“Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of U.S. copyright restrictions, and free of cost. Ebook projects like Project Gutenberg transcribe ebooks and make them available for the widest number of reading devices. Standard Ebooks takes ebooks from sources like Project… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: December 2023
5 Takeaways From Inside the Overturning of Roe v. Wade
The New York Times – A Times investigation [read free] reveals the behind-the-scenes story of how the Supreme Court abolished the constitutional right to abortion. “By the time the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, a draft of the ruling had been leaked to the press and the outcome was anticipated. The story… Continue Reading
Reading print improves comprehension far more than looking at digital text
The Guardian: “Reading print texts improves comprehension more than reading digital materials does, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Valencia analysed more than two dozen studies on reading comprehension published between 2000 and 2022, which assessed nearly 470,000 participants. Their findings suggest that print reading over a long period of time… Continue Reading
Regulating and Monitoring AI and Social Media
Brennan Center for Justice: Regulating AI Deepfakes – “Artificial intelligence–produced video and audio can make it impossible to separate fact from fiction when deciding how to vote. Next year will bring the first presidential election of the AI deepfake era, and policymakers must be prepared to protect the democratic process from the dangers of these… Continue Reading
The Judiciary Has Policed Itself for Decades. It Doesn’t Work.
ProPublica: “For decades, judges have relied on a select group to make sure the judiciary adheres to the highest ethical standards: themselves. The Judicial Conference, a secretive, century-old council of federal judges led by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, oversees the ethics and financial disclosures for more than 1,700 federal judges, including the… Continue Reading
On the evidence for non-human intelligence, awareness, and emotion
The New Atlantis: Do Elephants Have Souls?: “One of the major clues that elephants have something we would recognize as inner lives is their extraordinary memories. This is attested to by outward indicators ranging from the practical — a matriarch’s recollection of a locale, critical to leading her family to food and water — to… Continue Reading
When authoritative sources hold onto bad data
NextGov – A legal scholar explains the need for government databases to retract information: “In 2004, Hwang Woo-suk was celebrated for his breakthrough discovery creating cloned human embryos, and his work was published in the prestigious journal Science. But the discovery was too good to be true; Dr. Hwang had fabricated the data. Science publicly… Continue Reading
News Publishers Fear Google’s AI Search Tool as Traffic-Destroying Nightmare
WSJ via Mint: “The tech giant’s AI-powered search product is being tested on roughly 10 million users; publishers rely on Google for traffic and see a gathering storm.” Continue Reading
The Best Places to Rent Tools and Equipment
Lifehacker – “You don’t need to own every single tool you’ll ever use—you can find big box and local rental options near you for tools you only need to use for specific projects. hen home improvement projects require tools or equipment that even avid DIYers don’t have in their well-stocked garages, basements, or sheds, renting… Continue Reading
Marketing Company Claims That It Actually Is Listening to Your Phone and Smart Speakers to Target Ads
404 Media: “A marketing team within media giant Cox Media Group (CMG) claims it has the capability to listen to ambient conversations of consumers through embedded microphones in smartphones, smart TVs, and other devices to gather data and use it to target ads, according to a review of CMG marketing materials by 404 Media and… Continue Reading
Why It’s So Hard to Search Your Email
The Atlantic [read free]: “Searching your email can sometimes feel basically impossible. Typing in a mix of search terms goes only so far. At some point, it almost feels personal, like the software is purposefully not showing you a conversation you absolutely remember having…An email inbox can’t quite be searched in the same way, because… Continue Reading
Without a Trace: How to Keep Your Phone Off the Grid
The MarkUp: “Monique O. Madan and Wesley Callow put on [their] trenchcoats and gave you a behind-the-scenes look at our quest for phone anonymity. We gave you a step-by-step guide on how to set up an off-the-grid phone, and a glimpse into why, personally speaking as a journalist, having one is so important for protecting… Continue Reading
