TechDirt: “While “AI” (language learning models) certainly could help journalism, the fail upward brunchlords in charge of most modern media outlets instead see the technology as a way to cut corners, undermine labor, badly automate low-quality, ultra-low effort, SEO-chasing clickbait, and rush undercooked solutions to nonexistent problems to market under the pretense of progress. For example,… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
Oceanic Impunity
Cody, Stephen, Oceanic Impunity (July 31, 2024). Southern California Law Review, Vol.97, No.3, p.637, 2024, Suffolk University Law School Research Paper No. 24-10, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4912229 – “Ocean protection is essential to avoid climate disaster. Phytoplankton,seaweeds, and sea grasses produce more than half of Earth’s oxygen—exceeding all terrestrial forests and plants combined—and absorb about… Continue Reading
Arctic tundra becoming source of carbon dioxide emissions
NOAA: “After storing carbon dioxide in frozen soil for millennia, the Arctic tundra is being transformed by frequent wildfires into an overall source of carbon to the atmosphere, which is already absorbing record levels of heat-trapping fossil fuel pollution. The transition of the Arctic from a carbon sink to a carbon source is one of… Continue Reading
Location data firm helps police find out when suspects visited their doctor
Ars Technica: “A location-tracking company that sells its services to police departments is apparently using addresses and coordinates of doctors’ and lawyers’ offices and other types of locations to help cops compile lists of places visited by suspects, according to a 404 Media report published today. Fog Data Science, which says it “harness[es] the power… Continue Reading
Quits and layoffs
Data is Plural: “Minneapolis Fed–affiliated economists Kathrin Ellieroth and Amanda Michaud have constructed a new dataset on monthly quits and layoffs. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) microdata going back to 1978, the dataset estimates the proportions of employees who, after quitting or being laid off, transition to unemployment versus exiting the labor market. In a… Continue Reading
Dow Jones negotiates AI usage agreements with nearly 4,000 news publishers
NiemanLab: “…Last month, Factiva announced it had signed generative AI usage agreements with nearly 4,000 publishers around the world. The agreements are for the business intelligence platform and news database, which houses articles by online outlets, newspapers, magazines, and transcripts of radio shows. Among the thousands of publishers who signed the agreements are The Associated… Continue Reading
6 Gmail Mistakes That Can Get You Fired (and How to Avoid Them)
How To Geek: “Whether you’ve used email a lot in your personal life, or if your first encounter with emails is in the workplace, you need to take special care with this fundamental web communication format, or you could find yourself in hot water!” Sending Sensitive Files Without Encryption Hitting “Reply All” to a Mass… Continue Reading
Food safety alerts
Data is Plural – Data journalist Adrian Nesta is building a automated pipeline to collect and standardize data on food safety recalls and alerts from two US federal agencies — the FDA and the USDA. For each alert, the standardized dataset indicates the notice’s title, ID, URL, and time posted, as well as the product… Continue Reading
Verification and Digital Investigations Resources
Mike Reilley – Maintained by Craig Silverman of ProPublica (@CraigSilverman). This is by no means a totally comprehensive list, but it covers what I consider to be essential plugins and tools for general OSINT/online research work. There are also links to other resources to go deeper. Continue Reading
Why is printer ink so expensive?
Digital Rights Bytes – “Few liquids are more precious than printer ink, but that’s not because ink is expensive to make. How can HP— and its handful of competitors in the highly concentrated printer market—get away with charging these kinds of markups? Simple: It’s a combination of monopoly power, wacky laws, and consumer-hostile tech… So… Continue Reading
Plastic Pollution and Policy Considerations: Frequently Asked Questions
CRS – Plastic Pollution and Policy Considerations: Frequently Asked Questions, December 5, 2024. “Global and domestic plastic production has increased substantially since the mid-20th century—doubling in the last two decades. The durability, moldability, and versatility of plastic have led to its ubiquitous use, benefiting many aspects of society, including the food, medical, technology, textile, and… Continue Reading
PopSci 50 greatest innovations of 2024
Now, in 2024, we continue our decades-old tradition of honoring big ideas. We even see hints of our original honorees in this year’s list: Sea-Doo and Ford made both lists, 36 years apart. We’re proud to bring you promising innovations—from things that make life at home easier to literal out-of-this-world explorations. This is the Best… Continue Reading
