[continued from previous message]

Subject: Re: Is Alexa Becoming Anti-semitic (RISKS-32.39)

I should note the the piece on anti-semitism and AI contains assertions that are politically contested. I'm particularly referring to the notion that criticisms of the state of Israel are inherently anti-Semitic.

The framing of the piece conflated anti-semitism -- a real and pernicious
type of racism -- with political criticism of Israel -- a legitimate form of free speech.

In affect, this highlights just how wicked hard applying AI to news/speech/politics is.

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Date: 5 Dec 2020 17:23:44 -0500
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: Rashida Tlaib takes on stablecoins, not cryptocurrency (R-32.39)

cosponsored a bill requiring stablecoins like Facebook's Libra to be
issued by banks.

The important word is "stablecoins"; this is quite reasonable.

A stablecoin promises that you can redeem it for some amount of real
money. That means that each coin is in effect a demand loan of the
underlying value to whomever holds the money, and it makes sense to regulate them like other organizations that accept demand loans and give you an
IOU. These organizations are generally called banks.

The best known stablecoin, Tether, claims you can redeem every tether for $1 but outside the crypto bubble it is widely considered to be a fraud. There
have been over 18 billion tether issued and there is no evidence that tether has anything close to $18 billion in assets. Last year in a lawsuit their lawyer asserted that they had 74c for each tether but there's not much
evidence of that either.

The usual risk is that as soon as someone says BLOCKCHAIN! a certain number
of people check their common sense at the door.

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Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2020 09:36:34 +0800
From: Richard Stein <rmstein@ieee.org>
Subject: Re: Keyhole wasps may threaten aviation safety (RISKS-32.39)

Ben -- Thank you for this informed response to my post. I am forwarding
your response as follow up on this thread.

On 5/12/20 12:05 pm, Ben Kamen wrote:

As a private pilot that owns a small 2 seater (and we talk about blocked pitot tubes a lot) - the problem isn't new as mud daubers have been doing this for a long time. (if this is the same species)

In areas where they are prolific or to be safe, any time the plane is
parked outside, pitot covers are recommended.

The bigger problem isn't completely blocked tubes because a dead airspeed indicator would be obvious on rollout for takeoff.

What most of us worry about more is partially blocked tubes that give
faulty readings.

Also being an EE, I could image some interesting tests for startup, but
the FAA does like simplicity and fiber could be a problem because pitot
tubes have heaters built into them to melt off any ice-buildup in incing conditions. Even my 2-seater that's not certified for flying into known
icing conditions has a pitot heater. So a remote visual sensing system
would have to deal with that.

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Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2020 13:01:34 -0800
From: Carlos Villalpando <unbelver@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Keyhole wasps may threaten aviation safety (RISKS-32.39)

Would a power-on-self-test be able to discern if the inlet is bugged
via fiber optic signal and sensor?

Wasps nests in pitot tubes are a long-known issue in aviation. In North America, at least, the offending species is the Mud Dauber Wasp. As the
linked article points out pitot tube covers are the current method of controlling such issues.

How is it detected? A thorough pre-flight is key, but daubers can get pretty deep into the tube, beyond inspection ability. So issues with the Air Speed Indicator (ASI) are detected procedurally. Small aircraft crews, during the takeoff roll, are supposed to note that the ASI "comes alive" and is
behaving consistent with the expected takeoff performance roll early enough
to abort if necessary. Professional airline crews do the same, but also cross-check between the Captain's and First Officers' ASIs.

But as it is a human procedure, humans can fail at it. Birgenair Flight 301
is an example of a pitot tube blocked by a wasp nest, with the pilots
noticing, but ignoring the warnings, with all occupants perishing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgenair_Flight_301

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Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2020 11:11:11 -0800
From: RISKS-request@csl.sri.com
Subject: Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)

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