in the clear: 2024-02-19

This is a running list of various media I've looked at each week. It's mostly for reference and to give an impression of the type of news that I'm exposed to. Bullets are written by me and numbers are summaries of the respective article from an LLM.

If you have any suggestions or know of other good news sources, please leave a comment in the guestbook or reach out to me directly. I can't spend all my time reading about current events, but I like to try and stay informed whenever possible.

NYT: More Wall Street Firms Are Flip-Flopping on Climate. Here’s Why.

1. Financial giants such as JPMorgan, State Street, and Pimco have withdrawn from Climate Action 100+, an international coalition pushing companies to address climate issues.
2. This retreat follows political attacks from Republicans, labeling it as "woke capitalism" and potential legal risks from a new strategy by Climate Action 100+ focusing on reducing emissions.
3. The new strategy by Climate Action 100+ could expose asset management firms to legal risks, as they would be pressuring companies to reduce emissions, potentially leading to disapproval from some clients.
4. The shift in focus from disclosure to reducing emissions could also potentially violate antitrust regulations.
5. The move by these financial giants is a response to political pressure and potential legal risks, but they maintain their commitment to addressing climate issues.
6. The withdrawal from Climate Action 100+ does not mean abandoning climate commitments; instead, it's adapting to the current environment and considering climate risks.

Polygon: What’s going on with all these video game industry layoffs?

1. The video game industry has seen a surge in layoffs since 2022, with over 16,000 industry workers laid off in two years.
2. This increase in layoffs is due to a combination of factors, including overexpansion during the pandemic, an economic downturn, and higher-than-expected costs for developers and publishers.
3. Video game investments have hit major lows in 2023, with industry revenue down 4% in the U.S. and $1.5% worldwide since 2021.
4. There has been a shift in video game industry business models towards user-generated content, with companies like Epic Games and Roblox leading the way.
5. The pandemic-driven industry boom did not hold, and many companies prioritized short-term growth over long-term stability.
6. The industry is facing challenges such as decreased player spending and increasing debt costs, affecting companies differently based on their business structures.

• I wonder why the video game industry seems to be unable to reach a stable type of economic model. It seems very turbulent for such a big economy.
• I'd think they could model better off of something like the movie industry, but maybe there isn't enough infrastructure there? Or maybe it's just that the video game creators don't have the same unions/worker protections in place?
  • I guess video games are also monetized very differently from movies, so maybe it's not as easy as I'd think...
• Also the article links an interesting layoff tracker, which maybe indicates the types of game creators that are struggling?

OneFirst: Making Sense of the "Good Neighbor" Applications

1. The Supreme Court is considering four emergency applications challenging the Biden administration's "Good Neighbor" plan for reducing ozone emissions in certain states.
2. The argument will be the third time since 1971 that the full Court has heard oral argument on an emergency application related to environmental law.
3. The "Good Neighbor" provision of the Clean Air Act requires upwind states to ensure that their emissions do not interfere with the ability of downwind states to meet federal air-quality standards.
4. The EPA rejected 21 state plans that argued existing measures were sufficient, triggering a federal obligation to adopt a federal plan to fill the gap.
5. The federal plan, known as the "Good Neighbor Plan," imposes an array of ozone emissions caps on upwind states.
6. The plan initially applied to 23 states with no new or changed plans, but interim appellate rulings have put some state plans back into effect, leaving at least 10 states subject to the plan.

NYT: Electric Vehicles in Michigan

1. Electric vehicles (EVs) are a contentious issue in Michigan, a presidential battleground state, as they are seen as a potential job-killer or job-creator in the auto industry.
2. The Biden administration supports EVs as a means to generate high-paying jobs and reduce emissions, while autoworkers are concerned about the reduction in workforce due to EVs being simpler machines.
3. Michigan's economy has been historically tied to the auto industry, which has seen a decline in jobs and living standards in recent decades.
4. The shift to EVs is seen as a potential source of growth and paychecks, but there is also concern about job losses in the industry.
5. The Biden administration has faced indignation from autoworkers, a crucial voting bloc, over the prospect of job losses due to the transition to EVs.
6. The state of Michigan is taking steps to prepare workers for the transition to EVs by bolstering training programs and creating a state office to aid workers in forging careers in the electric vehicle industry.

