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Daily Archives: July 14, 2022

What Happens When Americans Don’t Trust Institutions?

FiveThirtyEight: “Americans are feeling uneasy, and it’s hard to blame them. The things they want to change — inflation, COVID-19 case numbers, rising violent crime in some cities — seem more and more intractable. There was one big, abrupt shift in American life at the end of June, when the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion. But that wasn’t a change most Americans wanted. This sense of dissatisfaction showed up in a recent poll from Gallup, which asked Americans how much confidence they have in various institutions. The survey found that since last June, when Gallup last asked this set of questions, Americans’ confidence in almost every institution has dropped. In the poll, which was conducted before the justices released their decision on abortion but after a draft of the opinion leaked, the biggest shifts were for the presidency, which saw a 15-percentage-point drop, and the Supreme Court, which saw an 11-point drop. But overall, the national mood is sour. Americans’ average confidence in 14 of the institutions that Gallup asked about was only at 27 percent — the lowest point since Gallup began the survey in 1979…”

New Research – E-Bikes Are Outpacing Electric Cars Sales in the US

Bicycling: “People in urban areas are starting to realize that sometimes, it’s faster to go by bike than to drive from place to place. Especially when the bike is electric-assisted and capable of zooming through traffic at the same speed as most city speed limits, without the hassle of finding parking. And now that e-cargo… Continue Reading

FSB Roadmap for Addressing Financial Risks from Climate Change: 2022 progress report

Financial Stability Board: “One year after the G20 endorsed the FSB Roadmap to address climate-related financial risks, policy action to address such risks is more urgent than ever. The increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate-related events, and the intense debate about current and future energy policies in many jurisdictions, highlights that financial… Continue Reading

Some VPNs can’t be trusted. These are best at privacy and security.

Washington Post: “Interest in virtual private networks, a technology that helps you hide what you do online, surged after the Supreme Court ended legal abortion in some states and dramatically raised the stakes for digital privacy. There’s just one problem: There are hundreds of VPNs, and some of them are snake oil. Many over-promise, making… Continue Reading

Light pollution is disrupting the seasonal rhythms of plants and trees

Ars Technica: “City lights that blaze all night are profoundly disrupting urban plants’ phenology—shifting when their buds open in the spring and when their leaves change colors and drop in the fall. New research I co-authored shows how nighttime lights are lengthening the growing season in cities, which can affect everything from allergies to local… Continue Reading

Privacy of Health Information After Dobbs

The National Law Review: Privacy of Health Information After Dobbs: OCR Guidance On Disclosures of PHI and the Privacy of Personal Information On Devices – “On 28 June 2022, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary… Continue Reading

New Interactive Map and Timeline Added to Chronicling America

LC – Chronicling America “users can now browse the collection’s thousands of digitized historical newspapers using an interactive map and timeline recently launched by the Library of Congress. The new “Exploring Chronicling America Newspapers” application dynamically maps publication locations of over 3,000 digitized newspapers currently available in the Chronicling America online collection. Users can also… Continue Reading

What’s Happening With The Vinton Public Library

Iowa Starting Line – “Residents of a small Iowa town criticized their library’s LGBTQ staff and their displaying of LGBTQ-related books until most of the staff quit. Now, the town’s library is closed for the foreseeable future. After having the same library director for 32 years, the Vinton Public Library can’t seem to keep the… Continue Reading