Smithsonian: On the English naturalist’s 215th birthday, more than 9,000 titles from his expansive collection are now accessible online: “After nearly two decades of sleuthing and meticulous archival research, academics this week marked the 215th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday on February 12 with a gift for the world: the English naturalist’s complete personal library,… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: February 2024
FCC gets tough: Telcos must now tell you when your personal info is stolen
The Register: “The FCC’s updated reporting requirements mean telcos in America will have just seven days to officially disclose that a criminal has broken into their systems. After releasing a proposed rule in early January and giving the industry 30 days to respond, the FCC’s final rule was published today. It solidifies what the agency… Continue Reading
Amazon hides cheaper items with faster delivery, lawsuit alleges
Ars Technica: “Amazon rigged its platform to “routinely” push an overwhelming majority of customers to pay more for items that could’ve been purchased at lower costs with equal or faster delivery times, a class-action lawsuit has alleged. The lawsuit claims that a biased algorithm drives Amazon’s “Buy Box,” which appears on an item’s page and… Continue Reading
How AI Works
How AI Works. An entirely non-technical explanation of LLMs by Nir Zicherman, January 29, 2024. “For all the talk about AI lately—its implications, the ethical quandaries it raises, the pros and cons of its adoption—little of the discussion among my non-technical friends touches on how any of this stuff works. The concepts seem daunting from… Continue Reading
American Local Government Elections Database
“The study of urban and local politics in the United States has long been hindered by a lack of centralized sources of election data. We introduce a new dataset of about 78,000 candidates in 57,000 electoral contests that encompasses races for seven distinct local political offices in most medium and large cities and counties in… Continue Reading
How to Take a Screenshot on Your iPad
MakeUseOf: Key Takeaways You can press your iPad’s top and Home/Volume buttons simultaneously to take a screenshot. You can also use gestures, Siri, and Assistive Touch to take screenshots on an iPad. iPad accessories like the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil also make it easy to take screenshots. Whether you want to send your lecture… Continue Reading
The best sites for free, high-quality audiobooks
Fast Company: “The going rate for an audiobook membership from for-pay services such as Audible is around $15 per month. But there are plenty of great sites out there that let you stream or download audiobooks for free if you’re willing to put in a little bit of effort. Here’s a short list of sites… Continue Reading
CISA Launches #Protect2024 Resources Webpage for State and Local Election Officials
“As part of its unwavering commitment to safeguarding the security and integrity of the nation’s elections infrastructure, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) launched its new #Protect2024 webpage today. Election security remains a paramount concern for CISA, the lead federal agency entrusted with securing the nation’s elections infrastructure. The agency continues to proudly stand… Continue Reading
Commonness of Races in Different Occupations
FlowingDate – Nathan Yau: “Some jobs are worked commonly by people of a certain race or ethnicity more than others. Farm managers are almost all white, postal service processors are half black, manicurists are 65% Asian, and drywall installers are 75% Hispanic. The chart below shows the percentage of employed persons 16 years and older… Continue Reading
Atrocious Air
First Street: “Since the middle of the last century, the United States has witnessed significant changes in air quality, driven by industrialization, technological advancements, regulatory measures, and public awareness. The most important of these interventions was the Clean Air Act of 1963, which served as the first federal legislation addressing air quality concerns. While air… Continue Reading
State of the World’s Migratory Species report
“The first-ever State of the World’s Migratory Species report was launched today by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), a UN biodiversity treaty, at the opening of a major UN wildlife conservation conference (CMS COP14). The landmark report reveals: While some migratory species listed under CMS are improving, nearly… Continue Reading
Better Call GPT, Comparing Large Language Models Against Lawyers
ArXiv – Lauren Martin, Nick Whitehouse, Stephanie Yiu, Lizzie Catterson, Rivindu Perera. 2024. Better Call GPT, Comparing Large Language Models Against Lawyers. 1, 1 (January 2024), 16 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn “This paper presents a groundbreaking comparison between Large Language Models (LLMs) and traditional legal contract reviewers—Junior Lawyers and Legal Process Outsourcers (LPOs). We dissect whether LLMs… Continue Reading
