6/17

Paying Tribute to Our Fathers

The African American Resource Center at Penn invites attendees to pay tribute to their father by sharing a photo and a story.

12:00 p.m.

Virtual

6/27

Wawa Welcome America Day

Exterior of Penn Museum in daylight.
The Penn Museum welcomes guests for free, with registration, for the Wawa Welcome America festival.

10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Penn Museum, 3260 South St.

U.S. News & World Report

Teens who get while driving may take other risks behind the wheel

Research from the Annenberg Public Policy Center and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia finds that young adults who use the phone while driving are more likely to engage in other behaviors associated with car crashes. “It may be useful to treat cellphone use while driving as part of a group of risky driving behaviors, such as driving while impaired by alcohol,” said the APPC’s Dan Romer.

FULL STORY →

MIT Technology Review

These creepy fake humans herald a new age in AI

Aaron Roth of the School of Engineering and Applied Science spoke about synthetic data and privacy concerns. “Just because the data is ‘synthetic’ and does not directly correspond to real user data does not mean that it does not encode sensitive information about real people,” he said.

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The New York Times

COVID-sniffing dogs are accurate but face hurdles for widespread use

Cynthia Otto of the School of Veterinary Medicine said that before the U.S. deploys COVID-sniffing dogs on a large scale, clear training and performance standards need to be set.

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The New York Times

Netanyahu, ‘King of Israel,’ exits a stage he dominated

Ian Lustick of the School of Arts & Sciences described Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Oslo accords, a pair of agreements between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Netanyahu’s approach appears to be an intentional effort “to destroy Oslo by treating it not as a partnership with the P.L.O. but as a very hard-bargaining contract, in which he didn’t really want the other side to fulfill the terms,” said Lustick.

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  • New Fels Distinguished Fellow with a focus on racial equity and social justice

    Matthew Stitt, a 2012 graduate of the Fels Institute of Government, is joining Fels as a Distinguished Fellow. Stitt will help Fels students engage in critical policy issues and create a more diverse and equitable public sector. He will lead a speaker series on racial equity and social justice, support internships and student mentorship, and connect students and alumni. 

    FULL STORY AT Penn Arts & Sciences →

    • Bloomberg

    Workers sue over vaccine mandates

    Eric Feldman of the Law School discussed the lawsuits filed by workers against employers’ COVID-19 vaccine requirements. “There’s a distinction that’s not drawn in this lawsuit between mandatory vaccination and compulsory vaccination,” he said. “Compulsory vaccination is literally holding people down and jabbing a needle in their arm and forcing them to get vaccinated against their will; mandatory vaccination isn’t forcing anyone to get vaccinated.”

    FULL STORY →

    Los Angeles Times

    What’s size got to do with it? Mocking a man’s manhood spurs a reverse #MeToo in South Korea

    Jinsook Kim, a postdoc in the Annenberg School for Communication, spoke about the backlash against feminist activism in South Korea. “The younger generation suffers from frustration and economic precarity,” Kim said. “The problem is, these young Korean men, they ascribe their sense of victimhood or precarity not to government or policies but to women who they see as preventing them from receiving their due.”

    FULL STORY →

    Philadelphia Inquirer

    Homicides are up, but GOP misleads with claims about blame

    David Abrams of the Law School spoke about fluctuating crime rates during the pandemic. “Any theory explaining the rise in homicides would also have to explain why we haven’t seen a spike in other kinds of crimes,” he said.

    FULL STORY →