Historically, targeting civilians as a part of conflict has been considered immoral. This dates to Sun Tzu, centuries BC, “to besiege cities is the worst form of warfare.” But under the new “unrestricted warfare” rules of Russia, China and others, targeting average Americans has become the forward edge of the battle area. Hacking into the DNC servers, creating FB accounts labeled BlackLivesUSA and urging protests and counter-protests, presumably with the hope of inciting violence, injury, deaths and arrests (Mueller Report) and creating fake news stories that Taiwan stranded their citizens during an outage at the airport in Japan, resulting in a suicide (DOD Strategy for Operations in the Information Environment). How do we fight these immoral efforts that capitalize on of our fundamental freedoms of speech and assembly? https://media.defense.gov/2023/Nov/17/2003342901/-1/-1/1/2023-DEPARTMENT-OF-DEFENSE-STRATEGY-FOR-OPERATIONS-IN-THE-INFORMATION-ENVIRONMENT.PDF
Category: Emerging Technology
Intimate Internet Violence – It All Started with Revenge Porn
Marines United led to many investigations and the first modification of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice in decades. “Article 117a, UCMJ, colloquially referred to as the UCMJ’s “revenge porn” article, criminalizes the wrongful broadcast or distribution of intimate visual images. Article 117a was codified in response to the 2017 “Marines United” scandal in which nude images of female service members and civilians were posted on Facebook by military members
It all started with revenge porn. Intimate Internet violence. That no laws could stop.
When I began serving as the Public Web lead for the USAF in 2011, I became aware of a bizarre, but serious problem on official government social media accounts. Some couples who broke up practiced what was referred to as “revenge porn.” But they leveled up the game because publishing on their own social media accounts might only reach a few hundred followers. Since the goal was public shaming as a blood sport, many tried to leverage official government social media accounts for the military base or installation where they and their friends lived. So, the admins of the official social media sites of government organizations were playing virtual whack-a-mole denying the publication of insidious invasions of deeply private moments.
Revenge porn is the nonconsensual distribution of sexually explicit images or videos and sometimes without their knowledge that the images or videos exist.
Early Isolated Examples of “Revenge Porn”
A theater manager and photographer secretly took a revealing photo of Marion Manola, a Broadway star, and turned it into an erotic postcard in 1890. Manola sued the men, not wanting to be depicted as a sexual object. “Manola’s case was used as an example by jurists Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis when they argued for a new legal “right to privacy” in their landmark Harvard Law Review article that same year. https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/privacy/Privacy_brand_warr2.html
In 1903, because of another case involving the unauthorized use of a woman’s photograph, the New York Legislature enacted the first right to privacy in the US and across the common law world, including Australia and the United Kingdom.” https://theconversation.com/in-the-19th-century-a-man-was-busted-for-pasting-photos-of-womens-heads-on-naked-bodies-sound-familiar-168081
In the 1950s when Marilyn Monroe agreed to be photographed nude, but the photos were published in Playboy magazine without her consent in 1953. https://www.biography.com/actors/marilyn-monroe-playboy-first-issue-didnt-pose
In the 1980s, Hustler magazine ran a monthly feature called “Beaver Hunt” which featured nude photos of women submitted by readers. The images often included personal details about the women, such as their hobbies, sexual fantasies, or names, and some women sued the magazine for publishing their photos without permission.
Of course, when the ability to publish was limited by people who had money, means and magazines, the amount of revenge porn was relatively limited. Its explosive growth grew with the Internet. While the individual efforts to post partner porn on official Facebook accounts were usually successfully squashed by the admins or algorithms, the Marines United private Facebook group managed to slide under the radar for a while.
Marines United Facebook – Sharing Sexual Secret Braggadocio Videos
The Marines United scandal became national news in the spring of 2017. A closed Facebook group of some 40,000 members sharing bragging rights by sharing explicit images of their mostly female partners, many of whom were unaware their most intimate moments had been recorded. I wonder if they got their inspiration from the 1990s film Flatliners where one guy records a series of tristes and his fiancé discovers the video evidence of his indiscretions.
