[nonostantement #373] - digital echoes / zoom bias / zombie wars

Now with MORE Chinese cuisines!

Welcome to nonostantement: a weekly newsletter with bright, abhorrent, and presumptuous stuff found all over the Internet.

Hi, I’m Joele. I work in teams on digital projects for brands, somewhere between marketing, communication, and creativity. Every Sunday, for the past seven years, I’ve been sending this newsletter to share reflections, questions, and inspiration.

A nice track for your Sunday: Djrum - Frekm, Pt. 1

🇮🇹 Italian version (poorly translated by Google)

👉 The nonostantement archive - everything I sent in the past 7 years

🎵 #music on nonostantement - spotify playlist

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Drawing, Study 146, Chart of Symbols Illustrating De Cesare's Form of Musical Notation by John De Cesare

#PEOPLE

• 63 Chinese Cuisines: the Complete Guide
  Not one cuisine, not eight, but many more. Our best shot at a comprehensive-ish guide.

• Digital Echoes and Unquiet Minds
  There’s a psychological burden of digital life even heavier than distraction.

• Zoom bias: The social costs of having a 'tinny' sound during video conferences
  Most job candidates know to dress nicely for Zoom interviews and to arrange a professional-looking background for the camera. But a new Yale study suggests they also ought to test the quality of their microphones.

• Airline Demand Between Canada & United States Collapses, Down 70%+
  Future flight bookings between Canada and the United States are down by over 70% year-over-year in the summer months. WOW.

• What's Happening to Students?
  Here's the latest news from the zombie wars

• Stoop Coffee: How a Simple Idea Transformed My Neighborhood
  A simple tradition changed their neighborhood and is a good reminder of how small, consistent actions can have outsize results. It also shows you don’t have to share a kitchen or a roof to live in community.

• I’m obsessed!: Why following fixations makes our creative work better
  As creatives, when something grabs our attention, it has the potential to really take hold. Our obsessions might temporarily tilt us off balance between work and life, but they can take us to unexpected places creatively. So how do we know if we should follow them?

• Trump order on Smithsonian targets programs with 'improper ideology'
  President Donald Trump has signed an executive order on the Smithsonian Institution that targets funding to programs that contain what he calls “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”

#TECH

• How Software Engineers Actually Use AI
  We surveyed 730 coders and developers about how (and how often) they use AI chatbots on the job. The results amazed and disturbed us.

• AI models miss disease in Black and female patients
  Analysis of chest x-rays underscores need for monitoring artificial intelligence tools for bias, experts say

• As the Trump administration purges web pages, this group is rushing to save them
  The Trump administration's erasure of federal data has put the Internet Archive in the spotlight. The organization, with its small but mighty team, is working to help save the world's digital history.

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#THEDARKSIDE

• Is it safe to travel to the United States with your phone right now?
  Customs and Border Protection searches of phones and laptops at airports are on the rise, sometimes leading to deportations. What are your rights? The answer: it depends.

• Italy demands Google poison DNS under strict Piracy Shield law
  A lawsuit claims Google has not blocked football streams as required in Italy.

• Facebook to stop targeting ads at UK woman after legal fight
  Tanya O'Carroll says her case opens a "gateway" for others wanting to stop personalised adverts.

• A Win for Encryption: France Rejects Backdoor Mandate
  In a moment of clarity after initially moving forward a deeply flawed piece of legislation, the French National Assembly has done the right thing: it rejected a dangerous proposal that would have gutted end-to-end encryption in the name of fighting drug trafficking.

• I drove 300 miles in rural Virginia, then asked police to send me their public surveillance footage of my car. Here's what I learned. - Cardinal News
  Anyone might wonder how often they are caught on police cameras that operate 24/7. I spent a day driving, and over a month trying to get the answer.

• State Dept. demands 'enhanced' social media vetting of student visa applicants
  It’s tied to Trump’s executive orders re: terrorism and antisemitism, per an official cable review by The Handbasket.

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That's it for now.

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