Next Summer I plan to visit friends in Norway, Finland, and Germany. I can’t wait!
Since I expect to fly Icelandair, I’m considering a stopover in Reykjavik. Icelandair charges little to no extra for an overnight (or many night) stopover in Iceland. I’ve always wanted to go to Iceland, but my time is limited. Airbnb options look quite reasonable, but car rentals are on the steep side, and I assume gas and food is expensive. I’ll be traveling solo the end of June.
Anyone done a one-night stay in Reykjavik? Do you have recommendations?
Google is the 2,000-pound gorilla among the search engines out there.
It should come as no surprise that Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other big tech companies are amassing a lot of data with each online search and purchase. Ever notice how if you search for some product, it suddenly appears in ads and banners in multiple applications?
Our privacy policy is simple: we don’t collect or share any of your personal information. Ever.
– from DuckDuckGo’s homepage
I’ve been aware of DuckDuckGo for some time, but reading this piece from DuckDuckGo’s CEO, Gabriel Weinberg has convinced me to try using the DuckDuckGo search engine instead of my default Google search.
I’ll report back with my results and observations after I’ve given DuckDuckGo a fair trial.
Come to the coast for a fantastic concert by the Newport Symphony. We’ll be performing Schubert’s Great Symphony in C, and Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso no. 1.
Concerts will be Saturday, November 2, at 7:30pm, and Sunday, November 3, at 2pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center (PAC). For directions, click here.
Franz Schubert is one of my favorite composers. His music combines beautiful, soaring melodies interlaced with moments of darkness and melancholy. He completed this work in 1825, just three years before his death. That he lived only to age 31 is a profound tragedy to us all. He composed an amazing amount in his short life, but one cannot help but imagine how much more of his wonderful music we would enjoy today had he lived 10 or even just 5 more years.
Ernest Bloch lived to the age of 79, more than twice as many years as Schubert. He spent the last two decades of he life in Agate Beach, OR, just a few miles north of the Newport Performing Arts Center where the Newport Symphony will perform his work. The Concerto Grosso for string orchestra with piano obbligato was composed in 1925. It is considered his best work by many critics and musicians alike.
Providing what Facebook describes as a “wide variety of views” and “high quality” information from “trustworthy” sources, Facebook further claims:
its “publishers must abide by our integrity standards”
third-party fact checkers will identify and determine product eligibility
integrity and eligibility will based on such factors as “hate speech…clickbait, engagement bait, and scraped content”
From the Facebook News FAQ
Publishers include expected media players like CBS, CNN, WSJ, NYT, etc. One glaring inclusion is Breitbart.
I find it difficult to fathom how Breitbart could come anywhere near meeting the criteria Facebook claims to hold Facebook News publishers to. Even former Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon once called the site a “platform for the alt-right.”
There are many things that make the departure from Facebook difficult, which explains why many people who quit using Facebook often return. Here are the things that will make it difficult for me:
Staying in touch It’s great to be able to see into the lives of friends and acquaintances: the birthdays, the milestones, the vacations, the new arrivals, etc. Of course we had ways of staying in touch before Facebook, and there are many alternative methods of sharing info, pictures and videos, and for holding audio and video conversations. What I will miss is the ease of staying in touch with friends very far away, especially overseas. I have many dear friends in Asia, Europe, and elsewhere, and FB provides an easy method to touch base and catch up.
Events Facebook is a great way to find out about concerts, parties, and other events going on and which friends are attending, and provides an easy way to share updates, pictures, and videos. Also, if there is something event or concert I want to host and/or promote, it’s a great way to get the word out. This is one of two features which may motivate me to maintain a FB account, albeit a silent lurker.
Public and Private Groups I am a member of and and host to several public and private FB groups. It will be very difficult to let those go. So again, I may maintain a silent, lurker account on Facebook just to maintain that presence.
Instagram I haven’t yet decided yet whether to close my IG account. FB will keep me busy for a while as I extricate myself. I’ll look into what I will do with IG later.
