Technology * Innovation * Publishing Newsletter #240
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Important Items
Rival rulings on medication abortion hypercharge the post-Roe legal war
A pair of conflicting federal court rulings on Friday created arguably the most contentious and chaotic legal flashpoint over abortion access since the Supreme Court’s ruling last summer that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the right to an abortion nationwide. Within less than an hour, two major rulings came down in separate, closely watched cases concerning medication abortion — in lawsuits that are completely at odds with each other. In one case, filed by anti-abortion activists in Texas, a judge said the FDA’s 2000 approval of mifepristone — one of the drugs used to terminate a pregnancy — should be halted. But the court paused its ruling for a week so that it can be appealed, and that appeal is already underway. in the second case, where Democratic-led states had sued in Washington to expand access to abortion pills, a judge ordered the federal government to keep the drug available in the 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, that brought the lawsuit.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/08/politics/medication-abortion-texas-washington-fda/index.html
Idaho governor signed the abortion trafficking bill into law, restricting interstate travel for abortion care
Abortion trafficking is now a felony offense in the state, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Gender Affirming Care Bans for Trans Youth
RT @ErinInTheMorn North Dakota has become the 14th state to pass a gender affirming care ban. It will go on to the governors desk. The bill sadly has a veto proof majority. The states in red have passed full care bans for trans youth and either have signed them into law or are waiting signature.
https://erininthemorn.substack.com
Governor Phil Murphy signs order making New Jersey as safe haven for LGBTQ+ seeking healthcare
Some good news! The order protects healthcare professionals and patients from facing repercussions when they seek, receive, or provide gender-affirming services. All New Jersey departments and agencies will be required to the fullest extent of their authority to pursue opportunities and coordinate to protect these people. It prohibits New Jersey departments and agencies from cooperating with interstate investigations aiming to hold someone liable for civil or criminal penalties associated with gender affirming health care. The order also prohibits the extradition of a person to another state who traveled to New Jersey for treatment.
https://abc7ny.com/lgbtq-healthcare-safe-haven-new-jersey/13089502/
Gun deaths among U.S. children and teens rose 50% in two years
It’s Not ‘Deaths of Despair.’ It’s Deaths of Children.
“One in 25 American 5-year-olds now won’t live to see 40, a death rate about four times as high as in other wealthy nations,” writes David Wallace-Wells. “Firearms account for almost half of the increase.”
Tenn. State Rep Asks Protesters What Gun They’d Prefer To Be Shot With
“If there is a firearm out there that you’re comfortable being shot with, please show me which one it is,” William Lamberth asked rhetorically.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/willam-lamberth-protesters-gun-violence_n_642b5c64e4b0c8ff0407d8a4
Innovation
This Kenyan Inventor Is Behind A Smart-Glove That Translates Sign Language Into Speech In Real Time
Kenyan inventor Roy Allela created Sign-IO, smart gloves that give the hearing impaired and deaf the ability to communicate with people who don’t know sign language. He was inspired to create the technology after needing a method to communicate with his then-six-year-old niece, who was born deaf. Sign-IO uses Bluetooth to connect to the product’s app. With this technology, flex sensors placed inside the gloves on each finger can quantify the bend of a finger and process the letters being signed.
https://afrotech.com/roy-allela-creates-smart-gloves-for-hearing-impaired
An attempt to classify the myriad AI applications into a useful taxonomy
https://www.onlydeadfish.co.uk/only_dead_fish/2023/04/on-the-application-of-ai.html
New AI model can “cut out” any object within an image — and Meta is sharing the code
Meta’s Segment Anything Model — SAM, for short — can respond to text prompts or user clicks to isolate specific objects within an image, according to a company blog post.
BloombergGPT aims to be a domain-specific AI for business news
How big is BloombergGPT? Well, the company says it was trained on a corpus of more than 700 billion tokens (or word fragments). For context, GPT-3, released in 2020, was trained on about 500 billion. (OpenAI has declined to reveal any equivalent number for GPT-4, the successor released last month, citing “the competitive landscape.”) What’s in all that training data? Of the 700 million-plus tokens, 363 billion are taken from Bloomberg’s own financial data, the sort of information that powers its terminals — “the largest domain-specific dataset yet” constructed, it says. Another 345 billion tokens come from “general purpose datasets” obtained from elsewhere.
Apple Patents Using Its Watch, Earbuds, and Eventual Headset For Full Body Tracking
https://gizmodo.com/apple-watch-headset-earbuds-headset-full-body-tracking-1850284613
Technology
Whoops, Samsung workers accidentally leaked trade secrets via ChatGPT
Never forget that anything you share with ChatGPT is retained and used to further train the model. Samsung employees have learned this the hard way after accidentally leaking top secret Samsung data. Samsung employees accidentally shared confidential information while using ChatGPT for help at work. Samsung’s semiconductor division has allowed engineers to use ChatGPT to check source code. The Economist Korea reported three separate instances of Samsung employees unintentionally leaking sensitive information to ChatGPT. In one instance, an employee pasted confidential source code into the chat to check for errors. Another employee shared code with ChatGPT and “requested code optimization.” A third, shared a recording of a meeting to convert into notes for a presentation. That information is now out in the wild for ChatGPT to feed on. The leak is a real-world example of hypothetical scenarios privacy experts have been concerned about. Other scenarios include sharing confidential legal documents or medical information for the purpose of summarizing or analyzing lengthy text, which might then be used to improve the model. Experts warn that it may violate GDPR compliance, which is why Italy recently banned ChatGPT.
