News release: "In a move that will disseminate faculty research and scholarship as broadly as possible, the Harvard Law School faculty unanimously voted last week to make each faculty member’s scholarly articles available online for free, making HLS the first law school to commit to a mandatory open access policy." [John Palfrey via Darlene Fichter]

• A Little Grafting of Second Life into a Legal Research Class: Rob Hudson discusses how Second Life can be used to enhance legal research instruction. Experiments in full class lectures and other uses of Second Life in higher education offer a mixture of hype and excitement. Published May 9, 2008
• CongressLine: Running for Congress: Paul Jenks recounts how for the past two years he has run marathons and monitored Congress at the same time, describing how the two experiences are very similar. Published May 9, 2008
• LLRX Book Review by Heather A. Phillips - A Guide to HIPAA Security and the Law: Heather A. Phillips reviews Stephen S. Wu's book whose focus is coming into compliance with the recent and complex new HIPAA requirements. Published May 7, 2008
• Conrad Jacoby's E-Discovery Update: Attorneys, Experts, and E-Discovery Competence: Conrad J. Jacoby focuses on two recent cases that emphasize the credibility problems counsel can face in the context of e-discovery - and suggest that outside assistance may be the only way for some counsel to demonstrate that these materials are being managed in a competent and trustworthy way. Published May 7, 2008
• FOIA Facts - My Proposal: FOIA Litigation Reporting Requirements: Scott A. Hodes makes the case that there should be a reporting requirement for all FOIA lawsuits requiring agencies to inform a central FOIA Office the outcome of FOIA lawsuits. Published May 7, 2008

New York Times: "No industrialized economy is as reliant on oil, or as obsessed with gasoline prices, as the United States, the world’s biggest consumer of oil. But the oil market is largely immune to Washington’s machinations, and prices have more than quadrupled over the last six years for reasons that are increasingly disconnected from what happens in the United States.

The reality is that oil is a globally traded commodity, and Americans must pay international prices to get their share. And those prices reflect the fact that global supplies are stretched and struggling to meet a booming demand that is being driven by growth in developing countries, notably China and India. This has left the world with a very slim cushion of extra production."

Testimony of Lucian Pugliaresi, President, Energy Policy Research Foundation, Inc., Before the Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary Hearing on Retail Gasoline Prices, May 7, 2008: "Certainly, we would have expected oil prices to rise in response to demand growth and rising costs of new supplies, but current price increases reflect a failure of the world petroleum market to deliver new supplies from fields that could easily do so within the current (or even a lower ) price structure. U.S. policies that have restricted opportunities to expand conventional supplies from Alaska, and prospective offshore and onshore provinces in the lower 48 have contributed to this high price environment along with civil strife in Nigeria, delays in new OPEC capacity, and resource nationalism in Venezuela."

"Kaiser has updated three fact sheets that provide snapshots of the impact of HIV/AIDS on minorities and women in the United States. Each fact sheet includes the latest data on key trends and current cases, as well as population-specific information on HIV transmission patterns and access to care. Black Americans and HIV/AIDS provides information on the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on Blacks. Latinos and HIV/AIDS focuses on the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group in the country. Women and HIV/AIDS in the United States highlights the challenges for women living with and at risk for HIV."

Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, Richards J. Heuer, Jr. (21 pages, PDF, dated 1999 and updated 3-16-2007)

American Lung Association: State of the Air 2008

News release: "On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein submitted a report, entitled The Founders Online, to the Committees on Appropriations of the U.S. Congress. This report is the National Archives response to concerns raised by the Committees that the complete papers of America’s Founding Fathers are not available online. The Founders Online is a plan for providing online access, within a reasonable timeframe, to researchers, students and the general public."

Employer Health Costs In a Global Economy - A Competitive Disadvantage For U.S. Firms, By Len Nichols, Sarah Axeen, New America Foundation, May 2008: "Although most Americans get health insurance through their employers, business leaders are increasingly united in their belief that rising health care costs threaten America’s competitiveness in the global economy. Business support for comprehensive health reform has been growing as a result."

Worst of the Worst: The World's Most Repressive Societies 2008 (124 pages, PDF)

"Freedom House has prepared this overview report as a companion to our annual survey on the state of global political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World. We are publishing this report to assist policymakers, human rights organizations, democracy advocates, and others who are working to advance freedom around the world. We also hope that the report will be useful to the work of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The reports are excerpted from Freedom in the World 2008, which surveys the state of freedom in 193 countries and 15 select territories. The ratings and accompanying essays are based on events from January 1, 2007, through December 31, 2007. The 17 countries and 3 territories profiled in this report are drawn from the total of 43 countries and 8 territories that are considered to be Not Free and whose citizens endure systematic and pervasive human rights violations."

Hard Hats See Hard Times: "Today's worries about the state of the job market are far more heavily concentrated in the lower portions of the income spectrum," by Michael Dimock, Associate Director for Research, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, May 7, 2008.

