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☆ CrowdStrike Hits Back in Heated Spat With Delta Over Global Tech Outage
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-05 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | More About Lauren Hirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The legal saber rattling between the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike and Delta Air Lines over the global I.T. outage last month just ratcheted up a notch. The blame for Delta’s woes lies with the airline alone, the lawyers wrote. The letter was in response to Delta’s hiring of David Boies, a prominent litigator, and saying that it would seek damages over the outage, which it said cost it $500 million. Shares in both companies have plunged since the July 19 outage, with CrowdStrike down more than 35 percent.

Persons: Quinn Emanuel Urquhart, Sullivan, David Boies, Pete Buttigieg —, ”, we’re Organizations: Delta Air Lines, The New York Times, NPR, Transportation Locations: Delta

☆ Travelers Delayed or Stuck by the CrowdStrike Outage: What Did Your Airline Provide?
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-23 | by ( Christine Chung | More About Christine Chung | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If you were flying — or planned to fly — last week, your travel plans might have been snarled by an I.T. outage that kneecapped myriad industries and critical services worldwide. On Friday, July 19, alone, nearly 14 percent of the scheduled flights in the United States were canceled and 56 percent were delayed, according to Cirium, an aviation data company. Did you get help from the airlines in paying for any meals, transportation or accommodations? We want to hear how the airlines did.

Organizations: Delta Air Lines Locations: United States

☆ The Data That Powers A.I. Is Disappearing Fast
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-19 | by ( Kevin Roose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Over the past year, many of the most important web sources used for training A.I. models have restricted the use of their data, according to a study published this week by the Data Provenance Initiative, an M.I.T.-led research group. The study, which looked at 14,000 web domains that are included in three commonly used A.I. training data sets, discovered an “emerging crisis in consent,” as publishers and online platforms have taken steps to prevent their data from being harvested. The researchers estimate that in the three data sets — called C4, RefinedWeb and Dolma — 5 percent of all data, and 25 percent of data from the highest-quality sources, has been restricted.

Emergency call systems in at least three states were hit by the widespread CrowdStrike technology outage, although most major U.S. cities avoided problems overnight. In Oregon, some 911 centers, hospitals, airports, and public safety and emergency management agencies had major effects, said Erin Zysett, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Emergency Management. teams are working very fast to apply the fixes that CrowdStrike has provided, and those impacts are being mitigated quickly,” she said, adding that statewide alert systems and public safety incident tracking systems were mostly unaffected. Emergency dispatchers in Portland, Ore., were forced to work without the help of crucial computer systems for several hours and had to work “manually,” Mila Mimica, a city spokeswoman, said in a statement. As of 6 a.m., however, the computer systems were back to working normally.

Persons: Erin Zysett, ”, ” Mila Mimica Organizations: Oregon Department of Emergency Management Locations: U.S, Oregon, Portland ,

☆ What if the A.I. Boosters Are Wrong?
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-13 | by ( Bernhard Warner | Sarah Kessler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

would contribute only “modest” improvement to worker productivity, and that it would add no more than 1 percent to U.S. economic output over the next decade. That pales in comparison to estimates by Goldman Sachs economists, who predicted last year that generative A.I. The bullish camp has great hopes for A.I. Sam Altman of the ChatGPT maker OpenAI sees A.I. of Nvidia, the dominant maker of the chips used to power A.I., says the technology has ushered in “the next industrial revolution.”

Persons: Daron Acemoglu, Acemoglu, Goldman Sachs, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Jensen Huang, ” Organizations: A.I, Nvidia Locations: O.E.C.D

☆ The Rubik’s Cube Turns 50
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-01 | by ( Siobhan Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A big math conference was underway and Dr. Rokicki, a retired programmer based in Palo Alto, Calif., had helped organize a two-day special session about “serious recreational mathematics” celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube. Dr. Rokicki instead recommends the old-fashioned strategy: Set out on a lone path and discover a solving method, even if it takes weeks or months. (It took the computer scientist Donald Knuth less than 12 hours, starting at his dining table in the evening and working straight through to the morning.) Mr. Rubik said that, yes, he indeed did corners-first. Mr. Rubik, who is known to take a philosophical approach to cubology and to life in general, added: “My method was understanding.”‘Cubitus magikia’

