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While I focus on Technology, Innovation, and Publishing, because I have a platform, I also flag items that I think are important and try to include a bunch of resources & opportunities. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter.

Important Items

Florida’s Black history standards are even worse than reported

This is horrible! RT @michaelharriot I actually read all 216 pages of Florida’s new state social studies standards, and the enslaved-people-benefitting-from-slavery is not even the worst part. They basically created a K-12 course in Caucasian Race Theory Here’s the top 10 problems I found:

https://thegrio.com/2023/07/27/floridas-black-history-standards-are-even-worse-than-reported/

Florida approves conservative PragerU lessons for schools

MT @FLFreedomRead “An unaccredited conservative non-profit organization known for its anti-immigration theories and downplaying of systemic racism has been approved to provide classroom materials to Florida schools.”

https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/07/25/florida-approves-conservative-prageru-lessons-schools/

Black leaders vow pushback against new FL curriculum guidelines

Thank goodness to those fighting back! MT @FLFreedomRead The group is aiming to open 25 new “Freedom Schools” by 2024, register 1 million new voters, and assemble a “Teach our History Task Force.”

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/624864-black-leaders-vow-pushback-against-new-state-curriculum-guidelines/

CDC says summer COVID wave may have begun

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/28/1190443473/the-cdc-sees-signs-of-a-late-summer-covid-wave

U.S. sees biggest rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations since December

MT @MeetJess Weekly COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen by more than 10% across the country.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-hospitalizations-rise-biggest-weekly-increase-since-december/

COVID-19: Long-term effects

Per the Mayo Clinic: “Research suggests that between one month and one year after having COVID-19, 1 in 5 people ages 18 to 64 has at least one medical condition that might be due to COVID-19. Among people age 65 and older, 1 in 4 has at least one medical condition that might be due to COVID-19.”

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-long-term-effects/art-20490351

Air filter significantly reduces presence of airborne SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 wards

MT @mryoung151 University of Cambridge-“Once the air filter was switched on and run continuously, the team were unable to detect SARS-CoV-2 on any of the five testing days.”

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/air-filter-significantly-reduces-presence-of-airborne-sars-cov-2-in-covid-19-wards

Illinois is offering free air purifiers to day care centers

Wish this was in every state! More than 20,000 of the units are available. To receive HEPA air purifiers, plus a three-year supply of filters, providers must fill out an online request form by July 31. The federally funded offer is open to all licensed Illinois Day Care providers outside Chicago.

https://www.nprillinois.org/education-desk/2023-07-24/illinois-is-offering-free-air-purifiers-to-day-care-centers

‘Catastrophic’ forecast shows 9m people in England with major illnesses by 2040

MT @MeetJess Cases of dementia are expected to rise 45% by 2040, heart failure by 92%, cancer by 31%, diabetes by 49%, chronic pain by 32% and anxiety or depression by 16%.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/25/catastrophic-forecast-shows-9m-people-in-england-with-major-illnesses-by-2040

Innovation

Korean team claims to have created the first room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor

https://phys.org/news/2023-07-korean-team-room-temperature-ambient-pressure-superconductor.html

‘It was an accident’: the scientists who have turned humid air into renewable power

Unlike solar or wind, hygroelectric generators could work day and night, indoors and out, and in many places.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/02/it-was-an-accident-the-scientists-who-have-turned-humid-air-into-renewable-power

Technology

This Startup Wants to Create an AI-Generated CNN

Channel 1 will launch this year with a 30-minute weekly show made available through a FAST channel, though the ambition is to produce newscasts customized for every user (Mosam says that next year they intend to produce between 500 and 1,000 segments daily) accessible via an ad-supported app or video platform. The company intends to eventually use generative AI to re-create events that have happened, but for which cameras were not present. While Channel 1 will use large language models (LLMs) to write its scripts, the company intends to source its stories from credible places. That could include press releases from verified companies (another demo sees a tech correspondent discussing Apple’s Vision Pro, with photos and videos plucked from Apple’s press site), or from partner news outlets that are interested in turning their human-generated news stories into video news reports. There will also be a team of editors verifying the accuracy of the reports.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/ai-tv-news-channel-1-news-1235544580/

Rise of AI newsbots shakes up India’s media landscape

Some Indian broadcasters are using lifelike AI anchors to deliver news, weather reports, and more, raising job loss fears and questions about media credibility

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Media-Entertainment/Rise-of-AI-newsbots-shakes-up-India-s-media-landscape

