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☆ Iowa’s New Law Banning Books Hobbles Public Schools - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Bridgette Exman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The one book that especially pained me was “Friday Night Lights” by H.G. When I pulled the sole copy from its tidy place among the B’s to reread, I noticed its tattered, torn and taped cover. It gives me no joy to limit the books available to them, and I am grateful that in the end I was able to keep “Friday Night Lights” on the shelf. The law mandates that school libraries may only contain “age-appropriate” books free of any “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act” as defined by Iowa Code. In a particularly draconian move, the law holds individual teachers and school librarians accountable for violations.

Persons: Iowa’s, ” Organizations: Iowa Locations: Iowa

☆ A century before Silicon Valley billionaires pitched a brand new city in this California county, wealthy businessmen tried — and failed — to do the same thing
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A group of Silicon Valley investors are planning to build a city in Solano County. The project, Solano City, failed as money ran dry and investors couldn't attract enough buyers. "The Market is TWO HOURS AWAY," one advertisement read, pointing an arrow from San Francisco to Solano City. Solano Irrigated Farms was soon unable to keep up with bills, and "Solano City died almost overnight," according to the historical database. Remnants of Solano City in progress can be seen in the county, Paul said.

Persons: Flannery, Patrick Calhoun, John Calhoun, Bil Paul, Paul, Solano, They're Organizations: Service, Silicon, Sacramento —, Flannery Associates Locations: Silicon, Solano County, Solano City, Wall, Solano County —, San Francisco, Sacramento, Dixon, Washington, San Francisco Bay, California, Solano, Farms, City

Narcan, the first opioid overdose reversal medication approved for over-the-counter purchase, is being shipped to drugstore and grocery chains nationwide, its manufacturer said Wednesday. Big-box outlets like Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and Rite Aid said they expected Narcan to be available online and on many store shelves early next week. There were more than 100,000 opioid overdose fatalities in each of the last two years in the United States. Narcan is already a staple for emergency personnel and street outreach teams. Now scientists and health officials are hoping Narcan will eventually become commonplace in public libraries, subways, dorms, corner delis and street vending machines.

Persons: Narcan Organizations: CVS, Walmart, Rite Aid Locations: United States

☆ Afghanistan has always been at the mercy of would-be liberators - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Sola Mahfouz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In America, I thought that I would finally learn what freedom really was, and I did feel free at first. Former President Donald Trump has attacked and incited violence against some of the foundations of American freedom — the press, Congress, truth itself. We should ask ourselves: Are we really free, or do we live in someone else’s idea of freedom, one driven by religious or nationalist myths? I feel more like an observer of American freedom than a true participant. I will only truly feel free when I can do in Afghanistan the same things that I can do in America.

Persons: it’s, Donald Trump Organizations: Taliban Locations: America, Afghanistan

Earlier this year, the Republican presidential primary looked as though it would be driven by conservative cultural battles, especially fights over education that had animated the party’s base since the pandemic. Even Donald J. Trump seemed to be trying to outflank Mr. DeSantis on education policies, promising to root out “Marxists” in the Education Department. But anti-wokeness has not played as large a role as expected in the Republican race so far. On the campaign trail, Mr. DeSantis has refocused his stump speech on the economy and border security while leaning less into culture-war issues. Former Vice President Mike Pence called in a speech this month to redistribute federal education spending to states — a traditional Republican goal dating from long before anti-woke crusades.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Donald J, Trump, ”, DeSantis, Mike Pence Organizations: Republican, Mr, Education Department Locations: Florida

☆ Disney, The New York Times and CNN are among a dozen major media companies blocking access to ChatGPT as they wage a cold war on A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The Guardian’s Ariel Bogle reported last week that CNN, The New York Times, and Reuters had blocked GPTBot. Publishers such as Condé Nast, Hearst, and Vox Media, which all house several prominent publications, have also taken the defensive measure. The deep archives and intellectual property rights of these news organizations are immensely valuable — arguably crucial — to training A.I. “I see a heightened sense of urgency when it comes to addressing the use, and misuse, of our content,” Coffey said. News organizations might feel they’re on solid legal ground, as Coffey told me, but there has yet to be any serious action taken against the OpenAI.

