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Monthly Archives: July 2023

Data scientists predict stock returns with AI and online news

Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science – “For years, the financial press has helped inform investors of all stripes. Cornell researchers have discovered it can also inform the algorithm behind a new financial predicting model.  In their paper, “News-Based Sparse Machine Learning Models for Adaptive Asset Pricing,” published in Data Science… Continue Reading

Who Employs Your Doctor? Increasingly, a Private Equity Firm.

The New York Times: “A new study finds that private equity firms own more than half of all specialists in certain U.S. markets. In recent years, private equity firms have been gobbling up physician practices to form powerful medical groups across the country, according to a new report released Monday. In more than a quarter… Continue Reading

Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2023

“The Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor evaluates the transparency and integrity of companies’ climate pledges. Companies around the world are increasingly alert to the climate emergency. They face calls from a growing range of stakeholders to take responsibility for the impact of their activities. Most large companies now have public climate strategies and targets, many of… Continue Reading

Biggest Fossil Fuel Firms Responsible for a Third of Western Forests Burned

Yale Environment 360: “Emissions from the world’s 88 largest fossil fuel firms and cement makers are responsible for 37 percent of the forest burned in the western U.S. and Canada since 1986, according to a new study. “Over the last several decades, human-caused climate change has turned routine Western wildfires into exceptionally destructive events,” Kristina… Continue Reading

How fast are the seas rising?

Yale Climate Connections: “The modern era of human-caused climate change — the Anthropocene — has also been called the Pyrocene because we’ve entered an age of fire, characterized by large wildfires of increasing size, intensity, and duration. But we propose another term for the modern era: the Aquacene, a time of rapidly increasing flooding from… Continue Reading

Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Supreme Court Ethics Reform

“Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), in his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, co-led a hearing of the full Judiciary Committee entitled, “Supreme Court Ethics Reform.”  The hearing explored the recent torrent of media reports detailing unethical conduct by Justices of the Supreme Court… Continue Reading

Why parents are trying to ban so many picture books

Children’s picture books are the next targets for book bans [free link] – The Washington Post – “The Post requested and analyzed roughly 2,500 pages of book challenges filed in more than 100 districts nationwide throughout the 2021-2022 academic year. Picture books made up nearly 10 percent of all the titles challenged in the 1,000-plus… Continue Reading

Report – Meta and Tax Prep Companies “Recklessly” Shared Taxpayers’ Data

Elizabeth Warren: “Today I released a new 54-page report revealing that Big Tax Prep companies have recklessly shared personal and financial data of millions of taxpayers with Big Tech for years. Regulators need to fully investigate and prosecute those who violated the law… Via The MarkUp: “Meta and major tax preparation companies inappropriately shared millions… Continue Reading

FDA Approves First Nonprescription Daily Oral Contraceptive

“Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Opill (norgestrel) tablet for nonprescription use to prevent pregnancy— the first daily oral contraceptive approved for use in the U.S. without a prescription. Approval of this progestin-only oral contraceptive pill provides an option for consumers to purchase oral contraceptive medicine without a prescription at drug stores, convenience… Continue Reading