“Democratic Dashboard is a project established by the Democratic Audit, based in the London School of Economics. Our aim is to promote engagement in the electoral process by making an array of information on elections and constituencies more accessible than previously. The UK has the lowest rate of electoral participation by young people in the OECD, and we hope to play a part in using the digital environment to spread engagement.”
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Monthly Archives: April 2016
401(k) Plan Asset Allocation, Account Balances, and Loan Activity in 2014
VanDerhei, Jack and Holden, Sarah and Alonso, Luis and Bass, Steven, 401(k) Plan Asset Allocation, Account Balances, and Loan Activity in 2014 (April 2016). EBRI Issue Brief, Number 423 (April 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2772599 “This paper is an update of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute’s (ICI)… Continue Reading
Researchers around the world increasingly turning to pirated papers due to prohibitive publisher costs
Follow up to previous posting, Controversy over free journal access database keeps Sci-Hub in legal and research spotlight, via Science – Who’s downloading pirated papers? Everyone by John Bohannon – “These statistics are based on extensive server log data supplied by Alexandra Elbakyan, the neuroscientist who created Sci-Hub in 2011 as a 22-year-old graduate student… Continue Reading
Judicial Conference Committee seeks to implement wider law enforcement surveillance
Follow up to Supreme Court expands surveillance powers of intelligence agency via EFF – With Rule 41, Little-Known Committee Proposes to Grant New Hacking Powers to the Government – The government hacking into phones and seizing computers remotely? It’s not the plot of a dystopian blockbuster summer movie. It’s a proposal from an obscure committee… Continue Reading
Research on the science of exercise vs diet
Via Vox: Why you shouldn’t exercise to lose weight, explained with 60+ studies by Julia Belluz and Javier Zarracina on April 28, 2016 – Exercise is excellent and critical for maintaining good health, but eating less is the key to maintaining a weight ideal for you. It is not one or the other – an… Continue Reading
GAO Reports – Municipal Freshwater Scarcity, U.S. Postal Service
Municipal Freshwater Scarcity: Survey of Technology Adoption by Municipal Water Utilities (GAO-16-588SP, April 29, 2016), an E-supplement to GAO-16-474, GAO-16-588SP: Published: Apr 29, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 29, 2016: “This e-supplement presents the results of GAO s web-based survey of 1,303 U.S. municipal water utilities. The survey asked questions about: (1) the technologies utilities use… Continue Reading
New Scientist – Google AI has access to huge haul of NHS patient data
Via New Scientist, Hal Hodson: ” It’s no secret that Google has broad ambitions in healthcare. But a document obtained by New Scientist reveals that the tech giant’s collaboration with the UK’s National Health Service goes far beyond what has been publicly announced. The document – a data-sharing agreement between Google-owned artificial intelligence company DeepMind… Continue Reading
Supreme Court expands surveillance powers of intelligence agency
Via The Intercept: “The Supreme Court on approved [April 28, 2016] changes that would make it easier for the FBI to hack into computers, including those belonging to victims of cybercrime. The changes will take effect in December, unless Congress adopts competing legislation. Previously, under the federal rules on criminal procedures, a magistrate judge couldn’t… Continue Reading
Study – Finding forced trends in oceanic oxygen
Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Finding forced trends in oceanic oxygen (abstract). First published: February 2016. “Anthropogenically forced trends in oceanic dissolved oxygen are evaluated in Earth system models in the context of natural variability. A large ensemble of a single Earth system model is used to clearly identify the forced component of change in interior oxygen… Continue Reading
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: April 2016
“The April Kaiser Health Tracking Poll continues Kaiser Family Foundation tracking of perceptions of the safety of drinking water. KEY FINDINGS: The majority of individuals living in the Midwest rate the job being done by their state to ensure the safety of the public drinking water as fair or poor. Women are less confident in… Continue Reading
GAO Report – Government Efficiency and Effectiveness: Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation
Government Efficiency and Effectiveness: Opportunities to Reduce Fragmentation, Overlap, and Duplication and Achieve Other Financial Benefits, GAO-16-580T: Published: Apr 27, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 27, 2016. “GAO’s 2016 annual report identifies 92 new actions that Congress and executive branch agencies could take to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government in 37 areas. GAO identifies… Continue Reading
OECD, International Organisation of Pension Supervisors (IOPS), and World Bank join forces to improve private pension statistics
“The OECD, IOPS, and World Bank announced today that they are collaborating to help expand global data on private pensions. The OECD and IOPS currently collect a market-leading suite of statistics on private pensions as part of the OECD’s Global Pension Statistics database and annual Pensions Markets in Focus report. Initially the data included OECD… Continue Reading
