Do I Need to Worry About Smartphone Radiation? | Opinion | I Teach the Humanities, and I Still Don’t Know What Their Value Is | Algorithms Need Managers, Too | Britain’s scariest libel firm can pursue anyone, anywhere

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� � � � � � Do I Need to Worry About Smartphone Radiation? -     Some studies have linked cellphone use with cancer, so we asked some experts to explain the risk. Q: I’m constantly on my phone, and it’s usually near my body when I’m not. Should I worry about radiation exposure? Spending all day glued to your smartphone probably isn’t doing you any favors. Excess phone use has been linked with a range of concerns, including sleep issues, elevated cortisol levels, joint pain and even relationship woes. Continued here � � � � � � Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium Opinion | I Teach the Humanities, and I Still Don't Know What Their Value Is -     If a group of math students fails to learn the material, that might be because the teacher is not trying hard enough or because she has been inappropriately tasked with, for example, teaching calculus to toddlers. Supposing, however, that neither of these things is true — the teacher is passionately invested in teaching, and she has many suitable students — yet her students all fail the final exam, eventually we would be forced to say that she might not know math so well. I believe that we humanists are in the position of this math teacher. We have been issuing a steady stream of defenses of the humanities for many decades now, but the crisis of the humanities only grows. In the face of declining student interest and mounting political scrutiny, universities and colleges are increasingly putting humanities departments on the chopping block. We humanists keep on trying to teach people what the value of the humanities is, and people keep failing to learn our lessons. This suggests to me that humanists do not know the value of the thing they are trying to defend. We can spout pieties that sound inspiring to those already convinced of our cause, but so too can an ignorant math teacher “teach” math to those who already know it. Continued here � � � � � � Algorithms Need Managers, Too - Harvard Business Review    Algorithms are powerful predictive tools, but they can run amok when not applied properly. Consider what often happens with social media sites. Today many use algorithms to decide which ads and links to show users. But when these algorithms focus too narrowly on maximizing click-throughs, sites quickly become choked with low-quality content. While clicks rise, customer satisfaction plummets. The glitches, say the authors, are not in the algorithms but in the way we interact with them. Managers need to recognize their two major limitations: First, they’re completely literal; algorithms do exactly what they’re told and disregard every other consideration. While a human would have understood that the sites’ designers wanted to maximize quality as measured by clicks, the algorithms maximized clicks at the expense of quality. Second, algorithms are black boxes. Though they can predict the future with great accuracy, they won’t say what will cause an event or why. They’ll tell you which magazine articles are likely to be shared on Twitter without explaining what motivates people to tweet about them, for instance. To avoid missteps, you need to be explicit about all your goals—hard and soft—when formulating your algorithms. You also must consider the long-term implications of the data the algorithms incorporate to make sure they’re not focusing nearsightedly on short-term outcomes. And choose the right data inputs, being sure to gather a wide breadth of information from a diversity of sources. Continued here � � � � � � Britain's scariest libel firm can pursue anyone, anywhere - The Economist    One morning in April 2017, Jen McAdam was scrolling through emails in her council house in central Scotland when she saw one from an unfamiliar address. It had an attachment, which she opened. When she read it she thought she was going to faint. McAdam had been through a rough few years. In 2010 she had developed chronic fatigue syndrome, rendering her effectively bedbound. The small IT consultancy she had started folded. She burned through her savings. Then at the start of 2015 she had lost her beloved father, Bill. Bill, who was 92 when he died, worked for decades as a miner. He didn’t drink or smoke, McAdam recalls; he saved, which meant he was able to leave Jen and her sister £15,000 ($19,000) each. Stricken by grief though she was, the legacy was a lifeline for McAdam. By then she knew how quickly money can disappear if you’re not in work. She was determined to try to use it to get some financial security. Continued here

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