from kottke In his Rolling Stone article on John McCain’s failed campaign for the 2000 Republican nomination for President, David Foster Wallace wrote about how not voting is like shooting yourself in the foot. If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don’t bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched […]
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What We Often Get Wrong About Automation
from HBR When leaders describe how advances in automation will affect job prospects for humans, predictions typically fall into one of two camps. Optimists say that machines will free human workers to do higher-value, more creative work. Pessimists predict massive unemployment, or, if they have a flair for the dramatic, a doomsday scenario in which […]
Amazon Patents Alexa Tech To Tell If You’re Sick, Depressed And Sell You Meds
from ars technica Amazon has patented technology that could let Alexa analyze your voice to determine whether you are sick or depressed and sell you products based on your physical or emotional condition. The patent, titled “Voice-based determination of physical and emotional characteristics of users,” was issued on Tuesday this week; Amazon filed the patent […]
Jackson Pollock 51
from kottke In 1950, Swiss photographer Hans Namuth took some photos of Jackson Pollock painting some of his drip paintings, which were used to illustrate a 1951 article in ArtNews. Along with photos published alongside a piece in Life in 1949, they made Pollock and his unusual technique famous. Namuth returned with a film camera […]
Security in a World of Physically Capable Computers
from Schneier on Security It’s no secret that computers are insecure. Stories like the recent Facebook hack, the Equifax hack and the hacking of government agencies are remarkable for how unremarkable they really are. They might make headlines for a few days, but they’re just the newsworthy tip of a very large iceberg. The risks are […]
Can Clouds Buy Us More Time To Solve Climate Change
from TED Climate change is real, case closed. But there’s still a lot we don’t understand about it, and the more we know the better chance we have to slow it down. One still-unknown factor: How might clouds play a part? There’s a small hope that they could buy us some time to fix things […]
Paul G. Allen, Microsoft’s Co-Founder, Is Dead at 65
from NYTs Paul G. Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft who helped usher in the personal computing revolution and then channeled his enormous fortune into transforming Seattle into a cultural destination, died on Monday in Seattle. He was 65. The cause was complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his family said in a statement. The disease recurred recently […]
Report: Amazon’s Ai Recruiter Favored Men
from Axios An algorithmic recruiter meant to help Amazon find top talent was systematically biased against women, a Reuters investigation found. Why it matters: This is a textbook example of algorithmic bias. By learning from and emulating human behavior, a machine ended up as prejudiced as the people it replaced. The details: Amazon’s experiment, which […]
Most White Americans’ DNA Can Be Identified Through Genealogy Databases
from NYTs The genetic genealogy industry is booming. In recent years, more than 15 million people have offered up their DNA — a cheek swab, some saliva in a test-tube — to services such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com in pursuit of answers about their heritage. In exchange for a genetic fingerprint, individuals may find a […]
Why Now Is The Best Time To Embrace Blockchain Technology
from Forbes This is going to be a bold statement: It’s time for your business to start embracing blockchain, the biggest game-changer in technology since the internet. Blockchain, to those unfamiliar with the concept, is a hyperledger. This technology makes it possible for users to enjoy a transparent and distributed digital record of transactions while […]
Climate Scientists: Humans Have Only 12 Years to Limit Devastating Climate Changes
from kottke In a 700-page report detailing the latest research on climate change, a UN panel of scientists strongly warns that unless we make “massive and unprecedented changes to global energy infrastructure to limit global warming to moderate levels” to limit the world’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, there will be widespread coastal flooding, food […]
MIT’s New Tool Erases Anything (Or Anyone) From Old Photos
from Fast Company We’re all guilty of the Crop. You know, that group photo where you look so good that–sorry bestie, apologies grandma, see ya, ex–you carefully crop the other person out. But what if there was a tool that could erase people and things automatically–a magic wand that could do hours of imperfect Photoshop […]
The Role Of Higher Education In A ‘Post-Truth’ Era
from Education Dive From the Ancient Greeks to educational reformer John Dewey, and from the suffrage and civil rights movements to modern issues of inequality, educated citizens have played a key role in participatory democracy. And universities have advanced this role by preparing students to critically engage with the issues that affect their lives. At institutions of […]
A Breach That Ripples Far Beyond Facebook
from NYTs If I did not need Facebook to do my job, I would be deleting it right now. While everyone was riveted by the drama over Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh’s potential confirmation to the Supreme Court, Facebook dropped a bombshell: Hackers had broken into at least 50 million of its accounts. The company’s chief […]
Why Organizations Need Digital Leaders With These Five Key Strengths
from Forbes Much has been said about the critical need for organizations to embrace technology and outpace digital disruption — and I couldn’t agree more. But the critical question in this discussion is: “How?” What exactly are the best practices and strategies companies must master to successfully undergo digital transformation? My organization set out to […]