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Daily Archives: May 11, 2022

57% of Americans say masks should be required on airplanes and public transportation

Pew Research Center: “A majority of U.S. adults (57%) say travelers on airplanes and public transportation should be required to wear masks, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. A smaller share (42%) say travelers should not be required to wear masks in these situations. In April, a federal judge in Florida struck down the U.S. government’s mask mandate for planes and public transportation. The Department of Justice is in the process of appealing the decision, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that people continue to wear masks in these settings. For now, airlines and other businesses are able to set their own rules, with most leaving mask-wearing optional. As has often been the case on policy questions about how to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, partisans are far apart in their views on this issue. A large majority of Democrats and independents who lean to the Democratic Party (80%) say travelers on airplanes and public transportation should be required to wear masks. By contrast, 71% of Republicans and Republican leaners say travelers should not be required to wear masks…”

How the issue of abortion touches Americans personally

Pew Research Center: “Americans report a wide variance in how much thought they have given to the issue of abortion personally. Overall, 36% of adults say that prior to taking the survey, they had given “a lot” of thought to issues around abortion. An identical share say they had given “some” thought to the issue, while… Continue Reading

Is Unauthorized Dissemination of a Draft Supreme Court Opinion a Federal Crime?

CRS Legal Sidebar – Is Unauthorized Dissemination of a Draft Supreme Court Opinion a Federal Crime? May 10, 2022 – “…Although federal law does prohibit the dissemination of certain kinds of government information—such as “classified” information related to national security—there does not appear to be a federal criminal statute expressly prohibiting unauthorized sharing of Supreme… Continue Reading

This New Tool Lets You Analyse TikTok Hashtags

Bellingcat: “In just a few years, TikTok has become one of the world’s most successful social networks. The company claims that its platform is used by over a billion people every month. TikTok’s role during the invasion of Ukraine has changed the common misconception of a website predominantly used by its young users to post… Continue Reading

Google I/O: Maps will offer an “immersive view” of the world, even inside venues

ZDNET: “…Google on Wednesday showcased a range of ways it’s using AI to improve Maps. For instance, it’s using computer vision and other forms of AI to fuse together billions of Street View and aerial images — creating a rich, “immersive view” of the world.  The new immersive view feature gives users a detailed, close-up… Continue Reading

The Great Resignation: The toll taken on the legal field and what comes next

ABA Journal: “The pandemic has reshaped thinking around the value of work. The Thomson Reuters Stellar Performance: Skills and Progression Mid-Year Survey uncovered three specific priorities legal professionals are factoring into their career decisions. Balance: Young professionals are more in tune with work-life balance and place a higher value on mental well-being, leisure and other… Continue Reading

Confronting Misinformation in the Age of Cheap Speech

LawFare: “In 1995, Eugene Volokh published a law review article in which he predicted that the rapidly growing internet would “dramatically reduce the costs of distributing speech” and that “the new media order that these technologies will bring will be much more democratic and diverse than the environment we see now.” The concept, which Volokh… Continue Reading

Growing share of Covid-19 deaths are among vaccinated people, but booster shots substantially lower the risk

CNN: “Since Covid-19 vaccines became widely available, there has been a wide gap in deaths between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. But recent Covid deaths are much more evenly split as highly transmissible variants take hold, vaccine protection wanes and booster uptake stagnates. Breakthrough infections have become more common in recent months, putting vulnerable populations at… Continue Reading