Marines United led to many investigations and the first modification of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice in decades. “Article 117a, UCMJ, colloquially referred to as the UCMJ’s “revenge porn” article, criminalizes the wrongful broadcast or distribution of intimate visual images. Article 117a was codified in response to the 2017 “Marines United” scandal in which nude images of female service members and civilians were posted on Facebook by military members,” according to an article on MilitaryJusticeAttorneys.com https://www.militaryjusticeattorneys.com/blog/2019/october/ucmj-article-117a-criminalizes-revenge-porn-/
The victims from Marines United indicated horrible results from their undesired fame, including stalkers.
Intimate Internet violence through public shame and embarrassment didn’t stop there. It has resulted, not surprisingly, in several suicides.
Fatal Fallout From Publishing Private Sexual Secret Videos
Tyler Clementi’s suicide in the fall of 2022 was a tragic event that brought attention to the issue of cyberbullying and harassment of LGBTQ+ youth. He jumped to his death after his roommate secretly recorded a kiss between Tyler and another young man and posted the covert video to Twitter. His death sparked national conversations about privacy, bullying, and the need for greater acceptance and understanding.
His story also led to increased efforts to prevent bullying and support LGBTQ+ individuals. The Tyler Clementi Foundation, founded by his family, works to prevent bullying and promote safe and inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ youth.
In 2024, Generative AI became a force for “mutilating” people’s images, creating fake pornographic images of them. This was a new “deep fake” twist on revenge porn, but the public shaming as a blood sport remained overwhelmingly painfully real.
Mia Janin, 14, took her own life after a group of boys bullied her, reportedly pasting girls’ faces on porn stars’ bodies and calling her and her friends the “suicide squad.” https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/girl-14-commits-suicide-boys-shared-fake-nude-photo-suicide-squad
Producing Porn Stars from Public Pics of Random People
In April 2024, Laguna Beach High School administrators launched an investigation after a student allegedly created and circulated “inappropriate images” of other students using artificial intelligence.
While some states have made laws specific to nonconsensual sharing of intimate images and the military’s Uniformed Code of Military Justice has criminalized this act, it seems like we could use better federal criminal law to cover this nationally trending trouble.
Completely reimagine early education – outside the bell curve
What if we completely reimagined education with a healthy dose of AI? What if a standard classroom of 30 kids were broken into groups of ten that rotated through options like a gym circuit course?
10 kids on computers studying math via AI like AdapatedMind where the algorithm automatically moves up or down according to how many correct answers the kids get and offers videos or hints when there’s clearly some problem in understanding and maybe it triggers teacher attention if someone gets a lot of questions wrong and/or stops answering
10 kids in a room with mats and gymnastics equipment and, of course, supervision.
10 kids at a crafts station.
Then they all move every 20 to 25 minutes until everyone has completed all 3 stations twice.
Then another set of 3 stations including 1 AI reading comprehension, 1 outside on the playground, and one at a science experiments station
Same thing rotate until they all do the stations 2x.
Then another set of 3 stations, 1 includes AI science videos with comprehension questions, another kinetic education option for math like measuring things and a writing station where they journal.
Same thing rotate until they all do the stations 2x.
37% of jobs in the USA could be do via telework
I used to commute to work by bike, metro, MARC, slugging, driving, Uber. Now I’m dreaming of a day when I can slough off commuting forever.
I fought the city of College Park vehemently to get a double wide driveway, which they refused, due to a 20 year old law that said no cars parked in front of homes. Drive ways are only allowed beside homes. The number of cars per person has nearly reached 1 to 1 in some areas of the United States.
https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-617-april-5-2010-changes-vehicles-capita-around-world
My neighborhood is packed so tightly with cars parked in the street that there remains only one lane down the middle. All streets in the Hollywood neighborhood of College Park are effectively one-way both ways.
In our case, we have a tiny little subcompact car I used to get to and from the office daily and a compact SUV we use for shopping or getting our daughter to Patapsco Park or Wheaton Regional Parks, two of our favorite haunts.
Thanks to COVID, I’m wondering if the constant growth of cars per capita might actually reverse itself. In addition to buying more and more cars, we are building more and and more lanes and there’s an extensive metro expansion planned to help move all these bodies into office buildings around the national capital region, but why?
