{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T23:44:53+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/jgmac1106/status/1476338464048177154",
    "content": {
        "text": "Finished the FIPS-140-2a inforgraphic. The image will compliment  my chapter on safeguarding CUI for the upcoming #cmmc book I wrote\n\nHuge h/t to my friends at PreVeil ,Alex Trafton, and Kevin Campbell for the feedback.\n\nI may change the font size of the\u2026lnkd.in/drcAQPDa",
        "html": "Finished the FIPS-140-2a inforgraphic. The image will compliment  my chapter on safeguarding CUI for the upcoming <a href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=%23cmmc\">#cmmc</a> book I wrote\n\nHuge h/t to my friends at PreVeil ,Alex Trafton, and Kevin Campbell for the feedback.\n\nI may change the font size of the\u2026<a href=\"https://lnkd.in/drcAQPDa\">lnkd.in/drcAQPDa</a>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "https://jgregorymcverry.com",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/jgmac1106",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/565227710104883200/g4MDcTnx.jpeg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26143587",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T23:05:11+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/Johannes_Ernst/status/1476328474503626753",
    "content": {
        "text": "Note to self: The new Airpods are just as broken as the old ones if you put the old ones on instead of the new ones."
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Johannes Ernst",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/Johannes_Ernst",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/462335209015238656/ie0cRjdx.jpeg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26142992",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T21:09:31+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/tomwiththeweath/status/1476299365694255117",
    "quotation-of": "https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1476279101581373443",
    "content": {
        "text": "Death cults 101"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "herestomwiththeweather",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/tomwiththeweath",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/52629372/flickr.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "refs": {
        "https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1476279101581373443": {
            "type": "entry",
            "published": "2021-12-29T19:49:00+00:00",
            "url": "https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1476279101581373443",
            "content": {
                "text": "They\u2019re killing their own supporters and the supporters don\u2019t seem to blame them for it  ritholtz.com/2021/12/after-\u2026",
                "html": "They\u2019re killing their own supporters and the supporters don\u2019t seem to blame them for it  <a href=\"https://ritholtz.com/2021/12/after-vaccines-where-covid-death-rates-have-risen/\">ritholtz.com/2021/12/after-\u2026</a>"
            },
            "author": {
                "type": "card",
                "name": "Molly Jong-Fast",
                "url": "https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast",
                "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1434283551097229314/q55d6DLV.jpg"
            },
            "post-type": "note"
        }
    },
    "_id": "26140801",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T19:09:39+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/tinysubversions/status/1476269199068516353",
    "photo": [
        "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FHzDAxVaIAEFE75.jpg"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Three seconds in to my first game of Wordle and I'm quitting forever because it won't let me measure the impulse response of the system for an initial calibration"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Darius Kazemi",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/tinysubversions",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1355952735921692673/XVIen_1n.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "photo",
    "_id": "26138453",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T19:01:09+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/tinysubversions/status/1476267061462503424",
    "content": {
        "text": "Okay I'll bite: something you want to tell me before the year ends? Let's do this thing"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Darius Kazemi",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/tinysubversions",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1355952735921692673/XVIen_1n.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26138053",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T17:46:52+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/cleverdevil/status/1476248366199685120",
    "quotation-of": "https://twitter.com/admcgregor85/status/1476009132167737352",
    "content": {
        "text": "I have lots of opinions on hedgehogs. The creation of the Sonic video game was not a great development for the U.S. It further glamorized speeding and dehumanized mad scientists, helping to establish a high paced life expectation that has grown worse in the era of 3D Sonic games."
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jonathan LaCour",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/cleverdevil",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1428891351014285317/zGK22rDG.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "refs": {
        "https://twitter.com/admcgregor85/status/1476009132167737352": {
            "type": "entry",
            "published": "2021-12-29T01:56:14+00:00",
            "url": "https://twitter.com/admcgregor85/status/1476009132167737352",
            "content": {
                "text": "I have lots of opinions on John Madden. The creation of the Madden video game was not a great development for the U.S. It further glamorized violence and dehumanized Black athletes, helping to establish plantation cosplay that has grown worse in the era of fantasy football."
            },
            "author": {
                "type": "card",
                "name": "Dr. Andrew McGregor",
                "url": "https://twitter.com/admcgregor85",
                "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1268639401858433025/7vBXt4ZA.jpg"
            },
            "post-type": "note"
        }
    },
    "_id": "26136743",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T17:03:51+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/jgmac1106/status/1476237539073736711",
    "content": {
        "text": "Trying to create an infographic on FIPS-140-2a encryption. Would love feedback on any technical mistakes.\n\nBoilind encryption down to an image not easy but trying to explain this standard.\n\nToo many people hear FIPS and think encryption only. Like using K\u2026lnkd.in/d34v4M27",
        "html": "Trying to create an infographic on FIPS-140-2a encryption. Would love feedback on any technical mistakes.\n\nBoilind encryption down to an image not easy but trying to explain this standard.\n\nToo many people hear FIPS and think encryption only. Like using K\u2026<a href=\"https://lnkd.in/d34v4M27\">lnkd.in/d34v4M27</a>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "https://jgregorymcverry.com",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/jgmac1106",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/565227710104883200/g4MDcTnx.jpeg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26136746",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T11:49:13-0500",
    "url": "https://martymcgui.re/2021/12/29/114913/",
    "category": [
        "caturday"
    ],
    "video": [
        "https://res.cloudinary.com/schmarty/video/upload/vc_h264/mmmgre/37/ea/d1/ac/ead33b56062cea0676f2cb62a935a6c224fe697842df5e9fc64ce7c9.mov"
    ],
    "content": {
        "text": "Have you found a resting rhythm during eternal Caturday?",
        "html": "<p>Have you found a resting rhythm during eternal Caturday?</p>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Marty McGuire",
        "url": "https://martymcgui.re/",
        "photo": "https://martymcgui.re/images/logo.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "video",
    "_id": "26135895",
    "_source": "175"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T07:07:03+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/slsoftworks/status/1476087350241513477",
    "quotation-of": "https://twitter.com/_jayphelps/status/1476086954450169859",
    "content": {
        "text": "Never happened \ud83d\ude2c\ud83d\ude2c\ud83d\ude2c"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "flaki",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/slsoftworks",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/749678683514896385/7gxIRnoC.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "refs": {
        "https://twitter.com/_jayphelps/status/1476086954450169859": {
            "type": "entry",
            "published": "2021-12-29T07:05:28+00:00",
            "url": "https://twitter.com/_jayphelps/status/1476086954450169859",
            "content": {
                "text": "The tale as old as time, contacting customer support\u2026\n\nMe: \u201cyour software has a bug, here\u2019s the error code and the exact line of code you need to change\u201d\nSupport: \u201cThank you. Have you tried turning it off and on again?\u201d\nMe: \u2026\ntwitter.com/sawtaytoes/sta\u2026",
                "html": "The tale as old as time, contacting customer support\u2026\n\nMe: \u201cyour software has a bug, here\u2019s the error code and the exact line of code you need to change\u201d\nSupport: \u201cThank you. Have you tried turning it off and on again?\u201d\nMe: \u2026\n<a href=\"https://twitter.com/sawtaytoes/status/1475867424402690061\">twitter.com/sawtaytoes/sta\u2026</a>"
            },
            "author": {
                "type": "card",
                "name": "\ud83d\udc49\ud83d\ude0e\ud83d\udc49 Jay Phelps",
                "url": "https://twitter.com/_jayphelps",
                "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1449409108671610883/AQdDtcda.jpg"
            },
            "post-type": "note"
        }
    },
    "_id": "26126250",
    "_source": "2773"
}

Info-Environmentalism