Economist: Investing in Stocks

1. The S&P 500 index has risen by 6%, reaching an all-time high, and Japan's Nikkei 225 is close to its 1989 record.
2. Aizhan Anarkulova, Scott Cederburg, and Michael O'Doherty argue for a 100% equity portfolio, which has historically outperformed diversified approaches.
3. Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff suggest young investors should borrow to invest in stocks, taking advantage of long-term compounding effects.
4. Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management advocates balancing risk and reward, then leveraging investments for higher returns.
5. Critics argue that relying on limited historical data might not accurately represent future performance.
6. Data from the late 18th to early 19th centuries shows that stocks did not consistently outperform bonds during that period.

• I don't really know anything about investing, but it seems like diversifying is a good move
• I suppose you could just diversify in different types of companies, but maybe there's some reason to avoid the stock market a bit
• As someone who usually is in favor of further regulation of the stock market exchanges, I probably wouldn't do this investment strategy on principle too

NYT: Is Red Wine Healthy?

1. Red wine was once believed to have heart-healthy benefits due to its ability to prevent blood clots, but this notion has since been debunked.
2. Studies linking moderate alcohol consumption to good health were later found to have biases, such as drinkers being more likely to be wealthy and physically active.
3. A 2006 study found that the previously observed benefits of moderate drinking had vanished when accounting for these biases.
4. More recent studies show that even one drink per day can increase the risk of conditions like high blood pressure and irregular heart rhythms.
5. Alcohol, including wine, is now considered a carcinogen by the World Health Organization.
6. Health professionals advise that no amount of alcohol is safe, regardless of the type consumed.

• I feel like people have said red wine is healthy every since I was a little kid, and there are still people that seem to think it's true
• I also think I've read about the studies being corrected forever, so I'm glad I finally have a link to point people to when the bring it up

WSJ: Buying Rival's Stock is Insider Trading

1. Matthew Panuwat, a biotech executive, is accused by the SEC of "shadow insider trading" for buying options on a rival drug company's stock and earning a profit of $120,000.
2. Panuwat allegedly made the trade based on inside information about his own company, Medivation, being acquired by Pfizer.
3. The SEC's case against Panuwat is seen as a test of insider-trading law, as Congress has not clearly defined what it means.
4. Panuwat's lawyers argue that the case is a stretch of existing parameters and that the information about Medivation was not a secret.
5. The SEC is seeking a fine of up to three times Panuwat's trading gain and to bar him from serving as an officer or director of a public company.
6. Some academic researchers have found signs that "shadow insider trading" is widespread in the stock market.

• I lean toward liking this outcome, because I think it doesn't make sense to be able to profit off of any insider knowledge good or bad

NPR: SCOTUS Will Rule on Homelessness

1. The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether cities can fine or arrest people for sleeping outside if there's no shelter available.
2. A lawsuit was filed on behalf of homeless people in Grants Pass, Oregon, claiming the city broke the law by aggressively trying to push homeless people out.
3. The 9th Circuit ruled that cities cannot ban people from sleeping outside with "rudimentary protection from the elements" when there is no shelter available.
4. Grants Pass argues that the ruling has tied the hands of local governments and contributes to the growth of tent encampments.
5. Advocates for homeless people say the rulings are far narrower and less restrictive than cities claim, and allow cities to regulate encampments.
6. The main issue is the lack of affordable housing and severe housing shortage, which leads to homelessness and the inability to control it.

