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Texas floods shine spotlight on Trump’s weather and disaster cuts. Texas floods kill at least 104, including 27 from Camp Mystic, as search for missing continue…Meanwhile, the Trump administration has also indicated that it wants to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps respond after disasters. Coast Guard swimmer on first rescue mission helps save …
Floridi, Luciano, AI and Semantic Pareidolia: When We See Consciousness Where There Is None (June 18, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5309682 – “The article introduces the concept of “semantic pareidolia” – our tendency to attribute consciousness, intelligence, and emotions to AI systems that lack these qualities. It examines how this psychological phenomenon leads us to perceive …
“Stand Up for Science was born in February 2025—in the wake of devastating cuts to federal research funding and infrastructure, unprecedented government censorship of scientific work, and targeted attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Supported by a team of over 100 volunteers, we hosted over 30 official Stand Up for Science rallies on March …
Nature: “From 1 July, researchers funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be required to make their scientific papers available to read for free as soon as they are published in a peer-reviewed journal. That’s according to the agency’s latest public-access policy, aimed at making federally funded research accessible to taxpayers. US …
Open Culture: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So holds the third and most famous of the “three laws” originally articulated by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. Even when it was first published in the late nineteen-sixties, Clarke’s third law would have felt true to any resident of the developed world, surrounded …
Calishat: “I made a new site because there’s a lot of information warfare going on and I wasn’t aware of any place to find content from *only* FCC-licensed television stations. So presenting Local News TV – browse 660 US television stations by state and metro area and view recent broadcast content via YouTube. Super simple …
Retraction Watch: “Would you pay $169 for an introductory ebook on machine learning with citations that appear to be made up? If not, you might want to pass on purchasing Mastering Machine Learning: From Basics to Advanced, published by Springer Nature in April. Based on a tip from a reader, we checked 18 of the …
The New York Times gift article: “First comes a love of books. Great patience and skill is required to restore old books, but equally important is the belief that each one is a work of art. The women who run the Atelier Devauchelle in Paris sew and create new bindings. They restore old bindings and …
Vox: “…Americans still consume plenty of text. Social media platforms teem with words — even video-based apps like TikTok are replete with captions and comments. And on average, we spend more than two hours scrolling through such platforms each day. But not all reading is created equal. The mind can skim over the surface of …
ahrefs.blog: “Google says AI Overviews increase clicks. Cold, hard logic disagrees, and so does our research. We analyzed 300,000 keywords and found that the presence of an AI Overview in the search results correlated with a 34.5% lower average clickthrough rate (CTR) for the top-ranking page, compared to similar informational keywords without an AI Overview. …
SciLight – Climate.gov Didn’t Fit Trump’s “Gold Standard.” Dismantling climate.gov is not an accident; it is a blueprint. Jacob Carter. Well, I didn’t expect confirmation so soon, but we now know how this administration will be using the “gold standard science” executive order (EO) and the subsequent OSTP guidance: to undo science that is politically …
“Newspaper revenue has been in decline for decades, and most Americans now prefer to get news from digital devices. In this environment, many news organizations – and not just newspapers – put paywalls on their websites or apps, blocking access to articles or other content unless news consumers pay or subscribe. The vast majority of …