IEEE Spectrum Q&A With IARPA Director Lisa Porter: "We've divided the agency into three offices, and those really explain how we parse the problems intelligence research is focused on: Smart Collection, Incisive Analysis, and Safe and Secure Operations. Those three thrust areas span the space of the intelligence problem. The first, Smart Collection: we want to dramatically improve the value of our collected data. It's not enough to collect data...The second office is called Incisive Analysis, where we look at maximizing the insight we get from collections in a timely fashion. Analysts are drowning in reams and reams of data. It's called the tsunami effect—the overwhelming amount of data and information that they have to analyze. How can they go through it all fast enough to provide decision makers with analysis in time?...The third office is called Safe and Secure Operations. Here we want to counter the capabilities of our adversaries that could threaten our ability to operate effectively in the networked world. That includes the challenge of cybersecurity..."

Analysis of the National Counterterrorism Center Annual Report on Terrorism, David Heyman, May 1, 2008. Center for Strategic & International Studies

News release: "The states of Louisiana and Vermont may be part of the same nation, but they are worlds apart when it comes to the well-being of children living within their borders. Across the United States, where a child is born and raised can make a shockingly large difference to their chances of getting and staying healthy and then surviving to adulthood, according to a major new report released today by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Every Child Matters Education Fund (ECMEF). Entitled Geography Matters: Child Well-Being in the States, the ECMEF report concludes: “There exists a huge gap among states on a wide variety of child well-being indicators. The state they live in should not adversely influence the life and death of children — but it does. Such inequalities affect all Americans, rich and poor alike, and weaken both our economy and our democracy."

News release: "Challenging the perception of American technology entrepreneurs as 20-something wunderkinds launching businesses from college dorm rooms, a new study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and researchers at Duke and Harvard universities reveals most U.S.-born technology and engineering company founders are middle-aged, well-educated and hold degrees from a wide assortment of universities."

Deloitte Research Study - One Size Fits Few: Using Customer Insight to Transform Government: "This study defines the emerging discipline of “customer strategy” in the 21st century, and shows how the insights of citizens can help your agency make more informed decisions, design and deliver more successful policies and programs, and improve customer service. In line or online, consumers of government services are savvier than ever. And citizens’ attitudes toward the public leaders that represent them are, in large part, shaped by the daily encounters they have with organizations like yours."

The Reversal of Fortunes: Trends in County Mortality and Cross-County Mortality Disparities in the United States, Majid Ezzati, Ari B. Friedman, Sandeep C. Kulkarni, Christopher J. L. Murray. Open access via Public Library of Science, PLoS Medicine, April 2008, Vol. 5, No. 4, e66 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050066.

• "There was a steady increase in mortality inequality across the US counties between 1983 and 1999, resulting from stagnation or increase in mortality among the worst-off segment of the population. Female mortality increased in a large number of counties, primarily because of chronic diseases related to smoking, overweight and obesity, and high blood pressure."
  
• Related posting, CBO Issue Summary, Growing Disparities in Life Expectancy, April 17, 2008

Science 2.0 - Is Open Access Science the Future? Is posting raw results online, for all to see, a great tool or a great risk? By M. Mitchell Waldrop: "Science 2.0 generally refers to new practices of scientists who post raw experimental results, nascent theories, claims of discovery and draft papers on the Web for others to see and comment on. Proponents say these "open access" practices make scientific progress more collaborative and therefore more productive. Critics say scientists who put preliminary findings online risk having others copy or exploit the work to gain credit or even patents. Despite pros and cons, Science 2.0 sites are beginning to proliferate; one notable example is the OpenWetWare project started by biological engi­neers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

• Public Library of Science On-Line Edition
  
• 3 Quarks Daily, "where a group of bloggers write about science and culture"
  
• OpenWetWare project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  
• UsefulChem - "This is an open source science project wiki in chemistry led by the Bradley Laboratory at Drexel University."

"Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by researchers at the Environmental Working Group. Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 25,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn't require companies to test their own products for safety."

ReCellular: "You can make a difference with cell phone recycling. Help our environment and the planet. Help a charity and a person in need. Hundreds of millions of used cell phones are taken out of service each year around the world as new innovations reach the marketplace. One in three Americans will replace their cell phones this year, adding to the 500 million unused phones currently waiting to be discarded or recycled. Cell phone recycling and wireless recycling programs keep valuable materials out of landfills, including an estimated $630,000 of precious metals from circuit boards, and enough copper from phone chargers to recover the Statue of Liberty, twice."

News release: "Nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan — 300,000 in all — report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

In addition, researchers found about 19 percent of returning service members report that they experienced a possible traumatic brain injury while deployed, with 7 percent reporting both a probable brain injury and current PTSD or major depression...

In the first analysis of its kind, researchers estimate that PTSD and depression among returning service members will cost the nation as much as $6.2 billion in the two years following deployment — an amount that includes both direct medical care and costs for lost productivity and suicide. Investing in more high-quality treatment could save close to $2 billion within two years by substantially reducing those indirect costs, the 500-page study concludes."

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online: "For decades available only to scholars at Cambridge University Library, the private papers of Charles Darwin, one of the most influential scientists in history, can now be seen by anyone online and free of charge. This is the largest ever publication of Darwin papers and manuscripts, totalling about 20,000 items in nearly 90,000 electronic images. This vast and varied collection of papers includes the first draft of his theory of evolution, notes from the voyage of the Beagle and Emma Darwin's recipe book." Readers may also browse the papers here.

