Scientific American: “An online animal catalogue lets you decode communications and other behaviors for everyone’s favorite pachyderm..Elephants possess an incredibly rich repertoire of communication techniques, including hundreds of calls and gestures that convey specific meanings and can change depending on the context. Different elephant populations also exhibit culturally learned behaviors unique to their specific group.… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: June 2021
How to have deeper (and better) conversations with your coworkers
Fast Company: “Workplace conversations have changed their character during the pandemic. Lots of our communication has shifted from face-to-face to something mediated by technology. We talk to people on the phone and via videoconference tools. Instead of catching up in the office kitchen, we exchange brief pleasantries via email or Slack DM. As a result,… Continue Reading
How Academic Pirate Alexandra Elbakyan Is Fighting Scientific Misinformation
Vice: “In the decade since Alexandra Elbakyan founded Sci-Hub, science’s so-called “pirate queen” has amassed more than 85 million full-text research articles, which she’s made available, for free, to anyone who can track down her custom search engine. Sci-Hub uses myriad techniques, including shared passwords and bugs on publisher websites, to rip copyrighted papers, and… Continue Reading
What the CDC’s New Mask Rules Mean for the Immunocompromised, and What That Means for Everyone Else
LifeHacker: “…Less than a month later, on May 13, the CDC released new mask and distancing guidelines. Fully vaccinated people with healthy immune systems (aka the immunocompetent) can now safely resume pre-pandemic behavior indoors and out. In contrast, the CDC’s advice for the immunocompromised is that we might need to continue masking and social distancing… Continue Reading
Artificial Intelligence as a Service: Legal Responsibilities, Liabilities, and Policy Challenges
Cobbe, Jennifer and Singh, Jatinder, Artificial Intelligence as a Service: Legal Responsibilities, Liabilities, and Policy Challenges (April 12, 2021). Forthcoming in Computer Law & Security Review, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3824736 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3824736 “Artificial Intelligence as a Service (‘AIaaS’) will play a growing role in society’s technical infrastructure, enabling, facilitating, and underpinning functionality in many applications.… Continue Reading
Deep Fakes and National Security
CRS In Focus – Deep Fakes and National Security, Updated June 8, 2021: “Deep fakes”—a term that first emerged in 2017 to describe realistic photo, audio, video, and other forgeries generated with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies—could present a variety of national security challenges in the years to come. As these technologies continue to mature, they… Continue Reading
SNAPSHOT USA: First-ever nationwide mammal survey published
Eurek Alert: “How are the squirrels doing this year? The bears? The armadillos? How would you know? A new paper published June 8 sets up the framework for answering these questions across the United States by releasing the data from the first national mammal survey made up of 1,509 motion-activated camera traps from 110 sites… Continue Reading
Ohio sues Google, seeks to declare the internet company a public utility
The Columbus Dispatch: “Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a lawsuit asking a court to declare Google a public utility that should be regulated as such. “Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products – that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost said in a statement. “When you own the railroad or… Continue Reading
Wildfires, tornadoes, floods, intruders: 4 ways your phone can save you in an emergency
CNET – “Our phones are the center of our social lives, but they could also help save lives in a natural disaster or other emergency. Should you wind up stranded on the side of the road, trapped inside your home or faced with an intruder that makes it impossible to dial 911, the Android phone or iPhone… Continue Reading
CRS Defense Primer: Emerging Technologies
CRS In Focus – Defense Primer: Emerging Technologies, Updated June 8, 2021: “Both U.S. national strategy documents and Congress’s own bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force Report have identified a number of emerging technologies that could have a disruptive impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. These technologies include artificial intelligence, lethal… Continue Reading
How to make your offline self harder to find online
The Verge: “There are two key concepts in information security: threat model and attack surface. “Threat model” is another way of asking, “Who’s out to get you?” If your threat model includes the curiosity of nation-state intelligence services, you have many more things to worry about than J. Random User. It’s more likely that voicing… Continue Reading
Fastly outage explained: How one customer broke Amazon, Reddit and the wider internet
CNET: “Tuesday [June 8, 2021] will be remembered as the day the internet broke — before swiftly being fixed again. Early in the morning, websites including Amazon, Reddit, Spotify, Ebay, Twitch, Pinterest and, unfortunately, CNET went offline due to a major outage at a service called Fastly. Everywhere you looked, there were 503 errors and… Continue Reading
