Weekend Bits

March 11th 2018 For your Bits this weekend we get started by taking a look at the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) unchecked abuse of immigrant detainees throughout the detention and deportation process. Detention centers for people awaiting immigration hearings or deportation are managed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) instead of […]

February 25th 2018 For your Bits this weekend we are going to take a look at cryptocurrencies, the most prominent of which is Bitcoin, and the blockchain technology that allows them to exist. At its core, blockchain is a decentralized network that allows for peer-to-peer transactions without the use of an intermediary; in the example […]

February 18th 2018 For your Bits this weekend we get started taking a look at the history of poverty management systems. Virginia Eubanks traces the history of these systems from the “poorhouses” of the early 1800s through the increasingly digital welfare apparatus that exists today in the United States. Since their inception, poverty management systems […]

February 11th 2018 For your Bits this weekend we get started by taking a look at what teenagers are learning from porn. It turns out that online pornography provides the majority of teenagers with their first understanding of what sexual relations look like. Sexual education through pornography starts, on average, when teenagers are just 14 […]

February 4th, 2018 For your Bits this weekend we get started by looking at the system of state-sanctioned guardianship that allows a court-appointed guardian to take complete control of a person’s finances and freedom of movement without that person’s knowledge or consent. Based on an English legal statute from 1324, the concept of guardianship is […]

January 28th, 2018 For your Bits this weekend we get started with a look at Elon Musk’s frantic effort to mitigate the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence. The world is rapidly racing to the point where artificial intelligence will be incorporated into most aspects of everyday life and, amongst experts and prominent technology leaders, […]

January 21st, 2018 For your Bits this weekend we get started by taking a look at the structural challenges faced by millennials in the United States. Millennials have significantly larger student debt burdens and fewer savings opportunities than previous generations and their lifetime has coincided with a generation of policies that funnel profits to executives […]

January 14th, 2018 For your Bits this weekend we get started with relationship advice compiled from almost 1,500 people in happy relationships who have been married for 10+ years. Despite coming from people “around the world” and “across all walks of life” the guidance was surprisingly uniform and could be distilled into 13 recommendations that […]

January 7th, 2018 For your Bits this weekend we get started by taking a look at the massive advantages that Google Maps has over competing products. Map enthusiast Justin O’Beirne studied the development of Google Maps and discovered how Google is combining multiple data sources to build its products and then use that derivative data […]

December 17th, 2017 For your Bits this weekend we get started by taking a look at how Donald Trump has been able to manipulate the political press and neutralize their ability to scrutinize his administration. Trump was the original reality TV star before the genre was invented and has shrewdly turned the the “daily [press] […]