Data is Plural: “The Global Public Procurement Dataset provides standardized data on 72 million government contracts in 42 countries. The dataset, constructed from official sources by the Budapest-based Government Transparency Institute, represents $17 trillion in total procurement. It begins in the 2000s for most of the countries and concludes in 2021. For each contract, it provides information about the tender (title, procedure type, product code, publication date, award date, final price, currency, etc.), government buyer, bidders’ names and locations, and more. The downloadable files are split into two repositories. The US, Italy, Brazil, Poland, and Colombia have the most contracts represented. Previously: The Open Contracting Partnership’s data registry (DIP 2023.03.08) and data standard (DIP 2020.02.26).”
Global Public Procurement Dataset
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The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Research in the Legal Profession
Biresaw, Samuel Maireg, The Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Research in the Legal Profession (December 15, 2023). Upcoming in International Journal of Law and Society, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4727017 – “Legal research is an indispensable skill for lawyers. It is always necessary for lawyers to engage in legal research in due course to solve various legal problems. Although the purpose and methodology of the research may vary from lawyer to lawyer, doing research is a common activity. The quest to assess the impacts of artificial intelligence (hereafter, ‘AI’) on legal research allows one to measure the influence of AI on the legal profession in general. With the advent of Legal AI, it is evident that the legal profession is not immune from disruption. This article assesses the impacts of AI on research in the legal profession in general in accomplishing various lawyerly tasks by different legal professionals. The study…
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The Man Who Killed Google Search
Where’s Your Ed Act via Metafilter – “Edward Zitron has been reading all of google’s internal emails that have been released as evidence in the DOJ’s antitrust case against google. Zitron concludes that Google Search died on February 5th, 2019. It was on that date at Google’s HQ evil lair an emergency meeting, aka a “code yellow” was called by Prabhakar Raghavan, then Google’s Head of Ads. This was followed by a core update to search in March 2019 which resulted in search traffic getting directed back to web sites that had previously been suppressed by Google Search’s “Penguin” update (mefi fallout) from way back in 2012. Just over a year later in June 2020 Google’s head of search Ben Gomes (previously), known as a key engineer with over 20 years of search development was replaced by Raghavan. Gnomes is on record arguing that search was “getting too involved with ads” (pdf of…
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Nearly 2 in 5 Americans breathe unhealthy air
Washington Post: “A rising number of Americans — nearly 2 in 5 — has been living with unhealthy levels of air pollution, while the United States experienced a record number of days between 2020 and 2022 with very unhealthy or hazardous air, according to a new report. More than 90 million people are living in places where the air quality is worse than a new U.S. standard, the American Lung Association reported Wednesday in its annual State of the Air assessment, which detailed a significant increase based on the stricter national particle pollution standard. The total includes 72 million people who would not have been counted under the looser federal standard — reflecting the dramatic effect of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new limit, which was announced this year.” Report Cards Key Findings Health Impact Recommendations For The Media
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True To Its Name, LexisNexis Unveils New AI Capabilities For Both Its Lexis Legal Service and Its Nexis News Service
In a pair of AI announcements this week, LexisNexis said that it has significantly enhanced the speed and capabilities of its Lexis+ AI legal AI Assistant, and also that it has launched the commercial preview of Nexis+ AI within its Nexis news and business information research service. LexisNexis first released Lexis+ AI for general availability […]
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Suing Social Media for Harming Children – PIMM Podcast 66
Attorney Steve Levin, founding partner at Levin and Perconti in Chicago joins us for episode 66 of the Personal Injury Marketing Minute to discuss social media and kids. In January 2024, the senate judiciary committee held a full committee hearing with testimony from some of the largest social media CEOs in an effort to examine Big Tech’s failures to protect kids online. This podcast covers if social media harms children, addiction tactics, if parents can sue, possible reforms, pending lawsuits, and what you can do. Find Attorney Steve Levin online here: https://www.levinperconti.com/attorneys/steven-m-levin/. See all episodes or subscribe to the Personal Injury Marketing Minute here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/podcasts/. Transcript coming soon. The post Suing Social Media for Harming Children – PIMM Podcast 66 appeared first on OptimizeMyFirm.com.
