Four short links: 10 March 2017
Puma Surveillance, Illicit Domains, Ethics for Algorithms, and the Drama Triangle
- Puma Surveillance State Proceeds Apace (PDF) — Acquiring reliable data on large felid populations is crucial for effective conservation and management. However, large felids, typically solitary, elusive, and nocturnal, are difficult to survey. […] Classification accuracy was consistently > 90% for individuals, and for the correct classification of footprints within trails, and > 99% for sex classification. The technique has the potential to greatly augment the methods available for studying puma and other elusive felids, and is amenable to both citizen-science and opportunistic/local community data collection efforts, particularly as the data collection protocol is inexpensive and intuitive. I wonder whether dong deduction from footprint photos features in puma dystopic literature.
- Information Extraction in Illicit Domains (PDF) — Illicit domains pose some formidable challenges for traditional IE systems, including deliberate information obfuscation, non-random misspellings of common words, high occurrences of out-of-vocabulary and uncommon words, frequent (and non-random) use of Unicode characters, sparse content and heterogeneous website structure, to only name a few. […] We present a lightweight feature-agnostic information extraction system for a highly heterogeneous, illicit domain like human trafficking.
- Ethics for Powerful Algorithms (Abe Gong) — video of Abe’s talk at ODSC. He suggests four questions we should ask ourselves as we automate humans out of a loop: 1. Are the statistics solid? 2. Who wins? Who loses? 3. Are the changes in power structures helping? 4. How can we mitigate harms? (via O’Reilly)
- Karpman Drama Triangle — I collect useful mental frameworks and models. This one does a great job of explaining “drama” (vs. genuine victimization), which you’ll now recognize in interpersonal conflict at work and at home. The standard solution is the Winner’s Triangle (where we should be vulnerable, caring, and assertive), but a book called The Power of TED suggests the participants look for roles as Creator, Challenger, and Coach for getting to a desired outcome. “You don’t have to be a therapist to manage people, but it helps.”
