Only in Washington

CLOSE UP - KAY surrounded by the men. She winces... hesitates... clearly unsure about stating her decision.

KATHARINE GRAHAM

Yes. Yes. Yes. Let's publish.

OFF SCREEN - Wild cheers erupt from the Cleveland Park audience.

* * *

I love living in DC. Constant reinforcement isn't required.

But Sunday evening's viewing of "The Post" at our local movie house reminded me why.

Where else would audiences cheer at a scene like that?

Ad Nauseam

The oblique paradox of propaganda is that the lie in the throat
becomes, by repetition, the truth in the heart. 

— John Grierson

Not only is Obama's birth certificate fake, but Geico saves you 15%.

The statements exemplify the fallacy known as argumentum ad nauseam—proof by repeated assertion.

As advertisers and birthers believe, by endlessly repeating a statement, you can drive audiences beyond the brink of caring to challenge it. They're too sick to contradict.

And when the challenges cease, hearts become vulnerable.

The argumentum ad nauseam becomes evidence of its own truth.

Facing Facts

The greatest American superstition is a belief in facts.

— Hermann Keyserling

Facebook is countering fake news by downgrading all news.

Beginning next week, users will see mainly the posts of friends and family in their feeds; publishers' posts will virtually vanish.

In the short term, the decision is harmful. 

Facebook's move will lower users' time on the social network, and lower the "referral traffic" publishers count on. The latter will force all publishers to scramble to make up for the lost eyeballs, and put a lot of them out of business, according to The New York Times.

In the long term, however, the decision is beneficial—to Facebook.

Under scrutiny for abetting Kremlin-backed trolls during the 2016 election, the company confronts the real possibility of government regulation, as it lacks AI's equivalent of a Walter Cronkite or Ben Bradlee to decide what's legitimately newsworthy.

Critics complain the company's move amounts to a news blackout, since nearly half of Americans get at least some of their news from the social network. 

But CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook is merely "protecting our community from abuse and hate."

The decision signals a return by Facebook to its "college scrapbook" origins ("Look how my new brussels sprouts recipe turned out!")

Takeaway? Ten years from now, we'll chuckle to recall we once believed Facebook was a media company.

The Empire Strikes Back

Ad blockers may appear the victors, but publishers are fighting back, "taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures," according to TechCrunch.

A new study by two universities finds nearly a third of the top 10,000 websites are using quiet techniques to fake out ad blockers.

The researchers repeatedly visited thousands of sites, with and without ad blockers added to their browsers.

By comparing the source code of pages visited with and without blockers, they could tell when page content changed based on the presence of a blocker.

The researchers found over 30% of the top 10,000 websites are retaliating against ad blockers; and 38% of the top 1,000 are.

Retaliation takes the form of source code that produces ad-like “bait” (for example, by including photos named "banner"). 

The bait triggers ad blockers, alerting the website to their presence; the site then deploys ads in ways blockers can't detect.

The researchers warn that a "rapidly escalating technological arms race" is on between publishers and ad blockers.

Time

Time isn't the main thing. Its the only thing.

— Miles Davis

My home sits across the street from the original campus of NIST, where a physicist invented the atomic clock in 1948. A bronze plaque marks the spot.

Physicists use the atomic clock to measure time and synchronize clocks worldwide. Without it, we wouldn't have mobile phones or GPS.

Physicists call the instants the atomic clock measures Atomic time. 

Naturally, there are many other forms of time, including:

Universal time. Universal time measures the duration of the Earth's rotation on its axis, which actually takes a bit more than 24 hours—and more time every day, because the earth's rotation is slowing.

Space time. Space time measures where instants take place. Einstein proved gravity causes space time to warp, particularly near black holes. Space time also warps at the DMV.

Quality time. Quality time measures the instants when spouses and parents enable silent mode on their mobile phones.

Eastern time. Eastern time measures the period when most of the work is performed each day in the United States (contrast this especially to Pacific time).

Miller time. Miller time measures the instants when beer and other alcoholic beverages are consumed. On college campuses, this form of time is frequently accompanied by Lost time.

Missing time. Not to be confused with Lost time, Missing time measures the instants abductees spend aboard UFOs, experiencing what physicist call "close encounters of the fourth kind."

Executive time measures the instants the President spends watching the Fox News Channel. Like Universal time, this from of time expands daily.