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Daily Archives: June 9, 2019

Many Americans Say Made-Up News Is a Critical Problem That Needs To Be Fixed

Pew – Politicians viewed as major creators made-up news, but journalists seen as the ones who should fix it – “Many Americans say the creation and spread of made-up news and information is causing significant harm to the nation and needs to be stopped, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of 6,127 U.S. adults conducted between Feb. 19 and March 4, 2019, on the Center’s American Trends Panel. Indeed, more Americans view made-up news as a very big problem for the country than identify terrorism, illegal immigration, racism and sexism that way. Additionally, nearly seven-in-ten U.S. adults (68%) say made-up news and information greatly impacts Americans’ confidence in government institutions, and roughly half (54%) say it is having a major impact on our confidence in each other.

U.S. adults blame political leaders and activists far more than journalists for the creation of made-up news intended to mislead the public. But they believe it is primarily the responsibility of journalists to fix the problem. And they think the issue will get worse in the foreseeable future. The vast majority of Americans say they sometimes or often encounter made-up news. In response, many have altered their news consumption habits, including by fact-checking the news they get and changing the sources they turn to for news. In addition, about eight-in-ten U.S. adults (79%) believe steps should be taken to restrict made-up news, as opposed to 20% who see it as protected communication…”

Automated Authorship Verification: Did We Really Write Those Blogs We Said We Wrote?

Wolfram Blog – May 28, 2019 — Daniel Lichtblau, Symbolic Algorithms Developer, Algorithms R&D – “Several Months Ago – I wrote a blog post about the disputed Federalist Papers. These were the 12 essays (out of a total of 85) with authorship claimed by both Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Ever since the landmark statistical… Continue Reading

Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

Smithsonian – A new study found that we consume between 74,000 and 121,000 plastic particles annually—and that’s likely an underestimate – “Microplastics are everywhere in our environment: oceans, soils, the air, the bodies of animals. It’s hardly surprising, then, that the tiny fragments have also been found in humans. But a new study is shining troubling… Continue Reading

Amazon’s helping police build a surveillance network with Ring doorbells

cnet – Its popular Ring smart doorbells mean more cameras on more doorsteps, where surveillance footage used to be rare. “If you’re walking in Bloomfield, New Jersey, there’s a good chance you’re being recorded. But it’s not a corporate office or warehouse security camera capturing the footage — it’s likely a Ring doorbell made by… Continue Reading

How China Is Planning to Rank 1.3 Billion People

Bloomberg: ” China has a radical plan to influence the behavior of its 1.3 billion people: It wants to grade each of them on aspects of their lives to reflect how good (or bad) a citizen they are. Versions of the so-called social credit system are being tested in a dozen cities with the aim… Continue Reading

LLRX – Articles for April and May 2019

Articles for April – May 2019 Casetext’s New ‘SmartCite’ Citator Is Its Clever Answer to Shepard’s and KeyCite Terms, Tags, and Classification Whither Law Student Information Literacy? Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues May 26, 2019 – Four highlights from this week: Finland is winning the war on fake news. Other nations… Continue Reading

How to Teach with JSTOR Text Analyzer

JSTOR Text Analyzer provides students with an additional resource for finding scholarly material – Rachel Hermann – “Many first year undergraduates enter university not knowing how to manage their time. They have extra-curricular activities. Or jobs at the local grocery store. And then there are all those assignments—they always seems to be due at once! My… Continue Reading

Putting AI to the Test with Chatbot Track for Summer Associates

Xiumei Dong, Wilson Sonsini Putting AI to the Test with Chatbot Track for Summer Associates, LawTech News (June 6, 2019) – “As part of a new program, a group of summer associates at Wilson Sonsini is partnering with the firm’s senior attorneys and technical staff to create automated chatbots for clients to use.” Continue Reading

Chrome Extension to block search results from specific sites

“uBlacklist blocks specific sites from appearing in Google search results. This Chrome extension prevents blacklisted sites from appearing in Google search results. The same function is already provided by Personal Blocklist (by Google). However, sites blocked by Personal Blocklist appear in search results for a moment and then disappear, which annoys me. uBlacklist prevents blacklisted… Continue Reading