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Daily Archives: January 18, 2022

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has refused to wear a mask

NPR: “It was pretty jarring earlier this month when the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court took the bench for the first time since the omicron surge over the holidays. All were now wearing masks. All, that is, except Justice Neil Gorsuch. What’s more, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was not there at all, choosing instead to participate through a microphone setup in her chambers. Sotomayor has diabetes, a condition that puts her at high risk for serious illness, or even death, from COVID-19. She has been the only justice to wear a mask on the bench since last fall when, amid a marked decline in COVID-19 cases, the justices resumed in-person arguments for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Now, though, the situation had changed with the omicron surge, and according to court sources, Sotomayor did not feel safe in close proximity to people who were unmasked. Chief Justice John Roberts, understanding that, in some form asked the other justices to mask up. They all did. Except Gorsuch, who, as it happens, sits next to Sotomayor on the bench. His continued refusal since then has also meant that Sotomayor has not attended the justices’ weekly conference in person, joining instead by telephone…”

A new use for AI: summarizing scientific research for seven-year-olds

The Verge: “Academic writing often has a reputation for being hard to follow, but what if you could use machine learning to summarize arguments in scientific papers so that even a seven-year-old could understand them? That’s the idea behind tl;dr papers — a project that leverages recent advances in AI language processing to simplify science.… Continue Reading

Secret Ways to Reach an Actual Person in Customer Service

Likehacker: “In a world that seems increasingly determined to keep us apart, we’re all bound together by at least one universal experience: the frustration of talking to a real person on the phone at a customer service call center. Whether we want to complain, resolve a problem, or simply get information, call center interactions can… Continue Reading

Oxfam: Tax billionaires to fund vaccines for poor hit by pandemic

Inequality Kills: The unparalleled action needed to combat unprecedented inequality in the wake of COVID-19: “The wealth of the world’s 10 richest men [Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer, and Warren Buffet] has doubled since the pandemic began. The incomes of 99% of… Continue Reading

The ‘Brussels Effect’ of the EU’s ‘AI Act’ on Data Privacy Outside Europe

Greenleaf, Graham, The ‘Brussels Effect’ of the EU’s ‘AI Act’ on Data Privacy Outside Europe (June 7, 2021). (2021) 171 Privacy Laws & Business International Report 1, 3-7, UNSW Law Research, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3898904 “The European Commission’s publication of a proposal for a Regulation on Artificial Intelligence (also described as an ‘AI Act’) is… Continue Reading

The public library is the latest place to pick up a coronavirus test. Librarians are overwhelmed.

Washington Post: “…As public libraries in the District and across the nation have been pressed into service as coronavirus test distribution sites, librarians have become the latest front-line workers of the pandemic. Phones ring every few minutes with yet another call from someone asking about the library’s supply of free coronavirus tests, often asking medical… Continue Reading

Select Committee Subpoenas Trump Allies Involved in Attempts to Challenge or Overturn 2020 Election Results

“Washington—Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) today announced that the Select Committee has issued subpoenas to four individuals who publicly promoted unsupported claims about the 2020 election and participated in attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of election results. The committee is demanding records and testimony from Rudolph Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Boris… Continue Reading

NY Attorney General Outlines Pattern of Possible Fraud at Trump Business

The New York Times: “The New York State attorney general, Letitia James, accused Donald J. Trump’s family business late Tuesday of repeatedly misrepresenting the value of its assets to bolster its bottom line, saying in court papers that the company had engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” practices. The filing came in response to Mr. Trump’s… Continue Reading

COVIDtests.gov

COVIDtests.gov is up and running early [January 18, 2022] to help prepare for the full launch tomorrow. We have tests for every residential address in the U.S. Please check back tomorrow if you run into any unexpected issues. Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 4 free at-⁠home COVID-⁠19 tests. The tests are… Continue Reading

Black Mortgage Applicants Denied 84% More Often than White Borrowers

Zillow: “The Black homeownership rate has rebounded modestly from recent lows, but remains below its early 2000s peak as racial disparities in the mortgage and housing markets widened throughout the early part of the pandemic, according to a Zillow analysis of data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The mortgage denial rate was 84%… Continue Reading

How to turn on Twitter’s dark mode

Mashable: “Twitter can be an assault on the eyes, and not just because of its frequently distressing content. The microblogging website’s default white theme can sometimes feel harsh and blinding, particularly if you’re waking up in a cold sweat to check your notifications in the middle of the night. Fortunately, the microblogging platform offers a… Continue Reading