Commentary on links that caught my attention around the web.
Notable links
[Joshua Kaplan, Brett Murphy, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski at ProPublica] From my colleagues on the newsroom side at ProPublica, a story about how the State Department pressured Gambia on behalf of Elon Musk's starlink: "Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet company, had spent months trying to secure
Science
[Patricia Cohen in The New York Times] This was inevitable: "As President Trump cuts billions of federal dollars from science institutes and universities, restricts what can be studied and pushes out immigrants, rival nations are hoping to pick up talent that has been cast aside or become disenchanted."
Notable links
[Erin In The Morning] Unsurprisingly, there are major flaws with the Cass Report - and an expert report in Springer Nature's BMC Medical Research Methodology puts a fine point on it. "The BMC study reviewed seven different facets of the Cass Review, and found that all seven
Fediverse
[Flipboard Expands Publisher Federation with International Partners] Flipboard just launched 124 new publishers to the Fediverse - bringing the total number it hosts to 1,241. "We’re excited to announce that Flipboard is beginning to federate publisher accounts in France, Italy, and Spain, while also expanding federation in
Notable links
[Mark Mansour] Stephen Miller, who the author rightly labels as the most dangerous person in America, has argued for removing a core constitutional right for millions of people on American soil. He wants to classify unauthorized immigration as an "invasion". It's insane, and is the precursor
Technology
[Shakeil Price at The Marshall Project] The technology situation for incarcerated people in the United States is beyond bad: "Because prison telecom vendors tend to bundle their services, corrections systems often contract with a single provider, regardless of quality. And dozens of states make “commissions” from user fees. Within
AI
[Mike Caulfield in The Atlantic] A smart analysis and suggestion about the current state of AI by Mike Caulfield: "I would propose a simple rule: no answers from nowhere. This rule is less convenient, and that’s the point. The chatbot should be a conduit for the information of
AI
[Cy Neff in The Guardian] This is straight out of Black Mirror: "Chris Pelkey was killed in a road rage shooting in Chandler, Arizona, in 2021. Three-and-a-half years later, Pelkey appeared in an Arizona court to address his killer. Sort of. [...] Pelkey’s appearance from beyond the grave was
Fediverse
[Andy Piper at Mastodon] It’s really exciting to see these new movements from Mastodon - not least because they’re very intentionally marching to their own rhythm. Mastodon wouldn’t be a good fit for being a standard tech company, and it won’t be one. “Mastodon has taken
AI
[Adam Wierman and Shaolei Ren in IEEE Spectrum] An interesting finding on the energy use implicit in training and offering AI services. I do think some of these principles could apply to all of cloud computing - it’s out of sight and out of mind, but certainly uses a
Science
[By Sarah Gilbert, Michael Zimmer, and Nathan Matias at the Coalition for Independent Technology Research] A strong statement from the Coalition for Independent Technology Research: "On April 26, moderators of r/ChangeMyView, a community on Reddit dedicated to understanding the perspectives of others, revealed that academic researchers from the
Notable links
[Joint Subreddit statement posted on r/AskHistorians] 30 or so Reddit communities have joined together to make a joint statement in defense of US research. This comes from people with real expertise: in addition to the depth of research talent involved in these communities, Dan Howlett has signed the statement,