Latest news with #Bunn
Gizmodo
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Gizmodo
AI Cheating is So Out of Hand In America's Schools That the Blue Books Are Coming Back
It's no secret that AI is wrecking America's educational system. With easy access to apps like ChatGPT—which can answer any question and also write full-fledged essays for you—high school and college students have begun to cheat their way through life, content to let an algorithm do the thinking, and the test-taking, for them. It's no surprise, then, that some educators have gone analog, in an effort to stem the tide of anti-intellectualism sweeping the nation. The Wall Street Journal recently did some digging and has discovered that sales of blue books have been climbing over the past year. Citing data from a number of large public universities, the newspaper notes that bulk purchases of the booklets have grown by leaps and bounds since ChatGPT's launch in late 2022: Sales of blue books this school year were up more than 30% at Texas A&M University and nearly 50% at the University of Florida. The improbable growth was even more impressive at the University of California, Berkeley. Over the past two academic years, blue-book sales at the Cal Student Store were up 80%. Demand for blue books is suddenly booming again because they help solve a problem that didn't exist on campuses until now. Surely those of us who came of age before the current one remember the blue book as an unfortunate staple of the pre-digital educational experience. I can certainly remember filling out my fair share of them in college, and I also remember them being no walk in the park. As a student, you're often given a very short amount of time to frantically scrawl an 'analytical' essay inside of one as a means of demonstrating to your professor your 'mastery' over a particular subject. I remember the pages being too small, the ruled lines being too large, and the general experience of using the dreaded booklets to be no fun. Now, however, as AI tears through America's elite educational system, lobotomizing tomorrow's young leaders as it goes, could it be that blue books have been refashioned from a villain of the pre-AI age to a hero for our algorithmically-poisoned times? More and more, it seems like they're the dark knight that America's illiterate masses needs. The Journal notes that Roaring Spring Paper Products, the family-owned paper company that produces a majority of the blue books that are sold on college campuses, admits that the new AI era has ironically been good for its business. Yet while the return of blue books may be a step in the right direction, they surely aren't a fix-all for the broad variety of ills caused by students' AI-use. Philip D. Bunn, an assistant professor at the Covenant College in Georgia, recently wrote on his blog that the traditional essay (which, until ChatGPT came along, was a great indicator of a student's intellectual capacity and was very difficult to fake unless you went to the trouble of hiring a ghostwriter) cannot be replaced by the in-class essay. Bunn writes that 'the process of writing a paper outside of class cannot simply be replicated in a blue book exam, and something serious is lost if we give up entirely on the traditional essay, whether those essays are more analytic, argumentative, or research-based.' Indeed, if the return of pen and paper is a promising sign, America's educators aren't out of the woods yet—not even close. A recent survey found that 89% of college students had admitted to using ChatGPT to complete a homework assignment. AI-detection tools designed to spot cheating also routinely fail. Increasingly, America's youth seem to view their educations as a high-stakes video game to be algorithmically juked. In short, more drastic measures (like the formulation of new laws and regulations around AI use) may need to be taken if the onset of America's aggressive stupidification is to be halted.
Miami Herald
19-05-2025
- Miami Herald
Cop speaks up about missing drugs in evidence room, then is fired, NC suit says
A police sergeant who revealed drugs and other items were missing from his department's evidence room was fired for speaking up — and blamed by his police chief, a new federal lawsuit says. A complaint filed April 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina argues Wilson Bunn's firing from the police department in Brevard, North Carolina, violates his First Amendment rights. Bunn and the Southern States Police Benevolent Association are suing Brevard Police Chief Thomas Jordan, accusing him of retaliating against Bunn, who voiced concerns about potentially 253 missing pieces of evidence, including 27 different narcotics. The filing also names City Manager Wilson Hooper as a defendant. Bunn, a member of the PBA, found items were missing from the evidence room in June, then turned to the nonprofit organization for legal help in August, according to the complaint. The group represents more than 70,000 current and former law enforcement officers. Bunn grew 'concerned that BPD was not taking the issue seriously, and sought legal advice as to his obligations to report missing evidence to the appropriate authorities,' the complaint says. He spoke with the PBA's legal counsel, who then alerted the Brevard city attorney of the missing evidence, according to the complaint. This made Jordan angry, the filing says. In retaliation, Bunn was fired by Jordan in December and later blamed for the missing evidence, according to the lawsuit. Jordan specifically accused Bunn of stealing a jar of marijuana, the lawsuit says. Jordan, in an emailed statement to McClatchy News, said that the department is aware of the lawsuit but hasn't been served with the filing as of the afternoon of April 28. 'We are confident that the City has followed the proper procedures and processes in addressing any personnel matters, 'Jordan said. 'When the suit arrives, we will respond via the normal legal channels and allow the courts to settle the matter.' Becky McCann, the communications coordinator for Brevard, which is about a 30-mile drive southwest from Asheville, shared the same statement with McClatchy News via email on April 28. Bunn and the Southern States PBA are represented by Attorney Jeffrey Steven Warren, of Ellis & Winters LLP in Raleigh. 