Monthly archives: December, 2019

Facebook, Google Drop Out of Top 10 ‘Best Places to Work’ List

Bloomberg – “Big tech companies like Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, long seen as some of the world’s most desirable workplaces offering countless perks and employee benefits, are losing some of their shine. The Silicon Valley companies dropped out of the Top 10 “best places to work” in the U.S., according to Glassdoor’s annual …

Subjects: Knowledge Management, Social Media

TIME Person of the Year and others recognized

TIME Person of the Year: “Greta Thunberg began a global movement by skipping school: starting in August 2018, she spent her days camped out in front of the Swedish Parliament, holding a sign painted in black letters on a white background that read Skolstrejk för klimatet: “School Strike for Climate.” In the 16 months since, …

Subjects: Climate Change, Congress, Economy, Environmental Law, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

These 3 supertrees can protect us from climate collapse

Vox – But can we protect them? “Dozens of countries have extraordinary tropical forests, but three stand out: Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These countries not only have the largest areas of tropical forest within their borders; they also have the highest rates of deforestation. We traveled to protected areas deep inside …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Food and Nutrition

The Year in Pictures 2019

The New York Times – “So much of the year’s news played out in the streets. Week after week, protesters poured onto the wide boulevards of Hong Kong, where the photographer Lam Yik Fei seemed to be everywhere. Brexit drew tens of thousands into the streets of London. A subway fare increase was the final …

Subjects: Congress, Knowledge Management

George Laurer, Who Developed the Bar Code, Is Dead at 94

The New York Times – “George J. Laurer, whose design of the ubiquitous vertically striped bar code sped supermarket checkout lines, parcel deliveries and assembly lines and even transformed human beings, including airline passengers and hospital patients, into traceable inventory items, died on Dec. 5 at his home in Wendell, N.C., near Raleigh. He was …

Subjects: Intellectual Property, Knowledge Management, Libraries

Think you can’t escape Google? You haven’t seen anything yet

FastCompany – The future of Google is post-phone, post-Internet, ambient computing all around you. “…The news of today is that Google is repositioning an open source technology it developed called Flutter to have a bigger scope. It’s a software development kit that allows designers to build an app UI just once, and then use that …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Search Engines

Journalists imprisoned in 2019

“The number of journalists imprisoned globally for their work in 2019 remained near record highs, as China tightened its iron grip on the press and Turkey, having stamped out virtually all independent reporting, released journalists awaiting trial or appeal. Authoritarianism, instability, and protests in the Middle East led to a rise in the number of …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Freedom of Information

52 things I learned in 2019

Tom Whitehall – Medium – “This year I edited another book, worked on fascinating projects at Fluxx, and learned many learnings….[this is a terrific read – and I had a beloved budgie named Nigel – and the name fit him perfectly – he is missed…] [snipped from the list] No babies born in Britain in …

Subjects: Internet, Privacy, Social Media

Icebound The climate-change secrets of 19th century ship’s logs

Reuters – “An eccentric group of citizen-scientists called Old Weather has transcribed millions of observations from long-forgotten logbooks of ships, many from the great era of Arctic exploration. As the polar regions grow ever warmer, the volunteers have amassed a rich repository of climate data in a 21st century rescue mission… Meteorologists have long recorded …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Knowledge Management

What technology will courts be using in 5 years’ time?

National Center for State Courts – Court Technology Bulletin, December 5, 2019 – “We are pleased to share the following post from our friend, the Hon. Judge Andrea Tsalamandris from Melbourne, Australia on “how technology can be used by judges and court administration to create efficiencies in our courts, and enhance access to justice. As …

Subjects: Courts, E-Records, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research