Author archives

Rare-earth mining

Rare-earth mining. “Shuang-Liang Liu et al. have compiled a dataset of 146 mining projects targeting rare-earth elements, which serve as “critical raw materials in many low-carbon technologies.” The dataset lists each project’s name, company, location, status, deposit type, estimated tonnage of deposits, element composition, and other details sourced from “company annual reports and public presentations, …

Subjects: Climate Change, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

New Research Sparks Concerns That Ocean Circulation Will Collapse

Yale Environment 360: “Scientists have long feared that warming could cause a breakdown of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. But new research finds the real risk lies in Antarctica’s waters, where melting could disrupt currents in the next few decades, with profound impacts on global climate. It is being hailed as a sea change …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law

HHS Making Ownership Data for All Medicare-Certified Hospice and Home Health Agencies Publicly Available

CMS – “The Biden-Harris Administration has made promoting competition and protecting consumers a top priority. Today, in support of the President’s Executive Order on promoting competition and the Administration’s commitment to transparency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is releasing ownership data for all Medicare-certified hospice and home health agencies. For the …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents, Health Care, Medicine

Inside the secret list of websites that make AI like ChatGPT sound smart

Washington Post: “AI chatbots have exploded in popularity over the past four months, stunning the public with their awesome abilities, from writing sophisticated term papers to holding unnervingly lucid conversations. Chatbots cannot think like humans: They do not actually understand what they say. They can mimic human speech because the artificial intelligence that powers them …

Subjects: AI, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Patent and Trademark

Why universities should return to oral exams in the AI and ChatGPT era

The Conversation: “Imagine the following scenario. You are a student and enter a room or Zoom meeting. A panel of examiners who have read your essay or viewed your performance, are waiting inside. You answer a series of questions as they probe your knowledge and skills. You leave. The examiners then consider the preliminary pre-oral …

Subjects: AI, Education, Knowledge Management

Plastic Recylcing is a Scam

Plastic Recycling is an Actual Scam | Climate Town / YouTube Plastic Legislation to get involved with: Depending on where you live, there’s a lot you can do. NCSL Overview: https://www.ncsl.org/research/environ… Earth Day Plastic Action: https://www.earthday.org/act-on-plast… Cleveland Preemptive Ban: https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/0… Nat Geo breakdown: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/en… CIF: https://www.clf.org/blog/the-truth-ab… WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/plastic-… NRDC: https://www.nrdc.org/stories/single-u… Follow Climate Town on Instagram: …

Subjects: Climate Change, Congress, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Legislation

Modern monetary theory: an explanation

Modern monetary theory:an explanation. Professor Richard Murphy. April 2023.  Funding the Future. Formerly Tx Research UK. “Modern monetary theory (hereafter, MMT) is an explanation of the way in which money works in an economy. It also explains the consequent impact that the best use of money, using this understanding, might have on behaviour in that …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Financial System

Two new scientific papers break down how the rich are destroying Earth

Salon: “As the climate crisis becomes more acute — exemplified in interminable wildfire “seasons”, intense drought and extreme weather — it’s becoming clear that saving the planet will involve more than politely asking consumers to recycle their yogurt cups. Indeed, many of climate change’s effects are largely spurred by resource hoarding and inequality via the …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System

Nearly 1,500 books bans implemented in the first half of this school year

The Hill: “Almost 1,500 school book bans were put into place around the U.S. in the first half of the current academic year, according to PEN America. An analysis from the group released Thursday found 1,477 book bans implemented in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, affecting 874 unique books. The six months …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Legal Research, Libraries

The State of Scholarly Metadata: 2023

‘In late 2022, CCC and Media Growth Strategies undertook a thorough examination of metadata management across the research lifecycle. This in-depth review builds on an existing body of work to uncover multiple policy and system complexities and breakages, which – separately and together – create missed opportunities for the communities for whom Open Access (OA) …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

AI Incident Database

AID: “Intelligent systems are currently prone to unforeseen and often dangerous failures when they are deployed to the real world. Much like the transportation sector before it (e.g., FAA and FARS) and more recently computer systems, intelligent systems require a repository of problems experienced in the real world so that future researchers and developers may …

Subjects: AI, Financial System, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Transportation