Tool Called “Hoaxy” Fact-Checks Fake News
A new tool called Hoaxy lets you search for terms and articles, and shows you how claims spread on Twitter as well as efforts to fact-check them. “In the past year, the influence of fake news in the US...
The Crisis of Proliferation
The Crisis of Proliferation The demise of TV as we knew it seems to be approaching another landmark in the USA with news of falling ratings for that last bastion of broadcasting, the NFL. It has been a...
Suburban Metamorphosis
Little did I anticipate when I chose to study the history of suburban life in Los Angeles, 1945-2000, that it would resonate so clearly with political events unfolding around us. In the wake of Donald...
Retrofuturism
It is very difficult to predict the future—if it was easy the list of the extremely nouveau riche would be headed by clairvoyants rather than entrepreneurs. But some things look remarkably prescient:...
What the Favorite TV Shows of Trump Supporters Can Tell Us About His Appeal
According to new data, supporters of Donald Trump prefer to get their news from television and enjoy watching crime dramas. These findings might sound insignificant. But they actually offer insight into...
Does Technological Analysis Destroy the Romance of Art History?
In 2012, a linguist at the University of Southern California decoded a famous medieval manuscript written in a cypher, using software designed to translate remote languages, and based on algorithms that...
Gawker, Gossip, and the General Advertiser
I can’t say that I was ever the most avid reader, or the biggest fan, of Gawker. But as the trenchant news website was forced to shut down this week as the result of the combined forces of Peter Thiel and...
