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Outrage machine : how tech amplifies discontent, disrupts democracy--and what we can do about it / by Rose-Stockwell, Tobias,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Over the last two decades, there has been an inescapable rise of anger and aggression across our planet. Hate speech has become increasingly prevalent online, Western governments are turning towards authoritarianism and populism, and extremist groups are rising across both the left and the right ends of the political spectrum. Every day, it seems, we're hearing more angry voices and fearful opinions, we're seeing more threats and frightening news, and we're reacting faster and less rationally. The cause is hidden in plain sight: for the first time, almost all of the information we consume as a species is being controlled and curated by algorithms designed to capture our emotional attention. This, media researcher and strategic advisor Tobias Rose-Stockwell argues, is the outrage machine. It is the wide-cast net of social media that is propelled by tech, has been exploited by all of us, and which has been allowed to steadily replace our newspapers, emergency communication systems, town halls, churches, and more. In the vein of The Righteous Mind and Factfulness, Outrage Machine is a big-think book that explores the unintended consequences of this alarming shift in today's smartphone era--and shows us how to navigate the world we now live in. First, he explains how and why we've become addicted to not just technology, but outrage itself. Since social media algorithms now favor the most inflammatory content because it gets the highest engagement, the levels of righteousness, certainty, and extreme judgment in our daily interactions have increased as well. Next, he shows us why we're more prone to panic, and how the immediate dispersion of our panic can be more dangerous than the threat itself-and can bypass necessary confirmation of the accuracy and potential harm of this information. Rose-Stockwell also explores how the original intent of many of our social tools has been compromised, from improving click-through rates for charitable causes to catalyzing our current culture of click-baiting and sensationalism on an unparalleled scale. Fortunately, Outrage Machine is not just a warning--it's also a critical guide that clearly explains the underlying machinery that has come to control us, and a compass to help guide people toward reflection rather than reaction. The culmination of 15 years of research and inquiry, this book gives readers a language with which to comprehend what is happening to society, and offers new mental models for how to manage our time, our technology, and our attention. It also offers big-picture recommendations for how to redesign these platforms, as well as methods for fixing this broken system before it "fixes" us"--
Subjects: Democracy.; Information society.; Social media; Social media.; Hate;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Super Size Me. by Spurlock, Morgan,film director.; Spurlock, Morgan,actor.; Samuel Goldwyn Films (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Morgan SpurlockOriginally produced by Samuel Goldwyn Films in 2004.Oscar-nominated director Morgan Spurlock's social experiment in fast-food gastronomy sees him attempting to subsist uniquely on food from the McDonald's menu for an entire month. In the process his weight balloons, his energy level plummets and he experiences all sorts of unexpected -- and terrifying -- side effects. He also examines the corporate giant's growing role in the lives of American consumers and explores its methods of indoctrinating young people and its contribution to America's obesity epidemic.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Health.; Food industry and trade.; Instructional films.; Sociology.; Social sciences.; Documentary films.; Corporations.; Obesity.; Food.; Nutrition.; Motion pictures.;
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Furmidable foes / by Brown, Rita Mae,author.; Brown, Sneaky Pie,1982-author.; Gellatly, Michael,illustrator.;
"Someone's passed their expiration date in this thrilling new mystery in the bestselling Mrs. Murphy series from Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown. Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen and her pet sleuths uncover a rotten scam to dupe consumers when they discover that substandard produce is being passed off for organic, upmarket groceries. As always, Harry's crime-solving cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and Tee Tucker the Corgi share her determination to sniff out the foes among friends, the spoiled among the fresh"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Haristeen, Harry (Fictitious character); Murphy, Mrs. (Fictitious character); Women detectives; Women cat owners; Cats;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Confidence : a novel / by Frumkin, Rafael,author.;
"At seventeen, Ezra Green doesn't have a lot going for him: he's shorter than average, snaggle-toothed, internet-addicted, and halfway to being legally blind. He's also on his way to Last Chance Camp, the final stop before juvie. But Ezra's summer at Last Chance turns life-changing when he meets Orson, brilliant and Adonis-like with a mind for hustling. Together, the two embark upon what promises to be a fruitful career of scam artistry. But when they try to pull off their biggest scam yet--Nulife, a corporation that promises its consumers a lifetime of bliss--things start to spin wildly out of control."--Publisher marketing.
