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Daily Archives: November 9, 2020

Asked and answered: What readers want to know about coronavirus

Washington Post – “The novel coronavirus is changing how we live our lives, and our readers have questions. The Washington Post has catalogued and organized 13,202 questions about the pandemic and provided a guide to help you find the answers. Many of the questions fall into common themes, and this guide provides links to reporting that holds answers in those frequently referenced topic areas. This guide is updated twice a day and reordered with the most frequently asked-about subject areas, from how covid-19, the disease the coronavirus causes, affects individuals to the broad impact on society as we know it. You can keep asking us questions here…”

Biden may have trouble unearthing Trump’s national security secrets

Politico: “From tearing up documents and hiding transcripts of calls with foreign leaders to using encrypted messaging apps and personal email accounts for government business, the Trump White House’s skirting of records preservation rules could limit the incoming Biden administration’s visibility into highly sensitive foreign policy and national security secrets….The Presidential Records Act, which requires… Continue Reading

Google Streetview shows social importance pedestrian friendly environment

University of Amsterdam – With Google Streetview and Deep Learning, researchers at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Twente identified how the urban environment is linked to the vitality of social organisations and neighbourhoods. They conclude that, if an environment provides more space to pedestrians, this will be conducive to neighbourhood-based social organisations’… Continue Reading

Refusing to concede, Trump blocks cooperation on transition

AP: “The Trump administration threw the presidential transition into tumult on Monday, Attorney General William Barr authorizing the Justice Department to probe allegations of voter fraud and President Donald Trump firing the Pentagon chief and blocking government officials from cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden’s team. Despite little evidence of fraud, Barr signed off on investigations… Continue Reading

Day and night, under historic scrutiny, the nation’s vote counters carried on

Washington Post – ‘We will not allow anyone to stop us’: Day and night, under historic scrutiny, the nation’s vote counters carried on -“…Long before the fall, elections officials were quietly preparing for what was to come. “We knew we would be under a microscope from day one,” said Peter Antonacci, the election supervisor in… Continue Reading

Am I wasting my time organizing email?

Am I wasting my time organizing email? A study of email refinding. Steve Whittaker, Tara Matthews, Julian Cerruti, Hernan Badenes, John Tang IBM Research – Almaden San Jose, California, USA – “We all spend time every day looking for information in our email, yet we know little about this refinding process. Some users expend considerable… Continue Reading

Out of sight and out of mind: Bookmarks are created but not used

Bergman, O., Whittaker, S., Schooler, J. (2020). Out of Sight and Out of Mind: Bookmarks are Created but not Used. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, DOI: 10.1177/0961000620949652/ [paywall] – “Users commonly report problems in refinding important websites. To address this, some create Bookmarks (also called web Favorites) to improve the refinding of these websites.… Continue Reading

Coronavirus won’t disappear, even with a vaccine

Axios – “Pfizer yesterday took a giant step toward a COVID-19 vaccine, reporting that its vaccine candidate was effective in over 90% of uninfected clinical trial patients. Reality check: It’s a giant and welcome development, but the pandemic will be with us long after vaccine distribution begins. The Pfizer vaccine is not a silver bullet.… Continue Reading

2020’s record voter turnout in the US is still lower than many other countries

Quartz: “At least 158.8 million people voted in this year’s US presidential election. That’s some 20 million more than the 137.5 million Americans who voted in 2016, and 25 million more than the 132.9 million who voted in 2012. The big difference in this election was that close to 102 million people voted early—either in person… Continue Reading