We covered as much as we could in an hour using three focus areas as jumping off points – the history of fake news, the impact of social media, and finishing up with some ideas on how to spot fake news – but the reality is that we could’ve easily spent a day looking at all the different aspects of the topic.
We touched on most of these in passing but it would’ve been useful to get into greater detail about the political impact of fake news, the role of fake accounts and bots, the psychology of why people are susceptible to fake news (and which people are most susceptible), the role and limits of skepticism, the possibility that the library, in its goal to not make judgements about people’s information needs might be complicit in spreading fake news.
Shea and I were both off Friday and with Pace in school, we did one of our annual traditions, putting Sasha in daycare and spending the day doing Christmas shopping, having lunch out together at a nice restaurant, and running a few other errands (eg. passing a bunch of Sasha’s clothes that she’s outgrown to a family friend who have a younger girl.)
We got home mid-afternoon and started wrapping presents but it was getting close to Pace’s home time so I went out to intercept him and then him and I walked over to pick up Sasha at her daycare centre which is a few blocks from our house while Shea finished wrapping a few final things.
After we picked up Sasha, as we sometimes do since the strip mall near our house has a convenience store, the three of us stopped in for treats.
There are a few choices out there but this trailer makes me think “The Public” might be the best library-themed movie ever, in part because it appears to address so many of the issues we deal with in the library every day – homelessness, community engagement and creating a welcoming space, the library’s relationship to other agencies and the government, and big picture questions about what is the library’s role as a public space and how libraries can be seen as the embodiment of democracy in society.
Shea made us a very tasty Christmas-themed drink this past weekend featuring peppermint vodka, toffee cream liqueur and chocolate-flavoured whiskey along with a rimmer of melted After 8 peppermint chocolates and crushed candy cane.
We didn’t name the drink but I’m going to suggest “Christmas Star” since it certainly was a star of our weekend. 😉
I thought I’d do it again this year and have lots of ideas for this year’s series from a MetaFilter thread looking at the Wham song “Last Christmas” as well as various other songs (“Little Drummer Boy“, “Wonderful Christmastime“) that people are using as a fun personal challenge to see if they can make it through December without hearing their chosen song.
Personally, there isn’t too much Christmas music I don’t like and so I’m likely to fail any challenges I take on as I’ll listen to Christmas music, good or bad, non-stop all month.
Last night, I literally had a playlist that streamed “Last Christmas” *followed by* “Wonderful Christmastime”. Then, after that, I purposely looked up “Little Drummer Boy” by Ringo Starr because Ringo! 🙂
Anyhow, in the spirit of that challenge, here’s my first December “Music Monday” song…
Stumbled across this video on Reddit but thought it was an appropriate post as Shea informs me her and her parents are buying some farm-direct beef from her uncle.
I read with great interest the Down Goes Brown column about “The 20 Stages of Realizing Your NHL Team Is Terrible” which made me realise that Oilers fans must be at “Stage 13 – The Soul-Crushing Loss” which happened last night when the Oilers, tied 4-4 with about a minute to go, ended up having one of their defenseman blast the puck into his own net accidentally. Even worse? The guilty Oiler is a former Flame – Kris Russell.
