JMarkOckerbloom

JMarkOckerbloom, 8 days ago to random

The website for the Columbia Law Review, which last I checked hosted freely readable copies of all articles from 2008 onward, is now offline, displaying a "Website is under maintenance" message. Editors say it's because the review's board of directors took the site down after the editors refused to remove an article by a Palestinian legal scholar: https://theintercept.com/2024/06/03/columbia-law-review-palestine-board-website/

JMarkOckerbloom, 23 days ago to random

Anyone know if Simon Willison's #PyConUS keynote will be generally available? I'd be interested in checking out a recording or transcript.

I've seen a few folks credit him for the phrase "imitation intelligence", which sounds to me like a concise way to note how Alan Turing's concept of AI as an imitation game has largely outlived its usefulness in the LLM age.

Magic tricks, e.g., have long fooled even people familiar with how sleight of hand works. But we don't say magicians do real magic.

JMarkOckerbloom, 23 days ago to random

The Register goes deep into looking into Christine Dudley's comment (which I reported earlier) that she started to see ads that reflected the audiobooks she was checking out from her library.

Upshot: They can't tell for sure that the ads appeared as the result of her reading those books, but the sheer volume of data tracking methods and pathways invoked on sites, services and devices used by libraries and patrons also make it difficult to tell for sure that they didn't: https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/18/mystery_of_the_targeted_mobile_ads/

JMarkOckerbloom, 26 days ago to random

If you've updated Firefox to version 126, check your privacy settings. They now collect more data on searches by default. https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-search-update/

They say they don't collect precise data and anonymize what they do collect, but it's easy for attempts to do that not to be as secure as intended. That's one reason I urge analytics collection to be made opt-in (FF's isn't) instead of opt-out.

FF appears to still be honoring my earlier "don't send data" toggle. Check yours: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/share-data-mozilla-help-improve-firefox

JMarkOckerbloom, 1 month ago to random

The full list of 2024 #PulitzerPrize winners and finalists has now been posted: https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year Along with awards in the usual prize categories, two special citations were also awarded, one for late writer and critic Greg Tate, and one generally for journalists and media workers covering the war in #Gaza.

JMarkOckerbloom, 1 month ago to random

54 years ago today, on May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops fired on demonstrating students at Kent State University, killing 4 of them and wounding 9 others.

11 days later, police fired on students at Jackson State College in Mississippi, killing 2 students and injuring 12 others.

Among the many reports and studies following the killings (for which no one was convicted) was the 1970 Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest. You can read it here: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED083899

JMarkOckerbloom, 1 month ago to random

PA's primary election is today. Attorney General is the highest-profile realistically contested primary. Spotlight PA's profiles of the candidates: https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2024/03/pennsylvania-election-2024-attorney-general-primary-candidates/ There are also contested Democratic primaries for auditor general https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2024/03/pennsylvania-election-2024-auditor-general-candidates-tim-defoor-malcolm-kenyatta-mark-pinsley/ and state treasurer https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2024/03/pennsylvania-election-2024-treasurer-primary-candidates-stacy-garrity-ryan-bizzarro-erin-mcclelland/

Some areas may also have contested primaries for other offices, or things you can vote on even if not registered in a major party, such as this Philly ballot question: https://seventy.org/2024-voter-guide/2024-primary-ballot-question-philadelphia

JMarkOckerbloom, 1 month ago to random

For anyone who knows someone who consumes raw milk (which I see signs advertising in parts of rural Pennsylvania) this is an especially bad time to do it. A strain of bird flu is spreading among cows, and is suspected to be propagated via contaminated milking equipment: https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/concern-grows-as-bird-flu-spreads-further-in-us-cows-32-herds-in-8-states/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social When it's propagated to humans (which appears to be possible via unpasteurized milk), the case fatality rate of H5N1 is "extraordinarily high", possibly above 50%: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/18/risk-bird-flu-spreading-humans-enormous-concern-who

JMarkOckerbloom, 1 month ago to random

I don't know personally how sound this insider critique of NPR is, but it has one of the best descriptions of centrist bias I've seen in a while: "an editorial fixation on finding the exact middle point of the elite political and social thought, planting a flag there, and calling it objectivity." https://slate.com/business/2024/04/npr-diversity-public-broadcasting-radio.html

(Any 1-dimensional definition of news "bias" that doesn't let you identify centrist bias is fundamentally flawed. And I've seen multiple media-rating systems with that flaw.)

