In the Country of Facebook- Hey, Wait a Minute- Facebook is Not a Country

Facebook is not a country. The exponential math of the internet that creates its expansive unlimited access to anonymous individuals makes it seem like one at times. It is a corporation, that lives or dies by the money it makes. Just like corporations that made products that later were identified as dangerous like agent Orange, Thalidomide, the Corvair, or DDT, Facebook has been slow to acknowledge the damage of its product. Mark Zuckerberg hinted at that evasion during the 2016 Election season when, as questions arose about deceptive Facebook political messaging, he went Live posting Himself smoking a goat on his patio. Get it?

On the Fresh Air episode, "For Facebook Content Moderators, Traumatizing Material is a Job Hazard", a Silicon Valley journalist plumbed Facebook's nascent acknowledgement of its product's dangers. They have hired $15.00 an hour Quality Analysts to delete unacceptable posts. having noticed that, yes, human beings use words and images to verbally abuse and exploit others and posture power. It is almost like they now enter into Moral Sensibility Media. Of course, limiting abusive content posts is only part of the problem. Passive bystanders who see the post, absorb the image or words, are part of the damage Facebook creates. The passive bystander murderers in Myanmar , remember, were perpetrators Facebook could not control because looking does not create a digital stamp that tells you which individual's awareness was invaded by the post. The boundaries of hearing, receiving are not addressed by merely making decisions about good or bad posts and those analysts are not being veted as "universal moral arbiters". The power of Third Reich that drove the Holocast also came from the proliferation of anti-Jewish messages paraded in front of passive bystanders who when they received it, were effected and/or damaged by it.

Now they play catch-up. Their sea of minimum wage-earning auditors are tasked with - what in another breath- Facebook suggests requires "Supreme Court-like" profound thinking . The journalist said "...While we pay these folks as if the work is low-skill labor.. it [requires] very high-skilled labor because they are making these very nuanced judgemnts about the boundaries of speech in the Internet..." . The journalist said " Not all of [the content] is benign though] because it turns out, "[For the content reviewers] there is something traumatizing about vewing these images. .." "There is no policy that can account for every imaginable variation.. [of a violent, pornographic, and hate-speech laden Facebook posts]. " "My hope is...by devolving some of the power these tech companies have back to the people,,,we can bring some semblance of democracy to what will always remain private companies..." .." And here is the kicker "I think we're really kind of having one of the great reckonings over free speech globally that we've had in a long time. And there isn't one great answer. it's always a question of, how are you going to manage all of the trade-offs?'

Identifying "freedom of speech" as the liberty on the line ignores the abusive impact on the passive bystander. People have suicided after reading Facebook posts targetted at them, not only because they read it but because of awareness that a large bystander group anonymous to them sees it too and they are powerless to shut it down .

Pre-meditation might have led them to use their technology (they have it) to let every user know exactly who the members of the universe are who would see their post and then make an informed choice about whether or not to post. They did this ineffectively- not restricting friends of friends' access to posts let alone public posts. Just as Dow Chemical Company de-emphasized the impact on just one Vietnam veteran of Agent Orange exposure , DDT makers did not pre-meditate how one nesting Bald Eagle could be the perpetrator who crushes the shell of an unhatched nestling, Facebook has minimized "the one person"who sends in a complaint and recieves the "this doesn't reach the level of our standard of abuse" automatic reply and the passive bystander- the Facebook voyeur- replicating that damage. Even while they act to limit the damage of their "unlimited access" product, Facebook still are tries to keep hidden abuses of their product they uncover. Even now, the newly hired content reviewers must sign "non-disclosure agreements."

A marker at a private school I walk by memorializes a 14 year old boy who suicided . It reads, "There should be a way so that everybody could know everybody." Knowing each other and knowing who your posts are reaching might solve some of the damage Facebook's unlimited access creates. It is not one that minimum wage Quality Analyst hiring solves, even as Fresh Air tells us, Facebook is considering a Supreme Court- like Content Advisory Board to make final judgement on content decisions. Remember, even Supreme Court decisions often give weight to one plaintiff in deference to a repeatedly tested document- the Constitution.

So Independence Day in our real country celebrates our measure of democracy which includes everyone, a happenstance of place offering humane protection through a Bill of Rights for every single one of us. One way to assess whether a society is just is see whether those at the top of the social hierarchy are treated with the same dignity and fairness as those at the bottom. Facebook has not figured out how to do that- even as exploitation of anonymity and unlimited access are exploited NOT just by those posting but by the passive unidentified bystanders too who use it to gain power over others.

The 50th anniversary of the first landings on the moon mark a notable landmark in the technological achievements of humanity.  But, what is the legacy of the Apollo missions?  On this episode, Dr. Roger Launius discussed the legacy of the moon landings.

CurrentCast is a daily, 60-second radio feature that educates the public about water issues, promotes an appreciation for aquatic environments, and encourages an educated discussion about this critical resource. This 4-week round includes the following pieces:

Air Date - Title

Mon., 7/22 - Facts about Lawn Watering: Lawns need less water than most people think.

