Here is the listing of all the affected vehicles from the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration.
Archive for January, 2010
Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address
Read the transcript here and watch the speech here as well as the Republican response. Reactions to the speech can be accessed on CNN and more opinions are found at the Washington Post and NPR. For more information on the State of the Union speech in general, please visit this previous blog entry.
Usage Statistics of the Internet
The Internet 2009 in Numbers is replete with numbers and statistics on many areas of Internet usage. From the number of websites (234 million as of December 2009) to the number of worldwide Internet users (1.73 billion), this report provides a plethora of data. If these figures are not enough for you, try some more here.
Satellite Images of Haiti
This post explains how to effectively use both Google and Bing to retrieve high-quality satellite images of Haiti, both before and after. Well worth the look.
Governor’s Christie’s Plan for Higher Education, Among Other Sectors
Governor Christie’s transition team has issued 19 reports on the various departments/agencies of New Jersey government. The higher education report is subsumed within the Education analysis (it begins on p.18). It details the deficiencies of the New Jersey higher education system, which has been the subject of previous blog entries(here and here), and proposes seven recommendations, among them abolishing the Commission on Higher Education. News reports can be found at NJ AP, The Star-Ledger, and the Bergen Record
Most Important United States Documents
As selected by the National Archives, these 100 documents have had the most impact on the development of this country. These works range from 1776 to 1965 and were culled by the Archives’ massive holdings. Not to be overlooked is the American Memory site from the Library of Congress which contains, among other digital collections, the following relevant ones: Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention and A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates. And let us not forget Yale’s Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy.
Haiti Earthquake
“Similarly, the Enriquillo fault in Haiti is currently capable of a M 7.2 earthquake…”Those prophetic words were written in 2008 and published in an article entitled Interseismic Plate coupling and strain partitioning in the Northeastern Caribbean in the Geophysical Journal International. This prediction is borne out by the US Geological Survey’s summary report of this disaster which blames the Enriquillo fault and implicates it in the masive quake of 1770. The 1770 quake is described in a widely-known (at least in the field) 1912 article Great Earthquakes in the Island of Haiti (pp.174-178 contain the details based on contemporary accounts). Another recent article, A Glimpse at the Historical Seismology of the West Indies, reveals what we do or do not know of past earthquakes in this section of the world, and how we can remedy this deficiency. And this Bibliography of Caribbean Geology and Geophysics is a good starting point for those interested in furthering their knowledge. Comprehensive sites are found at The Haiti Earthquake (Time), Haiti Earthquake (CNN), C-SPAN, YouTube, flickr, Haiti Earthquake of 2010 (New York Times), Haiti (BBC), and Haiti Earthquake(MSN). The following recent CRS reports should also be perused: Haiti Earthquake: Crisis and Response, U.S. Immigration Policy on Haitian Migrants, and Earthquakes: Risk, Detection, Warning, and Research. In such disasters, NGOs(Nongovernmental organzations) are many times already in-country. This Guide to Nongovernmental Organizations for the Military, published in summer 2009 addresses the roles, duties, and responsibilities of both the NGOs and the military in these situations.
Current Online Maps of Haiti and Its Cities
This link from the University of Texas gives one access to updated maps of Haiti, along with maps of many of its cities, from Aquin to Saint-Marc; some of the maps(especially at the city level) have zoom capability. Sources of the maps range from the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency to Google Map Maker.
Best Unproduced Movie Scripts of 2009
We are talking about The Black List. Begun informally in 2004, this newest version “…was complied from the suggestions of over 300 film executives, each of whom contributed up to ten of their favorite scripts that were written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2009 and will not be released in theaters during this calendar year.” There are 94 scripts listed; there is one by Zach Braff, he of Scrubs fame, and one by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. An informative article, The Black List: What It Can, and Cannot do for Hollywood Filmmaking, should be read. For those who are interested, the top script, with 47 votes, is The Muppet Man by Chrisopher Weekes, a treatment on the life and death of Jim Henson.
Comparison of House and Senate Health Care Bills
Since no one we know has actually read these bills cover to cover, these sites offer side-by-side comparisons as well as analyses of these important bills. Go to the Commonwealth Fund for their look at these legislative pieces; the Kaiser Family Foundation offers its own take as does the Wall Street Journal. All of them incorporate the Senate-passed version of 12-24-09.
Governor Christie’s Inaugural Address
The full transcript is available. Watch a view of the inauguration courtesy of C-SPAN.
Two New Autism Laws Passed in New Jersey
Signed into law by acting-Governor Steve Sweeney, the first law prohibits discrimination against those with autism while the second allows adults to join the state registry for autism which had previously been open only to children. Reports can be found at The Star-Ledger and the Bergen Record.
How Libraries Are Coping in These Times
The Condition of U.S. Libraries: Trends, 1999-2009 presents a picture of libraries managing increased demand with little financial help. This report from the American Library Association summarizes work in the field involving school, public, and academic libraries. Other reports of interest include Academic Libraries 2008: First Look (NCES); ARL Statistics 2007-08 (Association of Research Libraries); and OCLC Annual Report 2008/2009
Financial Crisis Hearings
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, authorized by the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, has held its first hearings this week. Go to C-SPAN (look under “recent programs”) for full videos. More information can be garnered from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Newsweek, and Forbes.
Corzine’s 2010 State of the State Address
Read the text of the speech as well as watch the video. Newspaper accounts can be read from The Star-Ledger, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Asbury Park Press, Gloucester County Times, Bergen Record, and The New York Times.
Economic Crisis – January 2010 Update
Telling the Narrative of the Financial Crisis: Not Just a Housing Bubble (Brookings); Economic and Budget Outlook (CBO); America Without a Middle Class (Huffington Post); What is Good for Goldman Sachs is Good for America: The Origins of the Current Crisis (UCLA); Financial Audit. TARP Program Fiscal Year 2009 (GAO); Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (U.S. House of Representatives); Taking Stock: What Has TARP Achieved? (Congressional Oversight Panel); Government Should Promote Hiring (Wall Street Journal); Poll Reveals Trauma of Joblessness in U.S. (New York Times multimedia presentation); Unemployment and Economic Recovery (CRS); U.S. Economy in Recession: Similarities to and Differences from the Past (CRS); National Financial Capability Study (FINRA Foundation); and World of Work Report 2009: The Global Jobs Crisis and Beyond (International Labour Office);
2009 Lists
The ineluctable cascade of “best of” and “worst of” lists is upon us. Visit here for over 700 lists.
