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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, which you might have missed, and try to include a bunch of resources & opportunities. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter.
Important Items
Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab
Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents.
https://www.axios.com/2023/11/13/trump-loyalists-2024-presidential-election
Trump’s plan for giant detention camps points to a brutal 2024 reality
MT @ThePlumLineGS Trump’s plans for giant detention camps, a new Muslim ban, and mass expulsions of millions is a test. Trump and Stephen Miller are testing the public’s willingness to accept an agenda built on white nationalist sadism.
Terror on Repeat: A rare look at the devastation caused by AR-15 shootings
MT @washingtonpost The full effects of the AR-15’s catastrophic force in mass killings are rarely seen in public. To assess the extent of the destruction, The Post examined thousands of photos and videos and identified parallels across 11 mass shootings between 2012 and 2023. The graphic pictures and personal accounts in this story may be disturbing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-force-mass-shootings/
Does the Second Amendment protect the right of abusers to own a gun? We’re about to find out.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in U.S. v. Rahimi, a case that will determine whether a federal law that keeps guns out of the hands of domestic violence offenders is constitutional. In a country where an average of 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner every month, the outcome is a matter of life and death. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for a unanimous Supreme Court in 2014, “the only difference between a battered woman and a dead woman is the presence of a gun.”
Can’t Think, Can’t Remember: More Americans Say They’re in a Cognitive Fog
MT @DrEricDing Adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s are driving the trend. Researchers point to long Covid as a major cause. “There are more Americans who say they have serious cognitive problems — with remembering, concentrating or making decisions — than at any time in the last 15 years, data from the Census Bureau shows. The increase started with the pandemic: The number of working-age adults reporting “serious difficulty” thinking has climbed by an estimated one million people.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/13/upshot/long-covid-disability.html
Covid will be a leading cause of death in the U.S. indefinitely, whether or not the pandemic is ‘over’
Covid was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, after heart disease and cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The same was true last year, provisional CDC data shows. Since April, Covid deaths have stayed relatively flat, at a weekly average of around 300 to 500 per day. If the trend continues, the U.S. could expect 113,000 to 188,000 deaths a year from Covid, putting it on par with Alzheimer’s, chronic lower respiratory diseases and stroke.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-will-leading-cause-death-indefinitely-us-rcna48374
Global Study Finds One-Third of Corporate Managers Lead With Fear, Approach to Leadership Costing $36 Billion In Productivity
HT @SStaaterman
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-study-finds-one-third-171300092.html
Innovation
Propelling NASA Closer to the Moon and Mars with Open Innovation
NASA invites the national and global community to participate in Moon to Mars planning through open innovation initiatives. “Almost every submission had innovative ideas, giving NASA a sourcebook for future concept development work.”
https://www.nasa.gov/general/propelling-nasa-closer-to-the-moon-and-mars-with-open-innovation/
The “Piggyback” Approach to Innovation
https://hbr.org/2023/11/the-piggyback-approach-to-innovation
Technology
‘It is a beast that needs to be tamed’: leading novelists on how AI could rewrite the future
AI and AR at the Sharjah Publishers Conference
Judge Will Toss Part of Authors’ AI Copyright Lawsuit
MT @victoriastrauss Mixed results for one of several lawsuits over AI copyright infringement: judge dismisses some, but not all, of authors’ suit against Meta
Artificial Intelligence and Copyright: SFWA’s Comments to the US Copyright Office
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association details a variety of harms reported by novelists and short fiction writers as a result of generative AI (including the training of AI systems on vast amounts of in-copyright work without permission) and offers four specific suggestions for protecting creators and their work. Via @victoriastrauss.
AI is about to completely change how you use computers
https://www.gatesnotes.com/AI-agents
Chatbots May ‘Hallucinate’ More Often Than Many Realize
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/technology/chatbots-hallucination-rates.html
Artificial general bullshit
by @jeffjarvis
https://buzzmachine.com/2023/11/19/artificial-general-bullshit/
Why AI will not save you
https://mediamakersmeet.com/why-ai-will-not-save-you/
Hollywood Actors Strike Ends with a Deal That Will Impact AI & Streaming for Decades
https://www.wired.com/story/hollywood-actors-strike-ends-ai-streaming/
Company appoints AI-powered robot as CEO
Earlier this year, Polish drinks company Dictador announced that it had anointed a robot called Mika as its “experimental CEO.”
https://futurism.com/the-byte/company-appoints-ai-powered-robot-ceo
Meta lets Amazon shoppers buy products on Facebook and Instagram without leaving the apps
YouTube’s head of shopping explains the video format that’s been most effective for e-commerce — and why
https://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-betting-on-short-form-video-to-drive-social-commerce-2023-11
Google is going to let you annotate search results
https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/15/23961289/google-search-labs-notes-following-perspectives
Look, Up in the Sky! It’s a Can of Soup!