NYT: Class Action against Child Welfare Agency

1. A class-action lawsuit accuses New York City's Administration for Children's Services (ACS) of using coercive tactics that traumatize families during child abuse and neglect investigations.
2. The lawsuit claims ACS investigators deceive, bully, and coerce their way into homes, conducting illegal searches and violating Fourth Amendment protections.
3. The lawsuit seeks to require ACS to fundamentally re-envision how it investigates reports of abuse and neglect, with a focus on ending illegal searches.
4. ACS investigates over 40,000 allegations each year, with Black and Hispanic children being disproportionately targeted.
5. Criticism of ACS has risen due to stark racial disparities and the trauma caused by its investigations, with some families permanently affected.
6. The lawsuit calls for a declaration that ACS' tactics are unconstitutional and an order to halt those practices.

NYT: SCOTUS Won't Hear New Case on Race and School Admissions

1. The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to new admissions criteria at an elite public high school in Virginia, effectively allowing the race-neutral policy to diversify the school's student body.
2. The policy was implemented following protests over the murder of George Floyd and aimed to address the lack of Black and Hispanic students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA.
3. The new criteria involved removing the entrance examination and offering admission to top students from each middle school in the area, while also considering "experience factors" such as socio-economic status, English proficiency, and middle school representation.
4. A group of parents, many of them Asian American, objected to the plan and sued, claiming the new admissions plan was intentionally designed to achieve the same results as overt racial discrimination.
5. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in May that Thomas Jefferson did not discriminate in its admissions, and the Supreme Court rejected the parents' appeal in June.
6. After the changes, the percentage of Asian American students offered admission dropped, while the percentage of Black, Hispanic, and white students increased, reflecting the demographics of the Fairfax County school system.

• Interesting that SCOTUS won't hear this case, because it seems pretty similar to the college admissions cases
• I might be misunderstanding though, or maybe they just want to treat high school and college differently

Wired: TDCommons

1. TDCommons is a website owned and funded by Google for nine years, allowing inventors to lay claim to breakthroughs without patenting them.
2. The website serves as a platform for establishing "prior art" and preventing others from filing patents for similar concepts.
3. Google gives employees a $1,000 bonus for each invention they post on TDCommons, encouraging free innovation in the industry.
4. TDCommons is not exclusive to Google; other companies like HP, Cisco, and Visa have also posted inventions on the site.
5. The strategy of defensive publications, or dpubs, dates back to the 1950s, with IBM and Xerox publishing journals filled with technical disclosures.
6. TDCommons aims to expand public access to technical creativity happening inside corporate walls and shift more resources toward that work.

• I'm not how this works legally, but it's an interesting idea
• But privatizing the patent industry does seem a little suspect, even though it has it's problems
  • Although, I'm not sure this website really counts as privatization

GovInfoSec: HIPPA Audits Coming Back

1. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is planning to resurrect its HIPAA compliance audit program for the healthcare sector, which has been dormant for the last seven years.
2. The audits aim to assess the HIPAA compliance of regulated entities and help them improve their protection of health information.
3. The audits will also evaluate regulated entities' compliance with potential changes to the HIPAA Security Rule that the agency is planning for this year.
4. HHS OCR will conduct a survey of 207 covered entities and business associates that participated in the agency's 2016-2017 HIPAA audits to measure the effect of the audits on their subsequent actions to comply with the HIPAA rules.
5. The surveys will also give organizations an opportunity to offer feedback on the audits and its features, such as the helpfulness of HHS' guidance materials and communications.
6. HHS OCR was mandated to conduct HIPAA audits under the HITECH Act of 2009, but the effort was slow to take off. The agency hired outside contractors that helped develop a variety of different audit protocols, which HHS OCR publicly published in advance of the audits.

• HIPPA has it problems, but it seems good to hold people accountable

Signal: Usernames!