AI will alter news media industry’s competition, strategy

1. Identify the most valuable customers using data on your audiences’ behaviors and transactions for predictions.
2. Create a differentiated experience by applying predictive and generative AI to customize the product in ways that cannot be easily replicated by competitors.
3. Improve effectiveness of your marketing and sales as different types of AI can tailor your campaigns to the target segments narrowly — down to individuals.
4. Reduce costs by automating tasks with AI. This may improve speed and accuracy of decision-making, but also free up human workers’ time for creativity and innovation.

https://www.inma.org/blogs/reader-revenue/post.cfm/ai-will-alter-news-media-industry-s-competition-strategy

Top News Publishers Are Reportedly Planning To Sue AI Firms

The New York Times, News Corp, Axel Springer, Dotdash Meredith owner IAC and others are in the process of forming a coalition to take on AI giants like Google and OpenAI. Publishers’ primary concern is reportedly how AI will impact traffic to their websites from Google searches as the AI chatbots may simply scrape that data from their pages and serve it to the user without attribution or links.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/07/24/top-news-publishers-are-reportedly-planning-to-sue-ai-firms/

Justine Bateman on AI, Labor, and the Future of Entertainment

MT @michellemanafy

Justin Hendrix: So what you’re saying is …you imagine the executives who are running these media and film companies to some extent, the perfect price of content is zero?

Justine Bateman: Yes. And it’s never been closer to doable.

https://techpolicy.press/justine-bateman-on-ai-labor-and-the-future-of-entertainment/

A Blessing and a Boogeyman: Advertisers Warily Embrace A.I.

ICYMI A Virgin Voyages campaign using artificial intelligence allowed users to prompt a digital avatar of Jennifer Lopez to issue tens of thousands of customized video invitations to a cruise.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/18/business/media/ai-advertising.html

Meta’s LLaMa 2 license is not Open Source

RT @bensbitesdaily The Open Source Initiative says that Meta’s LLaMa 2 license is not Open Source. They do praise Meta for making things easy to access but are salty about Meta calling it open source.

https://blog.opensource.org/metas-llama-2-license-is-not-open-source/

Microsoft’s Bing Chat comes to Chrome and Safari in tests for ‘select users’

https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/24/microsofts-bing-chat-comes-to-chrome-and-safari-in-tests-for-select-users/

OpenAI scuttles AI-written text detector over ‘low rate of accuracy’

https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/25/openai-scuttles-ai-written-text-detector-over-low-rate-of-accuracy/

10 Essential Prompt Engineering Methods For Successful ChatGPT & LLM Applications

Harnessing the full potential of AI requires mastering prompt engineering.

https://www.topbots.com/prompt-engineering-chatgpt-llm-applications/

Paving the Path for “Blue-Collar AI” Professionals

https://myraroldan.medium.com/paving-the-path-for-blue-collar-ai-professionals-5d95e6196f4e

TikTok is adding text posts

The shortform video app is adding the ability to share text-based posts with music and stickers, similar to Instagram Stories.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/24/23805530/tiktok-text-posts-micro-blogging-twitter-threads

TikTok is planning to compete with Shein and Temu in the US and beyond

Cast in the same mold as Amazon’s “Sold By Amazon” program, TikTok will provide a range of services to sellers, including storage, marketing, transactions, and logistics.

The “Shop” feature TikTok already runs in the US, the UK, and Asia is distinctly different from the new program, as the former aims to replicate China’s $400 billion livestream shopping industry outside the mainland. Brands pay a small commission to sell their products on the platform via streams, giving exposure to local businesses. TikTok has been onboarding brands like PacSun and Revolve for TikTok Shop in the US.

For the new e-commerce project, TikTok is purchasing its own inventory and running its own logistics network.

https://qz.com/tiktok-trendy-beat-e-commerce-shein-temu-1850677277

Apple slams UK surveillance-bill proposals

HT @benedictevans The UK is updating its Investigatory Powers Act w a law-enforcement-led wish-list of ways to disable privacy, security + encryption on consumer devices. Meta & Signal would block UK use + Apple would disable iMessage & FaceTime in the UK

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66256081

Amazon’s Palm Payment Tech Is Coming to All US Whole Foods Stores

“By the end of this year, all 500+ Whole Foods Market locations in the US will offer Amazon One for payment and Prime membership benefits,” Amazon said. Amazon One is a palm-based identity service that lets you verify your identity and pay by holding your hand over a scanner at stores and venues. Amazon began rolling out the technology at Amazon Go stores in Seattle in 2020 and has expanded to include some Panera Bread locations and Denver’s Coors Field.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/amazons-palm-payment-tech-is-coming-to-all-us-whole-foods/