'The PBA and Sergeant Bunn look forward to proving their case in court,' Warren said in an email to McClatchy News on April 28. A disorganized evidence room Bunn joined the Brevard's police force as a detective in November 2023, when he found the department's evidence room was disorganized, according to the lawsuit. After realizing the room was 'in disarray,' Bunn and another detective volunteered to reorganize it, the filing says. At the time, Bunn was aware that mismanaged evidence could lead to the potential legal consequences, according to the complaint. He started working in law enforcement as an Asheville Police Department officer in 2012. That's when the department was 'in the midst of a crisis' involving about 115 items missing from its evidence room, Warren noted in the lawsuit. The Asheville Police Department's former manager was sentenced to 10 months in prison in June 2014 after he was accused of stealing drugs from the room, the Carolina Public Press reported. 'Beginning his law enforcement career in this environment,' Warren wrote in the lawsuit, 'Bunn became sensitive to evidence storage and security issues.' In 2018, Bunn became a deputy sheriff for the Henderson County Sheriff's Office, according to the lawsuit. While with the sheriff's office, he worked as a Homeland Security Task Force officer and in other capacities. Throughout his career, Bunn hadn't been 'reprimanded, disciplined, or placed under investigation,' the lawsuit says. His firing Bunn was exercising his free speech rights when notifying the Southern States PBA about missing evidence, and it ended up costing him his job with the Brevard Police Department, according to the complaint. With the lawsuit, Bunn and the Southern States PBA are asking for a jury trial, an unspecified amount in damages and further relief. The PBA's North Carolina division has more than 17,000 members — making it the largest organization of its kind in the state, according to the organization's April 21 news release issued on the lawsuit. David Rose, the president of PBA's North Carolina division, said in a statement that 'it is essential that public employees be able to speak freely on matters of public concern without fear of retaliatory dismissal.' John Midgette, the North Carolina division's executive director, said in a statement, 'We have never before witnessed such egregious violations of state, federal and constitutional law against a law enforcement officer by government officials.'
7NEWS
05-05-2025
- Sport
- 7NEWS
INSIDE MEDIA – Take a tour of the new state-of-the-art 7NEWS newsroom
In this special edition of INSIDE MEDIA, we take you inside the new 7NEWS Melbourne headquarters for a sneak peek of the office and studio ahead of next Monday's launch. WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE NEW FACILITY ABOVE. On May 12, the team will shift from the 7 Broadcast Centre at Docklands to the new newsroom and studio. The purpose-built Docklands facility was opened with much fanfare in 2001, housing all local operations including the presentation suites for all cities (that's the term used to describe where the programs and commercials are played out for broadcast). But over the years, the technology became dated and the facility was showing its age. Now operations are relocating to Collins Street in a co-ordinated move that will see newsroom staff shifting across this weekend. While there's only a week to go before the first edition of 7NEWS from the new facility, the desks are currently bare and there's still a lot of work to be done. 'It's certainly fit for purpose and our requirements have certainly changed in the 20 years we've been at BCM,' Engineer John Albiston told me. 'Next Monday, we're going to see plenty of action. We're going to have about 80 new staff rolling in here, and that's going to flag the transition from the old premises to this new fully digital facility,' he explains. John and I filmed a walkthrough tour of the new office and studio, which you can see in the player above. There are two control rooms in the new building, even though there's only one studio. The news control room is automated and there will be four people in there putting each bulletin to air. A bigger control room next door fits 15 people and is used for sporting programs and panel shows. The back row is filled with EVS controllers, which allow operators to record incoming vision (such as horse races) and play it to air on a delay while the race is still going (a bit like PVRs which allow you to watch a TV show from the start while it is still airing). As you enter the studio, it seems deceptively small, but then you realise there are two different sets facing each other. On the right is a much bigger 7NEWS set, compared to the one at 7BCM. On the left is a multipurpose LED set to house multiple sports-based panel shows. While speaking to presenters Peter Mitchell, Bec Maddern and Jane Bunn, they all commented on how far apart they feel from each other but loved the quality of the screens and details in the set. For her part, Maddern will be standing at the sports monitor for interviews and special stories, otherwise she will sit in roughly the same position as she currently does. Jane Bunn has a much bigger screen to deliver her weather, which she is often still updating right before she goes on air. Interestingly, Bunn doesn't simply rely on the information from the Bureau of Meteorology. Instead, she uses a variety of data to give viewers an accurate forecast. Considering the latest information from the BoM is sent out at 4.30pm, Bunn has often been at odds with their forecast, but she is mostly proven correct (if not always). A smaller studio at the entrance to the newsroom level will be used for live crosses. Entertainment reporter Peter Ford will cross daily to The Morning Show from this studio as will other guests from Melbourne who appear on shows in other states. Rehearsals have been taking place in the new studio and things seems to be going well. The proof will be on Monday night when Mitch and the team go live from their new home.
