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Daily Archives: August 1, 2017

Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2018

CRS report via FAS: Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2018, John F. Sargent Jr., Coordinator, Specialist in Science and Technology Policy. July 31, 2017.
“President Trump’s budget request for FY2018 includes $117.697 billion for research and development (R&D). This represents a $30.605 billion (20.6%) decrease from the FY2016 actual level of $148.302 billion (FY2017 enacted levels were not available at the time of publication). Adjusted for inflation, the President’s FY2018 R&D request represents a constant dollar decrease of 23.6% from the FY2016 actual level…”

Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News: “The Trump Administration budget request would cut federal spending on research and development in every major agency except for the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs, the Congressional Research Service said yesterday in a new report. “Nearly every federal agency would see its R&D funding decrease under the President’s FY2018 request compared to their FY2016 levels,” the CRS report said. “The largest declines (as measured in dollars) would occur in the budgets of HHS (down $6.099 billion, 18.9%), DOE (down $1.809 billion, 11.9%), USDA (down $666 million, 25.1%), NSF (down $639 million, 10.6%), and the EPA (down $239 million, 46.3%).” Federal R&D is generally understood to provide support for scientific, medical, military and other research of economic, social, security or other value that would not normally be undertaken by the private sector. Reducing R&D therefore means foregoing the benefits that might otherwise accrue from such investment…”

Bail: An Overview of Federal Criminal Law

CRS report via FAS – Bail: An Overview of Federal Criminal Law, Charles Doyle, Senior Specialist in American Public Law, July 31, 2017. “This is an overview of the federal law of bail. Bail is the release of an individual following his arrest upon his promise—secured or unsecured; conditioned or unconditioned—to appear at subsequent judicial… Continue Reading

35 second video bursts through 117 years of data to demonstrate global warming trends in more than 100 countries

Vox: “This captivating video created by Antti Lipponen visualizes more than 100 years of temperature change in 191 countries in just 35 seconds. Lipponen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, used publicly available data from NASA to demonstrate the rising temperatures across the world. This isn’t the first time the story of global warming… Continue Reading

Paper – Assessing the User Experience of E-Books in Academic Libraries

Assessing the User Experience of E-Books in Academic Libraries Tao Zhang, Xi Niu, Marlen Promann, College and Research Libraries, Vol 78, No 5 (2017) . “We report findings from an assessment of e-book user experience (search and information seeking) from usage data and user tests. The usage data showed that most reading sessions were brief… Continue Reading

Your Social Security Number is a major target of ID theft – government has yet to implement an alternative

Social Security Numbers: OMB Actions Needed to Strengthen Federal Efforts to Limit Identity Theft Risks by Reducing Collection, Use, and Display, GAO-17-553: Published: Jul 25, 2017. Publicly Released: Jul 27, 2017. “Governmentwide initiatives aimed at eliminating the unnecessary collection, use, and display of Social Security Numbers (SSN) have been underway in response to recommendations that… Continue Reading

FTC Escalates Fight against Illegal Robocalls Using Consumer Complaints to Aid Industry Call-Blocking Solutions

FTC news release: “Every day American consumers report tens of thousands of illegal robocalls to the Federal Trade Commission, and now the FTC is helping put that information to work boosting industry efforts to stop unwanted calls before they reach consumers. Under a new initiative announced by the FTC, when consumers report Do Not Call… Continue Reading

JSTOR launches updated design and navigation

JSTOR has a new look: “A search box at the top of every page to help find content Larger fonts, brighter color, and navigation aids to provide a consistent experience Optimized headers and footers to make it easier to explore JSTOR’s content and information Clearer identification of your institutional access provider The JSTOR logo has… Continue Reading

Digitized Bound Congressional Record 1941-1950 Now Available

GovInfo: “The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), in partnership with the Library of Congress (LC), has made available on govinfo digitized versions of the Congressional Record (Bound Edition) from 1941-1950. This release covers debates and proceedings of the 77th through the 81st Congresses. This era of Congress covers historical topics such as: World War II,… Continue Reading