A man sits at a desk with his feet up, surrounded by computer programming and philosophy books. He looks out the window at the bare branches of a tree behind a sheet of winter blue sky. In his reverie, he is haunted by a question that he can’t seem to answer: In the age of […]
I have a small house, but that hasn’t stopped me from having an Alexa in almost every room. Alexa, Amazon’s “cloud-based voice service available on more than 100 million devices from Amazon and third-party device manufacturers.” It has become my buddy since I was given an Amazon Echo Tap as a Christmas present back in […]
In November, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank released a report showing that a record number of Rhode Islanders are seeking food assistance, with communities of color and families with children at the greatest risk of hunger. The 2023 Status Report on Hunger has four major findings: • A record number of Rhode Islanders need […]
Since October 7, I have been glued to my phone watching video after video depicting the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Doctors are operating with sewing needles and without anesthetic, babies are dying because there is no electricity to run incubators. Journalists covering Gaza have been targeted and killed, and civilians are being bombed with white […]
BillBuddy, an online tool available through UpriseRI, is designed to help you understand RI state legislation. You tell the app what issues you’re interested in, and it provides bill summaries of any legislation that seems like it would affect those areas you care about. The tool is expected to be available in January. Once you […]
I’ve been using a heating pad in the winter months for years. It doesn’t matter if my back is hurting or not. I’ve always found the warmth of the heating pad incredibly comforting, especially when topped with a blanket. I put it on the highest setting and let this small electronic device cozy up my […]
When I imagined the beginning of a technocratic dystopia, it wasn’t like this. Uncanny humanoid robots were supposed to oppress us, not faceless software. Our saviors were going to be macho men holed up in bunkers à la John Connor. Instead, progressive municipal governments might be the ones to save us all. In 2019, the […]
In 1937, the federal government entered the world of public housing when FDR signed the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act into law. The law established the US Housing Authority, which created a federally funded public housing program that provided $500 million in loans for low-cost housing projects across the US to help house America’s most financially poor. […]
988 is a great resource to be used by those going through a mental health crisis and needing someone to talk to. There are talk and text options, which makes it easy for anyone who wants to reach out. The ease and anonymity of texting should make more people feel comfortable seeking assistance. It should […]
There are a lot of hot topics floating around our culture, one of which is artificial intelligence (AI). Though AI is a field that has been in development for quite some time, recently it has dominated the conversation in a number of industries. Those in tech, media, and analytics have been watching major news outlets […]