NOAA: Crude oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster causes severe defects in the developing hearts of bluefin and yellowfin tunas, according to a new study by a team of NOAA and academic scientists. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, show how… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
EPIC- Judge Approves Controversial Settlement Over Objection of Consumer Privacy Organizations
“A federal judge in California has approved a settlement agreement in a lawsuit against Google that will allow the company to continue to sell data about users’ browsing history to advertisers. EPIC and several other consumer privacy organizations objected to the settlement, stating that it requires no change in Google’s business practices and provides no benefit to those… Continue Reading
Developing a 21st Century Global Library for Mathematics Research
“Like most areas of scholarship, mathematics is a cumulative discipline: new research is reliant on well-organized and well-curated literature. Because of the precise definitions and structures within mathematics, today’s information technologies and machine learning tools provide an opportunity to further organize and enhance discoverability of the mathematics literature in new ways, with the potential to… Continue Reading
McKinsey – The disruptive potential of solar power
April 2014 | by David Frankel, Kenneth Ostrowski, and Dickon Pinner: “The economics of solar power are improving. It is a far more cost-competitive power source today than it was in the mid-2000s, when installations and manufacturing were taking off, subsidies were generous, and investors were piling in. Consumption continued rising even as the MAC Global Solar Energy… Continue Reading
EIA – South Korea Country Analysis Brief
“South Korea relies on imports to meet about 97% of its energy demand as a result of insufficient domestic resources, and the country is one of the world’s leading energy importers. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that South Korea was the world’s ninth-largest energy consumer in 2011. Korea is one of the top energy… Continue Reading
Census – Race Reporting Among Hispanics: 2010
“This working paper shows how Hispanics reported their race on the 2010 Census questionnaire, with a unique emphasis on Hispanics who self-reported their origin. The paper provides an overall demographic description of the Latino population and examines different responses to the race question by selected demographic characteristics and geography.” Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Afghanistan, Missile Defense
AFGHANISTAN: Changes to Updated U.S. Civil-Military Strategic Framework Reflect Evolving U.S. Role, GAO-14-438R: Published: Apr 1, 2014. Publicly Released: Apr 1, 2014: “Although the October 2012 and the August 2013 versions of the U.S. Civil-Military Strategic Framework for Afghanistan have similarities, the two versions differ in several aspects. These differences reflect, among other things, the U.S. government’s… Continue Reading
BIS – Property price statistics, March 31, 2014
“The property price statistics bring together data from different countries. The BIS, with the assistance of its member central banks, 1 has obtained approval of various national data providers to disseminate the statistics as long as the original national sources are clearly indicated. The sources and any relevant disclaimers are listed separately (sources of data). Copyright in these data must… Continue Reading
BIS – External audits of banks – final document
March 31, 2014: “The recent financial crisis not only revealed weaknesses in risk management, control and governance processes at banks, but also highlighted the need to improve the quality of external audits of banks. Given the central role banks play in contributing to financial stability, and therefore the need for market confidence in the quality… Continue Reading
The standardised approach for measuring counterparty credit risk exposures
March 31, 2014: “The Basel Committee’s final standard on The standardised approach for measuring counterparty credit risk exposures includes a comprehensive, non-modelled approach for measuring counterparty credit risk associated with OTC derivatives, exchange-traded derivatives, and long settlement transactions. The new standardised approach (SA-CCR) replaces both the Current Exposure Method (CEM) and the Standardised Method (SM) in the… Continue Reading
Recent trends in the foreign exchange and money markets
Speech by Mr Peter Zöllner, Head of the BIS Banking Department, to the 53rd ACI Financial Markets World Congress 2014, Berlin, 29 March 2014. “FX turnover reached an all-time high of $5.3 trillion per day in April 2013, up by 35% relative to 2010. This was faster than the 20% rise from 2007 to 2010, but… Continue Reading
The inside story of MIT and Aaron Swartz
Follow up to previous postings on Aaron Swartz, via the Boston Globe – More than a year after Swartz killed himself rather than face prosecution, questions about MIT’s handling of the hacking case persist, By Marcella Bombardieri. “..MIT is a cradle of world-class scientific research with unpublished data and unpatented inventions on its network, and its leaders felt… Continue Reading
