Capitology Blog

Over centuries of activism and hard labor, industrial hygiene has become a staple and a standard in maintaining safety guidelines for workplaces everywhere. An article by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) defines the practice as “the science of protecting and enhancing the health and safety of people at work and in their communities.” Specialists in industrial hygiene are specifically trained to recognize the many hazards that could arise in various workspaces, and to take the action required to fix and stabilize the problem.

Having safely landed on Mars in February of 2021, the Perseverance rover has been exploring the surface of the red planet with much success. In August, the rover attempted one of its key missions— drilling and obtaining rock samples. However, the first attempt came up empty. While the drilling process was successful, no samples actually made it into the collection tube. 

A quick search on the internet of ransomware trends will return thousands of articles on the increasing number of ransomware attacks and cyberthreats, estimated by Cybersecurity Ventures to reach $20 billion in cost of damages this year. It’s no surprise then to hear that two of the largest tech companies are making substantial investments in improving cybersecurity efforts.  

There were many moments at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that made the games unique. Though scheduled for 2020 they were delayed until the summer of 2021 due to the global pandemic and then had no audience beyond coaches and teammates in attendance. Another element that made these Olympics unique was the use of robots. 

Happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month! The theme for the first week is "Do your part.

October marks National Careers in Construction Month, a time geared toward spreading awareness of the various lucrative job opportunities in the construction field, as well as teaching the basics of construction to students across America.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Labor Force Statistics, in 2020 women made up 10.8% of the construction workforce, up about 2% from the prior census. However, a survey results issued by the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) and Safe Site Check In showed that opportunities for women in the construction industry are increasing. 

Email phishing is not a new concept. Since email became a widely-used method of communication, unscrupulous individuals have been sending emails for fake lotteries, invented inheritances, and fake charitable schemes. Many of these types of scams were easy to identify by looking at the sender. However, as technology has advanced, so have phishing schemes—especially in the form of email spoofing. 

According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2019, the pharmaceutical industry spent $83 billion on research and development, about ten times the amount spent per year in the 80s. With so much money going toward exploring whether or not a drug will be effective, one group has turned to machine learning (ML) to help expedite the process. 

For most, the word ‘hacking’ conjures images of a sketchy person clad in dark hooded clothing typing furiously at a computer in a dark room. While hacking and hackers have certainly been in the news lately for data breaches and other sinister online activity, there is such a thing as a benevolent hacker. These types of hackers engage in what is known as civic hacking which is “the process of finding…technology-based solutions to solve civic problems.”1