“The Senate Intelligence Committee today issued a declassified report on the September 11-12, 2012, terrorist attacks against U.S. personnel at the Temporary Mission Facility and CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya. The committee found the attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya—to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets—and given… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2014
Billion-Dollar Weather/Climate Disasters
U.S. saw 7 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in 2013: “The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is the Nation’s Scorekeeper in terms of addressing severe weather/climate events in their historical perspective. As part of its responsibility of monitoring and assessing the climate, NCDC tracks and evaluates climate events in the U.S. and globally that have great… Continue Reading
EFF – How To Opt Out of Gmail’s Google Plus Integration
“Google recently unveiled a feature that consolidates their products even further. Now you will receive an email in your Gmail inbox if someone sends a message to your Google Plus account, even if they don’t know your email address. Some people—perhaps most people—will not want it to be easier for strangers to send messages to their email inbox,… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – National Flood Insurance, VA Surgical Implants
NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM – Progress Made on Contract Management but Monitoring and Reporting Could Be Improved, GAO-14-160, Jan 15, 2014 VA SURGICAL IMPLANTS – Shortcomings in Implant Purchasing and Tracking, GAO-14-271T, Jan 15, 2014 Continue Reading
McKinsey – What executives should know about open data
Novel and more accessible forms of information from government and private sources represent a new and rapidly growing piece of the big-data puzzle. January 2014 | byMichael Chui, James Manyika, and Steve Van Kuiken. “Not all data that’s valuable is internal and proprietary. New initiatives by governments as diverse as those of the United States, Mexico, and Singapore… Continue Reading
Sedentary Behavior and Mortality in Older Women
Sedentary Behavior and Mortality in Older Women (Am J Prev Med 2014;46(2):122–135) & 2014 American Journal of Preventive Medicine “Background: Although epidemiologic studies have shown associations between sedentary behavior and mortality, few have focused on older women with adequate minority representation and few have controlled for both physical activity and functional status. Purpose: The objective of this study… Continue Reading
NYT – N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
New York Times – David Sanger and Thom Shanker: “The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks. While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks,… Continue Reading
Modularity and Intellectual Property Protection
Modularity and Intellectual Property Protection – Baldwin, Carliss Y. and Henkel, Joachim (January 13, 2014). Harvard Business School Finance Working Paper No. 14-046. “Modularity is a means of partitioning technical knowledge about a product or process. When state-sanctioned intellectual property (IP) rights are ineffective or costly to enforce, modularity can be used to hide information and thus… Continue Reading
How 3D printing technology will affect the creation, delivery, and consumption of art
Of PhDs, Pirates, and the Public: Three-Dimensional Printing Technology and the Arts, Lucas Osborn, Campbell University Law School, January 14, 2014, Texas A & M Law Review, Spring 2014, Forthcoming “The confluence of three-dimensional printing, three-dimensional scanning, and the internet will explode the dividing line between the physical and the digital worlds and will bring millions of lay people… Continue Reading
GAO Report on Cruise Vessel Security and Safety
CRUISE VESSELS – Most Required Security and Safety Measures Have Been Implemented, but Concerns Remain About Crime Reporting, December 2013. “The cruise industry and federal agencies have implemented 11 of 15 Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act (CVSSA) provisions, but implementation of 4 provisions requires the development of regulations and policy, and is underway. Officials from… Continue Reading
NIH study: Research-based strategies help reduce underage drinking
“Strategies recommended by the Surgeon General to reduce underage drinking have shown promise when put into practice, according to scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. These approaches include nighttime restrictions on young drivers and strict license suspension policies, interventions focused on partnerships between… Continue Reading
Prosecutions of Health Care Fraud Law Reach New High in FY 2013
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during FY 2013 a record high of 377 individuals were prosecuted under the federal Health Care Fraud law (18 USC 1347). According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 3 percent over… Continue Reading
