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Monthly Archives: December 2021

Tropical forests can recover from deforestation remarkably fast and on their own

Washington Post – “Deforestation is a global and accelerating threat. But new research shows that tropical forests can recover naturally and remarkably quickly on abandoned lands. The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that under low-intensity use, soil on previously deforested land can recover its fertility in less than a decade. Characteristics such… Continue Reading

House panel asks Supreme Court to say by mid-January whether it’s taking Trump’s January 6 records case

CNN – “Former President Donald Trump appealed to the Supreme Court on Thursday to block the release of documents from his White House to the House committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol, escalating his effort to keep about 700 pages of records secret. Hours after Trump’s request was filed, the House committee… Continue Reading

White House AI Initiative Launches Public Research Support Tools

Route Fifty: “A new section of resources intended for artificial intelligence researchers was launched last Friday by the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office, with a goal of providing easy access to data sets and testbed environments for AI application training. The AI Researchers Portal—a program within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy—is the… Continue Reading

Covid’s Risk to Older Adults – Ready to give up on the pandemic?

The New York Times – Spare a moment to think about older people. “Some of the country’s new Covid acceptance — or fatalism — stems from frustration with the costs of pandemic precautions: the loss of learning from closed schools; the isolation from social distancing; the nationwide rise in blood pressure, drug overdoses, mental health… Continue Reading

Moderna booster update: How effective is it against the omicron variant? Here’s what scientists know

CNET: “A booster from Moderna or Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine offers a “significant increase” in protection against both the delta and new, more contagious omicron variants, according to a new Danish study. In a report published Wednesday on the preprint server Medrxiv, scientists at Copenhagen’s Statens Serum Institut examined health records of 3 million Danes taken between… Continue Reading

The Future State of Our Scholarly Publishing Vendors

The Scholarly Kitchen – Angela Cochran: “Last week, David Crotty wrote about “Market Consolidation and the Demise of the Independently Publishing Research Society” in which he described the quickly converging landscape of society publishers. These societies are not merging together, per se, but rather merging with a very small group of commercial publishers. David argues… Continue Reading

The most popular US library books of 2021

“Libraries have had an interesting year. Ebooks were on the rise even before 2020, but pandemic-related closures and a supply chain crisis certainly gave them a boost. But even if ebooks are popular, people are still physically returning to their beloved libraries. “Now that all of our buildings are open, digital circulation has begun to… Continue Reading

The problem with ESG investing, in one chart

Quartz: “Investors poured more than $120 billion this year into exchange-traded funds marketed as comprising companies with strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) track records. That’s double last year’s level, and total investment in ESG ETFs could reach $1 trillion by 2025, according to Bloomberg, making them one of the hottest investment products on the… Continue Reading