Monthly archives: June, 2019

“To Be Honest I’m Not Sure If We Have a Textbook”

Hybrid Pedagogy – Maura A. Smale – Undergraduate Access to Course Reading – “Faculty and staff don’t often know how hard it is for students to get their course materials. I’m a library director and professor at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), and I worry about student access to required course readings. Our …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries

The Self-Destruction of American Power

Via Axios: “The July/August issue of Foreign Affairs offers what editor Gideon Rose calls “an autopsy of the last decades of American global leadership — the years when U.S. elites squandered the inheritance and good name bequeathed to them.” Fareed Zakaria on “The Self-Destruction of American Power”: Sometime in the last two years, American hegemony …

Subjects: Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

Best Refrigerator Temperature to Keep Food Fresh

Automated temperature settings aren’t always accurate, but Consumer Reports’ tests are: “For the food in your refrigerator to stay fresh for as long as possible—no ice crystals on the lettuce or bacteria breeding in warm spots—the refrigerator temperature should hover right around 37° F. In the freezer, a temperature of 0° F will keep foods …

Subjects: Food and Nutrition

Microsoft says mandatory password changing is “ancient and obsolete”

ars technica – Bucking a major trend, company speaks out against the age-old practice. ” Microsoft is finally catching on to a maxim that security experts have almost universally accepted for years: periodic password changes are likely to do more harm than good. In a largely overlooked post published late last month, Microsoft said it …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Internet

Worried About the Future of the Monograph? So Are Publishers

The Chronicle of Higher Education interview with the president of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses), Jennifer Crewe: “…Our biggest challenge remains the low sales of scholarly monographs, such as revised dissertations or scholarly books with a narrow focus in a small field. Libraries share copies, and individuals don’t purchase the new books in their …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Libraries

New video editing technology raises disinformation worries

Washington Post – A new algorithm developed by Stanford University engineers is putting the spotlight on advances in video editing that could make it more difficult to separate fact from fiction online. “A team of researchers has developed new technology allowing editors to alter the words of anyone who appears on video in an image from the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Why Have Americans Stopped Moving?

SafeHaven: “A new study identifies powerful psychological factors that connect people to places, and mean more to them than money. Mobility in the United States has fallen to record lows. In 1985, nearly 20 percent of Americans had changed their residence within the preceding 12 months, but by 2018, fewer than ten percent had. That’s the lowest …

Subjects: Economy, Government Documents, Housing

Pennsylvania identity theft case trends

PA Courts: “Over the last five years, Pennsylvania has seen a gradual decrease in identity theft cases. Identity theft is defined as the fraudulent use of another person’s identifying information (social security number, bank account, birth certificate etc.). The infographic below highlights key data including defendant demographics, identity theft case counts and outcomes as well …

Subjects: Congress, E-Government, E-Records, ID Theft, Legal Research

NASA dataset includes more than a Trillion precise measurements of Earth’s height at various locations

Center for Data Innovation: “NASA has released a dataset that includes more than a trillion precise measurements of the Earth’s height at various locations, including the height of glaciers and the height of the canopy of forests. NASA gathered the data, which includes the exact latitude and longitudes for a corresponding elevation, by shooting photons …

Subjects: Climate Change, E-Government, Environmental Law, Government Documents