76% See Business Benefits – May Influence Job Choice for 46% of Users: "Australian employers' approach to on-line social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace may be influencing their efforts to recruit young workers, according to new research by law firm Deacons. In the Deacons’ Social Networking Survey 2008, almost half of those who used social networking sites at work said that if given a choice between two jobs equal in all other respects, they would choose an employer which allowed access to these sites over one which did not. The research found almost a third of 16-24 year olds and a quarter of 25-34 year olds who access the Internet from work use it at some time for on-line social networking activity. The results highlight the challenges organisations face when it comes to managing the impact of so-called Web 2.0 technologies, says Nick Abrahams, head of Deacons' Technology, Media and telecommunications law practice."

"The North American Aerospace Defense Command and the United States Northern Command have released a copy of their audio files, telephone conversations and situation room discussions, from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The files are posted on governmentattic.org via this link.

"This presentation [April 7, 2008] is an overview of recent data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project about internet use and Web 2.0 activities. It also focuses on the Project's findings about the role of libraries when Americans are trying to solve problems...This presentation covers the highlights from the report issued late last year about library use and the experiences people had at libraries when they went there for problem-solving help."

SafeBorrowing.com: "Consumer credit can be complicated. From the unusual legal terms to the complex mathematical formulas, understanding how credit works can be a big task. The Committee on Consumer Financial Services of the Section on Business Law of the American Bar Association has created this website to provide you with the tools to help you on your way to financial success. This website covers the four basic types of consumer credit: financing your home, financing your car, financing your education, and credit cards. At some point in your life you will be faced with decisions about most, if not all, of these types of credit. By reading through this website and others that we point you to, you will be able to get a grasp on understanding these types of credit and how to use them safely and wisely."

"This WRI/WBCSD publication, is an information and decision-making tool to help customers develop their own sustainable procurement policies for wood and paper-based products. It also has information on existing approaches to procurement from legal and sustainable sources. Authors: Ruth Nogueron, Lars Laestadius, A joint collaboration between the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

Project: Global Forest Watch (GFW)

• Sustainable Procurement of Wood and Paper-Based Products - Guide and resoure kit (Full text) (PDF, 142 pages)
  
• Introduction
  
• List of Tools

"Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people using the web, your phone, or IM. Join today to start receiving SenateFloor's updates" and/or HouseFloor's updates."

Transformed Social Interaction in Immersive Virtual Reality, J.N. Bailenson, Stanford University.

National Intelligence Council (NIC) is the Intelligence Community's (IC's) center for midterm and long-term strategic thinking.

Conference Report: Disruptive Civil Technologies - Six Technologies with Potential Impacts on US Interests out to 2025

• "Six civil technologies offer the potential to enhance or degrade US power over the next fifteen years according to National Intelligence Council (NIC) sponsored contractor research. These include biogerontechnology, a energy storage technology, biofuels and bio-based chemical technology, clean coal technology, service robotic technology, and information technology devoted to increased connectivity of people and things."

Fact Sheet: The Way Forward in Iraq - "Today, President Bush announced that – after detailed discussions with the Secretaries of State and Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff – he is accepting General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker's recommendations on the way ahead in Iraq. General Petraeus reported that security conditions have improved enough to withdraw all five surge brigades by the end of July. This is a 25 percent decrease of U.S. combat brigades in Iraq from the year before. General Petraeus has explained that he then will need time to consolidate his forces and assess the reduced U.S. presence on the ground before making measured recommendations on further reductions."

News release: "Together with its supporting documentation, the PREMIS Data Dictionary provides a comprehensive, practical resource for implementing preservation metadata in digital archiving systems. Preservation metadata is defined as information that preservation repositories need to know to support digital materials over the long term. This document is a revision of Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata: Final report of the PREMIS Working Group, issued in May 2005. The PREMIS Data Dictionary is a specification that emphasizes metadata that may be implemented in a wide range of repositories, supported by guidelines for creation, management and use, and oriented toward automated workflows. It is technically neutral in that no assumptions are made about preservation technologies, strategies, syntaxes, or metadata storage and management."

International Monetary Fund Report - World Economic Outlook: Housing and the Business Cycle, April 2008

National Priorities Project: "Taxpayers can take stock of how the federal government spent their 2007 income tax dollars: over 40 percent went towards military spending, while education received just over 4 percent. This publication shows how the median income family's 2007 income tax dollars were spent for every state and 200 cities, towns and counties."

• Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go? Notes and Sources
  
• Interactive Tax Chart: a breakdown of how the federal government spent your income taxes
  
• Trade-Offs: how your tax dollars could be spent differently in your state.

[April 1, 2008] "the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) launched an online compilation of more than 500 documents on the U.S. ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The Archive includes a timeline of CWC negotiations, a history of its signing and ratification, and current news and commentary on the CWC."

