Wired: “As companies increasingly involve AI in their hiring processes, advocates, lawyers, and researchers have continued to sound the alarm. Algorithms have been found to automatically assign job candidates different scores based on arbitrary criteria like whether they wear glasses or a headscarf or have a bookshelf in the background. Hiring algorithms can penalize applicants… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Government Documents
The Right to Contest AI
Kaminski, Margot E. and Urban, Jennifer M., The Right to Contest AI (November 16, 2021). Columbia Law Review, Vol. 121, No. 7, 2021, U of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-30, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3965041 – “Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used to make important decisions, from university admissions selections to loan determinations to… Continue Reading
US Gun Production Triples Since 2000, Fueled by Handgun Purchases
The New York Times: “The United States is in the middle of a great gun-buying boom that shows no sign of letting up as the annual number of firearms manufactured has nearly tripled since 2000 and spiked sharply in the past three years, according to the first comprehensive federal tally of gun commerce in two… Continue Reading
Drought in Numbers 2022 – restoration for readiness and resilience
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification – Drought around the world (1900-2022) “More than 10 million people lost their lives due to major drought events in the past century, causing several hundred billion USD in economic losses worldwide, and the numbers are rising (Guha-Sapir, D. et al., 2021) Severe drought affects Africa more than any… Continue Reading
Algorithmic Stablecoins and the TerraUSDCrash
CRS Insight, Algorithmic Stablecoins and the TerraUSD Crash, May 16, 2022: “…TerraUSD (UST) stablecoinuses an arbitrage mechanism typical of some algorithmic stablecoin arrangements consisting of two coins or tokens: the stablecoin, in this case UST, meant to maintain a stable value or “peg,” and a balancer token, in this case,LUNA, the value of which can… Continue Reading
Supply Disruptions and the U.S. Economy
CRS Insight: Supply Disruptions and the U.S. Economy, “The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the production of many goods and services. Although those disruptions have waned since spring 2020, some continue to constrain production, exacerbating inflationary pressures. The Biden Administration has announced a series of initiatives to address supply chain disruptions, which are detailed in CRS… Continue Reading
The Supreme Court guards its privacy. Too bad it doesn’t care about yours and mine
Salon: “To use Justice Samuel Alito’s criteria in his recently-leaked draft opinion overruling Roe v. Wade, where is it written in the Constitution that practically everything that happens at the Supreme Court is secret? The answer, my worthies, is that it is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. Secrecy — or, if you will,… Continue Reading
The Post-Roe Battleground for Abortion Pills Will Be Your Mailbox
Wired – “If regulation of abortion access falls to the states, it will unleash legal havoc over pregnancy-ending medications that are shipped across state lines. The draft legal opinion leaked from the Supreme Court that promises to overturn the right to abortion in the United States says it will “return that authority to the people… Continue Reading
Why Roe v. Wade must be defended
The Lancet – Editorial | Volume 399, ISSUE 10338, P1845, May 14, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00870-4: “Abortion presents a profound moral issue on which Americans hold sharply conflicting views.” So begins a draft opinion by Associate Justice Samuel Alito, leaked from the US Supreme Court on May 2, 2022. If confirmed, this judgement would overrule the… Continue Reading
How a Digital Abortion Footprint Could Lead to Criminal Charges
TIME: “Getting away with breaking the law in the digital age is tricky. Almost everything one does—whether it’s making a Google search for “how to clean up a crime scene,” purchasing suspicious items on Amazon, or merely having been in the proximity of a crime scene with a cell phone that had its location services… Continue Reading
How the issue of abortion touches Americans personally
Pew Research Center: “Americans report a wide variance in how much thought they have given to the issue of abortion personally. Overall, 36% of adults say that prior to taking the survey, they had given “a lot” of thought to issues around abortion. An identical share say they had given “some” thought to the issue, while… Continue Reading
Is Unauthorized Dissemination of a Draft Supreme Court Opinion a Federal Crime?
CRS Legal Sidebar – Is Unauthorized Dissemination of a Draft Supreme Court Opinion a Federal Crime? May 10, 2022 – “…Although federal law does prohibit the dissemination of certain kinds of government information—such as “classified” information related to national security—there does not appear to be a federal criminal statute expressly prohibiting unauthorized sharing of Supreme… Continue Reading