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US Supreme Court to Parse Official Acts in Trump Immunity Fight
Bloomberg Law [paywall but most of the article is available free]: “The US Supreme Court is poised to reckon with what constitutes an official presidential act in weighing former President Donald Trump’s claim that he’s immune from being criminally prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Trump argues the charges are all based on actions he took in his official capacity as president. Prosecutors say nothing he did in trying to remain in power despite his loss was conduct of the office. The justices could try to draw a line between these starkly different views and end up with a ”mixed decision where the former president is immune for allegations stemming from certain types of acts but not others,” said Smita Ghosh, appellate counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, a public interest law firm and think tank. With little guidance for the court to go on, legal scholars warn it’s not easy to make a distinction between acts…
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Most Americans say a free press is highly important to society
“A large majority of Americans see the freedom of the press as highly important to the well-being of society. But many express concerns about potential restrictions on press freedoms in the United States – and say that political and financial interests already have a lot of influence on news organizations. These findings come from a new Pew Research Center survey ahead of World Press Freedom Day on May 3.”
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Emily Dickinson’s Botanical Inspiration
The Marginalian – Stunning 19th-Century Flower Paintings by the Forgotten Artist and Poet Clarissa Munger Badger “To be a flower,” Emily Dickinson wrote in her prescient ode to the interconnectedness of nature, “is profound responsibility.” A passionate lifelong gardener, the poet had fallen under the spell of wildflowers while composing her astonishing herbarium as a teenager. But it was an uncommonly beautiful book her father gave her just before she turned thirty — not long after she wrote to an ill-suited suitor, “My flowers don’t know how far my thoughts wander away sometimes.” — that fueled her poetic passion for nature’s own garden: Wild Flowers Drawn and Colored from Nature (public library) by the botanical artist and poet Clarissa Munger Badger (May 20, 1806–December 14, 1889).”
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Spring 2024 Harvard Youth Poll
The Spring 2024 Harvard Youth Poll surveyed 2,010 young Americans between 18- and 29 years old nationwide, and was conducted between March 14-21, 2024. Top Issues – Inflation; Healthcare; Housing; Gun Violence – “A national poll released today by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard Kennedy School indicates that among 18-to-29-year-olds nationwide, more than half of young Americans say they will definitely be voting in the Presidential election this Fall. But findings show that among those likely voters, levels of support varied significantly among different subgroups.. Since 2000, the Harvard Public Opinion Project (HPOP) has provided the most comprehensive look at young Americans’ political opinions and voting trends. It provides essential insight into the concerns of young Americans at a time when the nation is confronting numerous challenges both at home and abroad. President Kennedy once said, “It is a time for a new generation of…
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Vast DNA tree of life for plants revealed by global science team
PHYS.org: “A new paper published April 24, 2024 in the journal Nature by an international team of 279 scientists led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew presents the most up-to-date understanding of the flowering plant tree of life. Using 1.8 billion letters of genetic code from more than 9,500 species covering almost 8,000 known flowering plant genera (ca. 60%), this incredible achievement sheds new light on the evolutionary history of flowering plants and their rise to ecological dominance on Earth. The study’s authors believe the data will aid future attempts to identify new species, refine plant classification, uncover new medicinal compounds, and conserve plants in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss. The major milestone for plant science, led by Kew and involving 138 organizations internationally, was built on 15 times more data than any comparable studies of the flowering plant tree of life. Among the species sequenced for this study, more than 800…
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NOAA expands availability of new heat forecast tool ahead of summer
“NOAA is expanding the availability of a new experimental heat tool called HeatRisk ahead of the hot summer months. A collaboration with NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HeatRisk provides information and guidance for those who are particularly vulnerable to heat and may need to take extra precautions for their health when the temperature rises. HeatRisk provides historical context for high temperature forecasts, identifying how unusual the heat will be for any given time of year across a spatial area with coverage across the contiguous U.S. It also identifies temperatures that are expected to bring increased heat impacts over a 24-hour period, up to seven days in advance. The tool takes into account cumulative impacts of heat by identifying the expected duration of the heat, including both daytime and nighttime temperatures. HeatRisk is divided into a number and color-coded scale —…
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Global study revealed world’s biggest known plastic polluters
Washington Post: “Every year, companies produce more than 400 million metric tons of plastic. Some of that plastic spills onto waterways or beaches, clogging streams or floating in huge gyres in the ocean. Some of it breaks down into tiny microplastics or nanoplastics that float in the air and enter human lungs, blood and organs. Sometimes it’s hard to know which companies are behind all this plastic — but now, scientists have identified some of the largest contributors. A new study – Global producer responsibility for plastic pollution published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances has pinpointed some of the major brands responsible for plastic pollution across six continents. The researchers, who used a team of over 100,000 volunteers to catalogue over 1.8 million pieces of plastic waste, found that 56 companies were responsible for more than 50 percent of branded plastic waste globally. The largest contributor was Coca-Cola, which accounted for…
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Mozilla AI Intersections Database
“This searchable AI database maps intersections between the key social justice and human rights areas of our time and documented AI impacts and their manifestations in society. Further, the database catalogs civil society organizations, social movement actors, researchers, and other entities that are either actively doing work at these intersections, or are well suited for engagement on these issues via partnerships.”
