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Daily Archives: April 4, 2016

The Deepening Story of How Climate Change Threatens Human Health

The Deepening Story of How Climate Change Threatens Human Health – Gina McCarthy, John Holdren, Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy, and Kathryn Sullivan. April 4, 2016 This is a joint blog from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, EPA, the U.S. Surgeon General, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

“Climate change poses risks to human health through many pathways, some more obvious than others. Rising greenhouse-gas concentrations, driven by human activities, result in increases in temperature, changes in precipitation, increases in the frequency and intensity of some extreme weather events, and rising sea levels. These climate-change impacts endanger our health by affecting our food and water sources, the air we breathe, the weather we experience, and our interactions with the built and natural environments. As the climate continues to change, the climate-related risks to human health will continue to grow. Today, building on the Third National Climate Assessment issued in May 2014, the Administration released a new report summarizing the growing understanding of how climate change is directly and indirectly affecting human health.  The report, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, finds that “every American is vulnerable to the health impacts associated with climate change.” Drawing from decades of advances in the science of climate change and its influences on ecosystems and human society, the report strengthens our understanding of the significant threat that climate change poses to the health of all Americans and highlights factors that make some individuals and communities particularly vulnerable.”

Paper – Transitioning from XML to RDF

Transitioning from XML to RDF: Considerations for an effective move towards Linked Data and the Semantic Web, Juliet L. Hardesty. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIBRARIES | MARCH 2016. Abstract – “Metadata, particularly within the academic library setting, is often expressed in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and managed with XML tools, technologies, and workflows. Managing a library’s… Continue Reading

NY Fed – Are Stress Tests Still Informative?

Liberty Street Economics – “Since the height of the financial crisis, each year the Federal Reserve has disclosed the results of its stress tests, and stress testing has become “business as usual” in the U.S. banking industry. In this post, we assess whether market participants find supervisory stress test disclosures informative. After half a decade,… Continue Reading

Report: Climate change worsens risks to public health

Via NOAA: “All Americans are vulnerable to the health impacts associated with climate change at some point in their lives, no matter where they live, according to a new report from U.S. Global Change Research Program. The report published today includes scientific expertise, data and support from NOAA. The study finds that as the climate continues to change,… Continue Reading

Consumer Protection in E-commerce OECD Recommendation

“E-commerce has evolved dramatically since 1999, when the OECD Council adopted the first international instrument for Consumer Protection in the Context of Electronic Commerce (“1999 Recommendation”). On 24 March 2016, the OECD Council revised this instrument and the Recommendation of the Council on Consumer Protection in E-commerce (“the revised Recommendation”) now addresses new and emerging… Continue Reading

UK Guardian – Libraries facing ‘greatest crisis’ in their history

The Guardian: “Nearly 350 libraries have closed in Britain over the past six years, causing the loss of almost 8,000 jobs, according to new analysis. In a controversial move that sparked protests by authors including Philip Pullman and Zadie Smith, councils across the country have shut their reading rooms in an effort to make deep… Continue Reading

NYT – Washington Metro, 40 and Creaking, Stares at a Midlife Crisis

The Washington DC Metro system opened on March 27, 1976. Much has been written recently, over the past few years and further back as well, about the system’s deteriorating safety, reliability, passenger dissatisfaction with increasingly frequent delays, overcrowding and relentless service delays. Citizens and public officials have called for much need improvements that include the… Continue Reading

GAO Reports – Defense Support of Civil Authorities during Cyber Incidents, Library Services for Those with Disabilities, Retirement Security

Civil Support: DOD Needs to Clarify Its Roles and Responsibilities for Defense Support of Civil Authorities during Cyber Incidents, GAO-16-332: Published: Apr 4, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 4, 2016. Library Services for Those with Disabilities: Additional Steps Needed to Ease Access to Services and Modernize Technology, GAO-16-355: Published: Apr 4, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 4,… Continue Reading

Justices Reject Conservatives’ Challenge on ‘1 Person 1 Vote’

Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to ‘One Person One Vote’ by Adam Liptak, New York Times – “The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that states may count all residents, whether or not they are eligible to vote, in drawing election districts. The decision was a major statement on the meaning of a fundamental principle of… Continue Reading

IMF Global Financial Stability Report April 2016

Emerging Economies Affect Global Financial Changes IMF Survey, April 4, 2016. Changes in global asset prices increasingly reflect financial developments in emerging economies Financial integration main force for changes Policymakers must take into account emerging economies’ economic, policy developments Changes in emerging market asset prices explain over a third of the rise and fall in… Continue Reading