Law X.0

Cuba Bars Blogger from Accepting Award in Spain

Yoani Sanchez, creator of a critical blog titled Generation Y that has received over a million hits was awarded a journalism award in Spain but she won't be going to the ceremony to accept the award. Her blog criticism is more generational than political. She expresses the alienation and cynicism shared by many Cuban young people. Listen to the NPR report. [JH]

Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society

Well worth reading. Make no mistake: this is no run-of-the-mill exposé of media bias, but a sophisticated analysis of the ways and means by which lies and distortions do so well in today's fractured, cynical media world. —Todd Gitlin, Professor of Journalism and Sociology, Columbia University

True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society
by Farhad Manjoo

List Price: $25.95 
Publisher: Wiley (March 17, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0470050101
ISBN-13: 978-0470050101

Book Description: In True Enough, Manjoo presents findings from psychology, sociology, political science, and economics to show how new technologies are prompting the cultural ascendancy of belief over fact. In an age of talk radio, cable TV, and the Internet—the blog- and YouTube-addled million-channel media universe—it is no longer necessary for any of us to confront notions that contradict what we "know" to be true. Stephen Colbert calls this "truthiness"—when something feels true without any evidence that it is. Here Manjoo probes the cognitive basis of truthiness, exploring how biases push both liberals and conservatives to select and interpret news in a way that accords with their personal versions of "reality."

Why has punditry lately overtaken news, with so many media outlets pushing partisan agendas instead of information? Why do lies seem to linger so long in the cultural subconscious even after they've been thoroughly discredited? And why, when more people than ever before are documenting the truth with laptops and digital cameras, does fact-free spin and propagandaseem to work so well? True Enough explores leading controversies of national politics, foreign affairs, science, and business, explaining how Americans have begun to organize themselves into echo chambers that harbor diametrically different facts—not merely opinions—from those of the larger culture. We meet people who espouse far-out interpretations of reality—about everything from the history of John Kerry's time in Vietnam to the integrity of the 2004 election to the truth about 9/11—and dig into the mechanism by which they came to hold those beliefs.

Coolest Technologies Demoed at Web 2.0

Clint Boulton reviews six of the more memorable technologies demoed at Web 2.0 on eWeek.com. Most are online collaboration tools. [JH]

2008 Webby Award Winners Announced

Here's the complete list. [RJ]

New Law Blogs by Practitioners

Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog
http://www.atlantainjuryattorneyblog.com
http://www.atlantainjuryattorneyblog.com/index.xml

Covers personal injury and accident law, including car accidents, aviation accidents, medical malpractice, with a focus on Georgia State law. Published by Atlanta injury attorney Sam Levine.

Product Liability Attorney Blog
http://www.productliabilityattorneyblog.com
http://www.productliabilityattorneyblog.com/index.xml

Covers product liability law, including defective pharmaceutical products with a focus on Missouri and Illinois State law. Published by product liability attorneys at Carey & Danis.

Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Blog
http://www.nursinghomeabuselawyerblog.com
http://www.nursinghomeabuselawyerblog.com/index.xml

Covers nursing home abuse, elder abuse, and other elder law issues with a focus on California State Law. Published by attorneys at the legal firm of Walton Barber.

10 Most Disruptive Technologies Through 2012

According to Gardner analysts, here are the most disruptive technologies through 2012. Details on eWeek. [JH]

1. Multicore and Hybrid Servers
2. Virtualization
3. Enterprise Social Software
4. Cloud Computing
5. Mashups
6. User Interface
7. Ubiquitous Computing
8. Context-Aware Computing
9. Augmented Reality
10. Semantic Technologies