Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: August 24, 2020

Why going back to work isn’t going to work

ZDNet – The COVID-19 virus and our reaction to it have accelerated an emerging shift in our conventional ways of doing things. “Companies that return to the old ways without understanding that shift are likely to fail. The Next Normal is vastly different than the normal before the pandemic…To repeat, as soon as we stopped forming in groups, the economy fell apart. And it wasn’t just the economy. Despite all the obvious differences between commerce, education, healthcare, entertainment, travel and hospitality, religion and other institutions, they were all organized in the exact same way; a commercial, cultural and social world based on physical grouping, aggregation, massing, or centralization of employees, customers, students, patients, worshipers, travelers, fans and spectators, old people, prisoners, and others, into controlled environments where the associated functions (employment, commerce, education, healthcare, religion, etc.) took place. In a nutshell, our economy and our Old Normal were built on and were dependent on centralization. The second part of the story, the part about our current state, is more complicated. It’s complicated because it wasn’t planned, intentional or chosen, and because it isn’t “normal.” We are, in effect, in an extended state of emergency, an abnormal or exceptional set of circumstances. No one believes that this is a way to run an economy or live a social life…”

5 companies that want to track your emotions

Fortune: “Faced with ongoing social isolation, a turbulent economic climate, and continued uncertainty about when life will return to a simulacrum of normalcy—and what that normal will even look like—many adults are exhibiting mounting signs of clinical anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. As the world’s… Continue Reading

Facts on U.S. immigrants, 2018

Pew Research Center – Statistical portrait of the foreign-born population in the United States: “There were a record 44.8 million immigrants living in the U.S. in 2018, making up 13.7% of the nation’s population. This represents a more than fourfold increase since 1960, when 9.7 million immigrants lived in the U.S., accounting for 5.4% of… Continue Reading

A Brief History of the United States Postal Service

Smithsonian – To forge a nation, the founders needed an efficient communications network “From 1753 to 1774, as he oversaw Britain’s colonial mail service, Benjamin Franklin improved a primitive courier system connecting the 13 fragmented colonies into a more efficient organization that sped deliveries between Philadelphia and New York City to a mere 33 hours.… Continue Reading

US financial regulator warns of phishing sites impersonating brokers

Bleeping Computer – “The U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued a new regulatory notice warning members of threat actors using registered brokers’ info to create phishing websites. FINRA is a not-for-profit organization authorized by the U.S. government to regulate member brokerage firms and exchange markets, and to defend American investors by ensuring that the broker-dealer industry functions honestly and… Continue Reading

Internal USPS Documents Show Declines in Performance and Delays in Service

Gizmodo: “Documents displayed during Monday’s House Oversight Committee hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy show just how far behind the Postal Service has fallen since DeJoy took over in June. DeJoy spent the morning defending his brief, scandal-ridden time as postmaster general before the committee. Citing complaints from constituents and postal workers across the country,… Continue Reading

FDA ‘Grossly Misrepresented’ Blood Plasma Data, Scientists Say

The New York Times: “…Although there have been some positive signs that it can reduce deaths in Covid-19 patients, no randomized trials have shown that it works. A popular access program set up this spring by the F.D.A. and run by the Mayo Clinic has provided the treatment to more than 70,000 people, but it… Continue Reading

Internet Searches for Acute Anxiety During the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic

JAMA Internal Medicine. Accepted for Publication: June 10, 2020. Corresponding Author: John W. Ayers, PhD, MA, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, 333 CRSF, La Jolla, CA 92093 ([email protected]). Published Online: August 24, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.3305 “There is widespread concern that the coronavirus… Continue Reading

Automated fact-checking can catch claims that slip past human checkers

Poynter – Automated fact-checking can catch claims that slip past human checkers. Here are the two ways they work. They either verify claims by validating them against an authoritative source or article, or use a computing technique called stance detection. “From false claims that drinking warm water with lemon protects against the coronavirus to high… Continue Reading

Masks and restrictions work to diminish spread of virus in the US

The New York Times – Why Are Coronavirus Cases Decreasing? Experts Say Restrictions Are Working. “After coronavirus cases surged in June and July, the number of new reported cases per day in the United States began to level off, then drop, though the infection rate remains one of the world’s highest. Of the states that… Continue Reading