Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the launch of a USDA energy website that will provide stakeholders fast and efficient access to USDA energy efficiency and renewable energy data. The announcement builds on the Secretarys commitment to develop a modern and efficient service organization as outlined in USDAs Blueprint for Stronger Service announced last week.
Improving and modernizing access to USDA energy data and resources is essential in todays highly competitive rural business environment, said Vilsack. Farmers, ranchers and small businesses across the country will benefit from easier navigation and retrieval of energy and renewable energy investments data and funding opportunities.
With energy costs accounting for larger portions of farmers and small business owners budgets each year, energy-efficiency measures are in high demand, said Paco Valentin, USDA Rural Development Texas State Director. USDAs energy website will offer farmers, ranchers and rural business owners a one-stop location for information on how to make their operations more energy efficient, while also providing details on Rural Developments renewable energy grant and loan programs.
USDAs energy website provides access to all USDA energy resources, including: agricultural, forestry, economic, and social data. This is done in part through a set of new complementary web-based tools: the USDA Renewable Energy Investment Map, the Renewable Energy Tool and Energy Matrix. These tools focus on USDAs energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy investments and projects; provide information and data to a broad spectrum of stakeholders; and empower the user with the ability to easily navigate USDAs energy web resources. In addition, the site provides a link to all USDA state and local offices and energy resource coordinators.
Vilsack said this newly designed tool is a great step in a more coordinated and efficient effort to increase public awareness of USDAs energy research, commercialization of new technologies, program delivery, outreach, and education activities. It also provides a form or technical assistance to people thinking about adopting an energy project. The new site replaces a previous site which was established several years ago. To access the site, go to: www.usda.gov/energy.  Texas USDA Rural Development also has a state specific energy website, which can be viewed at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/TX_Energy.html.
USDA, through its Rural Development mission area, administers and manages housing, business and community infrastructure and facility programs through a national network of state and local offices. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America. Rural Development has an existing portfolio of more than $155 billion in loans and loan guarantees. Visit http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/TXHome.html for additional information about the agencys programs or to locate the USDA Rural Development office in Texas.

SAN DIEGO- The American Red Cross San Diego/Imperial Counties
Chapter is unveiling a new state-of-the-art Chapter Disaster
Operations Center in an effort to enhance our communitys disaster
response capabilities.

The new Disaster Operations Center will use cutting-edge technology
to coordinate all disaster response activities — including opening
shelters, delivering food to disaster victims and first responders,
assigning trained disaster volunteers to shelters and providing
other critical Red Cross services to disaster-hit areas.

This operations center is an investment in our community, said
Joe W. Craver, CEO of the San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter of
the American Red Cross. Our chapter is so very fortunate to have
the proper facility and equipment to ensure a more accurate and
faster response should we ever find ourselves in local large-scale
disasters such as the 2003 and 2007 wildfires.

The Red Cross will work with other disaster response and partner
agencies within the operations center to integrate information
needs via visual mapping software that creates a common operating
picture, showing all important details in real time. Essential
details include disaster locations, corresponding shelters,
volunteers, road closures, etc.

Generous gifts from the American public have made it possible for
this operations center to be built and provided Red Cross leaders
and partnering first response agencies the infrastructure necessary
for enhanced disaster response collaboration and
coordination.

As a region, weve learned through experience about the vital
importance of being prepared for a disaster, said San Diego Mayor
Jerry Sanders. The Red Cross is an invaluable asset to this city
and their new disaster operations center will pay dividends for all
San Diegans.

The operations center will also be utilized by instructors and
volunteers to provide additional training for advanced disaster
simulations and training exercises. Because of its virtual
workspace, the centers training resources are shareable and will
allow multi-level and multi-partner exercises to be conducted in a
cost-effective environment, using the same capabilities required
for a disaster operation.

Its important for the Red Cross and other disaster response
agencies to modernize response efforts to reflect todays
technology, said Craver. The capabilities of the state-of-the-art
center and redesigned online resources are huge steps in that
direction and towards making San Diego Americas most prepared
community.

Launched alongside the unveiling of the new Disaster Operations
Center, the American Red Cross San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter
launched two newly redesigned preparedness sites, www.PrepareSanDiego.org and www.PrepareImperialValley.org. The updated
preparedness web resources educate individuals and families about
how they can prepare for, adapt and recover from disasters that
affect or could potentially affect our region. A recent American
Red Cross survey showed that web sites are the most popular way for
San Diegans to gather emergency preparedness information.

As the debate over piracy and copyright infringement on the web hots up in the United States, with the Government seeking to clamp down on intellectual property rights violations online, Internet majors Reddit, Wikipedia and others are planning a complete Internet blackout of their services for 12 hours on January 18.

This is in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), introduced in the House of Representatives last year, and a related legislation in the US Senate, the Protect IP Act.

The way the debate is playing out pits the large media corporations — movie houses, record companies and other IP holders — against ‘Internet users, backed by powerful Internet intermediaries such as Google and Yahoo!, who also stand to lose in a clampdown on websites and services that host content that violates US copyright laws.

Global relevance

Significantly, the proposed law, backed by big business interests, equips the US Government to act against any website hosting content that it believes infringes copyright, even if hosted overseas. This makes SOPA relevant, globally.

