No. 200 September 1999
MAGNETS ON/IN REFRIGERATORS In many households magnets, found on refrigerators, hold notices, menus, announcements, letters, etc. to the side of the refrigerator. Refrigerators are handy bulletin boards and magnets are attractive advertisements of various kinds for the local pizza hut, your insurance salesman, health insurance, or a football schedule. The Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Milwaukee-based Astronautics Corp. of America have embarked on a three-year project to build a prototype rotary magnetic-refrigeration unit which will be 20% more efficient than current chemical vapor-cycle cooling systems. Magnetic-refrigeration technology is a reality that is based on the magnetocaloric effect—the ability of some materials to heat up when magnetized and cool when removed from a magnetic field. In 1996, these researchers had a working model. Within five to ten years, they plan to have commercial air conditioning and supermarket refrigeration systems. In fifteen years, magnetic refrigeration could be available in home refrigerators and air conditioners. "Magnetic refrigeration research attracts CRADA funding, Lab/industry partnership could produce working prototype by 2002" by Susan Dieterle is the Ames Laboratory news headline which is found at http://www.external.ameslab.gov/news/headlines/isdr-magrefrig.html .
GAMBLING IN AMERICA 1999, FINAL REPORT The (No. 193) February 1999 issue of this newsletter identified the National Gambling Impact Study Commission and its two-year inquiry into the problem of gambling in America. The Commission has completed it's final report, The National Gambling Impact Study Commission Final Report which was submitted to Congress on June 18, 1999 and is now available. The two-year inquiry and the Final Report confirmed what we knew: the American people love to gamble, i. e. 86% have gambled at least once. This Final Report was more of a current status report of gambling in America: an overview, the kinds/forms, federal and state regulation, problem and pathological gambling, gambling on the internet, native American tribal gambling, gambling’s impact on people and places, and the Commission’s research recommendations. The appendices include a bibliography of sources of information and resources on gambling. There are a catalog of Federal, State, and Local laws, regulations, and ordinances and a list of the Tribal-State Compacts. The entire report in a PDF format on the Internet is at http://www.ngisc.gov/reports/fullrpt.html . The paper version, which includes two CD-ROMs (Research Reports and ACIR Compilation of State and Federal Gambling Laws and Regulations), will be found in some depository libraries with the SuDoc class number Y 3.2:G14.
ONE BOOK – 10,000 PLANTS Can you imagine…10,000 plants? Long ago in a galaxy far away, Once upon a time, specifically, 1977, the U. S. Department of Agriculture published an Agricultural Handbook (No. 505) entitled A Checklist of Names for 3,000 Vascular Plants of Economic Importance (A 1.76:505). A classic reference text for botanists, teachers, and other plant enthusiasts, it was updated and revised in 1986 (A 1.76:505/986). The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant taxonomists' research continued and their new plant data was stored in the National Plant Germplasm System (http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/aboutnpgs.html ). Plant researchers around the globe use this website and the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/aboutgrin.html online databases of plant information. Two ARS taxonomists, John W. Wiersema and Blanca Leon updated and expanded the 1986 plant book that complements these two electronic plant information resources. The new 784-page World Economic Plants supplies the accepted scientific names, important synonyms and common names, and provides the economic uses and the geographical distribution of each of the 10,000 plants. The new title was announced on April 9, 1999 in the ARS News Press Release: One Book –10,000 Plants http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/1999/990409.htm . Developed cooperatively between the ARS and the CRC Press of Boca Raton, Fla., this book, priced at $125, is available from the CRC Press. Details about the purpose, scope, and content of this volume can be found at a CRC web site http://www.crcpress.com/catalog/2119.htm .
CELLULAR PHONES CALL UP ACCIDENTS, PART 2 In the January 1998 issue of this newsletter announced the issuance of a major National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study of cellular phones use in vehicles. This NHTSA report includes phone user characteristics, the risk information, crash data, the extent of the problem, some solutions, and recommendations for safe cellular phone use. There is also discussion of the current foreign, Federal, and State cellular phone legislation. The paper edition of report is in many Federal Depository Libraries as SUDOC number TD 8.2:W74 and is an HTML file on the NHTSA web site at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/research/wireless/ .
