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Monthly Archives: July 2015

Database on EU Distant Water Fleet

“What is this database and why does it matter? The EU lends its flag to a large fleet of vessels that operate in distant waters, meeting our ever-growing demand for seafood by netting catch as far afield as Greenland the distant Pacific Island States, and in all world’s oceans. All EU fishing vessels operating in third-country waters or on the high seas need an authorization under the EU’s Fishing Authorisation Regulation (FAR). However, until now it was unknown how many boats operated in these waters, their names, and where and when they were authorised to fish.

WhoFishesFAR discloses this information for the first time ever, making it available to the general public. From 2010 to 2014 at least 15,264 fishing vessels operated under EU flags in external waters using a FAR authorization and are included in this database. The data has been provided by the European Commission and also includes additional information from 2006 to 2020, amounting to 16,336 unique vessels – including 978 licences that were given to third (or non-EU) countries to operate in EU waters. This data was obtained after an access of information request to the European Commission. The data includes all official agreements, but not private agreements, as the EU Commission itself admits that the EU has no data on these agreements. This website aims to demonstrate the need for institutional transparency and accountability of the activities of the EU fleet activities in waters outside EU. In 2015 the legal system of FAR authorisations will be reviewed, and the loopholes that prevented the legality and transparency of fishing activities under FAR authorisations should be eliminated in this future FAR regulation. Transparent, accountable and sustainable activities of the EU fleet should be guaranteed no matter where they operate.”

Deep learning of bank stress in the news

Detect & Describe: Deep learning of bank stress in the news. Samuel Rönnqvist, Peter Sarlin. arXiv:1507.07870 [q-fin.CP] July 25, 2015. “News is a pertinent source of information on financial risks and stress factors, which nevertheless is challenging to harness due to the sparse and unstructured nature of natural text. We propose an approach based on… Continue Reading

Consumer Watchdog complaint to FCC supports US Right to be Forgotten

“Consumer Watchdog today said an advertising association’s letter to the Federal Trade Commission misunderstands the Right To Be Forgotten and added that consumer privacy protections are not censorship. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) today sent a letter asking the FTC to reject Consumer Watchdog’s complaint that Google’s failure to offer U.S. users the ability… Continue Reading

Paper – A quiet culture war in research libraries

Rick Anderson, UKSG Insights, July 7, 2015: “There is a growing rift between those who believe the library’s most fundamental purpose is to support and advance the goals of its host institution and those who believe the library’s most important role is as an agent of progress and reform in the larger world of scholarly… Continue Reading

Privacy Laws in Asia – free download available

Bloomberg BNA – “With its critical impact on the world economy and global trade, privacy legislation in Asia has been extremely active in the last several years. A recently released report, Privacy Laws in Asia, written by Cynthia Rich of Morrison & Foerster LLP for Bloomberg BNA, analyzes commonalities and differences in the privacy and… Continue Reading

Univ of Toronto virtual legal research database uses IBM Watson

“The University of Toronto team that built a virtual legal research database [video demonstration is embedded in this article] for the IBM Watson Cognitive Computing Competition made it to the final round of the top three before finishing the competition in second place…The contest began when International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) asked 10 elite schools, including… Continue Reading

New Features Added to Congress.gov

Robert Brammer, July 29, 2015 – LC Blog: “Since the unveiling of Congress.gov in September of 2012, we have been constantly adding new features with each release, and many of the features in this release are based directly on your feedback. Accessibility – We want to make Congress.gov more accessible, and our new feature, “Listen,”… Continue Reading

EIA – Russia Country Analysis Brief

Russia International energy data and analysis: “Russia is the world’s largest producer of crude oil (including lease condensate) and the second-largest producer of dry natural gas. Russia also produces significant amounts of coal. Russia’s economy is highly dependent on its hydrocarbons, and oil and natural gas revenues account for more than 50% of the federal… Continue Reading

Bank for International Settlements – new working papers

Bank for International Settlements – Working Papers: Credit and macroprudential policy in an emerging economy: a structural model assessment Phases of global liquidity, fundamentals news, and the design of macroprudential policy Macroprudential Policies in a Commodity Exporting Economy Macroeconomic Effects of Banking Sector Losses across Structural Models Continue Reading

Advance Report on U.S. International Trade

“Now available, the Advance Report: U.S. International Trade in Goods, presents advance statistics for June 2015 from “U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services.” This new monthly report provides more timely statistics on exports and imports of goods and enables decision makers to improve their measurements of the U.S. economy. For more information, see the Director’s Blog… Continue Reading