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Daily Archives: April 9, 2014

Human Rights, Technology, and Food

Bird, Robert C. and Cahoy, Daniel R., Human Rights, Technology, and Food: Coordinating Access and Innovation for 2050 and Beyond (March 29, 2014). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2420216

“The purpose of this article is to suggest a path to alleviating the enduring tension between the right to food and intellectual property rights holders, particularly patent holders, of food-related technologies. After examining the role of technology in relieving the increasing demographic pressure for food, this manuscript explores how the dependence on technology for food solutions can cause a collision with barriers of intellectual property rights. The manuscript then examines how the protect, respect, and remedy framework,developed and introduced by U.N. Special Representative John Ruggie, can be used as an important tool to manage the innovation-access dilemma. The framework can stimulate coordination and innovation between interests in food access and the need for food innovation through rights holders. Policy recommendations are also presented to further encourage a reconciliation between food access and intellectual property regimes.”

WaPo – The big environmental problem highlighted by the search for Flight 370

“Officials leading the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane are now focused on deep-sea signals that could be coming from the passenger jet’s black box. But five weeks into the search, there is still no trace of the plane’s wreckage. Instead, the search keeps turning up practically everything but the plane: hundreds of large objects shown… Continue Reading

New report ranks state government spending transparency

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: “A report released Tuesday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund awarded eight states a grade of A for comprehensive websites detailing public spending, while three states received Fs. Indiana ranked the highest of all the states, earning 94 of 100 possible points. Oregon, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts,… Continue Reading

EFF- Why the Web Needs Perfect Forward Secrecy More Than Ever

“EFF has long advocated for websites to support HTTPS instead of plain HTTP to encrypt and authenticate data transmitted on the Internet. However, we learned yesterday of a catastrophic bug, nicknamed “Heartbleed,” that has critically threatened the security of some HTTPS sites since 2011. By some estimates, Heartbleed affects 2 out of 3 web servers on the Internet. Heartbleed isn’t a… Continue Reading

Census Bureau Examines Social, Economic Characteristics of our Nation’s 55,000 Centenarians

“Centenarians have lower education levels, are overwhelmingly women and are more likely to live in poverty than the 65-and-older population, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today. The report, “The Centenarian Population: 2007-2011,” analyzes characteristics of centenarians and how they compare with those 65 years and older. “Centenarians are a small group who are… Continue Reading

Big Step for Public Access to Legislation

Via Daniel Schuman at CREW – “Earlier today, the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee made a major move towards improving public access to legislative information. In layman’s terms, the committee said that by the beginning of the next Congress information about the disposition of bills—where they are in the legislative process and who authored or… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Defense Infrastructure, Health Care Workforce, Mine Safety, Social Security Disability, VA Healthcare

DEFENSE INFRASTRUCTURE: In-Kind Projects Initiated during Fiscal Years 2011 and 2012, GAO-14-280R: Published: Apr 9, 2014. Publicly Released: Apr 9, 2014. HEALTH CARE WORKFORCE: Federal Investments in Training and the Availability of Data for Workforce Projections, GAO-14-510T: Published: Apr 9, 2014. Publicly Released: Apr 9, 2014. MINE SAFETY: Basis for Proposed Exposure Limit on Respirable Coal Mine Dust and Possible Approaches… Continue Reading

NIH – Monitoring the Future 2013 Survey Results

“Monitoring the Future is an annual survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. Since 1975, the survey has measured drug, alcohol, and cigarette use and related attitudes in 12th-graders… Continue Reading

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee, March 18-19, 2014

“The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday released the attached minutes of the Committee meeting held on March 18-19, 2014 and of the conference call held on March 4, 2014. A summary of economic projections made by Federal Reserve Board members and Reserve Bank presidents for the meeting is also… Continue Reading