Commentary – Center for Data Innovation: “In March 2019, IBM created the “Diversity in Faces” dataset to provide a set of photos of peoples’ faces of various ages and ethnicities to help reduce bias in facial recognition systems. Even though IBM compiled the dataset from photos people shared online with a license which allows others… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: October 2019
New Survey on Technology Use by Law Firms: How Does Your Firm Compare?
Via LLRX – New Survey on Technology Use by Law Firms: How Does Your Firm Compare? – Nicole L. Black recommends firm conduct a technology audit to review the need for software updates, to identify and replace outdated technology and applications, and to plan and implement migrating operations such as document management and time and… Continue Reading
DHS has FOIA backlog in excess of 50,000 requests
Freedom of Information Act: DHS Needs to Reduce Backlogged Requests and Eliminate Duplicate Processing, GAO-20-209T: Published: Oct 17, 2019. Publicly Released: Oct 17, 2019. “The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires federal agencies to provide the public with access to government records. The Department of Homeland Security continues to receive the largest number of FOIA… Continue Reading
Computers have an unlikely origin story: the 1890 census
FastCompany – David Lindsay Roberts – “The inventor of punched cards, which led to the first computers and companies like IBM, was aiming to solve a gnarly problem at the time: data collection for the census…The U.S. Constitution requires that a population count be conducted at the beginning of every decade. This census has always been charged… Continue Reading
10 Free Internet TV Channels You Can Watch Online
MakeUseOf.com: “We all know about the various streaming services that let you watch live TV. But what about standalone TV channels? Is it possible to watch free internet TV channels from around the world? In this article we’ll help you find the best free TV channels on the web. Every channel on the list has… Continue Reading
BYU Law creates language database to help interpret Constitution
The Daily Universe: “The Constitution is America’s central legal document. However, it was written a long time ago, and language has since evolved. Changing language can make the law difficult for lawyers and judges to interpret. What does it really mean to “bear arms?” How should readers understand the phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors?” BYU… Continue Reading
How Amazon.com moved into the business of U.S. elections
Reuters: “The expansion by Amazon Web Services into state and local elections has quietly gathered pace since the 2016 U.S. presidential vote. More than 40 states now use one or more of Amazon’s election offerings, according to a presentation given by an Amazon executive this year and seen by Reuters. So do America’s two main… Continue Reading
New study pinpoints and maps the places most at risk on a warming planet
Grist: “As many as five billion people will face hunger and a lack of clean water by 2050 as the warming climate disrupts pollination, freshwater, and coastal habitats, according to new research published last week in Science. People living in South Asia and Africa will bear the worst of it. Climate activists have been telling… Continue Reading
The Wayback Machine: Fighting Digital Extinction in New Ways
Internet Archive Blogs: Extinction isn’t just a biological issue. In the 21st century, it’s a technical, even digital one, too. The average web page might last three months before it’s altered or deleted forever. You never know when access to the information on these web pages is going to be needed. It might be three… Continue Reading
The Little-Known ‘Slow Fire’ That’s Destroying All Our Books
LitHub: “…It’s called a “slow fire,” this continuous acidification and subsequent embrittlement of paper that was created with the seeds of its own ruin in its very fibers. In a 1987 documentary on the subject, the deputy Librarian of Congress William Welsh takes an embrittled, acid-burned book and begins tearing pages out by the handful,… Continue Reading
Peel back the layers of Twitter with this freshly updated tool
Poynter – A person or organization’s social media account reveals two layers of information – “The first is, obviously, the contents of the posts themselves. The second — much harder to obtain at a glance — is the structure and patterns contained within those messages. The latter can often enhance or, more common than you’d… Continue Reading
Bird populations have crashed. Here’s what you can do to help.
Washington Post – “…A study by ornithologists and other scientists released last month told us bird populations have crashed. Since 1970, the United States and Canada have lost nearly 3 billion, close to 30 percent fewer individuals. The losses are across habitats and species, though hardest hit are birds that inhabit the grasslands from Texas north… Continue Reading