Persons: Bright, Tomas Rokicki, Rokicki, Erno Rubik, Rubik, Erik Demaine, Robert Hearn, Mr, Donald Knuth Organizations: Moscone, YouTube Locations: downtown San Francisco, Palo Alto, Calif, videoconference, Spain, Hungarian, Portola Valley

☆ Do We Need Language to Think?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-19 | by ( Carl Zimmer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For thousands of years, philosophers have argued about the purpose of language. Starting in the 1960s, Noam Chomsky, a linguist at M.I.T., argued that we use language for reasoning and other forms of thought. “If there is a severe deficit of language, there will be severe deficit of thought,” he wrote. Dr. Fedorenko went on to become a cognitive neuroscientist at M.I.T., using brain scanning to investigate how the brain produces language. And after 15 years, her research has led her to a startling conclusion: We don’t need language to think.

Persons: Plato, ”, Noam Chomsky, Evelina Fedorenko, Chomsky’s, Fedorenko

☆ Opinion | ‘Music Speaks to Some Deep Need Among Humans’
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-09 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “Delving Into the Archaeology of Music” (Science Times, May 21):Virtually all our achievements as a species depend upon humans working together. One human alone, in a state of nature, is a medium-sized animal struggling for survival (and with no use for music). Music is a vital part of that process. It’s no wonder that music, like language, is universal among us. David GoldbergNew YorkTo the Editor:I was interested to read the latest research into music using big data, as your article reports.

Persons: David Goldberg, David Epstein Organizations: Science Times, York

☆ Opinion | Will A.I. Be a Creator or a Destroyer of Worlds?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Thomas B. Edsall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

— artificial intelligence — is spurring curiosity and fear. paper, Acemoglu contended that artificial intelligence has the potential to improve employment prospects rather than undermine them:It is quite possible to leverage generative A.I. as an informational tool that enables various different types of workers to get better at their jobs and perform more complex tasks. Think of a generative A.I. To turn generative A.I.

Persons: Will A.I, Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, Simon Johnson, Johnson, Acemoglu, ” Acemoglu, — Tyna Eloundou, Pamela Mishkin, Sam Manning, Daniel Rock Organizations: Machines, of, World Trade Association, A.I, OpenAI, Centre, University of Pennsylvania, Labor Locations: M.I.T, United States, Autor, China, A.I

☆ Can Biden Win America’s Green Tech Trade War With China? - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

On May 14, President Biden announced a major escalation of the country’s emerging climate trade war with China, raising existing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to 100 percent — a unilateral quadrupling. A few days earlier, responding to reports of Biden’s plans, Donald Trump outdid him, promising tariffs of 200 percent should he win the 2024 election. Five years after blasting Trump for imposing tariffs on Chinese exports, Biden raised them — on aluminum, steel, lithium batteries, solar cells and semiconductors, among other products. In 2019, Chinese E.V. Nearly 60 percent of all the world’s E.V.s are now sold in China, which is home to three of the world’s four biggest E.V.

Persons: Biden, Biden’s, Donald Trump outdid, It’s, “, Gaia, David Autor, Tesla, BYD Organizations: Trump, Democratic Locations: China, U.S, Washington, Chinese

☆ 'I was too trusting': Ex-Post Office boss apologizes after widespread miscarriage of justice in Britain
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Post Office Limited Paula Vennells (C) arrives to give evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, in central London, on May 22, 2024. The scandal has been described at an ongoing public inquiry as "the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history". The Post Office took 700 people to court between 1999 and 2015 based on faulty evidence resulting from central I.T. Questions remain over what Vennells and other executives knew, all while the Post Office continued to push for sub-postmaster prosecutions. Vennells joined at a time when the Post Office was losing significant amounts of money and was under pressure to improve its financial performance.

