Poll: American institutions? 1 in 5 say ‘let them burn’ MPR News
Big tech isn’t gonna solve our problemsResponsible Statescraft
Onward ho! End of year wrap-up and a look ahead to 2025 Simplicius
24 Things That Made the World a Better Place in 2024
Wired [unpaywalled] : “Let’s face it—2024 has felt at times like a relentless conveyor belt of doom. The climate crisis is still gaining momentum, COP underlined the lack of consensus on what to do about it, and attempts to create a plastics treaty failed.
Political violence rose to the surface in the US, and there was an election result that foretells four years of chaos and persecution for many. And war, conflict, and violence continue to afflict millions worldwide, from the DRC to South Sudan, Haiti to Yemen, Ukraine to Gaza. But in the midst of the darkness, there were some bright rays of light.
Scientists made big strides in countering some of the greatest health problems faced by humanity. Efforts to fight climate change have pressed on. And a cute baby hippo bit her zookeeper’s knee in a fit of childish rage, launching a thousand memes. Here’s our rundown of the best news to come out of 2024.
- In 2020, homicides in US cities rose on average by 30 percent—the largest recorded spike in American history. They remained high for several years, before beginning to fall, and are now projected to return to pre-2020 levels for the first time. Data suggests that male unemployment and school closures, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, as a result of the pandemic were the key drivers of the rise in violence. Read more on Brookings…”
Some Justice Department Lawyers Look for Protection and the Exits
WSJ via MSN – “Justice Department lawyers who have angered President-elect Donald Trump and his allies are facing tough decisions about whether to stay in government—and how to best protect themselves from threats of retribution after Inauguration Day.
Dozens of prosecutors and agents have worked on cases that potentially make them vulnerable, such as special counsel investigations of Trump, prosecutions of hundreds of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and contempt-of-Congress cases that sent top Trump associates Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro to prison this year.
Their concerns are part of a broader wave of uncertainty that has swept through the Justice Department since Trump’s re-election, as he and his appointees openly float plans to fire career employees and bring the department more closely under presidential control. Some department lawyers on the fence about leaving have sought counsel from Attorney General Merrick Garland and other senior officials, who have encouraged them to stay on for continuity of government and for their expertise, people familiar with the discussions said.
Law firms say they have seen an unprecedented flood of résumés from department lawyers looking for the exits. While presidential transitions always upend the ranks of political appointees, “now, it’s seeping into a lot of career people,” said Steve Nelson, a legal recruiter who helps lawyers make the jump from government into the private sector..”
This Site Offers RSS Feeds for Pages That Don’t Have Them
Lifehacker: “Several sites, including Tumblr and Craigslist, have removed their RSS feeds. Other services, like TikTok, never offered an RSS feeds to begin with. This is annoying if you want to follow things without creating an account, the way you can with Bluesky and Mastodon.
Even worse: there are even some news sites that don’t offer feeds, which is a problem if you’re setting up an RSS reader and hoping to follow your favorite sites. OpenRSS is a free service that builds open RSS feeds for various sites. Unlike similar services, this isn’t automated—the team there actively builds and maintains the integrations. The service is run by a nonprofit that is transparent about its financials right on the about page…”
