Quartz: “Google, which owns YouTube, announced on Oct. 19 a new dataset of film clips, designed to teach machines how humans move in the world. Called AVA, or “atomic visual actions,” the videos aren’t anything special to human eyes—they’re three second clips of people drinking water and cooking curated from YouTube. But each clip is bundled with a file that outlines the person that a machine learning algorithm should watch, as well as a description of their pose, and whether they’re interacting with another human or object. It’s the digital version of pointing at a dog with a child and coaching them by saying, “dog.”
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Daily Archives: October 23, 2017
FERC Proposes New Security Management Controls for Grid Cyber Systems
“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) [on October 19, 2017] proposed new cyber security management controls to further enhance the reliability and resilience of the nation’s bulk electric system. These include mandatory controls to address the risks posed by malware from transient electronic devices like laptop computers, thumb drives and other devices used at low-impact… Continue Reading
Commentary – The Supreme Court Is Allergic To Math
Oliver Roeder on FiveThirtyEight: “The Supreme Court does not compute. Or at least some of its members would rather not. The justices, the most powerful jurists in the land, seem to have a reluctance — even an allergy — to taking math and statistics seriously. For decades, the court has struggled with quantitative evidence of… Continue Reading
Zillow – Climate Change and Homes: Who Would Lose the Most to a Rising Tide?
From an article by Lauren Bretz, October 18, 2017: One-third (32 percent) of underwater homes would be valued in the bottom third nationally, meaning $123 billion in losses. Two in five (39 percent) underwater homes would be valued in the top third nationally, translating to $597 billion in lost high-end real estate. In rural and… Continue Reading
White House deleted chat and social apps from government devices
FCW.com: “White House officials no longer have text or social media messaging apps on their official phones because of records management headaches, according to a letter from a key House oversight official. The news came in an account of an Oct. 18 staff briefing on the administration’s records management practices from three officials in the… Continue Reading
U.S. Winter Outlook: NOAA forecasters predict cooler, wetter North and warmer, drier South
“Forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center released the U.S. Winter Outlook today, with La Nina potentially emerging for the second year in a row as the biggest wildcard in how this year’s winter will shape up. La Nina has a 55- to 65-percent chance of developing before winter sets in. NOAA produces seasonal outlooks to… Continue Reading
Signing Statements and Presidentializing Legislative History
Signing Statements and Presidentializing Legislative History. John M. de Figueiredo, Edward H. Stiglitz. NBER Working Paper No. 23951. Issued in October 2017. “Presidents often attach statements to the bills they sign into law, purporting to celebrate, construe, or object to provisions in the statute. Though long a feature of U.S. lawmaking, the President has avowedly… Continue Reading
Report – Benefits of regular exercise are greatest for those aged 45 and older
Good News – Emotional Benefits of Exercise Greater for Older Americans – Gallup-Sharecare Wellbeing Index: “The amount of exercise that Americans get is closely linked to their level of optimism about their lives. However, this relationship is much stronger among older adults than it is among younger adults. U.S. adults aged 65 and older who… Continue Reading
2017 CPA-Zicklin Index of Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability
The Center for Public Integrity – Your favorite companies may be political black boxes “You book a hotel on Expedia.com. You buy a Garmin to navigate highways. Finally, you stream Netflix movies to keep the kids occupied on the trip. Just know you’re patronizing companies that volunteer virtually nothing about their political practices and spending,… Continue Reading
