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WorldRiskReport 2011

submitted by Joyce Fedeczko
 
 
WorldRiskReport 2011
September 9, 2011 21:39
Source: United Nations University
 
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Supercomputer Predicts Revolution

BBC - September 9, 2011

                     

Sentiment mining showed a sharp change in tone around Egypt ahead of President Mubarak's ousting

Feeding a supercomputer with news stories could help predict major world events, according to US research.

A study, based on millions of articles, charted deteriorating national sentiment ahead of the recent revolutions in Libya and Egypt.

While the analysis was carried out retrospectively, scientists say the same processes could be used to anticipate upcoming conflict.

The system also picked up early clues about Osama Bin Laden's location.

Kalev Leetaru, from the University of Illinois' Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts and Social Science, presented his findings in the journal First Monday.

Mood and location

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Is 'Contagion' Fact or Fiction?

by Kim Carollo - ABC News - September 7, 2011

      

Jennifer Ehle stars as Dr. Ally Hextall in the film "Contagion." (Courtesy Warner Bros.)

There may not be any zombies, vampires or mutant monsters wreaking bloody havoc on innocent people, but the fact that "Contagion" has a premise that experts say is all too possible may make it the scariest movie of the season.

In the film, a star-studded cast battles a lethal species-jumping virus rapidly spreading sickness and death around the world. Director Steven Soderbergh said in interviews that he aimed for scientific and medical realism in the film. Producers and writers consulted with a number of leading virologists and shot some scenes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

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District of Columbia Earthquake History

District of Columbia Earthquake History

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/district/history.php  

No historical earthquake has been centered within the District of Columbia.

Ground vibrations from earthquakes in such seismic regions as the St. Lawrence River Valley, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, and South Carolina have been felt by D.C. residents, but have caused no damage. A great earthquake which did considerable damage at Guadeloupe, West Indies, was felt in the Eastern United States, especially at Washington, D.C., in 1843.

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Television Stations - Live Stream - News and Hurricane Related Information from 'Home'

 

 

During and immediately following a hurricane evacuation, one of the most valuable resources can be accurate and reliable news from "home".  Listed below, are links to television stations providing a live internet stream, video coverage, or radio coverage from cities along the East Coast.  (This list will be updated periodically.)

 

 

(Additional links to television stations are available by clicking on "Read more" at the bottom of this post)

Boston, Massachusetts - WFXT

http://www.myfoxboston.com/

Hartford, Connecticut - WFSB

http://www.wfsb.com/

New York, New York - WNYW

http://www.myfoxny.com/

New York, New York - WABC

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/index

Norfolk, Virginia - WTKR

http://www.wtkr.com/

Norfolk, Virginia - WAVY

http://www.wavy.com/

Norfolk, Virginia - WVEC

http://www.wvec.com/

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - WPVI

Video - Reuters - Making News Through Social Media

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How Risk Perceptions Influence Evacuations From Hurricanes

submitted by Joyce Fedeczko

http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/64807

August 5, 2011 23:09

Source: James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
From the catalog description:
This study shows that people are more sensitive to overall perceived hurricane-related hazards than they are to individual risk types. Emergency managers can use this information to achieve greater compliance to emergency government directives and evacuations.

+Direct link to document (PDF; 806.2 KB) - http://bakerinstitute.org/publications/POL-pub-SteinHurricaneRiskPerception-080311.pdf

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World Bank Is Opening Its Treasure Chest of Data

World Bank - Washington D.C.

 . . . "the most valuable currency of the World Bank isn’t its money — it is its information" . . .

 . . . "The bank, he says, is essentially widening the circle of people it can brainstorm with." . . .

 . . . "Having created models for open-sourcing and crowd-sourcing, the bank is now moving toward mash-ups. A new Mapping for Results program offers interactive maps pinpointing locations of almost 3,000 bank projects in more than 16,000 places worldwide. Links open up pages with information about each project, and users can add overlays that show, say, where infant mortality is highest to see whether the bank’s work in those areas matches the need.

The program is sensitive because it involves releasing data provided by client governments and others, but the hope is that it will prompt these parties to link their own data on economic and social development to the site or otherwise make it available." . . .

World Bank Is Opening Its Treasure Chest of Data

HeraldTribune.com - Stephanie Strom - July 3, 2011

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State of the Climate: You're Getting Warmer

Time - July 1, 2011

Year by year, the evidence that the planet is getting warmer—and that humans are the main driver—keeps adding up. Today the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) released its State of the Climate in 2010 report, and researchers found that 2010 was tried with 2005 as the warmest year on record. (Download a PDF of the highlights here.) Not only that, the NCDC crunched past data and found that temperatures in the U.S. between 1981 and 2010 were on average half a degree warmer Farenheit than they were from 1971 to 2000.

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Why a Hyper-Personalized Web is Bad for You (Q&A)

submitted by Joyce Fedeczko

CNET News - May 17, 2011

We all like having things tailored to our specific needs and interests. But Eli Pariser thinks we should beware of the substantial risks inherent in the increasing personalization of the Internet.

Better known (so far) as the executive director of the progressive political action committee MoveOn.org, Eli Pariser is making noise these days as the author of "The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You." His new book, which was released yesterday, argues that the latest tools being implemented by the likes of Google and Facebook for making our Internet experiences as individual as possible are taking us down some very unsavory paths.

First, of course, Pariser explains the dynamic we all face online today: that no two people's Web searches, even on the same topics, return the same results. That's because search engines and other sites are basing what they send back on our previous searches, the sites we visit, ads we click on, preferences we indicate, and much more. Not to mention the fact that we are more and more shielded from viewpoints counter to our own.

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