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"Steve Baker puts his finger on perhaps the most important cultural trend today: the explosion of data about every aspect of our world and the rise of applied math gurus who know how to use it." --Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine (Wired Magazine ) An urgent look at how a global math elite is predicting and altering our behavior -- at work, at the mall, and in bed Every day we produce loads of data about ourselves simply by living in the modern world: we click web pages, flip channels, drive through automatic toll booths, shop with credit cards, and make cell phone calls. Now, in one of the greatest undertakings of the twenty-first century, a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists is beginning to sift through this data to dissect us and map out our next steps. Their goal? To manipulate our behavior -- what we buy, how we vote -- without our even realizing it. In this tour de force of original reporting and analysis, journalist Stephen Baker provides us with a fascinating guide to the world we're all entering -- and to the people controlling that world. The Numerati have infiltrated every realm of human affairs, profiling us as workers, shoppers, patients, voters, potential terrorists -- and lovers. The implications are vast. Our privacy evaporates. Our bosses can monitor and measure our every move (then reward or punish us). Politicians can find the swing voters among us, by plunking us all into new political groupings with names like "Hearth Keepers" and "Crossing Guards." It can sound scary. But the Numerati can also work on our behalf, diagnosing an illness before we're aware of the symptoms, or even helping us find our soul mate. Surprising, enlightening, and deeply relevant, The Numerati shows how a powerful new endeavor -- the mathematical modeling of humanity -- will transform every aspect of our lives.

This article looks at media representations of the projected regeneration of Northern Ireland, paying particular attention to a recent promotional film made to elicit support for the redevelopment of a part of Belfast's city centre. Commissioned by Castlebrooke Investments, 'Tribeca Belfast' offers a future prospectus of the city that is as superficial as it is bland. It is, however, illustrative of two influential ideas and strategies that took flight at the end of the Cold War and the 'triumph of capitalism'. One seeks peace through the application of neo-liberal nostrums; the other combines brand theory with state-craft in pursuit of global competitiveness. Both propose models of citizenship that are politically benign, either preferring middle class solipsism or demanding brand loyalty. In Castlebrooke's projection of a future Belfast, this translates into a city peopled by a mobile professional class, waited upon and entertained by servile locals. But such a sterile vision is inimical to building peace and political progress because it underestimates and downplays the significance of marginalized groups who through their activism and expressions of solidarity can lay better claim to the 'heart and soul' of Belfast evoked by Castlebrooke.

In his analysis of the loyalist flag protests of 2012, John Barry finds within them the potential for a civic, progressive politics beyond ethnic grievance; a post-conflict politics that need not be post-political; an agonistic politics of struggle and contestation that need not be violent. As a means to achieve this, John defends the need for single-identity/internal conversations within loyalism. In my reply, I am broadly supportive, but I suggest that such conversations cannot take for granted the continuation of the constitutional status quo.

Membership of the Common Market has raise the costs of some food to almost 5 times as much as comparable world prices. Why should the British housewife or taxpayer continue to subsidise inefficient continental farmers?

"A clear-eyed warning about the increasingly destructive influence of America's "shame industrial complex" in the age of social media and hyperpartisan politics-from the New York Times bestselling author of Weapons of Math Destruction. Shame is a powerful and sometimes useful tool: When we publicly shame corrupt politicians, abusive celebrities, or predatory corporations, we reinforce values of fairness and justice. But as Cathy O'Neil argues in this revelatory book, shaming has taken a new and dangerous turn. It is increasingly being weaponized-used as a way to shift responsibility for social problems from institutions to individuals. Shaming children for not being able to afford school lunches or adults for not being able to find work lets us off the hook as a society. After all, why pay higher taxes to fund programs for people who are fundamentally unworthy? O'Neil explores the machinery behind all this shame, showing how governments, corporations, and the healthcare system capitalize on it. There are damning stories of rehab clinics, reentry programs, drug and diet companies, and social media platforms-all of which profit from "punching down" on the vulnerable. Woven throughout The Shame Machine is the story of O'Neil's own struggle with body image and her recent decision to undergo weight-loss surgery, shaking off decades of shame. With clarity and nuance, O'Neil dissects the relationship between shame and power. Whom does the system serve? Is it counter-productive to call out racists, misogynists, and vaccine skeptics? If so, when should someone be "canceled"? How do current incentive structures perpetuate the shaming cycle? And, most important, how can we all fight back?"--

When political opponents Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness were confirmed as First Minister and Deputy First Minister of a new Northern Ireland executive in May 2007, a chapter was closed on Northern Ireland's troubled past. A dramatic realignment of politics had brought these irreconcilable enemies together-and the media played a significant role in persuading the public to accept this startling change. The Propaganda of Peace places their role in a wider cultural context and examines a broad range of factual and fictional representations, from journalism and public museum exhibitions to film, television drama and situation comedy. The authors propose a radically different theoretical and methodological approach to the media's role in reporting and representing. They ask whether the 'propaganda of peace' actually promotes the abandonment of a politically engaged public sphere at the very moment when public debate about neo-liberalism, financial meltdown and social and economic inequality make it most necessary

Was wie ein Dan-Brown-Titel klingt, ist eine Reportage über die Arbeit der Datensammler, meist Mathematiker, die mithilfe raffinierter Algorithmen die Spuren auswerten, die wir beim Surfen im Internet hinterlassen. Natürlich ist erschreckend, wie exakt heute Profile unseres Verhaltens erstellt werden können, wobei der Gebrauch für Produktwerbung noch eher harmlos erscheint. Nun ist die Illusion vom Internet als Ort der Freiheit längst verflogen und so ist es auch nicht überraschend, dass alle gesellschaftlichen Akteure es für ihre Zwecke nutzen möchten. Wie in der populären US-amerikanischen Sachliteratur üblich, werden uns von Kapitel zu Kapitel neue Experten vorgestellt, was auf die Dauer etwas ermüdet und nicht wirklich erhellend ist. Das Buch wird schon aufgrund des reißerischen Titels Leser finden. Vergleichbar der etwas ältere Titel "Die Überwachungsmafia" von Pär Ström. (BA 6/05). (2)