Persons: Ariel Bogle, Condé Nast, GPTBot, Danielle Coffey, Coffey, newsrooms “, ” Coffey, Barry Diller, OpenAI, “, ”, they’re Organizations: CNN —, CNN, The New York Times, Reuters, Disney, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, ABC News, ESPN, Hearst, Vox Media, News Media Alliance, Associated Press Locations: The, …

☆ High-income Americans rarely mix with poorer people. Restaurants like Applebee's and Olive Garden are the exception.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Americans are even less likely to mix with people from different socio-economic classes than pre-pandemic. New research shows that affordable, chain restaurants are the exception. "The most socio-economically diverse places in America are not public institutions, like schools and parks, but affordable, chain restaurants," Massenhoff and Wilmers write. But there are some places where Americans of different incomes congregate: The aforementioned chain restaurants. At somewhere like Panera, poorer Americans are more likely to meet non-poor Americans, but not the other way around.

Persons: Maxim Massenhoff, Nathan Wilmers, lockdowns, it's, Raj Chetty Organizations: Service, Naval Postgraduate School, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Locations: Wall, Silicon, America, Boston, Dallas, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chili's

☆ Updated Covid-19 vaccines are coming mid-September, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Brenda Goodman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Covid-19 vaccines that have been tweaked to teach the body how to fend off the current crop of circulating variants are now expected to land in drugstores and clinics in mid-September, senior administration officials say. The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to give its nod to the updated vaccines in a few weeks. Officials said ACIP will meet quickly after the FDA decision in order to expedite the regulatory steps and get the vaccines to market. The advisory group is scheduled to meet to discuss Covid-19 vaccines on September 12, meaning the vaccines could become available soon after. The details of the pharmacy program are still being worked out, and there may be a slight lag in getting free vaccines at some stores.

Persons: CNN —, ACIP, Mandy Cohen, ”, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, Cohen, There’s Organizations: CNN, US Food and Drug Administration, US Centers for Disease Control, Officials, CDC, Covid, Pfizer, Moderna, FDA, EG, Affordable, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, CNN Health Locations: drugstores, Covid

☆ AI chip giant Nvidia mentioned a particular company again and again during its latest blockbuster conference call. You'll be surprised which one.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Investors have been counting how many times executives say 'AI' on conference calls. Instead, I counted how many times Nvidia mentioned different companies on its latest call. AdvertisementAdvertisementThis year, investors have been counting how many times company executives say "AI" on earnings conference calls. Here's one example, where the CEO discussed large companies adopting new AI technologies. Amazon and Google, two of the largest cloud and AI companies on earth, only got a couple of callouts each.

Persons: That's, It's, Nvidia's, Jensen Huang Organizations: Nvidia, Morning, Tech, Sentieo, VMware, Broadcom, Google

☆ Google, Amazon, Nvidia and other tech giants invest in AI startup Hugging Face, sending its valuation to $4.5 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Hugging Face, an AI firm based in New York, has raised $235 million at a $4.5 billion valuation from some of technology's biggest companies. Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue said the funds are to be focused on hiring talent to be competitive in the artificial intelligence space. He hopes that AI developers will rely on Hugging Face on a daily basis to get their work done. And if all of them use Hugging Face all day, every day, we'll obviously be in a good position," he said. Hugging Face hosts 500,000 different AI models, 250,000 data sets, and has 10,000 paying customers, the company said.

Persons: Clement Delangue, OpenAI, BLOOM, Delangue Organizations: Google, Nvidia, Salesforce, AMD, Intel, IBM, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Facebook, Meta, CNBC, IDEFICS Locations: New York

☆ Photo Essay: A Historic Dallas Neighborhood Grapples With Gentrification
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Azul Sordo | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +19 min

Raul Gutiérrez Alvarado (left) and his nephew, William Domínguez Gutierrez, pose for a portrait outside of their Oak Cliff home. At the time, the local media narrative was one of positive change for the neighborhood, Valderas says. (Azul Sordo for USN&WR)Before the BarrioOak Cliff was once a majority-white, working class neighborhood, annexed by Dallas in 1903. South Oak Cliff, which is largely Black and Hispanic, has a long record of neglect, well documented by Texas Monthly . This is the only photo she has of herself, which adorns the living room of her South Oak Cliff home.

