Tidbits - May 28, 2015 - California Oil Spill; Baltimore; Bernie; Waco White Riot; Freedom for Oscar López Rivera New York - May 30; and more...

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Reader Comments - California Oil Spill; Baltimore; Bernie Sanders Campaign; Waco and White Riot; Freedom for Oscar López Rivera - New York March May 30; Why Libraries Matter; Cold War Modernist; Announcements - Last Cold War Spycase - film showing - Washington - June 7; National Healthcare Strategy Conference in Chicago Oct. 30 Today in History - The Paris Commune - 144 Years Ago; Today Marks 5 Years in Confinement for Chelsea Manning

Ensnaring Kids in 'Advertising Empire'

Child advocates charge that Google's YouTube Kids app, marketed as family-friendly and child-appropriate, is in fact neither, featuring "disturbing" and "potentially harmful" content.

books

Culture After Google

Emilie Bickerton New Left Review
Anatomy of a cultural product with the potential to ameliorate social inequities but threatened by digital corporate conglomeration and hijacking by the security state. Book covers the implications for cultural democracy in various sectors-music, film, news, advertising-how battles over copyright, piracy and privacy laws have evolved, counterpoints to invasive data-mining and a "People's Platform" supporting the politics of a fightback.

Search Warrants Against WikiLeaks Staff: Justice Department, Google & US Media Silence Threaten Press Freedom

Kevin Gosztola Firedoglake
As of 10:30 PM EST, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, NBC News, CNN and other outlets had not published any reports. The legal precedents created as the government pursues WikiLeaks are the same legal precedents that can always be used to go after other journalists in the future. American journalists maintain their collective silence at their profession’s own peril.

As Hollywood Funds a SOPA Revival Through State Officials, Google (And The Internet) Respond

Parker Higgins Electronic Frontier Foundation
A coordinated campaign by the Motion Picture Association of America follows a trend of lobbyists funneling money and gifts to state attorneys general, who are subject to fewer restrictions and disclosure requirements than elected officials at the national level. Google is the target today, but the real target is the open Internet, which depends on free and uncensored platforms to survive.
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