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Daily Archives: December 22, 2020

Hidden Treasures of the Law Library of Congress

In Custodia Legis – “The Law Library of Congress is known for being the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2.9 million volumes spanning the ages and covering virtually every jurisdiction in the world. Its collection encompasses the largest and most comprehensive legal collection in the world. Our reading room contains legal treatises by subject, annotated codes, and a wide selection of federal and state legal material. It is also a Supreme Court Depository Library, providing patrons with vital access to Supreme Court records and briefs. Within those millions of volumes, there are bound to be some materials in our collection that may surprise you. We asked our staff to highlight their favorite hidden treasures in the Law Library’s collections…”

2,000 Parents Demand Major Academic Publisher Drop Proctorio Surveillance Tech

Vice: “On Friday, digital rights group Fight for the Future unveiled an open letter signed by 2,000 parents calling on McGraw-Hill Publishing to end its relationship with Proctorio, one of many proctoring apps that offers services that digital rights groups have called “indistinguishable from spyware.” As the pandemic has pushed schooling into virtual classrooms, a… Continue Reading

Proposals for Reform: National Task Force on Rule of Law & Democracy

Brennan Center – “The Task Force is a nonpartisan group of former public servants and policy experts. We have worked at the highest levels in federal and state government, as prosecutors, members of the military, senior advisers in the White House, members of Congress, heads of federal agencies, and state executives. We come from across… Continue Reading

Twitter will make Joe Biden’s @POTUS account start with zero followers

The Verge – “President Biden is going to need some Twitter followers. Twitter plans to wipe out all followers from the @POTUS and @WhiteHouse accounts once Biden is sworn in on January 20th, rather than transferring the accounts’ existing followers over to the new administration, according to Rob Flaherty, Biden’s digital director. The accounts for… Continue Reading

Slow video for our times

“Meet Escapista, a collection of slow video for our times. My name is Cristiano, I’m a designer & developer who for a few years has been in love with the concept of Slow TV, but not doing much about it. Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, I started gathering YouTube Channels specialized in this… Continue Reading

tree fm

Listen to a random forest – “People around the world recorded the sounds of their forests, so you can escape into nature, while in lockdown or unable to travel. Use this site to chill, meditate or do some digital shinrin-yoku. And while you are here, why not help to grow what keeps us alive? Wildfires,… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 20, 2020

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 20, 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

YouTube’s Copyright Filter Is Crushing Video Critique And It’s Getting Worse

Gizmodo – “YouTube’s copyright filter is a labyrinthine nightmare called Content ID. Content ID works by scanning all the videos on YouTube and comparing them to a database of material submitted by copyright holders—often music labels and movie and TV studios—which have been given the ability to add things to the database by YouTube. Once… Continue Reading

The Most Influential 80-Plus-Year-Olds in America

Slate – Here are the top 20: “…To pick our 80 octogenarians (and nonagenarians and centenarians), we tried to measure influence broadly. We especially weighed significant achievements after 80 and current relevance, though lasting impact is important too. The list is limited to Americans (sorry, Pope Francis), but we used some editorial discretion for people… Continue Reading