Monthly archives: June, 2017

Politico – What it will take for women to win

“Women are more politically mobilized than ever before — but that’s not enough to get them into office. A POLITICO investigation reveals what’s really stopping women from breaking through. By Amanda Ripley; Photography and Video by Reena Flores; Illustrations by Ellen Weinstein. The United States has flatlined when it comes to electing women: At the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Legal Research

Trends in Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Research & Development – A Physics Perspective

Secrecy News – Steven Aftergood: “This document… reviews the accessible literature for four research areas: source physics (understanding signal generation), signal propagation (accounting for changes through physical media), sensors (recording the signals), and signal analysis (processing the signal).” Source: Trends in Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Research & Development — A Physics Perspective, Los Alamos National Laboratory, LA-UR-17-21274, …

Subjects: Defense, Government Documents

Using Big Data to Predicting House Prices Across the Country

Joshua New – Center for Data Innovation: “Zillow has launched a data science challenge called the Zillow Prize that provides participants with datasets of real estate information that could influence house prices to encourage them to develop algorithms that can best predict real estate sales prices. Zillow’s “Zestimate” tool gives prospective home-buyers an estimate of …

Subjects: Economy, Housing, Knowledge Management

TRAC Sues ICE on Withholding Data on Secure Communities Program

“The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) has filed yet another suit in federal court today under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) charging Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with unlawfully withholding records on deportations. The new suit follows one filed on May 9. Both actions concern aspects of ICE’s unusually broad immigration control efforts and …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

How to Find Deleted Public Health Assessments for Contaminated Sites

MemoryHole2: “How to Find Deleted Public Health Assessments for Contaminated Sites, June 5, 2017  – Click here to access the missing reports from prior to October 2004 UPDATE [June 8, 2017]: There’s a second source for these documents. Most of them exist in PDF format in the Commerce Department’s National Technical Information Service website. (These …

Subjects: Censorship, E-Government, Environmental Law, Government Documents, Legal Research

History of Gardens in America on Exhibit at the Smithsonian

New York Times – “The United States has a rich yet relatively unknown tradition of beautiful gardens, said Cindy Brown, the education and collections manager at the Smithsonian Gardens in “Go to the Washington, D.C. Travel Guide.” href=”http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/north-america/united-states/washington-dc/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo”>Washington. “Gardens in this country date back to the 17th century and continue to be an attraction today,” …

Subjects: Environmental Law

Internet Archive – Help Us Defend Net Neutrality

Help Us Defend Net Neutrality  – Chris Butler, June 6, 2017. “Please stand with the Internet Archive and over 50 allies in the effort to protect free speech by adding your name in support of net neutrality and writing to your Congressperson today. We have only 40 days left to stop a current FCC proposal that could upend …

Subjects: Congress, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy

Google mapping remote parts of the world in innovative ways

Mike Cherney, WSJ.com: “…Google is coming across some unusual challenges as it seeks to capture eye-level imagery of the most remote parts of the globe. In a recent foray into the Australian outback, Google’s amateur cartographers used a backpack to lug bulky camera equipment around Uluru, a popular tourist site also known as Ayers Rock. …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Search Engines