NPR: “Paging all U.S. travelers (and introverts) — you may not need to make that trip in person to renew your passport after all. The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday it is bringing back a trial service to renew your passport online, saying it will open the system for all online renewals soon. As of… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
10 Times as Much of This Toxic Pesticide Could End Up on Your Tomatoes and Celery Under a New EPA Proposal
ProPublica: “When you bite into a piece of celery, there’s a fair chance that it will be coated with a thin film of a toxic pesticide called acephate. The bug killer — also used on tomatoes, cranberries, Brussels sprouts and other fruits and vegetables — belongs to a class of compounds linked to autism, hyperactivity… Continue Reading
Sick of scams? Stop answering your phone.
Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “The first rule of avoiding scam calls is to never answer unknown numbers, and even some known ones. Curious? Bored? Worried it’s an emergency? Wait the extra minute it takes for the call to go to voice mail, then decide if it’s legitimate. Unfortunately, every year hundreds of thousands of people in… Continue Reading
ProPublica Updates “Supreme Connections” Database With New Justice Disclosures
“We updated our “Supreme Connections” database on Wednesday with new entries from recently released financial disclosures from Supreme Court justices, as well as five filings from 2003 to 2007 we had previously been missing. “Supreme Connections” is our database that makes it easy for anyone to browse justices’ financial disclosures and to search for connections… Continue Reading
How to Use Your Smartphone to Counteract Vision Loss
Wired: “Vision loss is common and is highly likely to impact you or someone close to you in your lifetime. The World Health Organization estimates that 2.2 billion people worldwide have a near- or distant-vision impairment. Around 12 million Americans aged 40 years and up have some vision loss today, according to the Centers for… Continue Reading
How the recycling symbol lost its meaning
Grist: “Today, the recycling icon is omnipresent — found on plastic bottles, cereal boxes, and bins loitering alongside curbs across the country. The chasing arrows, though, are often plastered on products that aren’t recyclable at all, particularly products made of plastic, like dog chew toys and inflatable swim rings. Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency… Continue Reading
Google’s AI summaries are coming for the news industry
Press Gazette: “The dramatic impact of Google‘s AI-written summaries on search result visibility for publishers has been revealed through exclusive new research.A Press Gazette-led investigation has found that AI-written summaries were returned for nearly a quarter of news-related search queries in mid-May in the US, with the result that organic links to publisher articles were… Continue Reading
ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini
ZDNet. Which is the best AI chatbot? Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed how we work and play in the past 18 months, allowing almost anyone to write code, create art, and even make investments. For professional and hobbyist users, generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, offer advanced capabilities to produce decent-quality content from a simple user prompt.… Continue Reading
How YouTube’s recommendations pull you away from news
Huang, S., & Yang, T. (2024). Auditing Entertainment Traps on YouTube: How Do Recommendation Algorithms Pull Users Away from News. Political Communication, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2024.2343769 “Recommendation algorithms that customize information feeds for individuals have raised concerns about exacerbating inequalities in news exposure among citizens. In response to these concerns, we conducted an audit study on YouTube… Continue Reading
17 Hidden Facebook Features Only Power Users Know
PC Mag – The world’s largest social network is full of advanced features that you’re probably not using, so we dug deep into the settings menu to find the most useful ones for you. Despite its issues (and there are many), Meta’s Facebook remains today’s foremost digital public square. Politicians and journalists gravitate toward X/Twitter,… Continue Reading
Your employer might be spying on your tech. Here’s how to check.
Washington Post: “Your employer may be able to see everything you’re doing on your phone or computer. They might know you’re reading this article right now. (Hi!) But how can you be sure? Companies have a growing number of ways to keep tabs on workers. They can gather details from common workplace apps and use… Continue Reading
Durbin Reveals Omissions of Gifted Private Travel to Justice Clarence Thomas from Harlan Crow
“In exclusively obtained information from Harlan Crow as a result of Durbin and the Senate Judiciary Committee Majority’s Supreme Court ethics investigation and subpoena authorization, Durbin releases details of gifted private travel to Justice Thomas that Thomas has failed to disclose. WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary… Continue Reading