Persons: Paula Vennells, Vennells, Martin Griffiths Organizations: Post, Britain's, Fujitsu, Post Office Locations: London, I.T

The university had set a Monday deadline for protesters to vacate the encampment or face suspension, and tensions have been rising after some students who had defied the deadline received notices of suspension from the university. Administrators would not say how many students had been suspended. As an additional condition of suspension, some students also lost their eligibility to be employed by the university, a penalty that cut off the income of graduate student employees who were suspended. “I don’t know what comes next,” said Prahlad Iyengar, a first-year graduate student who said he had lost his income and housing as a result of his suspension. “I have friends and a community, and I can find a place, but there are people affected who are housing- and food-insecure, some with children.”

Persons: ”, “, Prahlad Iyengar

☆ M.I.T. Will No Longer Require Diversity Statements for Hiring Faculty
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Anemona Hartocollis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said on Monday that it would no longer require candidates applying for faculty positions to write diversity statements, which have been denounced by conservatives and free-speech advocates as forcing a kind of ideological conformity. In their statements, generally a page-long, candidates were required to explain how they would enhance the university’s commitment to diversity. Such statements have become enshrined in faculty hiring at many elite public and private universities, as well as in corporate life. Academics have defended them as necessary in judging whether a faculty member can reach out to an increasingly diverse student body. In announcing the change, M.I.T.’s president, Sally Kornbluth, said diversity statements constituted a form of compelled speech that do not work.

Persons: ’, Sally Kornbluth Organizations: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

☆ Kendrick Lamar and Drake's beef explained, from its 2013 origins to their diss tracks "Push Ups" and "6:16 in LA" and latest responses
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-04 | by ( Ayomikun Adekaiyero | Eve Crosbie | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +26 min

Both rappers released diss tracks that took blistering personal shots on Friday night. "He doesn't have the heart for the lying, disrespect, and animosity it requires to make an effective diss track," Pierre wrote. Later in the track, Drake references Cole's diss track and apology. At the end of the track, Lamar samples a 1994 Tupac interview to simulate a conversation between the two rappers. "6:16 in LA" also parodies Drake's song titles, which often feature location names and timestamps.

Persons: Kendrick Lamar, Drake's, Drake, —, Lamar's fiancée Whitney Alford, Lamar, Aubrey Drake Graham —, Lamar dissed Drake, J, Cole, Rick Ross, Cole —, Taylor, Joseph Okpako, WireImage Lamar, Jermaine Cole, Big, Wale, Pusha, Meek Millz, Big Sean, Jay, Tyler, Mac Miller, Kunta, Lamar hasn't, Meek, Getty, Tim Mosenfelder, Aubrey, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, Jackson, Prince, Mike Jack, Prince . Prince, “, rics, Organizations: Metro Boomin, Service, Future, Metro, HBO, Drake, Wireless, Lamar, Big, Rocky, Rap Locations: Drake's, Lamar, LA, Florida

☆ 2024 Was the Year That Broke College Admissions - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Daniel Currell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Selective college admissions have been a vortex of anxiety and stress for what seems like forever, inducing panic in more top high school seniors each year. But the 2023-2024 admissions season was not just an incremental increase in the frantic posturing and high-pressure guesswork that make this annual ritual seem like academic Hunger Games. The so-called Ivy-Plus schools — the eight members of the Ivy League plus M.I.T., Duke, Chicago and Stanford — collectively received about 175,000 applications in 2002. In 2022, the most recent year for which totals are available, they got more than 590,000, with only a few thousand more available spots. A legal challenge swept the rules away, freeing the most powerful schools to do pretty much whatever they wanted.

Persons: —, clamoring, Stanford — Organizations: Hunger, Ivy League, Stanford Locations: Duke, Chicago, United States

Campus unrest spreadsTop American colleges are in turmoil, with dozens of pro-Palestinian student protesters having been arrested at N.Y.U. and Yale amid new worries about antisemitism on campus. The latest: Police were called in to break up pro-Palestinian protests at N.Y.U. Harvard shut Harvard Yard and Columbia will make classes at its main campus hybrid until next week. Encampments were growing at other schools, including M.I.T., the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley.

