Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
Wired: “The humble tree has long protected humans from sickness and even death—and in the modern city, it’s still doing so. As global temperatures rise, so too does the “urban heat island effect”—the tendency for cities to absorb and hold on to the sun’s energy, which is a growing public-health crisis worldwide. On a small …
The New York Times – “Several large-scale, human-driven changes to the planet — including climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the spread of invasive species — are making infectious diseases more dangerous to people, animals and plants, according to a new study.” Nature, Published 8 May 2024 – A meta-analysis on global change drivers …
“EPA develops an annual report called the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks (Inventory), that tracks U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks by source, economic sector, and greenhouse gas going back to 1990. EPA has prepared the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks since the early 1990s. This annual report, provides a …
“The State of the Air 2024 report finds that despite decades of progress cleaning up air pollution, 39% of people living in America—131.2 million people—still live in places with failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. This is 11.7 million more people breathing unhealthy air compared to last year’s report. Nearly 4 …
Wyden Hearing Statement on Change Healthcare Cyberattack and UnitedHealth Group’s Response, May 1, 2024 – “This morning the Finance Committee examines the Change Healthcare hack that nearly brought the nation’s health care system to a standstill six weeks ago. Joining the committee is Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, which owns Change Healthcare. I’ll …
ProPublica – Cigna Threatened to Fire Her: “Cigna tracks every minute that its staff doctors spend deciding whether to pay for health care. Dr. Debby Day said her bosses cared more about being fast than being right: “Deny, deny, deny. That’s how you hit your numbers,” Day said…Day was, in her own words, persnickety. If …
Aeon: “In recent years, however, things have changed dramatically, and understanding what one might call ‘the geometry of smell’ is a field that now enlists task forces of neuroscientists working together with mathematically trained theorists and artificial intelligence (AI) experts. While we’re notoriously bad at intuiting how our minds organise phenomena like colours and smells, …
Via Reddit: “Map created by me, an attempt to define cost of living tiers. People often say how they live in a HCOL, MCOL, LCOL area. Source for all data on cost of living dollar amounts by county, with methodology: https://www.epi.org/publication/family-budget-calculator-documentation/ To summarize, this cost of living calculation is for a “modest yet adequate standard …
Washington, D.C. – “Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., requested the Federal Trade Commission investigate major automakers for breaking a pledge to protect their customers’ location data, in a letter to Chair Lina Khan sent today. The automakers had deceptively pledged that they would insist on warrants or other court orders before …
Vox – Dangerous, polluting SUVs and pickups took over America. Lawmakers are partly to blame. Cars, you might have noticed, have grown enormous. Low-slung station wagons are all but extinct on American roads, and even sedans have become an endangered species. (Ford, producer of the iconic Model T a century ago, no longer sells any …
CBC: “The global transition to LED lighting seems to be having some concerning impacts on the natural world and human health. These energy efficient artificial lights produce different spectra than older incandescent technology, or the natural light of the Sun that life on Earth evolved with over billions of years. LED lighting is brighter, bluer, …
Noting this press release as it shines light into the foothold AI is gaining in major sectors, in this case, pharmaceuticals: “For over a decade, Moderna has been at the intersection of science, technology and health. Since our beginnings, we’ve leveraged the power of machine learning to support our mission to develop transformative mRNA medicines. …
