As History Erasure Intensifies, Independent Internet Archives Are Helping Fortify The ‘Digital Preservation Infrastructure’

• by: Damon Orion

Damon Orion
damonorion.com

04-25-2025 ~ These online resources hold crucial information on history, social issues, and activism.

Despite Donald Trump’s disavowal of Project 2025, his administration began enforcing that initiative’s agenda immediately after his second inauguration. This includes efforts to erase history through education cuts, classroom and book censorship, website scrubbing, and the silencing of media outlets and institutions like PBS, NPR, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

One week after Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, in a post on the online platform Free Government Information, data services librarian emeritus from the University of California, San Diego, James A. Jacobs wrote, “There is a difference between the government changing a policy and the government erasing information, but the line between those two has blurred in the digital age… In the digital age, government publishing has shifted from the distribution of unalterable printed books to digital posts on government websites. Such digital publications can be moved, altered, and withdrawn at the flick of a switch. Publishing agencies are not required to preserve their own information, nor to provide free access to it.”

While noting that “digital government information was being lost before President Trump,” Jacobs stressed that “[t]he scale of loss and alteration of information under Trump may prove to be unprecedented” and that “librarians, archivists, and citizens” must create a “new distributed digital preservation infrastructure.”

Organizations like the Freedom Archives in Berkeley, California, have been working for decades to preserve online information on history, social issues, and activism. Established in 1999, this nonprofit educational facility houses audio, video, and print materials that “chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements for liberation and social justice,” according to the organization’s website. Its digital collection of content on progressive movements, culture, and activism includes materials on subjects like Black liberation, gender and sexuality, and Indigenous struggles.

The Freedom Archives’ co-director and co-founder, Claude Marks, notes that conservative extremists “are purposefully rewriting history to eliminate references to slavery of Blacks from Africa and genocide against Indigenous people, and the purpose of that is to reify and reinforce white supremacy. Oftentimes, the truth lies more with the resisters who may have been defeated in various struggles with their colonizers. If that’s your shared point of view, you want to protect access to material that gives voice to those people who were engaged in liberatory struggles and were fighting for justice and human rights.”

For instance, nearly 37 states in the U.S. have measures in place “that limit how America’s undeniable history of racism—from chattel slavery to Jim Crow—can be discussed in public school classrooms,” according to a 2023 article in the Conversation.

Many fear this attempt to rewrite history, especially under the Trump administration, might have far-reaching consequences. “The danger isn’t just that they’ll purge accurate data from the past but that if and when that data is ever reposted that some of it will be modified with false information,” said Charles Gaba, a health care policy data analyst and web developer, according to a February 2025 Salon article.

As an independent organization, the Freedom Archives is largely funded through grassroots efforts. “We’re not vulnerable to: ‘Oh, we didn’t get that big grant through the Department of Education,’ which will no longer exist [soon],” Marks says. Read more

How Can We Balance AI’s Potential And Ethical Challenges?

• by: Gaurav Mittal

23-04-2025 ~ While AI is transforming industries with powerful capabilities, challenges like data quality, bias, transparency, and privacy concerns must be addressed to ensure fairness and accuracy, especially in areas like fraud detection.

Artificial intelligence is transforming industries by automating processes, improving efficiency, and detecting patterns that humans might miss. However, as AI continues to evolve, so do the challenges associated with its implementation. Issues such as data quality, bias, transparency, and privacy concerns raise critical ethical questions. Ensuring that AI operates fairly and effectively requires continuous improvement and careful oversight, especially in sectors such as insurance, where accuracy and trust are crucial.

The primary issues of concern include:

Low data quality: The effectiveness of AI largely depends on the quality of the data it uses. If the data is inaccurate or incomplete, the AI’s performance will suffer.

Data quality is crucial in artificial intelligence because it directly impacts AI models’ performance, accuracy, and reliability. Poor data quality is the primary obstacle to deploying and executing artificial intelligence and machine learning projects and operations. “Garbage in, garbage out” (GIGO), a concept familiar to computer users for generations, is just as applicable to AI. If an AI model is of poor quality, inaccurate, or irrelevant, the system’s output will also be of poor quality, inaccurate, or irrelevant.

Even the most sophisticated AI algorithms can produce flawed results, leading to poor performance and failure. A high-quality AI model should aim for accuracy, consistency (meaning that the data follow a standard format and structure to facilitate processing and analysis), completeness (to avoid missing essential patterns and correlations), timeliness, and relevance.

To ensure the AI model is efficient, developers need to collect relevant data, which depends on the choice of sources from which to draw the data. This challenge is compounded by the need to maintain quality and standards to eliminate duplicate or conflicting data. Then, the data must be labeled correctly, a process that can be time-consuming and prone to errors. At the same time, data must be stored to prevent unauthorized access and corruption. Data poisoning is another risk: it refers to a deliberate attack on AI systems, where attackers inject malicious or misleading data into the dataset, resulting in unreliable and even dangerous outputs.