JMarkOckerbloom, 1 month ago to random

"I am not affiliated in any way with Anna's Archive and had no involvement in the alleged hacking and/or scraping of data from WorldCat.org that was allegedly orchestrated and carried out by Anna's Archive. I have never viewed or accessed OCLC data through Anna's Archive." Maria Matienzo's reply to OCLC lawsuit: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.287709/gov.uscourts.ohsd.287709.21.1.pdf. (The full motion to dismiss is not yet on CourtListener.) https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.287709/gov.uscourts.ohsd.287709.21.1.pdf

JMarkOckerbloom, 2 months ago to earthquake

Felt a prolonged shaking in my house in Mt Airy, Philadelphia for at least half a minute. Probably nothing to to west coaster, but it was the most noticeable #earthquake I've ever experienced living on the east coast.

JMarkOckerbloom, 2 months ago to random

Harvard Law School announces a full release of its Caselaw Access project, providing free access to 360 years of US federal, territorial, & state case law, in human-readable and machine-processable form: https://case.law/ Here's a video they've recently released about it: https://vimeo.com/922493882

The old site mentions the "transition of Caselaw Access Project data to a static state" so I'm not sure if it'll add anything new past 2020. But perhaps others can continue forward if desired.

JMarkOckerbloom, 2 months ago to random

"In summary, the management of bilateral iatrogenic I'm very sorry, but I don't have access to real-time information or patient-specific data, as I am an AI language model." Radiology Case Reports, another Elsevier journal (open access, $550 article processing charge) publishes a paper with obvious signs of LLM text generation: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1930043324001298

JMarkOckerbloom, 2 months ago to random

"In relaunching Communications of the ACM as an open access publication, all legacy and future CACM articles will be freely available to and accessible by everyone on the CACM website and in the ACM Digital Library." https://www.acm.org/media-center/2024/march/cacm-relaunch Here's the full issue archive: https://dl.acm.org/loi/cacm

JMarkOckerbloom, 2 months ago to random

Looks like a paper with telltale signs of LLM-generated text got past the editors of Elsevier's Surfaces and Interfaces: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468023024002402. (As of this writing, the first sentence of the main body starts "Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic:".)

I don't have the domain expertise to tell if the text of the paper is accurate, or if the cited references say what is claimed for them. (The first 10 refs, all citing other Elsevier pubs, do at least exist, per my check.)

JMarkOckerbloom, 3 months ago to random

Note that in the article in the LB, the book-banner that the sheriff goes into the library with considers the availability of a book by inter-library loan sufficient to involve law enforcement: "[Kids] can, at home, log online literally with three clicks and get any book from one of 28 libraries... They shuttle it... our tax dollars for this system didn’t buy that book, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s accessible... There’s no adult who is going, ’This isn’t suitable for you'."

JMarkOckerbloom, 4 months ago to random

"It’s long been said that the first rule of Philly mayoral politics is: Don’t cross the labor unions. I think what we just learned is that the second rule is this: Don’t mess with the librarians." Parker administration partly walks back requirement that all Free Library public communication be approved by the Philadelphia mayor's office: https://www.phillymag.com/news/2024/02/07/philadelphia-libraries-mayor-cherelle-parker/ (Though the latest notice I've seen only exempts "regular, daily issues" from the requirement: https://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia/comments/1al3rkd/partial_walkback_of_communications_approval_by/ )

JMarkOckerbloom, 4 months ago to random

Punxsutawney Phil may get the most publicity, but you can find prognosticating groundhogs all over North America (sensible, given that different locations have different seasonal weather). They're especially thick on the ground in the northeast US, as documented on this map: https://groundhog-day.com/map

The one closest to me is "Tinicum Tim", a puppet who gives his prediction at the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge. He does his thing the Saturday before #GroundhogDay, but I may try to catch him next year.

