Hurricane Irene, photos and media follies

The wind and rain died down enough by this evening for me to take these photos of Hurricane tropical storm Irene departing Long Island. Reports suggested that the storm would hit New York much fiercer than it did, although areas of southern Long Island and NYC sustained heavy flooding and power outages that have luckily not affected my town.

As the storm hit, I found myself resorting to an activity that I rarely partake in: watching real-time, local TV news. The problem with 24-hour coverage of a single issue is that only about 1 hour of "news" ever exists, so much of the time was spent investigating hurricane parties and apocalyptic hoarders. The natural phenomena of the tropical storm is trumped only by the human spectacle. Supermarkets, convenience stores and gas stations will certainly agree, with up to 200% increases in profits this weekend, according to a local source.

Twitter turned out to be a moderately more useful fountain of information (local and regional), but it also helped to transmit some items of misinformation exponentially faster than the network news outlets. The most annoying example of this came from images of the storm and its aftermath (e.g. flooded subways and tunnels) that were clearly photoshopped or taken from old and entirely unrelated sources. Some of my most "reliable" Twitter people/organizations tweeted without verifying, and moments later would have to send a follow-up tweet apologizing for being lured in by a dramatic or shocking image too good to pass up.

So how are we supposed to know whether a photo is legitimate or not? One way is to look at the Exif data (metadata attached to nearly all digital photos that can tell us the time, date taken and other attributes, see here for a brief how-to). Another useful tip for helping to verify the provenance and authenticity of images is by using a reverse image search like TinEye, a quick online tool that will show you "where an image came from, how it is being used, [and] if modified versions of the image exist". If you're an anthropologist interested in digital media, a web/graphic designer, archivist or other online researcher, you might just find the tool indispensable. These days, we expect mainstream media to get it wrong and social media fans are the first to stress the importance of fact-checking presumed truths. It just takes a moment before you blog, re-blog or re-tweet to save having to retract.

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How has technology affected the riots in England? [video]

Click the image above to jump to the video.

There's a lot of commentary about the UK riots at present and it's odd for me to view England from afar after so many years there. In the wake of other protests around the world, much ado is again being made about the power of social media in these circumstances. This video aptly covers some of the pertinent bases. Will the UK shut down any communication channels? Would/will it help or hurt efforts to curtail the violence? As much as social media clearly plays a role in organizing rioting mobs, to me one of the most anthropologically significant aspects of this unfolding drama is the volunteer clean-up effort. As seen from the USA, the anti-rioters' organized street-cleaning constitutes a most peculiarly British English counter-expression of frustration and response to the helplessness.

via >Click (BBC News), who prevent the embedding of this video for no fathomable reason. What gives?

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Links of the Day #13

This collection of links has been gathering dust since February. I'm hoping to get back into the practice of blogging more often. It's not that I haven't had things to blog about; since finishing my PhD and returning to the US, my usual internet routine has become anything but. Some of these stories are no longer timely, but nifty nonetheless. Time seems to be dragging on and flying by at the same time. I'll do my best over the upcoming weeks to clear my backlog of posts.

12 Fun & Clever Examples of HTML5 | Inspiration Posted: 14 Feb 2011 04:28 PM PST Fantastic HTML 5 sites and apps to experiment with. BLDGBLOG: Buy a Tube Station Posted: 16 Feb 2011 08:38 PM PST For those of you in London, Feb 14th was your last opportunity to stop by the old Shoreditch Tube Station for a scheduled viewing: the whole thing is up for sale, listed at £180,000. Update: Too late, it sold for £665,000. Digital Age Is Slow to Arrive in Rural America Posted: 18 Feb 2011 06:23 AM PST As the world embraces its digital age — two billion people now use the Internet regularly — the line delineating two Americas has become more broadly drawn. There are those who have reliable, fast access to the Internet, and those, like about half of the 27,867 people in Clarke County, who do not. In rural America, only 60 percent of households use broadband Internet service. That is 10 percent less than urban households. Over all, 28 percent of Americans do not use the Internet at all. Mid East battle of the sociologists - Al Jazeera English Posted: 16 Mar 2011 10:26 AM PDT A new phalanx of anthropologist-warriors are being recruited, carrying "cultural scripts" to battle. 8 technology revolutions that are now relics Posted: 01 Apr 2011 04:28 PM PDT They were cool at the time. DeepDyve - Research. Rent. Read. Posted: 07 Apr 2011 06:08 AM PDT "Save up to 90%" on the cost of academic journal articles by renting them? Students and academics who lose their library access between periods of academic affiliation might (unfortunately) find this service useful. But even "as little as $0.99" per article can add up. It's a Buyers' Market! Posted: 27 Apr 2011 01:27 PM PDT Edward and Dianna Peden had a dream: a dream of living underground in a concrete tomb with 2,000-pound blast doors separating them from the outside world. So they bought and refurbished the Atlas E missile site outside Topeka, KS and moved in. Google’s secret perk? A private hackerspace - Hack a Day Posted: 27 Apr 2011 01:19 PM PDT Working for Google has always had many perks, and most of them are pretty well known. Google employees enjoy free food, on-site workout facilities, and one free day a week to work on whatever they like – but you knew that already. One Google perk however, has been kept pretty quiet until just recently. Google has provided a hackerspace on their campus for about four years now, which is open to any employee that meets some pretty strict requirements. A written test is given before an employee can access the facilities, and even then they must be deemed worthy of working on particular pieces of equipment. TED Blog | 100 Websites You Should Know and Use Posted: 06 May 2011 01:18 PM PDT The Web is constantly turning out new and extraordinary services many of us are unfamiliar with. During TED University at this spring's TED2007 in Monterey, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, offered an ultra-fast-moving ride through sites in many different areas, from art, design and illustration, to daily news, blogs and curiosity. Bibliography | DMLcentral Posted: 06 May 2011 12:41 PM PDT Digital Media and Learning resources The Slow-Motion Mobile Campus - The Digital Campus Posted: 12 May 2011 11:52 AM PDT Stanford should have hired an ethnographer first: "When Stanford's School of Medicine lent iPads to all new students last August, a curious thing happened: Many didn't like using them in class. Officials had hoped to stop printing an annual average of 3,700 pages of course materials per medical student, encouraging them to use digital materials instead. Some students rebelled, and Stanford was forced to resume offering printed notes to those who wanted them. In most classes, half the students had stopped using their iPads only a few weeks into the term." Stanford, I'm available if you'd like some ethnographic insight next time.

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