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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici

How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world

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The Guardian – Carole Cadwalladr – In the wake of Trump’s unnerving appointees, the investigative journalist and veteran of the libel court offers [20] pointers on coping in an age of surveillance…

Journalists are first, but everyone else is next. Trump has announced multibillion-dollar lawsuits against “the enemy camp”: newspapers and publishers. His proposed FBI director is on record as wanting to prosecute certain journalists. Journalists, publishers, writers, academics are always in the first wave. Doctors, teachers, accountants will be next. Authoritarianism is as predictable as a Swiss train. It’s already later than you think…”

What should journalists do when the facts don’t matter?

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Via LLRX – What should journalists do when the facts don’t matter? – Most people agree that actual facts matter – in such activities as debate, discussion and reporting. Once facts are gathered, verified and distributed, informed decision-making can proceed in such important exercises as voting. But what happens when important, verified facts are published and… Continue Reading

How Google Spent 15 Years Creating a Culture of Concealment

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The New York Times [free article] – “Trying to avoid antitrust suits, Google systematically told employees to destroy messages, avoid certain words and copy the lawyers as often as possible…How Google developed this distrustful culture was pieced together from hundreds of documents and exhibits, as well as witness testimony, in three antitrust trials against the… Continue Reading

Appointment and Confirmation of Executive Branch Leadership: An Overview

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Professor Bert Chapman, Govt. Information & Political Science Librarian, Purdue University: March 2021 CRS prepared this report on appointing and confirming executive branch leadership. With confirmation hearings upcoming, this should be a good resource for our users and I imagine CRS will produce a new version in the near future. Continue Reading

Artificial Intelligence and Constitutional Interpretation

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Coan, Andrew and Surden, Harry, Artificial Intelligence and Constitutional Interpretation (November 12, 2024). Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 24-30, U of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 24-39, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5018779 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5018779 This Article examines the potential use of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT in constitutional interpretation. LLMs are extremely… Continue Reading

What Is Browser Fingerprinting? Here’s Everything You Need to Know

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John Mateer – Medium: “You’re browsing the internet without a care in the world — why shouldn’t you? You’re internet savvy, after all. You take your privacy seriously. That’s why you pay $20 a month for a rotating VPN. Surfshark, NordVPN, Google One — ever heard of them? You’re ahead of the game. But you didn’t… Continue Reading

Trump’s criminal conviction won’t stop him from getting security clearance as president

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Via LLRX – Trump’s criminal conviction won’t stop him from getting security clearance as president – Law professor Dakota Rudesill explains that because Trump was elected to a second term, he will again have expansive access to classified information and control over it as of noon on Jan. 20, 2025, when his term begins. He will also… Continue Reading

Congress should designate an entity to oversee data security, GAO says

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Fedscoop: “Federal agencies may need to rethink how they handle individuals’ personal data to protect their civil rights and civil liberties, a congressional watchdog said in a new report Tuesday. Without federal guidance governing the protection of the public’s civil rights and liberties, agencies have pursued a patchwork system of policies tied to the collection,… Continue Reading

NASA satellites reveal abrupt drop in global freshwater levels

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PHYS.org: “An international team of scientists using observations from NASA-German satellites found evidence that Earth’s total amount of freshwater dropped abruptly starting in May 2014 and has remained low ever since. Reporting in Surveys in Geophysics, the researchers suggested the shift could indicate Earth’s continents have entered a persistently drier phase. From 2015 through 2023,… Continue Reading

Curious People Lead the Way in Catching New Invasive Species

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Entomology Today [h/t Barclay Walsh]: “Early detection is critical to the eradication and management of invasive species, and curious members of the public play a key role by sharing observations on platforms such as iNaturalist. Integrating these sightings from a bug-curious public into ongoing biosecurity surveillance is an increasingly valuable approach for invasive species management.… Continue Reading

The Death of Search

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The Atlantic unpaywalled – AI is transforming how billions navigate the web. A lot will be lost in the process. “…Although ChatGPT and Perplexity and Google AI Overviews cite their sources with (small) footnotes or bars to click on, not clicking on those links is the entire point. OpenAI, in its announcement of its new… Continue Reading