read | Chris Aldrich

👓 Bloomberg's TicToc is starting to build a brand beyond Twitter | Digiday

Read Bloomberg's TicToc is starting to build a brand beyond Twitter (Digiday)

Begun as a Twitter network, TicToc now includes a podcast and newsletter and is developing a website.

👓 Riemann hypothesis, fine structure constant, Todd function | John D. Cook

Read Riemann hypothesis, fine structure constant, Todd function by John D. Cook (johndcook.com)

This morning Sir Michael Atiyah gave a presentation at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum with a claimed proof of the Riemann hypothesis. The Riemann hypothesis (RH) is the most famous open problem in mathematics, and yet Atiyah claims to have a simple proof.

Based on the update that the whole thing may fall apart, but the fact that it’s based on the Todd function as it reaches a limit for the fine structure constant might provide an answer to Sean Carroll’s issues? We’ll see what comes of it.

👓 Newsonomics: The Washington Post’s ambitions for Arc have grown — to a Bezosian scale | Nieman Lab

Read Newsonomics: The Washington Post’s ambitions for Arc have grown — to a Bezosian scale (Nieman Lab)

It is increasingly the tech stack of choice for major news publishers. But now Arc wants to be the backbone of your digital advertising and subscriptions, too.

👓 Atiyah and the Fine-Structure Constant | Sean Carroll

Read Atiyah and the Fine-Structure Constant by Sean Carroll (Sean Carroll)

Sir Michael Atiyah, one of the world’s greatest living mathematicians, has proposed a derivation of α, the fine-structure constant of quantum electrodynamics. A preprint is here. The math her…

🎧 The value of rituals in a digital world | ABC Radio National

Listened to The value of rituals in a digital world from ABC Radio National

Are rituals still needed in a world mediated through digital devices?

We tend to think of rituals as solemn ceremonies, usually associated with religion. But rituals exist in our everyday life, as a way of helping us to make sense of the world. They can be communal or solitary. But how are they changing as we become increasing digital? Can rituals still have power and relevance in a world mediated through digital devices?

Guests
Michael Norton – Professor, Harvard Business School
Vanessa Ochs – Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Member of the Jewish Studies Program, University of Virginia
Viktor Lysell Smalanning – Ritual designer
Alexandra Samuel – digital columnist for JSTOR Daily and regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal
Nicolas Nova – Associate Professor, Geneva School of Art and Design

Transcript

A fascinating topic in general, but there are some interesting tidbits that the IndieWeb movement could pick up as transitional rituals within its workflow. Similarly, while some of the jargon helps to identify group membership, we still need to do a better job of simplifying it to make it easier to have a broader membership. The episode actually brings up the idea of UI and designers taking ritual into account in our daily lives.

What types of rituals can we create to help mark the leaving behind of the old social world and becoming a fully fledged member of the indie web by registering one’s own domain and having one’s own website? Perhaps a ritual to celebrate not only this but the addition of standards like Webmention, Micropub, and Microsub? In some small sense, this is what we’re celebrating in the use of displaying buttons (or badges) on our sites.

This is definitely worth listening to again and brainstorming ideas for extending the concept. Perhaps at an upcoming IWC??

hat tip: Aaron Davis