How Many Billionaires Are There, Anyway?
The New York Times: “Forbes thinks there are 735 of them in America. Another count finds 927. Whatever the answer, the mystery is revealing — and the number is growing rapidly.”
You’re Still Being Tracked on the Internet, Just in a Different Way -The New York Times – “Apple and Google are pushing privacy changes, but a shift in digital tracking is giving some platforms a bigger advertising advantage….Now tracking has shifted to what is known as “first party” tracking. With this method, people are not being trailed from app to app or site to site.
But companies are still gathering information on what people are doing on their specific site or app, with users’ consent. This kind of tracking, which companies have practiced for years, is growing. In other words, Google is accumulating data on its own users’ search queries, location data and contact information. Pinterest is doing the same with its users on its site and app, while TikTok is gathering information on the people who are on its app. The New York Times also does first-party tracking. The rise of this tracking has implications for digital advertising, which has depended on user data to know where to aim promotions. It tilts the playing field toward large digital ecosystems such as Google, Snap, TikTok, Amazon and Pinterest, which have millions of their own users and have amassed information on them. Smaller brands have to turn to those platforms if they want to advertise to find new customers…”
CRS Legal Sidebar: A Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court? Legal Questions and Considerations Updated April 6, 2022: “The Code of Conduct for United States Judges(the Code) is a set of ethical canons that the Judicial Conference of the United States(Judicial Conference) has adopted to promote public confidence in the integrity, independence, and impartiality of the federal judiciary.
The Code governs the behavior of most federal judges; however, it does not explicitly apply to Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the Justices consult the Code, along with other sources, for guidance when performing their judicial duties, the Court is not presently subject to a defined body of general ethical rules. Some observers maintain that “Supreme Court justices should be bound by the same code of ethics that all other federal judges are required to follow.
”To that end, some Members of Congress have introduced legislation that would require the Judicial Conference to “issue a code of conduct[] which applies to each justice” on the Court. While some commentators and legislators have supported ethical rules for the Supreme Court for years, the issue gained increased prominence in March 2022 following reports that Virginia Thomas, wife of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, sent text messages in January 2021 to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows encouraging him to contest the result of the 2020 presidential election. In response to those reports, some have debated whether Justice Thomas should recuse himself from certain cases voluntarily, while others have called for broader changes to the Court’s ethical obligations that would bind all the Justices. By contrast, some commentators question whether Congress should—or even could—impose a code of ethics on the Supreme Court.
This Sidebar canvasses the relevant legal considerations surrounding proposals to establish a Supreme Court code of conduct. After discussing the existing Code that applies to lower federal judges, the Sidebar describes recent legislative proposals to create a similar code for the Supreme Court, as well as potential constitutional obstacles to those proposals.”
Reverse Google Images Search Can Help You Bust Fake News and Fraud
CNET: “On Friday, a photo that purported to show two British naval aircraft carriers dwarfing a much smaller French naval ship made the rounds on social media. But you can’t always believe your eyes online. Photos are easy to duplicate and then use in misleading ways. Scammers can lift a social media profile photo, for example, and use it to give a fake account a sheen of authenticity. Similarly, news photos can be grabbed from coverage of one event and pasted into stories about another event, misleading readers about what’s happening. In the case of the photo of the aircraft carriers, a reverse image search revealed the tiny vessel had been added digitally, Snopes found. A reverse image search can help you spot misleading photos by identifying their origin. If you’re in doubt, this search engine tool will help you spot scams, debunk false news, and discover people using your imageswithout your permission. Reverse image searches rely on either Google’s Images or Lens service. Either will provide a list of websites displaying the photo or image, as well as a link and description. Both services can also give you a list of visually similar images that might provide images shot from different angles. The list might also show the same picture with an original caption or from an earlier news story. That information is often used by fact-checkers, who’ve been using the tools to verify whether images from the war in Ukraine are current and shared in the right context. These tools are so powerful that scammers are turning to high-tech methods to end-run reverse image searches. AI-generated profile pictures have become popular with dishonest groups that rely on bogus social media accounts, like the scheme researchers identified on LinkedInthat aimed to generate sales leads with a raft of fake profiles. Reverse image searching an AI-generated photo won’t lead you to a real person, so they’re harder to identify as fake. But the use of AI-generated photos is currently fairly limited…”
Dillon Bergin – MuckRock’s Documenting COVID-19 project – “Our data repository includes some of what our team considers the most important data points that the CDC’s provisional mortality database has to offer:
- Leading external causes of death in the 113 CDC code list, by underlying cause of death;
- Natural causes of death associated with COVID-19, using the CDC’s categories for excess deaths associated with COVID, by underlying cause of death;
- All deaths by race and ethnicity, with age-adjusted rate, regardless of underlying cause of death.
- In addition, the repository includes data that can help users make sense of these mortality numbers, such as the excess mortality numbers modeled by demographers at Boston University and information about medical examiner and coroner offices.”
Axios: “The National Urban League’s 2022 “State of Black America” report warns of a systematic effort to “disenfranchise, delude, manipulate and intimidate American voters,” Axios’ Russell Contreras writes.
- “[T]here’s a plot to destroy American democracy,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial told reporters on a call ahead of today’s release of the annual report’s 46th edition.
What’s happening: The report says state legislatures have been restricting voting access in districts with large populations of Black Americans, Latinos and Native Americans.
- The Urban League’s Equality Index was stagnant. The measure estimates the share of the pie Black Americans get compared to white Americans — economic status, health, education, social justice and civic engagement…”