Google’s Illuminate PDFs to Podcasts

Joshua Kubicki – This video gives a quick overview of Google’s latest experimental tool called Illuminate, which transforms research papers into audio content. It’s similar to Google’s Notebook LM, but instead of turning documents into cheery upbeat podcast-like experience, it creates more of an audiobook or “micro-audiobook” for research papers. The video walks viewers through …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

The Civil Rights Implications of Federal Use of Facial Recognition Technology

The Civil Rights Implications of the Federal Use of Facial Recognition Technology. September 19, 2024. Meaningful federal guidelines and oversight for responsible FRT use have lagged behind the application of this technology in real-world scenarios. With the advent of biometric technology and its widespread use by both private and government entities, the Commission studied how …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Defense, Government Documents, Housing, Legal Research

GPO Makes Available Thousands of New US Congressional Serial Set Volumes

U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has added more than 3,000 volumes of the Congressional Serial Set containing more than 45,000 individual documents and reports to GPO’s GovInfo, the one-stop site for authentic, published information for all three branches of the Federal Government. This comes as part of a multi-year effort with the Library of Congress …

Subjects: Education, Government Documents, Legal Research, Libraries

Comics art against Project 2025

“Project 2025 is a detailed plan to shut you up, and shut you out. You matter, and you have a voice. Project 2025, also known as “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is a document created to be a roadmap for a second Donald Trump presidency. It was prepared by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation and …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

What If Google’s Biggest Problem Isn’t AI?

New York – Intelligencer [unpaywalled]: “Let’s say you represent the most powerful government on Earth and would like to convey some information to the citizens of your country in a moment of crisis. We’re talking pretty basic stuff: How to apply for federal assistance after a series of massive natural disasters, the general state of …

Subjects: AI, E-Government, Internet, Search Engines, Social Media

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 12, 2024

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 12, 2024 – 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 …

Subjects: E-Government, E-Records, Health Care, ID Theft, Internet, Privacy

‘Alarming’ decline of seed-dispersing animals threatens Europe’s plants

Science: “When hunters wiped out most fruiteating birds in the tropical forest of Lambir Hills National Park on western Borneo by the 1990s, the skies grew duller—and in a few years so did the forest. Without birds to spread their seeds, the diversity of fruit-producing plants declined, illuminating the critical importance of seed dispersal for …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law

What Do Climate Risk Indices Measure?

Liberty Street Economics, New York Fed, October 7, 2024: “As interest in understanding the economic impacts of climate change grows, the climate economics and finance literature has developed a number of indices to quantify climate risks. Various approaches have been employed, utilizing firm-level emissions data, financial market data (from equity and derivatives markets), or textual …

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