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☆ Alphabet-backed Anthropic outlines the moral values behind its AI bot
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The moral values guidelines, which Anthropic calls Claude's constitution, draw from several sources, including the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and even Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) data privacy rules. Anthropic was founded by former executives from Microsoft Corp-backed (MSFT.O) OpenAI to focus on creating safe AI systems that will not, for example, tell users how to build a weapon or use racially biased language. Co-founder Dario Amodei was one of several AI executives who met with Biden last week to discuss potential dangers of AI. Anthropic takes a different approach, giving its Open AI competitor Claude a set of written moral values to read and learn from as it makes decisions on how to respond to questions. "In a few months, I predict that politicians will be quite focused on what the values are of different AI systems, and approaches like constitutional AI will help with that discussion because we can just write down the values," Clark said.

☆ What does 'No Animals Were Harmed' mean? The disclaimer is not a guarantee of animal safety
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Crystal Raypole | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The American Human Association monitors roughly 70% of animal action in Hollywood productions. Since they've trademarked the "No Animals Were Harmed" disclaimer, only they can issue and define it. And despite past accounts of cover-ups, AHA guidelines aim to provide productions and animal trainers with a better understanding of animal safety limitations. Video footage released in 2016 showed Michael Hackenberger, Hollywood animal trainer and owner of the Bowmanville Zoo, whipping a tiger named Uno multiple times. Even so, many people believe the only movies that can truly state "No Animals Were Harmed" are movies that replace animal actors with computer-generated imagery.

☆ Opinion | Biden Can Close the Legal Black Hole at Guantánamo
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Last week, Said bin Brahim bin Umran Bakush was released from detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and returned to Algeria, his home country. Mr. Biden wisely avoided the kind of highly public pledges to close down the prison that President Barack Obama made and could not keep. Clearing out the remaining prisoners requires cutting through a tangle of laws, policies, procedures and bureaucratic secrecy. Mr. Biden can use his authority to order the Departments of Defense, Justice and State, the intelligence agencies and other agencies involved to coordinate their efforts and direct their resources to make it happen, as quickly as possible. As long as there are people held in detention at Guantánamo, America’s condemnations of brutal detention centers in China and Syria will ring hollow.

☆ Children account for majority of Kenyan cult deaths, interior minister says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Ayenat Mersie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Followers of the Good News International Church near the coastal town of Malindi reportedly believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves. "The reports we are getting are that many of the recoveries are of children... Children are the majority, followed by women. "The preliminary reports we are getting is that some of the victims may not have died of starvation. REUTERS/Joseph OkangaPASTORS ARRESTEDThe leader of the Good News International Church, Paul Mackenzie, has been in police custody since April 14. On Thursday, he did not respond to questions from journalists as he was escorted into a police station.

☆ Josh Kline’s Survival Art for 21st-Century America
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jason Farago | Emma Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The real predecessor of an art of American consumer culture, with its shiny surfaces and its dirty undersides? It’s Jeff Koons — who also uses obviousness, directness and a proud anti-critical stance in the service of an “accessible” art. GOLDBERG Well, so much of Kline’s work says outright: What’s the point? can generate something really beautiful, then maybe Kline’s work is to generate something really human. FARAGO There’s an important work that’s not at the Whitney: a video called “Hope and Change,” which caused a minor sensation at the 2015 New Museum Triennial.

☆ Children cat-killing contest axed following backlash in New Zealand
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Heather Chen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —A contest planned for children in New Zealand to hunt and kill feral cats as part of a drive to protect native species has been axed following backlash from the public and animal rights groups. In neighboring Australia, authorities say feral cats threaten the survival of more than 100 native species. Feral cats are blamed for killing millions of birds, reptiles, frogs and mammals, every day, prompting authorities to arrange regular culls. The New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was “both pleased and relieved” that the cat-killing contest for children had been removed. Blackie, who has studied feral cats for two decades, said numbers had exploded in the last decade, and in some areas where pests were tracked by camera, feral cats outnumbered other species like possums.

