Dear Commons Community,

New York’s minimum-wage workers had more than just the new year to celebrate January 1st,  with a pay bump kicking in as the clock ticked over to 2024.

In the first of a series of annual increases (see above) slated for the Empire State, the minimum wage increased to $16 in New York City and some of its suburbs, up from $15. In the rest of the state, the new minimum wage is $15, up from $14.20.

The state’s minimum wage is expected to increase every year until it reaches $17 in New York City and its suburbs, and $16 in the rest of the state by 2026. Future hikes will be tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, a measurement of inflation.

New York is one of 22 states getting minimum wage rises in the new year, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute.

In California, the minimum wage increased to $16, up from $15.50, while in Connecticut it increased to $15.69 from the previous rate of $15.

This most recent pay bump in New York is part of an agreement made last year between Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature. The deal came over the objections of some employers, as well as some liberal Democrats who said it didn’t go high enough.

The federal minimum wage in the United States has stayed at $7.25 per hour since 2009, but states and some localities are free to set higher amounts. Thirty states, including New Mexico and Washington, have done so.

Hooray for New York and other states seeking to improve the pay of minimum wage earners.

Tony

Getty Images.

Dear Commons Community,

As was expected, we are seeing search engine providers integrating AI options into their software.  For example, OpenAI has added ChatGPT to the Bing search engine. Microsoft is now taking this integration a step further by adding an AI button to its keyboards. Pressing a button will be another convenient way to summon an artificial intelligence program. 

Starting later this month, some new personal computers that run Microsoft’s Windows operating system will have a special “Copilot key” that launches the software giant’s AI chatbot.

Getting third-party computer manufacturers to add an AI button to laptops is the latest move by Microsoft to capitalize on its close partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and make itself a gateway for applications of generative AI technology.  As reported by The Associated Press.

Although most people now connect to the internet — and AI applications — by phone rather than computer, it’s a symbolic kickoff to what’s expected to be an intensively competitive year as tech companies race to outdo each other in AI applications even as they haven’t yet resolved all the ethical and legal ramifications. The New York Times last month sued both OpenAI and Microsoft alleging that tools like ChatGPT and Copilot — formerly known as Bing Chat — were built by infringing on copyrighted news articles.

The keyboard redesign will be Microsoft’s biggest change to PC keyboards since it introduced a special Windows key in the 1990s. Microsoft’s four-squared logo design has evolved, but the key has been a fixture on Windows-oriented keyboards for nearly three decades.

The newest AI button will be marked by the ribbon-like Copilot logo and be located near the space bar. On some computers it will replace the right “CTRL” key, while on others it will replace a menu key.

Microsoft is not the only company with customized keys. Apple pioneered the concept in the 1980s with its “Command” key marked by a looped square design (it also sported an Apple logo for a time). Google has a search button on its Chromebooks and was first to experiment with an AI-specific key to launch its voice assistant on its now-discontinued Pixelbook.

But Microsoft has a much stronger hold on the PC market through its licensing agreements with third-party manufacturers like Lenovo, Dell and HP. About 82% of all desktop computers, laptops and workstations run Windows, compared to 9% for Apple’s in-house operating system and just over 6% for Google’s, according to market research firm IDC.

Microsoft hasn’t yet said which computer-makers are installing the Copilot button beyond Microsoft’s own in-house line of premium Surface devices. It said some of the companies are expected to unveil their new models at next week’s CES gadget show in Las Vegas.

The move to integrate AI into software products was inevitable.  Microsoft’s move here is just another indicator of the role that AI will play in the years to come.

Tony

Getty Images

Dear Commons Community,

Mammals may struggle to attain long life thanks to dinosaurs. According to University of Birmingham microbiologist João Pedro de Magalhães, the age of dinosaur dominance completely shifted the evolutionary track of virtually every mammal on Earth, refocusing evolutionary efforts on rapid reproduction instead of long life.

