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Monthly Archives: December 2020

How your digital trails wind up in the hands of the police

Ars Technica – Phone calls. Web searches. Location tracks. Smart speaker requests. “…Data collected for one purpose can always be used for another. Search history data, for example, is collected to refine recommendation algorithms or build online profiles, not to catch criminals. Usually. Smart devices like speakers, TVs, and wearables keep such precise details of… Continue Reading

Congress.gov New, Tip, and Top 20 in 2020

In Custodia Legis – “Earlier this month, Margaret shared the enhancements to the Congress.gov Help Center and additional Congresses added to our Bound Congressional Record collection. One of the behind-the-scenes items that we worked on for the latest release was to prepare Congress.gov for the new 117th Congress. We also have been working to make… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 27, 2020

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 27, 2020 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly… Continue Reading

Google Search Redirects Readers From Local Outlets: Study

Gizmodo – “When we ask who should take the rap for the decline of local news, most folks agree the blame partially lies on Google’s shoulders. The tech giant has spent the past decade systematically swallowing a larger and larger chunk of the digital ad market, diverting the dollars that outlets—particularly smaller outlets—desperately need. That’s… Continue Reading

Mapping COVID-19 Vaccine Pre-Purchases Across the Globe

Launch and Scale Speedometer: “A flurry of nearly 200 COVID-19 vaccine candidates are moving forward through the development and clinical trials processes at unprecedented speed; more than ten candidates are already in Phase 3 large-scale trials and several have received emergency or limited authorization. Also unprecedented is the number of advance market commitments (AMCs) made… Continue Reading

Why You Can’t Copy a Recipe Book

Plagarism Today – “U.S. Copyright Law is extremely clear, copyright “Does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients.” As such, your grandmother’s secret recipe for pumpkin pie joins the ranks of high fashion and phone books as things that can not be copyrighted. However, if you open up just about any cookbook that… Continue Reading

End of Term Presidential Harvest 2020

“The Library of Congress, Internet Archive, University of North Texas Libraries, George Washington University Libraries, Stanford University Libraries, EDGI, and the U.S. Government Publishing Office have joined together for a collaborative project to preserve public United States Government web sites at the end of the current presidential administration ending January 20, 2021. This harvest is… Continue Reading

Mapping U.S. Covid-19 Cases Near You

Bloomberg: “Few areas of the U.S. have been spared a recent surge in the Covid-19 outbreak, as daily new case counts routinely exceed 100,000 across the U.S. and the number of hospitalizations nears totals not seen since the early days of the pandemic. State-level reporting of cases and deaths brush over how rapidly the virus spread… Continue Reading

The Washington Post asked readers to describe 2020 in one word or phrase

Here’s what they said. “A global pandemic. A racial reckoning. A presidential impeachment. A monumental election. We all know 2020 was a year like no other. But is it possible to sum it up in one word or phrase? The Washington Post asked readers to do just that and offer their reasoning, hoping that all… Continue Reading

2020 An extraordinary year in photos

Washington Post – “As professional photography editors, we are accustomed to seeing a little bit of everything: war, famine, fires, hurricanes, politics, suffering, beauty, silliness and sometimes joy. This year was different. Photography, and photojournalism in particular, is regarded as a medium of reality. Reality became surreal this year and with it, photojournalism. Photography shines… Continue Reading