The Free Press: “The poster at Brooklyn’s PS 261, where young students are taught ‘Arab Culture Arts,’ is part of a program funded by the Qatar Foundation. A New York City public school is being accused of “Jewish erasure” after a map from one of its classrooms surfaced showing all the countries of the Middle… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2024
OpenAI warns copyright crackdown could doom ChatGPT
Telegraph: “The maker of ChatGPT has warned that a ban on using news and books to train chatbots would doom the development of artificial intelligence. OpenAI has told peers that it would be “impossible” to create services such as ChatGPT if it were prevented from relying on copyrighted works, as it seeks to influence potential… Continue Reading
Close-up Photographer of the Year
“Welcome to The Top 100 winners gallery of Close-up Photographer of the Year 5 (2023), supported by Affinity Photo 2. These pictures were selected by our jury from almost 12,000 pictures sent in from 67 countries.” Continue Reading
Meta unlawfully ignores the users’ right to easily withdraw consent
Noyb.eu: “Since the beginning of November, Instagram and Facebook users who don’t want to be tracked have to pay a “privacy fee” of up to € 251.88 per year. While one (free) click is enough to consent to being tracked, users can only withdraw their consent by going through the complicated process of switching to… Continue Reading
Is Your Vacation Rental a Scam? Look For These 3 Red Flags
PC Mag, Connected Traveler: “You might be ready to book a summer vacation house, but remember, scammers never take a day off. Learn what to look for while searching for a place to stay so your vacation goes smoothly. Whether you’re planning a summer vacation, an autumnal escape, a winter getaway, or a spring break,… Continue Reading
‘Major Win’ in Fight Against Dictionary-Yanking School District
Newser: Federal judge allows lawsuit against Florida’s Escambia County School District to proceed – “A Florida school district is keeping students from accessing dictionaries which, in defining sex and other concepts, are considered to violate the state law prohibiting materials in schools that depict or describe sexual conduct, per the Messenger. Escambia County School District… Continue Reading
Legal Petition to Treasury Department Aims to Limit Imports from Key Seafood Companies Tied to Forced Labor
Ian Urbina – The Outlaw Ocean Project: “Shortly after we published our investigation globally, officials from several federal agencies asked if we might consider molding our findings into a formal legal petition under the Global Magnitsky Act. We agreed and recruited help from lawyers with an NGO called the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), which has… Continue Reading
Making the Greatest Medical Library in America
NLM: “On a quest to bring together and catalog the world’s medical knowledge, John Shaw Billings, an Army surgeon and book collector who oversaw the U.S. Surgeon General’s library (today known as NLM), acquired approximately 300 pamphlets from the private collection of the renowned French physiologist Claude Bernard in 1878. Later that year, these scientific… Continue Reading
Cyclists Break Far Fewer Road Rules Than Motorists, Finds New Video Study
Forbes: “A new study from the Danish Road Directorate shows that less than 5% of cyclists break traffic laws while riding yet 66% of motorists do so when driving. The Danish Cycling Embassy, a privately-funded NGO, puts this down to visibility: law breaking by cyclists is “easy to notice for everyone” but transgressions by motorists, such… Continue Reading
Why Are American Drivers So Deadly?
The New York Times [read free]: After decades of declining fatality rates, dangerous driving has surged again. “…In the fall of 2022, Dr. Deborah Kuhls attended the annual meeting of the Governors Highway Safety Organization, in Louisville, Ky. In conversations with other researchers, she learned that the same behavioral patterns she had observed back in… Continue Reading
EFF Unveils Its New Street Level Surveillance Hub
“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today unveiled its new Street Level Surveillance hub, a standalone website featuring expanded and updated content on various technologies that law enforcement agencies commonly use to invade Americans’ privacy. The hub has new or updated pages on automated license plate readers, biometric surveillance, body-worn cameras, camera networks, cell-site simulators, drones… Continue Reading
The New Digital Dark Age
Wired: Online trust will reach an all-time low thanks to unchecked disinformation, AI-generated content, and social platforms pulling up their data drawbridges. “For researchers, social media has always represented greater access to data, more democratic involvement in knowledge production, and great transparency about social behavior. Getting a sense of what was happening—especially during political crises,… Continue Reading
