The Conversation U.S.

Worried about feeling awkward at Thanksgiving? You're not alone. People often blame themselves when things take a turn toward the awkward. But awkwardness is really a collective failure – people aren’t awkward, situations are. And they become awkward because you don’t have the resources to navigate your way through tricky social situations. A philosopher explains why awkwardness happens and offers practical tips for handling those uncomfortable moments: https://buff.ly/491dpjm @WorkCulture #colleagues

As you scroll through your social media feed or let your favorite music app curate the perfect playlist, it may feel like artificial intelligence is improving your life – learning your preferences and serving your needs. But lurking behind this convenient facade is a growing concern: algorithmic harms. These harms aren’t obvious or immediate. They’re insidious, building over time as AI systems quietly make decisions about your life without you even knowing it. University of Michigan law professor Sylvia Lu explores how regulation could address the risks to privacy, equality, and safety. https://buff.ly/3CHalgt #AIethics #technology #algorithmicharm

Zara, one of fast fashion’s leading companies, has a mission to put clothes in stores 15 days after the initial design. Another, Shein, adds up to 2,000 new items to its website daily. While others in the fashion industry are working toward more sustainable clothing, fast fashion is focused on profit. The market’s value was estimated at about US$100 billion in 2022 and growing quickly. It’s a large part of the reason global clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014. The big winners in this game are the corporations. The industry has a reputation for exploiting workers and for excessive pollution and extraordinary waste. Consumers are pulled into an unhealthy, spiraling pressure to buy more as cheap clothes fall apart fast. Fast fashion also has a growing impact on the global climate. It is responsible for an estimated 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and its emissions are projected to grow quickly as the industry expands. https://buff.ly/4141r6V #fastfashion #zara #shein #sustainability #climatechange

OpenAI, the tech company that created the popular ChatGPT chatbot, is at a crossroads. It began as a nonprofit dedicated to developing artificial intelligence systems smarter than humans. Since its founding, OpenAI has boasted that it was upholding its nonprofit goal – “to build artificial general intelligence (AGI) that is safe and benefits all of humanity.” Now, its tune has changed. OpenAI’s leadership is reportedly taking steps to transform it into a for-profit company. If that happens, the nonprofit would lose control. If OpenAI hoped to have a quickie divorce from its charitable obligations, it is now learning how costly that could be. A group of law professors explains why: https://buff.ly/3Vpne5p #AI #chatgpt #nonprofitlaw #nonprofits

“Despite recent efforts to restrict them, diversity training programs have become as ubiquitous in American offices as the water cooler. They’re everywhere. “But our recent update on the state of diversity training research confirms that these programs have different levels of effectiveness and widely varying results. “In our prior work, published in 2016, we found that diversity training programs strive to foster understanding and appreciation of differences among people. This message, however, was often misunderstood or overlooked in American workplaces. “Alarmed by growing polarization and unequal treatment that have become serious public and social concerns in America and abroad, we updated our prior findings to see what has changed.” https://buff.ly/4hTvSm9 #workplace #diversity #training #DEI (By Yekaterina Bezrukova, University at Buffalo)

Daydream together: Simply imagining a shared future helps you feel closer to people around you, whether it’s your colleagues or your family. https://buff.ly/3UXGDdm #psychology #relationships #research

“Everyone knows that climate change has consequences, such as a higher likelihood of severe floods, hurricanes and droughts. But here’s a lesser-known problem: Climate change makes toilets more likely to break, which leaves people more likely to “go” outside. “That’s what colleagues and I found when we studied households across six rural Cambodian provinces, focusing on their access to proper toilets and when people decide to abandon sanitary systems in favor of open defecation, or “going” outside. “Our goal was to establish how living in regions vulnerable to the effects of climate change affects how well sanitary toilets function, and the impact that has on households’ sanitation practices and perceptions. “The key result of our study was clear: In regions where climate change makes heavy storms and floods more common, households more frequently stop using and maintaining their toilets. “Toilet dysfunction, which temporarily prevents a toilet from flushing or from keeping human waste from entering the environment, is more frequent among households living in flood-prone regions during the rainy season. We found that for every point increase in the composite climate vulnerability index, toilet abandonment went up by 4%.” https://buff.ly/4eBTOYs #WorldToiletDay #climatechange

Donor-advised funds (DAFs) receive far more noncash donations, like stocks and real estate, than typical charities—16% of DAF revenue vs. 3%. DAFs operate like small foundations, since donors can get a tax break when they donate to a DAF, even if that money isn’t put into use by a charity for years. But unlike foundations, there’s very little paperwork required, and there’s no requirement that a DAF disburse at least 5% of its assets annually – like foundations have to do. Using investment assets as charitable donations is more advantageous to donors than just putting money in a DAF. One reason is that most large donors are eligible for a tax deduction equal to the full value of the asset that was donated at the time of the gift. This boom in gifting investment assets can cut into government tax revenue more than typical cash gifts because it more effectively reduces an investor’s tax obligations. Ohio State accounting professor Brian Mittendorf on why Policymakers, lawmakers and regulators are currently considering whether to establish new rules for DAFs. https://buff.ly/3ZfcgBL #nonprofit #DSFs #finance #charity

Philadelphia schools are adopting a new K-8 literacy curriculum, Expeditionary Learning, focused on the "science of reading." It combines structured phonics with nonfiction texts to build both word knowledge and world knowledge.” *Word* knowledge refers to structured, synthetic phonics. This is a way of teaching the letter-sound relationships used in spelling and decoding new words. Readers start by learning letter sounds and then put the sounds together to form a word. For example, if you know how to read “bat” you can then read other words that end in “-at.” *World* knowledge refers to building strong background knowledge using nonfiction texts that students might traditionally read in a science or social studies class. These texts also cover social justice and environmental themes. Drexel University professor of literacy studies Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo explores the strengths and challenges of Philly’s new curriculum. https://buff.ly/3OcajQd For LI: #literacy #learning #education #science #scienceofreading #phonics

Of all the reasons your rent’s too high, did you have an algorithm-powered illegal cartel on your list? Millions of people across the U.S. pay far more rent than they can reasonably afford. In 2022, 22.4 million U.S. households were spending more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities. Several factors drive the high cost of rentals, including increasing demand, a dwindling supply of low-rent units, the rising cost of capital to build new rentals, and regulatory barriers restricting the construction of multifamily units. But there’s another surprising factor driving up rental prices: landlords colluding with the help of technology. The U.S. Justice Department is suing RealPage, Inc., alleging it sold software enabling landlords to engage in illegal price-fixing. University of Notre Dame Dame law professor Roger Alford has been following the case closely. https://lnkd.in/e44NWBKb #PriceFixing #rent #economy