LawFare – While U.S. piracy law has largely stagnated since 1820, international law has evolved. Now it’s time to catch up. The “golden age” of piracy may have ended in the 17th century, but the scourge continues to the present day from the Red and Somali seas to the Gulf of Guinea, wreaking havoc on ..read more

“The UN Secretary-General’s Call to Action on Extreme Heat brings together the diverse expertise and perspectives of ten specialized UN entities (FAO, ILO, OCHA, UNDRR, UNEP, UNESCO, UN-Habitat, UNICEF, WHO, WMO) in a first-of-its-kind joint product, underscoring the multi-sectoral impacts of extreme heat. Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone, everywhere. Billions of ..read more

Pluralistic: “A new research report from the Upwork Research Institute offers a look into the bizarre situation unfolding in workplaces where bosses have been conned into buying AI and now face the challenge of getting it to work as advertised:” Research by The Upwork Research Institute reveals that 71% of full-time employees are burned out ..read more

Via LLRX – When scientific citations go rogue: Uncovering ‘sneaked references’ – Reading and writing articles published in academic journals and presented at conferences is a central part of being a researcher. When researchers write a scholarly article, they must cite the work of peers to provide context, detail sources of inspiration and explain differences in ..read more

Via LLRX – Long COVID puzzle pieces are falling into place – the picture is unsettling – Long COVID is a term that describes the constellation of long-term health effects caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These range from persistent respiratory symptoms, such as shortness of breath, to debilitating fatigue or brain fog that ..read more

“TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — In today’s Climate Classroom, we will be speaking to William S. Becker, a writer for The Hill, a Nexstar-owned property on climate inflation, better known by its new name “climateflation.” No doubt it’s a new term to most, but it’s very real and it’s already hitting us in the wallet— think ..read more

Breaking Up the Giants of Harm. To protect democracy and have a resilient economy, we must tackle corporate power. Again. “Governments and economic regulators have, since the 1980s, turned a blind eye to a handful of giant companies steadily gaining chokeholds in global markets. Banking, agriculture, digital technology, publishing, music, pharmaceuticals and more are dominated ..read more

Spreadsheet LLM – Encoding Spreadsheets for Large Language Models: “Spreadsheets are characterized by their extensive two-dimensional grids, flexible layouts, and varied formatting options, which pose significant challenges for large language models (LLMs). In response, we introduce SpreadsheetLLM, pioneering an efficient encoding method designed to unleash and optimize LLMs’ powerful understanding and reasoning capability on spreadsheets ..read more

Brennan Center – Via Reddit – “I’m Joseph Nunn, counsel in the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Ask me anything about reforming the Insurrection Act, an outdated law that gives the president near limitless power to use the U.S. military as a domestic police force. The Insurrection Act is ..read more

The Scholarly Kitchen: “There is broad consensus in scholarly publishing that AI tools will make the task of ensuring the integrity of the scientific record a Herculean task. However, it seems that many publishers are still struggling to figure out how to address the new issues and challenges that these AI tools present. Current publisher ..read more