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Important Items
New report warns long COVID could be “mass disabling event”
Deadly fungus spreading in U.S. with approximately 60% mortality
https://mynorthwest.com/3872698/deadly-fungus-candida-auris-spreading-60-mortality-rate/
The Next Front in the GOP’s War on Women: No-Fault Divorce
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have no-fault divorce laws on the books — laws that allow either party to walk away from an unhappy marriage without having to prove abuse, infidelity, or other misconduct in court. These reforms have led to dramatic drops in the rates of female suicide and domestic violence, as well as decreases in spousal homicide of women. The decreases, one researcher explained, were “not just because abused women (and men) could more easily divorce their abusers, but also because potential abusers knew that they were more likely to be left.” Today, more than two-thirds of all heterosexual divorces in the U.S. are initiated by women. Republicans across the country are now reconsidering no-fault divorce. Last year, the Republican Party of Texas added language to its platform calling for an end to no-fault divorce. A similar proposal is presently being workshopped by the Republican Party of Louisiana. The Nebraska GOP has affirmed its belief that no-fault divorce should only be accessible to couples without children.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/stephen-crowder-divorce-1234727777/
Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School. Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition.
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-private-school-tuition-scotus
Texas Republicans want power to overturn Harris County elections over mishaps at the polls
RT @NoLieWithBTC Whoa. Texas Republicans just voted give a GOP appointee the power to singe-handedly CANCEL election results in the state’s largest Democratic county. The new rule only applies to Harris County, which is one of the fastest-trending blue counties in the US.
Fallen Journalists Memorial approved for National Mall
Innovation
AI makes non-invasive mind-reading possible by turning thoughts into text
Technology
Instagram’s Testing a New Generative AI Sticker Creation Process In-App
Can ActivityPub save the internet?
Tech to watch: ActivityPub. The tech industry is abuzz about a new standard for social networking that is more open, more user-centric, and potentially more powerful than Twitter and Facebook. But we’ve been here before.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/20/23689570/activitypub-protocol-standard-social-network
Biden administration takes action to promote responsible AI innovation
https://venturebeat.com/ai/biden-administration-takes-action-to-promote-responsible-ai-innovation/
A Photographer Tried to Get His Photos Removed from an AI Dataset. He Got an Invoice Instead.
HT @LauraB7 A German stock photographer tried to get his photos removed from the AI-training LAION dataset. Lawyers replied that he owes $979 for making an unjustified copyright claim. #AI
‘I’ve Never Hired A Writer Better Than ChatGPT’: How AI Is Upending The Freelance World
Via @forbes While some freelancers are losing their gigs to ChatGPT, clients are being spammed with AI-written content on freelancing platforms. The result: increasing mistrust between clients and freelancers and mounting trouble for the platforms themselves. #AI
AI-written content isn’t the web’s future. It’s already here.
RT @WillOremus I went on a quest to find out if AI is already secretly writing a lot of the stuff we read online. I found more than I ever imagined. From recipes to grill reviews to horoscopes, human writing is fast becoming the exception on the internet, not the rule. #AI
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/05/ai-spam-websites-books-chatgpt/
Will a Chatbot Write the Next ‘Succession’?
RT @draccah Under a section titled “Professional Standards and Protection in the Employment of Writers,” the union wrote that it aimed to “regulate use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies.” via @nytimes #AI #chatGPT
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/business/media/writers-guild-hollywood-ai-chatgpt.html
AI Chatbots Have Been Used to Create Dozens of News Content Farms
Reported EU legislation to disclose AI training data could trigger copyright lawsuits
A late provision reportedly added to the EU’s forthcoming AI Act would force companies like OpenAI to disclose their use of copyrighted training data. Already, a number of high-profile AI firms have been hit by copyright lawsuits. #AI
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/28/23702437/eu-ai-act-disclose-copyright-training-data-report
Society of Authors: Protecting copyright and creative careers in the face of new technology
Exploring the 2nd order effects of generative AI in marketing and martech
Via @chiefmartec #AI
2023 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic: 11,038 solutions searchable on martechmap.com
Publishing & Media
Translation Manifesto
HT @bonniecchau Translation plays a role in the globalization of everything from forms of artistic expression to laws, scientific knowledge, and politics, and it frames how readers in the U.S., including those who are multilingual, engage with other languages and cultures. As U.S.-based translators, we must recognize that we are positioned to resist or to perpetuate neoliberal globalization and its attendant forms of cultural imperialism, which have intensified asymmetrical relations among nations, peoples, cultures, and languages.
https://pen.org/report/translation-manifesto/
Avid Reader Launches Credits Page Campaign
https://lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/2023/05/avid-reader-launches-credits-page-campaign/
May 4th Was the First National Black Authors Day
https://bookriot.com/first-national-black-authors-day/
S&S Posts Record Quarter, Could Be Sold by End of Year
On Reading.
