Bloomberg via Wealth Management: Americans have been warned for years of an impending retirement crisis. Yet the situation is getting worse. Even when everything was going right — inflation was nonexistent, interest rates were low and stocks were in an extended bull market — there was a multi-trillion dollar savings shortfall. Then came a pandemic,… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: August 2022
The right kind of filter can keep microplastics out of drinking water
Popular Science – Slow sand and membrane filters can knock out nearly all of the tiny pollutants. “Out of all the plastic that has even been produced globally, less than 10 percent has been recycled. One of the biggest environmental dilemmas with this is that plastic does not decompose, it only breaks down into smaller… Continue Reading
What Do Law Professors Believe about Law and the Legal Academy? An Empirical Inquiry
Martínez, Eric and Tobia, Kevin, What Do Law Professors Believe about Law and the Legal Academy? An Empirical Inquiry (August 5, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4182521 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4182521 “Legal theorists seek to persuade other jurists of certain theories: Textualism or purposivism; formalism or realism; natural law theory or positivism; prison reform or abolition; universal or… Continue Reading
Upcoming US Law Webinars – September 2022
In Custodia Legis – “As much of the country returns to school in September, and the legislative summer recess comes to a close, the Law Library will be marking the month with more webinars on U.S., comparative, and foreign law topics. In September, the Law Library’s orientation webinar will give attendees an overview of the… Continue Reading
The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score
The New York Times: “Across industries and incomes, more employees are being tracked, recorded and ranked. What is gained, companies say, is efficiency and accountability. In lower-paying jobs, the monitoring is already ubiquitous: not just at Amazon, where the second-by-second measurements became notorious, but also for Kroger cashiers, UPS drivers and millions of others. Eight… Continue Reading
What Happened When Twitter and Other Social Media Platforms Cracked Down on Extremists
ProPublica: “In a Q&A with ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson, former intelligence officer and data scientist Welton Chang explains how conspiracy theorists and violent racists fled to smaller platforms. Once there, their remarks festered and spread. Since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, an entire ecosystem of right-wing social media platforms has come into existence — from… Continue Reading
In Praise of the Audio Message
Slate – It’s a voicemail but better: “Anytime I have something I want to share with a friend, I turn to my phone. But rather than giving them a call or sending a quick text, I like to send a voice memo. The ability to easily send an audio recording to contacts is undoubtedly one… Continue Reading
What Is a Router and How to Use One: The Beginner’s FAQ
Make Use Of: “After reading this FAQ, you’ll have a better idea of what a router is, how to set one up properly, and how to use it to full effect. When was the last time you had to deal with the hardware that lets you connect to the internet? A router is one crucial… Continue Reading
FDA Finalizes Historic Rule Enabling Access to Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids for Millions of Americans
“Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule to improve access to hearing aids which may in turn lower costs for millions of Americans. This action establishes a new category of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids, enabling consumers with perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment to purchase hearing aids directly from stores or… Continue Reading
The 6th National Risk Assessment on Hazardous Heat
“New research from First Street Foundation analyzes the the prevalence of increasing extreme temperatures and dangerous heat wave events throughout the contiguous United States, with a key finding being the incidence of heat that exceeds the threshold of the National Weather Service’s (NWS) highest category for heat, called “Extreme Danger” (Heat Index above 125°F) is… Continue Reading
Accommodation Discrimination
Macfarlane, Katherine, Accommodation Discrimination (August 15, 2022). 72 American University Law Review (forthcoming 2023) , Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4190587 “Reasonable accommodations should be tools of equality yet can feel more like punishment than remedy. To receive accommodations, people with disabilities must disclose intimate details about their health. The accommodation process that follows disclosure is arduous,… Continue Reading
The Intranet is Dead. Long Live the Intranet!?
Legal Geek – Jenni Tellyn: “The Covid pandemic threw into sharp focus how firms communicate with their employees and we started to embrace informal communication platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack and Yammer in earnest in our quest to remain connected through the enforced separations of the lockdowns. With this development in communication channels, businesses… Continue Reading