☆ Opinion: I’m betting on Cousin Greg. But I’m not a serious person
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Gene Seymour | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

By now, we should be used to HBO’s series pulling the rug out from beneath our expectations. Still, as more than one pundit observed of Logan’s death, this one shocked more than merely surprised. Not me, though I do miss Brian Cox already because few actors anywhere are as adroit at playing dyspeptic sociopaths. It would be at the very least ironic if “Greg the Egg,” the minion’s minion, stumbled into power as if he tripped on a sidewalk. I’ll say no more on this except to suggest that you all try to remember who in the end won that “Game of Thrones.” It’s not inevitable.

☆ L'Oreal plans to buy luxury skincare brand Aesop — known for its $90 serums and $40 hand wash that wealthy millennials can't get enough of — in a $2.5 billion deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Mary Hanbury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

French cosmetics giant L'Oreal plans to buy Aesop for $2.5 billion. Aesop is an Australian skincare brand, known for its simple marketing and gender-neutral products. Aesop is an Australian brand that dates back to 1987 when founder Dennis Paphitis opened a Melbourne hair salon and began mixing essential oils into hair products. Today, it's known for luxurious home fragrances, hair oils, and skincare products, which are served up in apothecary-style brown bottles. It has become an aspirational brand for wealthy millennials who are happy to spend $40 on its hand wash to make their bathrooms look more upmarket.

☆ A dozen fake Easter eggs in dying kits from Walmart and Target are cheaper on average than a dozen real ones
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Egg prices are off of their January peak, but a dozen still costs more than $4, inflation numbers show. With Easter approaching, fake-egg dye kits from Walmart and Target may be cheaper than the real thing. The high cost of eggs led one of the largest dollar-store chains to decide not to carry them for now. (Actual egg prices vary substantially by geography. Easter decorators aren't the only ones adjusting their plans due to the still-high cost of eggs this spring.

The contracted use of hotels was envisioned as a temporary measure, but adds strain to the asylum accommodation system. The cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels has increased over the past year, now exceeding £6 million ($7.4 million) a day, the Home Office told CNN in a statement. On Tuesday, the UK Home Office also said Afghans who have been living in temporary UK accommodation for 18 months will be given three months’ notice to move out of so-called bridging hotels. There are currently around 8,000 Afghans living in 59 bridging hotels in the UK, according to the Home Office. But campaigners also warned that the plan could exacerbate the trauma experienced by people displaced by political strife and conflict in Afghanistan.

☆ Price hikes are double whammy for pet owners who are crushed by inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Minneapolis CNN —As head of PAWS Atlanta, Joe Labriola can get a good sense of the region’s economic well-being from the day-to-day activity of the city’s oldest no-kill animal shelter. And the shelves at PAWS Atlanta’s Pet Food Pantry quickly go bare. She said her pet food costs for Lola, her Australian Shepherd mix, and for Phoebe, her Golden Retriever, have doubled to $250 per month. Josh Fiala, Animal Rescue League of Iowa's Pet Support Services Manager, helps load pet food into a vehicle during a Pet Food Pantry in January 2022. Courtesy Animal Rescue League of IowaARL gave out about 40,000 pounds of pet food in both 2020 and 2021.

☆ Dyeing Easter eggs? The fake ones are cheaper than the real thing at Target and Walmart as egg prices soar
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Egg prices are off of their January peak, but a dozen still costs more than $4, inflation numbers show. With Easter approaching, fake-egg dye kits from Walmart and Target may be cheaper than the real thing. The high cost of eggs led one of the largest dollar store chains to decide not to carry them for now. (Actual egg prices vary substantially by geography.) Easter decorators aren't the only ones adjusting their plans due to the still-high cost of eggs this spring.

☆ Nike to drop use of kangaroo skins for its shoes in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 14 (Reuters) - Nike said it will stop using kangaroo skins for its shoes this year, weeks after a similar step from German rival Puma, which would end a highly controversial practice that has drawn ire from consumers and animal rights activists. Sportswear giant Nike Inc (NKE.N) in a statement issued on Monday said it would debut a new line of Tiempo football boots, called the Tiempo Legend Elite, with a proprietary synthetic material that replaces the use of kangaroo leather. The Tiempo Premier line of football boots, which is set to launch this summer, will also forego kangaroo skin, Nike said. The decision from Nike and Puma (PUMG.DE) to end the use of kangaroo skin in their football boots comes as a big win for animal welfare activists, who have for long urged companies to drop unethical practices involving animal cruelty. The group has spearheaded the "Kangaroos Are Not Shoes" campaign, which it announced in 2020, and has been key behind introducing legislation banning the import and sale of kangaroo products.