You see, there was no point in trying to live for a long time when a dinosaur would just eat you anyway. To keep a species alive, rapid reproduction proved way more useful. As reported by Prevention and BioEssays.

“My hypothesis is that such a long evolutionary pressure on early mammals for rapid reproduction led to the loss or inactivation of genes and pathways associated with long life,” de Magalhães wrote in a paper published in BioEssays. “I call this the ‘longevity bottleneck hypothesis,’ which is further supported by the absence in mammals of regenerative traits.”

While noting that humans (along with elephants and whales) theoretically have the potential to live longer than most other mammals, de Magalhães said that every mammal is still living under genetic constraints dating back to the era of the dinosaurs.

“Evolving during the rule of the dinosaurs left a lasting legacy in mammals,” de Magalhães wrote. “For over 100 million years when dinosaurs were the dominant predators, mammals were generally small, nocturnal, and short-lived.”

The pressure to stay alive eliminated the genes needed for long life. Citing reptiles and other animals with a much slower biological aging process than mammals, de Magalhães hypothesizes that during the Mesozoic Era, mammals either lost or deactivated genes associated with long life.

“Some of the earliest mammals were forced to live toward the bottom of the food chain and have likely spent 100 million years during the age of the dinosaurs evolving to survive through rapid reproduction,” de Magalhães wrote in a statement. “That long period of evolutionary pressure has, I propose, an impact on the way that we humans age.”

Digging deeper into the research, de Magalhães came to believe that the loss of enzymes tied to the Mesozoic Era limits many mammals’ ability to repair damage. Examples include the loss of enzymes that restores skin singed by ultraviolet light and the fact that mammal teeth don’t continue growing throughout their lifetime like reptiles.

He says that the animal world offers remarkable repair and regeneration examples, but that some of that genetic information would have been “unnecessary for early mammals that were lucky to not end up as T. Rex food.”

Of course, de Magalhães knows this is all just a hypothesis, but it’s one he thinks could have some substantial explanatory power. “There are lots of intriguing angles to take this,” he said, “including the prospect that cancer is more frequent in mammals than other species due to the rapid aging process.”

If we really do have the dinosaurs to blame for our rapid aging, at least we got the last laugh.

Tony

Claudine Gay

Dear Commons Community,

Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned yesterday after facing intense scrutiny for ambiguous testimony she gave at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism as well as widening allegations of plagiarism in her academic work.

“It is with a heavy heart but a deep love for Harvard that I write to share that I will be stepping down as president,” Gay said in a letter to the Harvard community. “This is not a decision I came to easily. Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries.”

But after consulting with the university’s board, Gay added, “it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than any individual.”   As reported by NBC News.

Gay’s six-month tenure is the shortest in the university’s 388-year history, according to the Harvard Crimson student newspaper. She was the first Black person and the second woman to lead the institution.

The Harvard Corporation, the school’s highest governing body, announced that Alan M. Garber, the school’s provost and chief academic officer, would serve as interim president until a permanent successor is named. The corporation’s members said Gay will return to a faculty position.

Gay drew fierce criticism last month after she and her counterparts at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology appeared to sidestep the question of whether calls for the genocide of Jews violate the school’s conduct rules. Penn President Liz Magill resigned days after the widely panned hearing.  MIT President Sally Kornbluth has so far not faced major fallout.

Gay then faced allegations of plagiarism in her political science scholarship. The Harvard Corporation ordered an investigation that “revealed a few instances of inadequate citation” but found no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct.

Gay’s job appeared to be secure Dec. 12 after the Harvard Corporation, responding to growing calls for her ouster, released a statement saying its members “reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University.”

But the questions swirling around Gay’s position did not abate over the holidays.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, as well as conservative activists such as Christopher Rufo, continued to put pressure on Harvard via posts on social media. The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication, published an unsigned complaint Monday that referred to new allegations of plagiarism, exacerbating the crisis.

Harvard’s communications office did not have comment on the additional plagiarism accusations.