Organizations: Palestinian, Yale, University, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Police, Columbia, University of Michigan, University of California Locations: N.Y.U, Columbia, Berkeley

☆ Scenes of Protests Spread at Elite Campuses
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( The New York Times | Troy Closson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Protests and arrests spread across some of America’s most influential universities on Monday, as administrators struggled to defuse tensions on campuses over pro-Palestinian demonstrations on Monday. Nearly 50 people were arrested at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., on Monday morning, following the arrests last week of more than 100 protesters at Columbia University in New York City. The flurry of protests has presented a steep challenge for university leaders, as some Jewish students say they have faced harassment and antisemitic comments. Early Monday morning, Columbia announced a same-day shift to online classes because of the protests. Here are scenes from the protests.

Organizations: Yale University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, Stanford University, Columbia, Barnard College Locations: New Haven, Conn, New York City, Israel, Gaza

☆ Is Online Shopping Bad for the Planet?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Dionne Searcey | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Q: How much do I need to worry about the impact of my online shopping? The convenience of online shopping is hard to beat. Transportation needed for online shopping spews greenhouse emissions. even found that online shopping could be more sustainable than traditional shopping in more than 75 percent of scenarios that researchers came up with. Online retailers and delivery companies have been trying to make online shopping more climate friendly.

☆ Live Updates: Columbia’s President to Testify in Antisemitism Hearing
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Sharon Otterman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

From left, Claudine Gay, president of Harvard University; M. Elizabeth Magill, president of Penn; Pamela Nadell, a professor at American University; and Sally Kornbluth, president of M.I.T., at a congressional hearing in December. When Nemat Shafik, the president of Columbia University, was asked to appear before Congress to testify about antisemitism on college campuses in December, she cited a scheduling conflict and said she could not attend. The president of the University of Pennsylvania, M. Elizabeth Magill, resigned four days after her appearance at the hearing, where she delivered evasive answers about campus antisemitism. Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, similarly gave vague responses and faced fierce backlash for weeks up to her resignation in January. Lawyers who prepare clients to testify before Congress said that while there are risks to not appearing, it is always an option.

Persons: Claudine Gay, Elizabeth Magill, Penn, Pamela Nadell, Sally Kornbluth, Nemat Shafik, Shafik, Minouche, Christopher Armstrong, “, you’re, ”, it’s, ” Mr, Armstrong, There’s, Emily Loeb, Block, ” Sharon Otterman Organizations: Harvard University, American University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Education, Workforce, United Nations, Change, Lawyers, Holland, Knight, Jenner Locations: Dubai

☆ Kendrick Lamar spells out what he hates about Drake in new diss track, 'Euphoria.' Here's their beef explained.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Ayomikun Adekaiyero | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

Kendrick Lamar responded to Drake with a new diss track, "Euphoria," as their beef rages on. AdvertisementKendrick Lamar has taken aim at Drake for a second time with his new diss track, "Euphoria," amid the hip-hop heavyweights' feud. Advertisement"He doesn't have the heart for the lying, disrespect, and animosity it requires to make an effective diss track," Pierre wrote. A 'Drake' diss track appears online – but fans are wary it's AI-generated. Later in the track, Drake references Cole's diss track and apology.

Persons: Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Lamar, Taylor, —, Lamar dissed Drake, J, Cole, Rick Ross, Cole —, he's, Joseph Okpako, WireImage Lamar, Jermaine Cole, Big, Wale, Pusha, Meek Millz, Big Sean, Jay, Tyler, Mac Miller, Kunta, Lamar hasn't, Meek, Getty, Tim Mosenfelder, Aubrey, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, Jackson, Prince, Mike Jack, Prince . Prince, “ Organizations: Metro Boomin, Service, Future, Metro, HBO, Wireless, Lamar, Big, Rocky, Rap Locations: Lamar, Canadian, Florida

☆ Opinion | Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I’m Sorry I’m Leaving You.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-07 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Verge blames search engines. But here’s another: Our digital lives have become one shame closet after another. A shame closet is that spot in your home where you cram the stuff that has nowhere else to go. But as the shame closet grows, the task of excavation or organization becomes too daunting to contemplate. The shame closet era of the internet had a beginning.

