EPIC: “[On December 9, 2021] District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine introduced landmark legislation to strengthen civil rights protections for DC residents and prohibit companies and institutions from using algorithms that produce biased or discriminatory results and lock individuals, especially members of vulnerable communities, out of critical opportunities, like jobs and housing. “At… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Economy
A beginner’s guide to bitcoin and cryptocurrency
CNET: “Cryptocurrency reached a peak in 2021. Bitcoin once again notched an all-time high valuation, surpassing $65,000 (earlier in the year, it had dipped below $30,000). And this year bitcoin — and cryptocurrency in general — penetrated deeply into financial services as well as the culture, gaining an expanding foothold in popular art, commerce and… Continue Reading
Postcards From a World on Fire
The New York Times: “These 193 stories show the reality of climate change. In every country in the world…” Continue Reading
Arctic Report Card: Climate change transforming Arctic into ‘dramatically different state’
“NOAA’s 2021 Arctic Report Card documents the numerous ways that climate change continues to fundamentally alter this once reliably-frozen region, as increasing heat and the loss of ice drive its transformation into a warmer, less frozen and more uncertain future. This year’s Arctic Report Card is the 16th annual volume of original, peer-reviewed environmental observations… Continue Reading
Future of Work: Requiring workers to return to the office is a ‘doomed approach’
Washington Post: “Slack’s CEO Stewart Butterfield says the future of work is being dictated by workers who want more flexibility and better tech tools. The chief executive and co-founder of Slack — one of the fastest growing work communication tools that was bought by Salesforce earlier this year for $27.7 billion — believes the pandemic… Continue Reading
The insane resurgence of vinyl records
The Hustle: Vinyl has reclaimed its throne as the most-popular physical music format. But can the industry meet the demand? – Long before the days of Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube, vinyl records were all the rage. In the 1970s, vinyl sales peaked at 530m units/year and accounted for 66% of all music format revenues.… Continue Reading
Professional maintainers: a wake-up call
Filippo Valsorda: “I work on the Go team at Google, but this is my personal opinion as someone who built a career on Open Source both at and outside big companies. Open Source software runs the Internet, and by extension the economy. This is an undisputed fact about reality in 2021. And yet, the role… Continue Reading
The End of a Return-to-Office Date
The New York Times – “…For many organizational leaders, addressing the anxieties of their work force has been the only constant in the R.T.O. process…Return-to-office dates used to be like talismans; the chief executives who set them seemed to wield some power over the shape of the months to come. Then the dates were postponed,… Continue Reading
Workers Are Using ‘Mouse Movers’ So They Can Use the Bathroom in Peace
Vice: “…At the beginning of the pandemic almost two years ago, there was much speculation about how the global crisis of COVID-19 would bring a newfound appreciation for how short life is, and how no one really wants to spend it chained to a desk. Out of that, we got the “Great Resignation” with people… Continue Reading
CPI Inflation Calculator
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: “The CPI inflation calculator uses the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) U.S. city average series for all items, not seasonally adjusted. This data represents changes in the prices of all goods and services purchased for consumption by urban households.” Continue Reading
New NOAA tool pinpoints natural disaster risk down to county level
“NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has released an innovative mapping tool that provides county-level information on natural disaster hazards across the United States. This new feature provides significant enhancements to the state-level data on NOAA’s Billion-Dollar Disasters website. Developed by NCEI with data from NOAA, FEMA and academic institutions, this interactive NOAA mapping… Continue Reading
EU – Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance in the Workplace
Ball, K., Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance in the Workplace, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-43340-8, doi:10.2760/5137, JRC125716. “This report re-evaluates the literature about surveillance/monitoring in the standard workplace, in home working during the COVID 19 pandemic and in respect of digital platform work. It utilised a systematic review methodology. A total… Continue Reading