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "Cathie",
        "url": "https://cathieleblanc.com/",
        "photo": null
    },
    "url": "https://cathieleblanc.com/2021/12/28/info-environmentalism/",
    "published": "2021-12-28T21:48:50-05:00",
    "content": {
        "html": "<p>Now that the Fall 2021 semester has ended, I have been thinking a lot about how my section of <a href=\"https://cathieleblanc.com/2021/11/27/tackling-a-wicked-problem-revisited/\"><em>Tackling a Wicked Problem</em></a>  (TWP) went. My section was focused on disinformation.</p>\n<p>As I was designing the class, I was greatly influenced by this <a href=\"https://mediawell.ssrc.org/expert-reflections/deconstructing-the-disinformation-war/\">article</a> by Tim Hwang about the war on disinformation. The first article argues that effectively dealing with disinformation requires us to change the way we think about our efforts. Hwang argues that the metaphor of \u201cconflict\u201d doesn\u2019t work for disinformation. He identifies numerous articles and reports about how we can <a href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/media/2018/08/heres-how-you-can-fight-back-against-disinformation/\">fight</a> <a href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response/fighting-disinformation_en\">disinformation</a> and how we can <a href=\"https://time.com/5686843/global-information-war/\">win</a> the <a href=\"https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/how-lose-information-war-russia-fake-news-and-future-conflict\">war</a> on disinformation. This conflict narrative is useful to \u201crally the troops,\u201d to get people to notice the issue and want to do something about it. There are, however, three major problems with the conflict narrative, Hwang argues. First, these articles portray disinformation as an enemy which is a tangible thing. Disinformation, of course, is not tangible. Because it\u2019s not tangible, we struggle to find the actual battlefield on which to fight. Disinformation is actually many different types of information, each with its own ways of spreading. The conflict narrative obscures the fact that different kinds of disinformation require different kinds of responses. Second, the war metaphor in particular makes us think about chains of command. If we are fighting a war, there must be someone in charge, a general, who will command the armies of soldiers to fight. In this view, we can win the war if we could simply neutralize a few key individuals (or companies). The conflict narrative positions the audience of disinformation as a faceless mass of passive consumers who are at the mercy of the generals in charge. Finally, the conflict narrative looks with nostalgia to a pre-conflict past free of disinformation and promises that if we fight the good fight, we can have a similarly disinformation-free future. This view suggests the possibility of \u201cpeace\u201d in which we emerge victorious over disinformation. Hwang writes: \u201cBut what would such a victory look like? Presumably it would not be a world without lies, or even a world without coordinated efforts at persuasion. Presumably it would not be the signing of an armistice or the surrender of an enemy army that would mark the end of the conflict.\u201d In other words, the conflict metaphor suggests victory but the vagueness of what the victory might look like suggests that this is a war without end.</p>\n<p>Hwang acknowledges that no metaphor is perfect, that all will be wrong in some aspect. But some metaphors are more useful than others. For disinformation, he argues that a climate metaphor is more useful than the conflict metaphor. We can think about the circulation of information online as a climate. Doing so allows us to capture the individual experience of information in a more realistic way. Truth, disinformation, and the use of persuasive tactics are all present in different ratios at all times. He writes: \u201cThere is not a \u2018front line\u2019 of struggle so much as a hot or cold front passing through a region.\u201d The climate narrative also allows us to capture the notion of human responsibility. Our struggle is not with disinformation itself but is instead with the forces that introduce disinformation into the climate. But perhaps most important, changing the way we think about disinformation changes our responses to it. Thinking of disinformation as pollution in our information environment allows us to think about ways to clean it up. We don\u2019t \u201cdefeat\u201d pollution in our physical landscapes but instead clean it up and try to address the source of the pollution.</p>\n<p>As I said earlier, I found this reframing of the challenges posed by disinformation very useful as I was planning my section of TWP. Reading Mike Caulfield\u2019s work on <a href=\"https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/10/info-environmentalism-an-introduction\">info-environmentalism</a> was the inspiration for my approach to engaging students in the clean up effort. Caulfield argues that those of us in higher education should take on the challenge of cleaning up the information environment that the average online user engages with. In other words, we should clean up Facebook, Wikipedia, Google, etc. He calls for an \u201cinfo-environmentalism curriculum.\u201d Info-environmentalism, in his definition, is the pedagogy of teaching students how to improve our online information environments. An info-environmentalism curriculum provides students with understandings of a variety of issues, including:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul><li>How the economic incentives of ad-tech and e-commerce contribute to information pollution</li>\n<li>What social media companies can do to address these issues</li>\n<li>How marginalized groups often endure abuse when trying to contribute to information spaces</li>\n<li>How polarization, bots, corporate money, and state-sponsored action are impacting information quality</li>\n<li>How individuals can minimize their own \u201cmisinformation footprint\u201d by being more careful about what they post and using basic web research techniques2</li>\n</ul></blockquote>\n<p>Caulfield advocates teaching these issues through action, through engaging students in actual clean up activities. Since TWP is an action-oriented class in which students are trying to make a difference in the world, I thought this would be a perfect way to frame the class. I typically have students engage in two projects in TWP\u2013I design the first one and students design the second one. I started this effort when the topic of my section was climate change. Two years ago, I designed a project in which students contributed to a Snopes-like <a href=\"https://climatechange.plymouthcreate.net/\">web site</a> focused on climate change claims. For this Fall\u2019s section of TWP, I designed a similar project but broadened the <a href=\"https://cathieleblanc.com/info-environmentalism/\">range of claim</a>s that students could investigate.</p>\n<p>One of the main goals of TWP is to give students an opportunity to practice their information literacy skills. Our common syllabus lists this learning goal as: \u201cDemonstrate the ability to recognize the need for information to accomplish a specific purpose in a particular context as well as to be able to find, evaluate, use, and properly cite that information.\u201d In the info-environmentalism project, students decide on a claim that they will investigate. They collaboratively write an article for our class web site that determines whether the claim is true or not. In the process of their investigations, I ask students to try to find who first made the claim, identify how widespread the claim is, and articulate the various points of contention related to the claim. These comprise the three main sections of each article (Origin, Prevalence, and Issues and Analysis). They then come to a conclusion about whether the claim is true or not (or true in some contexts but not others, partially true, etc.) and write a summary of their findings. The Summary is the final section to be written but comes first in each article. This provides a TL;DR for anyone searching the Internet for information related to the claim. As the students work through this process, we talk a lot about the nature of sources and how to identify which are likely to be credible and which are not. We talk about credible sources sometimes making mistakes and how that is a different kind of information pollution than disinformation or misinformation or propaganda. We also talk about how we cite sources in online articles such as these and compare it to the ways in which we cite sources in other forms of writing. The conversations are challenging but fruitful.</p>\n<p>One of the most challenging aspects of this project is helping students determine the credibility of the information in the sources that they find. I have been teaching information literacy skills long enough to remember when we said things like \u201cThe New York Times is a credible source.\u201d This kind of appeal to the authority of a source doesn\u2019t work in today\u2019s world of divided realities (maybe it never worked?). For example, I had a student a few semesters ago who found an instance of CNN writing a horribly misleading headline and used that as evidence that CNN is \u201cfake news\u201d and can never be believed. One of the tools we use to address this challenge is the Mike Caulfield\u2019s <a href=\"https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/\">SIFT</a> method of determining whether to share information online. The idea is that when we encounter information online, we have a short list of things to do to help us determine the likelihood that what we are reading is true. SIFT stands for <strong>S</strong>top, <strong>I</strong>nvestigate the source, <strong>F</strong>ind other (better) coverage, <strong>T</strong>race to the origin of the information.