USC researchers may have found the biggest influencer in the spread of fake news: social platforms’ structure of rewarding users for habitually sharing information. The team’s findings, published Tuesday by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, upend popular misconceptions that misinformation spreads because users lack the critical thinking skills necessary for discerning truth from falsehood or...
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Julien Ceccaldi’s Anxious Anime
In the lush hills of Malibu, California, green from a fresh bout of winter rain, a rail-thin man had just wet himself. It was January 2016 and the character, illustrated by artist Julien Ceccaldi, stood grinning at the entrance to Paramount Ranch – a Western saloon town movie set – as he peed his pants...
Postwar Art Specialist Franck Prazan Has Long Gambled on the Rediscovery of Forgotten Painters – and It’s Paid Off
As soon as you step foot in the gallery, you’re transported back in time, back to the Postwar period in the Paris neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, surrounded by the era’s best artists. Nicolas De Staël, Jean Dubuffet, Victor Brauner, and Jean Fautrier can all be found at Applicat-Prazan. It’s a two-part time capsule, with one outpost on Rue de Seine and, since...
ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and the Collapse of the Creative Process
In 2022, OpenAI – one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence research laboratories – released the text generator ChatGPT and the image generator DALL-E 2. While both programs represent monumental leaps in natural language processing and image generation, they’ve also been met with apprehension. Some critics have eulogized the college essay, while others have even...
Evidence About Gun Policies Grows and Supports Laws to Reduce Violence
There is now supportive evidence that child-access-prevention laws reduce firearm homicides and self-injuries among youth, and that shall-issue concealed-carry laws and stand-your-ground laws increase levels of firearm violence, according to a new RAND Corporation report. The findings are part of a new report updating RAND’s Science of Gun Policy research synthesis, which reviewed the existing scientific literature...
New Wage Atlas Shows More Than Half of New Yorkers Earn Below a Living Wage
A new digital wage atlas launched by Cornell University researchers shows that more than half of New Yorkers earn below a living wage. The Cornell ILR Wage Atlas is designed to help New York state policymakers, economic development officials, nonprofits, academics and other stakeholders more easily analyze and visualize who earns living wages and where, and which occupations...
More Mountains: The Transformation of Hong Kong’s Arts Ecosystem Is Already Underway
With regional pandemic policies being dismantled, Hong Kong is reemerging from behind a zero-COVID-19 curtain to reveal a city in transformation Let’s paint a picture of Hong Kong Island from a distance. By day, mountains are visible rising up from behind a dense configuration of buildings, recalling the contemporary proverb, ‘after mountains, more mountains.’ By...
Predicting a Recession: Researchers Develop New Model to Predict U.S. Recessions and Slowdowns in Gdp Growth
In the United States, publicly traded companies are required to report their recent financial performance, whether good or bad, to the public. The accuracy of these reports is critical for investors, analysts and regulators. A new study, conducted at the University of Missouri and Indiana University, suggests that when businesses submit misleading financial statements, it...
‘Reckless Rolodex’ Opens This Week at UIC’s Gallery 400
Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois Chicago will host “Reckless Rolodex,” a group exhibition from Jan. 13 until March 18 that celebrates the influence of the Chicago-based performance artist Lawrence Steger. Steger, who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1961 and died in Chicago in 1999, will be honored by the work of...
God and Guns Often Go Together in U.S. History – This Course Examines Why
As a religion professor, I’ve come to know many students from other countries who identify as Christian. I realized they were puzzled at some of the things Americans often bundled into their faith – things these international Christians didn’t consider relevant to their own religious identity. One issue in particular sparked a question from a...