Nearly 40% of the people who are going to work everyday can work from home. That number is almost certainly higher in the DC area. So why not save on the emissions? Why not stop expanding the highways? Why not stop buying so many cars? And running out of places to park them?
If I could be absolutely certain that I would never have to go to my office again, I would likely sell my car. We wouldn’t need to fight with the city about a double wide driveway. We could save on car insurance. And gas. A lot of gas.
Would 37% of American households sell one car? maybe not because many of those households probably have 2 people who can telework, so maybe only 20% of American households would sell their cars.
What would the morning commute look like for those who still have to drive if 20% of the cars disappeared? What would our air quality look like? I’ve been watching my daily report of Good, Good and Good this year. Clean, clear air is NICE!
And what would College Park look like if 20% of the cars didn’t have to be parked in the streets because they no longer existed?
At the beginning of this year, we were talking about which SUV we would buy when replaced the subcompact car. Just 8 months later, I’m thinking of getting rid of it for good. COVID dreaming
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/article/ability-to-work-from-home.htm
Electrical Safety
New electrical options like USB ports on outlets, USB small electrics, LED lights and solar powered items are making our homes safer.
With a 4yo around the house, I worry a lot about electrocution. Classic electrical outlets have a fundamental design flaw in which if anyone or thing were to touch both of the prongs when they were halfway into the outlet, it could go horribly wrong.
Furthermore, when I was working for USACE, DisastersRUs, I did a lot of reading about what goes horribly wrong during floods and other water related disasters like storm surge. As it turns out, good Samaritans who try to help people by slogging around in the waters, can and sometimes do get electrocuted by electrical currents from nearby houses.
And, of course, with traditional electrical home systems, there has been the possibility of home fires due to electrical shorts. Home electrical fires account for an estimated 51,000 fires each year, nearly than 500 deaths, more than 1,400 injuries, and $1.3 billion in property damage. Electrical distribution systems are the third leading cause of home structure fires.
https://www.esfi.org/resource/home-electrical-fires-184#
Electricity is scary. Especially with kids who don’t understand the risks. So as my daughter and I were stringing blinking Christmas lights on the trees, playground toys and fence in the backyard, I was happy the lights were solar powered. With a full days’ sunlight, they are colorful, but by morning, they are dim and if it rains all day, they hardly come on at night. I’m not an electrical engineer, but I assume the 4″ x 4″ solar panel connected to each strand wouldn’t be able to collect enough power to kill me or my daughter.
https://www.bobvila.com/articles/best-string-lights/
One of the advantages to modern Christmas lights is they are usually LED, especially the solar powered version, so , a 100-count string of incandescent mini lights runs at 40 watts, while a 70 count of 5mm Wide Angle LEDs is approximately 4.8 watts total.
https://www.christmaslightsetc.com/pages/how-much-power.htm
Offhand it would seem that a shock of 10,000 volts would be more deadly than 100 volts. But this is not so! Individuals have been electrocuted by appliances using ordinary house currents of 110 volts and by electrical apparatus in industry using as little as 42 volts direct current. The real measure of shock’s intensity lies in the amount of current (amperes) forced though the body, and not the voltage. Any electrical device used on a house wiring circuit can, under certain conditions, transmit a fatal current.
https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/physics/p616/safety/fatal_current.html
I can’t even find a reference for how much amps in a string of LED Christmas lights but it’s in the range of 3 volts. Literally like nothing. A single lemon produces about 7/10 of a volt of electricity. If you connected two lemons together, you can power an inexpensive digital watch (uses about 1.5 volts). That’s funny, so the solar powered Christmas lights my 4yo was stringing up have about as much electricity as 4 lemons.
http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/agesubject/lessons/energy/lemon.html
I love these electric outlets and we have had them installed throughout both our houses. They have USB ports on either side of the outlet. We have also installed a couple of outlets that have just a set of 4 USB ports and no classic outlets at all. So many new electrical devices from clocks to smart speakers, children’s night lights and other small electrics are arriving with USB cables that an increasing number of devices don’t need the standard pronged outlet.
