3 NYT links: the ways in which the world disintegrates and is rebuilt

[rebeccmeister]

I am trying to close some browser tabs. I kind of miss that time when my browser crashed so often that I had to deal with browser tabs right away.

The story of Lower Manhattan and efforts to save it from the sea: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/02/us/hurricane-sandy-lower-manhattan-nyc.html

This has some interesting insights into public involvement in urban planning.

Politics in school board meetings vs. the actual crises currently in schools: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/us/central-bucks-school-board-politics-pennsylvania.html

The destruction of the book by the hegemonic online retailer: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/03/technology/amazon-bookstore.html

This last one addresses some of the general collapse of online retail. I just wonder where we go from here.

Comments

[altamira16]

“Amazon knows what I buy, how often I buy, what I search for,” Mr. Kaziukenas said. “But decades after it launched, it can’t answer a simple question — what would Juozas like to buy? Instead it shows me thousands of deals, with some basic filters like category and price, and hopes I will find what I like. Amazon is so much work.”

Machine learning is harder than we have been led to believe.

A lot of these companies have not hired many people in cases where they should have hired many people. Instead, they wanted to save the money and magic away the people with technology. It does not work that way. Also, some people lead you to believe that robots are doing the work so you don't really think about how cheap something is and how it relies so much on low-cost labor.

[altamira16]

Thank you for the story about to save Lower Manhattan. Someone I know on Twitter (who I knew through the hackerspace movement) has been noisy about that. He has been on the side of saving East River Park. My sister said those communities are wealthy and may be able to pull it off.

It is weird because they sound so very NIMBY that I gave up and quit following them, but I can see how getting your trees cut down could be upsetting.

[twoeleven]

I just wonder where we go from here.
If the Biden administration and various states' attorneys general have their way, the Great Dismal Marsh online retailer will soon resemble a kid's mud puddle. ;>

[rebeccmeister]

Do you think they'll have the guts (and wallets) to follow through?

[twoeleven]

These folks seem pretty serious about smacking big tech. The article doesn't mention Great Dismal Swamp specifically, but other pieces about Lina Khan's goals in running the FTC have.