Large-scale, dynamic social and economic change is often more difficult, incremental, and slower than anticipated. Consider James Watt and Matthew Boulton in Birmingham in 1776, having invented and refined the…
By Lynne Kiesling | August 22, 2024
Last January, upon submission of my paper (since published) — Scientific integrity and U.S. “Billion Dollar Disasters” — I submitted a “request for correction” to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | August 21, 2024
Child Online Safety bills are crafted with the intention of protecting minors from harmful content on the internet. However, they can infringe on First Amendment rights, affecting the freedom of…
By Shane Tews | August 20, 2024
As AI rapidly advances, an emerging challenge threatens to weaken the foundations of societal institutions: How can we maintain trust and accountability online when AI systems become indistinguishable from real…
By John Bailey | August 19, 2024
It is memory-holed now, but acid rain was the largest environmental threat in the 1980s. Grisly pictures emerged, prompting research and then action by the government to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen…
By Will Rinehart | August 19, 2024
About 20,000 years ago, the world was in an ice age. The era is called the Last Glacial Maximum and had global sea levels more than 120 meters (~400 feet)…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | August 19, 2024
By early 2024, NASA had made significant progress on its ambitious lunar exploration project, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). NASA had unveiled VIPER in 2019 as a solution…
By Will Rinehart | Kate Beinkampen | August 16, 2024
Last week, US District Judge Amit P. Mehta handed down a significant ruling, finding that Google unlawfully maintained a monopoly in general internet search and search text advertising. This decision marks…
By Mark Jamison | August 15, 2024
As AI models become more advanced, the conversation around their accessibility has intensified. At the heart of this debate is a crucial question: Should the “weights” of large language models…
By John Bailey | August 15, 2024
Last week’s headline, “Microsoft lashes out at Delta: Your ancient tech caused the service meltdown,” captures the frustration of the intertwined information technology infrastructure challenges. We’ve learned over the past three…
By Shane Tews | August 14, 2024
Examining the constitutionality of laws affecting speech on social media platforms, the US Supreme Court seems torn between issuing minimalistic decisions that sometimes even avoid a case’s substantive merits and making a…
By Clay Calvert | August 14, 2024
Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reclassified broadband as a common carrier service subject to Title II requirements originally designed to discipline the landline telephone system. By doing…
By Daniel Lyons | August 13, 2024
In the groundbreaking case U.S. v. Google, Judge Amit Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Monday that the tech giant has been using its…
By Will Rinehart | August 12, 2024
In 2021, Australia’s ultimatum to internet media platforms, including Meta (Facebook and Instagram’s parent company) and Google to “voluntarily” settle with mainstream media providers for use of their news content in platform…
By Bronwyn Howell | August 9, 2024
I would guess that we are going to hear the phrase “drill, baby, drill” a lot in the next three months. Here at THB, one goal is to ensure that…
By Roger Pielke Jr. | August 9, 2024