Episode 92: Forget The Bathtub

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(This episode is part of the series The Powell Movement.)

There are lots of reporters and speculators mulling over the surprise result of our last presidential election, aren't there? As I've said before, though, this should have been what to expect, if in the last election, then in the next. As money exerts its muscle in its attempt to get its way, the people's choices will matter less and less. What was it that Grover Nordquist said about how small he wants government to get?

Along with the noise about what could have caused this outcome, though, precious few in the commercial media are focusing on signal and the well-connected, well-funded players like Cambridge Analytica. That's what this Episode 92: Forget The Bathtub, tries to do.

In this episode, I read from: a Buzzfeed article; a bit from Max Barry's novel Lexicon; a New Scientist article; the abstract to Michal Kosinski's research on that topic; a Telegraph article; a Motherboard article you really must check out; a definition from my computer's dictionary; and a New York Times article. I quoted: Paul Ford, from an On The Media interview; and Alexander Nix from his Concordia Summit speech. D. L. Myers read from the Powell Memo itself.

Music-wise, I played: two from et, first "A Song of Sadness," then "Joy & Emptiness"; and Podington Bear's "Intermezzo". I opened with KMFDM backing Henry Giroux, and am celebrating the recent season with the Vince Guaraldi Trio doing "Skating."

I'm releasing this and all my episodes under a Creative Commons 4.0 share-alike, attribution, and non-commercial license.

Episode 91: Refining Mining Into Tragic Magic

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(This episode is part of the series The Powell Movement.)

I am constantly amazed at how people bend themselves into cognitive dissonance pretzels rather than admit that there are psychological pressures at work on all of us, so much so that maybe we should make ourselves aware of the pressures that prove most effective on ourselves. You know, to see when we are being snookered.

That's roughly the thrust of this Episode 91: Refining Mining Into Tragic Magic. This is an introduction to the concept that the technology used to determine ad targets and what best moves them may have gone too far, especially when used in political concerns.

In this episode, I read from: Nir Eyal's Hooked; a New York Times Magazine article entitled "How Companies Learn Your Secrets"; a Paste Magazine article, "Hillary Clinton's Super PAC, Taking a Page from Vladimir Putin, Spends $1 Million on Online Trolls"; and a New York Times article called "Fake Russian Facebook Accounts Bought $100,000 in Political Ads".

I play a bit of audio from: the movie Top Secret; President Ronald Reagan, correcting David Brinkley's pronunciation during his last interview as president; Mark Zuckerberg, trying to reassure everyone that he wasn't evil; and an On The Media episode titled "Trust Issues." D. L. Myers, of course, voices the memo itself.

I play two from Jahzzar, first "Twin", and then "Downtown Serenade". KMFDM backs a new intro from Henry Giroux. I close with Mistle Thrush.

I'm releasing this and all my episodes under a Creative Commons 4.0 attribution, share-alike, and non-commercial license.