- This message of danger was heard loud and clear. The teens I interviewed had all heard terrible stories of teenagers being harmed by older male sexual predators they met on MySpace. In particular, girls believed these stories and feared the possibility of being raped, stalked, kidnapped, or assaulted by strangers as a result of their participation online. Their fears were rooted not in personal experience but in media coverage magnified by parental concerns. Teens often referred to the Dateline NBC TV show To Catch a Predator as proof that evil men are lurking behind every keyboard, ready to pounce on them. From news stories to school assemblies, teens were surrounded by messages about the dangers of predation. Although some teens rejected such messages as unfounded, others internalized them. Yet all were aware of the issue and were grappling with their feelings regarding the risks of social media.
For the record, Danah Boyd REALLY wants you to buy her book despite the fact that she has nothing to add to the literature. She's taken a handful of interviews and extrapolates them out into a social trend while ignoring legitimate peer-reviewed research by the MIT media lab and others. And holy fuck there's a lot of words there. I stand by all my criticisms from the last time this book came up.
I honestly forgot that we all already had this discussion back then. Probably going to delete this to avoid beating a dead horse, I don't see anything new coming discussion wise from this article.
That means she's succeeded in getting you to buy it emoticon here. You haven't read In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, have you? Based on that snippet towards the end of the article and what I've garnered from a quick Google search, it seems like an interesting read. Though I do not necessarily agree with Boyd drawing a parallel between shared eyes on a street in a neighbourhood and that of the creation of online streets and that of an online community.
I will have to give it a read then. I find the rise and decline of areas of cities or cities as a whole to be fascinating. It's something that my city has been working to combat and I feel that this will be a great move for the city if they can actually manage to get the project done.
Ya should. I haven't read all of it (an urban planner's sin, I know, but I've put it on the top of my reading list) but basically she explains why most theories and policies up to that point completely forget why they exist: to create better urban life for people. She brought planning back to a human scale, based on interaction between people and the safety of the crowds instead of individualistic safety-bubble enlarging movements. Here's the intro which is a clear indication of what the book's about. Also, tell me when you find that SA article, I'd like to read it too.
I found the entire Scientific American issue on some Russian site. Article is on page 84. veen just going to tag you in case you miss this.
Yup. That's the one. sigh. 'member back when Scientific American didn't suck? Back when James Burke was still writing the "Connections" columns (digital pp. 81)? Back when the Morrisons still had a column (digital pp.79)? Back when it didn't suck bilgewater? yeah, I had a subscription back then. Badged 'cuz that urban growth article is totally worth reading. Nice job.
Great article indeed! For some reason I didn't receive a tag notification though. The article promotes New Urbanism but fails to mention criticisms. I've discussed it before here.
Hey veen and kleinbl00: I picked up The New Urban Landscape this past weekend for a few bucks. Have either of you read it?
Have not. Interesting. I may have to add it to my list; this one makes the argument that the modern middle class is due to the invention of the Star Fort. I suspect they've got some similar things to say. Me? I'm slogging through Piketty. That's some dry ass shit.
Haven't read it either, ButterflyEffect. Based on what I could find about it, it seems to be based on Frederik Law Olmstead's work, which was a surprisingly modern view for his time. I do wonder if this book adds much to the "parks are good for y'all yo" statement by Olmstead, which is not so new anymore in 1986. I think it can be a nice book on the American planning history. Added to reading list. Why are you reading Piketty? Thought you didn't want to get bit again.
Yeah but it's well documented now what a load of bullshit that FT article is. Was reasonable to assume that they woudl do their homework, but apparently could be bothered. According to Krugman, many of their critiques were based on assumptions that had been debunked as long as 20 years ago.
True, I forgot about that. But still, I didn't expect kb to pick it up since it's a gigantic work and undergoing hype which it may not deserve. Good critique of such a work takes quite some time. Personally, I think I'm gonna read it next year or a similar timeframe.
When FT launched their witch hunt it ended up looking awfully insubstantial. When the dust settled everyone was left going "...so?" And since everyone is still talking about it, I figured I oughtta give it a read. It's dry as dust though. I think I'm a third of the way through it on Audible and it's been like listening to the Farm Report for nine hours straight.
I'll let you know. The first part is "Hi, I'm an economist who hates economists because they don't like data or math. I'm going to drown you in data and try really hard not to drown you in math, so we're not going to get into anything beyond algebra. That said, kindly indulge me as I summarize four hundred years of economic data interspersed briefly with anecdotes from the popular literature of the period." Of the 27 hours of the audiobook, there's nine hours of that shit. Necessary? Yes. Interesting? Not remotely. The second part, so far is "Now that I've beaten you over the head with my data, allow me to walk you through my findings. Hey, check it out: we've gotten progressively more fucked since 1970." So in all honesty, I'm at the spot where it should get more interesting. It's maybe kind of starting to. Put it this way: I've stuck with it, despite the fact that it's a less-than-engaging read. I do feel like I'm eating giant plates of spinach, though.
Thanks for the input both of you, I'll have to post an update once I get through the book. It seems interesting at the least. Piketty sounds like...not a lot of fun.
I read Death and Life a while ago, didn't quite finish since I got distracted but finals, but it definitely gets my vote of confidence. I have had hardly any exposure to urban planning, but it was very eye-opening.
You do realize this article has ties to the industry, and is therefore suspect in terms of bias - I mean, that is clear, right? Every minute of every day, a bank is under cyber attack Murder suspect's bombshell claims raise questions My point is the internet is a fine place to indulge in criminal behavior, if that is one's inclination. Parents have a right, some might say, an obligation to exhibit some level of concern over their children's use of the internet, precisely because of the access the internet may provide to criminals - of all kinds. Whether forbidding your children to use MySpace or FaceBook is a good thing or not I can't say - but I would note that since that right wing scumbag Murdoch bought MySpace the blogs just have not been the same, and as for FaceBook - well. Fuk FaceBook, and Fuk Zuckerberg.This article is taken from It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, written by danah boyd, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, and published by Yale University Press.
Cases are rarely publicised, but online crime is one of the financial system’s biggest threats
Philip Markoff - The Craigslist Killer (CNN) -- Reporter Francis Scarcella walked into the Northumberland County Prison in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, with plenty of questions for the woman accused along with her husband of luring a man with a Craigslist ad, then killing him. Philip Markoff was in his second year of medical school when he was arrested for robbery and murder. He earned the moniker "Craigslist Killer" because it was believed that he found his victims through the exotic ads that they placed on Craigslist.