• Finally! Vey exciting

NYT: Biden's Student Debt Relief Accomplishments

1. President Biden announced the cancellation of an additional $1.2 billion in student loan debt for about 153,000 borrowers.
2. This latest effort at student debt relief comes after the Supreme Court blocked a more sweeping plan last year.
3. The debt relief targets borrowers enrolled in the income-driven repayment plan known as SAVE.
4. The SAVE plan reduces monthly payments and shortens the life of loans for millions of borrowers.
5. Eligible borrowers who originally borrowed up to $12,000 and made at least 10 years of qualifying monthly payments will have their debt wiped out entirely.
6. The debt cancellation will be accelerated, with the affected borrowers set to receive an email from Mr. Biden on Wednesday informing them that their debt will be erased this week.

NYT: Good and Bad of the Inflation Reduction Act

1. The Inflation Reduction Act, a climate law aimed at reducing emissions, has seen mixed results: electric vehicle (EV) sales have largely increased, but renewable energy growth has fallen short of expectations.
2. The US aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, with the help of tax credits and spending for clean energy technologies.
3. EV sales are on track to meet the law's targets, with a 50% increase in 2023; however, growth may slow due to high prices and limited charging stations.
4. The US added record renewable power and battery capacity in 2023, but it fell short of the required growth to meet climate goals.
5. Challenges in permitting, transmission, and local opposition hinder renewable energy projects, requiring significant improvements to meet the law's targets.
6. The Inflation Reduction Act has successfully encouraged domestic clean-energy manufacturing investments, but other long-term projects like nuclear reactors and hydrogen fuels are still in development.

Economist: Russia outsmarts Western sanctions

1. Financial sanctions are becoming more sophisticated, but ways to circumvent them are also increasing in complexity.
2. Non-aligned countries, such as Brazil and India, are thriving economically and are not bound by Western sanctions.
3. Commodity-import bans are being hindered by non-aligned countries, as they continue to import oil and other goods from sanctioned countries.
4. Financial institutions in third countries can make life difficult for those trying to enforce sanctions, as they are not subject to the same restrictions.
5. Non-aligned countries are expanding the options open to those under sanctions by providing alternative payment systems and financial hubs.
6. Russia and China are developing dollar alternatives and are working together to create a rouble-based payment system.

NYT: Duke Shuts Down Plant Collection

1. Duke University is closing its herbarium, which houses 825,000 plant, fungi, and algae specimens, due to financial reasons.
2. The collection is one of the largest and most diverse in the country, and has been used to map plant diversity and study the impact of humans on the environment.
3. Researchers and scientific societies have urged Duke to reconsider, citing the importance of herbariums for biodiversity science and environmental research.
4. Herbariums contain specimens collected over long periods of time, helping scientists track environmental changes and extract genetic material for research.
5. Closing the herbarium would result in the loss of a significant resource for biology and biodiversity research, and could lead to the disappearance of some specimens.
6. Duke University's biology department has limited resources and is unable to continue supporting the herbarium, but is negotiating to move some collections to other institutions.

NYT: SCOTUS Might Block Biden Air Plan

1. The Supreme Court is considering blocking the Biden administration's "good neighbor" rule, which aims to reduce air pollution that drifts across state lines.
2. The plan requires factories and power plants in Western and Midwestern states to cut ozone pollution that affects Eastern states.
3. The plan has been challenged by three states and energy companies, who argue that it is an overreach of the EPA's authority.
4. The EPA argues that blocking the plan would delay efforts to control pollution and lead to unhealthy air in downwind states.
5. The case revolves around the question of whether the remaining states have been harmed by the exclusion of other states from the federal plan.
6. The court's decision on this matter will have significant implications for the EPA's authority to regulate air pollution and protect public health

NYT: Yale to Require Standardized Tests

1. Yale University will require standardized test scores for admission for students applying to enter in the fall of 2025.
2. Test-optional policies might have unintentionally harmed students from lower-income families.
3. Yale's policy will be "test flexible," allowing students to submit AP or IB test scores instead of SAT or ACT scores.
4. Many colleges and universities have kept their test-optional policies as the pandemic waned.
5. Test scores can help identify lower-income students and students from underrepresented populations who would thrive in college.
6. Test scores are a significant predictor of academic success in college, according to Yale's dean of undergraduate admissions.

