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

Daily Archives: September 20, 2018

1500 US Museums offer free entrance on Museum Day

Smithsonian: “On Saturday, September 22, more than 1,500 museums will open their doors for free as part of Museum Day. Organized by Smithsonian magazine, the annual event includes free admission to museums and cultural institutions in all 50 states. Participating museums range from large, popular institutions like the Zoo Miami to quirky and fascinating specialty museums, like the National Barber Museum in Canal Winchester, Ohio. Visitors are allowed to download one ticket per email address, and each ticket provides free general admission for two people. Not sure which museum to choose? Here are ten can’t-miss museums for consideration…”

Suits Challenging Confinement of Noncitizens Up

“Habeas corpus filings in federal courts challenging the confinement of noncitizens continue to rise. The latest available data from the federal courts show that during August 2018 the government reported 174 new habeas corpus civil filings by noncitizens. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, this… Continue Reading

Important update about LC Public Access Portal for CRS Reports

Follow up to previous posting – LC Launches Portal for Public Access to Official CRS Reports – with additional pertinent information for researchers Via Steven Aftergood – Secrecy News/FAS: “The Congressional Research Service launched its new public portal this morning, with an initial installment of 628 reports dating back to January of this year. The back… Continue Reading

BYU Law Launches Free Law and Corpus Linguistics Technology Platform

Bob Ambrogi – Law Sites: “A first-of-its-kind technology platform launching today allows legal researchers to examine large collections of historical texts to help determine the meanings of words and phrases in the contexts in which they historically were used. The Law and Corpus Linguistics Technology Platform was developed by BYU Law in Provo, Utah, which… Continue Reading

IBM Debuts Tools to Help Prevent Bias In Artificial Intelligence

Fortune: “IBM wants to help companies mitigate the chances that their artificial intelligence technologies unintentionally discriminate against certain groups like women and minorities. The technology giant’s tool, announced on Wednesday, can inspect AI-powered software for unintentional bias when it makes decisions, like when a loan might be denied to a particular person, explained Ruchir Puri,… Continue Reading

John Hancock will include fitness tracking in all life insurance policies

Insurance Journal: “John Hancock, one of the oldest and largest North American life insurers, will stop underwriting traditional life insurance and instead sell only interactive policies that track fitness and health data through wearable devices and smartphones, the company said on Wednesday. The move by the 156-year-old insurer, owned by Canada’s Manulife Financial Corp., marks… Continue Reading

How rumors spread on social media during weather disasters

National Science Foundation – New research shows that social media can spread information quickly, but its accuracy cannot be assumed “After hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research to investigate the broad impacts of these disasters. A year later, some of the researchers funded by awards from the agency’s Social, Behavioral,… Continue Reading

We invited some of the best musicians in the world to create songs inspired by each of the 27 amendments

Jad Abumrad – host, Radiolab & More Perfect: I’d venture a guess that most Americans (like us, before we started this project) can’t name more than one or two amendments to the Constitution, let alone remember that there are 27 of them.  But these 27 “insertions” to our founding document outline our basic rights as Americans.  Not only… Continue Reading

A brief history of the numeric keypad

UX Design: “There’s no logical reason why telephones and calculators use different numeric keypads. So why do we still follow the same convention? Picture the keypad of a telephone and calculator side by side. Can you see the subtle difference between the two without resorting to your smartphone? Don’t worry if you can’t recall the… Continue Reading