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Daily Archives: January 25, 2017

NASA releases new series on climate change images

Houston Press – “NASA has just released a set of breathtaking photographs showing that — despite the repeated avowals of President Donald Trump that climate change isn’t a real thing — serious changes are happening in the world, and NASA has photographic proof. The series, “Images of Change,” has been dropped at a key moment for the federal space agency’s climate change work. Under President Barack Obama, NASA was focused on Earth science and climate change studies. The research wasn’t as attention-grabbing as the work that was being done over at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, Texas Representative Lamar Smith’s favorite climate-change punching bag, but it was still happening. However, with the advent of the Trump administration, it’s fair to expect that NASA and any other federally funded agencies will not have the backing to do this kind of work going forward. As we’ve mentioned before, the presidential view of NASA can affect everything at the federal space agency, from its annual budget to the type of scientific research it does to the plans and missions it undertakes. While Trump’s space policy is still pretty fuzzy, it’s already crystal clear that there’s no such uncertainty on the subject of climate change…”

CRS – U.S. Manufacturing in International Perspective

U.S. Manufacturing in International Perspective – Marc Levinson, Section Research Manager, January 18, 2017. “The health of the U.S. manufacturing sector has long been of great concern to Congress. The decline in manufacturing employment since the start of the 21st century has stimulated particular congressional interest, leading Members to introduce hundreds of bills over many… Continue Reading

Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report End Publication

“Effective January 18, 2017, the Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP) is discontinuing the DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report. The discontinuation of this report is part of broader efforts to more efficiently focus resources towards the highest priority needs of the critical infrastructure security and resilience community. IP is committed to working closely with our… Continue Reading

Tara Penelope Calishain created list of National Parks Service Twitter accounts

Via Tara on FB: “Friends, I have created a list of National Parks Service Twitter accounts – about 225 of them. All official as far as I can determine. Please share if you find it useful. @ResearchBuzz/NPS Accounts on Twitter From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics, get the full story with all… Continue Reading

Trump White House Senior Staff Have Private RNC Email Accounts

Newsweek: “Senior Trump administration staffers, including Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, Sean Spicer and Steve Bannon, have active accounts on a Republican National Committee (RNC) email system, Newsweek has learned. The system (rnchq.org) is the same one the George W. Bush administration was accused of using to evade transparency rules after claiming to have “lost” 22… Continue Reading

Governing Effectively: A Checklist for Incoming Cabinet Secretaries

Center for Presidential Transition: “…To ensure a smooth, safe transfer of power, incoming Cabinet secretaries need to be ready to lead and effectively manage their departments. Managing a federal department is a complex task. It involves understanding the department’s responsibilities and pressing issues, getting a handle on a multi-billion dollar budget, dealing with numerous stakeholders,… Continue Reading

LibGuide on Presidential Power

Mary Whisner – Librarian – Gallagher Law Library:  “In November two of our brilliant young professors decided to put together a class on Presidential Power for winter quarter. It immediately filled and drew a waiting list. And there was a lot of interest from outside the law school. People from other university departments and the… Continue Reading

Commentary – Google and the Misinformed Public

Google and the Misinformed Public, By Safiya U. Noble January 15, 2017, The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Digital media platforms like Google and Facebook may disavow responsibility for the results of their algorithms, but they can have tremendous — and disturbing — social effects. Racist and sexist bias, misinformation, and profiling are frequently unnoticed byproducts… Continue Reading

Risk.net’s Top 10 operational risks for 2017

“In a series of interviews that took place in November and December 2016, Risk.net spoke to chief risk officers, heads of operational risk and other op risk practitioners at financial services firms, including banks, insurers and asset managers. Based on the op risk concerns most frequently selected by those practitioners, we present our ranking of… Continue Reading