Category Archives: Web & Technology

Web & Technology

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Web & Technology

Amazon’s e-book return policy comes under criticism from authors : NPR

By Deanna Schwartz Twitter, June 27, 20225:00 AM ET

A kindle e-book reader is pictured at the Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2015.
Daniel Roland /AFP via Getty Images

Earlier this month, Lisa Kessler, a paranormal romance author, logged into Kindle Direct Publishing to check her earnings from the previous month. On her publishing dashboard, she saw something she had never seen before in her 11 years as an author: a negative earnings balance.

The reason for the negative balance? Kindle e-book returns.

Authors are protesting Amazon’s e-book return policy, a system they say allows readers to “steal” from self-published authors. Amazon’s current return policy for e-books allows customers to “cancel an accidental book order within seven days.” But, for some readers, seven days is more than enough time to finish a book and return it after reading, effectively treating Amazon like a library.

Source: Amazon’s e-book return policy comes under criticism from authors : NPR

Current Affairs, Politics, Web & Technology

“I Don’t F–king Care That They Have Weapons”: White House Aide Gives Bombshell Testimony Of the Day Trump Incited the Capitol Attack | Vanity Fair

Cassidy Hutchinson testified in the January 6 committee hearing that Trump attacked his security detail, threw his lunch against the wall and raged at staff on Jan. 6 for not letting him go to the Capitol alongside rioters.

By Eric Lutz, June 28, 2022

from twitter
from Twitter, and PBS News Hour

Irate that he could not storm the Capitol with his supporters on January 6, Donald Trump physically assaulted a member of his security detail and attempted to grab the steering wheel of the car he was in, a former top White House aide said in an explosive public testimony Tuesday.

According to Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the ex-president entered a secure vehicle after his January 6 speech believing he was going to be driven to Capitol Hill, where he’d just urged supporters to march and “fight” on his behalf — even though he’d been warned they were armed and that he may be engaging in illegal conduct.

But Robert Engel, the head of his security team at the time, said that was not possible and that he was instead being transported back to the White House. Trump was incensed, Hutchinson told the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack, recounting what Engel and former Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato told her after the incident.

“I’m the fucking president,” Trump allegedly said. “Take me up to the Capitol now.”

Source: “I Don’t F–king Care That They Have Weapons”: White House Aide Gives Bombshell Testimony Of the Day Trump Incited the Capitol Attack | Vanity Fair

Current Affairs, Politics, Science & Health, Web & Technology

Why Social Media Makes People Unhappy–And Simple Ways To Fix It | Scientific American

Research suggests platform designs make us lose track of time spent on them and can heighten conflicts, and then we feel upset with ourselves

By Daisy Yuhas, June 20, 2022

Credit: Oscar Wong/Getty Images

Disrupted sleep, lower life satisfaction and poor self-esteem are just a few of the negative mental health consequences that research has linked to social media.

Somehow the same platforms that can help people feel more connected and knowledgeable also contribute to loneliness and disinformation.

What succeeds and fails, computer scientists argue, is a function of how these platforms are designed.

Amanda Baughan, a graduate student specializing in human-computer interaction, a subfield of computer science, at the University of Washington, believes that interdisciplinary research could inform better social platforms and apps. At the 2022 Association for Computing Machinery Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in May, she presented findings from a recent project that explored how social media triggers what psychologists call “dissociation,” or a state of reduced self-reflection and narrowed attention.

Baughan spoke with Mind Matters editor Daisy Yuhas to explain how and why apps need to change to give the people who use them greater power.

Source: Why Social Media Makes People Unhappy–And Simple Ways To Fix It – Scientific American

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Memories & History, Pleasures, Web & Technology

Will literature survive? – UnHerd

We have fallen out of love with good writing

By Mary Gaitskill, June 17, 2022

from article…

As a fiction writer who teaches, I often speak about what I love in fiction, what to me makes it powerful and engaging.

This is a version of a talk I have been giving for years to students and other interested parties; it is a talk I’ve become — what is the right word? — uncertain about in the last five years, not because I don’t believe what I’m saying or that I care about it less but because I’m not sure that people can find it meaningful anymore.

There are a number of reasons I feel this, most of which have to do with how we take in knowledge and information and how that has changed the nature of perception. I’m not saying anything new here: think iPhones and the constant staring there at, a skull-fracturing change which plainly has consequences beyond how people understand the reading and writing of fiction.

Source: Will literature survive? – UnHerd

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Pleasures, Web & Technology

Looking Where to Work Remotely? Libraries Could Be Your New Haven | Insider

By Angie Schmitt, Jun 13, 2022, 4:04 AM

Remote workers are missing office life, and local libraries are perfectly poised to offer a solution.
Marianne Ayala/Insider

I am a work-from-home veteran. Over the past 12 years of using my house as my base of operations, there are a few things I’ve learned that are really helpful.

Among the most important is a coffee shop I can walk to — sometimes you just need a snack and contact with human beings. These little out-of-home amenities are crucial to surviving as an out-of-office worker.

Lately though, I’ve noticed that my neighborhood is not set up to accommodate a massive increase in remote workers. For example, there is no smaller printing shop within walking distance — I have to make the three-mile trip to the print shop at a nearby Office Max. This is just one example of a growing problem: As the epicenter of white-collar work shifts away from the downtown office, cities need to catch up to the new class of remote workers who are now camped out in suburban neighborhoods.

And in my opinion, it’s the prime opportunity to elevate the humble neighborhood branch library.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: Looking Where to Work Remotely? Libraries Could Be Your New Haven

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Politics, Web & Technology

Quitting Time | American Libraries Magazine

The pandemic is exacerbating attrition among library workers

By Lara Ewen | June 1, 2022

*Editor’s note: All librarian names have been changed to protect their privacy.

Illustration: ©Nuthawut/Adobe Stock

Alex* can pinpoint the day she knew she was done with library work. “I was doing a lot of extra emotional support for people who didn’t have anybody else,” says the public librarian, who is disabled and has been working near a large Midwestern city for almost 20 years.

She says the last two years have been particularly difficult. “There was a day when I realized nothing was ever enough,” says Alex, who is in the process of leaving the field. “They always asked for more. I was so worn down by it all.”

The burnout began earlier for Chris. “Even before the pandemic started, I’d been feeling increasingly ambivalent,” says the Midwest-based academic librarian who left her associate director position in fall 2021.

“Then we had the pandemic, which required libraries to make a ton of changes. I wanted to work with my community, and I didn’t have any energy for that.”

Source: Quitting Time | American Libraries Magazine