MAYDAY DEVICE FOR VEHICLES When an airplane (or ship) is in trouble, the captain sends out a "MAYDAY" message informing the closest airport (or Coast Guard Station/other ships) that the plane (or ship) is in danger of crashing (or sinking) and help is needed. Captains of ships and airplanes sometime have enough warning for their MAYDAY message to help. Those people who have car phone could dial very fast and report "I am going to have an accident". But this would work ONLY if one has enough time to dial, make a phone connection, give all the location details about their location etc., then their phone would go dead due to the crash. This solution sounds possible but not very workable. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is working on the development of a "Mayday" system for passenger vehicles that automatically and reliably detects the occurrence of a crash and alerts the Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Police, and Fire Agencies. Since accidents usually occur within a matter of seconds, the content of the cell phone message sent would have to be automatically composed and transmitted from the vehicle. This Mayday message would transmit to the local emergency services the vehicle's location information and crash severity data. An Automated Collision Notification System (AKA "The Mayday system") would guide and expedite the arrival of the EMS at unwitnessed car accidents in rural areas to save the accident victims who could otherwise die. The NHTSA "Mayday" web site for its Automated Notification Collision System http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/crash-avoidance/ will lead to NHTSA's Field Operational Test of an Automated Collision Notification System (ACN) found at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/summaries/ITS_13.htm . Now, assuming the passenger(s) do(es) not die(s) instantly in the crash, the Mayday system should work.
ODOR STANDARDS/PROFICIENCY TEST—EXPLOSIVES DETECTION CANINES Did you know the Department of the Treasury has an Odor Recognition Proficiency Standard for Explosives Detection Canines? On September 27, 1997, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced in the Federal Register that it was going to review the current odor standard and establish a revised odor recognition proficiency standard. The new standard would include a minimum odor recognition proficiency test to be used by all the Federal and other agencies that make use of explosive detecting canines. Input was sought from all interested agencies and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted an assessment of the new odor standard and issued a report on March 10, 1999. "A copy of the revised Department of the Treasury’s Odor Recognition Proficiency Standard is available to law enforcement and government agencies" which want to learn more about the current canine explosive sniff test. So says "The Department of the Treasury's Odor Recognition Proficiency Standard for Explosives Detection Canines (99R-235P). Notice of Availability" Federal Register v. 64, no. 146 July 30, 1999.
HIGHWAY CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY Do you know about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's car crash tests and results? What makes a car safer to drive (now than before), because it has airbags? Compared to 10 years ago, do you think drivers drive more safely, as safely or less safely than ten years ago? Does having airbags make cars safer to drive than before there were airbags? Does education/training make safer drivers? Does speeding or risk-taking make for unsafe drivers? What do you think? What do the American people think about America's highways, the drivers, the cars, and how much do they know and what do they think about the safety or lack thereof of America's highways, drivers, and cars? The 1997 survey showed that about 64% of the public knew that NHTSA conducted crash tests on new cars ( http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/ncap/ ), while 16 % did not think the crash tests were done, and 20% did not know if crash tests were conducted. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: 1997 Customer Satisfaction Survey issued in October 1998 is the first follow-up survey of the American Public on such issues and topics as safety in purchasing decisions and driving, crashworthiness, vehicle and equipment standards, recalls, reducing the crash problem, public information and education, and contact with NHTSA. The first survey, which was completed in 1995, is incorporated into this 200-page report which can be found in some depository libraries under TD 2.8:C96. All the survey respondents who answered "Don't know" to many of these questions need to go to the NHTSA website http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov to learn what they don't know.
SELF-REGULATION AND PRIVACY ONLINE REPORT TO CONGRESS In July 1999 the Federal Trade Commission issued Self-Regulation and Privacy Online: A Report to Congress. This was a follow-up report reviewing a select number of the information practices of commercial web sites on the world wide web and of the online marketers' efforts to implement self-regulatory programs to protect children's' online privacy. The final recommendation of the 20-page report was that the electronic marketing industry is making progress in self-regulation and that Congress should not begin legislative regulation of on-line privacy at this time. The 57-item bibliography lists other FTC and Congressional reports relating to privacy and electronic marketers' regulation. There is also a citation for the FTC-proposed Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule that was under consideration in July. This report includes discussion emergence of the online "Seal Programs" for electronic marketers. These programs require the participating marketers to abide by codes of online information practices and to submit to various types of monitoring in order to display a privacy seal on their Web sites. The privacy seal on a web site means that electronic marketer is complying with the "Fair Information Practice Principles". The Seal Programs are working but there are a small number of Web sites that are participating in these programs. Only time will tell how long it will be until there is a need for congressional action and regulation of privacy online. This Self-Regulation report will be found at http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/9907/privacy99.pdf as a pdf file.
October 20, 1999
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