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Daily Archives: June 15, 2015

NASA’s massive new dataset tells us what daily weather report will be in 2100

Via onEarth: “Forget your weather app with its five- or even ten-day forecasts—a supercomputer at NASA has just provided us with high-resolution climate projections through the end of the century. The massive new 11-terabyte data set combines historical daily temperatures and precipitation measurements with climate simulations under two greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. The project spans from 1950 to 2100, but users can easily zero in on daily timescales for their own locales—which is precisely the point. The projections can be found on Amazon for free for all to see and plan by. The space agency hopes that developing nations and poorer communities that may not have any spare supercomputers lying around will use the info to predict and prepare for climate change.”

Confidence in U.S. Institutions Still Below Historical Norms

Gallup: “Americans’ confidence in most major U.S. institutions remains below the historical average for each one. Only the military (72%) and small business (67%) — the highest-rated institutions in this year’s poll — are currently rated higher than their historical norms, based on the percentage expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence… Continue Reading

House Price Volatility and the Housing Ladder

Banks, James W. and Blundell, Richard W. and Oldfield, Zoé and Smith, James P., House Price Volatility and the Housing Ladder (June 2015). NBER Working Paper No. w21255. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2618643 “This paper investigates the effects of spatial housing price risk on housing choices over the first half of the life-cycle. Housing… Continue Reading

Role of Data in Tracking Black Markets in Wildlife

Via Wired: “The international black market in wildlife—alive or dead—is notoriously difficult to track. Hunters and smugglers don’t report their take for the same reasons that drug dealers don’t report profits to the IRS. But if you could actually track those networks, maybe you could do something about them. That’s what sent Nikkita Patel, a… Continue Reading

GAO Reports – Indian Energy Development, 401(K) Plans, Military Personnel, Nuclear Command, Older Americans Act

Indian Energy Development: Poor Management by BIA Has Hindered Energy Development on Indian Lands – GAO-15-502: Published: Jun 8, 2015. Publicly Released: Jun 15, 2015. 401(K) Plans: Frequent and Collective Trading Are Uncommon and Not a Significant Concern for Plan Participants, Sponsors, or Mutual Funds, GAO-15-427R: Published: May 14, 2015. Publicly Released: Jun 15, 2015.… Continue Reading

2012 Commodity Flow Survey Public Use Microdata

“This new data product contains information for approximately 4.5 million shipments obtained from businesses included in the 2012 Commodity Flow Survey. The public use microdata file provides access to shipment-level characteristics while protecting the confidentiality of business information. Users can create customized tables and build models to track and analyze the movement of commodities.  The 2012 Commodity Flow Survey public… Continue Reading

EU Data Protection Directive

Via EPIC – European NGOs Critical of Council Position on New Data Protection Law:  “In response to an earlier proposal from the European Parliament, the European Council has approved a draft intended to update the EU1995 Data Directive. The goal of the new Regulation is to modernize, harmonize, and strengthen data protection across the European… Continue Reading