these reasons I don’t doubt he considered, though maybe as a minor factor. Others are just for me that made me happy:
Digital Citizen 