Persons: Cliff, Seattle –, Ferguson, Raul Gutiérrez Alvarado, William Domínguez Gutierrez, Oak Cliff, Gutierrez, Manuel Sordo, Giovanni Valderas, Valderas, “, Ezekiel Garcia, Brianna Hinguanzo, Jose Melendez, Diana Melendez, ”, . Sandoval, Sandoval, Strausz, ” Sandoval, Tereso Ortiz, they’ve, They’ve, ” Ortiz, Claudia Rangel, Damien Olguin, Rangel, Pearlina Bates, she’s, Bates, ” Bates, ‘ Let's, Todd Williams, Sam Moss, Moss, Cliff Valderas, –, ” Valderas, Chad West, Gloria McCoy, Joann, McCoy, SaCarol Ford, Shaun Montgomery, She’s, Charles Strain, Noah Penn, ” Montgomery, Robert L, Thornton, ” Kathryn Holliday, that's, Tomorrow Bates, it’s, ‘, ” Pearlina Bates Organizations: DALLAS, U.S ., U.S . As Texas, USN, Dallas Morning News, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Dallas, San, Texas Woman’s University, Oak Cliff, cleats, Bishop Arts, Institute, Ku Klux Klan, D Magazine, “, Penn State University, Bishop Arts District, Casa, Blacks, New York City, Texas Woman's University, Dallas County, City Council, Chad, Greater El Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, Tenth, Historic, Tenth Street Residential Association, Greater El Bethel Church, Ninth Ward School, Ku Klux, Dallas Observer, American Institute of Architects, University of Illinois, Tenth Street, Greater El Bethel Baptist Missionary Church, Sunday, Texas Monthly, Cliff Locations: Dallas, U.S, U.S . As, Seattle, Lawndale, Chicago, Missouri, Dover , New Jersey, Michocán, Mexico, Oak, San Francisco, Denver, Boston, North Oak, Jefferson, “ Texas, Black, “ Barrio America, American City, South Dallas, Oak Cliff, ”, Casa Guanajuato, Dallas from Louisiana, –, Kiest Park, Texas, Melba, Greater El Bethel, Van Buren

☆ Opinion: Young Colombians had high hopes for their first leftist president. It didn’t last
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Opinion Kristina Foltz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Before Petro, Colombia had been governed for decades by liberal and conservative parties forming part of the broader Colombian political right. A demonstrator holds a tainted image of Colombian President Gustavo Petro (left) during an anti-government protest in the capital on August 16. Luisa Gonzalez/ReutersBut what about young Colombians, who, like me, are worried about the direction Petro is taking the country? Ivan says he was drawn to Petro because, “he always had a message about generating free quality education for young people. His successor, President Nicolas Maduro, continued Chavismo policies that have destroyed the Venezuelan economy.

Persons: Kristina Foltz, Read, — Gustavo Petro —, I’m, — Nicolas Petro —, Nicolas ’, Petro, Gustavo Petro, Luisa Gonzalez, Ivan Oros, “, ”, Ivan, —, Ivan’s, Juan Manuel Santos, Ivan Duque’s ‘, he’s, Nicolas —, Ariel Ricardo Armel, Juan Valdez, ” Ariel, Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro, Ariel, Armando Duarte Galan, governability, it’s Organizations: Rotary Ambassador, CNN, Petro, Reuters, La Primavera, Revolutionary Armed Forces, Colombian, University of Pamplona, Social Communications, Colombian Organization, Students, El, SISBEN, WHO, US, Twitter, Facebook, Plaza Bolivar Locations: Bogotá, Colombian, Latin America, Colombia, Venezuela, Venezuelan

☆ Here's the trade on Nvidia ahead of earnings, according to analysts
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

NVDA YTD mountain NVDA has surged in 2023 Ahead of earnings Wednesday, analysts are weighing in on the forthcoming report and how to trade the earnings. Oppenheimer's Rick Schafer maintained an outperform rating on Nvidia and raised his price target to $500 per share up from $420. Elsewhere, Citi analyst Atif Malik reiterated both a buy rating and a $520 per share price target in a note last week. However, Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymour is more cautious on Nvidia stock heading into earnings, and reiterated a hold rating in Tuesday note. Seymour maintains a $440 per share price target, which forecasts roughly 2% upside from the stocks current trading levels.

Persons: Hans Mosesmann, Mosesmann, Oppenheimer's Rick Schafer, " Schafer, Wolfe, Chris Caso, " Caso, Atif Malik, Wall, Malik, Ross Seymour, Seymour, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Nvidia, Rosenblatt Securities, Wolfe Research, Citi, Deutsche Bank, LT

And according to a report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, they're especially popular among young adults — the same group that dominates PC gaming, according to Statista. However, these days, most MacBooks run on a single chip called either the M1 or M2, also known as Apple silicon, that holds both the CPU and GPU. Steam, the most popular PC gaming app, even has its own dedicated macOS catalog now. It features thousands of fantastic games, including:You also have access to a wealth of popular games outside of Steam, like Fortnite and The Sims 4. And don't forget cloud gaming services like Xbox Game Pass that let you stream popular games on your MacBook.