The root of the outcry

The leaders of three of the country’s most prestigious universities were called before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Dec. 5 to testify about how their administrations responded to the rise in antisemitism after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel,

Gay repeatedly condemned both antisemitism and Islamophobia, but critics seized on her legalistic response to a line of questioning from Harvard alumnus Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., that went viral on social media. Stefanik asked Gay whether students who call for the genocide of Jews are in violation of the campus code of conduct.

Gay did not answer directly, saying in part: “We embrace a commitment to free expression even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful — it’s when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying, harassment, intimidation.”

The answer was met with swift backlash from the White House, lawmakers in both parties and high-profile alumni. NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” parodied the hearing at the start of the Dec. 9 episode.

In an interview with the Harvard Crimson student newspaper after the hearing made national news, Gay apologized for her remarks and said in part: “I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures.”

“I failed to convey what is my truth,” she said.

Gay attracted more scrutiny after critics such as Ackman and Rufo highlighted instances of alleged plagiarism in her published academic work, which largely focuses on American political behavior and the role of racial identity in politics.

Harvard’s board said it first learned of the allegations in late October, carried out an “independent review” of her work and found “a few instances of inadequate citation.” The board said Gay was “proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.”

But in the weeks to come, Gay continued to face plagiarism accusations — most recently on Monday, when the Washington Free Beacon published unsigned complaint whose author purported to have found “nearly 50 allegations, including over half a dozen examples never seen before.” NBC News has not independently verified those claims.

Gay has defended her academic work. “I stand by the integrity of my scholarship,” she said in a statement on Dec. 12. “Throughout my career, I have worked to ensure my scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards.”

Harvard history professor Alison Frank Johnson, one of more than 700 members of the faculty who had signed a letter urging administrators to resist calls to remove Gay, said in an interview that she was “flabbergasted” by the president’s exit.

“I was surprised to have this decision made so precipitously and without any proper procedures being followed,” Frank Johnson said in a Zoom interview.

Stefanik cheered the news of Gay’s departure, writing in part in a post on X: “TWO DOWN.”

Gay had to resign for her own sake, for Harvard , and for the higher education profession!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

John Mogulescu, long-time CUNY dean and colleague of mine has just published a memoir entitled, The Dean of New Things:  Bringing Change to CUNY and New York City.  John spent almost fifty years at the City University of New York, most of which were at the central office where he served as dean in the office of academic affairs.  I have known John for almost thirty years and can say without a doubt, his contributions were unique and made a lasting impact on CUNY.  Here is my brief review.

First, the title, The Dean of New Things is perfect. It reflects the projects that he undertook which were new and exciting, and most importantly, filled a need that likely would not have been met at the colleges.  I am most familiar with his work with the School of Professional Studies, ASAP (Accelerated Study in Associate Programs,) , and Guttman Community College, all of which are singular accomplishments.  

Second, he provides keen insights into the importance (for good or bad) of various city and state influences that had a significant impact on CUNY and especially the projects with which he was involved. His cultivation of relationships with political and other external actors is a story that had to be told.

Third, his perspective as a central office  administrator comes through loud and clear. He has fine commentary on the various chancellors and vice chancellors with whom he worked.  His opinions of Matt Goldstein and other CUNY chancellors are especially illuminating.

Fourth, he is most gracious in the way he compliments his staff and others especially administrators who worked with him.  They are often overlooked in much of the higher education literature. It is a wonderful reflection in that he gave credit to many of the staff people who frequently go nameless in a book of this type.

Lastly, I found it a pleasurable read.  Very accessible and finely edited. It flows easily and I read its 330 pages in four days.

If you are at all interested in a CUNY insider’s story,  consider picking up a copy!

Tony

John Roberts.  Copyright – J. Scott Applewhite | AP

Dear Commons Community,

US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Sunday turned his focus to the promise, and shortcomings, of artificial intelligence in the federal courts.

