Day archives: November 10th, 2013

All 250,000 NYC Street Lights Will Be Replaced with Energy-Efficient LEDs by 2017

News release: “Mayor Bloomberg and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan [October 24, 2013] announced all 250,000 standard street light fixtures in New York City will be replaced with energy-efficient, light-emitting diodes (LED) by 2017, reducing energy consumption and maintenance costs. The Administration’s comprehensive, long-term sustainability program –PlaNYC – aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from City government …

Subjects: Energy, Government Documents, Transportation

Mix of fuels used for electricity generation in the United States is changing

News release includes statistics and charts: “The mix of fuels used to generate the electricity in homes, factories, and businesses across the United States has changed in the past few years as coal, still the largest single fuel used for electricity, has lost some of its share of the generation market to natural gas and …

Subjects: Energy, Government Documents

OTC derivatives market activity in the first half of 2013

“The latest BIS statistics on OTC derivatives markets combine the results of the semiannual survey of derivatives dealers in 13 jurisdictions and the Triennial Central Bank Survey of dealers in an additional 34 jurisdictions. They show that notional amounts outstanding totalled $693 trillion at end-June 2013. Of this total, $668 trillion was reported by dealers that …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

Amount of Savings Needed for Health Expenses for People Eligible for Medicare and IRA Asset Allocation, 2011

Amount of Savings Needed for Health Expenses for People Eligible for Medicare: More Rare Good News, and “IRA Asset Allocation, 2011 – October 2013, Vol. 34, No. 10. Employee Benefit Research Institute, 2013 “In 2010, Medicare covered 62 percent of the cost of health care services for Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older, while out-of-pocket spending …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care

Oversight Board Adopts EPIC’s Recommendations in New FOIA Rule

“In response to extensive comments submitted by EPIC, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has issued a final rule that will govern its Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act, and Sunshine Act practices. The Board’s initial draft of the rule allowed the agency to encourage other agencies to classify information, reserved the Board’s right to terminate public participation in Board meetings “at …

Subjects: Courts, E-Government, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Patriot Act, Privacy

Artist and architect Maya Lin’s interactive tribute to extinct animals, their songs and their names – a call to action

The Art of Missing – Encounters with the sights, sounds, and stories of the species we hardly knew, by James Guida What is Missing – the interactive website “But what of the site itself? As you enter to a concert of twittering and croaks, little dots move in a swarm across the screen, assume the forms of certain …

Subjects: Environmental Law, Internet, Knowledge Management

WaPo – America’s wealthiest zip codes are in proximity to DC

“This map highlights in yellow the nation’s Super Zips — those ranking highest on income and college education. The largest collection of Super Zips is around Washington, D.C…A Washington Post analysis of the latest census data shows that more than a third of Zip codes in the D.C. metro area rank in the top 5 percent …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Financial System

UK Guardian – Google and Facebook may be our best defenders against Big Brother

The big online companies are calling for urgent reforms to protect us from having data intercepted – Jemima Kiss “Surveillance is the undercurrent in every tech conversation now, a lens for understanding our vulnerability and exposure to every part of the online world. This is not a choice between catching terrorists and what David Cameron astonishingly …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Mail, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Patriot Act, Privacy

Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? Conversational Infrastructure and the Convergent Evolution of Linguistic Items

Citation: Dingemanse M, Torreira F, Enfield NJ (2013) Is “Huh?” a Universal Word? Conversational Infrastructure and the Convergent Evolution of Linguistic Items. PLoS ONE 8(11): e78273. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0078273 “A word like Huh?–used as a repair initiator when, for example, one has not clearly heard what someone just said– is found in roughly the same form and function in …

Subjects: Knowledge Management

Sexual Assault in the Military-2013 Statutory Report

“The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights chose to focus on sexual assault in the U.S. military for its annual 2013 Statutory Enforcement Report. This report examines how the Department of Defense and its Armed Services—the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force (the Services)—respond to Service members who report having been sexually assaulted (“victims”) and …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Defense, Government Documents

Thank you!