In The News (5)

He Created the Web. Now He’s Out to Remake the Digital World. Tim Berners-Lee wants to put people in control of their personal data. He has technology and a start-up pursuing that goal. Can he succeed? ........ Mr. Berners-Lee, 65, believes the online world has gone astray. Too much power and too much personal data, he says, reside with the tech giants like Google and Facebook — “silos” is the generic term he favors, instead of referring to the companies by name. Fueled by vast troves of data, he says, they have become surveillance platforms and gatekeepers of innovation. .............. The goal, he said, is to move toward “the web that I originally wanted.” ...........  Mr. Berners-Lee’s vision of personal data sovereignty stands in sharp contrast to the harvest-and-hoard model of the big tech companies. ............ If the concept takes off, low-cost or free personal data services — similar to today’s email services — could emerge. ......... Tim has become increasingly concerned as power in the digital world is weighted against the individual ........... The long view is a thriving decentralized marketplace, fueled by personal empowerment and collaboration  

How the Right Foods May Lead to a Healthier Gut, and Better Health A diet full of highly processed foods with added sugars and salt promoted gut microbes linked to obesity, heart disease and diabetes. ...........  a diet rich in nutrient-dense, whole foods supported the growth of beneficial microbes that promoted good health ........... People who tended to eat minimally processed foods like vegetables, nuts, eggs and seafood were more likely to harbor beneficial gut bacteria. Consuming large amounts of juices, sweetened beverages, white bread, refined grains, and processed meats, on the other hand, was associated with microbes linked to poor metabolic health. ................ The researchers identified clusters of so-called good gut bugs, which were more common in people who ate a diverse diet rich in high-fiber plants — like spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, nuts and seeds — as well as minimally processed animal foods such as fish and full-fat yogurt.   

With ‘I Hate Men,’ a French Feminist Touches a Nerve Pauline Harmange is adjusting to the success and backlash of her debut book, one of a handful of titles from France that suggest a more frank approach to sexism and gender violence. 

The American Abyss A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next. ............ Plato noted a particular risk for tyrants: that they would be surrounded in the end by yes-men and enablers. Aristotle worried that, in a democracy, a wealthy and talented demagogue could all too easily master the minds of the populace. Aware of these risks and others, the framers of the Constitution instituted a system of checks and balances. ................ Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. .............  Thanks to technological capacity and personal talent, Donald Trump lied at a pace perhaps unmatched by any other leader in history. For the most part these were small lies, and their main effect was cumulative. To believe in all of them was to accept the authority of a single man, because to believe in all of them was to disbelieve everything else. ............. big lies work only in lonely minds; their coherence substitutes for experience and companionship. ...........  In November 2020, reaching millions of lonely minds through social media, Trump told a lie that was dangerously ambitious: that he had won an election that in fact he had lost. This lie was big in every pertinent respect: not as big as “Jews run the world,” but big enough. ................ His vision never went further than a mirror. ........... The lie outlasts the liar. The idea that Germany lost the First World War in 1918 because of a Jewish “stab in the back” was 15 years old when Hitler came to power. How will Trump’s myth of victimhood function in American life 15 years from now? .............. For a coup to work in 2024, the breakers will require something that Trump never quite had: an angry minority, organized for nationwide violence, ready to add intimidation to an election. Four years of amplifying a big lie just might get them this. To claim that the other side stole an election is to promise to steal one yourself. It is also to claim that the other side deserves to be punished. ........... right-wing white supremacism is the greatest terrorist threat to the United States ..........  Democracy is not about minimizing the vote nor ignoring it, neither a matter of gaming nor of breaking a system, but of accepting the equality of others, heeding their voices and counting their votes.