☆ A rash of proposed Florida laws use 'genocidal rhetoric' to attack trans people, legal experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

If passed, the bills would restrict access to gender-affirming care and classify it as child abuse. Experts told Insider the bills are posturing ahead of the 2024 presidential race. New legislation 'short circuits existing law'The proposed new bills go further to expand anti-trans legislation than others across the nation, disrupting established custody and health care precedent, legal experts told Insider. "I think that's important, just to note how brazen the language has become — it's genocidal rhetoric," Caraballo told Insider. "This is all about politics, and this is all about bolstering DeSantis is run for the presidency," Caraballo told Insider.

☆ A laid-off Twitter manager, who was one of Elon Musk's most loyal employees, tweeted 'cruelty is the worst' in an apparent dig at the tech mogul
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ex-Twitter manager Esther Crawford tweeted "cruelty is the worst" in an apparent dig at Elon Musk. She was seen as one of Musk's most loyal workers. Musk had publicly clashed with Haraldur Thorleifsson, a former Twitter director, on Monday. After Thorleifsson tweeted that he was unsure of his employment status, noting that he had been locked out of company systems, Musk accused him of using his disability as an "excuse" to do "no actual work." Crawford tweeted on Tuesday that "cruelty is the worst," without providing further context.

☆ The Huwara Riot Was No ‘Pogrom’
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Gil Troy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The riots against Palestinians on Sunday night were appalling—but they weren’t “pogroms.” Hundreds of Israeli settlers vandalized the West Bank town of Huwara, enraged that a Palestinian terrorist murdered two Jewish brothers driving through there earlier that day. The rioters killed one Palestinian, 37-year-old Sameh Aqtash , and wounded dozens, while torching houses and cars. For decades “pogrom” was the most chilling word in the Jewish vocabulary until the Nazi mass murder generated a new lexicon of horrors. After the czarist government orchestrated anti-Jewish violence in 1881, the word pogrom—from the Russian grom, meaning thunder—terrified Jews. “Perhaps most shocking of all, many supposedly decent people appeared among the makers of the pogroms.”

☆ Exclusive: Snapchat kicks few children off app in Britain, data given to regulator shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Martin Coulter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

These restrictions are intended to protect the privacy and safety of young children. The regulator also found Snapchat was the most popular app for underage social media users. RISKS TO YOUNG CHILDRENSocial media poses serious risks to young children, child safety advocates say. Richard Collard, associate head of child safety online at the NSPCC, said it was "incredibly alarming" how few underage users Snapchat appeared to be removing. Britain, like the European Union and other countries, has been seeking ways to protect social media users, in particular children, from harmful content without damaging free speech.

☆ Once tortured by criminals, Mexico 'survivor' dog looks to win top pet contest
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Alberto Fajardo | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Rescued as a one-year-old with his front limbs destroyed, Pay de Limon (Lemon Pie) found much-needed love at the Milagros Caninos sanctuary, a shelter south of Mexico City, which says he is thriving 12 years later. "He is a survivor of human cruelty and organized crime groups," Patricia Ruiz, founder of Milagros Caninos, told Reuters. Found abandoned in a dumpster in Mexico's central Zacatecas state, a hotbed for cartels and organized crime, Lemon Pie was later transported to the safety of the shelter in the capital. Now, he is ready to take a shot in the online contest for Americans' most dashing dog, albeit a non-native contestant. The contest, America's Favorite Pet, is open to pets on the American continent and runs as part of a charity fundraiser.

☆ Former Google staffer says she's gone from viewing the company culture as 'paradise' to 'quite grim'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ex-Googler Claire Stapleton said her perspective on Google's culture has shifted dramatically over the years. Stapleton said she was once a "cheerleader" for Google, but now she sees its culture as "quite grim." In 2018, Stapleton, organized a protest, walking off the job along with about 20,000 Google workers in response to the company's handling of sexual harassment allegations. Now nearly four years later, Stapleton says she sees Google's culture as "quite grim," especially since the company laid off about 12,000 employees in February. Stapleton is one of several former Google workers to speak out against the company in recent months.

