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Important Items
All U.S. extremist mass killings in 2022 linked to far right, report says
The number of mass killings linked to extremism in the U.S. in the past decade was at least three times higher than any decade since the 1970s, per the report.
https://www.axios.com/2023/02/23/mass-killings-extremism-adl-report-2022
The Right’s Assault on Divorce Will Put More Women at Risk
Roe wasn’t the culmination of Republican attempts to control women’s autonomy, but perhaps just the beginning. No-fault divorces were a sea change for women, and they were tied to decreases in domestic abuse and female suicide.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/05/no-fault-divorce-gop-right-assault
Florida health care can now be denied based on moral, ethical, religious beliefs
Florida lawmakers want to use radioactive material to pave roads
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/09/1174789570/florida-roads-radioactive-paving-phosphogypsum
Health panel recommends women get screening mammograms at age 40
Women should start getting screening mammograms at the age of 40, rather than 50, according to new draft recommendations from an influential national health panel, which found that starting breast cancer screening 10 years earlier could save thousands of lives per year.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/05/09/mammogram-age-40-breast-cancer-screening/
The pandemic’s true death toll
This week, The Economist estimates that there have been 14,000 excess deaths per day attributable to the pandemic, while the cumulative total now stands at 22 million, making COVID-19 still the third-leading cause of death globally.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates
Millions of people have long COVID brain fog — and there’s a shortage of answers
The ‘Brain Fog’ of Long COVID Is a Serious Medical Issue That Needs More Attention
Brain fog is such a nebulous term in long COVID that it delegitimizes efforts to get disability accommodations and medical leave.
‘Why aren’t you taking care of us?’ Why long COVID patients struggle for solutions
About three out of 10 people who have ever had COVID-19 said they developed long COVID symptoms. Many say they feel adrift in the health care system. Patients feel like they “face medical gaslighting” when they are told that the brain fog, fatigue, neurological disorders and difficulty breathing and functioning are “just anxiety.”
Inside UK’s first Long Covid clinic as 400,000 Brits left needing specialist care
Figures show there are around two million people in the UK suffering a range of ailments from long COVID, including severe fatigue to brain fog, and many have stopped work.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/devastating-toll-long-covid-revealed-29949418
Sleep apnea raises risk of long Covid by up to 75% for some, study says
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/11/health/long-covid-sleep-apnea-study-wellness/index.html
COVID-19 infection may promote aortic aneurysms and new treatment may slow its growth
Variant Arcturus Now Responsible For 14% Of New Covid Cases
That’s up from 7% only two weeks ago, making it the second most prominent variant currently circulating in America, and “on pace to become the dominant strain soon.”
Masking as an ADA Accommodation
RT @Annatated Important life-saving info: if you have a condition on the CDC’s list of risk factors for COVID-19 you can get universal masking as an ADA accommodation. Here’s some helpful info on how this applies to healthcare from @PeoplesCDC.
CDC sets first target for indoor air ventilation to prevent spread of Covid-19
Aim for at least 5 air changes each hour and upgrade to MERV-13 filters.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/12/health/cdc-new-ventilation-target/index.html
After Seizures, the Met Sets a Plan to Scour Collections for Looted Art
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/arts/met-museum-looted-art.html
Technology
Wendy’s, Google Train Next-Generation Order Taker: an AI Chatbot
RT @briansolis Wendy’s partners with Google to automate its drive-through using an AI chatbot, rolling out in June to an Ohio restaurant; the bot has been programmed to upsell. #AI
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wendys-google-train-next-generation-order-taker-an-ai-chatbot-968ff865
AI and Copyright
MT @Unite4Copyright The Copyright Alliance’s NEW webpage on #AI and #Copyright is a source of information on the responsible development and use of AI technologies as they relate to copyright.
https://copyrightalliance.org/trending-topics/artificial-intelligence-copyright/
ChatGPT’s Code Interpreter Plugin: A Game-Changer for AI Chatbots
By uploading large data sets, the chatbot can identify trends and compare variables, making it an invaluable tool for businesses and researchers. #AI
https://citylife.capetown/ai/chatgpts-code-interpreter-plugin-a-game-changer-for-ai-chatbots/22277/
AI Decision-Making in Hollywood Is Already Here, Now What?