• I was against using standardized tests, until I somewhat recently read this article, which lowered my confidence significantly
• I'm still not sure the best way test scores should be used, but I no longer think they're clearly useless or harmful to disadvantaged students

NYT Opinion: The Political Failure of Bidenomics

1. The Democratic Party, under Biden, has implemented policies to support the working class economically, leading to the creation of millions of jobs and rising wages for lower-wage workers.
2. However, these policies have not resulted in increased political support for the Democratic Party among working-class voters.
3. There is a seismic political realignment occurring in Western democracies, with more-educated voters leaning left and less-educated voters leaning right, due to cultural and identity differences.
4. College-educated voters, who are more socially liberal, dominate universities, media, arts, nonprofits, and bureaucracies, leading to less-educated voters feeling unheard and unseen.
5. Less-educated voters feel morally judged for being socially backward and experiencing economic insecurity, leading to feelings of misrecognition.
6. To win working-class votes, Democrats may need to show independence from educated elites who lead the party, as demonstrated by politicians like Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman and Representative Tom Suozzi.

• This is an opinion piece and not very well evidenced as a cause-effect relationship, but I still thought it was an interesting take

NYT: Split Over Teaching Gender Identity in School (Pew Study)

1. Americans are divided on whether schools should teach about gender identity, with Democrats having mixed views.
2. Teaching about race has broader support, with more Americans favoring it at high school level.
3. Fewer than half of Democrats support teaching about gender identity in elementary school.
4. Republicans strongly oppose teaching about transgender topics at any grade level.
5. There is more support for teaching about same-sex marriage among Republicans, especially for older students.
6. The American public has complex views on the issues, with opinion varying depending on the scenario and the age of the students involved.

Reuters: Reddit in AI content licensing deal with Google

• Interesting, because I thought most of the AI tech would've already been scraping Reddit for training data

LLRX: DOJ Indirectly Funds Surveillance

1. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been funding predictive policing technologies for years, despite criticism from researchers, privacy advocates, and members of Congress.
2. The DOJ's National Institute of Justice provides seed money for grants and pilot projects to test out new surveillance technologies, including predictive policing.
3. The Bureau of Justice Assistance funds projects with direct financial grants, including predictive policing technologies like PredPol and ShotSpotter.
4. The DOJ has given over $7.6 billion to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies for various projects since 2005, some of which have gone to new surveillance technologies.
5. The DOJ did not conduct basic risk assessment or racial justice evaluations before investing in predictive policing technologies, which have been shown to have potential racial discriminatory impacts.
6. The DOJ is currently seeding and feeding a far more invasive surveillance system, real-time crime centers, with millions of federal dollars, which can conduct predictive analytics and scan entire cities with powerful computer vision-enabled cameras.

THN: Apple Unveils PQ3 Protocol

1. Apple has developed a new post-quantum cryptographic protocol, PQ3, for iMessage to protect against future quantum computer attacks.
2. PQ3 offers "Level 3 security," which provides stronger protocol protections than other widely used messaging apps.
3. The new protocol combines Kyber and Elliptic Curve cryptography, aiming to achieve the highest security properties.
4. PQ3 features key rotation, limiting the number of past and future messages decryptable with a single compromised key.
5. Keys are rotated at least every seven days and at most every 50 messages.
6. Support for PQ3 will be available with the release of iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, macOS 14.4, and watchOS 10.4.