Terrorism and the Mass Media after Al Qaeda: A Change of Course?, Manuel R. Torres Fuente: Athena Intelligence: "Analyzes the possible relationship between terrorist groups and the media. As an example, a case study on the Al Qaeda organization will be used. Our methodology will involve analyzing the content of its public statements and examining the developments that have taken place during its history as an organization. Both perspectives suggest that terrorism's view of the media, far from being composed of rigorous ideological or political principles, is shaped by their calculations of estimated opportunities. Its perception of the mass media, has depended on its perception of estimated media impact."

Official Google Blog: "As the 2008 election progresses, more and more voters are tuning into YouTube to stay on top of the action. Our You Choose '08 platform now features content from candidates, news organizations, and voters, and we've made it easier than ever to see where the candidates stand on each of the major issues in this election. The next big stop on the campaign trail is Pennsylvania, so we're partnering with C-SPAN to collect videos from voters across the country who will answer the question, "What is the most important issue to you in this election?"

• The Personal Information Trainer, by Stuart Basefsky
• Criminal Law Resources: Fingerprint Evidence Challenges, by Ken Strutin
• The Social Networking Titans: Facebook and MySpace, by Deborah Ginsberg and Meg Kribble
• Update to Choosing Law Librarianship: Thoughts for People Contemplating a Career Move, by Mary Whisner
• Living With the Asus Eee PC, by Conrad J. Jacoby
• Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide, by Sabrina I. Pacifici, completely revised and updated.
• Doing Legal Research in Canada - revised and updated, by Ted Tjaden
• The Tao of Law Librarianship: If the Books Go, Will They Still Want Us? by Connie Crosby
• E-Discovery Update: Minimizing E-Mail Archive Data Conversion Issues, by Conrad J. Jacoby
• Reference from Coast to Coast: Making A Federal Case Out of It, by Jan Bissett and Margi Heinen
• FOIA Facts: Increasing the Quality of FOIA Releases, by Scott A. Hodes
• The Government Domain: Rich Resources from the Librarians of the Fed, by Peggy Garvin
• LLRX Book Review by Heather A. Phillips - Jerome Neu’s Sticks and Stones: The Philosophy of Insults
• Commentary: Waterboarding, Congress and the President, by Beth Wellington

What the Unemployment Rate Signals on the Economy Unemployment, Macroeconomics, U.S. Economy, Rebecca M. Blank, Visiting Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution.

"This project is an ongoing commitment by Universal McCann to measure consumer usage, attitudes and interests in adopting social media platforms and is the largest exploration of its kind. It aims to provide the facts behind the hype...This report (Wave 3) surveyed 17,000 internet users in 29 countries and was completed in March 2008.

Power to the people, Social Media Tracker, Wave 3.0, March 2008 - Wave 3 Highlights:

Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development. If you are online you are using social media

• Asian markets are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region
  
• All social media platforms have grown significantly over the three Waves
  
  Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3
  
  • 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content
    
  • 55% of users have uploaded photos
    
  • 22% of users have uploaded videos
  
  
• Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and as a collective rival any traditional media
  
• 73% have read a blog
  
• The blogsphere is becoming increasingly participatory, now 184m bloggers world-wide
  
• China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42m bloggers, more than the US and Western Europe combined."

March 18, 2008, Cato Policy Analysis no. 613: The Grass Is Not Always Greener: A Look at National Health Care Systems Around the World, by Michael D. Tanner.

"Critics of the U.S. health care system frequently point to other countries as models for reform. They point out that many countries spend far less on health care than the United States yet seem to enjoy better health outcomes. The United States should follow the lead of those countries, the critics say, and adopt a government- run, national health care system.

However, a closer look shows that nearly all health care systems worldwide are wrestling with problems of rising costs and lack of access to care. There is no single international model for national health care, of course. Countries vary dramatically in the degree of central control, regulation, and cost sharing they impose, and in the role of private insurance."

Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium, Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
Tuesday, April 1, 2008. Witness List & Prepared Testimony.

Taking Back our Fiscal Future - Cost of Living, Economic Mobility, Fiscal Policy, Financial Services, Macroeconomics. The Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation, April 2008.

"...we recommend that:

• Congress and the president enact explicit long-term budgets for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that are sustainable, set limits on automatic spending growth, and reduce the relatively favorable budgetary treatment of these programs compared with other types of expenditures.
  
• The programs be reviewed on a regular schedule by the Social Security and Medicare Trustees or the Congressional Budget Office to determine whether they will remain within budgeted amounts.
  
• Significant long-term deviations from budgeted amounts trigger automatic adjustments in benefits, premiums, provider payments, or other revenues. These adjustments could only be over-ridden by an explicit vote of Congress and acceptance by the president."

News release: "...the Wikimedia Foundation reached a significant new milestone: on Thursday, March 27, at 00:07 UTC the official article count for all Wikipedias combined reached 10 million. The ten millionth article, a short biography of 16th century English goldsmith and painter Nicholas Hilliard, was created in the Hungarian Wikipedia by user Pataki Márta. Wikipedia now boasts articles in more than 250 languages, with the English Wikipedia having the largest number, followed in descending order by the German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish Wikipedias. The project is also experiencing rapid growth in many young Wikipedias, including Marathi, Tagalog, and Cantonese."

