“National parks are places where plants and animals have the opportunity to thrive. While this site provides detailed information on species in a few national parks across the National Park System, this map shows all national parks that, based on our methodology, provide habitat for threatened and endangered species. Explore the map or use the… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: July 2018
One more time – No, Amazon Cannot Replace Libraries
Vice: “In Saturday, Forbes published an article titled “Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money,” that elicited extremely strong backlash on Twitter from librarians and library patrons alike. The article has since been taken down, though the (extremely ratioed) tweet from the author about it remains. In the article, writer Panos Mourdoukoutas argued… Continue Reading
Bloomberg – Inside Google’s Shadow Workforce
About half of Google’s workers are contractors who don’t receive the same benefits as direct employees – “Every day, tens of thousands of people stream into Google offices wearing red name badges. They eat in Google’s cafeterias, ride its commuter shuttles and work alongside its celebrated geeks. But they can’t access all of the company’s celebrated… Continue Reading
Federal Motor Vehicle Product Liability Litigation Up 89%
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “The latest available data from the federal courts through June 2018 show that new federal motor vehicle product liability lawsuits have risen sharply. During four out of six of the past months, the number of new cases filed set new records. So far during the first nine months of FY 2018,… Continue Reading
Where in the world does your e-waste go?
HuffPo: “In a sparse and sprawling factory complex on the outskirts of Shanghai, thousands of tiny plastic resin pellets are shivering along narrow conveyor belts, ready to be transformed into something new. The dark pellets are unremarkable at first glance, resembling any plastic granule used for manufacturing. But follow their journey from consumer to conveyor… Continue Reading
Meet the human Google – Edda Tasiemka, 95
The Oldie – “Edda has filled her London house with news cuttings for fifty years. Now she’s giving away her archive, she tells Miles Goslett Authors, journalists and programme-makers have been visiting an anonymous suburban house in Golders Green, north London, for nearly forty years. What has drawn them there is the Hans Tasiemka Archive,… Continue Reading
Forbes “deletes” opinion piece by economist advocating replacing public libraries with Amazon
Quartz: “On Saturday morning Forbes published an opinion piece by LIU Post economist Panos Mourdoukoutas with the headline “Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money.” It quickly received enthusiastic backlash from actual American libraries and their communities. As of around 10am US eastern time this morning, the story had nearly 200,000 views, according… Continue Reading
Poynter guide to anti-misinformation actions around the world
Poynter has updated this very useful guide – Here’s where governments are taking action against online misinformation – subject matter includes hate speech law, misinformation. media literacy, fake news, election misinformation, political bots and advertising, foreign disinformation campaigns, media regulation, internet regulation. Continue Reading
Paper – Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning
Lazy, not biased: Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning. Gordon Pennycook and David G. Rand. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.06.011. Cognition. Available online 20 June 2018 [paywall – but Table of Contents, Abstract, Figures and Supplementary Data are available at no fee] Participants rated perceived accuracy of fake and… Continue Reading
YouTube, WhatsApp, Twitter, FB take new steps to combat fake news
Poynter: “YouTube will be surfacing authoritative sources in search results during breaking news in order to push out the regular dribble of conspiracy theories, but defining “authoritative” might be tricky. WhatsApp is now labeling forwarded messages and working with fact-checkers and researchers, but will it be enough to limit the spread of viral rumors? Facebook launched its data-sharing partnership with academics, but will… Continue Reading
Firefox browser adds feature to block autoplaying web audio
Engadget: “Firefox is finally joining the ranks of web browsers that block autoplaying web sounds. Mozilla’s latest Nightly builds for Firefox now include an option to mute autoplaying audio, hopefully saving you from jumping out of your seat when an obnoxious video ad makes its presence felt. It’s finer-grained than Chrome’s recently removed automatic muting,… Continue Reading
Chrome is flagging HTTP sites as “not secure”
In case you have not noticed, your workplace security team has no doubt started blocking your access to websites that are not using HTTPS encryption – via ZDNet: “Chrome will today start marking sites that don’t use HTTPS as “not secure. First announced two years ago, Google said it would flag any site that still… Continue Reading
