NBC News – “The federal government’s ability to pay Social Security benefits could stop by mid-2023 if President Donald Trump were to permanently terminate the payroll tax and not offer another revenue source, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration said Monday. The chief actuary, Stephen Goss, offered the prediction in a letter to… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Monthly Archives: August 2020
If You Wait Until Your State’s Deadline To Mail Your Ballot, You May Be Too
FiveThirtyEight – Late Check the USPS’s recommendations before dropping your vote or paperwork in the mail. “The post office has long-standing guidelines (which predate DeJoy) that recommend how much time voters and election officials should allow to apply for, send and receive mail-in ballots. “We’ve been working on this for a while across the country… Continue Reading
One Twitter Account’s Quest to Proofread The New York Times
The Ringer – “In 2017, the Times dissolved its copy desk, possibly permitting more typos to slip through. Meet the anonymous lawyer who’s correcting the paper of record one untactful tweet at a time. …The proud pedant behind @nyttypos is, as his Twitter bio proclaims, an “appellate lawyer and persnickety dude.” While working for a… Continue Reading
Why going back to work isn’t going to work
ZDNet – The COVID-19 virus and our reaction to it have accelerated an emerging shift in our conventional ways of doing things. “Companies that return to the old ways without understanding that shift are likely to fail. The Next Normal is vastly different than the normal before the pandemic…To repeat, as soon as we stopped… Continue Reading
5 companies that want to track your emotions
Fortune: “Faced with ongoing social isolation, a turbulent economic climate, and continued uncertainty about when life will return to a simulacrum of normalcy—and what that normal will even look like—many adults are exhibiting mounting signs of clinical anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. As the world’s… Continue Reading
Facts on U.S. immigrants, 2018
Pew Research Center – Statistical portrait of the foreign-born population in the United States: “There were a record 44.8 million immigrants living in the U.S. in 2018, making up 13.7% of the nation’s population. This represents a more than fourfold increase since 1960, when 9.7 million immigrants lived in the U.S., accounting for 5.4% of… Continue Reading
A Brief History of the United States Postal Service
Smithsonian – To forge a nation, the founders needed an efficient communications network “From 1753 to 1774, as he oversaw Britain’s colonial mail service, Benjamin Franklin improved a primitive courier system connecting the 13 fragmented colonies into a more efficient organization that sped deliveries between Philadelphia and New York City to a mere 33 hours.… Continue Reading
2020 International Garden Photographer of the Year Macro Photography Awards
Macro Art – Single entry award winners – Competition-14 – These photographs are a balm in challenging times, allowing us to view sights around the world in a uniquely focused way. There are a number of different categories in which to view photographs, including those in black and white. Take some time to visit and… Continue Reading
US financial regulator warns of phishing sites impersonating brokers
Bleeping Computer – “The U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued a new regulatory notice warning members of threat actors using registered brokers’ info to create phishing websites. FINRA is a not-for-profit organization authorized by the U.S. government to regulate member brokerage firms and exchange markets, and to defend American investors by ensuring that the broker-dealer industry functions honestly and… Continue Reading
Internal USPS Documents Show Declines in Performance and Delays in Service
Gizmodo: “Documents displayed during Monday’s House Oversight Committee hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy show just how far behind the Postal Service has fallen since DeJoy took over in June. DeJoy spent the morning defending his brief, scandal-ridden time as postmaster general before the committee. Citing complaints from constituents and postal workers across the country,… Continue Reading
FDA ‘Grossly Misrepresented’ Blood Plasma Data, Scientists Say
The New York Times: “…Although there have been some positive signs that it can reduce deaths in Covid-19 patients, no randomized trials have shown that it works. A popular access program set up this spring by the F.D.A. and run by the Mayo Clinic has provided the treatment to more than 70,000 people, but it… Continue Reading
Internet Searches for Acute Anxiety During the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic
JAMA Internal Medicine. Accepted for Publication: June 10, 2020. Corresponding Author: John W. Ayers, PhD, MA, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, 333 CRSF, La Jolla, CA 92093 ([email protected]). Published Online: August 24, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.3305 “There is widespread concern that the coronavirus… Continue Reading
