robocall, robocaller, SNS (Social Networking Service), Do-Not-Call list

Major Phone Service Providers Agree to Plan to Slow Robocallers

By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD

Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and nine other phone service providers reached a deal with 51 attorneys general across the country to install call-blocking technology. But the deal doesn’t have a deadline.

MIT Technology Review


Criminal telephone spammers can get through because it's become so easy to evade U.S. law enforcement.








If you’ve been getting a lot of robocalls lately, it’s because the Do-Not-Call list doesn’t work anymore
Illegal robocalls that try to scam you out of money are flourishing. Can the…
TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM



朝日新聞（The Asahi Shimbun）
フェイスブック社は２９日、自殺を防ぐための新たな運用を日本語版で始めました。自傷行為や自殺をほのめかす投稿があった場合、見た人が同社に通告し、相談窓口の連絡先などが投稿者の画面に表示される仕組みです。

フェイスブック、自殺防ぐ仕組み　日本語版で運用開始：朝日新聞デジタル


ＳＮＳ大手のフェイスブック社は２９日、自殺を防ぐための新たな運用を日本語版で始めた。自…
ASAHI.COM




The Wall Street Journal
Robocalls—those pre-recorded, unwanted phone calls—are at a record high. How you can fight back against them, and why it matters:

How to Stop the Robocall Uprising
ON.WSJ.COM









As intrusive pre-recorded calls to your home phone and smartphone reach record highs, Joanna Stern looks at how you can try to fight back with services like Nomorobo and Hiya.

How to Stop Robocalls … or at Least Fight Back

Over 10 billion robocalls have been placed to U.S. phones since the start of 2016, according to YouMail.

ON.WSJ.COM|作者：JOANNA STERN

SNS

Social networking service - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service

A social networking service is a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who share similar personal and career interests, activities, ...

America is losing the battle against robocalls. 3.4bn were blasted out in April alone

翻譯年糕

Americans are “mad as hell” at the rise of robocalls

Fraudsters persist regardless of the consequences

ECONOMIST.COM

robocall 

Pronunciation: /ˈrəʊbəʊkɔːl/ 

NOUN

US

An automated telephone call which delivers a recorded message, typically on behalf of a political party or telemarketing company.

Example sentences

Origin

1990s: blend of robot and call.

Promoconomy促銷經濟

Welcome to the Promoconomy - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/.../welcome-to-the-promocono...

 - このページを訳す

2 日前 - In the competitive online marketplace, coupon codes and loyalty programs are ubiquitous. But at what cost?

歡迎來到「促銷經濟」時代- 紐約時報中文網

每日一詞 | Promoconomy：歡迎來到“促銷經濟”時代

“雙十一”、“雙十二”、”618購物節”、季末優惠、節日特惠......是不是感覺一年365天都被各種各樣的打折和優惠佔據？沒錯，這是因為你進入了一個“促銷經濟”新時代。

Promoconomy一詞由promo（推廣、促銷）和economy（經濟）組合而成。時報一篇文章中寫道 ：“這一代人對網上購物的偏愛、經濟衰退中的打折狂潮、緊巴巴的收入和學生貸款債務之下尋求折扣的必要性，以及亞馬遜的主導地位都是構建人們可能稱之為'促銷經濟'的因素。”

不過，人們在享受低廉的價格的同時，也可能需要付出一些代價。上文中引述了一名高管的看法：未來成功的促銷活動將更加精細，隨時提供與購物者最為相關的內容——往往是通過商家從社交平台上購買數據、獲取購物者大量信息的方式。這或許意味著，在不久的將來，我們可能得在“撿便宜”和保護隱私之間做出選擇。

Eurocrat. no-deal Brexi miscalculations

Boris Johnson is increasing preparations for no-deal, hoping to force the EU into compromises. He is miscalculating

ECONOMIST.COM

Eurocrats know Boris Johnson well, making no-deal Brexit more likely

A Eurocrat (a portmanteau of "European" and "bureaucrat") is "a staff member of the administrative commission of the European Union"^[1] or more broadly, any official of the European Union.^[2] The term was coined by Richard Mayne, a journalist and personal assistant to the first Commission president, Walter Hallstein, in 1961.^[1][3][4]

There are three main types of Eurocrats. First, Political Appointees, such as the European Commissioners, the Members of the European parliament. Secondly there are fonctionnaires, these are the permanent staff which form the majority of the European institutions. There are two categories of fonctionnaires Assistants and Administrators. Assistants perform a "secretarial" roles while administrators perform more policy or managerial responsibilities. The third category is the contractual agents. Contractual agents do not have an employment contract with the same conditions as the fonctionnaires. Their first job contract is limited in duration, however after several renewals this can be extended permanently. Eurocrats come from all member states of the European Union. EPSO is the main body which selects staff for recruitment to the European Institutions.

Nowadays the term Eurocrat has come to encompass staff from all EU Institutions and not only staff from the European Commission.

Although the term Eurocrat might convey negative connotations for some, specialists of European Union and its institutions Didier Georgagakakis and Jay Rowell use the concept of Eurocracy^[5] as a way to describe and analyse EU actors and professionals interactions.

disinformation: China accused of spreading disinformation on Hong Kong: misinformation

China accused of spreading disinformation on Hong Kong

Facebook and Twitter said they found evidence that China had been waging an information war, and the social media sites took down accounts that were spreading false information about the demonstrations in Hong Kong.... From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search Graphic showing differences between (deliberate) disinformation, unintentional misinformation, and hoaxaccording to Wikimedia Research Disinformation is false information spread deliberately to deceive.[1][2][3]. This is a subset of misinformation, which also may be unintentional. The English word disinformation is a loan translation of the Russian dezinformatsiya,[1][2][3] derived from the title of a KGB black propagandadepartment.[4] Joseph Stalin coined the term, giving it a French-sounding name to claim it had a Western origin.[1] Russian use began with a "special disinformation office" in 1923.[5] Disinformation was defined in Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1952) as "false information with the intention to deceive public opinion".[1][2][6] Operation INFEKTION was a Soviet disinformation campaign to influence opinion that the U.S. invented AIDS.[1][6][7] The U.S. did not actively counter disinformation until 1980, when a fake document reported that the U.S. supported apartheid.[8] The word disinformation did not appear in English dictionaries until the late-1980s.[1][2] English use increased in 1986, after revelations that the Reagan Administration engaged in disinformation against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.[9] By 1990 it was pervasive in U.S. politics;[10] and by 2001 referred generally to lying and propaganda.[11][12] Contents 1Etymology and early usage 2Defections reveal covert operations 3Post Soviet-era Russian disinformation 4English language spread 5Analysis 6See also 7References 8Further reading 9External links Etymology and early usage[edit] The English word disinformation, which did not appear in dictionaries until the late-1980s, is a translation of the Russian дезинформация, transliterated as dezinformatsiya.[2][6][1] Where misinformation refers to inaccuracies that stem from error, disinformation is deliberate falsehood promulgated by design.[4] Misinformation can be used to define disinformation—when known misinformation is purposefully and intentionally disseminated.[13] Front groups are a form of disinformation, as they fraudulently mislead as to their actual controllers.[14]Disinformation tactics can lead to blowback, unintended negative problems due to the strategy, for example defamation lawsuits or damage to reputation.[14] Disinformation is primarily prepared by government intelligence agencies.[15] ****比較 Orwell: In a particularly ironic twist, Amazon’s virtual bookstore has seen an explosion of counterfeit digital versions of “1984,” “Animal Farm” and the author’s other famous works that have been edited and rewritten, becoming a form of misinformation themselves.

Neon 霓虹(燈), Georges Claude, Rubik’s Cube

秋惠文庫 Formosa Vintage Museum

《美麗的霓虹、涼爽的電扇、明亮家庭常愉悅、明亮店面常繁昌》日本時代花蓮港電氣株式會社廣告




Hong Kong Free Press HKFP








HKFP_Lens: Canadian photographer Greg Girard debuts a collection showing the underside of the city that he lived in for 15 years. From neon-lit streets in Tsim Sha Tsui to dive bars in Wan Chai to the hotel rooms of the soldiers and sailors who frequented them.





















HKFP Lens: Greg Girard's nocturnal wanderings in Hong Kong, 1974-1989 | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP


HONGKONGFP.COM










Neon is a chemical element with symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas.[10] Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton and xenon) in 1898 as one of the three residual rare inert elements remaining in dry air, after nitrogen, oxygen, argon and carbon dioxide were removed. Neon was the second of these three rare gases to be discovered, and was immediately recognized as a new element from its bright red emission spectrum. The name neon is derived from the Greek word, νέον, neuter singular form of νέος (neos), meaning new. Neon is chemically inert and forms no uncharged chemical compounds. The compounds of neon include ionic molecules, molecules held together by van der Waals forces and clathrates.

Back Story

Alamy

We start today on a bright note. Neon, specifically.

When Georges Claude, above, discovered a mechanism for trapping gas in a tube and zapping it with electricity, he turned the ordinary extraordinary.

Claude, who died on this date in 1960, demonstrated his invention at the Paris Motor Show in 1910 with two 40-foot neon tubes that glowed a brilliant red. Two years later  he installed the first neon advertising sign in a Parisian barbershop on the Boulevard Montmartre.

Neon signage made it to the United States in the early 1920s by way of a Los Angeles car dealership. Bigger and brighter, it turned out, was better.

“Every business in the nation that wanted to be perceived as modern in that Art Deco era had to have neon,” a neon preservationist and historian told The Times.

By the late 1960s, neon was on the outs as the first lady Lady Bird Johnson started a national “beautification” campaign and communities passed anti-neon laws. Neon flickered back to life in the 1980s, but made a strong return in the 2000s in the United States. In Hong Kong, a city known for its glow, neon lights have slowly dimmed in recent years.

Just as quickly as neon dies out, it can turn back on.

Remy Tumin wrote today’s Back Story.

喬治·克洛德發現了一個辦法，能夠將氣體堵在管子裡，通上電之後，平淡就化為了神奇——霓虹燈。

克洛德在1960年的今天去世，他在1910年的巴黎車展上，用兩個40英尺、閃著耀眼紅光的霓虹管展示了這一發明。兩年後，他在蒙馬特大道的一家巴黎理髮店安裝了世界上的第一塊霓虹廣告牌。

「在那個裝飾藝術的時代，美國每個不想被視為脫離時代的營業場所，都必須得有霓虹燈，」一名霓虹燈保護主義者、歷史學家告訴時報。

霓虹燈的輝煌與沒落

霓虹燈的發明人喬治·克洛德在1960年的今天去世。由於閃亮的特性，這一發明後來作為廣告牌被廣泛應用。但在世界各地，霓虹燈經歷了風靡一時又漸漸被摒棄的命運。

CN.NYTIMES.COM

More images

Rubik's Cube

Rubik's Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik.Wikipedia

李國偉在數學與藝術 Math and Art 中分享了 1 條連結。

德國半導體大廠英飛凌（Infineon）做了一個機器人 Sub 1，創下在 0.637 秒鐘解開魔術方塊（Rubik’s Cube）的世界紀錄。影片中，先是即時顯現，後為慢動作。

0.637 seconds - a new Rubik's Cube machine world record!

Infineon chips helped breaking the current Rubik's Cube machine world record of 0.89 seconds - the new world record set by our Sub1 high…

YOUTUBE.COM