Bias in AI Models

Sometimes, AI can be biased, meaning it might unfairly treat certain groups of people differently. For example, if an AI system is trained on biased data, it may make decisions that discriminate against specific individuals based on factors such as race, gender, or other characteristics.

There are two basic types of bias: explicit and implicit. An explicit bias refers to a conscious and intentional prejudice or belief about a specific group of people. An implicit bias operates unconsciously and can influence decisions without a person realizing it. Social conditioning, the media, and cultural exposure all contribute to these decisions.

Algorithmic bias can creep in because of programming errors, such as a developer unfairly weighting factors in algorithm decision-making based on their own conscious or unconscious biases. For example, indicators like income or vocabulary might be used by the algorithm to discriminate against people of a certain race or gender unintentionally. People can also process information and make judgments based on the data they initially selected (cognitive bias), favoring datasets based on Americans rather than a sampling of populations worldwide.

Bias in AI is not merely a technical issue but a societal challenge, as AI systems are increasingly integrated into decision-making processes in healthcare, hiring, law enforcement, the media, and other critical areas. Bias can occur in various stages of the AI pipeline, especially with data collection. Outputs may be biased if the data used to train an AI algorithm is not diverse or representative of the actual data. For instance, training that favors male and white applicants may result in biased AI hiring recommendations.

Labeling training data can also introduce bias since it can influence the interpretation given to the outputs. The model itself might be imbalanced or fail to consider diverse inputs, favoring majority views over those of minorities.  To make AI more accurate and fairer, researchers need to retrain it regularly. Companies, especially insurers, must ensure that they use accurate, complete, and up-to-date data while also ensuring their models are fair to everyone. Read more

Archaeology Can Now Tell Us How People Have Muffled And Challenged Economic Inequality Across History

• by: Gary M. Feinman

Gary M. Feinman

04-19-2025 ~ Without archaeology, there is no way to truly examine economic inequality, its causes, and its consequences over very long time spans on a global scale. Until recently, most grand narratives that purported to tell the story of human inequality over time tended to focus either on European history of the last five to six centuries or snapshots of recent societies, derived following colonial encounters with people around the world. These were then pyramided into proposed stepped sequences of change that were presumed to mimic unilinear temporal processes. Whereas the former was not global, the latter was not even historical.

Well into the 20th century, European history and its colonial global impact empirically underpinned our conceptual lenses on inequality. For this reason, it is hardly surprising that to the present, our grand narratives on the topic tend to see increasing wealth disparities as inevitable. Inequality is seen as a byproduct of population and economic growth, only potentially reversible through the spread of a supposedly nascent rationality birthed at the outset of the modern era, with the rise of the West and the program of governance and education it offered. Alas, over the last decades, as inequality spirals, nowhere more than at the heart of the West in the United States and the United Kingdom, the long-entrenched grand narratives now seem naive and out-of-date.

Fortunately, over the last half-century, archaeologists have gone to work looking beyond ancient temples and tombs and, instead, have been mapping sites and excavating houses. By broadening their vantage beyond kings and courts, archaeologists in many regions of the world have and continue to gather data on diverse segments of past societies; farmers as well as rulers. The systematic cumulation of these data, with a focus on houses, lies at the core of the GINI project, a broad collaborative effort led by Timothy A. Kohler (Washington State University), Amy Bogaard (Oxford University), and Scott Ortman (University of Colorado), which has measured and coded more than 50,000 houses from more than 1,000 archaeological sites.

During the past and present, disparities in housing have been one of the best measures of wealth differences. And with this unprecedented sample, it is now feasible to trace economic inequality across much of the globe over time. Now, for the first time, we can see that neither farming nor population growth nor urban aggregation are simple determinants of inequality. Nor can we point to a uniform, unilinear sequence that accounts for patterns of change across every continent. Nevertheless, when we look across humanity’s past, there are broader tendencies, patterns, and even lessons to absorb and learn.

One clear trend is that through time, across the broad sweep of human history, the potential for inequality has grown due to advances in technology (domesticated crops and animals, enhanced communication, and advances in transport) and the increasing size of human aggregations and nations. These factors are important as they contribute to the growing extent of economic inequality. Yet alone, they are not determinative.

The deeply held story that sedentary settlement, along with farming, prompted the advent of private property, which generated intra-community inequality that was then a basis for the emergence of top-down, autocratic governance simply does not fit most, if any, global regions. It often took millennia after reliance on farming for degrees of economic inequality to tick significantly upward, and only in specific places.

