Your online connection to the “Medicare & You” handbook. Several formats are available: PDF, Large Print PDF, eBook, Audio, Braille, Paper handbook. [h/t Pete Weiss] Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Monthly Archives: September 2018
Imagining lost books in the age of Cambridge Analytica
Oxford University Press Blog: “Last spring, I—along with a substantial portion of my friends and acquaintances—followed some instructions I’d read online and successfully downloaded a copy of my Facebook data. Amongst other things, I was reminded of the fact that I had joined the social network on 21 February 2007 at 06:02 UTC and that… Continue Reading
1500 US Museums offer free entrance on Museum Day
Smithsonian: “On Saturday, September 22, more than 1,500 museums will open their doors for free as part of Museum Day. Organized by Smithsonian magazine, the annual event includes free admission to museums and cultural institutions in all 50 states. Participating museums range from large, popular institutions like the Zoo Miami to quirky and fascinating specialty… Continue Reading
New bill may finally end PACER paywall
Ars Technica: “Judicial records are public documents that are supposed to be freely available to the public. But for two decades, online access has been hobbled by a paywall on the judiciary’s website, called PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), which charges as much as 10 cents per page. Now Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.)… Continue Reading
Suits Challenging Confinement of Noncitizens Up
“Habeas corpus filings in federal courts challenging the confinement of noncitizens continue to rise. The latest available data from the federal courts show that during August 2018 the government reported 174 new habeas corpus civil filings by noncitizens. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, this… Continue Reading
Important update about LC Public Access Portal for CRS Reports
Follow up to previous posting – LC Launches Portal for Public Access to Official CRS Reports – with additional pertinent information for researchers Via Steven Aftergood – Secrecy News/FAS: “The Congressional Research Service launched its new public portal this morning, with an initial installment of 628 reports dating back to January of this year. The back… Continue Reading
BYU Law Launches Free Law and Corpus Linguistics Technology Platform
Bob Ambrogi – Law Sites: “A first-of-its-kind technology platform launching today allows legal researchers to examine large collections of historical texts to help determine the meanings of words and phrases in the contexts in which they historically were used. The Law and Corpus Linguistics Technology Platform was developed by BYU Law in Provo, Utah, which… Continue Reading
IBM Debuts Tools to Help Prevent Bias In Artificial Intelligence
Fortune: “IBM wants to help companies mitigate the chances that their artificial intelligence technologies unintentionally discriminate against certain groups like women and minorities. The technology giant’s tool, announced on Wednesday, can inspect AI-powered software for unintentional bias when it makes decisions, like when a loan might be denied to a particular person, explained Ruchir Puri,… Continue Reading
John Hancock will include fitness tracking in all life insurance policies
Insurance Journal: “John Hancock, one of the oldest and largest North American life insurers, will stop underwriting traditional life insurance and instead sell only interactive policies that track fitness and health data through wearable devices and smartphones, the company said on Wednesday. The move by the 156-year-old insurer, owned by Canada’s Manulife Financial Corp., marks… Continue Reading
How rumors spread on social media during weather disasters
National Science Foundation – New research shows that social media can spread information quickly, but its accuracy cannot be assumed “After hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research to investigate the broad impacts of these disasters. A year later, some of the researchers funded by awards from the agency’s Social, Behavioral,… Continue Reading
We invited some of the best musicians in the world to create songs inspired by each of the 27 amendments
Jad Abumrad – host, Radiolab & More Perfect: I’d venture a guess that most Americans (like us, before we started this project) can’t name more than one or two amendments to the Constitution, let alone remember that there are 27 of them. But these 27 “insertions” to our founding document outline our basic rights as Americans. Not only… Continue Reading
A brief history of the numeric keypad
UX Design: “There’s no logical reason why telephones and calculators use different numeric keypads. So why do we still follow the same convention? Picture the keypad of a telephone and calculator side by side. Can you see the subtle difference between the two without resorting to your smartphone? Don’t worry if you can’t recall the… Continue Reading