By @rishad
https://rishad.substack.com/p/on-reading
Reading books is not just a pleasure: it helps our minds to heal
https://psyche.co/ideas/reading-books-is-not-just-a-pleasure-it-helps-our-minds-to-heal
‘Too greedy’: mass walkout at global science journal over ‘unethical’ fees
More than 40 leading scientists have resigned en masse from the editorial board of a top science journal in protest at what they describe as the “greed” of publishing giant Elsevier. The entire academic board of the journal Neuroimage resigned after Elsevier refused to reduce publication charges. Academics around the world have applauded what many hope is the start of a rebellion against the huge profit margins in academic publishing, which outstrip those made by Apple, Google and Amazon. Neuroimage, the leading publication globally for brain-imaging research, is one of many journals that are now “open access” rather than sitting behind a subscription paywall. But its charges to authors reflect its prestige, and academics now pay over £2,700 for a research paper to be published. The former editors say this is “unethical” and bears no relation to the costs involved.
TikTok will launch a new program with Dotdash Meredith, Conde Nast and other media partners to get more professional videos
LEGENDS & HEIRS
HT @GenderAvenger Women at the top of their creative fields on a younger artist who inspires them.
Right to Read Act Revived In Effort to Support Librarians and School Libraries
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-03) have once again introduced the Right to Read Act, which would, among its provisions, ensure all U.S. students have access to a school library staffed by a certified school librarian. Crucially, the legislation also reaffirms that “First Amendment rights apply to school libraries” and seeks to extend “liability protections” to teachers and school librarians. According to the U.S. Department of Education, as many as 2.5 million students are enrolled in districts where there are no school libraries, and some 30% of students do not have access to full time school librarians.
Take action: Urge your member of Congress to sign on to the Right to Read Act
HT @ALALibrary
https://oneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net/messages/edit?promo_id=20409
What the Numbers Say About the Drop in School Librarians
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/districts-lost-school-librarians-over-the-pandemic/2023/04
Library funding becomes the ‘nuclear option’ as the battle over books escalates
RT @soontornvat Imagine sports teams losing stadiums because one parent disagreed with a coach’s plays. Or shutting down a state park because one parent didn’t like the flowers the park rangers planted. We all have to fight for our libraries like never before.
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/04/1173274834/book-bans-library-funding-missouri-texas-ashcroft&ct
Preparing for Program Challenges at your Public Library
MT @ALALibrary Are you unsure how to handle a program challenge in your library? Register for this free webinar on May 31st to learn best practices and strategies for supporting staff, board, and community members through program challenges.
https://programminglibrarian.org/learn/preparing-program-challenges-your-public-library
EveryLibrary partners with TikTok influencers during National Library Week
From Classroom Censorship to Curricular Control
https://pen.org/from-classroom-censorship-to-curricular-control/
Book Bans are Increasing, and Writers of Color are the Target
https://www.theroot.com/book-bans-are-increasing-and-writers-of-color-are-the-1850387613
Books About 9/11, the KKK, or any War to be Removed from Minors at Hamilton East Public Library
banned “weeded” all together. Hamilton East Public Library does not vote for their board members. They focused on any depictions of nudity, even in relation to books written for young people about their bodies, about puberty, or about reproduction.
Staff will need to read and watch all 38,000 items at Jamestown libraries by March 2024
https://www.jamestownsun.com/news/staff-will-need-to-review-38-000-items-at-jamestown-libraries
The Editorial Board: Parents can do their jobs without banning books
Don’t Read This
RT @jodipicoult A comprehensive article about FL book bans. (Also unintentionally comedic, as Florida apparently refers to itself as the “Education State.”)
https://fortmyers.floridaweekly.com/articles/dont-read-this/
A nasty development in the culture wars invades an affluent N.J. suburb
RT @ThePlumLineGS Insane: A school board in New Jersey just rejected a sociology textbook in part because: it described the police killing of Michael Brown without including his size/weight it didn’t falsely hype antifa’s role in the “2020 riots.” This is a new frontier.
