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While bullshit may reach its apogee in the political domain, this is not a course on political bullshit. Instead, we will focus on bullshit that comes clad in the trappings of scholarly discourse. Traditionally, such highbrow nonsense has come couched in big words and fancy rhetoric, but more and more we see it presented instead in the guise of big data and fancy algorithms - and these quantitative, statistical, and computational forms of bullshit are those that we will be addressing in the present course.

The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself…

Too often, our national debates are defined by the rigid or outdated orthodoxies of both the left and right. This polarization leads to ideologically driven policies and political gridlock, and it drowns out the voices of millions of Americans in the forgotten middle. We believe there is a better way, a "third way"-one that discards the false choices presented by both sides. This third way philosophy is ideal for fostering the most effective and emergent approaches to major problems-ones that can attract the plurality of citizens who represent the political center and whose support is crucial to effective and credible governance.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options.

The Resistance Manual is an open-source platform to harness the collective power of the people to resist the impact of a Trump presidency and to continue to make progress in our communities. The Resistance Manual is focused on presenting truthful and actionable information. All content is reviewed for accuracy and relevance before being posted. Already, thousands of pieces of content have been contributed to the site from people all over the country, helping to keep communities informed and ready for the work ahead.

Existing patterns of urban and suburban development seriously impair our quality of life. The symptoms are: more congestion and air pollution resulting from our increased dependence on automobiles, the loss of precious open space, the need for costly improvements to roads and public services, the inequitable distribution of economic resources, and the loss of a sense of community. By drawing upon the best from the past and the present, we can plan communities that will more successfully serve the needs of those who live and work within them. Such planning should adhere to certain fundamental principles.

OpenGovernment is a free and open-source public resource website for government transparency and civic engagement at the state and local levels. The site is a non-partisan joint project of two 501(c)3 non-profit organizations, the Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation. OpenGovernment is independent from any government entity, candidate for office, or political party. The information contained on OpenGovernment pages, wherever applicable, is cited to a primary source-- while we aggregate many different data sources, we do not edit or manipulate government data in any way before presenting it here.

The Center for American Progress held a forum on economic growth and equality. After opening remarks from Vanessa Cárdenas and Angela Glover Blackwell, members of the first panel talked about the link between economic growth and equality. Economist Emmanuel Saez in his presentation used graphs to show the relationship between equitable distribution of wealth and economic growth.

In GlobalNet21 we bring people together both online and off.  We hold many meetings from those in the House of Commons to online webinars and from larger meetings and presentations to smaller study circles. We work with others to create events that people want to engage in. In creating this virtual "public square" GlobalNet21 has emerged now as a vast social networking system that brings new audiences together to discuss and seek solutions for critical issues of the day - issues that divide and threaten the stability of our society and our planet. We also create space at meeting and online for people to connect and collaborate so that they can take further action whether that is expressing their views through our networks, learning more from others or linking with others to take action in order to make a difference.

MapLight California reveals campaign contributions to state-level candidates, ballot measures, and recipient committees as well as independent expenditures affecting state-level candidates and ballot measures. This data can be quickly and easily browsed using MapLight's California Power Search, a contributions search tool developed in partnership with the California Secretary of State, or Maplight's California Independent Expenditures Search. Both tools utilize the California Secretary of State's raw bulk data download, displaying contributions and independent expenditures from 2001 through the present.

ProgrammingLibrarian.org provides the resources, connections and opportunities libraries need to fill their role as centers of cultural and civic life. It is a place for library professionals to share, learn and be inspired to present excellent programming for their communities. Through resources, ideas and professional development opportunities, we seek to help libraries fill their role as cultural and civic hubs in their communities.

Arts and culture are a deep and intrinsic part of every community. Across the United States there are over 113,000 organizations dedicated to many aspects of cultural life. This activity encompasses a broad range of disciplines that ranges from performing arts production and presentation, to visual arts exhibition, to arts education and arts in healthcare, to preservation and interpretation of our collective heritage.

"This report presents a new Local Wellbeing Indicator set for local authorities, public health leaders and Health & Wellbeing boards. In 2011, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) introduced a Measuring National Wellbeing programme, to inform national decision-making. "

The International Geodesign Collaboration (https://www.igc-geodesign.org/) was conceived as a means to compare the approaches and experiences of globally dispersed teams tackling the projects they would normally do, but using a common framework of guiding assumptions, project sizes, scenarios, analytical systems and presentation formats. 

"Presented as part of Cornwall Chamber of Commerce's Festival of Business on 5 November 2020 by Peter Lefort, Sector & Partnership Lead for Carbon Neutral Cornwall at Cornwall Council. For more information contact Peter via peter.lefort@cornwall.gov.uk. "

Next City finds compelling projects that might inspire your own work or be worth replicating in your city. We ask practitioners to present the project, including the challenges, roadblocks and lessons learned. Then we moderate a live conversation with the audience.

This dashboard presents program and policy changes states have made to their Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic and economic situation. It includes information for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, allowing for easy comparison of program changes across states and when those changes were made.

Gapminder is a non-profit venture - a modern "museum" on the Internet - promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Bike lanes help define road space, decrease the stress level of bicyclists riding in traffic, encourage bicyclists to ride in the correct direction of travel, and signal motorists that cyclists have a right to the road. Bike lanes help to better organize the flow of traffic and reduce the chance that motorists will stray into cyclists' path of travel.1, 2 Bicyclists have stated their preference for marked on-street bicycle lanes in numerous surveys.3 In addition, several real-time studies (where cyclists of varying abilities and backgrounds ride and assess actual routes and street conditions) have found that cyclists are more comfortable and assess a street as having a better level of service for them where there are marked bike lanes present.4

The closing keynote at the Economist Conferences Event, "Creating tomorrow's liveable cities", presented byProfessor Jan Gehl, founding partner of Gehl Architects,Copenhagen. This video provides a good deal of information on the benefits bicycling and walking have on a livable community when integrated into the community landscape.