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Daily Archives: December 13, 2020

They’re Among the World’s Oldest Living Things. The Climate Crisis Is Killing Them

The New York Times – California’s epic wildfires in 2020 took deadly aim at the state’s most beloved trees. “In a relative instant, countless ancient redwoods, hundreds of giant sequoias and more than one million Joshua trees perished. The blackened wreckage sends a clear message. These trees are in the fight of their lives. “It’ll never come back like it was,” one botanist said, standing among thousands of destroyed Joshua trees. “Not with climate change.”

They are what scientists call charismatic megaflora, and there are few trees anywhere more charismatic than the three most famous species in California. People travel from around the world simply to walk among them in wonderment. The giant sequoia. The Joshua tree. The coast redwood. They are the three plant species in California with national parks set aside in their name, for their honor and protection. Scientists already feared for their future. Then came 2020. The wildfires that burned more than four million acres in California this year were both historic and prophetic, foreshadowing a future of more heat, more fires and more destruction. Among the victims, this year and in the years to come, are many of California’s oldest and most majestic trees, already in limited supply…”

The Impacts of COVID-19 on Academic and Public Library Budgets

The Scholarly Kitchen: “The pandemic has wrought profound disruption on the academic sector. In the United States, impacts on face-to-face instruction and the residential model have resulted in substantial challenges to the student experience, while setbacks to scientific research and researchers themselves are no less significant. Increasing costs of retooling campuses and declining revenues from… Continue Reading

U.S. Schools Are Buying Phone-Hacking Tech That the FBI Uses to Investigate Terrorists

Gizmodo: “In May 2016, a student enrolled in a high-school in Shelbyville, Texas, consented to having his phone searched by one of the district’s school resource officers. Looking for evidence of a romantic relationship between the student and a teacher, the officer plugged the phone into a Cellebrite UFED to recover deleted messages from the… Continue Reading

Your guide to every Google app’s privacy settings

Popular Science – You have the power to limit Google’s snooping. “It’s difficult to avoid Google apps, but using them doesn’t necessarily mean handing over all your data and online activity to the tech giant—you can still work within the Google ecosystem while maintaining a respectable level of privacy. Your options vary depending on the… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 12, 2020

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 12, 2020 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly… Continue Reading

Counting Electoral Votes: An Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session, Including Objections by Members of Congress

CRS report via LC – Counting Electoral Votes: An Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session, Including Objections by Members of Congress, Updated December 8, 2020: “The Constitution and federal law establish a detailed timetable following the presidential election during which time the members of the electoral college convene in the 50 state capitals and… Continue Reading

Measuring News Consumption in a Digital Era

Pew – As news outlets morph and multiply, both surveys and passive data collection tools face challenges – “This report is the culmination of this effort and is organized into three sections: Chapter 1 looks at the U.S. public’s familiarity with newer concepts related to news; Chapter 2 examines possible ways to improve survey-based measures… Continue Reading

Ravens parallel great apes in physical and social cognitive skills

Pika, S., Sima, M.J., Blum, C.R. et al. Ravens parallel great apes in physical and social cognitive skills. Sci Rep 10, 20617 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77060-8 [Full text online – Free] “Human children show unique cognitive skills for dealing with the social world but their cognitive performance is paralleled by great apes in many tasks dealing with… Continue Reading