{"id":826300,"date":"2025-02-12T01:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T07:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/the-download-doges-influences-and-rescuing-federal-data-from-deletion\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T01:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T07:12:07","slug":"the-download-doges-influences-and-rescuing-federal-data-from-deletion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/the-download-doges-influences-and-rescuing-federal-data-from-deletion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: DOGE\u2019s influences, and rescuing federal data from deletion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere\u2019s agenda\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the federal government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The documents don\u2019t offer a crystal ball into Musk\u2019s plans, but they suggest a blueprint, or at least an indicator, of where his newly formed and largely unaccountable task force is looking to make cuts. Here\u2019s what we know so far.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014James O\u2019Donnell<\/em><\/p>\n

Inside the race to archive the US government\u2019s websites<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Over the past three weeks, the new US presidential administration has taken down thousands of government web pages, as part of a push to remove information related to diversity and \u201cgender ideology,\u201d as well as scrutiny of various agencies\u2019 practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as government web pages go dark, a collection of organizations are trying to archive as much data and information as possible before it\u2019s gone for good. The hope is to keep a record of what has been lost for scientists and historians to be able to use in the future. Read our story about what they\u2019re doing, and why they\u2019re doing it.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014Scott J Mulligan<\/em><\/p>\n

The must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n

1 The Trump administration is slashing billions in biomedical research funding\u00a0<\/strong>
The change, effective immediately, is sending shockwaves through academia. Expect lawsuits. (STAT<\/a>\u00a0$)
+\u00a0Scientists are also increasingly alarmed about the fact that federal health data is disappearing<\/em>. (Undark<\/a>)
+\u00a0A prominent US scientific society is facing a backlash from members after removing references to diversity on its website.<\/em>\u00a0(Nature<\/a>)<\/p>\n

2 Computing experts are seriously alarmed by DOGE\u2019s behavior<\/strong>
The systems they\u2019re tinkering with are immense, they are complex, and they are critical. (The Atlantic<\/a>\u00a0$)
+\u00a0Elon Musk, DOGE, and the Evil Housekeeper Problem.<\/em>\u00a0(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)
+\u00a0A federal judge blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury records<\/em>. (AP<\/a>)
+\u00a0Secrecy is becoming one of DOGE\u2019s defining traits<\/em>. (NBC<\/a>)<\/p>\n

3 OpenAI\u2019s agent can spend your money without your consent\u00a0<\/strong>
All the reviews of Operator seem to indicate it\u2019s been launched way before it\u2019s ready. (WP<\/a>\u00a0$)
+ Anthropic\u2019s chief scientist on 4 ways agents will be even better in 2025.<\/em>\u00a0(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

4 There\u2019s a growing measles outbreak in one of Texas\u2019 least vaccinated counties<\/strong>
The saddest thing about this is how totally avoidable it is. (Ars Technica<\/a>)
+\u00a0To tackle vaccine hesitancy, first we should measure it.<\/em>\u00a0(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5 The US Transportation Department suspended its EV charger program<\/strong>
Tesla is one of its biggest beneficiaries, so Musk can\u2019t be too thrilled about this. (Insider<\/a>\u00a0$)\u00a0<\/p>\n

6 DeepMind\u2019s AI can tackle math problems on a par with top human solvers<\/strong>
AlphaGeometry 2 can reportedly surpass the average gold medallist in the International Mathematical Olympiad. (Nature<\/a>)
+\u00a0It\u2019s a major step forward from even just one year ago.<\/em>\u00a0(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)\u00a0<\/p>\n

7 What DeepSeek\u2019s success tells us about China\u2019s AI talent<\/strong>
Its top researchers are just as educated as in the US. But they operate under huge constraints.\u00a0 (NYT<\/a>\u00a0$)
+\u00a0How China stands to benefit from the US\u2019s retreat from soft power.<\/em>\u00a0(New Yorker<\/a>\u00a0$)<\/p>\n

8 Location-sharing is increasingly a deal-breaker in relationships<\/strong>
But is it really reducing people\u2019s anxiety? Or is it fuelling it? (WSJ<\/a>\u00a0$)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

9 Here\u2019s an idea for how to make the Vision Pro even less appealing\u00a0<\/strong>
Add crocs! (The Verge<\/a>)<\/p>\n

10 Inside the fraught US-Soviet hunt for extraterrestrial life<\/strong>
Now that\u2019s a frontier of the Cold War you don\u2019t hear as much about. (New Yorker<\/a>\u00a0$)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Quote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRed states have universities too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014An anonymous Trump official worries to the\u00a0Washington Post<\/a>\u00a0about blowback after the sudden withdrawal of National Institutes of Health research funding.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

The big story<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t tech fix its gender problem?
<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
>&utm_content=02-10-2025&mc_cid=1189fcc54d&mc_eid=UNIQID”>\"Female<\/a><\/p>\n

GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

August 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The tech sector is mostly a straight, white man\u2019s world. But it wasn\u2019t always this way. Software programming once was an almost entirely female profession. As recently as 1980, women held 70% of the programming jobs in Silicon Valley, but the ratio has since flipped entirely.<\/p>\n

While many things contributed to the shift, from the educational pipeline to the tiresomely persistent fiction of tech as a gender-blind \u201cmeritocracy,\u201d none explain it entirely.\u00a0Here’s what really lies at the core of tech’s gender problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014Margaret O\u2019Mara<\/em><\/p>\n

We can still have nice things<\/strong><\/p>\n

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? <\/em>Drop me a line<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>skeet ’em at me<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em>+ You should probably say \u2018no\u2019 more.\u00a0Here\u2019s how to do it nicely<\/a>.\u00a0
+ Here\u2019s how to keep a\u00a0spider plant<\/a>\u00a0alive and well.
+ This\u00a0\u2018knitted camouflage\u2019 series<\/a>\u00a0from artist Joseph Ford is irresistibly fun.\u00a0
+ What\u00a0birdsong\u00a0<\/a>can teach us about human language. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Charlotte Jee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere\u2019s agenda\u00a0 Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":826301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140517,24097,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-826300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-doges","category-download","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}