Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
Open Access – Towers S, Gomez-Lievano A, Khan M, Mubayi A, Castillo-Chavez C (2015) Contagion in Mass Killings and School Shootings. PLoS ONE 10 (7): e0117259. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117259 “Background – Several past studies have found that media reports of suicides and homicides appear to subsequently increase the incidence of similar events in the community, apparently due …
Ordonez N, Seidl MF, Waalwijk C, Drenth A, Kilian A, Thomma BPHJ, et al. (2015) Worse Comes to Worst: Bananas and Panama Disease—When Plant and Pathogen Clones Meet. PLoS Pathog 11(11): e1005197. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1005197 “The banana is the most popular fruit in the world and ranks among the top ten food commodities for Southeast Asia, Africa, …
ISIS in America: From Retweets to Raqqa, by Lorenzo Vidino and Seamus Hughes, George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, December 2015. “Searching for Answers – What explains the recent surge in American jihadi recruits? Who are the Americans lured by the siren songs of ISIS’s propaganda? How do they embrace such radical ideology, turning their …
“The World’s Women 2015 comprises eight chapters covering critical areas of policy concern: population and families, health, education, work, power and decision-making, violence against women, environment, and poverty. In each area, a life-cycle approach is introduced to reveal the experiences of women and men during different periods of life—from childhood and the formative years, through …
Please note that I am regularly updating my original posting on the San Bernandio, California mass shooting. One new article I add here includes short bios of those murdered, and you will see in them, us. They are indeed America – as we strive for it be – a country to which we all have …
How Often Do Mass Shootings Occur? On Average, Every Day, Records Show By SHARON LaFRANIERE, SARAH COHEN and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. “That is how often, on average, shootings that left four or more people injured or dead occurred in the United States this year, according to compilations of episodes derived from news reports.” Firearms …
Asylum: Additional Actions Needed to Assess and Address Fraud Risks, GAO-16-50: Published: Dec 2, 2015. Publicly Released: Dec 2, 2015: “The total number of asylum applications, including both principal applicants and their eligible dependents, filed in fiscal year 2014 (108,152) is more than double the number filed in fiscal year 2010 (47,118).” Centers of Excellence: …
EPIC – “For the first time, a federal court has lifted a national security letter gag order, allowing an Internet Service Provider to publish the FBI’s demands for records of user web browsing history, IP addresses, online purchases, and location information. The FBI issues thousands of NSLs each year, forcing companies to disclose troves of …
“The FBI recently began open beta testing of eFOIA, a system that puts Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests into a medium more familiar to an ever-increasing segment of the population. This new system allows the public to make online FOIA requests for FBI records and receive the results from a website where they have …
Via the White House, November 20, 2015: “Summary: A step-by-step guide to the rigorous process for refugee entry into the U.S. Refugees undergo more rigorous screening than anyone else we allow into the United States. Here’s what the screening process looks like for them…”
News release: “Beginning Sunday, November 29, the government is prohibited from collecting telephone metadata records in bulk under Section 215, including of both U.S. and non-U.S. persons. And, while under the prior program NSA collected metadata in bulk and sought court approval for individual queries, the USA FREEDOM Act requires that the government must now …
“INFORM is a global, open-source risk assessment for humanitarian crises and disasters. It can support decisions about prevention, preparedness and response…INFORM is the first global, objective and transparent tool for understanding the risk of humanitarian crises. When all those involved in crisis prevention, preparedness and response use a shared risk assessment, they can work more …