Persons: MacBooks, you'll, Whoopi Goldberg's, you'd, William Antonelli, I've, you've, aren't Organizations: Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Apple, AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Mac, Forza, Xbox Cloud Locations: itch.io

☆ Opinion | State’s ‘Misguided Takeover’ of Houston Schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “Anger Rises in Houston Over the State’s Schools Takeover” (news article, Aug. 13):The politically motivated and downright misguided takeover of the Houston Independent School District sets a deplorable example for struggling school districts nationwide. The solution to poorly performing schools should not be to close libraries and force misbehaving students to watch videos in those repurposed spaces. To place them in closed libraries and force them to watch videos of their classes only confirms for those students that they’re troublemakers and that reading lacks value. Superintendent Mike Miles, a former Army ranger “who has no official certification,” is better suited to run an Army base, not schools. His plan to compensate teachers for improved scores on standardized tests is also imprudent, for such tests provide a limited measure of students’ aptitude, are often biased and narrow the scope of classroom instruction.

Persons: they’ve, Mike Miles, “ Organizations: Houston Independent School District, Army Locations: Houston

☆ An Iowa school district asked ChatGPT if a list of books contains sex scenes, and banned them if it said yes. We put the system to the test and found a bunch of problems.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

An Iowa school district asked ChatGPT if a list of books "contain a description or depiction of a sex act." In an effort to decide what books to ban from school libraries, an Iowa school district asked ChatGPT whether a list of books contained a description or depiction of an explicit act. When ChatGPT replied that 19 books did indeed contain such scenes, the school district banned 19 books, various news outlets reported this week. We asked ChatGPT the same question three times, and it gave us three very different answers. Of the 19 books removed by the Mason City school district, 17 have been reviewed by age-rating nonprofit Common Sense Media.

Persons: ChatGPT, That's, Exman, Mason, Mr Griffin, Kai Xiang Teo, Kai Xiang Teo ChatGPT, John, OpenAI Organizations: Mason City Community Schools District, Popular Science, Engadget, Mason, Mason City School District Locations: Iowa, Mason, Alaska, America, Mason City

☆ Rosenblatt hikes Nvidia price target to Street high, says shares can rally another 80% from here
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Rosenblatt is getting more bullish on Nvidia , hiking its price target on the chip giant to a Street high ahead of next week's earnings release. Analyst Hans Mosesmann lifted his price target on the chipmaker to $800 from $600 a share, reflecting 82% upside from Tuesday's close. "With unmatched strengths in compilers, libraries, and vertical optimizations, NVDA can overcome hardware specification challenges and drive recurring software revenue streams," Mosesmann wrote in a Wednesday note. "While early innings, we view NVDA as a high-conviction story thriving amid uncertainty given secular AI, autonomous driving, and metaverse tailwinds." Mosesmann expects Nvidia to top estimates for the July quarter and anticipates earnings in the upcoming calendar year will range well into the high teens.

Persons: Rosenblatt, Hans Mosesmann, Mosesmann, metaverse, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Nvidia

☆ Opinion | The Book Banners and I Have One Thing in Common
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Garret Keizer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even classics can go out of print, but the war on books is never out of style. I was as opposed to that war at the age of 17 as I am at age 70. But there’s something I failed to see in my youth that I recognize today: the one piece of common ground between the book banners and me. We both believe that books matter, that they have the power to change a young person’s life. Access to the books was restricted, yes, but no one was calling for their removal.

Locations: New Jersey

☆ Texas Revamps Houston Schools, Closing Libraries and Angering Parents
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-13 | by ( J. David Goodman | More About J. David Goodman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“It doesn’t feel right,” said Jessica Campos, 41, a parent at Pugh Elementary, a Spanish dual-language school slated for immediate changes. Schools will also hire community members to teach elective courses like photography and spin classes. Miles has said that given limited space and resources, the decision was a trade-off and that students in schools where libraries have been converted into team rooms would still be able to borrow books before or after school. “He’s gone too far, and he’s dismantling the largest educational district in the state of Texas,” Mr. Turner said of Mr. “You cannot have a situation where you are closing libraries for some schools in certain neighborhoods, and there are other neighborhoods where there are libraries, fully equipped.

Persons: ”, Jessica Campos, we’re, Miles, Sylvester Turner, He’s, ” Mr, Turner Organizations: Pugh, Houston’s Locations: Spanish, Texas

☆ Baratunde Thurston Eats His Feelings (With Ice Cream)
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Kathryn Shattuck | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

1Public LibrariesLibrarians are heroes, and libraries are some of our last truly democratic public spaces, literally open to all. It’s chocolate within chocolate within chocolate. But if you’re feeling like maybe your society is tending toward fascism, Jeni’s ice cream can help you process that feeling. And for Black men, at times it can be even tougher. Kings Corner is a safe space for us to check in with each other, to hold ourselves high and hold ourselves accountable.

Persons: that’s Organizations: Librarians, Patriot, Hydro Locations: ”

☆ I'm an AI prompt engineer. Here are 3 ways I use ChatGPT to get the best results.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Anna Bernstein is a prompt engineer at Copy.ai, which makes AI tools to generate written content. Her job is to write prompts to train the bot to generate high-quality, accurate writing. Here are her tips on how to write prompts to get the best outcomes from AI chatbots. Now, I'm a prompt engineer helping to optimize the most cutting-edge technology in the world. It's my job, then, to write prompts that can get that query to generate the best output through:Instruction, or "write a product description about this."

Persons: Anna Bernstein, —, I'm, it's, I've, didn't, ChatGPT Organizations: Morning, Copy.ai Locations: New York, English

☆ A conservative parents group that pushes for book bans is sharing videos on how to pressure your child's teachers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Utah Parents United is a conservative Christian group that pushes for education reform in Utah. Utah Parents United released a training video that teaches parents how to confront teachers. Utah Parents United is a Christian parents group that advocates for book bans as well as legislation that gives parents more power to make changes to school curriculums. As part of that effort, the group created a two-hour training video that aims to teach parents "how to have uncomfortable conversations with your teacher or principal." All these resources cover how to pressure teachers to conform to parents' views on their children's education.

Persons: Jen Brown, Utahns, Brown, Ken Ivory, Annie Massey, Massey, Corinne Johnson, George Floyd, Johnson Organizations: Utah Parents, Service, Salt Lake Tribune, Republican State Rep, Utah Parents United Public Locations: Utah, Wall, Silicon, Salt, Utah Utah, Davis County, Alaska

☆ Florida Schools Try to Adapt to New Rules on Gender, Bathrooms and Pronouns
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The new bureaucracy is an offshoot of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s increasingly muscular push for “parental rights” in education, with new laws and regulations that broadly restrict classroom instruction on gender and sexuality, including in high school, and prevent transgender students and staff members from using group bathrooms that match their gender identity. Teachers will also be barred from asking students for their preferred pronouns and could lose their professional certification for violating the new laws. Course lists and classroom libraries are also under the microscope, with districts seeking to excise material that touches on gender and sexuality, including in classics like “Romeo and Juliet.”Here is how some Florida school districts are interpreting the new laws. They Have a Form for ThatThe new regulations have created a bureaucratic tangle, with several counties sending parents forms that must be filled out if they want their child referred to by something other than their legal name.

Persons: Ron DeSantis’s, Romeo, Juliet Organizations: Gov Locations: Florida

☆ The era of cheap streaming is officially over
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“The advertising marketplace for streaming is picking up,” Iger told investors on the quarterly earnings call. The announcement puts to an end much of the initial allure that led to the popularity of streaming. That served as the genesis of the streaming era, with legacy entertainment companies such as Disney racing to launch their own direct-to-consumer products at unsustainably low costs. Couple that reality with the introduction of ads into streaming and the end product eerily resembles on-demand cable. It’s an ironic end to the streaming wars.

Persons: CNN —, pesky, Bob Iger, Iger, ” Iger, “, ” Organizations: CNN, Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Media, Paramount, Warner Bros Locations: Magic

☆ A Utah parents group that pushes book bans shares how-to videos for challenging a child's curriculum in a 'kind' way
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Utah Parents United is a conservative Christian group that pushes for education reform in Utah. Utah Parents United released a training video that teaches parents how to confront teachers. Utah Parents United is a Christian parents group that advocates for book bans as well as legislation that gives parents more power to make changes to school curriculums. As part of that effort, the group created a two-hour training video that aims to teach parents "how to have uncomfortable conversations with your teacher or principal." "You can see the curriculum for your teacher's class for the entire year, and track every assignment, and see what's going into this teacher's curriculum," Johnson said.

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