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Daily Archives: November 10, 2013

All 250,000 NYC Street Lights Will Be Replaced with Energy-Efficient LEDs by 2017

News release: “Mayor Bloomberg and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan [October 24, 2013] announced all 250,000 standard street light fixtures in New York City will be replaced with energy-efficient, light-emitting diodes (LED) by 2017, reducing energy consumption and maintenance costs. The Administration’s comprehensive, long-term sustainability program –PlaNYC – aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from City government operations 30 percent by 2017 and the LED replacements will help towards achieving that goal [see the visual impact of a project already undertaken in Los Angeles, CA]. Additionally, the LED replacement plan will build on the Department of Transportation’s strategic plan, which outlines steps to green transportation operations, while improving efficiency and reducing costs. The project is the first to receive funding through the Accelerated Conservation and Efficiency initiative or “ACE,” a $100 million competitive program that the Department of Citywide Administrative Services launched this fall to expedite projects undertaken by City agencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. LEDs already have been installed in street lights along key corridors, most recently for Eastern Parkway’s pedestrian lights between Grand Army Plaza and Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn, on Manhattan’s FDR Drive, along Central Park’s pedestrian paths and on the “necklace” lights that adorn the cables of East River Bridges. Compared to the current standard high-pressure sodium lights currently on streets, which last six years, LEDs can last up to 20 years before needing replacement, potentially producing up to an 80 percent savings on maintenance. All together, the 250,000 new LED streetlights are expected to be the largest LED retrofit in the country and save approximately $6 million in energy and $8 million in maintenance a year for a total of $14 million in longer-lasting, more efficient, greener lighting. The Mayor and Commissioner made the announcement on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, where the already completed replacement of the pedestrian fixtures alone is expected to save more than $70,000 and nearly 248,000 KWH a year.”

OTC derivatives market activity in the first half of 2013

“The latest BIS statistics on OTC derivatives markets combine the results of the semiannual survey of derivatives dealers in 13 jurisdictions and the Triennial Central Bank Survey of dealers in an additional 34 jurisdictions. They show that notional amounts outstanding totalled $693 trillion at end-June 2013. Of this total, $668 trillion was reported by dealers that… Continue Reading

Amount of Savings Needed for Health Expenses for People Eligible for Medicare and IRA Asset Allocation, 2011

Amount of Savings Needed for Health Expenses for People Eligible for Medicare: More Rare Good News, and “IRA Asset Allocation, 2011 – October 2013, Vol. 34, No. 10. Employee Benefit Research Institute, 2013 “In 2010, Medicare covered 62 percent of the cost of health care services for Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older, while out-of-pocket spending… Continue Reading

Oversight Board Adopts EPIC’s Recommendations in New FOIA Rule

“In response to extensive comments submitted by EPIC, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has issued a final rule that will govern its Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act, and Sunshine Act practices. The Board’s initial draft of the rule allowed the agency to encourage other agencies to classify information, reserved the Board’s right to terminate public participation in Board meetings “at… Continue Reading

Artist and architect Maya Lin’s interactive tribute to extinct animals, their songs and their names – a call to action

The Art of Missing – Encounters with the sights, sounds, and stories of the species we hardly knew, by James Guida What is Missing – the interactive website “But what of the site itself? As you enter to a concert of twittering and croaks, little dots move in a swarm across the screen, assume the forms of certain… Continue Reading

UK Guardian – Google and Facebook may be our best defenders against Big Brother

The big online companies are calling for urgent reforms to protect us from having data intercepted – Jemima Kiss “Surveillance is the undercurrent in every tech conversation now, a lens for understanding our vulnerability and exposure to every part of the online world. This is not a choice between catching terrorists and what David Cameron astonishingly… Continue Reading

Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? Conversational Infrastructure and the Convergent Evolution of Linguistic Items

Citation: Dingemanse M, Torreira F, Enfield NJ (2013) Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? Conversational Infrastructure and the Convergent Evolution of Linguistic Items. PLoS ONE 8(11): e78273. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0078273 “A word like Huh?–used as a repair initiator when, for example, one has not clearly heard what someone just said– is found in roughly the same form and function in… Continue Reading

Sexual Assault in the Military-2013 Statutory Report

“The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights chose to focus on sexual assault in the U.S. military for its annual 2013 Statutory Enforcement Report. This report examines how the Department of  Defense and its Armed Services—the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force (the  Services)—respond to Service members who report having been sexually assaulted (“victims”)  and… Continue Reading