How a new two-minute quiz measures misinformation susceptibility

RT @michellemanafy Susceptibility to misinformation depends on much more than just factual knowledge or education. And understanding what, exactly, underpins susceptibility to misinformation is critical to effectively fight it.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/07/how-a-new-two-minute-quiz-measures-misinformation-susceptibility/

IMAX emulates PalmPilot software to power Oppenheimer’s 70 mm release

Twenty-one-year-old emulated PDAs may not be what you’d expect to power one of the year’s most publicized movie releases.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/imax-emulates-palmpilot-software-to-power-oppenheimers-70-mm-release/

Publishing & Media

Improved Productivity is the Reason Publishers Must Adopt AI

By @ThadMcIlroy

https://thefutureofpublishing.com/2023/07/why-publishers-must-adopt-ai/

Swedish daily Aftonbladet finds people spend longer on articles with AI-generated summaries

MT @michellemanafy Sweden’s biggest daily news outlet has discovered it can use generative AI tools to boost time spent on its articles, especially with younger audiences. Unexpectedly, audiences spend longer reading articles that have summaries than those without.

https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/digital-journalism/aftonbladet-sweden-biggest-daily-use-chatgpt-in-the-newsroom/

BINC Foundation launches BincTank

BincTank is an incubator pilot program whose primary mission is to support BIPOC entrepreneurs to open new bookstores in underserved communities.

https://www.bincfoundation.org/binctank/

‘It’s exciting, it’s powerful’: how translated fiction captured a new generation of readers

HT @cctranslates From Argentinian horror to Japanese thrillers, under-35s are reading more internationally than ever before, with iconic covers becoming status symbols and fans swapping their discoveries online. “Sales of translated fiction increased 22% last year, compared to 2021 – and it is most popular among readers under 35.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/29/its-exciting-its-powerful-how-translated-fiction-captured-a-new-generation-of-readers

The Psychology of Reading

Bibliotherapy employs the reading of books and other forms of literature. Therapists have found bibliotherapy to be beneficial for mental health. Research over the years has also shown that reading can be good for mental well-being.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-yesterday/202307/the-psychology-of-reading

Libro.fm Opens, Audiobook Sales Through Local Bookstores

HT ⁦@publishingtrend Libro.fm announced that it is opening a new offering in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia, expanding beyond the U.S. Libro allows independent bookstores to partner with them on audiobook sales. They currently is partnered with at least 2,200 independent bookstores which together can offer as many as 400,000 “DRM-free digital audiobooks.” Not unlike the Bookshop.org model, consumers have a chance to select a store to support from those 2,200 independent booksellers, choosing a bookstore after creating a Libro.fm account. Profits are shared with that bookstore each time the consumer buys an audiobook or a monthly membership. ⁩

https://publishingperspectives.com/2023/07/libro-fm-opens-audiobook-sales-through-local-bookstores/

Innovation in practice: 5 ideas in action at successful media companies around the world

HT @BoSacks Some good examples of innovation in news media and journalism.

https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/innovation-in-practice-5-ideas-in-action-at-successful-media-companies-around-the-world/

After the Podcast Gold Rush, Is Audio Too Corporate to Be Cool?

HT @arithisandthat “The conversation is all about what the people in charge of podcasting want & not enough about what listeners want.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/07/podcast-industry-gold-rush

Research-backed ways to increase the impact of LGBTQ representation in ads

ICYMI “Seventy percent of non-LGBTQ consumers want companies to show public support not just in advertising but in sponsorships and hiring as well.” LGBTQ representation in marketing

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/future-of-marketing/management-and-culture/diversity-and-inclusion/lgbtq-representation-in-marketing/

In Houston’s Independent School District, Mike Miles will convert some libraries into discipline areas

This is terrible! MT @TXLA Superintendent Mike Miles, appointed in June by the Texas Education Agency to lead Houston ISD, will eliminate librarians and media specialists from the 28 campuses under his New Education System and an additional 57 aligned schools.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/hisd-libraries-discipline-areas-mike-miles-reforms-18209051.php

