Day archives: November 25th, 2018

UK Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers

The Guardian – Documents alleged to contain revelations on data and privacy controls that led to Cambridge Analytica scandal – “Parliament has used its legal powers to seize internal Facebook documents in an extraordinary attempt to hold the US social media giant to account after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly refused to answer MPs’ questions. …

Subjects: Cybercrime, E-Mail, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

Framing Algorithms – Competition Law and (Other) Regulatory Tools

Picht, Peter Georg and Loderer, Gaspare, Framing Algorithms – Competition Law and (Other) Regulatory Tools (October 30, 2018). Max Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 18-24. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3275198 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3275198 “As other fields of law, competition law is put to the test by new technologies in general and algorithmic market …

Subjects: Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Fourth National Climate Assessment Volume II

Axios: Fourth National Climate Assessment Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United StatesThe National Climate Assessment (NCA) assesses the science of climate change and variability and its impacts across the United States, now and throughout this century. The Black Friday climate report, formally known as the National Climate Assessment, follows a landmark U.N. science …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents

Why a library fire feels like an ‘attack on humanity’

PBS NewsHour = Published on Nov 13, 2018 – “In April 1986, fire raged through the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles, damaging or destroying more than a million books. Journalist and author Susan Orlean resurrects this nearly forgotten story in “The Library Book,” which also explores the emotional attachment so many of us feel …

Subjects: Libraries

The politics of “political” – how the word has changed its meaning

Oxford University Blog: “Over the course of history, the word “political” has evolved from being synonymous with “public sphere” or “good government” to meaning “calculating” or “partisan.” How did we get here? This adapted excerpt from Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary explains the evolution. The problems posed by political result from a combination …

Subjects: Congress, Education, Knowledge Management

New 136-page guide to House members

Via Axios – “Phil Singer and his team at Marathon Strategies are quick out of the gate with a 136-page guide to the House members, including these talkers: Katie Hill (R-CA-25): Rock climbing enthusiast Gil Cisneros (R-CA-39): Won $266 million in Mega Millions lottery Donna Shalala (R-FL-27): Former HHS Secretary Sharice Davids (R-KS-03): Former MMA …

Subjects: Congress, Legislation

The problem with social media has never been about bots. It’s always been about business models

Quartz – “Researchers have found that as many as 15% of Twitter accounts are bots, which drive two-thirds of the links on the site. But not all bots are bad. There are bots that make the internet more beautiful, more useful, even kinder. Here at Quartz, we have a whole department dedicated to making informative …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media

Statistics tell us how women are faring around the world – they also hide some important realities

Washington Post: Women’s lives, behind the data – “The story of women is often told through numbers. Reports and studies tell us how much less women make than men, how much more unusual it is for girls to go to school than it is for boys or how much less likely women are to hold …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research