Monthly archives: March, 2020

Harvard, MIT among many to tell students not to return from spring break due to coronavirus

MIT Technology Review: “After an outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease Covid-19 was found spreading through Boston’s biomedical community, Harvard University said it will move classes online and is telling students not to return from spring break. This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the coronavirus/Covid-19 outbreak. You can also sign up to our dedicated …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management

The best advice is – Cancel Everything

The Atlantic – Social distancing is the only way to stop the coronavirus. We must start immediately. “…The coronavirus could spread with frightening rapidity, overburdening our health-care system and claiming lives, until we adopt serious forms of social distancing.  This suggests that anyone in a position of power or authority, instead of downplaying the dangers of …

Subjects: Economy, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Medicine

Why the US Sucks at Building Public Transit

Motherboard – America is worse at building and operating public transit than nearly all of its peers. Why is that? And what can we do to fix it? – “American cities are facing a transportation crisis. There’s terrible traffic. Public transit doesn’t work or go where people need it to. The cities are growing, but newcomers …

Subjects: Transportation

Georgetown Prof Explains The Rise Of Nonlawyer Navigators

Law360: “Each year, 30 million people lack legal representation in high-stakes civil court cases involving evictions, restraining orders, child custody and more. They do not have the statutory right to an attorney. If they cannot afford one, none is provided to them. Lawyers cannot close this so-called justice gap by themselves: Even if every licensed …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Dressing for the Surveillance Age

The New Yorker – As cities become ever more packed with cameras that always see, public anonymity could disappear. Can stealth streetwear evade electronic eyes? By John Seabrook: “…Advances in computer vision have occurred so rapidly that local and national privacy policies—what aspects of your face and body should be protected by law from surveillance machines—are …

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy, Social Media

The U.S. Isn’t Ready for What’s About to Happen

The Atlantic – Even with a robust government response to the novel coronavirus, many people will be in peril. And the United States is anything but prepared – Juliette Kayyem Former Department of Homeland Security official and author of Security Mom “For the professionals who try to manage homeland-security threats, reassuring the public after a …

Subjects: Government Documents, Health Care, Knowledge Management

Study – People ‘shed’ high levels of coronavirus but most are likely not infectious after recovery begins

Stat News: “People who contract the novel coronavirus emit high amounts of virus very early on in their infection, according to a new study from Germany that helps to explain the rapid and efficient way in which the virus has spread around the world. At the same time, the study suggests that while people with …

Subjects: Education, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Medicine

Winter is over in DC – What Winter?

Crocuses, daffodils, magnolias, forsythia Chinese plum/Japanese apricot, Virginia bluebells, snow drops (no snow), more hellebores than I can ever recall in decades herald the end of the non winter in DC and the arrival of a new kind of spring (#climatecrisis, #globalheating) – the Washington Post – “Winter was barely perceptible in Washington this year, …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law

At Harvard forum 3 who know warn of ‘most daunting virus’ in half a century

StatNews: “For a veteran epidemiologist, an authority on homeland security, and a global health reporter, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus is the type of emergency they had long anticipated. But now that it is here, the three experts said Friday, they still couldn’t help but feel the monumentality of what they were watching unfold. …

Subjects: Education, Government Documents, Health Care, Knowledge Management