On Hiatus Spring / Summer 2018

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Infophile.ca blog is on hiatus spring / summer 2018. Apologies for the belated notice. Have a wonderful summer!

Particle Accelerator Reveals Ancient Greek Medical Text Beneath Religious Psalms on Parchment | Gizmodo #manuscripts #imaging #digital #archives

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If you’re a history buff, you might not know much particle physics. But the two fields share more in common than you’d think. X-rays from a high-energy lab have revealed ancient Greek medical texts that had been stripped and covered with religious writing. READ MORE: Particle Accelerator Reveals Ancient Greek Medical Text Beneath Religious Psalms on Parchment | Gizmodo

How a Norwegian comment section turned chaos into order—with a simple quiz | arstechnica #data #content #gamification

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SXSW: NRK’s dedicated tech team employs “open source” tactics to fight trolling. READ MORE: How a Norwegian comment section turned chaos into order—with a simple quiz | arstechnica

Why We Forget Most of the Books We Read | The Atlantic #reading #memory #multimedia #books #information

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Surely some people can read a book or watch a movie once and retain the plot perfectly. But for many, the experience of consuming culture is like filling up a bathtub, soaking in it, and then watching the water run down the drain. It might leave a film in the tub, but the rest is gone.

“Memory generally has a very intrinsic limitation,” says Faria Sana, an assistant professor of psychology at Athabasca University, in Canada. “It’s essentially a bottleneck.”

The “forgetting curve,” as it’s called, is steepest during the first 24 hours after you learn something. READ: Why We Forget Most of the Books We Read | The Atlantic

AI Beat Humans at Reading! Maybe Not | WIRED #AI #software #reading #tech #machinelearning

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News spread Monday of a remarkable breakthrough in artificial intelligence. Microsoft and Chinese retailer Alibaba independently announced that they had made software that matched or outperformed humans on a reading-comprehension test devised at Stanford. Microsoft called it a “major milestone.” Media coverage amplified the claims, with Newsweek estimating “millions of jobs at risk.”

Those jobs seem safe for a while. Closer examination of the tech giants’ claims suggests their software hasn’t yet drawn level with humans, even within the narrow confines of the test used. READ MORE: AI Beat Humans at Reading! Maybe Not | WIRED

Edmonton computer scientist using artificial intelligence to decipher mysterious manuscript | National Post #AI #manuscripts #analysis #software

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Even the cryptographers who cracked Nazi Enigma codes couldn’t read the Voynich, but Greg Kondrack of the University of Alberta may just have. READ: Edmonton computer scientist using artificial intelligence to decipher mysterious manuscript | National Post

How To Write A Data Science Resume | Vin Vashishta | LinkedIn #resumes #careers #datascience

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I’ve hired over 50 data scientists (for my business and for clients), been part of at least 100 more interviews, and I’ve built a resume parser for Pocket Recruiter. I’m a credentialed expert in the data science resume. You need to build a resume for 2 audiences: people and parsers. READ: How To Write A Data Science Resume | Vin Vashishta | LinkedIn

Shades of green: What gig economy workers can learn from the success of romance writers | The Conversation #business #publishing #authors #writers #romance #mentoring

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Their three keys to success: They welcome newcomers, they share competitive information, and they ask advice from newbies. READ: Shades of green: What gig economy workers can learn from the success of romance writers | The Conversation

Is Your Librarian Racist? | CityLab #librarianship #racism #publiclibraries #research

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Since racism is the topic of the day (according to Trump)…reminder core values of librarians include access, democracy, diversity, intellectual freedom, privacy and the public good…Its important to review the results and conclusions of studies like these in order to better understand our own inherent biases and prejudices. 

Findings from a new study indicate that “black-sounding” names are less likely to get a reply from public service providers. READ: Is Your Librarian Racist? | CityLab 

Libraries and Librarians Aren’t About to Disappear | Inside Higher Ed #libarianship #news #libraryjobs #careers #employment #analysis

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Great story illustrating the importance of subject matter expertise, quality data analysis, unbiased reporting, data validity … the errors mentioned seem laughable to me but I guess it comes down to how deep the knowledge base of those performing the analysis using classification standards such as NAICS, NOC, SIC, etc.

A widely shared article declaring libraries and archives to be among the fastest-declining industries in America has been debunked. READ: Libraries and Librarians Aren’t About to Disappear | Inside Higher Ed