JMarkOckerbloom, 4 months ago to random

Had a good time last night listening to a stream of a recent WFMU radio show "guest-DJ'd" by Dr. Johnny Fever. It's edited from Howard Hesseman's DJ breaks from episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati, combined with complete songs that audiences briefly heard him introducing or closing out on the show. The 3-hour online program also features news reports from Les Nessman, as well as a few WKRP commercials. You can listen to it here: https://www.awphooey.com/wkrp

JMarkOckerbloom, 4 months ago to random

In other award news, there's a big uproar over the 2023 #Hugos, awarded this year at the first Worldcon in China. It turns out a number of nominees were unexpectedly disqualified by this year's committee. (R. F. Kuang's Babel, which had won the Nebula and Locus Awards, was the most conspicuous in its absence from the final ballot, but there are others too). The committee has so far been silent on reasons for disqualification. Cora Buhlert has a roundup of reactions: https://corabuhlert.com/2024/01/21/the-2023-hugo-nomination-statistics-have-finally-been-release-and-we-have-questions/

JMarkOckerbloom, 4 months ago to random

Some news for folks interested in #copyright in #serials, and the #PublicDomain:

• I've updated my "Determining copyright status of serial issues" guide, including updates for #PublicDomainDay 2024 and other relevant recent copyright developments: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/decisions.html

• I've also taken the detailed copyright questionnaire that Penn librarians used to document copyright in serials we hold, and made it available for Wikipedians. Here's my lightning talk with details: https://everybodyslibraries.com/2024/01/16/free-the-sources/

JMarkOckerbloom, 5 months ago to random

Gamer Hall of Famer Jennell Jaquays (whose work I first encountered in the Judges Guild Dark Tower D&D module and in the Donkey Kong video game port that launched ColecoVision) died recently. Metafilter has links to various memorial threads: https://www.metafilter.com/202105/Jennell-Jaquays-1956-2024 and Wikipedia has more on her life and work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennell_Jaquays

Any librarian with NACO access want to update her name authority record? (It doesn't necessarily need dates, but right now it only has her old pre-transition name.)

JMarkOckerbloom, 5 months ago to random

The Art Newspaper reports on a UK appeals court's statement that literal reproductions of 2D works are not copyrightable: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/12/29/court-of-appeal-ruling-will-prevent-uk-museums-from-charging-reproduction-feesat-last The story quotes from point 16 of this ruling, which cites European court cases as precedent: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2023/1354.html The US has a similar rule established in Bridgeman v. Corel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel_Corp.

It's not clear this would put an end to reproduction fees in the UK; some US institutions still charge those based on access rather than copyright.

JMarkOckerbloom, 5 months ago to random

Since I'm still seeing some confusion about it, here's the best writeup I've seen about what you can and can't do now with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, by Jennifer Jenkins, a professor of law at Duke University: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/mickey/

(In particular: There's no problem with using the name "Mickey Mouse" in your own original creation, as long as it's clear that your creation is not a product of Disney. "Trademark rights cannot be used to block the freedoms that the expiration of copyright allows.")

JMarkOckerbloom, 5 months ago to random

My last boost is also the last of my #PublicDomainDayCountdown this year. You can read the full list at https://everybodyslibraries.com/
(or, in chronological order, by starting at https://everybodyslibraries.com/2023/11/01/starting-to-count-down-to-public-domain-day-2024/ and clicking on next-post links.)

There's a lot more great work going #PublicDomain tomorrow that I didn't get to. You can find more in these other #PublicDomainDay roundups:

https://publicdomainreview.org/features/entering-the-public-domain/2024/

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2024/

https://copyrightlately.com/public-domain-day-2024/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_in_public_domain

https://www.hathitrust.org/press-post/coming-in-january-2024-new-public-domain-titles/