For the regions we examined as part of this research project, the potential for inequality was not uniformly realized or consistently reached. In fact, in general, within global areas, the variances or ranges in the degree of inequality expanded through time. Over and over, and in different ways, people have devised institutions, modes of governance, and leveling mechanisms to muffle that expansive potential for rises in inequality. Read more

A Nation of Sheep? Trump’s Fascist Tactics Working All Too Easily

• by: Alexandra Boutri & C.J. Polychroniou

C.J. Polychroniou

04-19-2025 ~ Where are the nationwide protests? The national strikes against the destruction of what is left of U.S. democracy? As for the eerie complacency of the Democrats, it is hardly surprising why there is such a huge loss of trust in the leadership of the Democratic Party.

Trump’s historic first 100 days are just around the corner. How is the U.S. doing? What are the global implications, including for climate and the environment, of Trump’s policies to create a “new world order” and “Make America Wealthy Again? In the interview that follows with independent French-Greek journalist Alexandra Boutri, political scientist/political economist, author and journalist C.J. Polychroniou argues that both the future of U.S. democracy and of humanity as a whole are at great risk because of an ignorant, self-serving autocrat at the helm of the world’s most powerful nation.

Alexandra Boutri: Trump’s first 100 days are nearing the end. What have we learned so far about Trump’s second term and his direction for the country?

C. J. Polychroniou: The first thing that ought to be said is that there are significant differences between Trump’s first and second terms. This time he has a much clearer agenda, largely thanks to Project 2025, and is better prepared to see it through to the end. The aim is to undo race and gender progress, restore white dominance, deregulate the economy and use whatever means are available to further enrich the super-rich, and use economic coercion to secure U.S. hegemony. It’s a thoroughly anti-democratic, blatantly neofascist vision that spells serious trouble for the future of democracy, especially given America’s fragile democratic convictions. Indeed, one of the most shocking things so far is the ease with which the country is heading toward a 21^st century version of fascism under Trump’s second term.

This disturbing development speaks volumes of the weaknesses of the U.S. labor movement as well as of the overwhelmingly apolitical nature of civil society. Where are the nationwide protests? The national strikes against the destruction of what is left of U.S. democracy? As for the eerie complacency of the Democrats, it is hardly surprising why there is such a huge loss of trust in the leadership of the Democratic Party.

Alexandra Boutri: Are we witnessing a revolution in the making?

C. J. Polychroniou: With regard to what Trump is doing to American society and its institutions, the right word is “counterrevolution.” Trump is carrying out a fascist destabilization of society in order to stop a progressive agenda, establish new forms of political legitimacy, and suppress, if not eliminate, threats from below. With regard to foreign affairs, he sees the world as a zero-sum game. But it would be naïve to think that what he is after are the interests of the average American citizen. Trump has nothing but contempt for working people. He is both after a world order and an economic regime at home that enriches corporations and the ultrawealthy at the expenses of the many.

Alexandra Boutri: Why is the Trump administration so keen in controlling education and taking over cultural institutions, such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts?

C. J. Polychroniou: Exerting power over education, taking control of cultural institutions and silencing the press are primary aims of every self-respecting authoritarian regime that wishes to take over civil society in order to transform a country’s political landscape and colonize the consciousness of its citizens. Mussolini did so in Italy; Hitler in Germany; Franco in Spain; and even the colonels of Greece. What Trump and the thugs surrounding him are doing are precisely just that: they are trying to suppress ideas they despise, silence dissent, and convert citizens into a nation of sheep. Fascist goals, fascist tactics. Pure and simple. And, sadly enough, he seems to be doing it with great ease as a huge portion of the American citizenry has already been turned into a nation of sheep. Now it’s only up to that small but courageous community of American dissenters and radicals to stand up to the ignorant and stupid autocrat. Read more

Lustrous Surfaces: Easy On The Eyes, Easy On the Nervous System

• by: Irina Matuzava

Irina Matuzava – Photo: The Observatory

04-13-2025 ~ The attraction to luster is rooted in our evolutionary history and has persisted among prehistoric artifacts, ancient civilizations, and consumer culture.

Our ancestors’ ability to recognize water sources was crucial to their survival. As a result, the attraction to lustrous materials is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history and is evident among prehistoric artifacts, ancient civilizations, and modern consumer culture.

