In February I posted about the ways we can identify fake Amazon reviews, particularly the tool Fakespot.com. Earlier this week Buzzfeed published an article about the business of fake Amazon reviews, which includes these staggering statistics: 87% of Amazon shoppers surveyed said a positive Amazon review was critical in their decision to purchase a product,…
“Fake news” is a phrase we’ve been hearing a lot over the past year. The barrage of half-truths and outright lies seems endless. At times it seems we live in a fog of rumors and fabrications. A conversation with a casual acquaintance can open a window into a world of alternative facts (A national fast-food…
Have you ever bought a product online because of great reviews and customer ratings but ended up disappointed with it? You're not alone: the problem is common enough to warrant news coverage. Many of the rave reviews on retail websites are fakes: written by paid reviewers who've never used the product or service in question….
Today (Nov. 28) was Giving Tuesday, a day designated by the United Nations and New York City's 92nd Street Y as a universal day of giving, as a way to establish a contrast to the consumerism of the holiday season. But despite that rampant consumerism, the month of December is when Americans are most likely to donate…
We're past the late spring/early summer when many of us are beginning to think about what to plant on our back decks or in our window boxes. But there's no reason we can't start planning what to grow indoors. Plants are beautiful, they make us feel better, and they can even clean up our environment….
Decades ago, when people were looking for jobs, they answered ads in the jobs section of a newspaper or a trade magazine. Sometimes they walked down streets looking for businesses with "Help Wanted" signs in the windows. Then the Web came along and upended all that. Soon job seekers were going to Craigslist, or web…
Many Somervillians (such as the members of our thriving community of artists and writers) have specialized interests and undertake projects that might benefit from access to an academic library. However, many of those same people are neither students nor employees of any of the local universities. Fortunately, Harvard now offers adult researchers with no academic…
…is available for public review at the Central Library, 79 Highland Ave. Ask at the reference desk for help finding it.
It’s an election year. Candidates are saying a lot of things to get people’s votes, which means many of them are, to be blunt, lying. How do you know what to believe? How do you sort fact from fabrication? Surprisingly, the Internet can actually help if you go to the right places. Factcheck.org is just…
Now that I think about it, this blog post title sounds like it should be the name of a kid’s book–the If You Give a Pig a Pancake for the automated warfare age. But seriously, drones were one of the most popular gifts this Christmas. And anyone who owns a drone has to register it…