</p>\n<p>The first action to take is that when you encounter information that provokes strong emotion\u2013either positive or negative\u2013Stop! Don\u2019t share that information before you have a chance to look into it further. If you get overwhelmed or lost as you are investigating, stop and go back to the beginning. The main point of this step is that you don\u2019t want to be hasty in sharing information online because you may be polluting our information environment. Once you have stopped before sharing, you should investigate the source of the information you are looking at. You can start by reading the About page of the web site where the information resides. Sometimes the site will tell you enough about themselves that you can stop your investigation here. For example, the <a href=\"https://www.theonion.com/about\">About</a> page for <em>The Onion</em> clearly has its tongue in its cheek when it states: \u201cRising from its humble beginnings as a print newspaper in 1756, <em>The Onion</em> now enjoys a daily readership of 4.3 trillion and has grown into the single most powerful and influential organization in human history.\u201d We know that this site is not publishing actual news stories. But you should also investigate what others are saying about the source. For example, if we look at the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Onion\"><em>Wikipedia</em> entry</a> for <em>The Onion</em>, we see that it is a satirical news site, making up stories in an attempt to ridicule and point out flaws in our society. If you still don\u2019t know whether you should trust the information you are looking at, you should see what others have said about the same information\u2013that is, you should find other (better) coverage. For example, if you come across a story that a particular famous person has died, check to see whether other sources are also reporting that the person has died. The final SIFT action is to trace the information to its origin. When reading the information, look for hyperlinks to other sites where the information came from. Follow those links until you get to the original story. It is suspicious if there are no links in an article or story about particular information. If there are no links, but the article claims the information came from a particular person or a study or some other source, use a search engine to try to find that source. Note that these SIFT actions don\u2019t need to be performed in a linear manner. You can jump around from action to action. The goal is to determine the likelihood that the information you are reading is true before you share the information in our information environment.</p>\n<p>As my students used the SIFT method this semester, we encountered some challenges. The biggest one was the existence of <a href=\"https://datasociety.net/library/data-voids/\">data voids</a>. A data void occurs when you do a search that produces few or no results which can happen for a number of reasons. Golebiewski and boyd (sic) identified five reasons for the existence of data voids: breaking news, strategic new terms, outdated terms, fragmented concepts, and problematic queries For example, \u201cIs Joe Biden mentally fit to be president?\u201d is a problematic query because questioning his mental fitness has been used by his opponents to undermine his authority while his proponents have little incentive (other than to fill a data void) to write articles defending his mental fitness. In other words, data voids can be exploited by people peddling disinformation. Data voids are extremely difficult to identify. (I am lucky to work with a fabulous librarian, Christin Wixson, who was able to help me find materials to share with students when we encountered data voids. Golebiewski and boyd\u2019s <a href=\"https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Data_Society_Data_Voids_Final_3.pdf\">original report</a> is an excellent resource as is boyd\u2019s 2019 <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJYIzQFx_7k\">Knight Media Forum presentation</a> about YouTube and data voids.)</p>\n<p>The goal of the <a href=\"https://cathieleblanc.com/info-environmentalism/assignment-description/\">info-environmentalism project</a> is for students to help clean up our information environment. As I said, they do this by investigating claims and, if they want, posting their findings on our class <a href=\"https://cathieleblanc.com/info-environmentalism/\">web site</a>. I always give students the option of not posting their work publicly since, as Caulfield points out in his description of the info-environmentalism curriculum, \u201cmarginalized groups often endure abuse when trying to contribute to information spaces.\u201d I never want to force students into such a vulnerable position. I also want to make sure that students are in charge of their own online activity and requiring public submission of their work takes that agency away from them. When I have used this info-environmentalism project in the past, nearly every group has chosen to publish their work and put their names on it. This semester, only one group decided to publish their work on our site and within that group, one student decided to remain anonymous. I don\u2019t know if this is because our online discourse has continued to devolve and so students feel less and less safe posting this kind of work online or because I have done a better(?) job of explaining the possible abuse that they might face. Since this is the first semester in which most students have decided not to post publicly, I don\u2019t have enough information yet to figure out the reasons. But it\u2019s something I\u2019m paying attention to.</p>\n<p>Despite not posting publicly and, therefore, not actually cleaning up the information environment with this project, I think this project has helped students minimize their individual \u201cmisinformation footprint\u201d (as Caulfield calls it) so that they are not sharing information pollution (or at least not as much as before engaging in the project). I will continue to use this project but I may rethink the way we talk about public presentation of the work. Perhaps the articles should be published anonymously by default unless a group wants to put their names on their article or a group decides they don\u2019t want their work published even anonymously. Something to think about because I know these student-created web sites can have an impact. A group of my Communication and Media Studies students published articles about TV shows for an <em><a href=\"https://analyzingtv.wordpress.com/\">Analyzing Television</a></em> class I taught five years ago. Despite having no new content for more than five years, that site still gets 200-250 hits per week.</p>",
        "text": "Now that the Fall 2021 semester has ended, I have been thinking a lot about how my section of Tackling a Wicked Problem  (TWP) went. My section was focused on disinformation.\nAs I was designing the class, I was greatly influenced by this article by Tim Hwang about the war on disinformation. The first article argues that effectively dealing with disinformation requires us to change the way we think about our efforts. Hwang argues that the metaphor of \u201cconflict\u201d doesn\u2019t work for disinformation. He identifies numerous articles and reports about how we can fight disinformation and how we can win the war on disinformation. This conflict narrative is useful to \u201crally the troops,\u201d to get people to notice the issue and want to do something about it. There are, however, three major problems with the conflict narrative, Hwang argues. First, these articles portray disinformation as an enemy which is a tangible thing. Disinformation, of course, is not tangible. Because it\u2019s not tangible, we struggle to find the actual battlefield on which to fight. Disinformation is actually many different types of information, each with its own ways of spreading. The conflict narrative obscures the fact that different kinds of disinformation require different kinds of responses. Second, the war metaphor in particular makes us think about chains of command. If we are fighting a war, there must be someone in charge, a general, who will command the armies of soldiers to fight. In this view, we can win the war if we could simply neutralize a few key individuals (or companies). The conflict narrative positions the audience of disinformation as a faceless mass of passive consumers who are at the mercy of the generals in charge. Finally, the conflict narrative looks with nostalgia to a pre-conflict past free of disinformation and promises that if we fight the good fight, we can have a similarly disinformation-free future. This view suggests the possibility of \u201cpeace\u201d in which we emerge victorious over disinformation. Hwang writes: \u201cBut what would such a victory look like? Presumably it would not be a world without lies, or even a world without coordinated efforts at persuasion. Presumably it would not be the signing of an armistice or the surrender of an enemy army that would mark the end of the conflict.\u201d In other words, the conflict metaphor suggests victory but the vagueness of what the victory might look like suggests that this is a war without end.\nHwang acknowledges that no metaphor is perfect, that all will be wrong in some aspect. But some metaphors are more useful than others. For disinformation, he argues that a climate metaphor is more useful than the conflict metaphor. We can think about the circulation of information online as a climate. Doing so allows us to capture the individual experience of information in a more realistic way. Truth, disinformation, and the use of persuasive tactics are all present in different ratios at all times. He writes: \u201cThere is not a \u2018front line\u2019 of struggle so much as a hot or cold front passing through a region.\u201d The climate narrative also allows us to capture the notion of human responsibility. Our struggle is not with disinformation itself but is instead with the forces that introduce disinformation into the climate. But perhaps most important, changing the way we think about disinformation changes our responses to it. Thinking of disinformation as pollution in our information environment allows us to think about ways to clean it up. We don\u2019t \u201cdefeat\u201d pollution in our physical landscapes but instead clean it up and try to address the source of the pollution.\nAs I said earlier, I found this reframing of the challenges posed by disinformation very useful as I was planning my section of TWP. Reading Mike Caulfield\u2019s work on info-environmentalism was the inspiration for my approach to engaging students in the clean up effort. Caulfield argues that those of us in higher education should take on the challenge of cleaning up the information environment that the average online user engages with. In other words, we should clean up Facebook, Wikipedia, Google, etc. He calls for an \u201cinfo-environmentalism curriculum.