Alexis C. Madrigal
staff writer @TheAtlantic | visiting scholar @BerkeleyISchool | in the real world, these just people with ideas | Mexican, Oakland, Earthseed
Last synced from Twitter 496d ago
The Reason Conspiracy Videos Work So Well on YouTube
It’s the paranoid style, mutated for platform politics.
Waymo’s Robots Drove More Miles Than Everyone Else Combined
But in newly released numbers from California regulators, the challengers in the self-driving-car race are looking better.
Amazon’s Retreat and the New Politics of Tech
What Amazon pulling out of Queens means for the urban growth machine
When Amazon Went From Big to Unbelievably Big
The data on the company’s real-estate holdings reveal a remarkable inflection point.
And Then There Was TheFacebook.com
On the 15th anniversary of Facebook’s launch at Harvard, a dozen students and faculty members reflect on seeing and being the first users of the world’s largest social network.
This Is How Much Fact-Checking Is Worth to Facebook
More than nothing, but not much more.
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Alexis C. Madrigal
It's not just Snopes. AP confirmed to me that they are not currently factchecking for Facebook, either.
21d
Your TV Is Now a Computer, but Not in a Good Way
You don’t really own it, and it breaks in unpredictable ways.
Where Amazon Returns Go to Be Resold by Hustlers
Welcome to the abyss of the “reverse supply chain,” where hope springs eternal.
How the Bay Was Built
a community archive of documents about the Bay Area, focused on race and housing
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Alexis C. Madrigal
Starting to build out a very simple community archive site for Bay Area housing+race documents: howthebaywasbuilt.com
There will be dozens when it's complete.
34d
Reading the Privacy Policies You Encounter in a Year Would Take 76 Work Days
So, it's a good thing no one reads them!
Go Ahead, Post the Stupid Photo of Yourself From 10 Years Ago
Critics have raised fears that the pictures could be used for corporate surveillance, but this is a molehill on the mountain.
Why Is the National Enquirer So Obsessed With Jeff Bezos?
What a gross media moment reveals about conspiratorial thinking in America
How AI Found Flint’s Lead Pipes, and Then Humans Lost Them
A machine-learning model showed promising results, but city officials and their engineering contractor abandoned it.
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Alexis C. Madrigal
The most important part of this story is that Flint's lead problems continue, and that millions of homes across America share the same kind of water infrastructure running to their homes.
50d
Five Ways to Look at Apple’s Surprise Bad News
None of them are good.
Facebook Didn’t Sell Your Data; It Gave It Away
In exchange for even more data about you from Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, Microsoft, and others
No, You Don’t Really Look Like That
A guide to the new reality-melting technology in your phone’s camera
When Is a Meme a Foreign-Influence Operation?
It’s disturbing how easily Internet Research Agency accounts blended into America’s online life.
When the Tech Mythology Collapses
The industry’s fall from grace may feel unprecedented, but we have a model for what happens when a beloved industry fails us.
Kim Kardashian's Private Firefighters Expose the Fault Lines of America
"Rich people don't get their own 'better' firefighters, or at least they aren't supposed to.”
Gadgets for the Climate Hellscape
What will climate adaptation look like? A million individual products, each precisely targeted on social media to the intersection of a consumer culture and a catastrophe.