☆ Leaked messages show a high-profile Amazon VP trying to calm employees over the return-to-office mandate: 'Let's not grab our torches and pitchforks quite yet'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Paul Vixie, a high-profile Amazon VP, told employees to be patient and wait for more details about the new return-to-office mandate. Amazon employees are furious about the new mandate which requires them to be in the office three days a week starting in May. A high-profile Amazon executive joined an internal Slack conversation on Tuesday as employee angst over the sudden return-to-office mandate intensified. It also shows how Amazon's return-to-office mandate was not widely shared even among the highest-ranked employees prior to its announcement on Friday. Many employees in the Slack channel expressed frustration over the abruptness and vagueness of Jassy's announcement.

Police officers involved in the deaths have become an intense focus of investigation, protest, and media coverage. Despite being at the heart of some of the most defining incidents in modern policing, most of the officers involved continue to live their lives under the radar. Insider's review of 72 cops involved in two dozen of the most notorious police killings of the past 30 years shows the many different paths officers have taken. There's no nationwide view into what happens to officers involved in egregious incidents of violence. In rare cases, cops involved in these killings have tried to publicly rehabilitate their image rather than seek out anonymity.

☆ In the Philippines, animal lovers book Valentine's dates with shelter dogs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Jay Ereno | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MANILA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Philippine government worker Mary Grace Burgos, 24, had several cute dates lined up for on Valentine's Day with one thing in common: they were all dogs up for adoption. Burgos was among a dozen of people who chose to spend their Valentine's Day at an animal shelter in the Philippine capital. The shelter, run by the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), charged guests 500 to 1,000 pesos ($9.12 - $18.24) to spend half an hour with a furry date. The entry fee will go toward running the shelter, which cares for over 240 dogs and cats. Animal cruelty is a crime in the Philippines but many cases go unreported, PAWS said.

☆ Suspect Arrested in Dallas Zoo Missing Monkeys Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Elizabeth Findell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Two emperor tamarin monkeys went missing from the Dallas Zoo earlier this week. They were found in a house in a Dallas suburb. DALLAS—Police arrested a man Thursday accused of involvement with the case of two emperor tamarin monkeys that went missing from the Dallas Zoo earlier this week. Davion Irvin , 24, is accused of six counts of animal cruelty not involving livestock, according to a news release. After police publicly identified Mr. Irvin as someone they would like to speak to involving the monkeys, someone spotted him near animal exhibits at the downtown Dallas Aquarium Thursday, the release said.

☆ A dead bird of prey with an 'unusual wound' and other suspicious incidents rock the Dallas Zoo
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Tim Stelloh | Tim Stelloh Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

An endangered vulture was found dead at the Dallas Zoo over the weekend with an "unusual wound," facility officials said Monday — the third suspicious incident there in less than two weeks. It isn’t clear whether the death of Pin, a 35-year-old lappet-faced vulture, is linked to the earlier incidents. The zoo said in a statement Monday it asked Dallas police to investigate and did not comment further. Dallas Zoo via NBC Dallas-Fort WorthThe zoo said that in the past 10 days, it had “substantially” increased security measures, including limiting access to outdoor enclosures and adding cameras and overnight guards. "Given the recent incidents at the Zoo, we alerted the Dallas Police Department," the post said.

☆ Yellen, at former slave port, sees path of renewal for Africa and U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Ngouda DioneGOREE ISLAND, Senegal, Jan 21 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Saturday spoke of the "unspeakable cruelty" and enduring consequences of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but said she was heartened by signs of progress and renewal in both the United States and Africa. "Ultimately, Gorée Island reminds us that the histories of Africa and America are intimately connected," Yellen said after touring the island. Goree's mayor Augustin Senghor presented Yellen with a certificate appointing her as a lifetime ambassador of the island's history. "With remembrance, I believe, can come progress and renewal," Yellen said, highlighting what she called "signs of vibrant life around Gorée — a prominent art scene, a place of education, and thousands who call this place home." Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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