Amazing to see how far vaccination card technology has come in just 50 years.
Via Zack Kanter on Twitter – “My stepfather found his polio vaccination card.” [Reminder – saving documents can prove useful.]
How Your Returns Are Used Against You at Best Buy, Other Retailers
WSJ [paywall – alternative free source] – “At Best Buy, returning too many items within a short time can hurt a person’s score, as can returning high-theft items such as digital cameras. Every time shoppers returns purchases to Best Buy, they are tracked by a company which has the power to override the store’s touted …
The weirdest and wildest political moments of 2021
Washington Post: “Everything you’re about to watch really did happen this year.” [Oh my]
“Tactical empathy” key to navigating workplace negotiations
Quartz at Work: “…Tactical empathy requires demonstrating to your counterpart how deeply you’re listening to their words and, in effect, how thoughtfully you’re considering their position…A negotiation is typically portrayed as a winner-take-all skirmish. Be it haggling for a higher salary, asking for a promotion, or closing a deal, the process might summon tactics, for …
Every mass shooting in the US – a visual database
The Guardian: “A normal day in the US involves a mass shooting. Here, we track the incidents since 2014. It’s rare to go one day without a mass shooting in America. Since 2014 the US has averaged more than one mass shooting a day, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. There is no …
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 26, 2021
Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 26, 2021 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly …
This village was a book capital. What happens when people stop buying so many books?
Washington Post: “REDU, Belgium — Nearly 40 years ago, books saved this village. The community was shrinking fast. Farming jobs had disappeared and families were moving away from this pastoral patch of French-speaking Belgium. But in the mid-1980s, a band of booksellers moved into the empty barns and transformed the place into a literary lodestone. …
Historic U.S. weather events in 2021, by the numbers
Washington Post: “From record-shattering heat to frigid waves of cold, torrential downpours to relentless drought, 2021 has been a year of extremes in the United States. As personal stories and images illuminate the devastation wrought by the events, the raw numbers also underline the widespread impacts and extraordinary nature of this year’s weather. Below are …
SIPRI Top 100 Arms-Producing and Military Services Companies 2020
SPIRI Fact Sheet, December 21, 2021: “The combined arms sales of the world’s largest arms-producing and military services companies (the SIPRI Top 100) were $531 billion in 2020 This represents an increase of 1.3 per cent on their arms sales in 2019. Despite this being the smallest increase in arms sales among the Top 100 …
Welcome to Covid-19’s “junior year.” It’s not pretty.
Vox: “After a brief reprieve from surging cases in the fall, omicron, the newest and most transmissible Covid-19 variant yet, is tearing its way across the nation, causing a nearly 30 percent spike nationally in cases in a matter of days. As communities roll out eerily familiar safety measures, for some, it’s feeling like 2020 …
3 hot-button employment litigation areas for 2022
HRDrive: “Those who were hoping for a respite from emerging legal risks following nearly two years of a pandemic are not likely to get it anytime soon, according to a group of Blank Rome attorneys who spoke during a Dec. 7 webinar. In fact, the post-pandemic workplace environment is likely to present unique factual circumstances, …
Never Donate These Books to Little Free Libraries (or Anywhere Else)
Lifehacker: “If your personal library has long since outgrown the bookshelves in your house, it’s probably time to pare things down. Donating old books to your local library, secondhand store, or Little Free Library is a great way to pass them on to a new home, but some books just aren’t appropriate to give away. …