Getting Rid of Junk, Staying Green: "Boulder's Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials (CHaRM) opens its doors to one new material each year. The center takes in a variety of items, including porcelain sinks and toilets, home audio equipment and cooking oil."

By James R. Hagerty, From The Wall Street Journal Online: "Foreclosures are occurring at the highest rate in decades -- and as a result, lenders are acquiring homes faster than they can sell them off. Last year, sales of foreclosed homes rose just 4.4%, while the supply more than doubled, according to First American CoreLogic. As of the end of last year, about 2% of all home loans were in foreclosure, or double the average rate over the past 28 years. It is the highest foreclosure rate since the Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade group, began collecting data in 1979. Lenders describe the current situation as the worst since the Great Depression."

Hudson Institute Economic Report (updated bi-weekly and the first Friday of every month), March 14, 2008.

Food & Water Watch - a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food: More Foul Fowl - An Updated Analysis of Salmonella Contamination in Broiler Chickens, March 2008: "The bacteria Salmonella is the leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States with nearly a million cases of salmonellosis attributed annually to meat and poultry consumption. Of these, more than 14,000 of the victims are hospitalized and more than 400 die. The estimated total annual cost of all cases, foodborne and otherwise, of salmonellosis is about $2.46 billion (in 2006 dollars). Concern about the potential for pathogens, including Salmonella, to become resistant to antibiotics also is increasing. Infections caused by antibiotic–resistant bacteria are more frequently associated with illness and death than those caused by bacteria that are not resistant."

Related to this posting today, Social Security Trustees Release 2008 Annual Report, a new report, Social Security's Financial Outlook: The 2008 Update in Perspective, by Alicia H. Munnell, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

UK Times Online: "A one-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries by Jane's Information Services has put the UK joint seventh in the premier league of nations with the US at 22nd and Switzerland, normally associated with wealth and untouchable stability, is rated 17th. Here is the full list..."

"With a shift towards providing long-term services and supports (LTSS) in the community, policy interest in Medicaid consumer direction of personal assistance services (CD-PAS) has grown. Although overall enrollment in these programs is small, 42 states offered consumer direction in Medicaid in 2006. These programs allow Medicaid beneficiaries control over hiring, scheduling, training and paying of personal care attendants. The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured has produced two new reports examining Medicaid’s role in providing CD-PAS in four states – California, Colorado, New York and Virginia."

James Randerson, science correspondent, The Guardian, Monday March 24 2008: "Soot produced by burning coal, diesel, wood and dung causes significantly more damage to the environment than previously thought, according to research published today. So-called "black carbon" could cause up to 60% of the current warming effect of carbon dioxide, according to the US researchers, making it an important target for efforts to slow global warming. Around 400,000 people are estimated to die each year due to inhaling soot particles, particularly because of indoor cooking on wood and dung stoves in developing countries. These deaths are mainly among women and children."

News release: "China sold over $55 million worth of small arms to Sudan as the violence escalated in Darfur, a new report...finds. While other countries were decreasing their arms sales to Khartoum, China stepped in to fill the void by providing Sudan with some 90 percent of its small arms during 2004-2006. This makes China the single largest provider of small arms to Sudan. The new Human Rights First report - Investing in Tragedy: China’s Money, Arms and Politics in Sudan — ties China’s arms sales to Sudan to Beijing’s goal of protecting its controlling interest in the Sudanese oil industry."

Iran, Terrorism, Transnational Security Threats, Nuclear Weapons, Weapons of Mass Destruction, March 2008. Daniel L. Byman, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism.

Workshop 8 – Monitoring & Current Awareness: Mining Blogs & RSS for Research, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Sunday April 6, 2008 - Sabrina I. Pacifici, Law Librarian, Founder/Editor/Publisher, LLRX.com and Author, beSpacific.com.

Follow up to March 20, 2008 posting, Energy Efficient Compact Fluorescent Bulbs Require Proper Disposal Procedures - this interesting news: The lightbulb of the future? Luxim's plasma lightbulb - "Silicon Valley's Luxim has developed a lightbulb the size of a Tic Tac that gives off as much light as a streetlight. News.com's Michael Kanellos talks to the company about its technology and its plans to expand into various markets."

Still Seeking a Truly Digital Life - Analysis: "The French call it 'dematerialization' but the search for a paperless existence continues to elude even technophiles." Peter Sayer, IDG News Service.

"The new AIDS.gov home page provides easier access to site information and offers new features." Prominently displayed at the top right side of the page are links to: a well designed and organized Blog, Podcasts to which users may listen and for which transcripts are provided, RSS Feeds to the podcasts, resource announcements and alerts. Also included are AIDS/HIV related feeds from other e-gov sites. All around, this is a tremendous step forward in e-gov design, with improved site navigation, useful and accessible content and thoughtful implementation of current applications.

"The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have initiated a joint national data center energy efficiency information program. The program coordinates a wide variety of activities from the DOE Industrial Technologies Program Save Energy Now initiative, the DOE Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), and the EPA ENERGY STAR program. The following Fact Sheets summarize ongoing efforts at DOE and EPA to provide information, tools, and resources to owners and operators of data centers to assist in their efforts to reduce energy consumption in their buildings. They also provide links to a wide variety of organizations outside of the Federal government that can be of help in your efforts to improve energy efficiency."

• Fact Sheet for the National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program (10 pages, PDF)
  
• Short fact sheet (2 pages, PDF)
  
• Related postings on energy efficiency

This Wikipedia-World map mashup is terrific. It displays content from tools.wikimedia.de and is not affiliated with google. Use the taxonomy on the left hand nav bar, and choose to view locations throughout the world, inclusive of vivid color photos, designation on the map, and read text about the subject/location from Wikipedia. [Via Joe Gregorio's links]

News release: "Members of Generations X and Y, acknowledging that they need to pick up the slack when it comes to planning for their futures, are thinking about retirement and have defined financial goals according to a report released today by the Divided We Fail group (AARP, Business Roundtable, National Federation of Independent Business and the Service Employees International Union) and the American Savings Education Council (ASEC).

According to Preparing for Their Future: A Look at the Financial State of Gen X and Gen Y, three out of four Gen Xers and Gen Yers said saving for retirement is a personal financial goal, and an overwhelming majority (92 percent) feels that they can achieve their most important financial goals in the next ten years. However, many younger Americans grade themselves poorly when it comes to saving money (42 percent gave themselves a D or F) and investing their money outside the workplace (47 percent gave themselves a D or F)." [IWS News Bureau]

Shining a light on fluorescent bulbs - Energy-efficient coils booming, but disposal of mercury poses problems. By Alex Johnson, MSNBC: "Compact fluorescent light bulbs, long touted by environmentalists as a more efficient and longer-lasting alternative to the incandescent bulbs that have lighted homes for more than a century, are running into resistance from waste industry officials and some environmental scientists, who warn that the bulbs' poisonous innards pose a bigger threat to health and the environment than previously thought."

News release: "On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, a new report from Oil Change International, entitled A Climate of War - The war in Iraq and global warming, quantifies both the greenhouse gas emissions of the Iraq War and the opportunity costs involved in fighting war rather than climate change. Here are some facts on the war and warming:

News release: "While the world-leading pace of urbanization in Asia and the Pacific has contributed to the region’s growth – it has also driven up urban poverty, according to the latest edition of the Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific...The Yearbook, produced by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), is the region’s leading compilation of statistical data which provides a detailed picture of the major economic, social and environmental trends in Asia and the Pacific. Other findings in this year’s edition include that energy consumption grew at a pace unequalled elsewhere and increased motorization is improving mobility.

The Future of Iraq: "Five years after the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, the debate on how the United States should proceed in the divided nation is as heated as ever. Although violence has declined, the U.S. military remains in a fight for peace and stability, while a divided Iraqi government has failed to reconcile crucial political and economic issues. Meanwhile, the U.S. public remains skeptical of any long-term commitment in Iraq. Brookings scholars continue to examine the facts, the politics and the possible solutions."

Pew Research Center, Public Attitudes Toward the War in Iraq: 2003-2008 - March 19, 2008: "Five years after the start of the conflict in Iraq, many public evaluations of the situation in Iraq have turned more positive. But there has been no turnaround in the public's opinion about the original decision to take military action in Iraq. While ratings of how things are going in Iraq have improved over the past year and more Americans now say the United States should keep troops there, the proportion saying the initial decision to go to war was wrong has increased since the spring of 2007."

News release, March 12, 2008: "The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)...released a study on the potential impacts of climate changes and land subsidence, the natural sinking of an area’s land mass, on transportation infrastructure in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. [the] release is phase one of a three part study.

New York Times: On Thursday [March 20, 2008] Sports Illustrated "will introduce the Vault, a free site within SI.com that contains all the words Sports Illustrated has ever published [over 53 years] and many of the images, along with video and other material, in a searchable database."

Project for Excellence in Journalism - State of the News Media 2008 - Preface: "The State of the News Media 2008 is the fifth edition of our annual report on the health and status of American journalism. Its goal is to gather in one place as much data as possible about all the major sectors of journalism, to identify trends, mark key indicators, note areas for further inquiry and provide a resource for citizens, journalists and researchers...This year, we also offer A Year in the News, a content analysis of more than 70,000 stories from 48 news outlets across five media sectors; a Survey of Journalists, produced with the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press; a Special Report on the Future of Advertising and a content study of Citizen Media Sites, 64 in 15 communities."

IDC's Worldwide Software Pricing and Licensing Taxonomy and Report Guide, 2008, Mar 2008, Doc #210950: "This IDC study defines the classification scheme, or taxonomy, used by IDC's Global Software Business Strategies group to analyze the software licensing strategies of vendors and requirements of end-user organizations. IDC's software pricing and licensing taxonomy represents a fundamental view of the way software is created, priced, sold, and supported."

The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe, An Updated Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2011, March 2008, By International Data Corporation.

