Data is Plural: “KFF Health News, working with researchers at Johns Hopkins and Shatterproof, has published “a first-of-its kind database” tracking how states and local governments are using the billions of dollars received via opioid settlements in recent years. The database, drawing from “dozens of interviews, thousands of pages of documents, an array of public… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2025
Suspected Undeclared Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Academic Literature
Suspected Undeclared Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Academic Literature. An Analysis of the Academ-AI Dataset. Alex Glynn, MA, Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. November 26, 2024. “Since generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT became widely available, researchers have used them in the writing process. The consensus of… Continue Reading
US Cyber Trust Mark launches as the Energy Star of smart home security
The Verge: “Consumers shopping for new smart home devices will soon be able to look for the official stamp of trust from the US government: the US Cyber Trust Mark. Similar to how an Energy Star label on home appliances denotes a certain level of energy efficiency, the Cyber Trust Mark is meant to be… Continue Reading
Sorry, but Your Paper Straw Is Covered in Forever Chemicals
Food & Wine – Here’s What to Use Instead – “If you’re concerned about your exposure to forever chemicals, you may want to ditch your paper straw. In 2023, researchers from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, published a study in the journal Food Additives & Contaminants reviewing 39 different brands of straws made from five materials: paper, bamboo,… Continue Reading
On The Fragility of Our Knowledge Base
JSTOR Daily: “Historian Glenn D. Tieffert shows how state interests in the People’s Republic of China can be protected by editing online databases and collections. Digital databases are vulnerable to authoritarian regimes. In fact, argues historian Glenn D. Tiffert, “no corner of the knowledge economy lies beyond their reach.” “Digital platforms offer [censors] dynamic, fine-grained… Continue Reading
AI governance documents
Date is Plural – “The Emerging Technology Observatory’s AGORA “is a living collection of AI-relevant laws, regulations, standards, and other governance documents from the United States and around the world.” The dataset, available to download and explore online, provides the full text, metadata (e.g., jurisdiction, title, relevant dates), summaries, and thematic tags for 600+ documents.… Continue Reading
Landlords have been accused of price fixing. See where it may be happening.
Washington Post gift article: “Millions of rents across the United States may now be set using one company’s algorithmic software, according to a federal lawsuit and a Washington Post analysis. RealPage, a property management software company, uses a trove of data to suggest rental prices to landlords. The software has been widely adopted by property… Continue Reading
Science paper piracy site Sci-Hub shares lots of retracted papers
Ars Technica: “85 percent of invalid papers continue to be shared after they’ve been retracted. Keeping track of when a paper has been retracted can be a challenge. Most scientific literature is published in for-profit journals that rely on subscriptions and paywalls to turn a profit. But that trend has been shifting as various governments… Continue Reading
Four Key Instruments of Russian Propaganda
United 24 Media: “Russia’s propaganda machine uses a calculated strategy—dismiss, distort, distract, and dismay—to manipulate perceptions and erode trust in truth worldwide. The world is only now confronting information warfare, but Russian propaganda has been refining it for decades. The term “disinformation” itself is a product of propaganda, deliberately crafted by Joseph Stalin to sound… Continue Reading
What’s New in AI and Other Tools
JournalistsToolBox.AI: Liner – Uses ChatGPT 4o and Claude for deep search. Results have a Perplexity feel. Produces images, graphics and other tools built in. ONA: Archive of AI Case Studies in Newsrooms – An updated list of how newsrooms are using AI in various projects. It’s updated often. Eleven Labs Prompting Guide – Guide to… Continue Reading
Our Lunch and Learn Webinar, “Locating Congressionally Mandated Reports”
In Custodia Legis: “We hope you can join us on January 28, 2025, at 1 p.m. EST for our latest Lunch and Learn webinar, “Locating Congressionally Mandated Reports.” This webinar is the latest installment in the Law Library’s lunchtime learning program. Earlier webinars in this series have covered federal legislative history research, the Law Library’s… Continue Reading
13 dramatic photos that capture the beauty of marine sanctuaries
Be in awe of our National Marine Sanctuary System.”A majestic humpback whale, dramatic coastlines, and a coral reef ecosystem shine in the NOAA and and National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s ‘Get Into Your Sanctuary’ photo contest. The winning photos celebrate the National Marine Sanctuary System, which encompasses more than 629,000 square miles and includes 17 national… Continue Reading