What I love about USB ports both in the home and in the car is that I feel pretty comfortable letting my 4yo plug in the cable for her iPad. According to the Apple website, “It is totally safe. A Lightning Cable is like a powered USB. In the worst case (an iPad), it’s 5 V (and 12 W), far from enough for damaging your children.”
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/233673/is-the-lightning-connector-safe-for-my-children
I like the new electrical options because I think they are safer for children, safer in floods and less likely to be responsible for home fires. In short, I think in the future, we’ll see less human fatalities related to electricity. I’m hopeful. But what I’d love to see is legislation requiring the safer USB ports in new home construction and requiring small electrical devices to have USB cables if it can sufficiently power them.
PJ Generation
Things that are changing: Rural to Urban Migration
Up to 40% could telework fulltime
More neighborly
More Walking, Fitness, Less Car, Gas & Pollution?
Death of the Office Building
Death of the Dry Cleaners and Business Suits
Increased Productivity, More Energy Focused on Work/Family, Less Driving
Possible Rise in Domestic Violence
Increased Learning Curve for Middle Class Kids
More Home Office, Home Improvement, IOT and More Screen Time
More eCommerce
We had a great opportunity to chat with Dror Shaked of Wix this week and asked him what the future of digital publishing holds. He said his latest public presentation was titled the pajama era. I started thinking what does that really mean across the social spectrum?
Urban to Rural Migration
For a dozen generations or more, the world’s population has been moving from rural to urban. The PJ Generation may reverse that. A new poll shows that nearly 40% of urbanites are considering fleeing the city as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. https://www.millersd.org/news/article/people-are-on-the-move-to-rural-251-415/ In the simple map above lies a stark spatial imbalance: half the people in the world cram into just 1 percent of the Earth’s surface. https://www.businessinsider.com/maps-show-worlds-insane-population-concentration-cities-2016-1
Historically, rural poor move to concentrated areas of population to find better employment. This includes the American farmer and the Chinese factory girls. Even in Egypt, where some 90+ percent of the population lives in that nation’s capital.
One of the many socio-economic elements that the rural to urban migration has had around the world is a shockingly high real estate cost in areas of concentration like Tokyo, Shanghai, London, San Francisco, Vancouver and DC. Obviously, the lure of cheap and spacious housing is attractive, but historically, rural areas with low cost housing had no industrial base, and thus, no substantive income opportunities.
As much as 40% of the workforce could telework fulltime
COVID-19 may yet do what years of advocacy have failed to: Make telework a benefit available to more than a relative handful of U.S. workers. Only 7% of civilian workers in the United States, or roughly 9.8 million of the nation’s approximately 140 million civilian workers, have access to a “flexible workplace” benefit, or telework, according to the 2019 National Compensation Survey (NCS) from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. And those workers who have access to it are largely managers, other white-collar professionals and the highly paid. (“Civilian workers” refers to private industry workers and state and local government workers combined.) https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/20/before-the-coronavirus-telework-was-an-optional-benefit-mostly-for-the-affluent-few/
However, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report, “The authors find that 37 percent of U.S. jobs can be performed entirely at home—a number that greatly exceeds any recent estimate of how many workers telecommute on an average day. According to the 2018 American Time Use Survey, ‘less than a quarter of all full-time workers work from home on an average day, and even those workers typically spend well less than half of their working hours at home.'” https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/beyond-bls/the-number-of-people-who-can-telework-is-higher-than-was-estimated.htm
We May See More of Our Neighbors
I’m scratching my brain trying to remember which book I read in grad school talked about the elimination of the neighborhood as a result of women joining the work force. It might have been one of those Bowling Alone dystopian view books. I read Turkle’s Alone Together and wasn’t impressed. I was more impressed by Clay Shirky Here Comes Everybody, Cognitive Surplus and Don Tapscott’s Growing Up Digital because they focused on how technology was remaking our social connections based on passions and shared interests. This seemed more compelling to me than just hanging out with whoever happened to be born in a geographically co-located residence.
