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Daily Archives: May 13, 2016

Biking To Work Is Healthier Than Driving Regardless of Air Pollution

Charlie Sorrel, Fast Coexist –  “Biking is obviously better for you than driving, because while biking you are exercising and while driving you are sitting. “But wait! cry the pro-driving advocates. When you bike, you’re inhaling (quite deeply, because of the exercise) air that is full of the polluting exhaust of the cars around you. Might that negate the health benefits that moving on the bike affords? Mostly no. Even though you breathe heavier and inhale more pollution when riding a bike in the city, it’s still, on balance, better for you to ride than to drive. A new study from the University of Cambridge compared the health benefits of cycling and walking every day, with the health impact of breathing in more dirty air. It began by asking the question: When does more exercise stop being beneficial? The answer is that the tipping point occurs at around one and a quarter hours of cycling per day. Up until that point, the benefit from the exercise you do far outweighs the harm from polluted air. After that, the adverse effects of pollution start to rise, as you heave up hills and suck down fumes. But the adverse effects are minimal: You can keep riding for up to five hours before you totally negate the benefits from all that activity. That is, even five hours worth of fumes is better for you than sitting in a car and not doing any exercise. The study, led by Marko Tainio of the University of Cambridge, converted the time spent cycling or walking into “metabolically equivalent of task (MET),” a standard for measuring physical activity. Then the team used figures for particulate matter in the air of various cities based on their PM 2.5 scores. PM 2.5 is particulate matter, which remains suspended in the air—dust, smoke, soot—and can accumulate in the respiratory system. By using these figures, they could make an estimate of the particulate matter inhaled while exercising. The result was that, even in heavily polluted cities, the benefits of exercise exceed the risks….”

Linking Societal Trust and CEO Compensation

Kanagaretnam, Kiridaran (Giri) and Khokhar, Rahman and Mawani, Amin, Linking Societal Trust and CEO Compensation (March 14, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2779301 “We examine the association between societal trust and the levels of CEO compensation and the proportion of equity-based compensation of 897 firm-years from 18 countries over the 2007- 2013 period. We… Continue Reading

Unethical Research: How to Create a Malevolent Artificial Intelligence

Unethical Research: How to Create a Malevolent Artificial Intelligence – Federico Pistono, Roman V. Yampolskiy (Submitted on 10 May 2016) “Cybersecurity research involves publishing papers about malicious exploits as much as publishing information on how to design tools to protect cyber-infrastructure. It is this information exchange between ethical hackers and security experts, which results in… Continue Reading

Sixth Annual Benchmark Study on Privacy & Security of Healthcare Data

“The Sixth Annual Benchmark Study on Privacy and Security of Healthcare Data by the Ponemon Institute, finds that criminal attacks are the leading cause of half of all data breaches in healthcare.  Employee mistakes, third-party snafus, and stolen computer devices—are the root cause of the other half of data breaches. The study also found that… Continue Reading

California’s Legislature Wants to Copyright All Government Works

Via Ernesto Falcon – EFF: “AB 2880 will give state and local governments dramatic powers to chill speech, stifle open government, and harm the public domain. The California Assembly Committee on Judiciary recently approved a bill (AB 2880) to grant local and state governments’ copyright authority along with other intellectual property rights. At its core,… Continue Reading

Lack of Trust in Internet Privacy and Security May Deter Economic and Other Online Activities

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA): “Every day, billions of people around the world use the Internet to share ideas, conduct financial transactions, and keep in touch with family, friends, and colleagues. Users send and store personal medical data, business communications, and even intimate conversations over this global network. But for the Internet to grow… Continue Reading

ODNI – Collection, Use, and Retention of Publicly Available Social Media Information in Personnel Security Background Investigations and Adjudications

Via FAS – Collection, Use, and Retention of Publicly Available Social Media Information in Personnel Security Background Investigations and Adjudications, Security Executive Agent Directive 5, May 12, 2016. “…Social media”: Websites, applications, and web-based tools that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content. Through social media, people or groups can engage in dialogue,… Continue Reading

Large law firm licenses IBM Watson technology

[Note – not affiliations whatsoever – just interesting announcement] – “ROSS Intelligence is proud to announce that AmLaw100 law firm BakerHostetler has agreed to retain use of ROSS Intelligence’s artificial intelligence legal research product, ROSS Intelligence Co-Founder Andrew Arruda officially announced the partnership at Vanderbilt Law School’s “Watson, Esq.” conference in Nashville, Tennessee in April.… Continue Reading