Rethinking Privacy and Freedom of Expression in the Digital Era: An Interview with Mark Andrejevic

Mark Andrejevic, Professor of Media Studies at the Pomona College in Claremont, California, is a distinguished critical theorist exploring issues around surveillance from pop culture to the logic of automated, predictive surveillance practices. In an interview with WPCC issue co-editor Pinelopi Troullinou, Andrejevic responds to pressing questions emanating from the surveillant society looking to shift the conversation to concepts of data holders’ accountability. He insists on the need to retain awareness of power relations in a data driven society highlighting the emerging challenge, ‘to provide ways of understanding the long and short term consequences of data driven social sorting’. Within the context of Snowden’s revelations and policy responses worldwide he recommends a shift of focus from discourses surrounding ‘pre-emption’ to those of ‘prevention’ also questioning the notion that citizens might only need to be concerned, ‘if we are doing something “wrong”’ as this is dependent on a utopian notion of the state and commercial processes, ‘that have been purged of any forms of discrimination’. He warns of multiple concerns of misuse of data in a context where ‘a total surveillance society looks all but inevitable’. However, the academy may be in a unique position to provide ways of reframing the terms of discussions over privacy and surveillance via the analysis of ‘the long and short term consequences of data driven social sorting (and its automation)’ and in particular of algorithmic accountability

Splenic Trauma: should we treat differently?

A 36 year old male was admitted to Accident and Emergency Department following a motor vehicle accident. Clinical examination revealed a haemodynamically stable patient. Abdominal examination showed tenderness in right upper quadrant. Ultrasonography of the abdomen was normal. Haemoglobin on admission was 13 gm/dl. A repeated haemoglobin six hours later revealed a Hb of 10 gm/dl. Computerized tomography(CT) of the abdomen showed a ruptured spleen. As the patient was haemodynamically stable, it was decided to treat the patient in the HDU setting. His condition remained stable and he was fit to be discharged home on the fifth post-operative day.peer-reviewe

Benign recurrent intrahepatic cholestasis : report of two local cases

Benign Recurrent Intrahepatic Cholestasis (BRIC) is a rare disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of cholestasis without permanent liver damage. Familial and sporadic cases have been reported and both autosomal recessive and autosomal dominant inheritance described. We report two children with BRIC without any previous family history.peer-reviewe

Surveillance and alienation in the online economy

The critical literature on commercial monitoring and so-called ‘free labour’ (Terranova 2000) locates exploitation in realms beyond the workplace proper, noting the productivity of networked activity including the creation of user-generated-content and the profitability of commercial sites for social networking and communication. The changing context of productivity in these realms, however, requires further development of a critical concept of exploitation. This article defines exploitation as the extraction of unpaid, coerced, and alienated labour. It considers how such a definition might apply to various forms of unpaid but profit-generating online activity, arguing that commercial monitoring redoubles the conscious, intentional activity of users in ways that render it amenable to a critique of exploitation. Given the role of commercial monitoring in the emerging online economy, the paper emphasizes the importance of supplementing privacy critiques with approaches that identify the ways in which new forms of surveillance represent a form of power that seeks to manage and control consumer behaviour

The Party

Short Stor

Is 24 hour observation in hospital after stopping intravenous antibiotics in neonates justified?

Background: Antibiotics are given empirically for suspected sepsis in up to 75% of neonates on the Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (NPICU), after completion of a septic screen. Treatment is discontinued on day 3 if cultures remain negative or after 7-14 days with proven sepsis and, until recently, these neonates are then observed for an additional period of 24 hours before being discharged from hospital. Aim: To assess whether the 24 hour observation period after stopping antibiotics is clinically justified and, if not, whether neonates can be discharged safely on the same day when antibiotics are stopped. Methods: A consecutive sample of 95 babies admitted to NPICU, and who received antibiotics, from December 2006 to January 2008 were analysed prospectively. Their clinical presentation, predisposing risk factors for neonatal sepsis, investigations, antibiotic details and medical management including respiratory support were recorded, and correlated with all events that may have occurred during the observation period after stopping antibiotics. Results: No adverse events were documented in the 24 hour period after antibiotics in all 95 neonates in this study and, therefore, there was no association with any potential predisposing risk factors. Conclusion: The need to observe neonates for a period prior to discharge after stopping antibiotics is not supported on clinical grounds and, as a result of this study, has been discontinued. Neonates can be discharged from hospital safely and immediately on stopping antibiotics, thus reducing hospital stay and an estimated cost saving of approximately €18,000 to the service provider per annum.peer-reviewe

The Queue

Short story

The Queue

Short story

A state variable for crumpled thin sheets

Despite the apparent ease with which a sheet of paper is crumpled and tossed away, crumpling dynamics are often considered a paradigm of complexity. This complexity arises from the infinite number of configurations a disordered crumpled sheet can take. Here we experimentally show that key aspects of crumpling have a very simple description; the evolution of the damage in crumpling dynamics can largely be described by a single global quantity, the total length of all creases. We follow the evolution of the damage network in repetitively crumpled elastoplastic sheets, and show that the dynamics of this quantity are deterministic, and depend only on the instantaneous state of the crease network and not at all on the crumpling history. We also show that this global quantity captures the crumpling dynamics of a sheet crumpled for the first time. This leads to a remarkable reduction in complexity, allowing a description of a highly disordered system by a single state parameter. Similar strategies may also be useful in analyzing other systems that evolve under geometric and mechanical constraints, from faulting of tectonic plates to the evolution of proteins