Tue., 7/23 - An Iconic Waterway: The Erie Canal introduced a new path to the west by connecting Albany to Buffalo.

Wed., 7/24 - Protecting a Stream’s Comfort Zone: Using a three-zone buffer system around a stream can dramatically improve water quality.

Thu., 7/25 - Too Much and Not Enough Water: Climate change is expected to deal multiple blows to water resources in New York.  

Fri., 7/26 - A Super Highway for Aquatic Invaders: The system of locks and canals that allowed ships to bypass Niagara Falls suddenly created a path for invasive species.

Mon., 7/29 - Lake trout stocking: Overfishing and predatory sea lampreys almost wiped out lake trout in the Great Lakes, but after years of stocking, lake trout are reproducing and are self-sustaining in Lake Superior.

Tue., 7/30 - Milwaukee War Memorial: The parking lot for the Memorial is getting a green facelift.           

Wed., 7/31 - Why migrating birds might backtrack (at least a little ways): When birds that migrate at night find themselves over water when the sun comes up, they head for the nearest shoreline – even if it means backtracking.

Thu., 8/1 - Are you rain ready? An online tool helps homeowners estimate, and reduce, their flood risk.

Fri., 8/2 - A conservation effort that’s all it’s quacked up to be: A group of organizations are helping one landowner revert some of his property back to its natural state.

Mon., 8/5 - Protecting birds on the ground and in the air: The western Lake Erie basin is an important stopover site for migrating songbirds, so it’s important to consider them when looking at wind energy.

Tue., 8/6 - Arsenic: This naturally occurring chemical can leach into ground and surface water.

Wed., 8/7 - Mighty Mississippi: This great river is the second longest in the U.S. and flows through 10 states.

Thu., 8/8 - Watersense Certified Products: This label certifies products that use water efficiently, while maintaining peak performance.

Fri., 8/9 - Roadside Ditches: With a few alterations, ditches can reduce flooding and water pollution.

Mon., 8/12 - Water footprint of Biofuels: Burning biofuels may release fewer greenhouse gases than gasoline, but what is their impact on water?

Tue., 8/13 - Fixing Household Leaks: Fixing household leaks is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Wed., 8/14 - Hydroelectric Power: Learn more about the benefits and risks of hydropower.

Thu., 8/15 - Economic Impact of Dam Removal: Sometimes removing a dam is a better option than repairing it.

Fri., 8/16 - Big fish to fry: Some researchers think the best way to keep Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes is to eat them.   

August 2019  Pulse of the Planet  CUE SHEET

01      Saddle at Saratoga                  It's dangerous  05-Aug-19

02      Hornbills and Humans      Sometimes the 06-Aug-19

03      Like Going to Camelot      f you live          07-Aug-19

04      The Erie County Fair                 It's county      08-Aug-19

05      Sealing our Fate, Like Birds       In our           09-Aug-19

06      Finding Meteorites            We're listening  12-Aug-19

07      The Perseid Meteor Shower       Look up toward  13-Aug-19

08      A Subtle, Distant Boom     Scientists have  14-Aug-19

09      Texas Hill Country Rodeo          This month, the  15-Aug-19

10      Rodeo Bullriders              It's an eight      16-Aug-19

11      Sound and Silence           For the Ga         19-Aug-19

12      For a Nation of Immigrants       We are a nation  20-Aug-19

13      Blood Meal                      On some   21-Aug-19

14      Meteorite Mysteries                  We're listening  22-Aug-19

15      The Big One - From the Sky      Many scientists   23-Aug-19

16      Selling With a Song                  This month    26-Aug-19

17      Tobacco  Auction              We're listening  27-Aug-19

18      Loons - Stay or Go?                  In the next     28-Aug-19

19      Calling All Loons              According to a   29-Aug-19

20      Loons and Mercury          Loons have       30-Aug-19

Scientists discover that giraffes inherit their spots.

A former foreign correspondent, Martin Walker is the author of "The Body in the Castle Well." This is the 12th installment of Walker’s "Bruno: Chief of Police” series set in the fictional town of St. Denis in the foodie paradise of the Perigord region of rural France. It’s home to truffles and foie gras, wines and cheeses, and Bruno is one of his town’s finest cooks. The newest book in the series features art, opioids, the American singer Josephine Baker and, of course, murder and memories from World War II and the Resistance that always live on in Walker’s Bruno books.

Corinthia Isom and Kathleen Payne remember Corinthia’s mother, DeSeane Isom, and how Kathleen took Corinthia in after DeSeane died from an AIDS-related illness in the mid-90s.

WFHB's environmental watchdog brings you news and events in the listening area and throughout the world.

The heavy rains brought by Hurricane Barry can be directly connected to manmade climate change.

Several countries are making travel plans to go to the moon—and one reason is water.

A new cruise ship is heading to the Arctic—and is akin to a Prius.

Prospectors are digging up ancient woolly mammoths for their tusks as the permafrost melts in Russia. 

These mules had live fish in their saddlebags.