CRS report via LC – The Electoral College: A2020 Presidential Election Timeline, Updated October 22, 2020: “During the course of a presidential election year, the election process for the President and Vice President goes forward within a familiar timeline of events. At the same time these events are taking place, a related series of procedures… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: September 2020
Instead of optimizing work, technology has created a nonstop barrage of notifications and interactions.
How Work Became an Inescapable Hellhole – This story is adapted from Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, by Anne Helen Petersen. “Instead of optimizing work, technology has created a nonstop barrage of notifications and interactions. Six months into a pandemic, it’s worse than ever. I’m equally ashamed and exhausted writing that description… Continue Reading
New emoji approved to help express the anguish of 2020
The Verge – ‘Face with spiral eyes’ is how we are all feeling: “This year has been hard. Wildfire smoke has engulfed the West Coast, hundreds of thousands are dead from an ongoing pandemic, and the US government is deadlocked to the point of illegitimacy, incapable of taking action against the economic, political, ecological, and… Continue Reading
Why Modeling the Spread of COVID-19 Is So Damn Hard
IEEE – Too many of the COVID-19 models have led policymakers astray. Here’s how tomorrow’s models will get it right – “If you wanted to “flatten the curve” in 2019, you might have been changing students’ grades or stamping down a rug ripple. Today, that phrase refers only to the vital task of reducing the… Continue Reading
How Covid is changing the english language
Fast Company: “In April, the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary did something unusual. For the previous 20 years, they had issued quarterly updates to announce new words and meanings selected for inclusion. These updates have typically been made available in March, June, September, and December. In the late spring, however, and again in July,… Continue Reading
This is how police request customer data from Amazon
TechCrunch: “Anyone can access portions of a web portal, used by law enforcement to request customer data from Amazon, even though the portal is supposed to require a verified email address and password. Amazon’s law enforcement request portal allows police and federal agents to submit formal requests for customer data along with a legal order,… Continue Reading
Trump has paid no federal income taxes for much of the past two decades
Records Obtained by The Times After Years of Secrecy “The Times has obtained tax-return data for President Trump extending over more than two decades. It tells a story fundamentally different from the one he’s sold to the public – revealing struggling properties, vast write-offs, an audit battle and hundreds of millions in debt coming due.… Continue Reading
How to blur your house on Google Street View
Mashable – (and why you should) – “Google Street View offers up a window to the world in all its bizarre, intimate, and often raw glory. That window just so happens to peek into your home, as well. What that peek reveals may be more than you’ve bargained for — think views into bedroom windows,… Continue Reading
Why you should read this out loud
BBC Future: “Most adults retreat into a personal, quiet world inside their heads when they are reading, but we may be missing out on some vital benefits when we do this…Today, silent reading is the norm. The majority of us bottle the words in our heads as if sitting in the hushed confines of a… Continue Reading
It Took COVID Closures to Reveal Just How Much Libraries Do Beyond Lending Books
Observer “Since the early 19th Century, public libraries in the United States and throughout the world have thrown open their doors to people from all backgrounds, offering the gift of reading, supporting education and encouraging a sense of community. Sadly, some of the services offered have been undervalued in recent years—with budget cuts both in… Continue Reading
Pandas, bald eagles, airplanes: D.C. area’s best webcams, ranked
Washington Post – “Zoom fatigue, we hear you. Skyrocketing smartphone usage, been there. And yet: When you’re missing your favorite D.C. spots, there’s an easy way for them to still come to you. Local webcams can provide hours of distraction and amusement, plus a status update on the crowded places where we used to casually… Continue Reading
COVID-19 Liability: Tort, Workplace Safety, and Securities Law
CRS report via LC – COVID-19 Liability: Tort, Workplace Safety, and Securities Law, September 24, 2020: “Although the COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding, a number of plaintiffs have already filed lawsuits seeking compensation for COVID-19-related injuries. Some stakeholders have expressed concern that the risk of COVID-19-related lawsuits threatens a range of businesses and other entities… Continue Reading
