Via LLRX – Don’t be too quick to blame social media for America’s polarization – cable news has a bigger effect, study finds: Homa Hosseinmardi and a group of researchers from Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania and Microsoft Research tracked the TV news consumption habits of tens of thousands of American adults each month… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: August 2022
Presidential Power to Declassify Information, Explained
The New York Times – “While it is legally irrelevant, former President Donald J. Trump claims he had declassified the top secret files the F.B.I. seized at his Florida residence. Former President Donald Trump’s claim that he had declassified all of the documents that the FBI seized in the search of his Florida home last… Continue Reading
Technology alone won’t solve your organizational challenges
strategy+business – Master the fundamentals of organizational performance before you deploy fancy tools that may magnify dysfunction “….I have never encountered an organization without teams. Some see them as a cure-all. Yet, a recent Harvard Business Review article by organizational psychologist Constance Noonan Hadley and organizational behavior professor Mark Mortensen points out the historically poor… Continue Reading
More dangerous heat waves are on the way: See the impact by Zip code
Washington Post: “…Across much of the United States, millions of people are expected to experience extreme temperatures more frequently and for longer periods of time — a threat that will grow as climate change worsens. The new data, released Monday by the nonprofit First Street Foundation, calculates the heat risk facing each property in the… Continue Reading
Google’s Search AI now looks for general consensus to highlight more trustworthy results
engadget: “You know that highlighted piece of text at the very top of a Google search results page when you look up a piece of information? That’s called a “featured snippet,” and it’s meant to provide you with a quick answer to your query. Now, Google is making sure that the information it highlights is… Continue Reading
Meta injecting code into websites to track its users, research says
UK Guardian – “Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has been rewriting websites its users visit, letting the company follow them across the web after they click links in its apps, according to new research from an ex-Google engineer. The two apps have been taking advantage of the fact that users who click on… Continue Reading
Massachusetts just passed a massive climate and clean energy bill
Washington Post: “Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) on Thursday signed a major climate and clean-energy bill that contains sweeping policies targeting renewables, transportation and fossil fuels — a move that lawmakers and advocates say is critical to supporting the state’s goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Baker’s decision to sign the bill, which was… Continue Reading
How a False Claim About Wikipedia Sparked a Right-Wing Media Frenzy
Slate “…The article was thrust into the limelight on July 28, when the Commerce Department released data showing that the U.S. gross domestic product had shrunk for a second straight quarter, meeting a common shorthand definition of a recession. Republicans, seeking to highlight the economy’s weakness as part of a case against Democrats ahead of… Continue Reading
National Wastewater Surveillance System
CDC – “In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC launched the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) in September 2020. CDC developed NWSS to coordinate and build the nation’s capacity to track the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in wastewater samples collected across the country. CDC’s NWSS works with health departments to track… Continue Reading
Bipartisan Panelists Highlight “Desperate Need” to Counter Election Misinformation
“Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, held a roundtable with state officials and election experts to examine the effects of the unprecedented rise in election lies following the 2020 presidential election. Ahead of the roundtable, the Committee released new findings from the Committee’s investigation into the dire problem of… Continue Reading
Partisanship Colors Views of COVID-19 Handling Across Advanced Economies
“Publics are increasingly satisfied with the way their country is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey in 19 countries. A median of 68% think their country has done a good job dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, with majorities saying this in every country surveyed except Japan. However, as… Continue Reading
Google Will Start Letting You Know When You Can’t Just Google It
BuzzFeedNews: “If Google isn’t confident about the overall quality of search results when you search for something, it will now let you know at the top of the results page. “This doesn’t mean that no helpful information is available, or that a particular result is low-quality,” Pandu Nayak, Google’s vice president of search, said in… Continue Reading
