Top Stories
TOP STORY
TOP STORY
NYC mayor indicted after Fed. investigation
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted following a federal investigation, reports say.
The indictment remains sealed, so the charges Adams faces are unclear. But it will make him the first sitting mayor in New York City history to be indicted. The move follows several investigations involving the mayor and members of his administration.
Federal authorities investigated donations to Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign from connections with the Turkish government, which expanded to dealings with Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan, sources say.
In a taped video message sent through his attorney, Adams said Wednesday, if charged, he would request immediate trials so that “New Yorkers can hear the truth.” He said he had dealt with the impending charges for months and saw no reason to resign to fight them.
Gov. Kathy Hochul can remove Adams from office, and sources say she will be pressured to because of the recent resignations and the difficulties of filling them in a climate of uncertainty.
If Adams were to resign or be removed by the governor, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would take over on an interim basis. He would have three days to call for a special election that would have to be held within 80 days.
TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
LLMs express left-of-center political views
An analysis of 24 large language models (LLMs) reveals many respond to politically charged questions with left-of-center views.
However, this tendency was not observed in all models, and foundational models without specialized fine-tuning often did not show a coherent pattern of political preferences like humans.
LLMs are advanced AI systems that interpret and generate human-like text. They are trained on vast amounts of textual data such as websites, books, and social media.
The peer-reviewed paper, “The political preferences of LLMs,” investigated models such as OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, Twitter’s Grok, and open-source models from the Llama 2 and Mistral series.
Each model was tested 10 times per political test, resulting in 2,640 individual test instances analyzed. Most conversational LLMs showed a left-of-center bias, emphasizing social equality, government intervention in economic matters, and progressive policies.
The paper demonstrates that fine-tuning with politically aligned data can steer an LLM's political orientation, creating models like “LeftWingGPT” and “RightWingGPT.” The study calls for critical examination and addressing of political biases in LLMs to ensure balanced and accurate information representation.
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HEALTH
HEALTH
South Carolina birth control grows
South Carolina’s most vulnerable women are asking for and getting birth control in record numbers, a report says.
The findings — from New Morning, a nonprofit organization based in Columbia that works to provide free or low-cost contraception in SC — stand in contrast to other states that enacted restrictions after Roe vs Wade was overturned in 2022.
A study in June found a decrease in prescriptions for birth control pills and emergency contraceptives in states with the most restrictions on abortion. South Carolina has one of the country’s strictest, prohibiting abortions at six weeks of pregnancy.
New Morning’s July 2023–June 2024 report records 88,281 women in South Carolina — a record high — accessing contraception through doctor’s offices and hospitals associated with the organization. This is up from 76,561 in 2022, it says. Most of the clinics serve uninsured and underserved populations.
SOCIETY
SOCIETY
US suicides continue holding high level
US suicides last year remained at about the highest level in the nation's history, preliminary data suggests.
A little over 49,300 suicide deaths were reported in 2023, according to provisional data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That could grow as inconclusive death investigations are finalized and reported. Final data shows just under 49,500 were reported in 2022 — basically, the same suicide rate, CDC officials said.
Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people aged 10–14 and 20–34 and the third leading cause for people aged 15–19.
Deaths continue to be more common among boys and men than girls and women. The highest suicide rate for any group was in men aged 75+, at about 44 suicides per 100,000.
The highest rate among women was the middle-aged, about 9 per 100,000. More dramatic increases were in teens and young women — the rate for that group doubled in the last 20 years.
SCIENCE
SCIENCE
Kindness linked with beauty most attractive
A study suggests that physical beauty linked to kindness is the most formidable combination in human attractiveness.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University say prosociality, or kindness, plays a pivotal role and “uniquely influences physical attractiveness evaluations.”
The researchers conducted experiments with 4,192 participants, presenting them with passport photos and descriptions of smiling individuals.
The descriptions highlighted attributes like kindness, humor, and intelligence. Participants then rated the attractiveness of the people in the photos.
Results consistently showed that prosocial individuals were perceived as more physically attractive. The researchers also found that prosociality had a bigger effect on beauty than humor or intelligence.
OTHER NEWS
OTHER NEWS
Google Earth shows imagery back to WW II
Google Earth is getting historical imagery of areas through satellite and aerial captures dating back 80 years.
The new shots will include images from London, Berlin and Warsaw at the start of World War II and of US cities like San Francisco in 1938.
Google has also rolled out Street View images covering nearly 80 countries. Google’s newest camera can be mounted onto any car, allowing the company to expand Street View further. Street View has over 280 billion images.
Google has trained its AI model Cloud Score+ to recognize and remove mist, cloud shadows and haze while creating brighter, sharper images on Google Earth and Maps.
OFFBEAT
OFFBEAT
Giant flying Joro spider in Massachusetts
A Joro spider has made it to Massachusetts. The giant, venomous arachnid was spotted in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood.
“I would hope somebody would come and retrieve it and put it in a mason jar with a lid and some holes so it can live," said Beacon Hill resident Claudia Liberatore, who lives near the spider.
Ecologists predicted that the Joro spider would spread to the northeast. Joro spiders are recognizable for their vibrant yellow color and legs that can grow up to 4 inches. Their venom is weak— less painful than a bee sting.
They “fly” by releasing silk threads into the air, allowing them to parachute in the wind. Joros are an invasive species first spotted in Georgia in 2014 and have rapidly spread.
“Even though they are not dangerous to people, it is a concern when we have non-native species establishing populations and displacing potentially native species,” said Jessica Garb, a biology professor at UMass Lowell.
Otherweb Editorial Staff
Alex FinkTechie in Chief
David WilliamsEditor in Chief
Angela PalmerContent Manager
Dan KriegerTechnical Director