Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: April 9, 2017

Please Support BeSpacific

Greetings Colleagues. If you read BeSpacific on a regular basis and my research is useful to you, please support this site by donating the Cost of a Cup of Coffee – $4 – or another amount, such as $8, $16, $20 – using the link on selected postings – Buy Me a Coffee!

I created and continue to maintain BeSpacific because I am passionate about law and technology and the myriad of ways the knowledge created by the intersection of these areas impacts our daily work, civic lives, education, government, and a wide range of communities of best practice.

I have sustained BeSpacific as the solo researcher and publisher, posting daily for 15 years now, for thousands of monthly readers (via the blog, Twitter, RSS and by email subscription).

Your contribution to BeSpacific will help me with the costs of hosting, email and content development, so thank you in advance for your time and consideration. And thank you to the readers who support BeSpacific on a regular basis. I hope that more readers will consider doing the same.

Wishing you peace, good work, good health and a joyful Spring.

Sabrina I. Pacifici

Census Bureau Statistics on Pets

“The U.S. Census Bureau presents a collection of data that highlights the various aspects of America’s love for their pets. The National Pet Day graphic and Stats for Stories include data on topics such as: veterinarians and their assistants, veterinary clinics, pet food manufacturing and pet supply retailers. Statistics come from the 2015 American Community Survey, 2014… Continue Reading

US Labor Dept targeting Google for systemic gender pay discrepancies

UK Guardian – “The U.S. Department of Labor’s investigation into Google’s pay practices is turning up some damning details. According to The Guardian, the department is accusing the tech giant of drastically underpaying its female employees, even beyond the typical gender pay gap in the tech sector. This data has come to light as part… Continue Reading

2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index

“The Cook Political Report is pleased to introduce the 20th anniversary edition of the Partisan Voter Index (PVI) for all 50 states and 435 Congressional districts in the country, compiled especially for the Report by POLIDATA®.  First introduced in 1997, the Cook PVI measures how each district performs at the presidential level compared to the… Continue Reading

New Website Lets You Fax Art to Congress to Save the NEA

Artsy Editorial – “In the months since President Donald Trump took office, members of Congress have watched their phone lines reach capacity and their email inboxes overflow as constituents voice their displeasure with the administration’s policies and appointees… Now, a new website is giving citizens a way to get artistic with their political grievances. Artifax… Continue Reading

Open Access Innovations Are Impacting Academic Publishing

Chronicle of Higher Education: “Open-access advocates have had several successes in the past few weeks. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation started its own open-access publishing platform, which the European Commission may replicate. And librarians attending the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in March were glad to hear that the Open Access Button,… Continue Reading

Wolfram – How to Use Your Smartphone for Vibration Analysis

And now for something completely different, via the Wolfram Blog: “Vibration measurement is an important tool for fault detection in rotating machinery. In a previous post, “How to Use Your Smartphone for Vibration Analysis, Part 1: The Wolfram Language,” I described how you can perform a vibration analysis with a smartphone and Mathematica. Here, I… Continue Reading

UVA Law Librarians Present Travaux Préparatoires at Human Rights Conference

“At the “What’s Next for Human Rights Scholarship?” conference on March 31, law librarians Ben Doherty and Loren Moulds presented the Law Library’s new searchable database of preparatory works, or travaux préparatoires, of the United Nations’ core human rights agreements. More than 30 human rights scholars from North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania participated in the two-day interdisciplinary conference, which… Continue Reading

Issues of modern homelessness – broad, complex, affecting too many of our neighbors, communities

Gretchen Keillor’s new data project – Understanding Homelessness: “From the system perspective, a society with a lack of supportive and health services, a suffering economy, or a lack of affordable housing can be challenging for individuals on the brink of homelessness. From an individual perspective, these people can be classified as those unable to work… Continue Reading

Portraits of Nineteenth Century African American Women Activists Posted by LC

Library of Congress – The following is a guest post by Beverly Brannan, Curator of Photography, Prints & Photographs Division. “African American women as well as men assumed civic responsibilities in the decades after the Civil War. William Henry Richards (1856-1941) was active in several organizations that promoted civil rights and civil liberties for African… Continue Reading