\u201d Info-environmentalism, in his definition, is the pedagogy of teaching students how to improve our online information environments. An info-environmentalism curriculum provides students with understandings of a variety of issues, including:\n\nHow the economic incentives of ad-tech and e-commerce contribute to information pollution\nWhat social media companies can do to address these issues\nHow marginalized groups often endure abuse when trying to contribute to information spaces\nHow polarization, bots, corporate money, and state-sponsored action are impacting information quality\nHow individuals can minimize their own \u201cmisinformation footprint\u201d by being more careful about what they post and using basic web research techniques2\n\nCaulfield advocates teaching these issues through action, through engaging students in actual clean up activities. Since TWP is an action-oriented class in which students are trying to make a difference in the world, I thought this would be a perfect way to frame the class. I typically have students engage in two projects in TWP\u2013I design the first one and students design the second one. I started this effort when the topic of my section was climate change. Two years ago, I designed a project in which students contributed to a Snopes-like web site focused on climate change claims. For this Fall\u2019s section of TWP, I designed a similar project but broadened the range of claims that students could investigate.\nOne of the main goals of TWP is to give students an opportunity to practice their information literacy skills. Our common syllabus lists this learning goal as: \u201cDemonstrate the ability to recognize the need for information to accomplish a specific purpose in a particular context as well as to be able to find, evaluate, use, and properly cite that information.\u201d In the info-environmentalism project, students decide on a claim that they will investigate. They collaboratively write an article for our class web site that determines whether the claim is true or not. In the process of their investigations, I ask students to try to find who first made the claim, identify how widespread the claim is, and articulate the various points of contention related to the claim. These comprise the three main sections of each article (Origin, Prevalence, and Issues and Analysis). They then come to a conclusion about whether the claim is true or not (or true in some contexts but not others, partially true, etc.) and write a summary of their findings. The Summary is the final section to be written but comes first in each article. This provides a TL;DR for anyone searching the Internet for information related to the claim. As the students work through this process, we talk a lot about the nature of sources and how to identify which are likely to be credible and which are not. We talk about credible sources sometimes making mistakes and how that is a different kind of information pollution than disinformation or misinformation or propaganda. We also talk about how we cite sources in online articles such as these and compare it to the ways in which we cite sources in other forms of writing. The conversations are challenging but fruitful.\nOne of the most challenging aspects of this project is helping students determine the credibility of the information in the sources that they find. I have been teaching information literacy skills long enough to remember when we said things like \u201cThe New York Times is a credible source.\u201d This kind of appeal to the authority of a source doesn\u2019t work in today\u2019s world of divided realities (maybe it never worked?). For example, I had a student a few semesters ago who found an instance of CNN writing a horribly misleading headline and used that as evidence that CNN is \u201cfake news\u201d and can never be believed. One of the tools we use to address this challenge is the Mike Caulfield\u2019s SIFT method of determining whether to share information online. The idea is that when we encounter information online, we have a short list of things to do to help us determine the likelihood that what we are reading is true. SIFT stands for Stop, Investigate the source, Find other (better) coverage, Trace to the origin of the information.\nThe first action to take is that when you encounter information that provokes strong emotion\u2013either positive or negative\u2013Stop! Don\u2019t share that information before you have a chance to look into it further. If you get overwhelmed or lost as you are investigating, stop and go back to the beginning. The main point of this step is that you don\u2019t want to be hasty in sharing information online because you may be polluting our information environment. Once you have stopped before sharing, you should investigate the source of the information you are looking at. You can start by reading the About page of the web site where the information resides. Sometimes the site will tell you enough about themselves that you can stop your investigation here. For example, the About page for The Onion clearly has its tongue in its cheek when it states: \u201cRising from its humble beginnings as a print newspaper in 1756, The Onion now enjoys a daily readership of 4.3 trillion and has grown into the single most powerful and influential organization in human history.\u201d We know that this site is not publishing actual news stories. But you should also investigate what others are saying about the source. For example, if we look at the Wikipedia entry for The Onion, we see that it is a satirical news site, making up stories in an attempt to ridicule and point out flaws in our society. If you still don\u2019t know whether you should trust the information you are looking at, you should see what others have said about the same information\u2013that is, you should find other (better) coverage. For example, if you come across a story that a particular famous person has died, check to see whether other sources are also reporting that the person has died. The final SIFT action is to trace the information to its origin. When reading the information, look for hyperlinks to other sites where the information came from. Follow those links until you get to the original story. It is suspicious if there are no links in an article or story about particular information. If there are no links, but the article claims the information came from a particular person or a study or some other source, use a search engine to try to find that source. Note that these SIFT actions don\u2019t need to be performed in a linear manner. You can jump around from action to action. The goal is to determine the likelihood that the information you are reading is true before you share the information in our information environment.\nAs my students used the SIFT method this semester, we encountered some challenges. The biggest one was the existence of data voids. A data void occurs when you do a search that produces few or no results which can happen for a number of reasons. Golebiewski and boyd (sic) identified five reasons for the existence of data voids: breaking news, strategic new terms, outdated terms, fragmented concepts, and problematic queries For example, \u201cIs Joe Biden mentally fit to be president?\u201d is a problematic query because questioning his mental fitness has been used by his opponents to undermine his authority while his proponents have little incentive (other than to fill a data void) to write articles defending his mental fitness. In other words, data voids can be exploited by people peddling disinformation. Data voids are extremely difficult to identify. (I am lucky to work with a fabulous librarian, Christin Wixson, who was able to help me find materials to share with students when we encountered data voids. Golebiewski and boyd\u2019s original report is an excellent resource as is boyd\u2019s 2019 Knight Media Forum presentation about YouTube and data voids.)\nThe goal of the info-environmentalism project is for students to help clean up our information environment. As I said, they do this by investigating claims and, if they want, posting their findings on our class web site. I always give students the option of not posting their work publicly since, as Caulfield points out in his description of the info-environmentalism curriculum, \u201cmarginalized groups often endure abuse when trying to contribute to information spaces.\u201d I never want to force students into such a vulnerable position. I also want to make sure that students are in charge of their own online activity and requiring public submission of their work takes that agency away from them. When I have used this info-environmentalism project in the past, nearly every group has chosen to publish their work and put their names on it. This semester, only one group decided to publish their work on our site and within that group, one student decided to remain anonymous. I don\u2019t know if this is because our online discourse has continued to devolve and so students feel less and less safe posting this kind of work online or because I have done a better(?) job of explaining the possible abuse that they might face. Since this is the first semester in which most students have decided not to post publicly, I don\u2019t have enough information yet to figure out the reasons. But it\u2019s something I\u2019m paying attention to.\nDespite not posting publicly and, therefore, not actually cleaning up the information environment with this project, I think this project has helped students minimize their individual \u201cmisinformation footprint\u201d (as Caulfield calls it) so that they are not sharing information pollution (or at least not as much as before engaging in the project). I will continue to use this project but I may rethink the way we talk about public presentation of the work. Perhaps the articles should be published anonymously by default unless a group wants to put their names on their article or a group decides they don\u2019t want their work published even anonymously. Something to think about because I know these student-created web sites can have an impact. A group of my Communication and Media Studies students published articles about TV shows for an Analyzing Television class I taught five years ago. Despite having no new content for more than five years, that site still gets 200-250 hits per week."