News release: "The Work Foundation today publishes a report outlining its research thus far into the knowledge economy, 18 months into a three-year, £1.5 million research programme which will conclude in April 2009. The Knowledge Economy: How Knowledge is Reshaping the Economic Life of Nations argues that the phenomenon of the knowledge economy is driven by the demand for higher value-added goods and services created by more sophisticated, more discerning and better educated consumers and businesses. These pressures have interacted with both technology and globalisation, accelerating the process of change and enabling new and disruptive patterns of supplying consumers. The report covers:

• Work: knowledge-based industries and knowledge-related occupations have provided most of the new jobs over the past decade
  
• Trade: The UK has emerged as a world leader in trade in knowledge services with the biggest trade surplus of the major OECD economies. While the City of London and financial services remain important, two thirds of this trade comes from business services, high tech, and education and cultural services.
  
• Innovation: innovation in the knowledge economy comes from both the successful exploitation of R&D undertaken in the UK and overseas and from wider forms of innovation ­ design and development, marketing and organisational change.
  
• Small firms: Provisional findings show that in the decade between 1995 and 2005, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have become much more concentrated in ‘knowledge intensive sectors’ - high skill, high tech sectors, such as accountancy, legal and consultancy services, architectural, engineering and technical services, and advertising. They have increased the numbers of people they employ by 17 per cent or 445,000 people.
  
• Offshore Outsourcing: Thus far, offshoring has had no measureable impact on knowledge economy jobs. Occupations theoretically at risk from offshore outsourcing continue to add numbers overall in the UK. Meanwhile, the trade in knowledge services remains overwhelmingly with richer countries, rather than developing nations such as India."

Political Knowledge Update: "Public awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has declined sharply since last August. Today, just 28% of adults are able to say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war. As of March 10, the Department of Defense had confirmed the deaths of 3,974 U.S. military personnel in Iraq."

Report Summary: "Potentially, the greatest impact of climate change on North America’s transportation system will be flooding of coastal roads, railways, transit systems, and runways because of a global rise in sea level coupled with storm surge and exacerbated in some locations by land subsidence. The vulnerability of transportation infrastructure to climate change, however, will extend well beyond
coastal areas. Therefore, federal, state, and local governments, in collaboration with owners and operators of infrastructure such as ports and airports and private railroad and pipeline companies,
should inventory critical transportation infrastructure to identify whether, when, and where projected climate changes in particular regions might be consequential."

AP Investigation Details Pharmaceuticals Found in Watersheds of 28 Major Metro Area: "A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows...the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe...In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas - from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky."

Building the world's cleanest city - In a Persian Gulf desert, a U.S. engineering firm drives clean tech forward: "If all goes according to plan, Masdar - financed with $15 billion in oil money - will become a showcase for smart urban planning, green building, renewable energy, sustainable materials and advanced recycling..." See the Masdar website for more information.

News release: "The United States WatchList, a joint project between American Bird Conservancy and the National Audubon Society, reflects a comprehensive analysis of all the bird species in the United States. It reveals those in greatest need of immediate conservation attention to survive a convergence of environmental challenges, including habitat loss, invasive species, and global warming. The list builds on the species assessments conducted for many years by Partners in Flight (PIF) on landbirds, using those same PIF standards, but expanded to cover species of all taxa. The list is based on the latest available research and assessments from the bird conservation community, along with data from the Christmas Bird Count and Breeding Bird Survey."

Subprime Rescue Plans: Backdoor Bank Bailouts, March 2008, Dean Baker

Byting Back - Regaining Information Superiority Against 21st-Century Insurgents, RAND Counterinsurgency Study - Volume 1, by Martin C. Libicki, David C. Gompert, David R. Frelinger, Raymond Smith.

Pew Center on the States: "All 50 states received report cards today evaluating each state government’s performance in serving the public. Grading the States 2008 is the only 50-state assessment of its kind that evaluates and grades each state based on a range of areas, from budget and finance to roads and bridges. The report demonstrates the importance of state governments that work better and cost less, particularly in the wake of widespread budget deficits and a weakening national economy."

Economic Policy Institute: Do subprime loans create subprime cities? Surging inequality and the rise in predatory lending, February 28, 2008.

"InsideCounsel’s 2008 Comp Report measures law department compensation using Hildebrandt’s Law Department Survey and Altman Weil’s Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey. Hildebrandt surveyed 202 companies on 2006 year-end data. The median respondent company had more than $10 billion in worldwide revenues, 20,000-plus employees and a U.S. law department with nearly 30 lawyers. Altman Weil used data from March 2007 provided by 343 companies. More than half had 5,000 or fewer employees, while 20 percent had more than 15,000. Also, 64 percent had annual revenue of $3 billion or less while 19 percent exceeded $10 billion." By Melissa Maleske, Yesenia Salcedo, published in the March 2008 issue of InsideCounsel.

News release: "What is needed is a new national security strategy and a renewed commitment to homeland security, one that builds capabilities from the ground up rather than imposing unfunded mandates from the top down. Adequate resources must be committed to all dimensions of national power, not just one. Investments should not just enhance our ability to counter the terrorism threat, but also promote far-reaching systemic improvements that will better position the United States to cope with a range of challenges and major disruptions regardless of the origin—terrorism, yes, but also pandemics, natural disasters, and man-made events."

