Ars Technica: “Condé Nast and several other media companies sued the AI startup Cohere today, alleging that it engaged in “systematic copyright and trademark infringement” by using news articles to train its large language model. “Without permission or compensation, Cohere uses scraped copies of our articles, through training, real-time use, and in outputs, to power… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
Metals in Wildfire Suppressants
Metals in Wildfire Suppressants. Marella H. Schammel, Samantha J. Gold, and Daniel L. McCurry. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2024, 11, 11, 1247-1253. Open Access Publication Date (Web): October 30, 2024. Pages 1136-1259. ABSTRACT: Frequent and severe wildfires have led to increased application of fire suppression products (long-term fire retardants, water enhancers, and Class A foams)… Continue Reading
Bluesky Now Has Its Own Version of TikTok
Lifehacker: “Bluesky is setting itself up to be a social media jack of all trades. There’s the main experience, of course, which replaces something like X or Threads. But it’s not all about the text posts: Soon, you’ll be able to use an app like Flashes to transform Bluesky into a kind of Instagram. Before… Continue Reading
Google’s Gemini AI recorded meetings without consent
IT Brew: “Federal agencies are having a Rear Window moment, but they don’t know who’s behind the binoculars.On Jan. 15, Google began rolling out an update to its Workspace utility suite that turned on its AI assistant, Gemini. For some companies—including Morning Brew—this update arrived without warning and required IT staff to disable the feature.… Continue Reading
USAspending Data Sources and SAM.gov
“USAspending.gov links data from many government systems, including agency financial systems and governmentwide award systems. Scroll below to learn more about these systems, as well as the context for this historic initiative to provide federal spending transparency.” Try searching for contracts by vendor name such as AWS, Inc., Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Tesla Laboratories, Inc.… Continue Reading
Internet Archive Time Portal
“Explore the Internet Archive’s vast collection through time. Discover historical content, including books, videos, software, and more, all with visual representations. Random content from all years and types.” Powered by Internet Archive Select Year (Optional) Content Type (Optional) Select Mode (Optional) Continue Reading
Essential Vermeer and The William Blake Archive
“The primary goal of the Essential Vermeer website is to harness the extraordinary potential of the internet to provide a comprehensive and organic presentation of Vermeer’s art, life, and cultural milieu. Complex art historical issues are made accessible to casual art lovers while retaining their relevance for scholars and experts. News of Vermeer-related exhibitions, publications,… Continue Reading
Implementing President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative
Josh Marshall: “This new EO signed today appears to create DOGE as a shadow government across the entire federal government. Each agency/dept will be assigned a DOGE minder who will work with the Secry or Director and essentially be in charge of all new hiring and/or firing. People have been saying the Elon is President.… Continue Reading
Elon Musk’s AI Fuelled War on Human Agency
The New Yorker – unpaywalled – “To run his agency [DOGE], Musk brought on a group of tech-company managers and inexperienced twentysomethings whose credentials included internships at SpaceX. We watched as this crew began interrogating federal employees about their jobs, interfering with the system that controls payments at the Treasury Department, and trawling government budgets… Continue Reading
Current Federal Civilian Employment by State and Congressional District
CRS Report – Current Federal Civilian Employment by State and Congressional District, Updated December 20, 2024: “The federal government employs more than 2 million civilians who live and work in every state and U.S. territory. As Congress considers the impact of federal appropriations at the national, state, and local levels, Members may seek information on… Continue Reading
Scientists Say They’ve Found the Perfect Way to Boil an Egg
Smithsonian Magazine – “Boiling an egg is not as straightforward as it might seem, because the egg yolk and the egg white cook at two different temperatures. If the white is perfectly cooked, the yolk is overdone and chalky. But if the yolk is perfectly cooked, the white (also called the albumen) does not solidify… Continue Reading
UK – Secure sanitisation and disposal of storage media
How to ensure data cannot be recovered from electronic storage media. In this guidance What is electronic storage media? What is sanitisation? Before you sanitise Preparing ESM for re-use Disposing of ESM This guidance is for organisations who need to ensure that data held on electronic storage media can’t be read by unauthorised parties after… Continue Reading