Describing artificial intelligence as the “latest technological frontier,” Roberts discussed the pros and cons of computer-generated content in the legal profession. His remarks come just a few days after the latest instance of AI-generated fake legal citations making their way into official court records, in a case involving ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

“Always a bad idea,” Roberts wrote in his year-end report, noting that “any use of AI requires caution and humility.”

At the same time, though, the chief justice acknowledged that AI can make it much easier for people without much money to access the courts. “These tools have the welcome potential to smooth out any mismatch between available resources and urgent needs in our court system,” Roberts wrote.

The report came at the end of a year in which a series of stories questioned the ethical practices of the justices and the court responded to critics by adopting its first code of conduct. Many of those stories focused on Justice Clarence Thomas and his failure to disclose travel, other hospitality and additional financial ties with wealthy conservative donors including Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. But Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor also have been under scrutiny.

The country also is entering an the beginning of an election year that seems likely to enmesh the court in some way in the ongoing criminal cases against Trump and efforts to keep the Republican former president off the 2024 ballot.

Along with his eight colleagues, Roberts almost never discusses cases that are before the Supreme Court or seem likely to get there. In past reports, he has advocated for enhanced security and salary increases for federal judges, praised judges and their aides for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and highlighted other aspects of technological changes in the courts.

Roberts once famously compared judges to umpires who call balls and strikes, but don’t make the rules. In his latest report, he turned to a different sport, tennis, to make the point that technology won’t soon replace judges.

At many tennis tournaments, optical technology, rather than human line judges, now determines “whether 130 mile per hour serves are in or out. These decisions involve precision to the millimeter. And there is no discretion; the ball either did or did not hit the line. By contrast, legal determinations often involve gray areas that still require application of human judgment,” Roberts wrote.

Looking ahead warily to the growing use of artificial intelligence in the courts, Roberts wrote: “I predict that human judges will be around for a while. But with equal confidence I predict that judicial work — particularly at the trial level — will be significantly affected by AI.”

The courts and everything else!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I wish all a Happy, Healthy, and Peaceful New Year in 2024!

Tony

Office of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

Dear Commons Community,

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a measure Friday that would have banned gender-affirming care for minors and transgender athletes’ participation in girls and women’s sports, in a break from members of his party who championed the legislation.

Hundreds of opponents testified against Ohio’s multifaceted measure when it was moving through the Legislature, including medical and mental health providers, education professionals, faith leaders, parents of transgender children and transgender individuals themselves.

They decried the legislation as cruel, life threatening to transgender youth and based on fearmongering rather than science.

The measure, which passed the Legislature earlier this month with only Republican support, would have prohibited Ohio minors from taking puberty blockers and undergoing other hormone therapies or receiving gender reassignment surgery that would further align them with their gender identity. It would, however, have allowed any minor who is an Ohio resident to continue treatment they are currently receiving.

DeWine’s veto departs from a nationwide trend toward passing such laws. Since 2021, more than 20 states have enacted laws restricting or banning such treatments, despite them having been available in the United States for more than a decade and long endorsed by major medical associations. Most of those states face lawsuits, but courts have issued mixed rulings.

The bill also would have required public K-12 schools and universities to designate separate teams for male and female sexes, and explicitly banned transgender girls and women from participating in sports that align with their gender identity. Supporters argued that banning transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports maintains the integrity of those sports and ensures fairness.

At least 20 states have passed some version of a ban on transgender athletes playing on K-12 and collegiate sports teams statewide. Those bans would be upended by a regulation proposed by President Joe Biden’s administration that is set to be finalized early next year.

GOP lawmakers hold enough seats to override DeWine’s veto, but if or when they would do so was not immediately clear.  

Thank you, Governor DeWine!

Tony

New Year’s Eve revelers in Times Square in 1938. – -/AFP/Getty Images

Dear Commons Community,

CNN is providing a brief history this morning of the New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square. Below is the entire article.