https://mashable.com/article/samsung-chatgpt-leak-details
Brace Yourself for a Tidal Wave of ChatGPT Email Scams
RT @edyson The problem is not evil AI; it’s greedy people scaling evil business models using AI. via @wired from @schneierblog
https://www.wired.com/story/large-language-model-phishing-scams/
Social Pattern Library: A hub with product design recommendations for social media platforms
MT @PENamerica PEN America collaborated with @ADL to include recommendations from our report, No Excuse for Abuse, in their pattern library — which provides developers and designers with concrete guidelines for how to combat hate and harassment on social media platforms. #FightOnlineAbuseNow
https://socialpatterns.adl.org
Walmart will add thousands of EV charging stations to stores by 2030
Walmart plans to add electric vehicle charging stations to thousands of US stores by 2030.They will own + operate EV charging stations in its national network. Walmart’s over 4,700 stores & 600 Sam’s Clubs are located within 10 miles of 90% of Americans.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/06/walmart-ev-charging-network-plans.html
Spotify shuts down its Clubhouse competitor
Spotify is getting rid of Spotify Live, the audio-only app it launched in 2021.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/3/23668533/spotify-live-clubhouse-competitor-shutdown
Substack is getting tweets — err, ‘Notes’
The tweet-like posts will have their own dedicated feed and could be a good Twitter alternative, especially for Substack creators. (And then for a day, Twitter retaliated and wouldn’t let users interact with tweets containing Substack links.)
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/5/23670452/substack-notes-tweets-posts-twitter
Want to get rid of the DogeCoin icon in Twitter?
HT @that_darn R-Click on pic of dog, Click on Inspect, R-Click on the highlighted code and then select “Hide Element.” Works like a charm!
Publishing & Media
The Unbearable Costs of Becoming a Writer
HT @adriennemwest “Who gets to be a writer or an editor? Who can choose to prioritize their creative goals, take potentially career-making risks, invest precious years in this work without the guarantee of financial stability?”
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a43478293/costs-becoming-a-writer/
What to do when Amazon Closes your KDP Account
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PKd94sSvgD3XoFFWHaUC6Gxey2GOU6WH7cRLNpb3428/edit
Amazon closing UK-based online shop Book Depository
Book Depository was founded in 2004 by former Amazon employee Andrew Crawford and his business partner Stuart Felton. The global online book retailer, which was bought by Amazon in 2011, has offices in London, Gloucester, Madrid, Cape Town and Chennai — with fulfilment centres in the UK and Australia. #Amazon
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65184776
As Classic Novels Get Revised for Today’s Readers, a Debate About Where to Draw the Line
Steve Jobs has a new ‘memoir,’ more than 11 years after his death
MT @waltmossberg New book from The Steve Jobs Archive unveils his thoughts from private papers as well as public remarks. Some are emails he wrote to himself. ‘Make Something Wonderful’ will be available free online
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/04/01/steve-jobs-memoir-make-something-wonderful/
What’s going on with all the empty author signing pics?
In December 2022, author Chelsea Banning had 37 people RSVP “yes” to her book event. On the day, only two showed up. In March 2023, Jamar Perry showed up to his 7 p.m. book event to find the bookstore empty, and figured he would give it another 40 minutes. Still, no one came. This week, Suzanne Young tweeted out a photo of empty chairs at her own book event. In each of these cases, an embarrassed tweet from the author went viral, with big names like Margaret Atwood, Cheryl Strayed, and Neil Gaiman chiming in with their own stories of barren reading rooms (Atwood says the only person at one of her signings was a man asking where the Scotch tape was located).
https://lithub.com/whats-going-on-with-all-the-empty-author-signing-pics/
A children’s book illustrator has been arrested in Alaska for allegedly leaving notes ‘threatening to children’ in public places
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/children-book-illustrator-arrested-alaska-210848789.html
Library Eliminates Fines and Receives More than $400,000 Worth of Returns
RT @ILoveLibraries In January, Houston Public Library went fine-free and held an amnesty period to allow users to return overdue materials and start over with a clean account. The results were astonishing: 3,098 customers returned $425,000 worth of books and other items.
Missouri Senate set to restore funds to public libraries cut from House spending plan
A sliver of hope….
Addressing Book Challenges — A Resource for Librarians, Teachers, Parents, and Allies
MT @diversebooks What are the steps to take if a book is challenged at your school or public library? We’ve compiled a comprehensive guide that leads with advice for educators but breaks it all down — whether you’re a librarian, teacher, parent, or ally.
https://diversebooks.org/resources/addressing-book-challenges/
The right to read isn’t only on the ballot in major elections. Be prepared to vote in all elections, including for library and school board.
