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Fact Check: “Is Harvard launching free college courses on basic U.S. government understanding and “how to recognize a dictatorship” or a “dictatorship takeover” in response to recent actions from the Trump administration? No, that’s not true: According to a Harvard spokesperson the “edX” program has existed since 2012 and it takes about 12 to 18 …
Via Legal AF: “Harvard just successfully blocked the Trump Administration’s attempt to get it out of the international students business, trying to destroy what makes “Harvard Harvard.” Read the Motion they filed that was successful, and Judge Burrows TRO against Trump, here – and the Harvard TRO here.” See also The New York Times – “The …
SO 3431 – Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. May 20, 2025 – Sec. 1. Purpose. This Order implements provisions of President Trump’s March 27, 2025, Executive Order (EO) 14253, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” EO 14253 directs the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to provide sufficient funding, as available, to improve …
Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, May 24, 2025 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the …
The Atlantic [no paywall] “Inside the world of extreme-privacy consultants, who, for the right fee, will make you and your personal information very hard to find. You could easily mistake Alec Harris for a spy or an escaped prisoner, given all of the tradecraft he devotes to being unfindable. Mail addressed to him goes to …
Center for Data Innovation: “Researchers from Columbia University, the University of California Irvine, and Virginia Tech have created a series of maps using satellite-based observations to show land subsidence—the gradual sinking of land—across the 28 most populous U.S. cities.This sinking is caused by both natural and human-driven factors, including groundwater extraction, heavy infrastructure, and sea-level …
New York Magazine no paywall: “By now, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered Google’s AI Overviews, possibly thousands of times. Appearing as blurbs at the top of search results, they attempt to settle your queries before you scroll — to offer answers, or relevant information, gleaned from websites that you no longer need to click on. …
The Atlantic: “In the years before the Constitution was written, two of the most famous figures of the American Revolution were caught up in controversy over fears of undue foreign influence caused by their receipt of opulent gifts from European kings. One was a gold snuff box encrusted with 408 diamonds that King Louis XVI …
Mozilla Foundation: “Firefox’s address bar just got an upgrade, and it’s all about putting you in control. It’s faster, easier to use and built to support how you search and browse — while staying true to what makes Firefox, Firefox: real user choice, strong privacy and transparency. Built to help you search faster and get …
“Chief Justice John Roberts has personally shielded the Department of Government Efficiency from having to hand over reams of internal data. Acting as an individual, Roberts temporarily blocked two orders from a lower court that instructed DOGE to turn over thousands of pages of documents and have its administrator, Amy Gleason, sit for a deposition. …
Cory Doctorow: “Who Broke the Internet, Part IV (permalink) “Kick ‘Em In the Dongle” is the fourth and final episode of “Understood: Who Broke the Internet?”, a podcast series I hosted and co-wrote for the CBC. It’s quite a finale! https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353-the-naked-emperor/episode/16148346-kick-em-in-the-dongle – The thesis of the series is the same as the thesis of enshittification: that …
Wired [no paywall] – “OGE tested and used Meta’s Llama 2 model to review and classify responses from federal workers to the infamous “Fork in the Road” email. Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used artificial intelligence from Meta’s Llama model to comb through and analyze emails from federal workers. Materials viewed by …
