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Bill Keller in The New York Times on erasing your Internet history Assessing an ongoing Connecticut trial, concerning a woman's quest to remove damaging stories about her from the Internet, Bill Keller weighs the web's record of humanity: "It seems almost everything is permanently recorded and accessible to almost anyone — potential employers, landlords, dates, predators. In Europe, where press freedoms are less sacred and the right to privacy is more ensconced, the idea has taken hold that individuals have a 'right to be forgotten,' and those who want their online particulars expunged tend to have the government on their side. I sense that the idea is gaining traction here." Keller quotes professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, who specializes in Internet regulation: "If we are continually reminded about people's mistakes, we are not able to judge them for who they are in the present. We need some way to put a speed-brake on the omnipresence of the past." At Gizmodo, Kyle Wagner is less certain: "No one you know who's spent any amount of time on the internet ... is without humiliating memories. ... There's just too much stupid now, ours and the world's, to really shame you the way you feel you deserve."
John Tamny at Forbes on the "Wall Street" metonym Does the term "Wall Street" — e.g., Wall Street vs. Main Street — mean anything anymore? "To navigate the numerous newspapers, magazines and websites that chronicle the financial world is to regularly be inundated with commentary about 'Wall Street.' To believe all that is written is to buy into a lot of attention-sapping myths," writes John Tamny. These myths are both geographic — "the financial world that is symbolized by 'Wall Street' is for the most part no longer on or even near the actual Wall Street in lower Manhattan" — and structural: "The false narrative still in existence that 'Wall Street's' health is inimical to that of "Main Street," or that financial firms work against the needs of clients is not credible. No business can exist for long if it’s actively seeking to bring harm to its customers." Add to that another myth: Wall Street's very dominance. "Wall Street is no longer the beacon of high pay and innovation it once was, thanks in part to a raft of new regulations, including those that curb compensation," writes Suzanne Kapner at The Wall Street Journal. "Once idolized by some for its "greed is good" mentality, the Wall Street of today still faces a barrage of public criticism for the carnage unleashed during the financial crisis."