If confusion is the first step to knowledge, FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) users must be geniuses. Fee categories. Pre-determination agency actions. Multitrack processing. Administrative appeals. Glomar responses. In some ways, the FOIA is as impenetrable as it is helpful, but a new resource wants to change all that: FOIA Wiki, which launched in beta Oct. 3.
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Smallpox lesions have been found on mummies. Skeletons thousands of years old show bone deformities that may have come from syphilis. In Outbreak!: 50 Tales of Epidemics that Terrorized the World, Beth Skwarecki chronicles the devastation caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, prions, dietary insufficiencies, and other scourges, from those known in ancient times, including malaria and plague, to more recent outbreaks, such as those of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Ebola. Skwarecki provides 3-5 page summaries for each epidemic, telling what happened and including the current threat level, treatment, and research findings.
Seattle-based science writers and playwrights collaborated to produce theatrical works in a week. “Theatre is where we come together as a society to do our collective thinking,” said David Mills, artistic director of Infinity Box. “Theatrical stories help us think ahead about the human consequences of changes driven by science and technology.
The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW), in cooperation with NASW, this week launched a new fundraising campaign to provide travel fellowships for international science writers attending the 10th World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ2017) scheduled for October 26-30 in San Francisco.
The winner of the 2016 Diane McGurgan Service Award is longtime NASW volunteer Lynne Lamberg, as announced by president Laura Helmuth on October 29 during ScienceWriters2016.
From cutting down forests to polluting air, trashing oceans, and even leaving junk in space, humans are writing a new chapter in Earth’s history, David Biello asserts in The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age. Scientists have dubbed this new age the Anthropocene. “The choices made this century will help set the course of the entire planet for at least tens of thousands of years,” Biello contends. There’s still time, he argues, for humans to be a force for good.
Writers know that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a.k.a. Obamacare, overhauled the rules for medical insurance. What they might not know is that the ACA’s overhaul also changes some tax laws. Julian Block provides details.