Day: May 31, 2024

Is The Internet Disappearing?

I recently wrote a post about the “Dead Internet” theory……it may be better if you read that before venturing on to today’s post.

Dead Internet Theory

Now with that done we can tackle the question posed in the title of this post.

It appears that on-line content is disappearing…..

Well, so long and thanks for all the fish. A study from the Pew Research Center entitled “When Online Content Disappears” indicates that our beloved internet may well be disappearing beneath our fingers—with a quarter of all webpages that existed between 2013 and 2023 found to be no longer accessible.

Contrary to the popular perception that everything committed to the interwebs is destined to exist forever, the study revealed that 38% of pages that existed in 2013 alone have now been lost (via The Independent). It doesn’t appear to be an age-related phenomenon, either.

Even newer pages appear to be performing vanishing acts—eight percent of pages that existed in 2023 were found to be unavailable, too.

The study made use of Common Crawl, an open repository of web crawl data that archives billions of webpages and provides archives and datasets for public use. The researchers took random samples of over a million webpages, before checking the links to see which were still active, and which had gone to the great lost information archive in the sky.

The results showed 23% of news pages and 21% of government websites studied were found to include at least one broken link, while a staggering 54% of Wikipedia pages included a reference link that no longer exists. That’s a lot of facts that can no longer be reasonably checked.

Given the internet’s integral role in modern society (for better or worse) in terms of verifying information, these results are troubling. What with the increasing proliferation of misleading AI content, losing valuable sources of information pre AI-era can’t possibly help.

Compounding this slide into a murky world where verifiable information is increasingly harder to find, a recent study found that 46.9% of all internet traffic could be attributed to bots—many of which may be contributing all sorts of made-up information to further muddy the waters.

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/the-internet-is-disappearing-with-a-quarter-of-all-webpages-from-2013-to-2023-going-the-way-of-the-dodo/

I know that I have seen more and more blogs that are inactive…..

But what do you think?

Is the internet disappearing as according to the article?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Stop The Presses!

Surprise!  Surprise!

I am sure that most everyone has heard the news around the legal battle for Trump….the truth is the verdict surprised me…..

For those that have avoided the circus of this trial….there is some good news.

A Manhattan jury has found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 counts he was charged with in his hush-money trial, making him the first onetime president to become a felon. Trump sat expressionless and slack at the defense table, the New York Times reports, as he heard “guilty” read in court 34 times on Thursday afternoon. Cheering from the street below, where supporters and opponents of Trump assembled, could be heard in the hallway outside the 15th-floor courtroom. As jurors filed out, they did not look at Trump, and he did not look at them. Minutes later, the former president and current candidate told reporters, “I’m a very innocent man.”

Prosecutors accused Trump of falsifying internal business records to cover up hush-money payments tied to an alleged scheme to bury stories that might torpedo his 2016 White House bid, per the AP. At the heart of the charges were reimbursements paid to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for not going public with her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. Prosecutors said the reimbursements were falsely logged as “legal expenses” to hide the true nature of the transactions. Trump has denied any wrongdoing. The charges he was convicted of are punishable by up to four years in prison.

The jury of 12 New Yorkers had deliberated for 9½ hours hours over two days. The verdicts the panel returned involved 11 counts related to invoices, 12 related to ledger entries, and 11 involving checks. Trump still faces charges in three other criminal cases elsewhere, per the Washington Post. He has pleaded not guilty in them and called the prosecutions politically motivated. All are embroiled in motions and delays and seem unlikely to go to trial before the November election.

“I am a very innocent man”….now there is a damn hoot!  I can think of a lot of things to say about Donald the Orange….but innocent is not one of them.

Now we go to the sentencing phase of this drama…..

The jury in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial has been dismissed, and case moves to the next phase. Because the crimes are nonviolent, experts say Trump is unlikely to be detained before sentencing. Here’s what’s ahead:

  • Sentencing: Judge Juan Merchan scheduled Trump’s sentencing for 10am July 11, CNBC reports. He told all parties to file relevant motions by June 13. Included in this step are sentencing memos from the prosecution and the defense arguing for the punishment they want to see Merchan order. The defendant usually is interviewed by a probation officer who asks about personal history and any criminal record, information that goes into the presentence report. A psychologist or social worker also could interview Trump.
  • Possible punishments: Trump was convicted of nonviolent Class E felonies, New York’s lowest level, per the New York Times. The counts are punishable by 16 months to four years in state prison. As a first-time offender, Trump is unlikely to receive prison time, legal experts said. Merchan could impose probation or home confinement.
  • Probation: The terms could require Trump to receive approval from his probation officer to travel outside his home state, Florida, per the Washington Post. He probably would have to report to his probation officer regularly.
  • Appeal: Trump’s lawyers have 30 days to file notice of an appeal. “We’ll keep fighting, we’ll fight till the end and we’ll win,” Trump said after the verdict. It’s possible that sentencing will be stayed while an appeal plays out, which could postpone any punishment past Election Day.
  • The election: Trump remains eligible for election to the presidency, and there’s nothing to keep him from serving if he wins. He may not be able to vote for himself, however, per the Times; Florida requires felons to have completed their entire sentence, including probation, before again being allowed to vote.

Few thought he would be convicted…..he has been so what’s it gonna be with the sentencing?

Probation?  Prison?

I have little faith that he will go to prison (a place he should have already been)…..my guess is probation and fines.

With this conviction how will that play in November?

Please let your thoughts be known.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”