Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks, February 2011 – “Tar sands crude oil pipeline companies may be putting Americas public safety at risk. Increasingly, pipelines transporting tar sands crude oil into the United States are carrying diluted bitumen or “DilBit” — a highly corrosive, acidic, and potentially unstable blend of thick raw bitumen and volatile natural… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Report: As Tuna Vanish, Sardines Rise
Science: “The last century has not been good for large, tasty fish like tuna and cod. Numbers of these and other top predators have plummeted because of overfishing. At the same time, populations of smaller fish, such as sardines and anchovies, have boomed by 130%, according to a new study of marine ecosystems around the… Continue Reading
House Passes Luetkemeyer Amendment to Halt Taxpayer Financing of UN Climate Panel
Science Insider: “Last night the U.S. House of Representatives agreed to cut off funding for the rest of 2011 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. My constituents should not have to continue to foot the bill for an organization to keep producing corrupt findings that can be used as justification to impose a massive… Continue Reading
Genomic DNA Sequences from Mastodon and Woolly Mammoth Reveal Deep Speciation of Forest and Savanna Elephants
Rohland N, Reich D, Mallick S, Meyer M, Green RE, et al. (2010) Genomic DNA Sequences from Mastodon and Woolly Mammoth Reveal Deep Speciation of Forest and Savanna Elephants. PLoS Biol 8(12): e1000564. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000564 “To elucidate the history of living and extinct elephantids, we generated 39,763 bp of aligned nuclear DNA sequence across 375 loci… Continue Reading
Comparative Criminal Procedure
Via the terrific law librarians at University of Chicago at the D’Angelo Law Library, Comparative Criminal Procedure: “This research guide prepared for Professors Ginsburg and McAdams’ Comparative Criminal Procedure Seminar (LAWS 41702) lists selected English-language resources on comparative criminal procedure. It focuses on journal articles, book chapters, and treatises covering comparative criminal procedure generally, criminal… Continue Reading
Failing to Fill the Holes in State Budgets: Why the Recovery Act Spending on Infrastructure Fell Short
New American Foundation: “Contrary to public perceptions, only a small portion of the Recovery Act was dedicated to infrastructure investment. According to our calculations, of the $787 billion originally allocated for the Recovery Act, only about $92.5 billion was spent on infrastructure, or roughly 12% of the final package (see chart below). The majority of… Continue Reading
Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) Yucca Mountain Volume III Safety Evaluation Report
“As a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, The Heritage Foundation today obtained the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC) Yucca Mountain Volume III Safety Evaluation Report (SER). This document is critical because it contains the NRCs conclusions regarding the scientific and technological merits of the Department of Energys application to construct and operate… Continue Reading
The United States of Diabetes: New Report Shows Half the Country Could Have Diabetes or Prediabetes at a Cost of $3.35 Trillion by 2020
News release: “More than 50 percent of Americans could have diabetes or prediabetes by 2020 at a cost of $3.35 trillion over the next decade if current trends continue, according to new analysis by UnitedHealth Groups Center for Health Reform & Modernization, but there are also practical solutions for slowing the trend. New estimates show… Continue Reading
Open Government Executive Directive
Open Government Executive Directive, Version 1 – January 24, 2011 Continue Reading
UK Cabinet Office Report: The Cost Of Cyber Crime
The Cost of Cybercrime: A Detica Report in Partnership with the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance in the Cabinet Office, February 17, 2011 “Few areas of our lives remain untouched by the digital revolution. Across the world, there are now nearly two billion internet users and over five billion mobile phone connections; every… Continue Reading
National Broadband Map Launched
“The National Broadband Map is a searchable and interactive website that allows users to view broadband availability across every neighborhood in the United States. The NBM was created by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and in partnership with 50 states, five territories and the District… Continue Reading
Wider Impacts of Fertilizer and Plastic Pollution on Oceans Top This Year's Priority Issues in UNEP Year Book
United Nations Environment Programme Year Book 2011 Spotlights Urgent Need for Fundamental Green Economy Shift “Massive amounts of phosphorus, a valuable fertilizer needed to feed a growing global population, are being lost to the oceans as result of inefficiencies in farming and a failure to recycle wastewater. Phosphorus pollution, along with other uncontrolled discharges, such… Continue Reading
