https://theconversation.com/election-security-means-much-more-than-just-new-voting-machines-94242
Despite relief that votes themselves were not changed, these registration systems dictate who is allowed to vote and where, and how voting materials (like referendum information and absentee ballots) are distributed. Elections are often determined by small margins. Selectively disenfranchising a small percentage of voters could very well swing the results.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/ranked-choice-voting-maine/557669/
Ranked-choice voting, which cities like San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Portland, Maine, use to elect their mayors, has been likened to an “instant runoff”: Instead of selecting just one candidate, voters rank their choices in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first place votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and whoever their voters chose as their second choice is added to the tally of the remaining contenders. That process continues until there are only two candidates left, and the one with the most votes wins.
https://pilotonline.com/news/local/transportation/article_9118793c-38dd-11e8-9d97-b776ebbbc0e6.html
The region’s first bikeshare launched this morning in Norfolk after years in the planning stages.
https://daily.jstor.org/what-makes-a-company-worth-working-for/
Through a literature review and further investigation, Baehr and Renck put forward five main contributing factors to employee morale: material rewards; fellow employees; immediate supervision;
organization and management; and job satisfaction.
http://blog.pmean.com/least-important-variable/
The statistician reviewed each variable in order starting with the most important variable. It was rather dull, of course, until the statistician got to the bottom of the list. He proclaimed “and the least important variable is the amount of water in the raw material.”
At this point the engineers in the room burst into laughter. It turns out that water was the most important variable. If you had even a small amount of water in the raw material, the entire production process would explode. The engineers spent a huge amount of effort to keep the water down to a level that was barely measurable.
Many of the same people cannot recall the exact language of their organization’s official mission statement, yet they have a clear and personal understanding of their nonprofit’s mission. These takes can be different within a single organization, as you might expect. People, after all, join nonprofits with different values and motivations. Their work requires them to focus on different
activities, which absorb their attention and set distinct priorities.
https://theconversation.com/people-are-stranded-in-transit-deserts-in-dozens-of-us-cities-92722
Lower access to transportation for poorer Americans creates a kind of negative economic feedback loop. People need access to high-quality transportation in order to find and retain better jobs. Indeed, several studies have shown that transit access is one the most critical factors in determining upward mobility. Poor Americans are likely to have lower-than-average access to transit, but often are unable to move out of poverty because of this lack of transit. Investing in infrastructure thus is a way of increasing social and economic equality.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/bitcoin-mining-arbitrages-cheap-electricity-into-money/555416/
The point, too, is that the scaling-up process cannot stop. That’s how the system has been built. Even if bitcoin mining’s power needs, in the global energy picture, are still negligible. To realize the technology’s backers’ visions, the electrical consumption would have to keep growing at this breakneck pace. At a time when climate change requires that energy demand be bent downward, bitcoin miners sucking up city-size supplies of cheap and carbon-free hydroelectricity is a massive problem. And in China, where most mining is done with subsidized electricity produced in coal-fired power plants, it’s an even bigger problem.
This externality alone could wipe out a range of the benefits that bitcoin advocates imagine could result from the use of cryptocurrencies. Let’s stipulate that blockchains are useful and interesting. But will they be worth the energy it takes to do all that computation?
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/05/some-americans-dont-use-the-internet-who-are-they/
The Center’s latest analysis also shows that internet non-adoption is correlated to a number of demographic variables, including age, educational attainment, household income and community type.
http://altdaily.com/city-data-sets-now-available-through-norfolkopendata-portal/
The City of Norfolk’s new open data portal, called NorfolkOpenData, offers a world of information anytime, free of charge, with easy, centralized access. City data sets including call center information, permits and city employee salaries are available with a few simple keystrokes. Find a link to the portal at Norfolk.gov.
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