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Daily Archives: June 12, 2024

There’s a Trump Presidential Library at the National Archives and It’s Hiring

No words for this via Washingtonian – “Now here’s a fun job listing:

This position is part of the National Archives and Records Administration. Incumbent serves as the Deputy Director of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library within the National Archives and Records Administration. Serves as a principal advisor to the Library Director. At the direction of the Director, provides oversight and planning for the Library’s administration and operation, and for archival, artifact, educational, and public programs, including, as necessary, direct supervision of staff.

Even more fun, the National Archives has put the beginnings of a Trump Presidential Library online. You can read all about the one-term president, including his 14 books, ten grandchildren, and two indictments. You can read archived social media posts from administration officials, the White House, and Melania Trump’s Instagram. Trump’s apparent reluctance to hand his presidential records over to the Archives when he left office after he lost the 2020 election could make the establishment of his library a particularly rich vein for future researchers. Whether or not the library will ever exist in physical form is beyond the Archives’ control: As Anthony Clark wrote in Politico in 2021, Trump would have to raise money for the library, likely through a foundation (a type of organization that has caused a bit of trouble for him in the past), then hand over most of that money to the government. The Archives says it will operate the library “through both traditional and digital access, per the Presidential Records Act.”

Platform Response to Disinformation during the EU Election 2024

Fundacion Maladista.es: Analysis of the responses of very large online platforms to debunked disinformation during the EU Election 2024. 1. Executive summary – The goal of this report is to evaluate how five very large online platforms (VLOPs: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube) have responded to debunked electoral disinformation about the European Parliamentary elections… Continue Reading

Book bans in political context: Evidence from US schools

Book bans in political context: Evidence from US schools. PNAS Nexus, Volume 3, Issue 6, June 2024, pgae197, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae197 “In the 2021–2022 school year, more books were banned in US school districts than in any previous year. Book banning and other forms of information censorship have serious implications for democratic processes, and censorship has become… Continue Reading

Data broker shuts down product related to driver behavior patterns

The Record: “The revelation earlier this year that General Motors had been selling driver behavior patterns to data brokers — who in turn packaged and resold it to insurers — has led at least one of two major data brokers to shut down its related product.  That data broker, Verisk, disclosed last month that it… Continue Reading

What Animal Studies Are Revealing About Their Minds and Ours

TIME – “…The last few months alone have been something of a boom time for research into the intelligence and behavior of animals. German researchers discovered a sort of pre-verbal stage in finches—similar to the babbling stage in humans—that leads to their becoming fluent in song. Studies in Sweden and Vienna explored the role of… Continue Reading

Google sued by top textbook publishers over ads for pirated e-books

XM: “June 5 (Reuters) – Google was hit with a lawsuit on Wednesday by educational publishers Cengage, Macmillan Learning, McGraw Hill and Elsevier accusing the tech giant of promoting pirate copies of their textbooks. The publishers told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that Google has ignored thousands of copyright-infringement… Continue Reading

XScreenSaver

“a collection of free screen savers for X11, macOS, iOS and Android.  by Jamie Zawinski and many others. XScreenSaver for Android is… a set of screen savers and live wallpapers. That’s it. It draws pretty pictures on your screen. And it’s free. That’s the whole deal. But in their wisdom, Google — the most rapacious… Continue Reading

How Americans Get News on TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram

Pew – “X remains more of a news destination than other sites, but the vast majority of users on all four are seeing news-related content. Social media platforms are an important part of the American news diet: Half of U.S. adults say they get news at least sometimes from social media in general. But specific… Continue Reading

Catalyzing Crisis – A Primer on Artificial Intelligence, Catastrophes, and National Security

Center for New American Security: “The arrival of ChatGPT in November 2022 initiated both great excitement and fear around the world about the potential and risks of artificial intelligence (AI). In response, several AI labs, national governments, and international bodies have launched new research and policy efforts to mitigate large-scale AI risks. However, growing efforts… Continue Reading