Amazon’s Drone Project 10 years later….
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/04/technology/amazon-drone-delivery.html
Publishing & Media
Amazon is merging Comixology into Kindle
https://goodereader.com/blog/digital-comic-news/amazon-is-merging-comixology-into-kindle
Goodreads Awards Category Removal Sparks Outcry
Nominations for the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards recently opened, and Goodreads is coming under fire for its decision to eliminate several categories. Children’s & Middle Grade, Poetry, and Graphic Novels were removed from the awards.
Goodreads Choice Awards: Reinstate Children’s & Middle Grade / Graphic Novel categories
MT @inkyelbows Please sign this petition to let Goodreads know how important graphic novels & books for children are.
Can reading really improve your life?
RT @EveryLibrary Most educational research now suggests that reading for pleasure is strongly linked to a child’s future outcome, educational success, and even wellbeing. But the latest studies also show that reading for pleasure is at its lowest level for twenty years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001sd79
Karlie Kloss Is Acquiring i-D Magazine and Becoming CEO
https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/media/karlie-kloss-is-acquiring-i-d-magazine/
Media jobs slashed amid soft ad market
—Analysts don’t see it getting better in foreseeable future
—Performance marketing (search, social, retail) getting even better with AI
—Media layoffs soaring as a result
https://www.axios.com/2023/11/14/media-layoffs-2023
One-third of U.S. newspapers as of 2005 will be gone by 2024
MT @sarafischer 1/3 of US newspapers will be gone by 2024, a year earlier than initially projected – The industry is falling so fast that even hedge funds are pulling back — there’s not much juice left to squeeze.
https://www.axios.com/2023/11/16/newspapers-decline-hedge-funds-research
New York City public libraries over the next two weeks to begin closing on Sundays
Cuts to the city budget mean public libraries will no longer be open seven days a week, officials said. The last day of Sunday service for the New York Public Library and Queens Public Library will be Nov. 26. For Brooklyn Public Library, the last Sunday service will be Dec. 17.
LeVar Burton Is Still Fighting For Your Right to Read
In an age of unprecedented book bans, the actor and literacy advocate is going to the mat for the freedom to read. “America loves to live in the shadows,” he says, “but we’re living in an age when the truth wants to come out.”
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a45825849/levar-burton-book-banning-interview/
My Book Was Segregated by Scholastic Until It Wasn’t. Will Anything Change?
When Is A Book Ban Not a Book Ban?
By @veronikellymars. One of the most common refrains from those aiming to ban books–and this comes not just from Moms for Liberty or No Left Turn in Education, but also all of the local groups and individuals working to get rid of books on school and library shelves–is that they are not banning books. They insist their work is about simply “removing” books from the schools, not banning them. Of course, what they are doing is precisely that: banning books.
https://stackedthoughts.substack.com/p/when-is-a-book-ban-not-a-book-ban
Author of banned book calls out Menomonee Falls School District
https://www.wisn.com/article/author-of-banned-book-calls-out-menomonee-falls-district/45840156
Hamilton East Public Library (IN) shelves controversial book review policy
MT @jonfreadom A victory against book censorship in Indiana. That library that pulled comic books and closed its YA section, and aged up @johngreen and hundreds of other novels to the adult section in Fishers? …this week they voted 5-1 to rescind the misguided policy.
Texas board rejects many science textbooks over climate change messaging
MT @PENamerica Scientists, including the state climatologist, say several types of extreme weather in Texas—including more intense heat, droughts and hurricanes—have been made worse by climate change.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/11/17/texas-climate-textbooks-education-SBOE/
Resources & Opportunities
Transforming DEI: Moving from Numbers to Narratives
Join WMG on November 30 for this extraordinary fundraising event featuring author Janet Stovall, DEI expert Jodi Brockington, & Pride Global Director of DEI Kamela Forbes! Tickets are on sale now, including a signed copy of Janet’s new book and time for festive pre-holiday networking! Register now!
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-5476947
A Cancer Patient’s Last Wish: To Pay Off the Medical Debt of Others
Casey McIntyre organized a campaign that has raised nearly $220,000 since she died a week ago. The funds are expected to pay off more than $20 million in debt, an official said. #teamPRH
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/19/us/casey-mcintyre-cancer-medical-debt.html
Portfolio Review by Black & Brown Book Designers
https://partiful.com/e/VDEdQJLuBxOvuD5Iy3Op
Nieman Fellowship at Harvard
MT @niemanfdn 🚨 Journalists: Only a few more weeks to apply for a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard! Join peers from around the world to study and collaborate during the 2024-25 academic year. Deadline? Dec. 1 for international journalists; Jan. 31 for U.S. candidates.
https://nieman.harvard.edu/fellowships/how-to-apply/
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