Subjects: Gay fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Novels.; Gay men; Swindlers and swindling;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The grimoire of Kensington Market / by Davis, Lauren B.,1955-author.;
"The downtown core of Toronto is being consumed by elysium, a drug that allows its users to slip through the permeable edges of this world and then consumes them utterly. Peddled by the icy Srebrenka, few have managed to escape the drug and its dealer. But Maggie has. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," the Grimoire of Kensington Market is the story of Maggie, guardian of the Grimoire bookstore, which expands and contracts as stories are born ... or die. Only those who are destined to find the Grimoire enter through its front door. But one day a messenger arrives with a mysterious note that reads, "follow me." The next day, another note arrives and then another. The messages, Maggie realizes, are from her brother, Kyle, who has fallen under the influence of the elysium. Kyle has gone too far into the Silver World and needs his sister, a recovering addict herself, to rescue him. Driven by guilt and love in equal measure, Maggie sets off on a quest where bands of robbers stalk the woods, tavern keepers weave clouds to hide mountains and caribou fly on the northern lights. A journey where dreams and the dead both come to life."--
Subjects: Psychological fiction.; Drug abuse; Recovering addicts; Magic;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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This is your mind on plants / by Pollan, Michael,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants -- and the equally powerful taboos Of all the things humans rely on plants for--sustenance, beauty, fragrance, flavor, fiber--surely the most curious is our use of them is to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: people around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. We don't usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So then what is a "drug?" And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In THIS IS YOUR MIND ON PLANTS, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs -- opium, caffeine, and mescaline -- and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos with which we surround them. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and such fraught feelings? A unique blend of history, science, memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively -- as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that's one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay written more than 25 years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world"--
Subjects: Psychotropic plants.; Opium.; Mescaline.; Caffeine.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Climate trailblazers [videorecording] : reimagining our future / by Pestana, Mark,film director.; Collective Eye Films,presenter,publisher.;
Exciting technologies have emerged, setting the gears in motion for a new green industrial revolution. Climate Trailbazers: Reimagining Our Future examines the new technologies and practices that decouple social and economic growth from carbon emissions showcasing innovations across the world that provide new and greener ways of producing energy, materials and food. These new technologies, if adopted at scale, could move the needle on climate change. The new tech and business models featured also prove that sustainability can be profitable, while consumers and whole industries alike can play their part in slowing - and reversing - environmental damage and creating a more sustainable future for generations to come. Climate Trailblazers provides a message of hope for those who care about sustainability, and our planet, in what is often characterised as an unavoidable catastrophe.E.Closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.DVD.
Subjects: Documentary films.; Environmental films.; Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Environmentalism.; Green technology.; Sustainability.; Sustainable development.;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Broken news : why the media rage machine divides America and how to fight back / by Stirewalt, Chris,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Rage revenue-addicted news companies are plagued by shoddy reporting, sensationalism, groupthink, and brain-dead partisan tribalism. Newsrooms rely on emotion-driven blabber to entrance conflict-addled super users. In 'Broken News,' Chris Stirewalt, celebrated as one of America's sharpest political analysts in print and on television, employs his trademark wit and insight to give readers an inside look at these problems. He explains that these companies don't reward bad journalism because they like it, but because it is easy and profitable. 'Broken News' is a fascinating, deeply researched, conversation-provoking study of how the news is made and how it must be repaired, with surprising takeaways about who's to blame. Stirewalt goes deep inside the history of the industry to explain how today's media divides America for profit. And he offers practical advice for how everyday readers, listeners, and viewers can (and should) become better news consumers for the sake of the republic"--
Subjects: Mass media; Press;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The big fix : how companies capture markets and harm Canadians / by Hearn, Denise,1986-author.; Bednar, Vass,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."More and more of the Canadian economy is dominated by a handful of huge companies that control what we buy, how we work, and which other businesses can or can't thrive. Beyond the obvious examples of airlines, telcos, grocery chains, and banks, The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians shows how corporate concentration is growing across many industries, leading to higher prices for consumers, lower worker's wages, more inequality, fewer startups, less innovation, and lower growth and productivity. In this galvanizing book, Hearn and Bednar show how companies perpetuate the illusion of rivalry to disguise their dominance, and how they've shifted from competing within industries to accumulating assets across industries, further entrenching their power. The authors coach readers on how to think about competition, how markets are made and remade, and how the right set of attitudes and policies reduce corporate power and rebalance it throughout the economy. The future of Canada's economy is up for grabs, and The Big Fix shows how the country can achieve a more innovative, productive, and livable economy for all Canadians."--
Subjects: Competition; Corporate power; Corporations; Corporations;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Next stop : a novel / by Resnick, Benjamin,author.;
"For readers of Leave the World Behind and Exit West, an astonishingly resonant novel that explores the precariousness of Jewish American life through one family after a black hole consumes the State of Israel and similar strange events occur in major cities around the world, ushering in a time of chaos as well as miracles. When a black hole suddenly consumes Israel and as similar anomalies spread across the globe, a conspiracy takes hold: will the holes swallow the Jews, or will they swallow the earth? Against a backdrop of antisemitic paranoia, restrictions on Jewish life, and spasms of violence, Ethan and Ella, Jewish citizens of a nameless American city, meet and fall in love. Ella, a photojournalist, documents the changes in daily life, particularly among the city's Jewish residents. Some Jews, feeling inexplicably drawn to the unusual events, go underground to an abandoned subway system that seems to connect the entire world. Others leave for the south, forming militias and stockpiling weapons. But most, like Ethan, Ella, and her young son Michael, stay and try to make their way amid the hostility and small joys of the ever-changing landscape. But then thousands of commercial planes are sucked from the sky. Air travel stops. Borders close. Refugees pour into the capital. Eventually all Jews in the city are forced to relocate to the Pale, an area sandwiched between a park and a river. There, under the watchful eye of border guards, drones, and robotic dogs, they form a fragile new society. Suspenseful, thought-provoking, and brilliantly conceived, Next Stop is an enthralling novel that explores the fault lines between our collective, national, and individual memories and how our deepest bonds can be unexpectedly reshaped in moments of crisis"--
Subjects: Dystopian fiction.; Novels.; Antisemitism; Black holes (Astronomy); Families; Jews; Jews; Man-woman relationships; Photojournalists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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