Bloomberg: “Google lured billions of consumers to its digital services by offering copious free cloud storage. That’s beginning to change. The Alphabet Inc. unit has whittled down some free storage offers in recent months, while prodding more users toward a new paid cloud subscription called Google One. That’s happening as the amount of data people… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Monthly Archives: October 2019
In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace
An update on America’s changing religious landscape – “The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip. In Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile,… Continue Reading
World’s top economists just made the case for why we still need English majors
Washington Post: “A great migration is happening on U.S. college campuses. Ever since the fall of 2008, a lot of students have walked out of English and humanities lectures and into STEM classes, especially computer science and engineering. English majors are down more than a quarter (25.5 percent) since the Great Recession, according to data… Continue Reading
Under digital surveillance: how American schools spy on millions of kids
UK Guardian: “Bark and similar tech companies are now monitoring the emails and documents of millions of American students, across thousands of school districts, looking for signs of suicidal thoughts, bullying or plans for a school shooting. The new school surveillance technology doesn’t turn off when the school day is over: anything students type in… Continue Reading
How the Louvre’s Leonardo Blockbuster Shows a Master’s Progress
The New York Times – Eight highlights from the exhibition plot Leonardo da Vinci’s trajectory as an artist and show the breadth of his talents. “No institution in the world owns more Leonardo da Vincis than the Louvre. There are five paintings in its collections — including, most famously, the Mona Lisa, which the Renaissance… Continue Reading
‘The perfect combination of art and science’: mourning the end of paper maps
UK Guardian – Digital maps might be more practical in the 21st century, but the long tradition of cartography is magical – “Some for one purpose and some for another liketh, loveth, getteth, and useth Mappes, Chartes, & Geographicall Globes.”So explained John Dee, the occult philosopher of the Tudor era. The mystical Dr Dee would, perhaps, have… Continue Reading
How to create RSS Feeds from Twitter
RSS.app: “Twitter is a great tool to stay up-to-date with everything that is happening: news, hobbies and interests, celebrities and influencers. However, some users prefer to consume and monitor this information via RSS feeds using RSS readers or custom integrations within their own apps. RSS.app allows users to create RSS feeds from any public Twitter… Continue Reading
Alexa and Google Home abused to eavesdrop and phish passwords
ars technica – Amazon- and Google-approved apps turned both voice-controlled devices into “smart spies”. – “By now, the privacy threats posed by Amazon Alexa and Google Home are common knowledge. Workers for both companies routinely listen to audio of users—recordings of which can be kept forever—and the sounds the devices capture can be used in criminal… Continue Reading
Equifax used ‘admin’ as username and password for sensitive data: lawsuit
Yahoo Finance: “Equifax used the word “admin” as both password and username for a portal that contained sensitive information, according to a class action lawsuit filed in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia. The ongoing lawsuit, filed after the breach, went viral on Twitter Friday after Buzzfeed reporter Jane Lytvynenko came across the detail. “Equifax… Continue Reading
NYT Opinion – The Chinese Threat to American Speech
American companies have an obligation to defend the freedom of expression, even at the risk of angering China. “China’s assertive campaign to police discourse about its policies, even outside of its borders, and the acquiescence of American companies eager to make money in China, pose a dangerous and growing threat to one of this nation’s… Continue Reading
Portrait of an Inessential Government Worker
Bloomberg Opinion – Glory isn’t part of the deal when you go to work for the federal government. “The following is adapted from a new chapter for the paperback edition of “The Fifth Risk,” which will be published by Norton in November. “I found Art Allen standing on the lawn just outside his front door,… Continue Reading
The Best Cities in the World: 2019 Readers’ Choice Awards
Conde Nast Traveler – “There’s a striking amount of diversity among the global superpower cities, which are filled with everything from centuries-old palaces to neon-lit skylines and staggering skyscrapers. For our 32nd annual Readers’ Choice Awards survey—yes, readers have been voting for more than three decades—a record 600,000 registered voters weighed in. The impressive number… Continue Reading
