Day 1,671: brash, harangue, amalgam

Facebook may be turning 20 on February 4th, but it is just as much of a magnet for controversy and cash today as when it was a brash, break-everything teenager. On January 31st Mark Zuckerberg, the social network’s founder, was harangued by American senators over the spread of harmful material.

The weird magic of online social networks was to combine personal interactions with mass communication. Now this amalgam is splitting in two again.

The end of the social network

Artwork of the day 
Constantine Palaeologus Haranguing the Defenders of Constantinople
Gustave Dore
Style: Romanticism
Series: Bibliotheque des Croisades
Genre: illustration

Word of the day 
brash: having a lot of energy and the confidence to succeed, and not having much respect for others or worrying about their feelings:
harangue: to speak to someone or a group of people, often for a long time, in a forceful and sometimes angry way, especially to persuade them:
amalgam: a mixture of mercury and another metal, especially one used by dentists to repair teeth:

Quote of the day
“There is so much noise on the Internet, with would-be prophets daily haranguing their audience and megalomaniacs trying to push bizarre ideas, that eventually people will cherish a new commodity: wisdom.”

― Michio Kaku, Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100