Ben Klemens
@b-k.bsky.social
I've stopped using "Economist" and have switched to "Computational Social Scientist". @b@xoxo.zone on Mastodon. He/him or they/them
There was a streetcar on my street in the 1800s—horse drawn! Only the tracks are left, which cause gashes in the road bed. Every fifteen years or so they repave but don't pull the tracks, I suppose so everybody going down this road can be reminded that we once had streetcars.
This is very niche stuff for this general audience, but— If you're a government employee dealing with modernizing Medicaid tech infrastructure, I'm co-hosting a one-hour webinar on the subject next week, particularly about how to get better results within your existing contract.
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Modernizing Medicaid technologies through agile procurement. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
Constant policy changes result in expensive, exhausting, and inefficient software rebuilds and procurements. Break free of this cycle by truly modernizing how your government delivers software with hu...
usdigitalresponse-org.zoom.us
OMFG IF YOU ARE GONNA BE THE GUY WHO BRINGS A FUCKING AMP SIZED SPEAKER TO THE PARK PAY FOR A STREAMING PLAN DON’T BLAST HARD HOUSE INTERUPTED BY B2B SALES PITCHES
Phew...it's still there at Indian Boundary Park.
People used to tell racist jokes about dirty Mexicans, then late-nite comedians cleaned that up to a steady stream of "Taco Bell causes diarrhea" jokes, and they've used the trope for long enough that major newspapers now accept it as fact.
After a few months of evening and weekend work, I've published v1.1 of my open source software that turns a raw legal code into a lovely, deeply interconnected website. It's been nine years since the last release! cc: @krusynth.bsky.social, @johnathayde.com
Release v1.1 · statedecoded/statedecoded
Modernized the entire codebase from PHP 5 to PHP 8, fixing hundreds of incompatibilities so that the software runs on currently supported versions of PHP and MySQL 8. Added a Docker-based developme...
github.com
There was a period in DC politics when people argued that bike lanes were bad because only white male gentrifiers used them.
Jess Piper@piperformissouri.bsky.social · 4w agoDEI bike lanes…
i just had to explain to a 7 year old why there were armed soldiers at Shake Shack and i'm tired
The draft article on AI and copyright I'd posted to SSRN on 25 June is still "under review" by Elsevier. I think this is the right way to convey this here on The Socials: THE CENSORS AT ELSEVIER DON'T WANT YOU TO READ THIS SHOCKING ARTICLE ON A.I. AND COPYRIGHT: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The Art Critics Won't Save You from the Robots: Confronting A.I. as Misappropriation
Artificial intelligence (A.I.) systems require a wealth of training data, which is often harvested from creators without their consent, and then used to train s
papers.ssrn.com
250 years later is still not too late to declare your independence from the Imperial System! Switch to Metric today!
We're enjoying the reflecting pool and empty National Mall because it's obvious incompetence on display but nobody died or was irreparably harmed. Let's hope it stays that way.
Aaron Parnas@aaronparnas.bsky.social · last mo.The stage is falling apart at the rehearsal for Freedom 250's July 4th celebration.
We're hiring! Apply now to join our Government Affairs team at publicknowledge.org/govtaffairs!
Government Affairs Policy Counsel/Advocate - Public Knowledge - Career Page
Apply to Government Affairs Policy Counsel/Advocate at Public Knowledge in Washington, DC.
publicknowledge.org
Looks like EU-US data transfers of PII depend on having an independent agency in the US handling the details of privacy regulations. Now that SCOTUS has declared tnat the FTC isn't an independent agency, that arrangement is being called into question. noyb.eu/en/us-suprem...
US Supreme Court just blew up EU-US Data Transfers
The US Supreme Court decided that the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may not be independent anymore – with major implications for EU-US Data Transfers.
noyb.eu
Super-glad I got this op-ed about 12-dimensional spheres into Scientific American before it got sold out. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-... It's even relevant to that article about AI+copyright I'd posted earlier this week; see papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... fn 41. #selfpromotionSunday
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of Social Science Modeling
It’s known as the “curse of dimensionality,” and it’s why our estimates of how a disease will behave will always have imprecision
scientificamerican.com
OK, intellectual property fans, here's a draft law review essay I wrote for you about AI and copyright. It's really about a trend in copyright jurisprudence which is distorting the AI debate. You shift the trend, you fix the debate. 1/9 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
The Art Critics Won't Save You from the Robots: Confronting A.I. as Misappropriation
Artificial intelligence (A.I.) systems require a wealth of training data, which is often harvested from creators without their consent, and then used to train s
papers.ssrn.com
"Springer Nature is nevertheless still selling the empty PDF for $39.95."
Daniel Pomarède@pomarede.bsky.social · last mo.Why have papers by one of history’s most famous physicists been retracted? Springer Nature has removed two studies by Max Planck. A bot may be to blame. www.science.org/content/arti... ⚛️🧪
I'm very excited to be part of this awesome virtual symposium on the future of the U.S. tax system, hosted at Democracy Journal. democracyjournal.org/category/mag... So many smart, thoughtful, and especially readable takes on what's next. My own bit is here: democracyjournal.org/magazine/81/...
81
A Journal of Ideas
democracyjournal.org
Nobody knows how Caesar was born--it should be called a K-section, because we all have a good image of how the Kool-aid Man was born.
“So how did you two meet?” “We were both palace guards stationed outside the gate.” “No we weren’t.”
Are there any technology law reviews that accept submissions in LaTeX? I'd take that as a strong signal that the editors won't exclude technologist authors.
SocArXiv accepts law papers, as we always have. Some of the bells and whistles he wants we don't have- like ranking and email subscriptions, but those can be built using SocArXiv. We don't have funds or staff to help build that, but law schools do.
Ann M. Lipton@annmlipton.bsky.social · 2mo agonot sure if everyone can access this, but I just learned about some dramatic changes to SSRN from Steve Bainbridge's Substack. This is really bad; SSRN has been how I keep up with scholarship in my field from a variety of researchers www.stephenbainbridge.com/p/the-social...
lastly, contrary to what a lot of blueskiers seem to be posting, the idea of trademark having a duty to police is dramatically overblown. patagonia letting pattie be does not meaningfully undermine the strength of its marks or its ability to enforce its marks against others.
Look, I'm trying to get on board with descriptive (vs prescriptive) grammar, but it still bugs me when people use "dice" as a singular. Though not as much as when they try to pluralize it to "dices."
Emerging from lurk to drop the final version of Separation of Copyright Powers, my new explainer on all the legal and historical puzzle boxes surrounding the administration's attempt to take over the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office. A quick summary... 1/ papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Separation of Copyright Powers
<div> <div> <div> The United States Copyright Office’s multifarious roles in the U.S. copyright system have long prompted uncertainty about its position a
papers.ssrn.com
In front of the committee chair is a plaque: "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law." See my potato photo below.