• Good for Apple, and for quantum resistance

NYT Opinion: Bidenomics Is Still Working Very Well

1. The economic news in 2023 was positive, with strong growth, low unemployment, and decreasing inflation.
2. The recent BLS report showed a 0.3% rise in Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index, higher than expected.
3. Financial markets and business inflation expectations are still pointing to low inflation, around 2% or a bit more.
4. The BLS data can sometimes be misleading due to seasonal factors and the use of "owners' equivalent rent" to estimate housing costs.
5. The "harmonized" index, which excludes owners' equivalent rent, is up only 2.3% over the past year.
6. Despite some negative reports, the US economy is still performing well, and Biden's policies have led to improvements in various areas.

• Always interesting to see which economic indicators pick to demonstrate their point
• I feel like the economy is too complicated (especially right now) to just say if it's "working" or "not working"

EFF: Is the Justice Department Even Following Its Own Policy in Cybercrime Prosecution of a Journalist?

1. Freelance journalist Tim Burke was arrested and indicted for accessing Fox News servers without authorization.
2. Burke's lawyers argue that he used publicly posted demo credentials, leading to questions about the legality of his access.
3. EFF has fought to clarify the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to prevent overbroad interpretations.
4. The DOJ has guidelines for CFAA charges, but they may not be enough to prevent misuse.
5. Overbroad applications of computer crime laws can chill First Amendment-protected activities.
6. EFF advocates for narrowing computer crime laws and protecting security researchers' rights.

• This doesn't really affect my research, but it's definitely important that security researchers are able to do their job without fear of prosecution

NYT Opinion: Should We Fear the Woke A.I.?

1. The article discusses the potential biases in Google's new AI, Gemini, which has been criticized for promoting "woke" ideology and censoring certain viewpoints.
2. The author suggests that this incident reveals the underlying beliefs of those in power in Silicon Valley, who seem to prioritize diversity and political correctness over historical accuracy and free speech.
3. The article also notes that there are three possible reactions to this situation: conservative outrage, liberal indifference, or concern about the long-term implications of putting such power in the hands of fallible humans.
4. The author argues that if AI is seen as a potential "Truth Engine" or demigod, then the biases and errors of Gemini become more worrying.
5. The author concludes that the more seriously we take the potential of AI, the more we should be concerned about its misuse and the need for responsible oversight.
6. The article ends with an invitation for readers to submit their own opinions on the matter to the New York Times.

• I wouldn't normally read an opinion titled this way, but the author is a host of a podcast I listen to sometimes
• I personally don't fear the "woke AI," but that might be because I lean left

ArsTechnica: Vending Machine Collects College Students' Images

1. University of Waterloo students discovered that M&M-branded vending machines were collecting facial-recognition data without consent.
2. The machines, made by Invenda, were collecting estimated ages and genders of users without their knowledge or consent.
3. Canada's privacy commissioner had previously investigated similar practices, leading to the deletion of a database of 5 million nonconsenting Canadians.
4. The university has asked to disable the software until the machines can be removed, and is planning to replace them with snack dispensers not equipped with surveillance cameras.
5. Invenda claims the machines are GDPR-compliant, but it is unclear how they meet the high bar for collecting sensitive data under the GDPR.
6. Students have expressed frustration and some have attempted to cover the vending machine cameras while waiting for the school to respond.

• Is collecting demographic user data that important?

NPR: The Second City Open Location in NYC

1. The Second City, a renowned sketch comedy and improv group, has opened an outpost in Brooklyn, New York.
2. This is The Second City's first foray into New York, despite some of its famous alumni being from there, like Stephen Colbert and Tina Fey.
3. The new facility in Brooklyn features a 200-seat mainstage, a 60-seat second stage, classrooms for teaching improv and comedy writing, and a restaurant.
4. The Second City New York in Brooklyn is not the company's first expansion outside Chicago; they have had an outpost in Toronto since 1973 and have touring companies.
5. The Second City New York in Brooklyn opened in 2022, offering a mix of improv, new material, and classic sketches from Chicago.
6. The company aims to honor New York with its first sketch, which is about the subway, a topic that every New Yorker has an opinion about.