Were things always better 'back in the day'?

Google Lens, the limits of social media, Facebook's inconsistent guidelines, ransomware fallout and more

'Back in the day', there was no Facebook. There was only TV, radio, outdoor and press.

Now Facebook is a behemoth, and leaks of its attitude to moderating posts has proved to be worryingly inconsistent and flawed according to leaked information passed to The Guardian. The social media giant is in the process of hiring some 3,000 moderators to look at potential breaches of its terms of use.

Of note for marketers, according to this study there is little similarity between interactions on social media and word of mouth interactions, which are known to be persuasive.

New Three ad from Wieden + Kennedy:

Companies like Google and Facebook operate in largely unregulated markets.

But if data is the new oil then, like the oil companies of old, shouldn’t those dealing in data on a huge scale be regulated?

Google’s AI Lens adds depth to the human-mobile interactions around you that the company offers, and hints at what the company’s ambitions are, with AI driving the bulk of it.

A nice anecdote about Jeff Bezos. According to venture capitalist John Doerr, Mr Bezos likes to push beyond what his investors think is wise, but Bezos has proved to be right.

And why Amazon is worth more than 100,000% the initial floatation value.

Rory Sutherland on the dangers of algorithmic political targeting, and why it shouldn't be trusted.

The WannaCry ransomware attack has rightly never been far from the headlines. The attack caused so much damage because humans didn’t have to open infected links or emails, but the operating system did everything all by itself, with the ransomware in-place a month before the attacks began. Read a fascinating in-depth account of how the attack happened, and why so few people have paid the ransom.

Meanwhile, the hackers want to resume their attacks, according to the 22-year-old specialist who managed to stop the attacks.

Read Elizabeth Denham’s decision to open an investigation into political parties’ use of social. If it finds breaches, could it re-open the inquiry into political spending.

Nytol ad cunjors Churchill’s war room, by Lucky Generals:

Whether it’s because of the ransomware attack or for other reasons altogether, Bitcoin has hit new highs, outperforming gold. The Australian explores whether this is a bubble or justified.

Staying in Australia, do you love trees? Email them to let them know.

Can it be that Pepsi sales have increased, despite that awful ad? Note – this story may have been written by a computer.

Let’s say you have a time machine. You get into it and travel back in time to kill your grandfather. If you did this, then one of your parents would not have been born, and you would not have been born, so you would not have been able to climb into your time machine in the first place.

Confused? You will be. This ‘Grandfather paradox’ has puzzled physicists, but may be explained by the odd workings of quantum computers.

AR New Zealand:

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Alex Tizon died earlier this year aged 57. He wrote this uncomfortable story of Lola. Ostensibly his nanny, he eventually deduced that she was his family’s slave. The piece is not an easy read and raises many questions, but now the author is dead, those questions are impossible to answer.

In the piece he seems to be laying his shame out. Many have been furious about the article, particularly considering this obituary of Lola, instigated by Tizon in 2011.

You will have heard an increasing number of people talk about Slack, the messaging app designed for work. Read this account of its history and the impact it’s making on workers worldwide.

Have you wondered what real applications lie in store for 3D printing? Fashion is one, to create textiles otherwise impossible to make, although they may also be impossible to wear.

Talking of when things were ‘better back in the day’, this ad, made for Hamlet cigars (now of course banned from advertising) by director Graham Rose. Rose died recently, and this ad shows how good some old ads really were.

A couple of weeks ago we shared a video featuring The Hoff, the script written using AI. Here’s an interview with the creator, who admits that the results are ‘riddled with clichés’, although the AI can respond to questions and seems to be able to generate random and surprising responses.

Is Pixar if the greatest-ever animation studio? The greatest-ever film studio? Or are Pixar's glory days behind it? According to this piece, it has finally lost its way.

An interview with Michael Mann on the re-release of Heat, 20 on from its initial release.

You have to give something up to get something back says Charles Vallance.

Finally, you can't get more 'back in the day' then Roger Moore's James Bond. Moore dies this week. His Bond was entirely his own. Here's a reel of the essence of his Bond: