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Media

Unauthorized digging causes natural gas pipeline rupture; news organizations label it a “leak”

In 2010, news organizations labeled the Deepwater Horizon explosion a “spill” even though it was an explosion. This week, news organizations labeled as a “leak” the fact 37,000 customers in eastern Washington and northwestern Idaho have no heat or hot water and can’t cook meals. Yes, the pipeline was “leaking” natural gas. Why? An unnamed […]

Categories
Politics and civics

Israel and Palestine: 56 years of occupation

Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 2023. The Netanyahu government responded swiftly and indiscriminately. At least 1,400 people in Israel and 5,000 people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) have been killed. Most are civilians. One of my students at the University of Washington has had their (fortunately unoccupied) family home destroyed by bombs. They […]

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AI

The flip side of FRT: profile creation

Facial recognition technology (FRT) has an ongoing problem with racial, gender and age bias. But what about tools used to create profile images? Do they suffer from the same “White male” bias? Jeremy Andrew Davis, who was diagnosed as autistic in 2022, tested MidJourney like this. His written prompt: “an autistic person” as well as […]