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    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T05:07:03+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich/status/1476057150870806534",
    "content": {
        "text": "I tested out the OCR of the literal.club app. It's alright, but not as good as my handwritten notes posted to my webite.\n#Annotations\nboffosocko.com/2021/12/28/558\u2026",
        "html": "I tested out the OCR of the <a href=\"http://literal.club\">literal.club</a> app. It's alright, but not as good as my handwritten notes posted to my webite.\n<a href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Annotations\">#Annotations</a>\n<a href=\"https://boffosocko.com/2021/12/28/55800276/\">boffosocko.com/2021/12/28/558\u2026</a>"
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    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Chris Aldrich",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/ChrisAldrich",
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    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26125131",
    "_source": "2773"
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{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T04:20:06+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/fluffy/status/1476045338641268742",
    "content": {
        "text": "A commonly-asked question is whether one would rather fight a horse-sized duck or 50 duck-sized horses. The correct answer can be determined analytically via careful application of the square-cube law. In this article we will"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "fluffy \ud83d\udc9c \u272a\u25be\u032b\u272a",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/fluffy",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1252480375646851072/Pc5osn74.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26124572",
    "_source": "2773"
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{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T04:05:51+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/fluffy/status/1476041750154072064",
    "quotation-of": "https://twitter.com/DantonSix/status/1422626299177230336",
    "content": {
        "text": "I've been getting a lot of this lately and it's alarming how many scam/sham self-help authors are reaching out to me because I'd posted a negative review of a book about anxiety.\n\nAuthors, don't do this."
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "fluffy \ud83d\udc9c \u272a\u25be\u032b\u272a",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/fluffy",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1252480375646851072/Pc5osn74.jpg"
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    "post-type": "note",
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            "type": "entry",
            "published": "2021-08-03T18:31:55+00:00",
            "url": "https://twitter.com/DantonSix/status/1422626299177230336",
            "content": {
                "text": "Just got a persona; email from some rando trying to sell his book.\n\n\"I found your email address on a website called AMZDiscover while I was searching for people that read true crime books. \"\n\nThis is so sketchy. Don't do this."
            },
            "author": {
                "type": "card",
                "name": "A Horse-Sized Duck",
                "url": "https://twitter.com/DantonSix",
                "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1329945014047305735/oJENVLH5.jpg"
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            "post-type": "note"
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{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T01:56:33+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/tomwiththeweath/status/1476009212316729347",
    "content": {
        "text": "RIP John Madden. Legend. Just this weekend I was telling a friend that my grandmother loved watching him on TV."
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "herestomwiththeweather",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/tomwiththeweath",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/52629372/flickr.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26122837",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-29T00:13:08+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/Johannes_Ernst/status/1475983186165338113",
    "content": {
        "text": "What kind of algorithm does Apple run to create #spatialaudio from regular stereo tracks? Anybody know, or have a good guess?",
        "html": "What kind of algorithm does Apple run to create <a href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=%23spatialaudio\">#spatialaudio</a> from regular stereo tracks? Anybody know, or have a good guess?"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Johannes Ernst",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/Johannes_Ernst",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/462335209015238656/ie0cRjdx.jpeg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26121084",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-28T23:24:58+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/jaredcwhite/status/1475971062072414209",
    "content": {
        "text": "I feel like I want to do a lot more blogging/essay-writing in the coming year, even though nobody reads my blog. \ud83d\ude05\n\nI just love writing, and I become increasingly unhappy in any given span of time if I haven't published a new blog post. Blogging is in my DNA. \u2328\ufe0f\u2615\ufe0f"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jared White \ud83d\udd2e",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/jaredcwhite",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1431863008288931841/hsLQJBv4.jpg"
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    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26120210",
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}

My Top 5 Sci-Fi Films of 2021

{
    "type": "entry",
    "author": {
        "name": "Jared White",
        "url": "https://jaredwhite.com/",
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    "url": "https://jaredwhite.com/articles/my-top-5-scifi-films-of-2021",
    "published": "2021-12-28T11:55:00-08:00",
    "content": {
        "html": "<img alt=\"\" src=\"https://res.cloudinary.com/mariposta/image/upload/w_1200,c_limit,q_65/awesome_movie_nokl5q.jpg\" /><h2>Once again, it's never been a better time to be a geek and a film buff. Here are my end-of-year top picks\u2026and the results may surprise you!</h2>\n\n<p>Can\u2019t say why, but I haven\u2019t <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/articles/my-top-5-scifi-films-of-2016\">done one of these since 2016</a>! So it\u2019s long overdue for me to share my perspective on what was in sum a pretty substantial year for sci-fi nerds like me. As we\u2019re well aware, 2020 <em>sucked</em> for film buffs\u2014between the many release delays and mass closure of movie theaters\u2014so this year was an opportunity to go into nerdgasmic movie overload. Was it worth the wait? Perhaps not in all cases, but I definitely think we got quite a good number of WOW moments in the mix.</p>\n\n<p>I\u2019ll touch on TV briefly towards the end (namely the spate of Disney+/Marvel shows which all launched this year), but for now, let\u2019s start with my fifth movie pick of 2021.</p>\n\n<h3>#5: Eternals</h3>\n\n<p>I really had no idea what to make of this film before I saw it. The trailers looked\u2026odd\u2026and it seemed so disconnected from anything we\u2019d seen to date in the MCU. I also couldn\u2019t envision the leap from Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s <em>Nomadland</em> (<a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/links/20210309/1\">which I loved</a>) to larger-than-life superheroes and pew-pew-pew. But I felt similarly ambivalent about the original <em>Guardians of the Galaxy</em> movie before it came out, and look how awesome that turned out to be.</p>\n\n<p>A lot of the early critic reviews all had a similar refrain which was that <em>Eternals</em> strayed far from the typical Marvel formula and was a very different kind of movie than anything we\u2019d seen before. I think that conclusion was oversold. This is a Marvel movie through-and-through. It just so happens to be a Marvel movie made by Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, so you get that relaxed pacing and moody landscapes and meditative insight into characters\u2019 internal worlds to a degree we\u2019re not accustomed to in a-mile-a-minute action movies. Personally, I loved it. However, the overall story didn\u2019t quite gel in a way that propels this movie higher up the list. While I throughly enjoyed my experience, I ultimately left wanting a lot more from several of the characters. (Guess that\u2019s what <em>Eternals 2</em> is for, amirite?) Despite that, I can\u2019t wait to rewatch it at home once it lands on Disney+.