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Monthly Archives: January 2016

UN Global Humanitarian Overview 2016

“The outlook for 2016 is grim. Millions of civilians, uprooted from their homes by violent and prolonged conflict, will remain in desperate need of protection and humanitarian assistance. About 60 million people are displaced around the world, and more than a quarter of these displacements are due to the conflicts in Iraq, South Sudan and… Continue Reading

RealtyTrac – Nearly 1.1 Million US Properties with Foreclosure Filings in 2015

“RealtyTrac …released its Year-End 2015 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,083,572 U.S. properties in 2015, down 3 percent from 2014 and down 62 percent from the peak of 2,871,891 properties with foreclosure filings in 2010. The nearly 1.1 million properties… Continue Reading

NSA Civil Liberties and Privacy Office Report to Congress

NSA – Transparency Report – The USA FREEDOM Act Business Records and FISA Implementation – January 16, 2016 “The National Security Agency’s Civil Liberties and Privacy Office (CLPO) conducted a civil liberties and privacy impact assessment examining how the National Security Agency (NSA) is implementing the changes effected by the USA FREEDOM Act to the… Continue Reading

Cyber Squirrel tracks power outages not caused by trees

Cyber Squirrel provides updates on outages that impact the power grid caused by squirrels, and other animals as well. CyberSquirrel also provides an updated map detailing the squirrel related disruptions by location (including those caused by birds, rats, raccoons, snakes and others – however – no trees – I repeat – no trees – which… Continue Reading

Goldman Sachs to pay $1.5 billion fine in RMBS agreement

News release:  “The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. [January 14, 2016] announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to resolve the ongoing investigation of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group of the U.S. Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (RMBS Working Group). The agreement in principle will resolve actual and potential civil claims by the… Continue Reading

Commentary calls for more data about radon risk and natural gas

Via Oil and Gas Journal – Findings show actual data needed for informed statements about radon risk and natural gas, 12/03/2015 – Lynn Kerr McKay, King & Spalding, Washington, DC; Bruce R. Hurley King & Spalding, Houston. “Actual measurements and evaluation of potential exposure pathways demonstrate that claims of risk of harm due to radon… Continue Reading

Paper on Tuberculosis Knowledge, Awareness and Stigma

Tuberculosis Knowledge, Awareness, and Stigma Among African-Americans in Three Southeastern Counties in the USA: a Qualitative Study of Community Perspectives Rachel A. Royce et al.  Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 1-12. “To inform strategies to address the tuberculosis (TB) excess among US-born African-Americans, we sought to understand the TB experience in the most highly affected… Continue Reading

The U.S. Congress and Global Health: A Primer

Kaiser Family Foundation – “The U.S. Congress, the legislative body of the U.S. government (USG), plays an important role in determining and shaping the government’s global health policy and programs. Although only one of many USG entities involved in global health, its engagement has been particularly notable over the last 15 years, which have been… Continue Reading

Reminder – no more IE support for versions prior to 11

Via Microsoft for Business – “What is end of support? Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical supports and security updates. Internet Explorer 11 is the last version of Internet Explorer, and will continue to receive security updates, compatibility fixes, and… Continue Reading

Biogas opportunities roadmap progress report 2015

USDA- EPA – DOE, December 2015: “This report is a progress report of the Biogas Opportunities Roadmap originally published in August 2014. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Roadmap as a response to the White House Climate Action Plan’s directive to develop… Continue Reading

Paper – Evolution of an ancient protein function involved in organized multicellularity in animals

Via eLife – DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10147.002 – January 7, 2016 – eLife 2016;5:e10147 (open source – full text available in PDF) “For billions of years, life on Earth was made up of single cells. In the lineage that led to animals – and independently in those that led to plants and to fungi – multicellular organisms… Continue Reading

World Bank Report on Digital Technologies – Four Billion Lack Internet Access

“A new World Bank report says that while the internet, mobile phones and other digital technologies are spreading rapidly throughout the developing world, the anticipated digital dividends of higher growth, more jobs, and better public services have fallen short of expectations, and 60 percent of the world’s population remains excluded from the ever-expanding digital economy.… Continue Reading