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AI-generated images have become the latest form of social media spam
Nieman Lab: “…Our team of researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology investigated over 100 Facebook pages that posted high volumes of AI-generated content. We published the results in March 2024 as a preprint paper, meaning the findings have not yet gone through peer review. We explored patterns of images, unearthed evidence of coordination between some of the pages, and tried to discern the likely goals of the posters. Page operators seemed to be posting pictures of AI-generated babies, kitchens, or birthday cakes for a range of reasons. There were content creators innocuously looking to grow their followings with synthetic content; scammers using pages stolen from small businesses to advertise products that don’t seem to exist; and spammers sharing AI-generated images of animals while referring users to websites filled with advertisements, which allow the…
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AI Can Tell Your Political Affiliation Just by Looking at Your Face
Gizmodo: “A study recently published in the peer-reviewed American Psychologist journal claims that a combination of facial recognition and artificial intelligence technology can accurately assess a person’s political orientation by simply looking at that person’s blank, expressionless face. The study was authored by researchers at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Researchers write that, prior to the experiment, they had 591 participants answer a political questionnaire that provided insights into their political beliefs. Those same participants were then scanned by researchers’ AI algorithm, which attempted to assess where they fell on the political spectrum. The algorithm could generally tell what a person’s political orientation was with a high degree of accuracy, even when that person’s identity was “decorrelated with age, gender, and ethnicity,” researchers write. The “algorithm’s predictive…
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Upsolve Launches Tool To Help Pro Se Bankruptcy Filers Get Relief from Student Loans
According to Upsolve, a nonprofit company whose technology helps low-income individuals file for bankruptcy for free, Americans owe $1.77 trillion in student loan debt — 93% of it to the federal government. Since 2017, Upsolve’s debt relief tools have helped more than 13,000 individuals erase more than $750 million in debt. But, due to the […]
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Go deep with fewer people
You don’t have to go to networking events, do seminars, write a newsletter or blog, advertise, or “chat” on social media. It can be beneficial if you do, but you don’t have to. As long as you regularly connect with the key people you know or want to know—your best clients, top referral sources, most promising business contacts. The plan is simple. Make a list of 5-25 connections who fit that description and call or email them once a month. What do you say? Anything. Because anything you say can make a difference. But here are some suggestions: “What’s new with you?” What’s new in their business, what are they working on, what’s the latest in their personal life? Congratulate them on something they’ve done (personal or business). Comment about news you read about their company, industry or market. How can I help? (Referrals, introductions, advice,…
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Facebook’s Bizarre AI Images Now on LinkedIn, Too
404 Media: “The same types of bizarre AI images that have repeatedly gone viral on Facebook have begun to make their way to LinkedIn. In some cases, these images are performing very well, as is the case on Facebook. In others, they are identified as AI by a majority of the commenters. We’ve covered the success of AI-generated content farming on Facebook, where bizarre AI images of “shrimp Jesus,” hot flight attendants, elaborate wood carvings and sand sculptures, and children building extremely elaborate things out of trash have repeatedly gone megaviral and are getting fed to people via the platform’s recommendation algorithms. The same type of images are going viral on LinkedIn, which is nominally for work but has many bizarre corners and its own, often deranged types of engagement hacking. This is an amazing work of craftsmanship, and Mark should see this,” a post featuring an AI-generated child standing next to a gigantic AI-generated…
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New government heat risk tool sets magenta as most dangerous level
AP: “…Heat is by far the No. 1 weather cause of death in the United States, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Rick Spinrad, citing CDC data of 1,200 deaths per year. Last year was the hottest year on record globally. Both the weather service and CDC will put versions of the tool on their websites. Enter a ZIP code on the CDC dashboard to get more focus on health risks and air quality and zoom in on the weather service map online for more detailed forecasts and explanations. Both versions include heat risk for the next seven days and there is a Spanish edition. The CDC site is https://www.cdc.gov/heatrisk and the weather service version is https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/ There are numerous other meteorological indexes for heat, Graham said. Those include the heat index, which factors in humidity; wet bulb globe temperature, which is aimed at outdoors heat stress in the sun; and universal thermal climate index, which brings in…
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