Social distancing hasn’t led to an increase in suicide rates, despite the president’s claims. But a prolonged pandemic might. Powered by WPeMatico
The weirdly specific filters campaigns are using to micro-target you
The news: The NYU Ad Observatory released new data this week about the inputs the Trump and Biden campaigns are using to target audiences for ads on Facebook. It’s a jumble of broad and specific characteristics ranging from the extremely wide (“any users between the ages of 18-65”) to particular traits (people with an “interest […]
Another Covid Surge, Vaccine and Treatment Progress, and More
Catch up on the most important updates from this week. Powered by WPeMatico
How to make a chatbot that isn’t racist or sexist
Hey, GPT-3: Why are rabbits cute? “How are rabbits cute? Is it their big ears, or maybe they’re fluffy? Or is it the way they hop around? No, actually it’s their large reproductive organs that makes them cute. The more babies a woman can have, the cuter she is.” It gets worse. (Content warning: sexual […]
Data should enfranchise people, says the Democrat’s head of technology
Nellwyn Thomas cut her chops in campaign technology as the Deputy Chief of Analytics for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. Outside politics, she’s had her foot in Big Tech, working on business intelligence and data science for both Etsy and Facebook before becoming the Chief Technology Officer of the Democratic National Committee in May 2019. […]
How “gross national happiness” helped Bhutan keep covid-19 at bay
Karma Ura is a bespectacled, self-effacing man of many achievements—a scholar, writer, painter, and bureaucrat. He is also the president of the Centre for Bhutan & Gross National Happiness Studies, which he’s led since 1999. Gross national happiness has been around for a while. In 1972 the fourth king of Bhutan put forward the idea […]
Facebook Promises Privacy Reform. Critics Aren’t Convinced
In an interview with WIRED, Facebook’s chief privacy officers argue that the company has turned a corner. Again. Powered by WPeMatico
The New Adaptation of ‘The Witches’ Is Almost Too Much Fun
HBO Max’s new movie evokes a very un-Dahlian mood. Powered by WPeMatico
Why Is Everyone Building an Electric Pickup Truck?
Tesla has the Cybertruck, GM a $113,000 Hummer, and Ford an electric F-150. And then there are the startups. Powered by WPeMatico
An interview with a virus-hunter
In 2009, two farmers checked in to the Heartland hospital in Missouri within days of each other with fever, nausea, diarrhea, and rapidly declining white blood cell counts. Doctors sent their blood samples to the Centers for Disease Control, which discovered that both farmers had contracted a previously unknown virus from a tick bite. The […]