My Book Is Horrifying. My Book Is a Lifeline. My Book Is Banned.
To ban this book, which is based on interviews I conducted with girls in India and Nepal who had been sold into slavery, is to dishonor their real-life experiences and the courage it took for them to share their stories. To ban this book is also disrespectful to the teenagers who want, and in some cases need, to read it. I’ve visited classrooms and juvenile detention centers all over the country since the book came out in 2006. At nearly every visit, a student comes forward to say that they have been sexually abused or are being sexually abused — and that seeing their experience rendered in a book finally emboldened them to say so. Some linger around after book signings and whisper to me privately; I encourage them to tell a trusted adult. One girl and I walked to the guidance counselor’s office together. Books are not the problem. They are part of the solution.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/opinion/sexual-assualt-book-ban.html
Illinois to Become First State to Ban Book Bans
https://bookriot.com/illinois-to-become-first-state-to-ban-book-bans/
Book Censorship News
https://bookriot.com/2023-right-to-read-bills/
Stop Book Bans Toolkit
https://authorsguild.org/resource/stop-book-bans-toolkit/
Gear Up To Attend Your Local Library And School Board Meetings
RT @UABookBans Attending library board, school board, and city council meetings is one of the most critical actions you can take to #UniteAgainstBookBans. Our partners at @PFLAG created a helpful guide for speaking at meetings that we’ve adapted to focus on book bans:
https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/attend-library-school-board-meetings/
Resources & Opportunities
WMG Field Trip to the Museum of Failure with Me!
WMG Members: We can learn a lot from failure – come join me on a field trip to the Museum of Failure in Brooklyn on 5/13.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-5273061
Calling All Publishers, Literary Agents, and Review Journals: Join us for Diversity Baseline Survey 3.0
Four years ago, Lee & Low Books released the second Diversity Baseline Survey (DBS 2.0) to measure inclusive hiring among the publishing industry’s workforce, looking specifically at race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. 21,753 publishing employees took the survey in 2019 — that’s 2,609 review journal workers, 17,100 trade publishing staffers, 1,528 university press employees, and 516 literary agents. The results of the DBS 2.0 inspired many conversations and initiatives to help build a more inclusive book industry.
It is survey time once again. This is an OPEN CALL FOR PARTICIPATION to trade, educational, and university publishing houses, review journals, and literary agencies of all sizes. Will your company participate in 2023?
Sisters in Crime’s Innocence Project Auction
RT @StephofLegends Are you an aspiring author? We’ve got critiques and AMAs from bestselling authors, editors and agents up for grabs!! Bid May 18-21!! http://SinC4justice.com #amwriting #amquerying #WritingCommunity #writingtips
NYPL suggested reading, panels, and other free events for Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Via @nypl #AANHPIHeritageMonth
https://www.nypl.org/spotlight/aanhpi-heritage-month
The Walter Dean Myers Grant program
MT @diversebooks The Walter Grants will open for submissions on June 1! Apply for one of our general Walter Grants or our Walter Grants for trans creators & disabled writers from 6/1 to 6/30. We will be awarding $2,000 grants to unpublished diverse writers & illustrators!
https://diversebooks.org/programs/walter-grant/
#DVpit Diverse Book Pitch Event Moving To Discord
https://twitter.com/DVpit_/status/1653789325480407040
Request free books for your classroom
RT @heisereads Do you know a Pre-K through 3rd grade teacher who has not received free LGBTQ inclusive books from @LessPrejudice?🏳️🌈 Let them know they can request free books at https://prideandlessprejudice.org/free-books! Request now in time to #ReadWithPride for #PrideMonth! #WNDB #ClassroomBookADay #LibraryLife
https://www.prideandlessprejudice.org/free-books
Women Photograph Mentorship Program
RT @womenphotograph The Women Photograph Mentorship Program is open for applications! We’ve reimagined the program and this year will pair 5 early career photographers with a mentor + provide $2,000 to support the production of a photo project. Read more + apply by May 31!
https://www.womenphotograph.com/mentorship-apply
Resources for Children’s Mental Health
VIa @SesameWorkshop
https://sesameworkshop.org/topics/mentalhealth/
How Well Does Your Child’s NYC Public School Support Mental Health?
HT @kleinmatic We tracked dozens of data points on mental health support in NYC public schools. Do they call 911 on students in crisis? Are there enough social workers and guidance counselors? Enter your school name to find out.
https://projects.thecity.nyc/school-mental-health/
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