MT @michellemanafy “The greatest threat to broader culture posed by ambient machinery isn’t the bottom-up, AI-generated art. It is the top-down, AI-powered platforming of art— algorithms deciding, on a global scale, which stories to tell and how” #AI
Google launches new AI PaLM 2 in attempt to regain leadership of the pack
Like other “large language models” such as OpenAI’s GPT, PaLM 2 is a general-purpose AI model, which can be used to power ChatGPT-style chatbots but also translate between languages, write computer code, or even analyze and respond to images. Combining those capabilities, a user could ask a question in English about a restaurant in Bulgaria, and the system would be able to search the web for Bulgarian responses, find an answer, translate the answer into English, add a picture of the location – and then follow up with a code snippet to create a database entry for the place.
Chatbot users can also send Bard photos for the first time, with the company giving an example of sending a picture of a kitchen shelf and asking for a recipe using the ingredients.
In a new feature the company is calling “Duet AI”, users of Google’s “Workspace” apps – Gmail, Docs, Slides and Sheets – will also be able to use the PaLM 2 AI as a co-author of text, spreadsheets and slides. An image generator built into Google Slides, for instance, will let you task an AI with visualizing your ideas, while a “help me write” button in Google Docs can generate whole swathes of text automatically. In one example, the prompt “job post for a regional sales rep” was rapidly expanded to a full job description, replete with clear spaces to enter specific details such as company name and location.
But a disclaimer that the tool “is a creative writing aid and is not intended to be factual” underpins the dilemma for Google: rushing the technology out to beat the competition also involves risks of AI software misbehaving. #AI
Google’s Bard is now open to everyone in US
Google is incorporating Adobe’s Firefly AI image generator into Bard
Users will be able to generate an image with Firefly, then edit and modify it using Adobe Express assets, fonts, and templates within the Bard platform directly, and post to social media once it’s ready. The generated images will be created from Adobe Stock images, openly licensed and public domain content. Google and Adobe will leverage the Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative to mitigate some of the threats to creators that generative AI poses. This includes a “do not train” list, which will preclude a piece of art’s inclusion in Firefly’s training data as well as persistent tags that will tell future viewers whether or not a work was generated and what model was used to make it.
Google Is About To Turn The Online Publishing Industry Upside Down
Google is using AI to create answers to hard questions using all of the content available on the open web, but Google Search users won’t have to visit the pages that actually contain that information. And the modern online publishing industry requires users to visit a page in order for those eyeballs to be turned into ad dollars and subscriptions. That’s true of large publishers like the New York Times and Forbes as well as independent authors and journalists who are writing on places like Substack and Twitter.
European Union Attempts First Significant AI Regulation
https://time.com/6278144/european-union-artificial-intelligence-regulation/
Amazon begins offering physical products in games, VR
Amazon launched a new service, called “Amazon Anywhere,” that will allow customers to purchase physical products from its online store while playing video games or interacting in VR. Customers can purchase items from Amazon without having to leave the game or app. (This mirrors similar efforts by companies like Nike and Gucci, who’ve launched initiatives aimed at attracting gamers and shoppers in the metaverse. But most shopping options launched in virtual worlds offer virtual goods, or other digital items – not physical products.) It will be launched within Peridot, an augmented reality game from Pokémon Go developer Niantic. Gamers can link their Amazon account to the game, and purchase T-Shirts, hoodies, phone accessories and throw pillows featuring characters from the game. Amazon is looking to partner with more developers for the service.
