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Daily Archives: May 1, 2018

Watch Morton Salt Go Dumpster Diving to Create a Font From Discarded Vegetables

AdWeek: New video aims to curb the $160 billion problem of food waste – “As Americans, we are the most wasteful creatures on the planet. Of all the food we buy, over 40 percent of it winds up in the trash, about 150,000 tons a day. Each year, Americans toss out an estimated $160 billion worth of food. The amount of edibles we pitch into the garbage would fill a college football stadium right up to the cheap seats—every day of the week. Of course, statistics like these only go so far to raising awareness. Which is why Morton Salt has created what it hopes is a more effective way. Debuting today on social media channels is a video that brings the scope of food wastage in a way that’s hard to forget. Morton went dumpster diving recently, pulled out a bushel of discarded fruits and vegetables, and then made a typeface from them. In fact, it not only made a typeface, but also ink and paper—also from same discarded fruits and vegetables—which it then used to print up posters with provocative banner headlines such as “This Poster Is a Complete Waste” and “You’re Reading Last Night’s Dinner.” (Morton shot consumers’ reactions to reading the posters, and made that into a second video. Scroll down to watch both.)”

CRS Report – Artificial Intelligence and National Security

CRS report via FAS – Artificial Intelligence and National Security  – Daniel S. Hoadley, US Air Force Fellow; Nathan J. Lucas, Section Research Manager, April 26, 2018. “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing field of technological development with potentially significant implications for national security. As such, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is developing AI… Continue Reading

African American Members of the United States Congress: 1870-2018

CRS report via FAS: African American Members of the United States Congress: 1870-2018. Ida A. Brudnick, Specialist on the Congress; Jennifer E. Manning, Information Research Specialist. April 26, 2018. “In total, 153 African Americans have served in Congress. This total includes 143 African Americans (137 Representatives and 6 Delegates) elected only to the House of… Continue Reading

Vital Signs: Trends in Reported Vectorborne Disease Cases – US and Territories, 2004–201

CDC Early Release, MMWR, May 1, 2018: “Vectorborne diseases are major causes of death and illness worldwide. In the United States, the most common vectorborne pathogens are transmitted by ticks or mosquitoes, including those causing Lyme disease; Rocky Mountain spotted fever; and West Nile, dengue, and Zika virus diseases. This report examines trends in occurrence… Continue Reading

UK Parliament hears testimony that Facebook’s dark ads problem is systemic

TechCrunch: “Facebook’s admission to the UK parliament this week that it had unearthed unquantified thousands of dark fake ads after investigating fakes bearing the face and name of well-known consumer advice personality, Martin Lewis, underscores the massive challenge for its platform on this front. Lewis is suing the company for defamation over its failure to stop… Continue Reading

Request to archive the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database receives positive response

Ben Amata – GOVDOC-L – Request to GPO – Please catalog CFPB Consumer Complaint database as public access may be removed. GPO’s reponse: “This site is harvested twice a year. For the Consumer Complaint database, the Web Archive team was not able to capture the database user interface in such a way that it functions… Continue Reading

Report of Sentencing Project to UN on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance

Report of The Sentencing Project to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance March 2018. “In a new report to the United Nations on racial disparities, we explain how the United States essentially operates two distinct criminal justice systems: one for wealthy people and another for… Continue Reading

In abid to gain market share publishers have slashed the cost of digital textbooks

Inside Higher Ed: “New print textbooks can still cost students hundreds of dollars, but the cost of etextbooks is falling fast, according to data from etextbook distribution platforms VitalSource and RedShelf — both of which work with all major publishers. Since 2016, the average price of etextbooks on VitalSource has fallen by 31 percent, from… Continue Reading