The State of VMT & Congestion: How Rising Trends Impact U.S. Metros

When pandemic stay-at-home orders caused a dramatic decline in Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), many hoped the rise of remote work would reverse the trend of rising congestion, making way for cleaner, quieter, and more open streets. But VMT quickly bounced back from pandemic lows. Now 2024 sees new record highs in metros across the U.S. …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Transportation

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 21, 2024

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 21, 2024 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media

The National Archives: a small agency with a big responsibility safeguarding American and world history

CBS 60 Minutes: “The National Archives has been in the news lately, not so much for what is in its collection, but for what was missing. After former President Donald Trump and then-Vice President Biden held on to records when they left office that should have been sent to the Archives… we wanted to know …

Subjects: E-Government, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research, Libraries

A World of Waste: Risks and opportunities in household waste management

World Risk Poll: “As the global population continues to expand and development accelerates, the volume of waste generated worldwide is increasing at an unprecedented rate. Safely managing this growing waste burden is an escalating challenge with significant implications not only for the environment but also for human health, safety, and wellbeing. Download the report here …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Food and Nutrition, Health Care

Microplastics in the Olfactory Bulb of the Human Brain

Amato-Lourenço LF, Dantas KC, Júnior GR, et al. Microplastics in the Olfactory Bulb of the Human Brain. JAMA Netw Open [full text]. 2024;7(9):e2440018. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.40018. The ubiquity of microplastic (MP) pollution has become a pervasive environmental concern, raising questions about its occurrence within the human body and its harmful effects. While MPs have been detected in …

Subjects: Environmental Law, Health Care, Medicine

Visualizing Ship Movements with AIS Data

Beautiful Public Data: “As we run, drive, bike, and fly, humans leave behind telltale tracks of movement on Earth—if you know where to look. Physical tracks, thermal signatures, and chemical traces can reveal where we’ve been. But another type of breadcrumb trail comes from the radio signals emitted by the cars, planes, trains, and boats …

Subjects: Economy, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Transportation

Flooded Again: Visualizing Repeated Flooding Across the U.S.

NRDC: “For communities across the country, flooding is an all-too-frequent experience—and, often, one with devastating consequences.  Over 250,000 properties in the United States have had multiple claims under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). These “repetitive loss properties” are found in every U.S. state as well as Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Health Care, Housing, Legal Research

Snapchat reserves right to put AI-generated images of users’ faces in ‘My Selfie’ ads

NY Post via MSN – original article paywalled on 404 Media: “Snapchat reserves the right to put photos of its users’ faces in ads as part of the terms of service of its “My Selfie” tool, which lets people and their friends create artificial intelligence-generated images that are trained on their selfies. “My Selfie is …

Subjects: AI, E-Records, Privacy, Social Media