RT @UABookBans Local elections coming up in your community? Use our resources on the #UniteAgainstBookBans Voting Checklist to learn about your candidates and find out where they stand on the right to read:
https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/vote/
PETITION: Don’t Ban Books in the United States
https://action.everylibrary.org/bookbans
Why banning LGBTQ+ books does everyone an injustice
RT @UABookBans “..when a young person can see themselves reflected..a little light comes on. They may not be able to tell their family & friends..but that character who seems just like them, & thinks just like them, can create a lifeline for them..” https://globalcomment.com/why-banning-lgbtq-books-does-everyone-an-injustice/… #UniteAgainstBookBans
https://globalcomment.com/why-banning-lgbtq-books-does-everyone-an-injustice/
How to fight book bans — and win
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/05/book-bans-how-to-fight/
Authors Of Banned Books Are Fed Up — and Fighting Back
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/05/1168219569/authors-of-banned-books-are-fed-up-and-fighting-back
The ABCs of Getting Involved in Your Local Public Library
https://www.librariesforthepeople.org/events/abcs
How School Libraries Buy Books, Struggle for Funds, and Confront Book Bans: An Explainer
“Observers of these fights may not realize that school librarians typically have to follow rigorous processes for acquiring new books, or that millions of students attend schools without a librarian at all.”
A Veteran of the Book-Banning Wars on the Importance of Speaking Out
MT @FReadomFighters “I asked my son who has lived through the censorship wars with me, “What’s the most important thing I can say that would inspire others to fight book banning?” “Show up. The folks who show up are the ones who get heard.” 💪 Exactly. Our kids need you.
What Florida Stands to Lose from its War on Books and Black History
RT @PENamerica
Chaos & empty bookshelves
Psychological & educational toll
Demoralized & departing teachers
A Black “brain drain”
Culture of fear, an erosion of trust
Educational “Mason-Dixon Line” for educational scholarship
Failure to prepare students for careers & life
https://www.naacpldf.org/florida-war-on-black-history/
Jerry Craft drew a positive Black story. Then the calls for a ban began.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/comics/2023/04/08/jerry-craft-new-kid-school-trip-book-ban/
How Media Innovators Leverage the Product Mindset
MT @DCNorg By taking a product mindset philosophy across the entire business, media leaders are able to design for outcomes such as: changing consumer behavior, making informed decisions, and growing top- and bottom-line revenue.
https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2023/04/03/how-media-innovators-leverage-the-product-mindset/
Resources & Opportunities
Women and Power: What’s Changed since 2016?
As the 2024 race for President heats up and Donald Trump continues to make headlines, it’s time to take a clear-eyed look at his legacy and how it has impacted women’s lives. Come hear a panel of experts, including acclaimed journalist Nina Burleigh, The Nation magazine’s national affairs correspondent Joan Walsh, and political strategist Celinda Lake. Thursday, April 13, 6–7 pm ET, virtual. Free for @WMG_NYC members, $15 for non-members.
https://www.womensmediagroup.org/event-5226662
PEN America’s 18th Annual World Voices Festival, May 10–13 in New York City and Los Angeles
Headliner Ta-Nehisi Coates Will Deliver Freedom to Write Lecture on the Current Climate of Book Bans and Censorship; Festival’s Largest Gathering of International Writers, With More Than 100 Writers from 27 Countries
MT @BKAuthors Cutting-edge digital tools and AI can revolutionize your book promotion. In our upcoming workshop, Fauzia Burke will discuss what new digital tools can save you time and give you a competitive edge. #ai #authortools #marketingtools #bookmarketing @FauziaBurke
Disabled Writers Website
Disabled Writers is a resource to help editors connect with disabled writers and journalists, and journalists connect with disabled sources. Their goal is to promote paid opportunities for multiply marginalized members of the disability community, and to encourage editors and journalists to think of disabled people for stories that stretch beyond disability issues.
Join Children’s Book World for a Virtual Conversation with a panel of neurodiverse kidlit authors who write about authentic neurodiverse characters
https://childrensbookworld.net/virtual-panel-on-neurodiverse-characters/
Pen America Literary Grants
MT @PENamerica Our 2024 Literary Grants are re-opening for submissions! We’re excited to embark on another year of recognizing oral history, young adult literature, and translation, and are proud to offer our support such impactful projects. #PENLitAwards
https://pen.org/literary-awards/grants-fellowships/
Free NY Pops Concert for individuals living with Alzheimer’s and dementia
Join The New York Pops Piano Trio for a FREE multimedia experience featuring Academy Award songs from the 1930s and 1940s, including selections like “The Way You Look Tonight”, “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”, and “When You Wish Upon a Star.” The performance will be followed by a Q&A with Steven Reineke and the musicians. This event is intended to provide individuals living with Alzheimer’s and dementia an opportunity to connect with their strongest memories associated with classic movies and their iconic soundtracks. While priority access will be given to individuals living with Alzheimer’s and dementia and their caregivers, any additional seats will be open to the public. The Museum of the Moving Image will be free and open to the public on May 18.
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