Persons: Inboxes Organizations: Wired, Technology, Google

☆ After a Year of Turmoil, Harvard’s Applications Drop
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Anemona Hartocollis | Stephanie Saul | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Applications to Harvard College were down this year, even as many other highly selective schools hit record highs. The drop suggests that a year of turmoil — which went into overdrive with a student letter that said Israel was “entirely responsible” for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — may have dented Harvard’s reputation and deterred some students from applying. Harvard’s announcement on Thursday evening came as all eight Ivy League schools sent out their notices of admission or rejection, known as Ivy Day. While Brown University also saw a drop in applications, applications rose at many other elite colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Columbia, M.I.T., Bowdoin, Amherst and the University of Virginia.

Persons: Israel, — Organizations: Harvard College, Ivy League, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, Amherst, University of Virginia Locations: Dartmouth, Columbia, Bowdoin

☆ Force of Ship Collision Was on the Scale of a Rocket Launch
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Aatish Bhatia | Francesca Paris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +9 min

Erin Schaff/The New York TimesForce of Ship Collision Was on the Scale of a Rocket LaunchThe container ship Dali appeared to move sluggishly before striking the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on Tuesday. Experts disagreed on whether it was reasonable for any bridge pier to withstand a direct collision with a massive container ship. F = ma force mass acceleration F = ma force mass accelerationOur first task, and a major source of uncertainty, was finding those numbers. F= (100,000 to 195,000 metric tons) × (7.8 mph - 2.5 mph) / 38 seconds mass acceleration F= (100,000 to 195,000 metric tons) × (7.8 mph - 2.5 mph) / 38 seconds mass acceleration For the actual calculation, we used metric units. We tried one more method: using a formula to calculate the ship collision force published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the industry organization that publishes bridge safety standards.

Persons: Erin Schaff, Dali, Francis Scott Key, “, ”, Ben Schafer, Nii, Sherif El, Themistoklis Sapsis, Tawil Organizations: The New York Times Force, Empire, Saturn, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, M.I.T, American Association of State, Transportation, U.S . Army Corps, Engineers, Reuters, Sunshine Skyway Locations: Baltimore, Dali, Tampa Bay, Florida

☆ Why the SAT Isn’t Racist - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( John Mcwhorter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That’s three down: Last week, Brown University reinstated standardized testing as a part of its admissions requirements, following Yale and Dartmouth, which did the same earlier this year. For all that we have heard about how standardized tests propagate injustice, the decisions at these Ivy League schools are antiracism in action, and should serve as models for similar decisions across academia. Of course, for years, the leading idea has been precisely the opposite: that the proper antiracist approach is to stop using standardized tests in admissions. Many schools first suspended using them a few years back because their administration was too difficult during the peak of the Covid pandemic. All the way back in 2001, the University of California president Richard Atkinson was warmly and widely celebrated for eliminating the SAT from the schools’ admissions process.

Persons: Richard Atkinson, Sian Beilock Organizations: Brown University, Yale, Dartmouth, Ivy League, University of California

☆ On Harvard, M.I.T. and Systemic Antisemitism - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( David French | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

This Monday, March 11, roughly 200 Jewish students and supporters marched through the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, and it was newsworthy that they were not attacked. The event — which had already been moved from another location because of safety concerns — was canceled, and the building evacuated by police, after protesters broke through doors and reportedly assaulted Jewish students. Both complaints make for horrifying reading, detailing a cascading series of antisemitic incidents, including acts of violence and physical intimidation. As the complaint filed against Harvard states, “Harvard permits students and faculty to advocate, without consequence, the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel, the only Jewish country in the world. I’ve also walked through metal detectors at a tense and volatile Columbia University to defend the academic freedom of Jewish students challenging antisemitic statements made by university professors.

Persons: “, —, ”, I’ve Organizations: University of California, Local, Jewish, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University Locations: Berkeley, Israel

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