• Safe at Home: A National Security Strategy to Protect the American Homeland, the Real Central Front, P.J. Crowley, February 2008


• Executive summary


• Video: P.J. Crowley discusses the report


• Chart: Our Top 10 National Security Priorities


• Chart: Homeland Security Policy Priorities for the Next Administration and Congress


• Timeline: Homeland Security Since 9/11

American Journalism Review: "While the line "according to Wikipedia" pops up occasionally in news stories, it’s relatively rare to see the user-created online encyclopedia cited as a source. But some journalists find it very valuable as a road map to troves of valuable information."

News release: "The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments has released a new report, The Global War on Terrorism: An Assessment (292 pages, PDF), authored by Senior Fellow Robert C. Martinage. The report concludes that the United States reached a high-water mark in the war on terrorism in 2003. At that time, the Taliban had been overthrown and al Qaeda stripped of its sanctuary in Afghanistan, ten of al Qaeda’s senior-most leaders had been captured or killed, dozens of jihadi cells had been rolled up, and several partner countries had significantly improved their counterterrorism
capabilities. While the US has had many tactical victories since then, they have been offset by the metastasis of the al Qaeda organization into a global movement, the spread and intensification of Salafi-
Jihadi ideology, the resurgence of Iranian influence, and growth in the number and influence of radical Islamist political parties. The threat has, on balance, intensified in Southwest Asia, South Asia, and Europe, according to Martinage."

"An extensive new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the religious affiliation of the American public and explores the shifts taking place in the U.S. religious landscape. Based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans age 18 and older, the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey finds that religious affiliation in the U.S. is both very diverse and extremely fluid."

Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper - Renewing U.S. Manufacturing: Promoting a High-Road Strategy, by Susan Helper, February 13, 2008 (39 pages, PDF).

News release: "Despite the turmoil in the housing market and the prospect for a recession, the nation's community banks were mildly optimistic about their ability to increase mortgage lending this year, according to the American Bankers Association's 15th annual Real Estate Lending Survey."

News release: "A health care plan that combines the best elements of the current employer-based system and the Medicare model would create big savings, offer more choices and guarantee affordable coverage to all U.S. residents, according to a new cost and coverage analysis of the plan by the Lewin Group, a nationally respected nonpartisan
consulting firm. Health Care for America, developed for the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) by Yale political scientist Jacob S. Hacker, would achieve these goals and maximize consumers’ health care choices without unraveling existing health security, forcing individual to
obtain coverage on their own, pressuring patients into health savings accounts or using inadequate vouchers. Lewin estimates the proposal would cover 99.6 percent of all Americans without raising
total national health spending. It would also save hundreds of billions over time – more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years – in national health spending, according to Lewin."

• Cost Impact Analysis for the "Health Care for America" Proposal [PDF] prepared by The Lewin Group, Inc.


• Lewin Group Cost Impact Analysis: Executive Summary [PDF]


• Costs and Savings: Breakdown of Lewin Group Cost Analysis [PDF]


• Two Approaches to U.S. Health Care Reform: Shared Responsibility vs. 'You're On Your Own'[PDF]


• Lewin Cost Analysis: Coverage Fact Sheet [PDF]

"CNAS and Foreign Policy magazine set out to address some of the most challenging questions facing the U.S. military in the 21st century: What is the state of America's military? How healthy are the armed forces? How prepared are they for future conflicts? How confident are they in civilian leaders and government institutions? And what impact have the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had on them? To find out, CNAS and Foreign Policy teamed up to conduct a survey to find out what senior retired and active duty officers — the very people who have run the military over the last half century — collectively think about the state of the force, the health of the military, the course of the war in Iraq, and the challenges that lie ahead."

Press release: "The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) has unveiled AgainstDisease.com, which houses a new publication that describes the historic and present-day impact of hygiene and cleaning on public health. Against Disease: The Impact of Hygiene and Cleanliness on Health (128 pages, PDF) is an update of the 1984 SDA publication, Cleanliness and the Health Revolution. The new book is authored by Dr. Allison Aiello of the University of Michigan School of Public Health; Dr. Elaine Larson of Columbia University; and Richard Sedlak, SDA Senior Vice President, Technical & International Affairs."

"A major new look at the trends and issues impacting economic opportunity for Americans was released today by the Economic Mobility Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America, is authored by three Brookings Institution scholars, Julia B. Isaacs, Isabel V. Sawhill and Ron Haskins and includes new chapters on education, wealth, international comparisons and trends over time. These, combined with previously released chapters on gender, race, immigration and families, comprise the entire volume...In the generation immediately following World War II, strong economic growth in the U.S. spurred a rise in absolute economic mobility. Over the last generation however, the combination of slowing economic growth and rising inequality has increased the importance of relative mobility, or movement between the ranks, in America. The hope that increased opportunity would offset the effects of slower growth or more unequal incomes is not supported by most of the evidence. Although the research base is limited and the studies do not all agree, taken as a whole, the current literature does not suggest that the rate of relative mobility has changed much since about 1970. If anything, relative mobility may have declined."