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Daily Archives: March 31, 2013

Commentary – We Need a Better, Simpler Narrative of US Privacy Laws

Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel for Google: “On the global stage, Europe is convincing many countries around the world to implement privacy laws that follow the European model. The facts speak for themselves: in the last year alone, a dozen countries in Latin America and Asia have adopted euro-style privacy laws. Not a single country, anywhere, has followed the US-model. Indeed, what is the US model? People in the privacy profession know that the US has a dense “patchwork” model of privacy laws: every individual US State has numerous privacy laws, the Federal government has numerous sectoral laws, and numerous other “non-privacy” laws, like consumer protection laws, are regularly invoked in privacy matters. Regulators in many corners of government, ranging from State attorneys general, to the Federal Trade Commission, and armies of class action lawyers inspect every privacy issue for possible actions…”

New on LLRX – Statistics Resources and Big Data on the Internet 2013

Via LLRX.com – Statistics Resources and Big Data on the Internet 2013: Marcus P. Zillman has updated his best practices bibliography of sites and reliable sources focused on the hot topic of statistics and big data. These sources are representative of multiple publishers, national and global – government, academia, NGOs, and industry, many of which… Continue Reading

Report – Why are Recent College Graduates Underemployed?

Why are Recent College Graduates Underemployed? University Enrollments and Labor Market Realities, By Richard Vedder, Christopher Denhart, and Jonathan Robe | January 2013. Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) “Political leaders, prominent foundations, and college presidents have argued that the nation must increase the proportion of adults with college degrees in order for America… Continue Reading

EIA – Iran holds the world's fourth-largest proven oil reserves and the world's second-largest natural gas reserves

Iran Country Report: “Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), ranks among the world’s top four holders of both proven oil and natural gas reserves. In 2012, Iran saw unprecedented drops in its oil exports as sanctions by the United States (U.S.) and European Union (EU) were tightened, targeting Iranian… Continue Reading

Report – 100 Years of Broken-Record Opposition to the Minimum Wage

Consider the Source – 100 Years of Broken-Record Opposition to the Minimum Wage. National Employment Law Project / Cry Wolf Project March 2013 “In her Congressional testimony from 1959, Eleanor Roosevelt noted the repetitive quality of objections raised by minimum wage opponents over the previous five decades. More than 50 years later, it appears that… Continue Reading

Urban Institute: Unemployment from a Child's Perspective

Unemployment from a Child’s Perspective, Julia Isaacs, March 25, 2013 “This issue brief examines unemployment from a child’s perspective, reporting that 6.2 million children lived in families with unemployed parents in 2012. Many of these children live with parents who have been out of work six month or longer. Unemployment insurance covers only 36 percent… Continue Reading

Paper – Understanding Why Users Tag

Understanding Why Users Tag: A Survey of Tagging Motivation Literature and Results from an Empirical Study, Markus Strohmaier, Christian Körner, Roman Kern. Journal of Web Semantics, preprint server. “While recent progress has been achieved in understanding the structure and dynamics of social tagging systems, we know little about the underlying user motivations for tagging, and… Continue Reading

Researchers find Bisphenol A from plastic bottles in oceans around the globe

Chemical From Plastic Water Bottles Found Throughout Oceans, by Brandon Keim “A survey of 200 sites in 20 countries around the world has found that bisphenol A, a synthetic compound that mimics estrogen and is linked to developmental disorders, is ubiquitous in Earth’s oceans. Bisphenol A, or BPA, is found mostly in shatter-proof plastics and… Continue Reading

Report of Select Committee on Intelligence to US Senate covering the period January 5, 2011 – January 3, 2013

Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence to United States Senate covering the period January 5, 2011 – January 3, 2013, 113th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report 113-7. “A major focus of the Committee’s oversight agenda is the review of existing intelligence programs and proposed legislation to ensure that U.S. person privacy rights and civil… Continue Reading