In Custodia Legis – September 6, 2022 by Margaret Wood and Andrew Weber. “Congress.gov is a fantastic source of legislative information, and a marvelous source for investigating specific legislation and exploring the legislative history of a bill. Congress.gov also contains large amounts of data and various users have expressed interest in having additional access to download this data. Certain entities or persons have “scraped” the website over the years and the Government Publishing Office (GPO) has also offered bulk data downloads for some collections, but these have all been somewhat imperfect measures. However, today we are introducing the beta Congress.gov API which will provide access to accurate and structured congressional data. We are very excited about this release and a great deal of hard work has gone on behind the scenes this year to make this happen.”
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Daily Archives: September 7, 2022
A little good goes an unexpectedly long way: Underestimating the positive impact of kindness on recipients.
Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2022). A little good goes an unexpectedly long way: Underestimating the positive impact of kindness on recipients. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001271 “Performing random acts of kindness increases happiness in both givers and receivers, but we find that givers systematically undervalue their positive impact on recipients.… Continue Reading
Librarians and Lawmakers Push for Greater Access to E-Books
Pew Trusts: “Librarians and their legislative allies are pushing publishers of electronic books to lower their prices and relax licensing terms, an effort that could make it easier for millions of library users to borrow the increasingly popular digital versions of books. Supporters say the e-book lending legislation in several states would allow libraries to… Continue Reading
The Elder Index
“The Elder Economic Security Standard™ Index (Elder Index), was developed by the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The Elder Index is a measure of the income that older adults need to meet their basic needs and age in place with dignity. The Elder Index is specific to household size, location, housing tenure,… Continue Reading
Facebook Engineers: We Have No Idea Where We Keep All Your Personal Data
Intercept: “In March, two veteran Facebook engineers found themselves grilled about the company’s sprawling data collection operations in a hearing for the ongoing lawsuit over the mishandling of private user information stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The hearing, a transcript of which was recently unsealed (PDF), was aimed at resolving one crucial issue: What… Continue Reading
Politico’s new German owner has a ‘contrarian’ plan for American media
Washington Post: “Months after his company bought Politico, Mathias Döpfner stood atop Axel Springer’s 19-story headquarters, gazing out at the double row of cobblestones that mark the outline of the demolished Berlin Wall, and explained his global ambitions. “We want to be the leading digital publisher in democracies around the world,” he said. A newcomer… Continue Reading
U.S. bank regulator warns of crisis risk from fintech proliferation
Reuters: “The rise of fintech services and digital banking could spur financial risks and potentially a crisis over the long term, Michael Hsu, Acting Comptroller of the Currency, a major U.S. bank regulator, warned on Wednesday. “I believe fintechs and big techs are having a large impact and warrant much more of our attention,” Hsu… Continue Reading
Politics Americans are terrible at taking vacations
Grid – Why are U.S. workers so bad at taking time off? – The United States still has no federal paid vacation policy, making it one of only a handful of countries without guaranteed paid annual leave. Canada and Japan are also among the countries with the least paid annual leave, the report said, at… Continue Reading
NARA Lesson Plans
National Archives: “These lesson plans are designed to assist teachers with using primary source materials to integrate Congress into history, government and civics classes. They are suitable for junior high and high school students.” [This page was last reviewed on February 7, 2022.] Continue Reading
