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Daily Archives: February 4, 2021

Covid19livespread – data from around the world

“Student [University of Edinburgh – School of Informatics] George Karabassis has created Covid19livespread, a website that presents detailed Covid-19 data and statistics from around the world in one clear, user-friendly place.The central aim of the project is to provide a platform for Covid-19 data that puts the user at the centre, ensuring that it is easy to find the information you are looking for presented in a clear, concise way. In order to achieve this Covid19livespread uses a range of graphs, maps and even an interactive 3D globe to present data collected from Worldometer, Johns Hopkins University and local government websites. The user interface is easy to navigate and fun to use, and the site is also optimised for mobile devices. Another key aim of the project is to gather data from countries all over the world and present it in one place, saving users from searching endlessly online to find the information they want. By providing data of lots of different countries using local government sites, the website also facilitates comparison between these countries, another useful tool for the user. In future George hopes to include both the latest data and historical data for each country, province and region, so that comparison can be made both over time and between countries and more localised areas…”

A Lego-Illustrated Guide to Covid-19 Variants

Kottke.org: “This guide to Covid-19 variants (SARS-CoV-2 viruses that have evolved changes to meaningfully alter their behavior) by Michaeleen Doucleff and Meredith Rizzo at NPR cleverly visualizes how mutations of the virus’s spike proteins help bind it more easily to ACE2 receptors on human cells. The key to the visualization is Meredith Miotke’s illustrations of… Continue Reading

GameStop-Related Market Volatility: Policy Issues

CRS Insight – GameStop-Related Market Volatility: Policy Issues, February 3, 2021: “Video game chain GameStop triggered a market frenzy inearly2021when its stock price rapidly increased from around $18 to well over $400in intraday trading. The developments soon spread to some other stocks and markets.The episode raises several policy issues, including social media’s influence over investment… Continue Reading

Aging Connected – Closing the Connectivity Gap for Older Americans

Aging Connected Report – “OATS, in partnership with the Humana Foundation, released a report in January 2021 that for the first time quantifies the size and degree of the digital isolation crisis among seniors in the United States, finding that millions older Americans continue to lack broadband internet access – particularly those who live in… Continue Reading

AI reading list: 8 interesting books about artificial intelligence to check out

TechRepublic: “These eight books about artificial intelligence cover a range of topics, including ethical issues, how AI is affecting the job market, and how organizations can use AI to gain a competitive advantage. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an ever-evolving technology. With several different uses, it’s easy to understand why it’s being implemented more and more… Continue Reading

Know Your COVID Mortgage Forbearance Rights

Lifehacker: “A new CFPB report says that some mortgage lenders have failed to follow the law on mortgage forbearance during COVID. Lenders have misled borrowers about their rights, imposed unauthorized penalties, and wrongfully evicted tenants. Here’s what you need to know, and how to report an unscrupulous lender. Know your rights as a borrower  –… Continue Reading

Federal Individual Income Tax Terms: An Explanation

CRS Report – Federal Individual Income Tax Terms: An Explanation, Updated February 4, 2021: “This report describes the terms most commonly used when discussing the federal individual income tax. Most of these tax terms are explained in the order that they occur in the process of determining one’s income tax on the Form 1040. Total… Continue Reading

We use 6.8 billion face masks a day. Researchers want to turn them into roads

Fast Company – And the roads could be even stronger than traditional roads, according to new research in the journal ‘Science of the Total Environment: “The disposable masks you see every day have to go somewhere. Many, if not most, end up in a landfill. Researchers have developed a new material that turns all those… Continue Reading

The internet rewired our brains. He predicted it would.

The New York Times – “…In 1997, Mr. Goldhaber helped popularize the term “attention economy” with an essay in Wired magazine predicting that the internet would upend the advertising industry and create a “star system” in which “whoever you are, however you express yourself, you can now have a crack at the global audience.” He… Continue Reading

Thanks to the Internet Archive the history of American newspapers is more searchable than ever

NiemanLab: “My two intellectual loves are history and journalism — alternately, history and its first draft — and I’m always happy to see the two overlap. That’s the case with word that the Internet Archive has digitized nearly the entire back catalog of Editor & Publisher — for decades the bible of the newspaper industry… Continue Reading