Day archives: July 11th, 2024

Pharmacy Benefit Managers – Middlemen Inflating Drug Costs, Squeezing Main Street Pharmacies

StatNews: FTC report finds PBMs profit at the expense of patients and independent pharmacies Pharmacy Benefit Managers: The Powerful Middlemen Inflating Drug Costs and Squeezing Main Street Pharmacies Interim Staff Report July 2024 U.S. Federal Trade Commission Office of Policy Planning.

Subjects: Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Medicine

TikTok Content Farms Use AI Voiceovers to Mass-Produce Political Misinformation

“In September 2023, NewsGuard identified what appeared to be the first of its kind: a network of 17 TikTok accounts using AI text-to-speech software to create videos advancing conspiracy theories about celebrities, amassing hundreds of millions of views. Now, the phenomenon appears to be growing and shifting its focus to politics. NewsGuard has identified 41 …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

Everyone Has A Price And Corporations Know Yours

The Lever – “Digital surveillance and customer isolation are locking us into a consumer hell of personalized prices.  Six years ago, I was at a conference at the University of Chicago, the intellectual heart of corporate-friendly capitalism, when my eyes found the cover of the Chicago Booth Review, the business school’s flagship publication. “Are You …

Subjects: E-Commerce, Economy, Financial System, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Peer review is essential for science. Unfortunately, it’s broken.

Ars Technica: “Rescuing Science: Restoring Trust in an Age of Doubt was the most difficult book I’ve ever written. I’m a cosmologist—I study the origins, structure, and evolution of the Universe. I love science. I live and breathe science. If science were a breakfast cereal, I’d eat it every morning. And at the height of …

Subjects: Education, Health Care, Knowledge Management

Even Disinformation Experts Don’t Know How to Stop It

The New York Times – “Researchers have learned plenty about misinformation and how it spreads. But they’re still struggling to figure out how to stop it…Holding the line against misinformation and disinformation is demoralizing and sometimes dangerous work, requiring an unusual degree of optimism and doggedness. Increasingly, however, even the most committed warriors are feeling …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

New map gives horror glimpse at world’s climate in 60 years

Express UK: “As Britons experience a cold, rainy summer, experts are urging them to appreciate the milder conditions while they can. A new interactive map developed by scientists from the University of Maryland offers a glimpse into a much hotter future, predicting drastic changes in climate for cities worldwide within the next 60 years. According …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Health Care

National Coral Reef Monitoring Program

“Coral reefs are among the most valuable ecosystems on earth, providing people with goods and services that include food, storm protection, and recreational opportunities. Despite their importance, coral reef ecosystems are in decline from a myriad of man-made and natural threats. In response, the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program established an integrated and focused monitoring …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law

Not Everyone Has an Inner Voice Streaming Through Their Head

Scientific American [unpaywalled]: “Most of us have an “inner voice,” and we tend to assume everybody does, but recent evidence suggests that people vary widely in the extent to which they experience inner speech, from an almost constant patter to a virtual absence of self-talk. “Until you start asking the right questions you don’t know …

Subjects: Education, Knowledge Management