Live audio is getting another go on Bluesky
https://hotpodnews.com/live-audio-is-getting-another-go-on-bluesky/
TikTok Is Launching Ad Product for Publishers and Giving Them 50% Cut
New York Times to get around $100 million from Google over three years
It’s part of a broad deal that allows Google to feature Times content on some of its platforms. The deal includes the Times’ participation in Google News Showcase, a product that pays publishers to feature their content on Google News and some other Google platforms.
Publishing & Media
AI and the Book Business: AAP’s Annual General Meeting
From Maria A. Pallante, AAP president and CEO:
“Principles. These are really ethics questions, such as, authenticity of content, accuracy, provenance, and objectives.
- Consider academic publishing. Each year more than two million articles are published in more than 26,000 research journals following peer review and curation that is painstaking, but essential to ensure integrity and confidence and research results. How can AI tools help with this mission? What threats does it pose?
- Consider education publishing. There’s an old saying that people are entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. What are “facts” in the context of AI? A percentage of truth? How will learning be amplified or cheating be contained?
- Consider trade publishing. Do we as a society want AI-generated works flooding the Internet, potentially depressing the value of human authorship? If we can’t contain AI-generated works, what should be the ethics about disclosing their provenance?
Turning to policies. There are competing questions about how the law should treat ingestion and output, respectively.
- How the law should protect the underlying content, including books, used to train AI models–those are the inputs
- And how should it protect the works generated by AI models? Those are the outputs.” #AI
The Future of Writing Is a Lot Like Hip-Hop
A new kind of literary curation will be the defining skill for the next era of human creativity. #AI
An anime stan who goes by ‘Bigolas Dickolas’ on Twitter turned a queer sci-fi novel into a bestseller with one tweet
https://www.insider.com/bigolas-dickolas-wolfwood-trigun-interview-time-war-2023-5
Why are Algorithms Still So Bad at Recommending Books?
https://bookriot.com/algorithms-are-bad-at-recommending-books/
Spotify tries to win indie authors by cutting audiobook fees
MT @michellemanafy Spotify-owned audiobooks seller Findaway will no longer take a 20 percent cut of royalties for titles sold on its DIY Voices platform — so long as the sales are made on Spotify.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/1/23706847/spotify-findaway-voices-cuts-audiobook-fees
iHeartMedia launches branded podcast studio as buyers say distribution and scale are key
Notes from Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/15/j-r-moehringer-ghostwriter-prince-harry-memoir-spare
Sourcebooks and PRH Buy Callisto Media Publishing Assets
Callisto publishes non-fiction books based on proprietary algorithms, which leverage consumer data to determine the content consumers demand and where that demand is not currently met. PRH, which bought 45% of Sourcebooks in 2019 and now has a majority stake in the company, funded the acquisition. Sourcebooks led the purchase and will manage the Callisto Media titles. Callisto’s titles will continue to be distributed by Simon & Schuster Distribution Services. #teamPRH
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4477#m60020
Book publishing is scared of experimentation. Can Dave Eggers change that?
Men Confess to Loving Romance Novels. ‘You Can’t Let Anybody Knock You for It.’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/men-read-romance-novels-2d8f2bf8?st=bk4dxerxdvoef0r
Books without barriers: A practical guide to inclusive publishing
https://www.iped-editors.org/resources-for-editors/books-without-barriers/
Forbes takeover bid gives foreign funding cover
Forbes on Friday quietly confirmed that Austin Russell, the 28-year-old American CEO of electric vehicle tech company Luminar Technologies, will acquire an 82% stake in the iconic media brand at an $800 million valuation. But Forbes and Russell didn’t disclose how he would finance the roughly $656 million needed to foot his stake.
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/13/forbes-takeover-foreign-funding-russell
The State of Scholarly Metadata: 2023
Here is what they said about the costly implications of metadata breakages and complexities across the research lifecycle:
- Researchers: There was overwhelming consensus among stakeholders that researchers shoulder a significant administrative burden to assert or re-assert data, ultimately disrupting and delaying scientific discovery.