The proposed action could involve domain name system (DNS) filtering or blocking, directing advertisement providers and web payment services to stop doing business with the host and preventing search engines from linking to the site. Penalties for simply streaming copyrighted content, such as movies, personal recordings of television shows or even a clipping of your favourite pop song, could be up to five years.

On the technology side, experts have argued that the proposal to allow DNS filtering (or blocking) can potentially weaken and destabilise the Internet. DNS servers convert every request made in a human-friendly languageto an IP address that computers and networks understand. Now what SOPA proposes is that at this DNS server level, when a request is made for rogue sites, it is redirected.

Technically, experts believe that this will have huge implications of the stability of the internet. A whitepaper titled ‘Technical concerns raised by DNS filtering requirements, authored by technology experts, claims that while this will promote more techniques to circumvent the DNS, it threatens the ability of DNS to provide universal naming, a primary source of the Internets values as a single, unified, global communications network.

The DNS is a protocol that allows for universality, which lies at the core of the internet, enabling it to grow and become the important, borderless medium it is today. Further, such blocking would make it tough to distinguish between a resolution failure and a request from a hacked server, creating security concerns. It would also be counterproductive to existing Internet security protocols.

‘A firewall

While opponents of the Bill have attacked it as an attempt to create a firewall — akin to or even worse than the infamous one that China has for its citizens — they point out that it is at stark odds with the oft-repeated stance of the US on Internet openness.

Companies in the business of providing web services are, understandably, against the law as it allows the Government to block access to any intermediaries that facilitate or host any material that infringe on copyrights. This affects every service that hosts user-generated content.

In an advertisement published in The New York Times, nine internet majors including eBay, Google, Yahoo! And LinkedIn, urged the Government to find targeted ways to combat foreign rogue websites while preserving the innovation and dynamism that make the internet a driver of growth and job creation. Ironically, the Government too seeks to address protection of jobs and economic interests through this legislation.

Politics of the Internet

In terms of infrastructure, the US controls critical web resources. Contrasting this to the Chinese firewall that blocks content for users within its jurisdiction, the US decision to redirect a link can act as a global block, explains Sunil Abraham, director of the Centre for Internet and Society. Physically, seven of 13 root servers (or clusters) that run the DNS system, are located in the US, he points out. So, for an Indian citizen who chooses to record the latest episode of Dexter and stream it online, it means that both his site and the intermediary could be blacked out, in a post-SOPA world. Currently, the IP holder would have to take the trouble of reporting or challenging this in an Indian court, Mr. Abraham explains.

In recent years, countries led by Brazil, India and China have been lobbying for a greater role for multilateral bodies in controlling the Internet. In 2010, the US Government liberated the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) from its direct control. But, bringing a law that allows it to come down heavily on rogues unilaterally, is being viewed as a step backwards.

For now, all eyes in the tech community are on the legislation, and the many debates surrounding it, which promise to be among the most controversial and interesting ones in technology in recent times.

The US Department of Agriculture this week launched a new energy website to provide quick access to the agencys energy efficiency and renewable energy data.

The website, usda.gov/energy, provides access to all USDA energy resources, including: agricultural, forestry, economic, and social data. This is done in part through a set of new complementary web-based tools: the USDA Renewable Energy Investment Map, the Renewable Energy Tool and Energy Matrix. These tools focus on USDAs energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy investments and projects; provide information and data to a broad spectrum of stakeholders; and empower the user with the ability to easily navigate USDAs energy web resources. In addition, the site provides a link to all USDA state and local offices and energy resource coordinators.

The new website was welcomed by the Ag Energy Coalition (AEC). “USDA’s Energy portal demonstrates the positive impact the Farm Bill energy title and related programs are having on job creation, national security, and the environment, said Coalition co-director Lloyd Ritter. “The Ag Energy Coalition believes Rural America will be a continuing force for change in the advancement of sustainable energy and renewable chemicals production in the years ahead. With the right policies in place, and requisite funding, the promise of a rural renaissance focused on clean energy solutions will become a reality.”

The Ag Energy Coalition includes a membership of organizations and companies representing a variety of clean, renewable energy and bioproducts stakeholders.

By Schools of Thought Editors, CNN

(CNN) In the early 20th century, there were almost no mentions of the contributions of African-Americans in US history textbooks. That is what inspired historian and educator Dr. Carter G. Woodson to start “Negro History Week” in 1926. Woodson choose the month of February for this focus because it was the birth month of two leaders who fought to end slavery: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized the expanded observance as “Black History Month”, calling upon Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Each year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the organization started by Woodson in 1915, designates the theme for Black History Month. This year’s theme is “Black Women in American Culture and History”. The theme was chosen, because, as it states on the ASALH website, “To gain an understanding of the history of African American women is to broaden our understanding of a people and the American nation.”

Resources
CNN Student News will feature special show segments focusing on Black History throughout the month. The following is a partial list of Black History Web resources for teachers and parents. Click on the title to go to that site.

CNN Student News Black History Month: Learning Activities

Library of Congress: African American History Month

Smithsonian Education: Black History Month

National Park Service: African American History

National Endowment for the Humanities: Black History Month

National Archives: Black History resources

US Census Bureau: Black History Month 2012

Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Morehouse College: Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection