University of Maryland – “The Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative–a priority project for the University System of Maryland’s William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation and state higher education partners-has launched M.O.S.T. Commons (https://most.oercommons.org/), a collaborative, online space designed to support faculty and staff in adopting, creating, and sharing open educational resources (OER). M.O.S.T.… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: February 2020
Smarter government or data-driven disaster
“The algorithms helping control local communities – MuckRock’s releasing a new database of algorithms in government – but we’ll need your input – What is the chance you, or your neighbor, will commit a crime? Should the government change a child’s bus route? Add more police to a neighborhood or take some away? Every day… Continue Reading
An Algorithm That Grants Freedom, or Takes It Away
The New York Times – Across the United States and Europe, software is making probation decisions and predicting whether teens will commit crime. Opponents want more human oversight. “.. In Philadelphia, an algorithm created by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania has helped dictate the experience of probationers for at least five years. The… Continue Reading
What Happens When QAnon Seeps From the Web to the Offline World
The New York Times – “…What began online more than two years ago as an intricate, if baseless, conspiracy theory that quickly attracted thousands of followers has since found footholds in the offline world. QAnon has surfaced in political campaigns, criminal cases, merchandising and at least one college class…QAnon began in October 2017, when a… Continue Reading
The Oldest Treasures From 12 Great Libraries
Atlas Obscura – The Oldest Treasures From 12 Great Libraries – We asked some of our favorite libraries: What’s the oldest item in your collection? – “When you start to think about the oldest books that a library might hold, there are any number of rabbit holes you can fall down. What’s the oldest book in… Continue Reading
Why Walking Helps Us Think
The New Yorker” – Since at least the time of peripatetic Greek philosophers, many other writers have discovered a deep, intuitive connection between walking, thinking, and writing. (In fact, Adam Gopnik wrote about walking in The New Yorker just two weeks ago.) “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not… Continue Reading
In first – flagship law journals at top U.S. law schools are all led by women
Washington Post – “Only one woman worked on the staff of the Harvard Law Review when Ruth Bader Ginsburg arrived on campus in 1956. It would be another two decades before a woman was elected to lead the school’s prestigious legal journal. The Supreme Court justice this week addressed the current slate of editors in… Continue Reading
Almost half of Americans have stopped talking politics with someone
“At a time when the country’s polarizing politics and public discourse are dividing many Americans, close to half of all U.S. adults acknowledge that they have stopped discussing political and election news with someone, according to a new analysis of data from Pew Research Center’s Election News Pathways project. In total, 45% of the nation’s… Continue Reading
A librarian shares the secrets of book-culling
Spinoff: “It’s no surprise then that weeding announcements evoke a flurry of sad and angry face reacts. In response to the disposal of books and newspapers by his local public library, novelist Nicholson Baker became so riled up that he wrote the book Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper. Weeding projects can encourage… Continue Reading
Will the White House Order New Federal Architecture To Be Classical?
Architectural Record – “While the country was riveted by the President’s impeachment trial, a Washington rumor was quietly bubbling about a potential executive order that, if implemented, would profoundly affect the future of federal architecture. RECORD has obtained what appears to be a preliminary draft of the order, under which the White House would require rewriting… Continue Reading
The Philadelphia Suburbs Where Many Don’t Drink the Water
WSJ.com – About 80,000 people in three townships outside Philadelphia live in an area where the groundwater has been contaminated by chemicals used for decades in firefighting foam at two nearby decommissioned military bases. The Defense Department has cited 401 bases in the U.S. with a known or suspected release of the firefighting foam containing chemicals… Continue Reading
Imagination becomes reality in the winners of the 2019 Wiki Loves Earth photo contest
“The child of a monkey holds on to its mother tightly. A lone straw bale stands in a field prior to being collected. A few rays of sunlight filter into a dark, foreboding cave filled with clear blue water. These are a mere three of the imagination-fueling winners from the international Wiki Loves Earth photography… Continue Reading
