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Daily Archives: September 21, 2021

Persuasive Legal Writing

Johnson, James A., Persuasive Legal Writing (June 1, 2021). Persuasive Legal Writing – Michigan Bar Journal, Sept.2021, Volume 100, No.8, Page 42-43., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3922852

“The most important tool in a consummate lawyer’s toolbox is the ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing. Persuasive legal writing is knowing precisely what one wants to say with clarity and simplicity. Good writers carefully choose what and how to write and what words to use. They arrange words in an organized fashion that the reader finds enjoyable. Properly and judiciously used rhetorical devices give persuasion and polish to your words. Lawyers must write to win. They should make every word count. Preliminary editing should be done with the writing. Persuasive writing is the ability to use words with telling effect. Use analogies to make a point. It is a painful but necessary exercise to put the scalpel to one’s own writing. Edit and re-edit and you will find that less is almost always more.”

This book explains actually helpful actions you can take to fight climate change

Fast Company: “In a new book, Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, and a website called Regeneration, Paul Hawken lays out solutions. The book is a sequel to Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, which looked at how existing technologies and approaches could be used to achieve “drawdown,”… Continue Reading

Find & compare nursing homes, hospitals & other providers near you

Care Compare – Medicare.gov: “Find and compare Medicare-certified nursing homes based on a location, and compare the quality of care they provide and their staffing. A nursing home is a place for people who can’t be cared for at home and need 24-hour nursing care. We’ve combined our 8 original provider compare sites, giving you… Continue Reading

A generation that grew up with Google is forcing professors to rethink their lesson plans

The Verge – File Not Found: “Catherine Garland, an astrophysicist, started seeing the problem in 2017. She was teaching an engineering course, and her students were using simulation software to model turbines for jet engines. She’d laid out the assignment clearly, but student after student was calling her over for help. They were all getting… Continue Reading

Stop Using the Same Password on Multiple Sites! No. Really

PCMag: “When you reuse passwords, a hacker can access multiple services, which might explain why many of our survey respondents have been victims of cybercrimes. If there’s anything we repeat constantly at PCMag, it’s the need for everyone to take cybersecurity seriously. And while that is arguably on the upswing, a large swath of the… Continue Reading

BOOK TALK: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future

Virtual Book Talk – Wednesday, October 6, 2021 – 7:00pm to 8:00pm – Registration Requested: “The Simulmatics Corporation, launched during the Cold War, mined data, targeted voters, manipulated consumers, destabilized politics, and disordered knowledge―decades before Facebook, Google, and Cambridge Analytica. Jill Lepore, best-selling author of These Truths, came across the company’s papers in MIT’s archives… Continue Reading

Freedom in the World 2021 Democracy under Siege

 Freedom in the World 2021: “As a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict ravaged the world in 2020, democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny. Incumbent leaders increasingly used force to crush opponents and settle scores, sometimes in the… Continue Reading

Facebook Rolls Out News Feed Change That Blocks Watchdogs from Gathering Data

The Markup, Gabriel Hongsdusit: ” The tweak, which targets the code in accessibility features for visually impaired users, drew ire from researchers and those who monitor the platform By Corin Faife Facebook has begun rolling out an update that is interfering with watchdogs monitoring the platform. The Markup has found evidence that Facebook is adding changes… Continue Reading

Mapping Movements – The Art and the Science: we have the winners

Special Interest Group of the British Ecological Society dedicated to Movement Ecology research: “We all love to look at maps of animal movements, but producing good maps is challenging However, thanks to rapid developments in the software and methods for producing maps, there are now many options for mapping animal movements – likely more than… Continue Reading