</p>\n\n<h3>#4: Free Guy</h3>\n\n<p>This movie really came out of left field and knocked my socks off. Also my kids\u2019 socks off. They\u2019re chomping at the bit for <em>Free Guy 2</em> (though at the moment I have no idea if/when that will happen). Ryan Reynolds seems born to play this role every bit as much as Deadpool, and his onscreen partner Jodie Comer shines. In fact, all of the cast is fantastic, and the many sendups of gaming culture, fandom, and the digital world we\u2019re all increasingly living in all landed spectacularly. I\u2019m not sure I can point to another movie that was as throughly entertaining in a comedic way this year. <strong>Catchphrase! Witty conclusion to a movie review here!</strong></p>\n\n<h3>#3: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings</h3>\n\n<p>OK, I definitely agree with the pundits on this one. For a long time Marvel &amp; Kevin Feige had been hyping up <em>Eternals</em> and relegating <em>Shang-Chi</em> to almost a footnote in their lineup, and in the final analysis <em>Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings</em> is one of the best comic book movies of all time. I was utterly blown away. This, my friends, is a movie you can point to when somebody asks \u201cwhat\u2019s the big deal with Marvel movies anyway?\u201d\u2026and if they\u2019re still not impressed, there\u2019s simply no hope for them. Nearly every moment in this film is an instant classic. The plot is edge-of-your-seat fabulous. The characters are phenomenal. And I could honestly just watch a whole show with \u201cShaun\u201d and Katy bopping around San Francisco and hitting up karaoke bars. Meng\u2019er Zhang is star material. Tony Chiu-Wai Leung should win an Oscar for supporting actor. Bravo Marvel, bravo.</p>\n\n<h3>#2: Dune</h3>\n\n<p><em>Dune</em> is a revelation. Having watched it twice in the theaters\u2014once in IMAX\u2014it\u2019s more of an event than a movie. The audio portion alone, where score and sound merge into a singular sonic landscape, is superlative. And the visuals are every bit what you\u2019d expect from director Denis Villeneuve at the height of his powers.</p>\n\n<p>Now I have no real connection to the source material. I never read the book, and I remember once seeing the 80s movie adaptation of <em>Dune</em> and thinking it was utter dreck. So I wasn\u2019t at all eagerly anticipating <em>Dune</em>. I knew a lot of other people were and I was happy for them, but it just wasn\u2019t on my radar. But early reviews came in and were largely effusive, and I\u2019m a megafan of both <em>Arrival</em> (it landed at <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/articles/my-top-5-scifi-films-of-2016#4-arrival\">#4 on my 2016 Top Five list!</a>) and <em>Blade Runner 2049</em> (<a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/20181205/1\">w00t!</a>), so I decided to go see <em>Dune</em> almost immediately after it arrived in theaters.</p>\n\n<p>I could honestly just recapitulate my review of <em>Arrival</em> again for <em>Dune</em>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>I left the theater almost in a state of shock because of the nature of the story and the depth of feeling it brought up in me.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Apparently that\u2019s what Denis Villeneuve productions do\u2026place you in a state of altered consciousness. When I saw the movie for the second time in IMAX, I was with my brother. When we left the theater afterwards, he was speechless. I think he mumbled something to the tune of \u201cthat was incredible\u201d and pretty much left it at that.</p>\n\n<p><em>Dune</em> is a movie which almost defies description. You just need to experience it for yourself. (My only criticism really is the ending and how that fits into the overall narrative\u2026thank the powers that be that <em>Dune Part 2</em> has been greenlit, because we really, really need that.)</p>\n\n<h3>#1: The Matrix Resurrections</h3>\n\n<p>If this were any ordinary year where a new Matrix movie doesn\u2019t exist, <em>Dune</em> would win the #1 spot on my list with flying colors. And to be quite frank, in terms of raw cinematic spectacle and breathtaking filmcraft, <em>The Matrix Resurrections</em> certainly isn\u2019t the best film of the year. That distinction most definitely belongs to <em>Dune</em>\u2014or could be awarded to <em>Eternals</em> or <em>Shang-Chi</em> for that matter.</p>\n\n<p>But this <em>isn\u2019t</em> any ordinary year, and there <em>is</em> a new Matrix movie. And despite the fact this movie is wildly controversial in a way we probably haven\u2019t seen since <em>Star Wars: The Last Jedi</em>, there\u2019s no doubt in my mind <em>The Matrix Resurrections</em> reigns supreme.</p>\n\n<p>It is a movie which affected me <strong>deeply</strong>, and will continue to affect me long into the future. This film is operating on numerous levels simultaneously. It\u2019s even more self-aware than the original Matrix. (I\u2019m not going to use the \u201cm**a\u201d word here because it\u2019s been lazily thrown around to death in reviews already, but yeah, it\u2019s all that.) It messes with you. At times it grabs you and shakes you, and maybe you\u2019re not going to like it. It\u2019s punk. But like it or not, you can\u2019t ignore it.</p>\n\n<p>There are so many themes in <em>The Matrix Ressurections</em> which resonate with me, but perhaps more than anything else it reminds me of <a href=\"https://simplepraxis.life/2019/leaving-it-all-behind-my-exvangelical-story\">my own life journey</a> out of a fog of confusion and loss of identity within a high-demand religious group (was it a cult? quite possibly!), and the long, gut-wrenching process of reclaiming MY OWN STORY.</p>\n\n<p>Without giving away major spoilers, this film is the story of Thomas Anderson (aka Neo) coming to grips with reality after being gaslit for far too long. But if you think that sounds just like the original <em>The Matrix</em> of 1999, think again. This is a profoundly different take, and one which I hope to write about at length soon.</p>\n\n<p>It\u2019s also, as many have stated, a beautiful love story. But I see it as much more than that\u2014yes, there\u2019s a romantic element to it, but it\u2019s not just about the love two people share with each other. It\u2019s about the love of a life well-lived, a life you can explain, a life you can defend, a life which <em>truly matters</em>\u2026in other words, the polar opposite of just going through the motions and doing what everyone else \u201cexpects\u201d you to do and tries to convince you is the only proper path forward.</p>\n\n<p>Bugs is awesome and deserves her own spin-off show. There, I said it.</p>\n\n<p>I\u2019ve gone on record that I\u2019m a big fan of the whole Matrix trilogy, and while the second and third films are somewhat of a step down from the original, I love them all. In terms of ranking, I think I place <em>The Matrix Resurrections</em> at #2, higher than <em>Reloaded</em> and <em>Revolutions</em>. It\u2019s a remarkable achievement and a wonderful opportunity to revisit this world and tie all three previous movies together in a fresh and invigorating way.</p>\n\n<p>I explained in my recent Fresh Fusion episode <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/podcast/76/\">Back to The Matrix</a> just how much <em>The Matrix</em> means to me. It\u2019s <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/about\">my favorite movie of all time</a>, and as such I admit feeling utterly perplexed and just a little angry at the degree to which toxic fandom has descended upon this movie. There are people out there who <strong>hate</strong> it. And they\u2019re not merely content to state their opinion and move on\u2014they\u2019re out in droves to convince everyone else of how \u201cbad\u201d <em>The Matrix Resurrections</em> is and how you must be a rube to appreciate it in any way. What\u2019s supremely ironic is the movie <strong>directly speaks to this phenomenon</strong>. It\u2019s almost like the filmmaker (Lana Wachowski) preemptively looked the haters in the eye and gave them the finger. Good for her.</p>\n\n<p>But whatever. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you hate the movie, you hate it. However, I <strong>loved</strong> it, and of all the movies in my top 5 list for 2021, I expect to go back to this one the most over and over again, grasping at any one of the numerous story threads and seeing just how far down the rabbit hole goes.</p>\n\n<h3>What Didn\u2019t Make the List</h3>\n\n<p>Since it\u2019s both a Marvel movie (though via Sony) and the biggest hit of the year, you may be wondering why on earth I didn\u2019t place <em>Spider-Man: No Way Home</em> on my top 5 list. It\u2019s simple: I wasn\u2019t as impressed by it as the movies listed above. Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I thought it was great. And the fan service was off-the-charts. I couldn\u2019t believe how much they packed into a single movie. It\u2019s quite the spectacle. However, it does play into the sense of comic book tropes galore and \u201ctheme park ride\u201d criticism that sometimes gets lobbed at Marvel movies. This is a <em>very</em> Marvel-y Marvel movie. And to be honest, watching it right before watching <em>The Matrix Resurrections</em> is rather bizarre because the two movies almost seem like they\u2019re in a dialogue with each other. If you\u2019ve seen both, you know exactly what I mean.</p>\n\n<p>But, as a \u201ctheme park ride\u201d it was worlds of fun.</p>\n\n<p>I also really enjoyed watching <em>A Quiet Place Part II</em> this year (a great way to get back into the theaters again!), as well as the highly-underrated <em>Old</em> by M. Night Shyamalan. But mainly I want to round out this article by giving a very Honorable Mention to <em>Loki</em>. There were many good Sci-Fi shows on TV this year, from <em>Star Trek: Discovery</em> to <em>Foundation</em> to <em>The Expanse</em> (now in its sixth and final season).</p>\n\n<p>But I was utterly blown away by <em>Loki</em>. Out of all four of the live-action Marvel/MCU shows we got this year, <em>Loki</em> alone felt like it rose above the level of \u201cfun TV show to watch on Disney+\u201d and now rivals the best of the movie canon. Sure, <em>Wandavision</em> was super clever and for a short time entered the <em>zeitgeist</em> of fan speculation, but it was also very weird and strayed from the \u201ctone\u201d of typical Marvel productions way more than <em>Eternals</em> ever did. <em>The Falcon and the Winter Soldier</em> was hugely disappointing to me\u2026I simply didn\u2019t enjoy it much at all. And while the recently-concluded <em>Hawkeye</em> is a solid #2 out of all four shows for me, I do think it felt like just another fairly ordinary and somewhat forgettable TV show. But <em>Loki</em> was <em>art</em>, man. It was full of production superlatives. The settings were incredible. The music was fantastic\u2014so epic I listened to the soundtrack all on its own. Tom Hiddleston was in peak form. Owen Wilson stole every scene he was in. The ending was mind-bending and unexpected. More shows like this, please Marvel, pretty please!</p>\n\n<p><strong>So there you have it: my top 5 favorite Sci-Fi movies (and a TV show!) of 2021.</strong> Hopefully you\u2019ll hear back from me on this topic sooner than 2026! \ud83d\ude02</p>\n\n<p>What\u2019s on your list? <a href=\"https://twitter.com/jaredcwhite\">Hop on over to Twitter and let me know!</a></p>\n\n\n\n  <br /><p>\n    \n      <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/tag/scifi\">#scifi</a>\n    \n      <a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/tag/movies\">#movies</a>\n    \n  </p>",
        "text": "Once again, it's never been a better time to be a geek and a film buff. Here are my end-of-year top picks\u2026and the results may surprise you!\n\nCan\u2019t say why, but I haven\u2019t done one of these since 2016! So it\u2019s long overdue for me to share my perspective on what was in sum a pretty substantial year for sci-fi nerds like me. As we\u2019re well aware, 2020 sucked for film buffs\u2014between the many release delays and mass closure of movie theaters\u2014so this year was an opportunity to go into nerdgasmic movie overload. Was it worth the wait? Perhaps not in all cases, but I definitely think we got quite a good number of WOW moments in the mix.\n\nI\u2019ll touch on TV briefly towards the end (namely the spate of Disney+/Marvel shows which all launched this year), but for now, let\u2019s start with my fifth movie pick of 2021.\n\n#5: Eternals\n\nI really had no idea what to make of this film before I saw it. The trailers looked\u2026odd\u2026and it seemed so disconnected from anything we\u2019d seen to date in the MCU. I also couldn\u2019t envision the leap from Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s Nomadland (which I loved) to larger-than-life superheroes and pew-pew-pew. But I felt similarly ambivalent about the original Guardians of the Galaxy movie before it came out, and look how awesome that turned out to be.\n\nA lot of the early critic reviews all had a similar refrain which was that Eternals strayed far from the typical Marvel formula and was a very different kind of movie than anything we\u2019d seen before. I think that conclusion was oversold. This is a Marvel movie through-and-through. It just so happens to be a Marvel movie made by Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, so you get that relaxed pacing and moody landscapes and meditative insight into characters\u2019 internal worlds to a degree we\u2019re not accustomed to in a-mile-a-minute action movies. Personally, I loved it. However, the overall story didn\u2019t quite gel in a way that propels this movie higher up the list. While I throughly enjoyed my experience, I ultimately left wanting a lot more from several of the characters. (Guess that\u2019s what Eternals 2 is for, amirite?) Despite that, I can\u2019t wait to rewatch it at home once it lands on Disney+.\n\n#4: Free Guy\n\nThis movie really came out of left field and knocked my socks off. Also my kids\u2019 socks off. They\u2019re chomping at the bit for Free Guy 2 (though at the moment I have no idea if/when that will happen). Ryan Reynolds seems born to play this role every bit as much as Deadpool, and his onscreen partner Jodie Comer shines. In fact, all of the cast is fantastic, and the many sendups of gaming culture, fandom, and the digital world we\u2019re all increasingly living in all landed spectacularly. I\u2019m not sure I can point to another movie that was as throughly entertaining in a comedic way this year. Catchphrase! Witty conclusion to a movie review here!\n\n#3: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings\n\nOK, I definitely agree with the pundits on this one. For a long time Marvel & Kevin Feige had been hyping up Eternals and relegating Shang-Chi to almost a footnote in their lineup, and in the final analysis Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is one of the best comic book movies of all time. I was utterly blown away. This, my friends, is a movie you can point to when somebody asks \u201cwhat\u2019s the big deal with Marvel movies anyway?\u201d\u2026and if they\u2019re still not impressed, there\u2019s simply no hope for them. Nearly every moment in this film is an instant classic. The plot is edge-of-your-seat fabulous. The characters are phenomenal. And I could honestly just watch a whole show with \u201cShaun\u201d and Katy bopping around San Francisco and hitting up karaoke bars. Meng\u2019er Zhang is star material. Tony Chiu-Wai Leung should win an Oscar for supporting actor. Bravo Marvel, bravo.\n\n#2: Dune\n\nDune is a revelation. Having watched it twice in the theaters\u2014once in IMAX\u2014it\u2019s more of an event than a movie. The audio portion alone, where score and sound merge into a singular sonic landscape, is superlative. And the visuals are every bit what you\u2019d expect from director Denis Villeneuve at the height of his powers.\n\nNow I have no real connection to the source material. I never read the book, and I remember once seeing the 80s movie adaptation of Dune and thinking it was utter dreck. So I wasn\u2019t at all eagerly anticipating Dune. I knew a lot of other people were and I was happy for them, but it just wasn\u2019t on my radar. But early reviews came in and were largely effusive, and I\u2019m a megafan of both Arrival (it landed at #4 on my 2016 Top Five list!) and Blade Runner 2049 (w00t!), so I decided to go see Dune almost immediately after it arrived in theaters.\n\nI could honestly just recapitulate my review of Arrival again for Dune:\n\n\n  I left the theater almost in a state of shock because of the nature of the story and the depth of feeling it brought up in me.\n\n\nApparently that\u2019s what Denis Villeneuve productions do\u2026place you in a state of altered consciousness. When I saw the movie for the second time in IMAX, I was with my brother. When we left the theater afterwards, he was speechless. I think he mumbled something to the tune of \u201cthat was incredible\u201d and pretty much left it at that.\n\nDune is a movie which almost defies description. You just need to experience it for yourself. (My only criticism really is the ending and how that fits into the overall narrative\u2026thank the powers that be that Dune Part 2 has been greenlit, because we really, really need that.)\n\n#1: The Matrix Resurrections\n\nIf this were any ordinary year where a new Matrix movie doesn\u2019t exist, Dune would win the #1 spot on my list with flying colors. And to be quite frank, in terms of raw cinematic spectacle and breathtaking filmcraft, The Matrix Resurrections certainly isn\u2019t the best film of the year. That distinction most definitely belongs to Dune\u2014or could be awarded to Eternals or Shang-Chi for that matter.\n\nBut this isn\u2019t any ordinary year, and there is a new Matrix movie. And despite the fact this movie is wildly controversial in a way we probably haven\u2019t seen since Star Wars: The Last Jedi, there\u2019s no doubt in my mind The Matrix Resurrections reigns supreme.