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A National Security Insider Does the Math on the Dangers of AI

Wired [unpaywalled]: “Jason Matheny is a delight to speak with, provided you’re up for a lengthy conversation about potential technological and biomedical catastrophe. Now CEO and president of Rand Corporation, Matheny has built a career out of thinking about such gloomy scenarios. An economist by training with a focus on public health, he dived into… Continue Reading

Should you take vitamin D? Here’s the science

PopSci: “Nutritional science is supposed to chart a course to our healthier selves. But contradictory scientific results and interpretations can muddy the waters—and few nutrients have recently demonstrated that more clearly than vitamin D. At one point, it seemed that everyone should be taking vitamin D supplements, and that doing so would protect against a… Continue Reading

A database of useful biological numbers

“In BioNumbers we aim to enable you to find in one minute any useful molecular biology number that can be important for your research. BioNumbers currently attracts >3000 visitors a month from over 50 countries.  To cite BioNumbers please refer to: Milo et al. Nucl. Acids Res. (2010) 38 (suppl 1): D750-D753. When using a… Continue Reading

DOJ Launches Updated Voting Rights and Elections Website

“The Justice Department announced today that it has updated www.justice.gov/voting, a one-stop resource providing voting and elections information for voters as well as state and local elections officials. As part of the update, the Civil Rights Division published two new informational guides on voting rights and updated five other guides. The Department’s longstanding practice is… Continue Reading

It’s the End of the Web as We Know It

The Atlantic [unpaywalled] – A great public resource is at risk of being destroyed. By Judith Donath and Bruce Schneier: “The web has become so interwoven with everyday life that it is easy to forget what an extraordinary accomplishment and treasure it is. In just a few decades, much of human knowledge has been collectively written… Continue Reading

Green’s Dictionary of Slang

“Green’s Dictionary of Slang is the largest historical dictionary of English slang. Written by Jonathon Green over 17 years from 1993, it reached the printed page in 2010 in a three-volume set containing nearly 100,000 entries supported by over 400,000 citations from c. AD 1000 to the present day. The main focus of the dictionary… Continue Reading

America’s produce has a ton of pesticides

Quartz – “Consumer Reports’ latest investigation suggests that 20% of commonly sold fruits and vegetables contain unsafe levels of pesticides. Some of your favorite produce might be dicier to eat than assumed. An analysis from Consumer Reports published Thursday suggests that a substantial portion of commonly sold fruits and vegetables have a significant risk of… Continue Reading

Introducing Dark Web Monitoring for credential leaks

Proton Blog: “Your email address is your online identity(new window), and you share it whenever you create a new account for an online service. While this offers convenience, it also leaves your identity exposed if hackers manage to breach the services you use. Data breaches affecting online services are increasingly common, with tens of billions… Continue Reading

What Really Happens When You Trade In an iPhone at the Apple Store

Bloomberg [unpaywalled]: Apple touts its network of shredding robots and contractors as a greener way to reuse old gadgets. A lengthy court battle and a Businessweek investigation have cast some light on the recycling industry’s dirty secrets. Few workers at the recycling plant had access to the secure room that some called the “Apple cage.”… Continue Reading