Author archives

The Lies in Your Grocery Store

The New Yorker [read free]: “…Most people accept the gimmicks of food labelling. One lawyer can’t stomach them…Sheehan, forty-four, specializes in consumer-protection class-action suits. Specifically, he focusses on packaged foods, and on the authenticity of their ingredients and flavors. Sheehan has sued the makers of frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts (dearth of real strawberries), Hint of Lime …

Subjects: Courts, Food and Nutrition, Legal Research, Marketing

How the Writers Guild sunk AI’s ship

Cory Doctorow – “No one’s gonna buy enterprise AI licenses if they can’t fire their workers. After a grinding, 148-day strike, the Writers Guild of America ran the table, conceding virtually nothing and winning virtually everything. The most consequential outcome will be data on streaming viewership. For the studios, these numbers are state secrets, revealed …

Subjects: AI, Economy, Internet, Knowledge Management

Firefox 118 brings browser-based website translation

Liliputing.com: “Web browsers have had tools that let you translate websites for years. But they typically rely on cloud-based translation services like Google Translate or Microsoft’s Bing Translator. The latest version of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser does things differently. Firefox 118 brings support for Fullpage Translation, which can translate websites entirely in your browser. In …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Microsoft, Privacy, Search Engines

H&R Block, Meta, and Google Slapped With RICO Suit

Gizmodo: “Anyone who has used H&R Block’s tax return preparation services in recent years may have unintentionally helped line Meta and Google’s pockets. That’s according to a new class action lawsuit which alleges the three companies “jointly schemed” to install trackers on the H&R Block site to scan and transmit tax data back to the …

Subjects: AI, Congress, E-Records, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

Privacy washing: Google claims to support privacy while lobbying against it

Proton Blog: “In the public eye, Google presents itself as a champion of privacy. “Privacy is at the heart of everything we do,” its CEO said (new window / X-Twiiter posting). But behind closed doors, Google is telling a different story to policymakers and actively fighting against privacy laws that would protect you from online …

Subjects: Congress, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines

5 easy ways to run an LLM locally

InfoWorld: “Chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude.ai, and phind can be quite helpful, but you might not always want your questions or sensitive data handled by an external application. That’s especially true on platforms where your interactions may be reviewed by humans and otherwise used to help train future models. One solution is to download a large language …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

Fact Checkers Take Stock of Their Efforts: ‘It’s Not Getting Better’

The New York Times [read free]: “After President Biden won the election nearly three years ago, three of every 10 Americans believed the false narrative that his victory resulted from fraud, a poll found. In the years since, fact checkers have debunked the claim in lengthy articles, corrections posted on viral content, videos and chat …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Virtual first impressions: Zoom backgrounds affect judgements of trust and competence

PLOS ONE: “Trait inferences from first impressions are drawn rapidly and spontaneously. However, the Covid-19 pandemic forced interactions online introducing differential influential factors on first impressions. As such, there is an absence of research investigating video background on videoconferencing impression formation. This study explored the influence of video background, facial expression, and gender on first …

Subjects: Internet

Winners of the 2023 Bird Photographer of the Year Competition

“With over 23,000 images entered into the competition this year, Bird Photographer of the Year is pleased to present our winners. Celebrating bird life from around the world, these images comprise some of the most incredible bird photos in the world taken by talented photographers, whilst also raising vital funds for our partner charity Birds …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law

FracFocus

Jeremy Singer-Vine, Data is Plural – “Fracking fluids. Since launching in 2011, FracFocus has become the largest registry of hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosures in the US. The database, available to explore online and download in bulk, contains 210,000+ such disclosures from fracking operators; it details the location, timing, and water volume of each fracking job, …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Health Care, Legal Research

Our 10-point scale will help you rate the biggest misinformation purveyors

Ars Technica: “The world has been flooded with misinformation. Falsehoods and conspiracy theories bubble up on everything from the weather to vaccines to the shape of the Earth. Purveyors of this garbage may be motivated by attention, money, or simply the appeal of sticking it to the educated elite. For people who try to keep …

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