Booksellers Move to the Front Lines of the Fight Against Book Bans in Texas

HT @draccah A group of booksellers, publishers and authors filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to stop a new law in Texas that would require stores to rate books based on sexual content, arguing the measure would violate their First Amendment rights and be all but impossible to implement. The law, set to take effect in September, would force booksellers to evaluate and rate each title they sell to schools, as well as books they sold in the past. If they fail to comply, stores would be barred from doing business with schools. Maria A. Pallante, the chief executive of the Association of American Publishers, said the law would force book vendors to act as “mouthpieces of the government” by “retaliating against them if they do not do the labeling.” Under the First Amendment, the government cannot compel speech from private individuals or businesses.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/25/books/book-banning-texas-lawsuit.html

We Analyzed 1,626 Banned Books…Here’s What We Found

RT @FReadomFighters You think books are just being banned for inappropriate content? This study shows that isn’t true. Banned Books in the United States

https://statecraft.beehiiv.com/p/analyzed-1626-banned-booksheres-found

Library petition in Columbia County qualifies for general election ballot

RT @PENamerica “Dissatisfied with… the outcome of recent attempts to remove select books from library shelves, a group of residents… decided to… (put) the issue before voters… A rural library district like the one in Columbia County can be dissolved by a majority vote of county voters.”

https://www.union-bulletin.com/news/local/governments/library-petition-in-columbia-county-qualifies-for-general-election-ballot/article_c74c1650-2b47-11ee-a458-2fda500370a0.html

Age-Restricted Library Cards Aren’t a Solution: They’re a Liability

RT @FLFreedomRead “A populous who has lost interest in learning & reading, one who has lost those inherent traits thanks to the actions of their radicalized parents, guardians…is a populous rife for being sucked into those same dangerous mindsets.”

https://bookriot.com/age-restricted-library-cards-arent-a-solution-theyre-a-liability/

Leon County Schools set to keep ‘I am Billie Jean King’ on shelves after parent complaint

While ‘I am Billie Jean King’ survived the first formal complaint in the district, five other books were pulled from two high schools this month after LCS said reviews determined they did not comply with state standards. The donated books were located at Lincoln and SAIL high schools, according to a spokesperson, who added their removal is permanent.

https://www.wctv.tv/2023/07/24/leon-county-schools-set-keep-i-am-billie-jean-king-shelves-after-parent-complaint/

Judge blocks Arkansas law allowing librarians to be criminally charged over ‘harmful’ materials

Some good news: U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which also would have created a new process to challenge library materials and request that they be relocated to areas not accessible by kids. The measure, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year, was set to take effect Aug. 1.

https://apnews.com/article/libraries-books-bans-arkansas-758f28c04c573d03b869ad2738e2b06d

Resources & Opportunities

Pitching Perfection: Tips & Tricks on Creating & Crafting Story Ideas That Will Captivate Editors at Top Media Outlets

Hope to see you at this virtual event!

https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-5325936

PAGE TURNER: The Asian American Writers’ Workshop Publishing Conference

https://aaww.org/curation/page-turner-2023-the-aaww-publishing-conference/

Scribner Open Call for Poetry

RT @emilycpolson 🚨 POETS! 🚨 Scribner is holding an open call for full poetry manuscripts–details linked below. The form will open August 1st at 3pm Eastern and will close August 31st or when we hit 300 submissions. I’d love to read your work!!

https://www.simonandschuster.com/p/scribner-poetry-open-submission

Sundress Academy for the Arts Now Accepting Residency Applications for Spring 2024

The Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) is now accepting applications for short-term writing residencies in all genres—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, journalism, academic writing, and more—for their spring residency period which runs from January 1 to May 12, 2024. These residencies are designed to give artists time and space to complete their creative projects in a quiet and productive environment.

https://sundressblog.com/2023/06/28/sundress-academy-for-the-arts-now-accepting-residency-applications-for-spring-2024/

The ABRAMS Amplify Award

The ABRAMS Amplify Award was established in 2023 by ABRAMS Children’s Books to honor and uplift the voices of children’s book creators from marginalized communities. By providing resources for winners in the form of funds and professional feedback, the Amplify Award aims to help creators develop their writing into work with greater publication potential. We encourage BIPOC writers of middle-grade manuscripts (for ages 8-14) to submit their work. Deadline 9/1.

https://www.abramsbooks.com/abramsamplifyaward/

Books Editor at Words Without Borders

MT @wwborders We’re hiring! As WWB’s books editor, you’ll be right in the middle of the global literary conversation, commissioning and editing reviews of new books in translation

https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2023-07/were-hiring-books-editor/

Call for BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ Illustrators

https://twitter.com/lynnpo/status/1683844637344124931

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