Every day we produce loads of data about ourselves simply by living in the modern world: we click web pages, flip channels, drive through automatic toll booths, shop with credit cards, and make cell phone calls. Now a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists are beginning to sift through this data to dissect us and map out our next steps. Their goal? To manipulate our behavior -- what we buy, how we vote -- without our even realizing it.
Journalist Stephen Baker provides us with a fascinating guide to the world we're all entering -- and to the people controlling that world. The Numerati have infiltrated every realm of human affairs, profiling us as workers, shoppers, patients, voters, potential terrorists -- and lovers. The implications are vast. Our privacy evaporates. Our bosses can monitor and measure our every move (then reward or punish us). Politicians can find the swing voters among us, by plunking us all into new political groupings with names like "Hearth Keepers" and "Crossing Guards." It can sound scary. But the Numerati can also work on our behalf, diagnosing an illness before we're aware of the symptoms, or even helping us find our soul mate.
By analyzing the data they gather about us, retailers are learning how to lavish big spenders with special attention and nudge cheapskates toward the door... The same algorithms originally used to combat e-mail spam by predicting its mutations are now being used to predict the mutations of the HIV virus...Researchers at Carnegie Mellon are studying the patterns of office e-mail to spot signs of subversive networks taking shape within a company...
Meet Stephen Baker on October 6, 2008 at the Princeton Barnes & Noble.
The Recovery Project— Recovery Cruise and Rally, Saturday, September 27, 2008
Thousands of addiction recovery supporters from the tri-state area will come together to form a human bridge - a living symbol of recovery on the Brooklyn Bridge. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-New Jersey (NCADD-NJ) and sister organization, Friends of Addiction Recovery, partnering with A&E Television with alliances from the tri-state area will come together to raise awareness that addiction is a chronic but treatable disease that affects more than 22 million people nationwide.* The Recovery Project is a new initiative that confronts the stigma of addiction and unites people in the fight for effective treatment and support against this misunderstood disease. Recovery is possible, and we can all help. A&E Television's Recovery Project is a new initiative that confronts the stigma of addiction and unites people in the fight for effective treatment and support against this misunderstood disease. Recovery is possible, and we can all help.
The day will include:
• Recovery Cruise to Brooklyn Bridge (registration required) • T-Shirts for Cruise participants • Live Entertainment/Celebrity Guests • Walk across Brooklyn Bridge to form the Human Bridge of Recovery • Cruise back from Manhattan to Liberty State Park, including free lunch • Liberty State Park Rally for Recovery • Keynote Speaker: David Carr, New York Times Journalist • Battle of the Banners • Recognition of NJ Recovery Delegates • Recovery Voices Count ~ Voter Registration • Shout Down Drugs Performers and other musical entertainment • POWER OF THE CIRCLE and much more
*SOURCE: Overview of Findings from the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health
On Oct. 19, Cooper-Hewitt will launch its third National Design Week, an initiative that aims to draw national attention to the ways in which design enriches everyday life, through outreach to school teachers and their students, and partnerships with design organizations across the country.
Nominate Your Favorite Design. This year the ceremony includes the People's Design Award, determined by an online voting system. Starting September 22, until October 21, the public can nominate and vote for their favorite designs. The winner will be announced live at the National Design Awards Gala in New York City.
Design in the Classroom. Are you looking for new ideas and methods to engage your students? Design makes any subject immediately relevant to students by directly relating to their real-life experience. How can design enhance the teaching of any subject, including mathematics, science, environmental studies, language arts, history, and art? Get free design lesson plans. | Conversations with educators Celebrate National Design Week October 19–25 with free admission to Cooper-Hewitt all week long.
A similar situation has been reported by Mohamed Keita in Senegal. "Senegal, once considered a haven of press freedom in Africa, has seen an unusual level of venomous rhetoric against the independent media, fueled by Senghor and President Abdoulaye Wade, once an ally of the press. Several independent Senegalese journalists have told CPJ that this rhetoric from the highest levels of government encourages attacks and suggests that there will be impunity for those threatening the press, including security forces, government supporters, and members of the politically influential Mourides Muslim brotherhood."
Lori H. Ersolmaz is the founder of Voices of Hope Productions, a woman-owned multi-media production company dedicated to creative and community-based communications and documentary filmmaking as a means to educate, engage, empower and entertain, while fostering leadership, citizenship and inspiration in adults and youth to make a difference in our society. | THE EYE| represents all things media and pop culture with a socio-political point of view.
Voices of Hope Productions, LLC is a woman-owned multi-media production company dedicated to creative
and community-based communications and documentary filmmaking as a means to educate, engage, empower
and entertain while fostering leadership, citizenship and inspiration in adults and youth to make a difference in our society. Voices of Hope Productions is an award winning multi-media production company with over 15 years of experience delivering communications services to Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations. Voices of Hope Productions is committed to providing creative, affordable solutions tailored to meet the unique needs and challenges of nonprofits and government organizations.
