The Verge: “AI research company OpenAI is releasing a new machine learning tool that translates the English language into code. The software is called Codex and is designed to speed up the work of professional programmers, as well as help amateurs get started coding. In demos of Codex, OpenAI shows how the software can be… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: August 2021
Where extreme weather is getting even worse, in one map
Vox: “Humans have warmed the planet by an average of 1.2 degrees Celsius since industrialization began in the 19th century. This small-sounding change has helped fuel severe wildfires, record-breaking heatwaves, floods, and an ever-growing list of other disasters. What’s worrying is that Earth will continue to heat up — likely past 1.5 degrees — even… Continue Reading
The three-or-four-hours rule for getting creative work done
Oliver Burkeman: “…The real lesson – or one of them – is that it pays to use whatever freedom you do have over your schedule not to “maximise your time” or “optimise your day”, in some vague way, but specifically to ringfence three or four hours of undisturbed focus (ideally when your energy levels are… Continue Reading
Visualisation of law and legal Process: An opportunity missed
McLachlan S, Webley LC. Visualisation of law and legal Process: An opportunity missed. Information Visualization. 2021;20(2-3):192-204. doi:10.1177/14738716211012608 “Visual representation of the law and legal process can aid in recall and discussion of complicated legal concepts, yet is a skill rarely taught in law schools. This work investigates the use of flowcharts and similar process-oriented diagrams… Continue Reading
How the Pandemic Now Ends
The Atlantic – Cases of COVID-19 are rising fast. Vaccine uptake has plateaued. The pandemic will be over one day—but the way there is different now. “This new surge brings a jarring sense of déjà vu. America has fallen prey to many of the same self-destructive but alluring instincts that I identified last year. It… Continue Reading
FTC disputes Facebook reasoning for shutting down NYU disinformation project
ZDNet – “The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has criticized Facebook for claiming that a consent decree handed down by the organization was the reason they had to shut down New York University’s Ad Observatory. Facebook has faced significant backlash this week after they closed the researchers’ accounts working for the Ad Observatory project, which let Facebook… Continue Reading
‘Wayfinder’ Heals Nature Through Exploration & Crafted Poetry
Indie Games – “Wayfinder finds us wandering a dying land, finding words as we explore the wilderness that we can craft into poetry that revives this place. Nature doesn’t seem to be doing too well (which means that you probably won’t be healthy for long, either). You can set off to survey the land that… Continue Reading
Whose Streets? Our Streets! (Tech Edition)
Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center – 2020-21 “Smart City” Cautionary Trends & 10 Calls to Action to Protect and Promote Democracy – “…This report is an urgent warning of where we are headed if we maintain our current trajectory of augmenting our public space with trackers of all kinds. In this report, I outline how… Continue Reading
Truth or Fiction
“TruthOrFiction.com is a non-partisan website where Internet users can quickly and easily get information about eRumors, fake news, disinformation, warnings, offers, requests for help, myths, hoaxes, virus warnings, and humorous or inspirational stories that are circulated by email. TruthOrFiction.com is designed to be of value to the ordinary user of the Internet who wants to… Continue Reading
LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide
Library of Congress Research Guide – “The collections of the Library of Congress tell the rich and diverse story of LGBTQ+ life in America and around the world. This research guide serves as an introduction into the excellent collection of LGBTQ+ resources available at the Library of Congress Welcome to the LGBTQ+ Studies Resource Guide.… Continue Reading
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 15, 2021
Via LLRX – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, 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 and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish… Continue Reading
Can technology help authors write a book?
BBC – “Every year around the world a whopping 2.2 million books are published, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), which monitors the number. The figure includes both fiction and non-fiction titles. For most of these authors the writing process is relatively unchanged since Twain’s heyday in the late 19th… Continue Reading
