Social Transmission and Viral Culture, by Jonah Berger, assistant professor of Marketing and Katherine L. Milkman, assistant professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

News release: "Governments responsible for serious human rights violations have over the past year intensified attacks against human rights defenders and organizations that document abuse, Human Rights Watch said in issuing its World Report 2010. The 612-page report, the organization's 20th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 nations and territories worldwide, reflecting the extensive investigative work carried out in 2009 by Human Rights Watch staff. The volume's introductory essay by Executive Director Kenneth Roth argues that the ability of the human rights movement to exert pressure on behalf of victims has grown enormously in recent years, and that this development has spawned a reaction from abusive governments that grew particularly intense in 2009."

February 05, 2010 - Al Qaeda and Affiliates: Historical Perspective, Global Presence, and Implications for U.S. Policy

Membership of the 111th Congress: A Profile. Jennifer E. Manning, Information Research Specialist, February 4, 2010

Metropolitan Transportation Planning, William J. Mallett, Specialist in Transportation Policy, February 3, 2010
"Federal law requires state and local governments to designate a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) in each urbanized area with a population of 50,000 or more to help plan surface transportation infrastructure and services. There are currently 381 MPOs nationwide. Despite some strengthening of their authority over the years, MPOs have generally remained subordinate to state departments of transportation (DOTs) in the planning and selecting (“programming”) of projects using federal surface transportation funds. Moreover, it can be argued that at the metropolitan level MPOs are subordinate to local governments that own and operate many elements of the transportation system, and also control land use planning and zoning."

News release: "Public health and environmental advocates faced off against household cleaning giants Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Church and Dwight and Reckitt-Benckiser in a Manhattan court today in a fight for transparency about the toxic chemicals in cleaning products. The manufacturing giants are refusing to follow a New York state law requiring them to disclose the chemical ingredients in their products and the health risks they pose. Independent studies show a link between many chemicals commonly found in cleaning products and health effects ranging from nerve damage to hormone disruption...The first-of-its-kind lawsuit could have national implications and comes as momentum builds nationally and internationally for toxics chemical reform. [February 4, 2010] the United States Senate committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing looking into the current science on public exposures to toxic chemicals."
Reference Documents

• Read the lawsuit
  
• Read the brands targeted in the lawsuit
  
• Read the Women's Voices for the Earth report
  
• Read the disclosure report filed by Sunshine Makers, Inc.
  
• What's Inside SC Johnson - A Closer Look at the Ingredients Inside Our Products

Women in the United States Congress: 1917-2009. Jennifer E. Manning, Information Research Specialist, Colleen J. Shogan, Senior Specialist in Government and Finance, December 23, 2009.

Follow up to posting on campaign to End Female Genital Mutilation Now, see the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice at Cornell Law School: Legal Resources "section provides access to treaties and other international and regional documents, statutes and case law from around the world relating to gender-based violence. By making these resources available, our goal is to promote the use of laws and rules aimed at providing access to justice to survivors of gender-based violence."

"Science Fair season is rapidly approaching, and Cool Science can help! A good science fair project begins with an understanding of the scientific method and ends with sure-fire ways to communicate science research. At Cool Science, you can find a resource developed by the University of Washington to teach the scientific method to elementary and middle school students. Or you can let Swarthmore College help you teach students how to design clear and concise scientific posters. Or you can browse through Ask a Scientist's links to pages with science fair ideas...At Cool Science, we entertain questions of all kinds (Ask a Scientist). We encourage young scientists to get their hands dirty-virtually (Curious Kids). We offer high school and college students new approaches to cutting-edge science topics (BioInteractive). We provide educators with a host of innovative resources they can use in their classrooms (For Educators). We reveal what it takes to become a scientist (Becoming a Scientist). And we showcase an undergraduate science discovery project that may one day change the way science is taught (SEA)."

3rd Circuit to Mull Privacy of Cell Phone Data, Shannon P. Duffy: "In a case that could prove to be one of the most important privacy rights battles of the modern era, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear argument this week on the proper legal standard to apply when prosecutors demand cell phone location data. The data, which are recorded about once every seven seconds whenever a cell phone is turned on, effectively track the whereabouts and the comings and goings of every cell phone user. Justice Department lawyers argue that, by statute, they need only show "reasonable grounds" to believe that such records are "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation." But a federal magistrate judge in Pittsburgh strongly disagreed in February 2008, issuing a 52-page opinion that said the prosecutors must meet the "probable cause" standard."

News release: "A new study developed by TransUnion confirms that the "new" payment hierarchy -- where consumers pay their credit cards prior to their mortgages -- is continuing, with the trend occurring more readily than ever before...The percentage of consumers current on credit cards and delinquent on mortgages first surpassed the percentage of consumers current on their mortgages and delinquent on credit cards in the first quarter of 2008. This "flip" is representative of the change in the conventional wisdom around the payment hierarchy, or which debt obligations consumers would choose to pay first. The latest study, conducted on consumers that had at least one credit card and one mortgage, examined 30-day credit card and mortgage delinquency data between the second quarter of 2008 (Q2/2008) and the third quarter of 2009 (Q3/2009). Although many industry analysts believed that a reversion to the conventional payment hierarchy would ensue once we had passed through the worst of the recession -- that has not, in fact, been the case. To the contrary, this study found that the hierarchy reversal has become even more widespread, with the percentage of consumers who are delinquent on their mortgages and current on their credit cards rising to 6.6 percent in Q3/2009 (from 4.3 percent in Q1/2008). Conversely, the percentage of consumers who are delinquent on their credit cards and current on their mortgages has decreased to 3.6 percent in Q3/2009 (from 4.1 percent in Q1/2008)."

The Next Challenge in Healthcare Preparedness - Catastrophic Health Events, Preparedness Report | January 2010. Prepared for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).

News release: "OECD composite leading indicators (CLIs) for December 2009 provide stronger signals of an expansionary economic outlook than last month. CLIs for the G7 economies as well as China, India, Russia and Brazil, are now all close to, or above, their long term trends. In all these countries, industrial production - the underlying reference series for the CLIs - has now reached its trough."

• Link to historical data, graphs and methodological information
  
• FAQs
  
• Glossary of Composite Leading Indicators
  
• OECD Business Cycle Analysis Database
  
• Related postings on financial system

"The Conservation Almanac covers land area conservation activity across the United States. The project grew out of the many requests The Trust for Public Land has received for data to understand the "context" for land conservation and the growing conservation finance movement. {It] is a work in progress with data updated monthly. All states contain data from 1998 to 2005. As of Jan 2010, data for the following states have been updated through 2008: Montana, Oregon, Massachusetts, Florida, and Missouri. Those states also allow users to display data and conservation activity on the interactive map. Users can visualize where conservation investments are being made, how a state's conservation activity compares with other states, and where new policy developments are taking place. For the first time, users can view county-level conservation spending."

Accessing the Reserve Components (RC), Number 1235.12, February 4, 2010: "In accordance with the authority in DoD Directive (DoDD) 5124.02 (Reference (a)) and title 10, United States Code (U.S.C.), (Reference (b)), reissues DoD Instruction (DoDI) 1235.12 (Reference (c)) to establish policy, assign responsibilities, and prescribe procedures for ordering units and individual members of the RC to active duty as an operational force to support the national defense strategy across the full spectrum of military operations, including sustained operational missions, emergent contingency operations, and service during national emergencies or in time of war."