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Category Archives: Civil Liberties

Human rights scores

Data is Plural: “The CIRIGHTS project aims “to create numerical measures for every internationally recognized human right for all countries of the world.” The team has developed a detailed guide to scoring each government’s record on dozens of such rights, such as freedom of religion, women’s political rights, freedom from extrajudicial killings, the right to a fair trial, and “reasonable limits” on working hours. For each year from 1981 to 2021, the project’s scorers have rated each country on each right, generally on a three-point scale, based on information in the US State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Amnesty International’s annual reports, and similar sources. The resulting dataset includes those scores, as well as several summary metrics.”

2024 State Scorecard on Women’s Health and Reproductive Care

The Commonwealth Fund: Our Scorecard ranks every state’s health care system based on how well it provides high-quality, accessible, and equitable health care. Read the report to see health care rankings by state. Scorecard Highlights: Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island top the rankings for the 2024 State Scorecard on Women’s Health and Reproductive Care, which… Continue Reading

How data brokers sell our location data and jeopardise national security

Netzpolitic.org: “The AdTech industry is torpedoing the privacy of millions of people in Germany and is a threat to national security. But the underlying problem is global: databrokers sell location data without sufficient control. This is the summary of a joint research by netzpolitik.org and BR. Our investigation with BR (Bayerischer Rundfunk) shows for the… Continue Reading

UN Cybercrime Draft Convention Dangerously Expands State Surveillance Powers

EFF –This is the third post in a series highlighting flaws in the proposed UN Cybercrime Convention. Check out Part I, our detailed analysis on the criminalization of security research activities, and Part II, an analysis of the human rights safeguards. “As we near the final negotiating session for the proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty, countries… Continue Reading

Hundreds of racist plant names will change after historic vote by botanists

Nature: “For the first time, researchers have voted to eliminate scientific names of organisms because they are offensive. Botanists decided that more than 200 plants, fungi and algae species names should no longer contain a racial slur related to the word caffra, which is used against Black people and others mostly in southern Africa. Many… Continue Reading

Answers – What’s Project 2025?

Unpacking the Pro-Trump Plan to Overhaul US Government “…The Forces Behind Project 2025 – Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts launched Project 2025 in April 2022, a few months before Trump officially announced his reelection campaign. Since then, the number of groups backing the initiative has grown. As of now, Project 2025’s advisory board and so-called… Continue Reading

The Legal Tech Bro Blues: Generative AI, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Future of Legal Research and Writing

Georgetown Law Technology Review – Essays – The Legal Tech Bro Blues: Generative AI, Legal Indeterminacy, and the Future of Legal Research and Writing, Nicholas Mignanelli, May 2024. “In recent years, a new figure, the tech bro, has arrived in the legal field. He can be found opining on podcasts and social media platforms, selling… Continue Reading

Illegal Immigrant Murderers in Texas, 2013–2022

CATO Institute: “Crime committed by illegal immigrants is an important and contentious public policy issue, but it is notoriously difficult to measure and compare their criminal conviction rates with those of other groups such as legal immigrants and native‐​born Americans. This policy analysis is the latest paper that attempts to resolve those data disputes by… Continue Reading

Project 2025, Election 2024, and America’s Future

TIME: “…Project 2025 led by the right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a presidential transition operation—basically a government-in-waiting if former President Donald Trump returns to office on Jan. 20, 2025. The $22 million effort does not say it is specifically intended for Trump, but that it wants a conservative as the next… Continue Reading

South Carolina poised to impose draconian censorship regime on school libraries

Popular Information: “On Tuesday, the South Carolina State Board of Education will impose a centralized and expansive censorship regime on every K-12 school library in the state. The new regulations could result in the banning of most classic works of literature from South Carolina schools — from The Canterbury Tales to Romeo and Juliet to… Continue Reading

How Black Librarians Helped Create Generations of Black Literature

The New York Times [unpaywalled] – “Recent scholarship is uncovering the role of the women who ran libraries during the Harlem Renaissance where they built collections and, just as important, communities of writers and readers…“Mr. Schomburg’s collection is really the seed,” said Joy Bivins, the current director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture,… Continue Reading

Clarence Thomas, the Gordon Gekko of the Supreme Court

Prevail: “There’s a scene in Wall Street where Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko is explaining to Charlie Sheen’s Bud Fox the difference between being rich and being rich. “I’m talking about liquid,” he says in the back of his limousine. “Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred… Continue Reading