NISO: “We are living in unprecedented times. We walk around with powerful computers in our pockets that can track our every move. We regularly offer up our location and vital information on what we buy, watch, and read to digital global powerhouses such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon. This data is, of course, used to… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: August 2021
Counting Happiness and Where it Comes From
Flowing Data – “Researchers asked 10,000 participants to list ten things that recently made them happy. The result was HappyDB, a collection of 100,000 happy moments. For each moment, I parsed out the subject, verb, and object to better see what makes people happy overall. For example, someone might have said “I watched a good… Continue Reading
Black Americans and the Law
Berkeley Law: American jurisprudence and law have profoundly shaped, defined, and constrained the lives of Black people for over 400 years. Racial inequality has extremely deep roots in American society, and our Constitution, statutes, court cases, and regulations not only bear witness to this, but are often the source of it. This timeline provides an… Continue Reading
Sci-Fi Guru Who Predicted Google Earth Explains Silicon Valley’s Latest Obsession
Vanity Fair – Way back in 1992, author Neal Stephenson published his breakthrough novel, Snow Crash, a cyberpunk exploration of then-futuristic technologies: mobile computing, virtual reality, wireless Internet, digital currency, smartphones, and augmented-reality headsets. The book famously opens with a breakneck car chase as the main character, Hiro Protagonist (it’s something of a satire), races… Continue Reading
A person or a thing? Inside the fight for animal personhood
National Geographic – “An animal rights organization wants a New York court to grant Happy the elephant legal personhood. But what would that mean?…” Continue Reading
Which vaccines mandates are legal? All of them
Quartz: “To be clear, the White House says it is not considering a blanket mandate that would apply to all Americans. (Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, has also said “There will be no federal mandate.”) Indeed, what some people are calling a vaccine mandate for federal employees (announced by US president Joe Biden at… Continue Reading
Using Archive.org for OSINT Investigations
Ritu Gill: “The Internet Archive, commonly known as the Wayback Machine allows users to visit archived versions of websites. The Internet Archive has been archiving sites since 1996 and has 514 billion archived web pages! If you are wondering how you can use the Internet Archive in your OSINT research, you’ve come to the right… Continue Reading
The Returns to Public Library Investment
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago – The Returns to Public Library Investment. Gregory Gilpi, Ezra Karger, Peter Nencka, April, 2021. – “Local governments spend over 12 billion dollars annually funding the operation of 15,000 public libraries in the United States. This funding supports widespread library use: more than50% of Americans visit public libraries each year. But… Continue Reading
Where to Get a Covid-19 Vaccine and What to Expect
Wired – “Vaccines are rolling out across the US. These tips will help you figure out where to find an appointment in your in your area, and how to prepare. The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is wreaking havoc on the US right now. It accounts for 89 percent of the 85,000 daily reported Covid-19 infections… Continue Reading
Major Atlantic ocean current system might be approaching critical threshold
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research – “The major Atlantic ocean current, to which also the Gulf stream belongs, may have been losing stability in the course of the last century. This is shown in a new study published in Nature Climate Change. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, transports warm water masses from… Continue Reading
Mapping CDC’s new guidelines: High transmission areas where you need to wear a mask indoors
USA Today: “In a renewed effort to limit the spread of COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that fully vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors if they’re in an area of substantial or high coronavirus transmission. The CDC is also recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors inside schools from… Continue Reading
The 12 Best Free Virtual Travel Experiences Worth Checking Out
Make Use Of: “Do you want to travel, but circumstances are preventing you from doing so? Thankfully, the internet enables you to visit multiple destinations around the world in real time. No plane tickets, visas, or long flights necessary! If you have a laptop, a smartphone, or a VR device and a reliable Wi-Fi connection,… Continue Reading