But the dystopian authors bemoaned the time lost in face to face interactions. This summer and fall, I’ve seen a LOT of my neighbors. We are all walking circles around the same blocks and hanging out with kids and dogs at the same neighborhood parks. I’m learning names of neighbors and kids and dogs. This is the kind of community that was apparently lost when women joined the work force because the book whose name I can’t recall talked about how housewives used to spend time together watching kids, sharing recipes, pantry items, etc.
So work from home, some 40-ish percent who may also be moving to rural areas for cheaper, more spacious housing could change the national landscape, including house prices and social fabric, allowing for more awareness of neighbor’s names and lives.
More Walking, Fitness, Less Car, Gas & Pollution?
For me and from what I hear, many of my coworkers, often walk around the neighborhood while on teleconference discussions. I do it mainly so I can resist the temptation to read that email that just popped up. I find I remain more deeply engaged in telephonic conversations or Google Meets if I’m not sitting at a computer. And like many of my peers, I’ve become an obedient slave to my smart watch that complains if I sit too long, warns me that I haven’t yet walked as many steps as I had yesterday at this time and I need 30 minutes of elevated heart rate, so I should get moving. Walking around the neighborhood while teleworking means I see and wave at more neighbors, their kids and dogs.
The PJ Generation almost certainly means a sharp reduction in gas use and car mileage, cleaner air and less pollution. It means less cafeteria food. It might even mean a reduction in our nation’s growing waist lines. My iWatch often complained at me while I was driving home from the Pentagon that I’d been stationary for too long, but I couldn’t very well get up and walk around while stuck in beltway traffic.
Death of the Office Building
And corporations and local, state and federal governments don’t need huge buildings. We don’t need all those wider highways.
Death of the Dry Cleaners and Business Suits
Obviously, less suits, which means the decline of the dry cleaner and Ann Taylor, the only real women’s professional suit maker. Yesterday, Bloomberg featured an article: Work from Home Crushes Dry Cleaners. If you want to know the state of the return to office, take a look at U.S. dry cleaners. 1 in 6 have closed or gone bankrupt as more people work in their sweatpants instead of freshly pressed dress slacks.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-11-25/work-from-home-crushes-u-s-dry-cleaners-video
Of course, Zuckerberg and Bezos had already changed the nation’s social expectations of the dress code for the smartest guys (and gals) in the room. So, Americans go even more casual that we always were. I think this is great. Since I was a kid in a Catholic Church, I hated the pageantry and wealth displayed in our clothes.
So we down-cost our homes and dress down our clothes. Get out and see our neighbors. What else?
Increased Productivity, More Energy Focused on Work/Family, Less Driving
I think the workplace is going to gain a significant boost in productivity. Some reports have already talked about this. Since people aren’t spending an average of an hour each way in traffic, they have more energy to focus on work and home. There has been some discussion about the lack of work/life balance because work never ends, but I find that something like a split shift works well for our household. I hit the computer as soon as I wake up, sometimes as early at 5:30, when had I been driving to the Pentagon, I would have wasted time, showering, suiting up and driving. I work until my daughter takes a break from her teleschool and we do something together – eat lunch, LEGOs, tennis, read a book. Then back to work until she’s finished with school. Another break until she goes to tae kwon do or pony riding class or when she hits the bath. Then just before bed, I hit the computer again.
The previous work day was 8 hours at the office, 1 hour of lunchbreak that I couldn’t share with my family or neighbors and at least an hour each way driving, sometimes more. Even if work infringes a bit outside of the 8 hours required, I should still get more family time. After all, the total work day used to require 12 hours outside the house.
Possible Rise in Domestic Violence
One possibly negative impact of all the PJ Generation is domestic violence. https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200818/radiology-study-suggests-horrifying-rise-in-domestic-violence-during-pandemic#1
For kids in healthy families, more time with parents could help increase their learning curves. However, some kids, myself included, saw school as an escape from an uncomfortable home life. We’re already seeing an increase in the income gap as a result of COVID. The PJ Generation might see a greater separation between low and upper middle income which is exasperated by triumvirate of income, mental and physical wellness, and substance abuse. It’s a well know and understood element of life for people struggling with debilitating illnesses like depression and PTSD that “self medication” is often a logical extension of the mental misery. Domestic violence is often related to alcohol or other substance consumption. Additionally, mental and physical illnesses can interfere with a person’s income generating capabilities. As a result the 3 elements interact together in a terrible way to bring people and families down.
