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Daily Archives: December 1, 2020

Ballotpedia’s Daily and Weekly Biden Transition Tracker

Transition Tracker is Ballotpedia’s email digest covering Joe Biden’s presidential transition team, potential cabinet appointees, and the different policy positions of those individuals who can impact the new administration. This version of the Transition Tracker is sent out every weekday, Monday to Friday, ready to keep you informed about all the important news as it happens….This version of the Transition Tracker is sent out weekly, every Friday, ready to keep you informed about the transition process without overwhelming your inbox.”

Free PACER advocates say $2B estimate for new online system is not accurate

FedScoop: “Building a new online system that will make federal court records free to the public will cost far less than a rumored $2 billion, according to former government technologists and IT experts. In a letter sent Tuesday to the Judicial Conference of the United States, representatives from the Free Law Project — a nonprofit… Continue Reading

Amazon announces new employee tracking tech, and customers are lining up

Mashable: “.Amazon-powered employee tracking is coming to a warehouse, and possibly a store, near you.  The ecommerce, logistics, and (among other things) cloud computing giant quietly previewed Tuesday new hardware and software development kits (SDK) which add machine learning and computer vision capabilities to companies’ existing surveillance camera networks. And in what should come as… Continue Reading

Google’s Shopping Gift Guide will show you what everyone’s buying

engadget – “Google has unveiled the Shopping Gift Guide, a microsite that lets you browse trending categories, compare prices and find local buying options. When you first launch it, you can go into product areas for chefs, athletes, techies, decorators, “wellness gurus,” gamers and kids. Once you click on the “techies” area, for instance, it… Continue Reading

Legal Issues in COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Deployment

CRS report via LC – Legal Issues in COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Deployment, Updated November 25, 2020 – “Private companies, universities, and governmental entities are working to develop a vaccine for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Vaccines are biological products regulated under the Public Health Service Act and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C… Continue Reading

The Media Manipulation Casebook

Harvard Kennedy School – “The Media Manipulation Casebook is a digital research platform linking together theory, methods, and practice for mapping media manipulation and disinformation campaigns. This resource is intended for researchers, journalists, technologists, policymakers, educators, and civil society organizers who want to learn about detecting, documenting, describing, and debunking misinformation..” Continue Reading

Health-care workers and nursing home residents should be the first to get coronavirus vaccines

Washington Post – “The first doses of a coronavirus vaccine should be given to an estimated 21 million health-care workers and three million residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, a federal advisory panel recommended Tuesday afternoon. These groups were deemed the highest priority by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices… Continue Reading

Google Maps takes on Facebook with launch of its own news feed

TechCrunch: “People are getting frustrated that Stories are everywhere now, but Google Maps is keeping it old school. Instead of adding tiny circles to the top of the app’s screen, Google Maps is introducing its own news feed. Technically, Google calls its new feature the “Community Feed,” as it includes posts from a local area.… Continue Reading

Pretty Soon There’ll Be Just One Big Book Publisher Left

The New Republic: “America’s biggest, most powerful book publisher is about to get even bigger and more powerful. On Wednesday, a number of outlets reported that Penguin Random House had reached an agreement with ViacomCBS to purchase Simon & Schuster, the nation’s third-largest publisher, for $2 billion. The resulting conglomerate would publish at least a… Continue Reading