CBC
11-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
25-year-old makes history as Birdtail Sioux's youngest and 1st female chief
It was a busy 24 hours for Tréchelle Bunn, the newly elected chief of Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation in Manitoba. On the evening of April 9, Bunn received an Indspire Award in Vancouver. The next day, Bunn was back home in her community about 300 kilometres west of Winnipeg as polls closed for the chief and council election. Bunn, 25, was elected with 191 votes, while her opponent Gloria Chalmers-Rach got 85 votes. She is the first woman to be elected as chief in her nation. She is also now the youngest serving chief in Manitoba. The former University of Calgary Dinos and Manitoba Bison hockey player previously served as Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO) youth chief. She'll serve a four-year term and Bunn joked that it would take time to get used to introducing herself as just "chief." "I'm used to introducing myself as youth chief of the Southern Chiefs Organization, but I gave that up on March 31 when a new SCO youth chief and council were elected," she said. SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels congratulated Bunn in a news release. "You make many people so very proud as we witness your growth, and the acknowledgement, of your leadership," Daniels said in the statement. "Chief Tréchelle Bunn, I look forward to continuing to learn from and collaborate with you, as you take on your new role of Chief of Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation." Rushing home from Indspire Awards However, it was not the last piece of youth leadership that Bunn needed to wrap up before the polls closed on election day. The night before her victory, Bunn was a youth recipient of a 2025 Indspire Award, a national award honouring achievements and contributions of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. Bunn was recognized for her work as SCO youth chief and as founder and race director of the Reconciliation Run in her community. She received her award and pin the night before the main gala, as she needed to return home for the election. The day of the election, Bunn boarded a flight and arrived in Winnipeg at 1 p.m., made it to Birdtail Sioux at 5 p.m., while the polls closed at 8 p.m. She said her parents were texting her updates from the ballot counting. "When they posted the results on Facebook of how many votes I had, it was a pretty surreal feeling, then seconds later, people were driving into my grandparents' yard honking their horns," she said. An elder from the community joined Bunn's own grandfather in the living room of the Bunn family home with a drum and sang her a victory song. "It was a really emotional time, and everything happened so fast, but it's something I'm going to cherish for the rest of my life," she said. Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation Chief Angela Levasseur also congratulated Bunn on her election win, in a news release. "As a fellow woman chief, I want you to know that I stand with you and am here to support you in any way I can," she said in a statement. "Our nations are stronger when we uplift one another, and I look forward to building that strength together." Other results from the election saw Carson Benn, Doug Hanska Sr., Heath Bunn, and Samantha D. Benn elected as council members.
WIRED
02-04-2025
- General
- WIRED
The Best Mushroom Coffee for an Alternative Buzz
Micro Ingredients Organic Instant 10 in 1 Mushroom Coffee Powder The fine brown powder that's packed tightly into this massive bag has a faint smell of burnt coffee, sort of like that last bit of sludge that's stuck to the bottom of a Bunn carafe after a long day at a diner. The taste is forgettable and inoffensive. A hat tip to Micro Ingredients is in order for its flawless execution of a product that's as mid as mid can possibly get: It barely tastes like coffee or mushrooms, yet it gestures toward both and offers the same end result for the user. I started with 2 teaspoons of the powder mixed into 8 ounces of hot water with the handheld blender the folks at MUD/WTR so graciously included in its own overengineered box (see below), and it took just a few seconds to realize this level of emulsion is overkill. You won't need more than a few turns of a common spoon to completely dissolve Micro Ingredients in your cup, and the lack of silty or gunky residue is greatly appreciated after a few sips. I gussied up subsequent cups with 4 ounces of steamed milk and 1 teaspoon of simple syrup for a slightly more gratifying sip, but it tastes fine on its own and would be a decent substitute for coffee on a camping trip or in some sort of emergency. The caffeine content is just a few clicks above a cup of decaf, which makes this a nice late-afternoon pick-me-up for folks who have to take it easy with the real stuff. Score 6.8/10 Key ingredients Instant Arabica coffee powder, chaga, reishi, lion's mane, cordyceps, turkey tail, shiitake, mesima, wood ear, oyster mushroom Caffeine Not stated Max Fit Ten Mushrooms Coffee The flavor of Ten Mushrooms is remarkably similar to that of Ryze (see below): smoky and savory with a sour finish and a dusty residue. A week with this did little to convince me that mushroom brew is the coffee of the future, but it didn't offend my sensibilities or my bowels in any notable way. If I were forced to choose between Ten Mushrooms and Ryze, I would choose the former due to its bullshit-free spin on a cottage industry that's filled with late-stage capitalist trapdoors and other forms of subscription-based chicanery. As I write this, a 142-gram bag of Ten Mushrooms is about $10 cheaper than Ryze, and you can buy it instantly on Amazon without navigating several pages of subscriptions, pop-up discount offers, and other digital shakedowns. When the economy crashes and you still need to focus your chakras and conquer your ADHD with mushroom coffee, Jeff Bezos and Ten Mushrooms will be waiting for you with open arms. Score 6.3/10 Key ingredients Chaga, reishi, lion's mane, maitake, shiitake, cordyceps, turkey tail, king trumpet, willow bracket, agaricus blazei Caffeine 50 milligrams