During the Pliocene Epoch, early hominins likely traveled between semi-permanent rain pools, restricting their movement to warmer and wetter regions. During the Late Pleistocene, humid forests declined and grassland-savanna habitats expanded. [1] Thus, the ability to detect water sources became extremely important. In the dry savanna conditions of East Africa, early humans relied on small lakes and rain pools to survive seasonal droughts, and many fossil hominid remains have been found near ancient lakeshores, supporting the idea that access to water played a key role in early human migration. The savanna hypothesis suggests that the expansion of African grasslands led directly to the divergence of hominins from apes and the emergence of the genus Homo. [2]

Natural selection likely chose individuals who could recognize water and wet surfaces, and, according to evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk’s radiator theory, the success of finding drinking water daily to prevent dehydration and conserve energy played a substantial role in shaping hominin evolution. [3]

Water still significantly impacts our neurological system, influencing physiological and psychological well-being. Psychology professor Richard Coss and his former student, Craig Keller, conducted a pair of studies published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 2022 showing that “gazing at bodies of water can help lower your heart rate, blood pressure, and increase feelings of relaxation.”[4]

The first of Coss and Keller’s studies showed that viewing a swimming pool lowers heart rate and blood pressure versus looking at a street sign and a tree in a parking lot.

The second study measured heart rate and blood pressure when viewing six sites with different amounts of visible water. Viewing water compared to the adjacent ground produced effects consistent with a relaxation response or a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure. Moreover, the studies found that looking at wider portions of water produced higher states of relaxation than narrow portions of water, suggesting that abundant amounts of water have a greater potential to limit dehydration. Clear water also produced a higher state of relaxation than murky water, which may be linked to the health of the water, as clear water is less likely to contain harmful bacteria and produce an unfavorable future state, such as illness.[5]

Meanwhile, a 2010 study by Richard Coss investigated the connection between glossy surfaces and their association with water or wetness. Coss designed an experiment using four different papers with varying surface finishes: matte watercolor paper, glossy silk-screen paper, gritty sandpaper, and sparkly glitter paper designed to be reminiscent of an ocean surface. The study’s participants were asked to examine the surfaces using a questionnaire to assess their wet and dry connotations as well as their overall attitude toward each paper type.

The results demonstrated that glossy surfaces appear significantly wetter than sparkling surfaces, and both the glossy and sparkling surfaces were perceived as wetter than the matte and sandy finishes. The participants’ assessment of the sparkling surface, having been rated lower on the wetness scale than the glossy silk-screen surface, suggests that sparkle does not consistently indicate the presence of moisture.[6] Read more

Trump’s Tariffs Buck The Global Neoliberal Order — But Still Serve The 1 Percent

• by: C.J. Polychroniou

James K. Boyce – Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh

04-13-2025 ~ Trump’s tariffs threaten to widen inequality in the US, making the rich richer and impoverishing the working class.

Since assuming office, the Trump administration has taken actions resembling those of an absolutist state: undermining civil rights and democracy at home while introducing a reciprocal tariffs plan that has unleashed chaos around the world. Indeed, Donald Trump’s “liberation day,” a declaration of economic war on the rest of the planet, wiped several trillions of dollars in market value from Wall Street on April 4, the very same day it was announced, and ignited fears of destructive trade wars. After a brief recovery, global markets tumbled again as Trump imposed a 125 percent tariff on China. Furthermore, his plan to “make America wealthy again” via tariffs fuels fears of a U.S. recession — and even of a global economic meltdown.

However, Trump has now reversed course in his global trade war by announcing a 90-day pause of “reciprocal tariffs” for most countries except China. Whether this was due to market backlash or constitutes a market manipulation scheme on the part of Trump is hard to say. But confusion still reigns in the business community and the trade war with China will surely put the global economy on edge.

The poor and the middle classes will bear most of the burden of Trump’s tariffs, political economist James K. Boyce told Truthout in the interview that follows. Boyce contends that tariffs alone will not make the U.S. trade deficit disappear, and that Trump’s obsession with tariffs could start the next Great Depression.

James K. Boyce is professor emeritus of economics and a senior fellow at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of scores of books and academic articles, and the recipient of the 2024 Global Inequality Research Award and the 2017 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. The interview that follows has been lightly edited for clarity.

C. J. Polychroniou: Trump’s economic agenda focuses on “border security,” deregulation, energy, tax cuts and tariffs. Some have described the strategy behind Trump’s political economy as neo-mercantilism, but it also seems to be strengthening neoliberal economic policy at home. Can we call it a strategy of nationalist neoliberalism?

James K. Boyce: In its heyday, beginning under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, neoliberalism was the reigning economic ideology both nationally and internationally. In the U.S., its hallmark was downsizing the state’s role in the economy in favor of “free” markets. Internationally, its hallmark was the reduction of barriers to the movement of goods, services and capital in favor of “free” trade. Both served an underlying agenda of increasing the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few.

It turns out that these two components — the national and the international — are separable. Trump is doubling down on the neoliberal agenda at home, while ripping it asunder internationally. China, as the economist Branko Milanovic recently observed, has followed the opposite strategy.

The combination of greater state control in international trade and downsizing the economic role of the state at home does not yet have a widely accepted name. Most important is understanding what is happening. Read more