August, 2019

Published on: August 20, 2019

Save Your Webpages for Posterity, Please: Internet Archive Wayback Machine

By Laura Orr

The Internet Archive serves as, among other things, a repository for webpages. Lawyers (especially), historians (always), librarians (of course), and everyone else can save their webpages to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. (Ue their Save Link Now box.)

I save many of URLs I link to in my blog posts and am frequently astounded to find that too few of those URLs have been saved to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. These government, nonprofit, NGO, official document, and other URLs should be preserved in the Archive.

If you build, update, rely on website content, please SAVE the URL to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Websites come and go and you never know when you might need to reconstruct, recall, provide evidence based on, or otherwise want to view a retrospective snapshot of a particular website.

Continue reading →

Published on: August 14, 2019

“Bridge City: When does local pride become exclusionary?” (Oregon Humanities)

By Laura Orr

Recommended reading – and discussing: with a book group, a salon, over coffee, over beer, and with Portland (Oregon) friends and neighbors:

“Bridge City: When does local pride become exclusionary?” by Anna Vo, in Oregon Humanities, July 29, 2019.

“…. When you hear about nationalism, you may think of Trumpism, of anti-immigrant sentiment, but I bet you never think of yourself, of Portland. I wonder often about the pro-nature dogma, the cedar and mountain pride, the shoe-and-backpack consumerism entwined with suiting up for a thirty-minute “hike,” or swallowing nature like a fusion chimichanga sushi burrito. The regionalism so many people in Oregon espouse sounds a lot like localized nationalism to me. Its rhetoric can be easily weaponized to promote exclusion. …..” [Link to full article. Archived here.]

Published on: August 8, 2019

Learning How to Lie: a Lesson Well Taught (Washington Post article)

By Laura Orr

“DNA Tests Show Southern Members of Congress and Constituents are 65% Mexican (and 20% French): Results Surpass Congressional Dining Hall Chef’s Prediction Based on the Popularity of “French Fries with Salsa” Side Dish”

“Members of Congress Fail American History Test: Only 13% Earn a Barely Passing Grade (60% or better).”

Hmmm. Telling lies, making up part-truths, or simple obfuscation is clearly very difficult for some of us, but a piece of cake for others, e.g. Onion writers, Andy Borowitz, advertisement authors, drug and tobacco company CEOs, etc., etc., etc.

Continue reading →