One possibility is that people who suffer might be able to find gainful online employment and/or education that they would never have been able to engage in due to their illness. But another possibility is this cohort falls further away from the social fabric.
Increased Learning Curve for Middle Class Kids
For my daughter, she loves having all 3 adults in the house with her – grandma, dad and mom. And it allows us to tag team with her insatiable need for attention that is exhausting for any one person. So, for the middle class, I think kids will benefit from the PJ generation.
More Home Office, Home Improvement, IOT and More Screen Time
More time at home means more IOT. More voice interactive speakers, TVs, lights and thermostats. More smart homes and more home offices. We’ve already seen a sharp uptick in home improvement during COVID. Americans spent over $6B more dollars this year than previously on home improvement at Home Depot alone. https://thehill.com/policy/finance/526305-home-depot-sales-surge-as-americans-spend-on-home-improvement-amid-covid-19
We’ll probably see an increase in screen time. “Zoom meetings. Distance learning. Online shopping. The coronavirus pandemic has caused us to spend more hours than ever facing a screen. While that allows us to carry on many of our daily activities safely, it may also bring with it some concerns.” https://www.rivertowns.net/news/education/6749222-Screen-time-increases-with-pandemic-adjustments
More eCommerce
During the first two quarters of 2020, stores like Ulta, Macy’s and Kohl’s experienced dramatic spikes in their ecommerce revenue, rising roughly 200%, 53% and 60% respectively. The International Council of Shopping Centers predicts a 25% rise in ecommerce sales in 2020. https://insights.digitalmediasolutions.com/news/ecommerce-transactions-rising
Laws on govt publishing eGov Act 2002
(4) To improve the ability of the Government to achieve
agency missions and program performance goals.
(5) To promote the use of the Internet and emerging
technologies within and across Government agencies to provide
citizen-centric Government information and services.
(6) To reduce costs and burdens for businesses and other
Government entities.
(7) To promote better informed decisionmaking by policy
makers.
(8) To promote access to high quality Government information
and services across multiple channels.
(9) To make the Federal Government more transparent and
accountable.
(10) To transform agency operations by utilizing, where
appropriate, best practices from public and private sector
organizations.
(11) To provide enhanced access to Government information
and services in a manner consistent with laws regarding
protection of personal privacy, national security, records
retention, access for persons with disabilities, and other
relevant laws.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/2458/text
Laws on what government agencies are required to publish
government agencies required to budgets, budget justification, grants
TITLE VI—EXECUTIVE BRANCH TRANSPARENCYSubtitle A—Public Availability Of Information
Sec. 601. Requirement for disclosure of Federal sponsorship of all Federal advertising or other communications.
Sec. 602. Improving access to influential executive branch official’s visitor access records.
Sec. 603. Public availability of budget justifications and appropriation requests.
Sec. 604. Improving rulemaking disclosure for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Sec. 605. Improving registration information from agents of foreign principals.
Sec. 606. Agency defined.
Sec. 607. Government-wide entity identifier.
Sec. 608. Grants transparency requirements.
(a) Requirement.—Except as provided for in subsection (b), each advertisement or other communication paid for by an agency, either directly or through a contract awarded by the agency, shall include a prominent notice informing the target audience that the advertisement or other communication is paid for by that agency.
(b) Exceptions.—The requirement in subsection (a) shall not apply to an advertisement or other communication—
(1) that is 200 characters or less; or
(2) that is distributed through a short message service.
(c) Advertisement Or Other Communications Defined.—In this section, the term “advertisement or other communication” includes—
(1) an advertisement disseminated in any form, including print or by any electronic means; and
(2) a communication by an individual in any form, including speech, print, or by any electronic means.
Budgets and Budget justification
SEC. 603. PUBLIC AVAILABILITY OF BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS AND APPROPRIATION REQUESTS.
