Wired – [unpaywalled] Newly Unredacted Court Docs Reveal – One of the most important AI copyright legal battles just took a major turn : “Meta just lost a major fight in its ongoing legal battle with a group of authors suing the company for copyright infringement over how it trained its artificial intelligence models. Against… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter
This tool converts letters and numbers into the NATO phonetic alphabet, which is used to clearly communicate spelling over radio, phone, or in any situation where clarity is crucial. For example, “BAT” becomes “Bravo Alpha Tango”. This helps avoid confusion between similar-sounding letters like ‘B’ and ‘P’ or ‘M’ and ‘N’. Important: This is an… Continue Reading
Supreme Court’s Contempt for Facts Is a Betrayal of Justice
Scientific American [unpaywalled] – The Supreme Court majority’s recent decisions about homelessness, public health and regulatory power, among others, undermine the role of evidence, expertise and honesty in American democracy. “When the Supreme Court’s Ohio v. EPA decision blocked Environmental Protection Agency limits on Midwestern states polluting their downwind neighbors, a sad but telling coda… Continue Reading
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 11, 2025
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 11, 202 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex… Continue Reading
What’s a Fact Anyway
The New Yorker, Fergus McIntosh [unpaywalled]: “What is truly extraordinary about any fact-checking department is that it exists at all. At the time of writing, nearly 30 people work in Checking at The New Yorker, “It is labor, at scale, that produces accuracy.”…“Fake news” is not a new concept, but many Americans now register displeasure… Continue Reading
The Beginner’s Guide to Google Slides
HowToGeek: If you’re just getting started with Google Slides, its extensive features and add-ons can be a little overwhelming. Here are some tips to help you get going with this powerful alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint. What Is Google Slides? How to Sign Up for an Account How to Create a Blank Presentation How to Add… Continue Reading
Your iPhone Storage Is Full Again. Do This to Reclaim Space
WSJ via MSN – “Call it iPhone Storage Creep. As cameras get better, the photos and videos they capture get bigger. Software updates are increasing in size, too. The latest iOS 18.2 upgrade requires 7 gigabytes for newer phones that support Apple Intelligence—nearly double the earlier iOS 18.1 update. More bulky features are due in… Continue Reading
Anti-Tag Cloud
An Anti-Tag Cloud shows you the most common English words that never appear in a text, visualizing the “negative space” of a literary work. Size indicates how frequent a word is across other texts. Pick a book to visualize… Continue Reading
Wallace & Gromit Return
Beloved duo Wallace & Gromit returned to our screens at Christmas, 34 years after their first appearance, in their second feature-length film, Vengeance Most Fowl (Fanfare thread). Group blog (-slash-arts-magazine) It’s Nice That recently interviewed creator and director Nick Park, co-director Merlin Crossingham and supervising animator Will Becher about the plasticine pair’s legacy and creating… Continue Reading
FOIA Fellows as Freedom Fighters
Jack Wroldsen, FOIA Fellows as Freedom Fighters: An Independent and Privately Funded FOIA Commission of Rotating Professionals (Oct. 31, 2024). 108 Marquette L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025), available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5043146 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5043146. “The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a hallmark of U.S. democracy, designed as an outsider element that foists transparency on a government… Continue Reading
In ‘a mass erasure of heritage,’ numerous historic landmarks lost in L.A.
LA Times providing free access to updates on the fires – There have been at least 24 deaths and more than 12,000 structures damaged or destroyed in the L.A.-area fires. Cal Fire reported the Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst fires had consumed more than 62 square miles, an area larger than San Francisco. The Palisades… Continue Reading
The Depths of Wikipedians
Asterisk Interview with Annie Rauwerda – The Depths of Wikipedians – Asterisk: You’re famous for the Depths of Wikipedia account, where you share factoids from some of the most arcane, interesting, and surprising pages on Wikipedia. But you’re also now a part of the broader Wikipedia community. How did you first get interested in the… Continue Reading
