Correction: An Anomalous Rise in Public Knowledge
Secrecy News last week misquoted a line in President Obama’s inaugural speech. He did not say: “And those of us who manage the public’s knowledge will be held to account….” What he said was “And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account….”
The erroneous reference to “public knowledge” was also published by the Washington Post, United Press International, and other news outlets. It may have originated with a mistake by the FDCH transcription service.
The text of the inaugural address on the White House web site says “public dollars,” not “public knowledge,” and it is clear from the tape of the speech that that is correct. Thanks to reader LD for questioning the discrepancy.
There must be lots of historic events that were mistakenly transcribed and reported.
“You can’t make an anomalous rise twice,” said J. Robert Oppenheimer, according to the official record of his momentous hearing before the Atomic Energy Commission in 1954.
But what Oppenheimer actually said was “You can’t make an omelet rise twice” (as noted by Philip M. Stern). Oh well.
The Oppenheimer case is to be reviewed once again in the latest episode of PBS’s American Experience tonight.
Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed revoking its 2009 “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases pose a substantial threat to the public. The Federation of American Scientists stands in strong opposition.
Modernizing ClinicalTrials.gov will empower patients, oncologists, and others to better understand what trials are available, where they are available, and their up-to-date eligibility criteria, using standardized search categories to make them more easily discoverable.
The Federation of American Scientists supports H.R. 4420, the Cool Corridors Act of 2025, which would reauthorize the Healthy Streets program through 2030 and seeks to increase green and other shade infrastructure in high-heat areas.
The current lack of public trust in AI risks inhibiting innovation and adoption of AI systems, meaning new methods will not be discovered and new benefits won’t be felt. A failure to uphold high standards in the technology we deploy will also place our nation at a strategic disadvantage compared to our competitors.