“The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to new Pew Research Center estimates based on 2016 government data. The decline is due almost entirely to a sharp decrease in the number of Mexicans entering the country without authorization. But the Mexican border remains… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: November 2018
How to Get Your Lawmakers to Listen
ProPublica – “In our final installment of the User’s Guide to Democracy, we asked a live panel of congressional experts to help you stay engaged in politics after the midterms have ended. Congress Works For You. Here’s How to Be a Better Boss.” [h/t Pete Weiss] “You did it! In this month’s midterm election, you… Continue Reading
Food Security and Nutrition around the World – Hunger is on the rise
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – 2018 The State of Food and Nutrition in the World: “For the third year in a row, there has been a rise in world hunger. The absolute number of undernourished people, i.e. those facing chronic food deprivation, has increased to nearly 821 million in 2017, from… Continue Reading
Teens’ Social Media Habits and Experiences
“Teens credit social media for helping to build stronger friendships and exposing them to a more diverse world, but they express concern that these sites lead to drama and social pressure. Amid growing concern over social media’s impact and influence on today’s youth, a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens finds that many… Continue Reading
Understanding Great Works: a new research tool on JSTOR
“Understanding Great Works (Beta) is a free research tool from JSTOR Labs that fosters student engagement with classic literature by connecting passages in primary texts with journal articles and book chapters on JSTOR that cite those lines. Building on the success of the Understanding Shakespeare tool, Understanding Great Works encompasses several key works of British… Continue Reading
How China Walled Off the Internet
The New York Times – “Today, China has the world’s only internet companies that can match America’s in ambition and reach. It is years ahead of the United States in replacing paper money with smartphone payments, turning tech giants into vital gatekeepers of the consumer economy. And it is host to a supernova of creative… Continue Reading
The Anti-Defamation League’s reading list for children
ADL – “Books Matter. Books have the potential to create lasting impressions. They have the power to instill empathy, affirm children’s sense of self, teach about others, transport to new places and inspire actions on behalf of social justice.” Users may search the more than 750 recommended books, as well as browse using these topics:… Continue Reading
Remembering the Howard University Librarian Who Decolonized the Way Books Were Catalogued
Smithsonian Magazine – Dorothy Porter challenged the racial bias in the Dewey Decimal System, putting black scholars alongside white colleagues “In a 1995 interview with Linton Weeks of the Washington Post, the Howard University librarian, collector and self-described “bibliomaniac” Dorothy Porter reflected on the focus of her 43-year career: “The only rewarding thing for me… Continue Reading
Paper – Silencing Discipline in Legal Education
Jewel, Lucille A., Silencing Discipline in Legal Education (April 6, 2018). University of Toledo Law Review, Vol. 49, 2018. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3271967 “In current times, the production of critical legal knowledge has become constrained by a neoliberal education mindset that emphasizes economic performance and measured outcomes over critical thought. In this essay, I argue… Continue Reading
Tech giants offer empty apologies because users can’t quit
TechCrunch – ‘Sorry’ means nothing since so does ‘We’re deleting’ A true apology consists of a sincere acknowledgement of wrongdoing, a show of empathic remorse for why you wronged and the harm it caused and a promise of restitution by improving ones actions to make things right. Without the follow-through, saying sorry isn’t an apology,… Continue Reading
How I changed the law with a GitHub pull request on DC Open Law Library
Ars Technica – Joshua Tauberer – Washington DC has made GitHub the authoritative digital source for DC laws. “Recently, I found a typo in the District of Columbia’s legal code and corrected it using GitHub. My feat highlights the groundbreaking way the District manages its legal code. As a member of the DC Mayor’s Open Government… Continue Reading
Paper – The Costs of War: Obstacles to Public Understanding
Via Secrecy News – “It is hard even for attentive members of the public to fully comprehend the U.S. military budget. “The scale of spending alone makes it hard to grasp. Public understanding of the costs of war is further limited by secrecy, faulty accounting, and the deferral of current costs,” I argued recently in… Continue Reading
