http://donaldbarclay.com/BLOG RSSFri, 10 Dec 2021 23:33:30 GMTFri, 10 Dec 2021 23:33:30 GMThttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/bumper-sticker-philosophy-quotations-and-checking-the-factsThe attribution of pithy comments to historic figures is something you see all the time in social media. But before you nod your head in agreement, it pays to check the facts first.Fri, 17 Mar 2023 20:48:50http://donaldbarclay.com/home/bumper-sticker-philosophy-quotations-and-checking-the-factshttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/igniting-a-makarov-cocktailStarting on or about February 13, 2023, a number of news outlets announced the suspicious suicide death of Major General Vladimir Makarov, allegedly a former Putin insider who had run afoul of the Russian establishment. However, it looks like the story may be a hoax.Thu, 23 Feb 2023 19:17:27http://donaldbarclay.com/home/igniting-a-makarov-cocktailhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/banned-from-facebook-againI got banned from Facebook because algorithms are dumb and Facebook Community standards are more absurd than anything Franz Kafka ever dreamed up.Thu, 15 Dec 2022 19:09:31http://donaldbarclay.com/home/banned-from-facebook-againhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/how-i-violated-community-standardsFacebook bounced me twice in the last two months for the crime of violating community standards. It's us meat puppets versus the machines.Sat, 19 Nov 2022 00:25:05http://donaldbarclay.com/home/how-i-violated-community-standardshttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/acting-authenticity-and-political-adsPoliticians go to great lengths to broadcast an image of themselves that feels authentic. Deciding who is authentic and who is fake is not as clear cut as it may seem.Fri, 21 Oct 2022 22:45:55http://donaldbarclay.com/home/acting-authenticity-and-political-adshttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/virtue-wordsFreedom is a "virtue word" we hear all the time. Even if we are strongly in favor of freedom, or any other virtue, it pays to think carefully about what those using virtue words actually mean.Tue, 20 Sep 2022 18:04:12http://donaldbarclay.com/home/virtue-wordshttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/put-the-blame-on-blameBlaming others often makes us feel better about ourselves, but blame is like anger in that it almost never solves any actual problems. Seeing that blame casting is so ingrained in our digital information universe, what can anyone do to not give into the easy and self-satisfying fix of blaming someone else?Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:09:24http://donaldbarclay.com/home/put-the-blame-on-blamehttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/about-the-size-of-itWhy is it so easy for some people to reject scientific consensus and so hard to change their minds when they do? Some thoughts on the matter. And if I am proven wrong, I'm willing to change my mind.Sat, 16 Jul 2022 04:26:16http://donaldbarclay.com/home/about-the-size-of-ithttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/yang-and-yinAnother post that's not directly focused on information. What follows is my highly personal, limited perspective take on what I experienced during my twenty years of service to the University of California, Merced.Fri, 01 Jul 2022 23:31:26http://donaldbarclay.com/home/yang-and-yinhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/multiple-causationI recently listened to a podcast that got me thinking about a concept known as multiple causation1 and the way that failing to consider that any given behavior or phenomenon may be the result of more than a single cause is so often an element of both propagandistic and partisan communications.Hosted by a serious car lover with a long career in automotive journalism, the podcast that got me going down the path of multiple causation opens with the host discussing the rear-engine,Sat, 18 Jun 2022 21:06:11http://donaldbarclay.com/home/multiple-causationhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/new-books-network-interviewCheck out my conversation with Marci Mazzarotto, faculty in Digital Communication at Georgian Court University, about my book Disinformation: The Nature of Fact and Lies in the Post-Truth Era. And just in case you missed it, in June 2020 Marci and I had a lively conversation about my book Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain-Old Lies.Tue, 31 May 2022 20:45:13http://donaldbarclay.com/home/new-books-network-interviewhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/u-a-p-party-in-the-u-s-aOn May 17, 2022, the United States Congress commenced its first hearings on Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (UAPs a.k.a. UFOs) since 1969, the year during which human beings first set foot on the moon.1 As an exercise in creating transparency through the sharing of information, the hearings seemed doomed from the start. Any proceeding that fell short of trotting out a reptilian Gorn from Tau Lacertae IX and allowing him to publicly testify as to how he has been holed up in a hanger in Area 51 forWed, 25 May 