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Monthly Archives: May 2020

The World Is Still Far From Herd Immunity for Coronavirus

The New York Times – “The coronavirus still has a long way to go. That’s the message from a crop of new studies across the world that are trying to quantify how many people have been infected. Official case counts often substantially underestimate the number of coronavirus infections. But in new studies that test the… Continue Reading

We’ll Need Mass Debt Forgiveness to Recover From the Coronavirus

Interview with James K. Galbraith via New York Magazine: “…Why do you think a mass debt forgiveness is going to be necessary to facilitate recovery after the pandemic? There’s a certain presumption that what can be shut down can be reopened—that the natural course of events is a rapid economic recovery. And that’s what I’m… Continue Reading

Federal Criminal Prosecutions Plummet in Wake of COVID-19

“New criminal prosecutions dropped by 80 percent between February and April — from 13,843 during February 2020, before federal shutdowns to control the spread of COVID-19 began, to just 2,824 in April 2020. This means that only one-fifth the usual prosecutions took place. Two major factors contributed to this precipitous decline. First, referrals to federal… Continue Reading

Trump’s executive order targets political bias at Twitter and Facebook: draft

Reuters: “U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to order a review of a law that has long protected Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet’s Google from being responsible for the material posted by their users, according to a draft executive order and a source familiar with the situation. News of the order comes after Trump threatened to… Continue Reading

How Law Firms Are Responding to COVID-19 [Survey Results]

Via LLRX – How Law Firms Are Responding to COVID-19 [Survey Results] – On an individual level, lawyers and legal professionals are experiencing a mix of productivity challenges in a new and potentially permanently changed legal landscape. Martin Cogburn discusses the top productivity challenges individuals are facing, the tools they’re adopting, and their thoughts on… Continue Reading

Biological Informatics 2020

Via LLRX – Biological Informatics 2020 – We can and do depend upon Marcus P. Zillman’s ability to consistently provide LLRX readers with timely, informative and actionable subject matter resource guides. This month he provides an extensive bibliography on bioinformatics – “an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in… Continue Reading

How not to fall for coronavirus BS: avoid the 7 deadly sins of thought

Via LLRX – How not to fall for coronavirus BS: avoid the 7 deadly sins of thought – Luke Zaphir, Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project, posits that amid the panicked flurry of the pandemic, employing concepts from the field of critical thinking called vice epistemology can be demonstrably useful. This theory… Continue Reading

Gmail’s new feature makes it easier to personalize your inbox

TechCrunch: “Google is introducing a new “quick settings” menu in Gmail aimed at helping users browse, discover and use different themes and settings to customize their Gmail experience. These options include the ability to change the density of text, select from different inbox types and add reading panes and options to theme your inbox. They… Continue Reading

Appeals court rules in favor of Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter in anti-conservative bias suit

TechCrunch: “The same day Donald Trump took to Twitter to threaten to regulate or shut down social media sites, the U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C. dismissed a lawsuit accusing top tech companies of silencing conservative voices. Filed in 2018 by nonprofit Freedom Watch and right-wing gadfly Laura Loomer, the suit accused Apple, Facebook, Twitter… Continue Reading

Inspector General Vacancy Tracker

POGO – Where Are All the Watchdogs? “Offices of Inspectors General (OIG) serve as independent watchdogs within federal agencies and are essential to a well-functioning federal government. They conduct audits and investigations that identify wasteful government practices, fraud by individuals and government contractors, and other sorts of government misconduct, even including torture. Congress and the public… Continue Reading