- Institutions: Because of metadata inconsistencies throughout the research lifecycle, institutions deploy labor-intensive workarounds to manually reconcile funding eligibility and billing, as well as normalize unstructured data across disparate systems for comprehensive analysis.
- Funders: Missing metadata makes it difficult and costly to link funding to research outputs, presenting potential barriers to open access uptake, problematic impact tracking, and incomplete analysis to inform future investments.
- Publishers: Metadata breakages interfere with business transformation initiatives, contributing to high operational and opportunity costs and complicating fulfillment of open access agreement terms and analysis of deal performance to inform future decisions.
https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2023/05/09/the-state-of-scholarly-metadata-2023/
Florida Rejects Dozens of Social Studies Textbooks, and Forces Changes in Others
RT @FLFreedomRead “We are reviewing the situation. At this point, we do not know why these titles were not recommended.” -McGraw Hill. Another large publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, did not even bid. How many publishers will bother to bid for approval next round?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/us/desantis-florida-social-studies-textbooks.html
The Extreme New Tactic in the Crusade to Ban Books
“These bills are not about protecting children. They are about using the power of the state to intimidate private companies and ban ideas and stories that some people find offensive or uncomfortable.”
https://time.com/6277933/state-book-bans-publishers/
The rising Republican movement to defund public libraries
https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/5/5/23711417/republicans-want-to-defund-public-libraries-book-bans
An Entire Florida School District Has Banned a Kids’ Book on Segregation
The district pulled the book after one parent complained. The school that initially banned the book did not give more details on why the parent complained but said it had decided that even though the book is historically accurate, its subject matter is “difficult for elementary students to comprehend.” Florida schools begin teaching about segregation in fourth grade, but the book—which is written at a third-grade level—has been deemed “above the understanding” of all elementary students.
https://newrepublic.com/post/172567/florida-school-district-ban-kids-book-segregation
Fighting back with the banned book reading room
Resources & Opportunities
Podcast Roulette
Learn from leading podcast professionals at WMG’s first-ever podcast roulette! At this event, you get to ask the questions. Structured as a series of small group rotations with industry experts, you’ll have the opportunity to ask for feedback on your own podcasting projects. Registration will be limited so that all attendees will have time to consult with podcasting pros who specialize in production, strategy and operations, monetization, marketing, partnerships, and more. Whether you are just beginning to think of producing a podcast or you have questions about any aspect of a podcast you already manage or host, this is a unique chance to consult experts. Tuesday, May 16, 6:00-7:15 p.m. ET Free for WMG members, $15 for non-members
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-5255553
The Editor-Writer Mentorship from The Word
HT @wordisdiversity The Editor-Writer Mentorship, promoting writers from the margins, is back in 2022 with 9 categories. Writers with a complete, unpublished manuscript apply by June 4th. #EditorWriterMentorship #mentorship
https://www.thewordfordiversity.org/editor-writer-mentorship
PEN America Grants
RT @PENamerica Don’t forget to submit your works in progress for one of our grants before June 1, 2023! Less than 3 weeks to go! #PENAmerica #2024PENGrants
https://pen.org/literary-awards/grants-fellowships/
Health Insurance Claim Denied? See What Insurers Said Behind the Scenes
Learn how to request your health insurance claim file, which can include details about what your insurer is saying about you and your case.
https://www.propublica.org/article/find-out-why-health-insurance-claim-denied
Free Paxlovid for COVID in NYC
RT @MarkLevineNYC Several key covid program are winding down in NYC. But this critical one is continuing: If you test positive on a home test you can call 212-COVID19 to request paxlovid—with *free same-day home delivery*. (Or Rx sent to your local pharmacy.) No cost regardless of insurance.
https://twitter.com/MarkLevineNYC/status/1655558143579938819
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