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Via LLRX – Trump Administration Continues Scrubbing Statistics and Disappearing Data – What is the status of the official data published by U.S. federal statistical agencies? As the current administration continues its disassembling of huge swaths of the federal government, not only are the workers and services gone, so of course is much of the data …
Internet Archive Blogs: “Ever wonder how government documents, once locked away on tiny sheets of microfiche, become searchable and accessible online? Now you can see it happen in real time. Today, the Internet Archive has launched a livestream from our microfiche scanning center (https://www.youtube.com/live/aPg2V5RVh7U), offering a behind-the-scenes look at the meticulous work powering Democracy’s Library—a …
The Atlantic no paywall: “Something strange, and potentially alarming, is happening to the job market for young, educated workers. According to the New York Federal Reserve, labor conditions for recent college graduates have “deteriorated noticeably” in the past few months, and the unemployment rate now stands at an unusually high 5.8 percent. Even newly minted …
Fact Check: “Is Harvard launching free college courses on basic U.S. government understanding and “how to recognize a dictatorship” or a “dictatorship takeover” in response to recent actions from the Trump administration? No, that’s not true: According to a Harvard spokesperson the “edX” program has existed since 2012 and it takes about 12 to 18 …
Via Legal AF: “Harvard just successfully blocked the Trump Administration’s attempt to get it out of the international students business, trying to destroy what makes “Harvard Harvard.” Read the Motion they filed that was successful, and Judge Burrows TRO against Trump, here – and the Harvard TRO here.” See also The New York Times – “The …
SO 3431 – Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. May 20, 2025 – Sec. 1. Purpose. This Order implements provisions of President Trump’s March 27, 2025, Executive Order (EO) 14253, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” EO 14253 directs the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to provide sufficient funding, as available, to improve …
Cory Doctorow: “Who Broke the Internet, Part IV (permalink) “Kick ‘Em In the Dongle” is the fourth and final episode of “Understood: Who Broke the Internet?”, a podcast series I hosted and co-wrote for the CBC. It’s quite a finale! https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353-the-naked-emperor/episode/16148346-kick-em-in-the-dongle – The thesis of the series is the same as the thesis of enshittification: that …
The Tracking Gov Info Project is a crowdsourcing effort to track removed and modified government information and resources. Although the news media have widely reported the current U.S. administration’s removal and modification of federal websites and information, it can be challenging to understand and analyze the scope of the problem without a central list tracking …
Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades [New York Times, no paywall] – The reporters analyzed 35 years of grants funded by the National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation, which funds much of the fundamental scientific research at American universities, is awarding new grants at the slowest pace in at …
SciLit: “How a little-noticed tax and a bureaucratic cap could reshape U.S. innovation. The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1 today, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a sweeping reconciliation bill intended to implement key components of the Trump administration’s fiscal agenda. Among its most controversial implications are those for science. You can read …
Apple Podcast: Michael Lewis, acclaimed author of The Big Short, Moneyball and The Fifth Risk joins Lovett to discuss his most recent book, Who is Government? Lewis and his coauthors profile the civil servants whose thankless and unglamorous work prevents mines from collapsing, castaways from drowning, and rare diseases from killing people. He and Jon …
NPR: “To accomplish its mission of increasing the health security of the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that it “conducts critical science and provides health information” to protect the nation. But since President Trump’s administration assumed power in January, many of the platforms the CDC used to communicate with the public …
