Green Protectionism in the European Union: How Europes Biofuels Policy and the Renewable Energy Directive Violate WTO Commitments, European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) “This paper examines the trade-policy consequences of current approaches to biofuels. The paper is not concerned with possible adverse environmental consequences of policy aimed at switching to biofuels. Such consequences… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: December 2009
Predicting spread of malaria using cell phone records
Emerging Pathogens Institute: “University of Florida researchers at work on a malaria elimination study in Africa have become the first to predict the spread of the disease using cell phone records. The scientists analyzed more than 21 million calls to determine how often residents of Zanzibar travel and where they go. A semi-autonomous region composed… Continue Reading
Study on children and keyword searching – how children and adults search
New York Times: “83 children, ages 7, 9 and 11…participated in a study on children and keyword searching. Sponsored by Google and developed by the University of Maryland and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the research was aimed at discerning the differences between how children and adults search and identify the barriers children face when… Continue Reading
UK's National Weather Service – Climate could warm to record levels in 2010
News release: “A combination of man-made global warming and a moderate warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, a phenomenon known as El Niño, means it is very likely that 2010 will be a warmer year globally than 2009. Recently released figures confirm that 2009 is expected to be the fifth-warmest year in the instrumental record… Continue Reading
Library of Congress Puts Thousands of Historic Books Online
News release: “Nearly 60,000 books prized by historians, writers and genealogists, many too old and fragile to be safely handled, have been digitally scanned as part of the first-ever mass book-digitization project [which is called Digitizing American Imprints] of the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC), the worlds largest library. Anyone who wants to learn about… Continue Reading
Newsweek Interview with Jeff Bezos on E-Books and Success of Kindle
The Customer Is Always Right – Since founding Amazon in 1994, he has revolutionized retailing. Now he’s out to transform how we read. By Daniel Lyons | NEWSWEEK. “There are two ways that companies can extend what they’re doing. One is they can take an inventory of their skills and competencies, and then they can… Continue Reading
TIME – 50 Best Websites 2009
TIME – 50 Best Websites 2009: “50 offerings that are indispensable to navigating, enjoying yourself, shopping or just killing time on the Web.” Continue Reading
Side by Side Comparison of House and the Senate Health Care Proposals
New York Times – Comparing the House and the Senate Health Care Proposals: “Senate Democrats said Saturday that they had clinched an agreement on a sweeping legislation to overhaul the nations health care system. The House passed its own version in November. The proposals are broadly similar but differ on some major issues, such as… Continue Reading
Digital Rosetta Stone – memory chip with a 1,000-year expiration date
Forbes: “If people can read this story a millennium from now, they may have Tadahiro Kuroda to thank. Kuroda, an electrical engineering professor at Keio University in Japan, has invented what he calls a “Digital Rosetta Stone,” a wireless memory chip sealed in silicon that he says can store data for 1,000 years. As technology… Continue Reading
Eyeglasses For The Poor
Forbes: Eyeglasses are as old as the Renaissance, but even now we still need trained professionals to fit them. That’s no problem for the Western world, which has around one optometrist for roughly every 10,000 people. But it’s a nightmare for developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, there’s only one optometrist for around 1… Continue Reading
MAPLight.org – Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connections
“MAPLight.org, a groundbreaking public database, illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways. Elected officials collect large sums of money to run their campaigns, and they often pay back campaign contributors with special access and favorable laws.” Continue Reading
Census – The Foreign-Born Labor Force in the United States: 2007
The Foreign-Born Labor Force in the United States: 2007 – “Economic opportunity is a primary attraction for many immigrants to the United States. In 2007, labor force participation among the foreign born was higher than that among natives. Foreign born workers have historically made up a sizeable part of the labor force. Today, there are… Continue Reading