\n\nIt is a movie which affected me deeply, and will continue to affect me long into the future. This film is operating on numerous levels simultaneously. It\u2019s even more self-aware than the original Matrix. (I\u2019m not going to use the \u201cm**a\u201d word here because it\u2019s been lazily thrown around to death in reviews already, but yeah, it\u2019s all that.) It messes with you. At times it grabs you and shakes you, and maybe you\u2019re not going to like it. It\u2019s punk. But like it or not, you can\u2019t ignore it.\n\nThere are so many themes in The Matrix Ressurections which resonate with me, but perhaps more than anything else it reminds me of my own life journey out of a fog of confusion and loss of identity within a high-demand religious group (was it a cult? quite possibly!), and the long, gut-wrenching process of reclaiming MY OWN STORY.\n\nWithout giving away major spoilers, this film is the story of Thomas Anderson (aka Neo) coming to grips with reality after being gaslit for far too long. But if you think that sounds just like the original The Matrix of 1999, think again. This is a profoundly different take, and one which I hope to write about at length soon.\n\nIt\u2019s also, as many have stated, a beautiful love story. But I see it as much more than that\u2014yes, there\u2019s a romantic element to it, but it\u2019s not just about the love two people share with each other. It\u2019s about the love of a life well-lived, a life you can explain, a life you can defend, a life which truly matters\u2026in other words, the polar opposite of just going through the motions and doing what everyone else \u201cexpects\u201d you to do and tries to convince you is the only proper path forward.\n\nBugs is awesome and deserves her own spin-off show. There, I said it.\n\nI\u2019ve gone on record that I\u2019m a big fan of the whole Matrix trilogy, and while the second and third films are somewhat of a step down from the original, I love them all. In terms of ranking, I think I place The Matrix Resurrections at #2, higher than Reloaded and Revolutions. It\u2019s a remarkable achievement and a wonderful opportunity to revisit this world and tie all three previous movies together in a fresh and invigorating way.\n\nI explained in my recent Fresh Fusion episode Back to The Matrix just how much The Matrix means to me. It\u2019s my favorite movie of all time, and as such I admit feeling utterly perplexed and just a little angry at the degree to which toxic fandom has descended upon this movie. There are people out there who hate it. And they\u2019re not merely content to state their opinion and move on\u2014they\u2019re out in droves to convince everyone else of how \u201cbad\u201d The Matrix Resurrections is and how you must be a rube to appreciate it in any way. What\u2019s supremely ironic is the movie directly speaks to this phenomenon. It\u2019s almost like the filmmaker (Lana Wachowski) preemptively looked the haters in the eye and gave them the finger. Good for her.\n\nBut whatever. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you hate the movie, you hate it. However, I loved it, and of all the movies in my top 5 list for 2021, I expect to go back to this one the most over and over again, grasping at any one of the numerous story threads and seeing just how far down the rabbit hole goes.\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Make the List\n\nSince it\u2019s both a Marvel movie (though via Sony) and the biggest hit of the year, you may be wondering why on earth I didn\u2019t place Spider-Man: No Way Home on my top 5 list. It\u2019s simple: I wasn\u2019t as impressed by it as the movies listed above. Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I thought it was great. And the fan service was off-the-charts. I couldn\u2019t believe how much they packed into a single movie. It\u2019s quite the spectacle. However, it does play into the sense of comic book tropes galore and \u201ctheme park ride\u201d criticism that sometimes gets lobbed at Marvel movies. This is a very Marvel-y Marvel movie. And to be honest, watching it right before watching The Matrix Resurrections is rather bizarre because the two movies almost seem like they\u2019re in a dialogue with each other. If you\u2019ve seen both, you know exactly what I mean.\n\nBut, as a \u201ctheme park ride\u201d it was worlds of fun.\n\nI also really enjoyed watching A Quiet Place Part II this year (a great way to get back into the theaters again!), as well as the highly-underrated Old by M. Night Shyamalan. But mainly I want to round out this article by giving a very Honorable Mention to Loki. There were many good Sci-Fi shows on TV this year, from Star Trek: Discovery to Foundation to The Expanse (now in its sixth and final season).\n\nBut I was utterly blown away by Loki. Out of all four of the live-action Marvel/MCU shows we got this year, Loki alone felt like it rose above the level of \u201cfun TV show to watch on Disney+\u201d and now rivals the best of the movie canon. Sure, Wandavision was super clever and for a short time entered the zeitgeist of fan speculation, but it was also very weird and strayed from the \u201ctone\u201d of typical Marvel productions way more than Eternals ever did. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was hugely disappointing to me\u2026I simply didn\u2019t enjoy it much at all. And while the recently-concluded Hawkeye is a solid #2 out of all four shows for me, I do think it felt like just another fairly ordinary and somewhat forgettable TV show. But Loki was art, man. It was full of production superlatives. The settings were incredible. The music was fantastic\u2014so epic I listened to the soundtrack all on its own. Tom Hiddleston was in peak form. Owen Wilson stole every scene he was in. The ending was mind-bending and unexpected. More shows like this, please Marvel, pretty please!\n\nSo there you have it: my top 5 favorite Sci-Fi movies (and a TV show!) of 2021. Hopefully you\u2019ll hear back from me on this topic sooner than 2026! \ud83d\ude02\n\nWhat\u2019s on your list? Hop on over to Twitter and let me know!\n\n\n\n  \n\n    \n      #scifi\n    \n      #movies"
    },
    "name": "My Top 5 Sci-Fi Films of 2021",
    "post-type": "article",
    "_id": "26119625",
    "_source": "2783"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-28T21:21:10+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/cleverdevil/status/1475939906723532801",
    "content": {
        "text": "What are the odds that the CFP semifinal games actually happen? I am betting at least one of them gets cancelled."
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jonathan LaCour",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/cleverdevil",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1428891351014285317/zGK22rDG.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26118231",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-28T20:03:41+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/jaredcwhite/status/1475920407920218113",
    "content": {
        "text": "2020 sucked for film buffs\u2014between the many release delays and mass closure of movie theaters\u2014so this year was an opportunity to go into nerdgasmic movie overload. Was it worth the wait?!\n\nRead my Top 5 Sci-Fi movies list\u2026the results may surprise you! \ud83d\ude05\n\njaredwhite.com/articles/my-to\u2026",
        "html": "2020 sucked for film buffs\u2014between the many release delays and mass closure of movie theaters\u2014so this year was an opportunity to go into nerdgasmic movie overload. Was it worth the wait?!\n\nRead my Top 5 Sci-Fi movies list\u2026the results may surprise you! \ud83d\ude05\n\n<a href=\"https://jaredwhite.com/articles/my-top-5-scifi-films-of-2021\">jaredwhite.com/articles/my-to\u2026</a>"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Jared White \ud83d\udd2e",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/jaredcwhite",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1431863008288931841/hsLQJBv4.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26116565",
    "_source": "2773"
}

{
    "type": "entry",
    "published": "2021-12-28T19:13:46+00:00",
    "url": "https://twitter.com/tinysubversions/status/1475907849406451712",
    "content": {
        "text": "Having \"finished\" Inscryption I have a lot to say about it, mixed good and bad. The highs were very high and the lows were excruciatingly boring. If I write about it it'll probably be on my blog where I can spoiler warning bc this is a game that can only partly withstand spoilers"
    },
    "author": {
        "type": "card",
        "name": "Darius Kazemi",
        "url": "https://twitter.com/tinysubversions",
        "photo": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1355952735921692673/XVIen_1n.jpg"
    },
    "post-type": "note",
    "_id": "26115690",
    "_source": "2773"
}