Via Business Insider – Oxfam International has made a graphic showing how a handful of corporations control nearly everything we buy at the grocery store. The graphic focuses on 10 of the world’s most powerful food and beverage companies: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever, Danone, Mars, Mondelez International, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Nestle, and Associated British Foods. Oxfam calls these companies the… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
Improvements Coming to PACER and CM/ECF
News release: “Beginning August 11, you may notice some changes on the PACER website. These changes will include the opportunity to upgrade your PACER account. NOTE: This upgrade is not mandatory. Your current PACER account will still function normally. However, you will need to upgrade your account in order to perform any maintenance functions outside… Continue Reading
“For Official Use Only” is Used Too Much at DHS, House Says – FAS
Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News: “There is too much information that is marked “For Official Use Only” at the Department of Homeland Security, the House Appropriations Committee said in its report on DHS Appropriations for 2015….Here is the Committee language from its June 19 DHS Appropriations report: Over-Classification of Information – The Committee is concerned with the number of reports, briefings,… Continue Reading
Flexible working extended to all employees in UK
Press Association: “Millions of employees will have the right to request flexible working from Monday under new measures the government believes will particularly benefit older people. The right has only been available for carers, or people who look after children, but is being extended to all employees. Ministers said flexible working helps people balance their job with… Continue Reading
Governments and Cloud Computing: Roles, Approaches, and Policy Considerations
Gasser, Urs and O’Brien, David, Governments and Cloud Computing: Roles, Approaches, and Policy Considerations (March 17, 2014). Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2014-6. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2410270 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2410270 “Governments from Bogota to Beijing are engaging with emerging cloud computing technologies and its industry in a variety of overlapping contexts. Based on a review of a… Continue Reading
The State of Data Centric Security
News release: ‘Informatica Corporation, the world’s number one independent provider of data integration software, today announced the availability of a new research report by the Ponemon Institute LLC, entitled, The State of Data Centric Security. Based on a global survey of more than 1,500 IT and IT security professionals, the study reveals how organizations understand and respond to… Continue Reading
Whales as marine ecosystem engineers
Joe Roman, James A Estes, Lyne Morissette, Craig Smith, Daniel Costa, James McCarthy, JB Nation, Stephen Nicol, Andrew Pershing, and Victor Smetacek 2014. Whales as marine ecosystem engineers. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (e-View) http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/130220 “Baleen and sperm whales, known collectively as the great whales, include the largest animals in the history of life on Earth. With… Continue Reading
The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection
The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection. Science 30 May 2014: 344 (6187), 1246752 [DOI:10.1126/science.1246752] “A principal function of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is to “perform regular and timely assessments of knowledge on biodiversity.” In December 2013, its second plenary session approved a program to begin a global assessment in… Continue Reading
The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz – Film now free online
The Internet Archive has posted for free viewing the movie – The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, “an investigative documentary from director Brian Knappenberger about the life of the internet pioneer and activist Aaron Swartz.” See also related postings on Aaron Swartz. Continue Reading
Files provided by Snowden show extent to which ordinary Web users are caught in the net – WaPo
In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are, by Barton Gellman, Julie Tate and Ashkan Soltani “Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post. Nine of 10 account holders found… Continue Reading
New Forms of Discovery and Purchasing in Libraries: Demand Driven Acquisitions
Michael Levine-Clark – Professor/Associate Dean for Scholarly Communication and Collections Services, University of Denver Libraries, 2014 NISO/BISG Annual Forum, June 27, 2014, Las Vegas, NV. Link to SlideShare presentation. “Goals • Develop a flexible model for DDA that works for publishers, vendors, aggregators, and libraries. • Model should allow for DDA programs that – Meet local budget… Continue Reading
Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later
Fencing Out Knowledge – Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later, American Library Association, Policy Brief No. 5, June 2014. “What do Hotmail, YouTube, Google Docs, Facebook, and National Geographic have in common? They offer content and services that millions of Americans use every day to communicate, share content, and seek information. They also… Continue Reading
