Новости за 08.03.2021

In December, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, fired Timnit Gebru, a celebrated artificial intelligence researcher and one of the most accomplished members of her field. Gebru, one of the few Black women in a senior position at Alphabet (where less than 3 percent of employees are Black), had been an integral member of the company’s Ethical A.I. team, a well-regarded, diverse group of high-achieving researchers who explored issues like racial bias in facial recognition or how “fairness” might be defined in machine-learning systems... Читать дальше...

Hurricane season is creeping its way deeper into spring. Last month, the Washington Post reported that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is considering officially moving up the start of the storm season to May 15. The move, being reviewed by the NOAA’s National Hurricane Office in Miami, is the result of experts coming to the conclusion that, as global temperatures have consistently risen, so too have the frequency of pre-June storms.

Last month in Chicago, after months of heated negotiations, the teachers union and Chicago Public Schools emerged with one of the most detailed school reopening agreements in the nation. Brad Marianno, an education policy professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has been studying these agreements since last spring, called it the most comprehensive he’s seen, citing its inclusion of things like testing protocols, measures that might lead to reclosing schools, and vaccination commitments. Читать дальше...

Other than the joys and sorrows of leaving New York City (or staying there), no recent topic has launched more exasperating essays than “cancel culture.” When Glenn Greenwald departed The Intercept late last year, he wrote an extraordinary missive of more than 3,000 words, accusing the editors of attempting to censor him. Bari Weiss and Andrew Sullivan resigned from The New York Times and New York magazine, respectively, both citing an intolerably illiberal culture of woke conformism. These are just a few examples. Читать дальше...

On November 6, 2000, Kansas Highway Patrolmen pulled over a rented Buick LeSabre on what seemed like a routine traffic stop. That was until the driver, 58-year-old William Leonard Pickard, bolted from the scene on foot, escaping into the woods of rural Kansas. Searching the Buick, the police found, among other seemingly incriminating literature, a government-issued guide on controlled substances and a brochure titled “How to Escape Federal Prison Camp.” More crucially, in a Ryder van accompanying the rented LeSabre... Читать дальше...

The Republican Party is facing what many observers are describing as a William F. Buckley moment—a make-or-break opportunity to purge the racists and conspiracy theorists who are rapidly gaining control of the GOP.