News release: “The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced enforcement actions against 27 individuals and entities behind various alleged stock promotion schemes that left investors with the impression they were reading independent, unbiased analyses on investing websites while writers were being secretly compensated for touting company stocks. SEC investigations uncovered scenarios in which public companies… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: April 2017
Amazon takes a business approach to new physical bookstore
Chicago Tribune – Christopher Borelli – “Amazon Books on Southport Avenue, the fifth physical store from the Seattle online giant and its first in the Midwest, is a deeply, unsettlingly normal place, a soulless, antiseptic 6,000 square feet, a stone’s throw from a J. Crew and a SoulCycle. It has the personality of an airport… Continue Reading
Will the US have enough workers to help an aging population?
GAO WatchBlog: “More than 12 million Americans need assistance with routine daily activities, such as eating, dressing, bathing, and making meals. Direct care workers—home health aides, psychiatric aides, nursing assistants, and personal care aides—are the primary paid providers of the long-term care they need. As the baby boomers age, there are concerns that there may… Continue Reading
Please Support BeSpacific
Greetings Colleagues. If you read BeSpacific on a regular basis and my research is useful to you, please support this site by donating the Cost of a Cup of Coffee – $4 – or another amount, such as $8, $16, $20 – using the link on selected postings – Buy Me a Coffee! I created… Continue Reading
Census Bureau Statistics on Pets
“The U.S. Census Bureau presents a collection of data that highlights the various aspects of America’s love for their pets. The National Pet Day graphic and Stats for Stories include data on topics such as: veterinarians and their assistants, veterinary clinics, pet food manufacturing and pet supply retailers. Statistics come from the 2015 American Community Survey, 2014… Continue Reading
US Labor Dept targeting Google for systemic gender pay discrepancies
UK Guardian – “The U.S. Department of Labor’s investigation into Google’s pay practices is turning up some damning details. According to The Guardian, the department is accusing the tech giant of drastically underpaying its female employees, even beyond the typical gender pay gap in the tech sector. This data has come to light as part… Continue Reading
2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index
“The Cook Political Report is pleased to introduce the 20th anniversary edition of the Partisan Voter Index (PVI) for all 50 states and 435 Congressional districts in the country, compiled especially for the Report by POLIDATA®. First introduced in 1997, the Cook PVI measures how each district performs at the presidential level compared to the… Continue Reading
New Website Lets You Fax Art to Congress to Save the NEA
Artsy Editorial – “In the months since President Donald Trump took office, members of Congress have watched their phone lines reach capacity and their email inboxes overflow as constituents voice their displeasure with the administration’s policies and appointees… Now, a new website is giving citizens a way to get artistic with their political grievances. Artifax… Continue Reading
Open Access Innovations Are Impacting Academic Publishing
Chronicle of Higher Education: “Open-access advocates have had several successes in the past few weeks. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation started its own open-access publishing platform, which the European Commission may replicate. And librarians attending the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in March were glad to hear that the Open Access Button,… Continue Reading
Wolfram – How to Use Your Smartphone for Vibration Analysis
And now for something completely different, via the Wolfram Blog: “Vibration measurement is an important tool for fault detection in rotating machinery. In a previous post, “How to Use Your Smartphone for Vibration Analysis, Part 1: The Wolfram Language,” I described how you can perform a vibration analysis with a smartphone and Mathematica. Here, I… Continue Reading
UVA Law Librarians Present Travaux Préparatoires at Human Rights Conference
“At the “What’s Next for Human Rights Scholarship?” conference on March 31, law librarians Ben Doherty and Loren Moulds presented the Law Library’s new searchable database of preparatory works, or travaux préparatoires, of the United Nations’ core human rights agreements. More than 30 human rights scholars from North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania participated in the two-day interdisciplinary conference, which… Continue Reading
Issues of modern homelessness – broad, complex, affecting too many of our neighbors, communities
Gretchen Keillor’s new data project – Understanding Homelessness: “From the system perspective, a society with a lack of supportive and health services, a suffering economy, or a lack of affordable housing can be challenging for individuals on the brink of homelessness. From an individual perspective, these people can be classified as those unable to work… Continue Reading
