[June 11, 2015] “the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) launched a new data visualization tool that enables users to see when and where disaster declarations have occurred across the country. As hurricane season kicks off, the tool helps provide important information about the history of hurricanes and other disasters in their communities and what residents… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: June 2015
Massive hack of federal personnel files included security-clearance database
Washington Post, Ellen Nakashima: ” The Chinese breach of the Office of Personnel Management network was wider than first acknowledged, and officials said Friday that a database holding sensitive security clearance information on millions of federal employees and contractors also was compromised. In an announcement, OPM said that investigators concluded this week with “a high… Continue Reading
California Curtails Senior Water Rights
Senior Water Rights Curtailed in Delta, San Joaquin & Sacramento Water sheds – “With drought conditions continuing into the summer months, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) announced today that there is insufficient water available for senior water right holders with a priority date of 1903 or later in the San Joaquin… Continue Reading
Research – How Twitter Users Can Generate Better Idea
New research suggests that employees with a diverse Twitter network — one that exposes them to people and ideas they don’t already know — tend to generate better ideas: “Can Twitter make employees more innovative? In particular, does having a greater diversity of virtual Twitter connections mean that good ideas are more likely to surface,… Continue Reading
Report – Renewable Energy Target Setting
“What are renewable energy targets? Why set a renewable energy target? How should they be designed and translated into specific policy instruments? Renewable energy targets have become a defining feature of the global energy landscape. Some 164 countries around the world have adopted at least one type of renewable energy target as of mid-2015, up… Continue Reading
Pew Report – Multiracial in America
Multiracial in America – Proud, Diverse and Growing in Numbers, June 2015: Multiracial Americans are at the cutting edge of social and demographic change in the U.S.—young, proud, tolerant and growing at a rate three times as fast as the population as a whole. As America becomes more racially diverse and social taboos against interracial… Continue Reading
CIA Releases Declassified Documents Related to 9/11 Attacks
“Today, CIA has released to the public declassified versions of five internal documents related to the Agency’s performance in the lead-up to the attacks of September 11, 2001. The documents can be found at CIA’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) online reading room at http://www.foia.cia.gov/collection/declassified-documents-related-911-attacks. The first of these documents is a redacted version of… Continue Reading
Open Context Web-based research data publication
“Open Context reviews, edits, and publishes archaeological research data and archives data with university-backed repositories, including the California Digital Library….Data Sharing as Publication The research community increasingly expects access to high-quality data. Open Context specializes in the review, documentation, and publication of research data contributed by scholars. Open Context data publications can complement and enhance… Continue Reading
Oil exploration in U.S. Arctic continues despite current price environment
EIA – “Alaska’s crude oil production has declined from 1.8 million barrels per day (MMb/d) in 1991 to 0.5 MMb/d in 2014, and it is expected to continue declining through 2040. Almost 75% of Alaska’s crude oil production from 1990 to 2012 was from the Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk River fields in the central North… Continue Reading
Report – Orphan Works and Mass Digitization
“The Copyright Office is reviewing the problem of orphan works under U.S. copyright law in continuation of its previous work on the subject and to advise Congress on possible next steps for the United States. The Office has long shared the concern with many in the copyright community that the uncertainty surrounding the ownership status… Continue Reading
Smithsonian Digitizes For Download 40,000 Works of Asian and American Art
Via OpenCulture: “Like many major museums all over the world—including the National Gallery, the Rijksmuseum, The British Library, and over 200 others—the Freer/Sackler has made its collection, all of it, available to view online. You can also download much of it. See delicate 16th century Iranian watercolors like “Woman with a spray of flowers” (top), powerful… Continue Reading
Taming the World “Wild” Web with Metadata for Everyone
Taming the World “Wild” Web with Metadata for Everyone by Joan Weeks, Cooperative and Instructional Programs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. [to be presented at IFLA World Library and Information Congress (WLIC 2015) in Cape Town, South Africa.] “Librarians create files that are uploaded on their library websites with little or no metadata which… Continue Reading