“Since crowds first began gathering in Times Square to commemorate New Year’s Eve over a century ago, it has been a ritual to flock to midtown’s brightly lit chaos to ring in new beginnings. At 11:59 p.m. a dazzling ball descends down a pole, while attendees — and millions of people tuning in from home — count down from 60. At the stroke of midnight, the crowd erupts into a cacophony of sound, often pulling their loved one in for a ceremonial kiss.

But how did this New Year’s Eve celebration start, and why do we commemorate the occasion by watching a ball descend down a pole?

The Times Square ball first dropped in 1904, and it came into being thanks to Jacob Starr, a Ukranian immigrant and metalworker, and the former New York Times publisher, Adolph Ochs. The latter had successfully drawn crowds to the newspaper’s skyscraper home in Times Square with pyrotechnics and fireworks to celebrate the forthcoming year, but city officials banned explosives from being used after just a few years of the festivities.

So Ochs commissioned Starr, who worked for sign-making firm Strauss Signs (later known as Artkraft Strauss, a company at which Starr served as president), to create a new visual display.

Over the past century, that display, and symbol of the New Year has evolved from a iron and wood cage adorned with light bulbs to a dazzling technicolor crystal sphere.

Their concept was based on time balls, nautical devices that had gained popularity in the 19th century. As time-telling became more precise, ship navigators needed a standardized way to set their chronometers. Each day, harbors and observatories would raise and lower a metal ball at the same time to allow sailors to synchronize their instruments.

Both Ochs and the New York Times’ chief electrician, Walter Palmer, have been credited with the idea, allegedly inspired by the downtown Western Union Building, which dropped a time ball each day at noon. But Starr’s granddaughter Tama, who joined Artkraft Strauss in 1982 and now owns the business, said in a phone interview that she believes it was her grandfather who came up with the concept of the ball being lowered and lit up with the new year numerals at midnight.

“The idea was to … have it illuminated with the brand-new electricity that had just come up to the neighborhood,” said Tama, who for many years served as foreperson at the Times Square ball drop. “And it was lowered by hand … starting at one minute to midnight, and that was the way it was done for many years.”

“It was an adaptation of an old, useful thing,” she added. “It was instantly popular. People just loved it.”

Though Manhattan had been partially illuminated by electricity since the early 1880s, the US National Park Service (NPS) notes that half of American homes were still lit by gas lights and candles until the 1920s. The sight of a glimmering ball lowering down from the dark skies would have seemed otherworldly.

When the ball reached the parapet with a sign displaying the numbers of the year, “the electrician would throw the switch, turning off the ball and turning on the numbers at the same time,” Tama said. “So it looked like the ball coming down transformed into the set of numbers.”

All of Times Square got in on the theatrics. In the first year, waiters in nearby restaurants and hotels wore battery-powered “1908” top hats that they illuminated at the stroke of midnight.

“It looked like magic to people,” said Tama.

‘A minute outside of time’

There have been seven different Times Square balls since that first descent, from a 700-pound iron structure fitted with 25-watt light bulbs, to a lighter aluminum frame after World War II, to a “Big Apple” during the administration of the city’s former mayor Ed Koch.

In 1995, when the ball got a glitzy update with rhinestones, strobe lights and computer controls, traditional signmakers were no longer needed — which meant that Artkraft Strauss, the company that had brought the ball to Times Square, was no longer needed either. Today’s ball is a collaboration between Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting, using 32,256 LEDs that can be programed to display millions of colors and patterns on its surface.

Nonetheless, Tama remembers her years as the timekeeper on the roof of One Times Square fondly.

When the last minute of the year arrived, workers lowered the ball down using a complex pulley system.

In performing this ritual year after year, Tama sees an intrinsic link between the countdown, which she calls “a minute outside of time,” and the making of New Year’s resolutions.

“When you’re concentrating really hard, time seems to slow down,” she said. “It felt like the longest minute in the world. It felt like you had time to wash your hair, call your mother, change your life. You really can change your life in one minute — you can decide to be different. You can decide to be kinder and better.”

Happy New Year, Everybody!

Tony