Washington Post – Some members of Congress say they shouldn’t be. “With the number of coronavirus cases increasing across much of the country, leading members of Congress on civil service issues are challenging orders by federal agencies for teleworking federal employees to return to their regular worksites. “I think we have to press the pause… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: July 2020
Please Support BeSpacific in 2024
Dear Readers, Colleagues and Friends: I have not reached out for quite some time, so no time like the present. I created BeSpacific in 2002, and have continued to provide daily research to readers, with no pay wall, for 22 years. I am passionate about law and technology and the myriad ways that knowledge created… Continue Reading
Mounting Evidence Suggests Coronavirus is Airborne but Health Advice Has Not Caught Up
Nature: “…Converging lines of evidence indicate that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, can pass from person to person in tiny droplets called aerosols that waft through the air and accumulate over time. After months of debate about whether people can transmit the virus through exhaled air, there is growing concern among scientists about this… Continue Reading
Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 School Reopening Checklist
“The COVID-19 School Reopening Response Checklist is a tool to assist school and district leaders and other key stakeholders in the decision-making process as they navigate school reopening. It emphasizes areas in need of attention from an equity and ethics perspective. The decision makers can use the Checklist to systematically assess their needs and resources… Continue Reading
Johns Hopkins University tracker analyzes school reopening plans across the country
JHU Tracking State and National School Reopening Plans – “This interactive state tracker curates school reopening plans by state, as well as guidance documents by non-governmental organizations, along six operational criteria: 1) Core Academics; 2) SARS CoV-2 Protection; 3) Before/After School Programs, including Athletics, Childcare, and Extracurriculars; 4) Building Access & Student Transportation; 5) School… Continue Reading
Thousands of contracts highlight quiet ties between Big Tech and U.S. military
NBC News: “Over the past two years, thousands of tech company employees have taken a stand: they do not want their labor and technical expertise to be used for projects with the military or law enforcement agencies. Knowledge of such contracts, however, hasn’t been easy for tech workers to come by. On Wednesday, newly published… Continue Reading
New IHME Forecasts Show More Than 200,000 US Deaths by November
“In its first projections of COVID-19 deaths out to November 1, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington is forecasting more than 200,000 deaths in the United States. The forecast shows 208,255 deaths (with a range of 186,087 to 244,541). Those numbers drop to 162,808 (157,217 to 171,193), if… Continue Reading
Audit Finds Facebook’s Decisions Were ‘Setbacks for Civil Rights
The New York Times – “An independent audit faulted the social network for allowing hate speech and disinformation to thrive — potentially posing a threat to the November elections. Auditors handpicked by Facebook to examine its policies said that the company had not done enough to protect people on the platform from discriminatory posts and… Continue Reading
Winners of the 2020 Audubon Photography Awards
Audubon.org: “Every spring, the judges of the Audubon Photography Awards gather at Audubon’s headquarters in Manhattan to review their favorite images and select the finalists. But as with much of life in 2020, this year’s awards had to be handled differently due to pandemic-related travel, work, and social-distancing restrictions. So, for our 11th annual awards,… Continue Reading
Study – Google, Amazon funnel at least $25 million to coronavirus conspiracy sites
Why is ad tech paying US$25 million to COVID-19 disinfo sites? – Household brands are inadvertently funding disinformation sites to spread COVID-19 conspiracies, thanks to ad tech companies that do not effectively screen the sites to which they provide ads services. New research from the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) shows that Google, Amazon and other… Continue Reading
A Time Lapse World Map of Every Covid-19 Death
Kottke.org: “From January to the end of June, over 500,000 people died of confirmed cases of Covid-19. In order to demonstrate the magnitude of the pandemic, James Beckwith made a time lapse map of each Covid-19 death. Each country is represented by a tone and an expanding blip on the map when a death from… Continue Reading
Majority of Americans See Work To Do on Gender Equality
“A hundred years after the 19th Amendment was ratified, about half of Americans say granting women the right to vote has been the most important milestone in advancing the position of women in the country. Still, a majority of U.S. adults say the country hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to giving women equal… Continue Reading