(a) In General.—Section 3 of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note) is amended to read as follows:
“SEC. 3. FULL DISCLOSURE OF FEDERAL FUNDS.
“(a) In General.—Not less frequently than monthly when practicable, and in any event not less frequently than quarterly, the Secretary (in consultation with the Director and, with respect to information described in subsection (b)(2), the head of the applicable Federal agency) shall ensure that updated information with respect to the information described in subsection (b) is posted on the website established under section 2.
“(b) Information To Be Posted.—
“(1) FUNDS.—For any funds made available to or expended by a Federal agency or component of a Federal agency, the information to be posted shall include—
“(A) for each appropriations account, including an expired or unexpired appropriations account, the amount—
“(i) of budget authority appropriated;
“(ii) that is obligated;
“(iii) of unobligated balances; and
“(iv) of any other budgetary resources;
“(B) from which accounts and in what amount—
“(i) appropriations are obligated for each program activity; and
“(ii) outlays are made for each program activity;
“(C) from which accounts and in what amount—
“(i) appropriations are obligated for each object class; and
“(ii) outlays are made for each object class; and
“(D) for each program activity, the amount—
“(i) obligated for each object class; and
“(ii) of outlays made for each object class.
“(2) BUDGET JUSTIFICATIONS.—
“(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph—
“(i) the term ‘agency’ has the meaning given that term in section 101 of title 31, United States Code; and
“(ii) the term ‘budget justification materials’ means the annual budget justification materials of an agency that are submitted to Congress in support of the budget of the agency, in conjunction with the budget of the United States Government submitted under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, but does not include budget justification materials that are classified.
“(B) INFORMATION.—The information to be posted shall include the budget justification materials of each agency—
“(i) for the second fiscal year beginning after the date of enactment of this paragraph, and each fiscal year thereafter; and
“(ii) to the extent practicable, that were released for any fiscal year before the date of enactment of this paragraph.
“(C) FORMAT.—Budget justification materials shall be posted under subparagraph (B)—
“(i) in an open format machine readable and text searchable;
“(ii) in a manner that enables users to download individual reports, download all reports in bulk, and download in bulk the results of a search, to the extent practicable; and
“(iii) in a structured data format, to the extent practicable.
“(D) DEADLINE.—The budget justification materials required to be posted under subparagraph (B)(i) shall be posted not later than 2 weeks after the date on which the budget justification materials are first submitted to Congress.
SEC. 604. IMPROVING RULEMAKING DISCLOSURE FOR THE OFFICE OF INFORMATION AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS.
(a) Inclusion In The Rulemaking Docket Of Documents And Communications Related To The Implementation Of Centralized Regulatory Review.—As soon as practicable, and not later than 15 days after the conclusion of centralized regulatory review for a draft proposed or draft final rule, the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs shall include in the rulemaking docket the following:
(1) A copy of the draft proposed or draft final rule and supporting analyses submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review.
(2) A copy of the draft proposed or draft final rule that incorporates substantive changes, if any, made to the rule as part of implementing centralized regulatory review.
(3) A document describing in a complete, clear, and simple manner all substantive changes made by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to the draft proposed or draft final rule submitted by the agency to Office for review.
(4) A copy of all documents and written communications (including all electronic mail and electronic mail file attachments), and a summary of all oral communications (including phone calls, phone conferences, and meetings), exchanged as part of the implementation of the centralized regulatory review between or among any of the following:
(A) The agency responsible for the rule.
(B) The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
(C) Any other office or entity within the Executive Office of the President.
(D) An agency that is not the agency responsible for the rule.
(E) An individual who is not employed by—
(i) the executive branch of the Federal Government; or
(ii) an agency that is not the agency responsible for the rule.
(b) Definitions.—In this section:
(1) CENTRALIZED REGULATORY REVIEW.—The term “centralized regulatory review” means the institutional process of Presidential oversight of individual agency rules governed by Executive Order 12866 (58 Fed. Reg. 51735; relating to regulatory planning and review), or any successor to such Executive order.
(2) RULE.—The term “rule” has the meaning given that term in section 551 of title 5, United States Code.
