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      Playboy image from 1972 gets ban from IEEE computer journals

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 29 March - 21:16 · 1 minute

    Playboy image from 1972 gets ban from IEEE computer journals

    Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Image)

    On Wednesday, the IEEE Computer Society announced to members that, after April 1, it would no longer accept papers that include a frequently used image of a 1972 Playboy model named Lena Forsén. The so-called " Lenna image ," (Forsén added an extra "n" to her name in her Playboy appearance to aid pronunciation) has been used in image processing research since 1973 and has attracted criticism for making some women feel unwelcome in the field.

    In an email from the IEEE Computer Society sent to members on Wednesday, Technical & Conference Activities Vice President Terry Benzel wrote , "IEEE's diversity statement and supporting policies such as the IEEE Code of Ethics speak to IEEE's commitment to promoting an including and equitable culture that welcomes all. In alignment with this culture and with respect to the wishes of the subject of the image, Lena Forsén, IEEE will no longer accept submitted papers which include the 'Lena image.'"

    An uncropped version of the 512×512-pixel test image originally appeared as the centerfold picture for the December 1972 issue of Playboy Magazine. Usage of the Lenna image in image processing began in June or July 1973 when an assistant professor named Alexander Sawchuck and a graduate student at the University of Southern California Signal and Image Processing Institute scanned a square portion of the centerfold image with a primitive drum scanner, omitting nudity present in the original image. They scanned it for a colleague's conference paper, and after that, others began to use the image as well.

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      What happens when ChatGPT tries to solve 50,000 trolley problems?

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 13 March - 16:05

    Images of cars on a freeway with green folder icons superimposed on each vehicle.

    Enlarge (credit: AerialPerspective Images )

    There’s a puppy on the road. The car is going too fast to stop in time, but swerving means the car will hit an old man on the sidewalk instead.

    What choice would you make? Perhaps more importantly, what choice would ChatGPT make?

    Autonomous driving startups are now experimenting with AI chatbot assistants, including one self-driving system that will use one to explain its driving decisions . Beyond announcing red lights and turn signals, the large language models (LLMs) powering these chatbots may ultimately need to make moral decisions, like prioritizing passengers’ or pedestrian’s safety. In November, one startup called Ghost Autonomy announced experiments with ChatGPT to help its software navigate its environment.

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      Tired of the doom-scroll? This is how to find the kinder, more uplifting side of the internet | Chris Anderson

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 4 March - 14:00 · 1 minute

    It is easy to see the world in a pessimistic light, but by tapping into our innate generosity we have the power to change it

    As a determined optimist, I never thought I’d be saying this, but it’s true: the world is mean and getting meaner. Instead of bringing us together, the internet seems to have fuelled our divisions by empowering those who are best at sowing fear, mistrust and outrage. We’re angry with each other over migrants, gender identity, climate catastrophe, wokeness and so much more.

    A recent survey by King’s College London found that for the first time a majority (52%) of the UK population believes that culture wars are a serious problem for society and politics. I’m sick of this. I suspect you are too. I’ve spent the last few years looking for an antidote. Just possibly, it can be found in a pair of human instincts wired deeply inside us: generosity, and our response to it. At the start of the pandemic lockdown, stories of death, chaos and grocery-hoarding filled the media. Like many of us, an Australian woman, Catherine Barrett, felt on the edge of tears much of the time. One day, one of her neighbours put a box of tissues on the communal table in her building with just a simple note: “Please take if needed.”

    Chris Anderson is the founder of Future Publishing and the head of TED. His latest book is Infectious Generosity

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      ‘A bit of a clown’: a look at Congressman George Santos’s endless fabrications

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 26 November - 12:00


    The New York fabulist accomplished practically nothing in his political career, just self-promotion through sheer chutzpah

    In a way, George Santos is one of the great success stories of American politics.

    The New York congressman is not responsible for exceptional legislative achievements. His brief tenure in Congress will not be held up as a success story for students of political history.

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      The world is burning. Who can convince the comfortable classes of the radical sacrifices needed? | Justine Toh

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 25 August, 2023 - 15:00

    Simone Weil’s life illustrates the capacity to give up the things we feel we’re owed – such as a carbon-intensive consumer-driven lifestyle

    Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The saying takes on new meaning after the hottest July ever, devastating wildfires in Greece and Canada, and the declaration by the UN secretary general, António Guterres , that we’ve left behind “global warming” for “global boiling”.

    But this time our Neros – AKA governments – aren’t the only ones shirking their responsibilities. What are the rest of us doing while the world burns?

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      A child’s best interests, not the desires of adults, should be at the heart of surrogacy | Sonia Sodha

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 2 April, 2023 - 06:30

    The Law Commission has gone too far in its proposed guidelines for surrogate parents

    Infertility can be deeply painful. There is a lot a compassionate society can – and should – do to make fertility treatment available to those who can be assisted to have a child with medical intervention. Few would disagree though that there are ethical boundaries to this, shaped by children’s interests, not just adult desires.

    Last week, the Law Commission drove a coach and horses through that moral frontier – which it framed as an overdue modernisation of the law – by publishing draft proposals to reform the UK’s surrogacy framework. Implicit in them is the, I suspect controversial, assumption that a single man seeking to have a child alone through surrogacy, because he doesn’t want or can’t maintain a committed relationship, presents no greater moral quandary than a couple seeking IVF. How controversial is anyone’s guess: the Law Commission hasn’t canvassed public attitudes.

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      Are we ethically ready to set up shop in space?

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 11 March, 2023 - 12:23

    Promotional image from 2001: A Space Odyssey

    Enlarge / Orbiting space station from 2001: A Space Odyssey . (credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images )

    Off-Earth will amaze you: On nearly every page, it will have your jaw dropping in response to mind-blowing revelations and your head nodding vigorously in sudden recognition of some of your own half-realized thoughts (assuming you think about things like settling space). It will also have your head shaking sadly in resignation at the many immense challenges author Erika Nesvold describes.

    But the amazement will win out. Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space is really, really good.

    The shortcomings of a STEM education

    Nesvold is an astrophysicist. She worked at NASA; she can easily run the equations to calculate how much fuel we need to get people, life support, and mining equipment to Mars.

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