Lively Discussions Anyone who knows me or is familiar with my wall knows that I don’t shy away from politics, history, or controversial topics. I believe open – respectful – dialog is a cornerstone to a healthy society. This blog allows comments, I and hope for and welcome comments. But I also know it won’t be as easy and convenient for people as it may be on FB. That, though, may also be a good thing.
Sharing knowledge, history, news This is a two-sided coin. I have learned some amazing facts and history from my friends. I like to think I have shared information that was new and valuable to my friends as well. My awareness has been raised as I have hoped to raise the awareness of others. But then there is so much chaff that it chokes out the wheat. The memes, the ads, rampant misinformation, and just plain ugliness. I will be able to continue to share my views, links and articles I feel relevant, facts and discoveries, and jokes here. If you have following my wall on FB, I hope to replicate it here to the best of my ability.
Okay, if I don’t delete my FB account altogether, what am I actually planning to remove, delete, etc?
I plan to:
remove all my photos and videos
remove any page/group likes
clear out all my FB ad “likes”
stop using FB Messenger
stop posting on my personal wall (posts, pictures, links, videos, everything)
stop commenting and liking/reacting to other posts
remove the FB application from my phone
I haven’t decided whether to delete my Facebook history. On one hand, that is part of the big data which FB has been profiting off of, despite claims otherwise. On the other hand, it is a history of my life that I’m not quite ready to simply erase.
I have plenty of work to do before I have to make that decision. I invite and appreciate your comments and suggestions. Just click the “reply” link right below the article title.
#DeleteFacebook is not for everyone. Here is a recent story describing various people’s experiences after leaving Facebook. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/want-to-delete-facebook-read-what-happened-to-these-people-first-2018-07-27 To be clear, I do not judge anyone for their choice to stay with or leave Facebook. Indeed, I likely will keep my FB account but remove most of my content, lock it down, and go mostly silent. I have not yet decided whether to keep or delete my Instagram account.
The New York Times published a letter penned by employees of Facebook that reject the “free speech” argument put forward by their CEO used to justify paid political advertisements being published without undergoing any fact-checking.
Here are the reasons I am leaving Facebook. I list them here not only in anticipation of the inevitable questions why, but also to remind myself and to help keep me on this track. Three moments pushed me to this point. Here they are:
“The Great Hack” This 2019 Netflix documentary explores the Cambridge Analytica scandal and interviews former employees. It is a gripping, troubling, and downright horrifying and infuriating look at the abuse of power and corruption used to subvert our voting system. It also explores similar use of big data to manipulate and subvert the UK vote in favor of the Brexit campaign. It has an 87% rating on RottenTomatoes.com.
Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony Watching Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg respond to questions from congress greatly troubled me:
Comments by Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin McLaughlin is highly educated and a former Wall Street securities litigator and trial lawyer. She is whip-smart in my opinion, and I’ve been following her #ResistanceLive podcast for a few years. Last week she said:
“They’re [Facebook is] selling off our data to the highest bidder. They’ve got roadmaps now of every single person who’s on there. Like, our personality, what we like, what we hate, what we focus on for longer than 10 seconds with our eyeballs. They are doing face-recognition, which, by the way, is going to be used in all sorts of nefarious ways – and may already be being used in all sorts of nefarious ways…The truth is that Facebook at this moment in time is a propaganda engine that should scare the pants off of everyone.
Mark Zuckerberg sat on the hill Wednesday and described the way in which Facebook is manipulating the 2020 election already by not providing any oversight to the material that is being used in advertising…
He’s [Zuckerberg] has never been a particularly moral or responsible human being. And now he is – bar none – the most powerful person in Silicon Valley, and potentially the most powerful source of information warfare on the planet.”
– Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin, from the Friday, Oct 25, 2019 ResistanceLive podcast
These are the reasons I am leaving Facebook. I welcome your thoughts and feedback.
Blatant Calm 