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Daily Archives: April 2, 2017

Paper – Examining the Alternative Media Ecosystem through the Production of Alternative Narratives of Mass Shooting Events on Twitter

Examining the Alternative Media Ecosystem through the Production of Alternative Narratives of Mass Shooting Events on Twitter. Kate Starbird, University of Washington, HCDE.

“This research explores the alternative media ecosystem through a Twitter lens. Over a ten-month period, we collected tweets related to alternative narratives—e.g. conspiracy theories—of mass shooting events. We utilized tweeted URLs to generate a domain network, connecting domains shared by the same user, then conducted qualitative analysis to understand the nature of different domains and how they connect to each other. Our findings demonstrate how alternative news sites propagate and shape alternative narratives, while mainstream media deny them. We explain how political leanings of alternative news sites do not align well with a U.S. left-right spectrum, but instead feature an anti-globalist (vs. globalist) orientation where U.S. Alt-Right sites look similar to U.S. Alt-Left sites. Our findings describe a subsection of the emerging alternative media ecosystem and provide insight in how websites that promote conspiracy theories and pseudo-science may function to conduct underlying political agendas.”

Paper – Encryption Workarounds

Kerr, Orin S. and Schneier, Bruce, Encryption Workarounds (March 20, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2938033 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2938033 “The widespread use of encryption has triggered a new step in many criminal investigations: the encryption workaround. We define an encryption workaround as any lawful government effort to reveal an unencrypted version of a target’s data that has been concealed by… Continue Reading

Presidential Executive Order Regarding Omnibus Report on Significant Trade Deficits

The Omnibus Report on Significant Trade Deficits, March 31, 2017: “…For many years, the United States has not obtained the full scope of benefits anticipated under a number of international trade agreements or from participating in the World Trade Organization.  The United States annual trade deficit in goods exceeds $700 billion, and the overall trade deficit… Continue Reading

Facebook Pushes Outside Law Firms to Become More Diverse

The New York Times – “The social media giant, like other corporations, is pressing its outside law firms to have more minorities and women working on its legal matters….Facebook is requiring that women and ethnic minorities account for at least 33 percent of law firm teams working on its matters. Numbers alone, however, are not enough,… Continue Reading

For April Ryan, Clashes With WH Bring a New Kind of Prominence

The New York Times – “…One of the few black journalists in the White House press corps, Ms. Ryan has covered presidents and clashed with press secretaries for 20 years. But her encounters with the Trump administration are propelling the 49-year-old, Baltimore-bred journalist to a new level of prominence — and into a contentious debate… Continue Reading

Study shows how slow breathing induces tranquility

A particularly timely and relevant finding – the Calming Effect of Breathing: “Stanford scientists have identified a small group of neurons that communicates goings-on in the brain’s respiratory control center to the structure responsible for generating arousal throughout the brain. Try it. Breathe slowly and smoothly. A pervasive sense of calm descends. Now breathe rapidly… Continue Reading

Paper – Australian Best Practices – A Comparison with the UK and US

Joy, Peter A. and Evans, Adrian and Cody, Anna and Giddings, Jeff and Noone, Mary Anne and Rice, Simon, Australian Best Practices – A Comparison with the United Kingdom and the United States (February 2017). Chapter 10 in: Australian Clinical Legal Education, ANU Press (February 2017); Washington University in St. Louis Legal Studies Research Paper… Continue Reading

New Report Aims to Help Criminal Defense Attorneys Challenge Secretive Government Hacking

“Lawyers at EFF, the ACLU, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers released a report today outlining strategies for challenging law enforcement hacking, a technique of secretly and remotely spying on computer users to gather evidence. Federal agents are increasingly using this surveillance technique, and the report will help those targeted by government malware—and importantly their… Continue Reading

Energy Department climate office bans use of phrase ‘climate change’

Politico, Eric Wolff – “The Office of International Climate and Clean Energy is the only office at DOE with the words ‘climate’ in its name, and it may be endangered as Trump looks to reorganize government agencies. A supervisor at the Energy Department’s international climate office told staff this week not to use the phrases “climate… Continue Reading

GAO – 2016 Lobbying Disclosure

2016 Lobbying Disclosure: Observations on Lobbyists’ Compliance with Disclosure Requirements, GAO-17-385: Published: Mar 31, 2017. Publicly Released: Mar 31, 2017. “Lobbyists must register with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House when they take on new clients, and file reports disclosing their lobbying activities, income, and certain political contributions. In our most recent review of compliance… Continue Reading