Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: May 22, 2014

The Cost of Air Pollution: Health Impacts of Road Transport

OECD – May 21, 2014: “Outdoor air pollution kills more than 3 million people across the world every year, and causes health problems from asthma to heart disease for many more. This is costing societies very large amounts in terms of the value of lives lost and ill health. Based on extensive new epidemiological evidence since the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study, and OECD estimates of the Value of Statistical Life, this report provides evidence on the health impacts from air pollution and the related economic costs.”

McKinsey – The seven habits of highly effective digital enterprises

May 2014 | by’Tunde Olanrewaju, Kate Smaje, and Paul Willmott “The age of experimentation with digital is over. In an often bleak landscape of slow economic recovery, digital continues to show healthy growth. E-commerce is growing at double-digit rates in the United States and most European countries, and it is booming across Asia. To take advantage of… Continue Reading

Protecting Consumers Five Years After Credit Card Reform

Center for American Progress,  Joe Valenti | May 22, 2014: “In 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act, or Credit CARD Act. This law ended credit card industry practices in which interest rates could change at any time and in which hidden provisions enabled companies to charge significant fees without justification.… Continue Reading

US Topo Quadrangles — Maps for America

USGS – “US Topo quadrangles are digital topographic maps produced by the National Geospatial Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Created in the familiar 7.5-minute quadrangle format like the legacy paper maps, US Topo maps support frequent updating, wide and fast public distribution, and basic, on-screen geographic analysis. US Topo maps are available for free Web download from the USGS… Continue Reading

Google Plans Advertising on Appliances, Including Nest Thermostat

EPIC – “In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google announced plans to place targeted ads on Google-controlled appliances. Google wrote that “a few years from now, we and other companies could be serving ads and other content on refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities.” The proposal… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Federal Software Licenses, Foster Children, Freshwater

FEDERAL SOFTWARE LICENSES: Better Management Needed to Achieve Significant Savings Government-Wide, GAO-14-413: Published: May 22, 2014. Publicly Released: May 22, 2014: “The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the vast majority of agencies that GAO reviewed do not have adequate policies for managing software licenses. While OMB has a policy on a broader information technology (IT) management… Continue Reading

For the First Time, Public Education Revenue Decreases in 2012, Census Bureau Reports

“Public elementary and secondary education revenue declined in fiscal year 2012 for the first time since 1977, when the U.S. Census Bureau began collecting public education finance data on an annual basis. According to new Census Bureau findings released today, public elementary and secondary school systems received $594.5 billion in total revenue in fiscal year… Continue Reading