2022 17:45:51http://donaldbarclay.com/home/u-a-p-party-in-the-u-s-ahttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/as-we-may-come-to-think-how-digital-technology-changes-the-way-we-thinkA "studio version" of a talk I gave on May 3, 2022 at the request of the UC Merced Center for the Humanities. This talk is based on chapter four of Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-Truth Culture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW2ZNSMezAYThu, 05 May 2022 02:15:44http://donaldbarclay.com/home/as-we-may-come-to-think-how-digital-technology-changes-the-way-we-thinkhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/digital-utopias-lost-how-the-conflicting-dreams-from-the-dawn-of-cyberspace-divergedHere is the link to the recording of a Faculty Author Series talk I presented at UC Merced Library on April 5, 2022. The topic is "How the Conflicting Dreams from the Dawn of Cyberspace Diverged,"  chapter three of Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-Truth Era. Notes:During the presentation I display an image of a Bitcoin but twice refer to it as "Bitnet." My mistake. I show clips from two videos that, for copyright reasons, are not included in the YouTube recordingTue, 26 Apr 2022 15:56:09http://donaldbarclay.com/home/digital-utopias-lost-how-the-conflicting-dreams-from-the-dawn-of-cyberspace-divergedhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/disinformation-is-outMy book Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-Truth Era is now available for purchase. Disinformation is available from the usual online booksellers (Amazon, Barnes Nobel) and bookstores. If  you order the book directly from Roman Littlefield and use the code RLFANDF30, you will get a 30% discount. About the BookDoes the idea of a world in which facts mean nothing cause anxiety? Fear? Maybe even paranoia? Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-TruthWed, 23 Mar 2022 22:53:02http://donaldbarclay.com/home/disinformation-is-outhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/black-licoriceVersions of the following joke have been popping up on social media every October for the last few years:FDA issues warning about black licorice for Halloween.“It tastes like shit.”–The FDA1Judging by what shows up on the shelves of just about any convenience store, grocery, or bodega, a significant percentage of the population does not think that black licorice “tastes like shit.” The ebony-colored candy is popular enough that supplies of it are readily found alongside the Snickers, KitSat, 19 Mar 2022 20:13:24http://donaldbarclay.com/home/black-licoricehttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/the-frankfurt-philosophyHarry G. Frankfurt, professor emeritus of philosophy at Princeton University, is a scholar who specializes in such topics as moral philosophy and freedom of the will. His long list of publications includes “On Bullshit,” a remarkable scholarly paper originally published in 1986.1 Though for years "On Bullshit" was known only among Frankfurt's fellow philosophers, it became a surprise bestseller when republished as a book in 2005.2 I highly recommend Frankfurt's book to those who are interestedTue, 22 Feb 2022 00:02:35http://donaldbarclay.com/home/the-frankfurt-philosophyhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/l-s-m-f-tUnited States Senator Orrin Hatch:“So, how do you sustain a business model in which users don’t pay for your services?”Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg:"Senator, we run ads.”1LGBTQ is one of those initialisms I often struggle to recall, sometimes omitting a letter or getting them in the wrong order. The reason for this is embarrassing. You see, whenever I try to recall L-G-B-T-Q, the letters L-S-M-F-T grab the wheel and steer my brain and tongue in their direction.WhySat, 22 Jan 2022 18:50:26http://donaldbarclay.com/home/l-s-m-f-thttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/that-book-is-worth-how-much(This post is not exactly on the topic of fake news or disinformation, but books remain an important source of information, so why not? It's [GOLLUM VOICE] my precious [END GOLLUM VOICE] little blog, after all. To put my cards on the table, while I know more about book values than the average bear, I am by no means an expert book appraiser, a profession that takes years of study and practice to master.)Q: What are the top three things that people are eager to give away for free? A: Puppies,Mon, 10 Jan 2022 17:37:01http://donaldbarclay.com/home/that-book-is-worth-how-muchhttp://donaldbarclay.com/home/rumble-em-rightTwo days after Christmas 2021 I saw Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story on the big screen, my first visit to a movie theater since seeing Knives Out in early December 2019. A long cinematic dry spell, to be sure. On this recent outing I was accompanied by my twenty-year-old daughter, a dyed-in-the-wool theater kid who was seeing Spielberg’s version of West Side Story for the third time in less than two weeks. By the time the credits rolled, I was convinced I had just seen a masterpiece:Thu, 30 Dec 2021 19:54:34http://donaldbarclay.com/home/rumble-em-right