The Information: “Microsoft could soon get a return on its $1 billion investment in OpenAI, creator of the ChatGPT chatbot, which gives humanlike text answers to questions. Microsoft is preparing to launch a version of its Bing search engine that uses the artificial intelligence behind ChatGPT to answer some search queries rather than just showing… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2023
The Hidden Cost of Cheap TVs
The Atlantic: “…But the story of cheap TVs is not entirely just market forces doing their thing. Perhaps the biggest reason TVs have gotten so much cheaper than other products is that your TV is watching you and profiting off the data it collects. Modern TVs, with very few exceptions, are “smart,” which means they… Continue Reading
Suit accusing YouTube of tracking children is back on after appeal
Ars Technica: “An appeals court has revived a lawsuit that accuses Google, YouTube, DreamWorks, and a handful of toymakers of tracking the activity on YouTube of children under 13. In an opinion released Wednesday, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act does not bar lawsuits based on individual state… Continue Reading
FDA to permit some retail pharmacies to dispense abortion pills
Washington Post: “The Food and Drug Administration took steps on Tuesday to ease access to medication abortion in states where it is legal, allowing retail pharmacies to dispense the pills, which were previously available only at clinics, directly from doctors or by mail. The regulatory change, which was released with little fanfare or explanation Tuesday… Continue Reading
A Valuable COVID Drug Doesn’t Work against New Variants
Scientific American – “Current monoclonal antibodies fail against COVID virus variants, so drugmakers want to use a fast-track test for new ones…In an e-mail to Scientific American, an FDA spokesperson said the agency is concerned as well, and it will work with drug companies on expedited development of preventive therapies for immunosuppressed patients. But the… Continue Reading
January 6 Clearinghouse
Just Security: “Welcome to this all-source repository of information for analysts, researchers, investigators, journalists, educators, and the public at large. Check out our new addition below: A curated repository of deposition transcripts from the House Select Committee. Readers may also be interested in Major Highlights of the January 6th Report. If you think the January… Continue Reading
How to Maintain Mental Hygiene as an Open Source Researcher
Giancarlo Fiorella’s Report – “Bellingcat has been overwhelmed with messages from concerned people around the world who want to help us identify and analyse images of potential war crimes taking place in Ukraine. While this increased interest in open source research is encouraging, it comes with costs of which new researchers may not be aware.… Continue Reading
US Postal Service can continue to deliver prescription abortion medication
Reuters: “The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) can continue to deliver prescription abortion medication despite a June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned a landmark abortion rights decision, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. The department’s Office of Legal Counsel said in an opinion sought by USPS that the mailing of mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly used… Continue Reading
The History of the House – McCarthy loses speaker bid in third vote
Update, January 7, 2022 – McCarthy elected House speaker after historic battle with GOP rebels “The House has a webpage devoted to its history titled History, Art & Archives. “This site is a collaborative project between the Office of the Historian and the Clerk of the House’s Office of Art and Archives. Together, the offices… Continue Reading
Annotated History of Modern AI and Deep Learning
Annotated History of Modern AI and Deep Learning – Juergen Schmidhube. [v2] Thu, 29 Dec 2022 11:38:07 UTC. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2212.11279 “Machine learning is the science of credit assignment: finding patterns in observations that predict the consequences of actions and help to improve future performance. Credit assignment is also required for human understanding of how the world works,… Continue Reading
Inventing the Dark Web
Via LLRX – Inventing the Dark Web – This paper by Thais Sardá, Simone Natale, and John Downey examines how the deep Web, i.e., Web sites that are not indexed and thus are not accessible through Web search engines, was described and represented in British newspapers. Through an extensive content analysis conducted on 833 articles… Continue Reading
Searchable Jan 6 report website includes attack timeline
Home Page – Final Report OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE JANUARY 6TH ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL, December 2022 and 3D Timeline of the Attack Table Of Contents Committee Members and Staff Speaker’s Foreword Chairman’s Foreword Vice Chair’s Foreword Executive Summary Continue Reading