(c) Rule Of Construction.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to preempt or displace the disclosure requirements under any other provision of law affecting administrative procedure, if such requirements are not inconsistent with the requirements of this section.
(c) Publication Of Information Categorized Using Government-Wide Entity Identifier.—Each agency shall, to the extent practicable, publish all public regulatory, procurement, assistance, and other reported information categorized using the unique entity identifier required under this section.
“CHAPTER 74—GRANTS TRANSPARENCY REQUIREMENTS
“Sec.
“7401. Definitions.
“7402. Pre-award evaluation requirements.
“7403. Website relating to Federal grants.
“7404. Postdecision explanation for failed applicants.
“7405. Inspector General review of peer review process.
Can CoronaVirus Improve US Quality of Life?
My husband was in China for SARS and Avian flu. He said all the gyms, clubs, community centers were closed. There were police outside the grocery stores taking people’s temperature. No one allowed inside with a fever.
He said a lot of people lost their jobs; homelessness increased. Many people couldn’t pay mortgages and committed suicide. He also says I’m naively optimistic.
But I wonder if there isn’t a silver lining in this cloud. We have a lot of technologies we have been experimenting with, but haven’t yet brought online.
We telework, but have only exploited that option to about 10% or 20% of its potential. And teleworking has so many advantages, including reduced pollution and greenhouse gas emissions due to lack of physical transportation. In major cities, the majority of people spend an hour on average just getting to or from work. All that time could be put to better use and the reduction in fossil fuels could be great.
People driving to work every day to stare at a computer screen for 8 hours is idiotic. Oh, but the meetings! Yes, those can be done online too. Our problem is a human bum in every chair is the way we’ve always done it. Maybe it’s time to do it differently to the improvement of quality of life for Dilbertville dwellers everywhere.
We have self-driving electric cars, but haven’t yet authorized them on the roads. Maybe if we trade out our taxis with people for taxis without people and create some kind of automatic sterilization process, we could get electric self-driving cars on the roads sooner.
Doctors can and probably should videoconference patients at home. I can certainly have the same conversation with my doctor via video conference that I had yesterday when she suspected I had strep, but determined it was just post nasal drip from seasonal allergies. I can dial in by videoconference, talk; she can order tests and I can go to a local kiosk for vitals and test. She can call me back and tell me her diagnosis, order prescriptions online and CVS delivers meds to my door.
We can shop online even more than we already do. Someone commented on one of my FB posts that we should all handle packages delivered to our homes with plastic gloves, but the truth of the matter is, most packages are mostly handled by robotic machines. There is one guy or gal who actually brings it to your door, but the number of human hands that is involved is remarkably few compared with going into a major supermarket. Amazon’s fulfillment warehouses are a marvel of modern technology with relatively few humans in sight. Items are pulled off the shelves, boxed, labelled and sent out without touching a human.
More online customized classes not only at the university level, but for high school, middle school and elementary school too. Yes, students need socialization, but much of school time is sitting silently in a chair which is hardly a social experience. My daughter’s piano teacher offers online piano classes for times when students or more often parents are unable to attend class. I doubt we’ll find any replacement for gymnastics, Tae Kwon Do or pony riding classes, but those are fun enough to warrant attending in person anyway.
My hope is that coronavirus creates a new standard for the use of the new technologies we have, but haven’t actually leveraged.
The no-exercise exercise
Coming of age as I did in the Marine Corps, my idea of exercise has always been synonymous with misery. “The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”
Among my failed attempts to lose weight since I moved to Washington, DC in the Spring of 2018, I decided to bike to work at the Pentagon in Arlington, VA from Hyattsville, MD. It took one to two hours each way. And when I finally got home to my toddler, I was exhausted and often in pain. The heat was overwhelming in the summer. I did lose some weight, but in the end it came back and I resorted to baggy sweaters and dark colored pants to try to cover the excess me that I didn’t want the world to see.
There’s a Noom quiz about whether running or walking is a more effective weight loss option and the trick answer is, it doesn’t matter. No one could have convinced me of this until I saw it for myself. Not only does torture not help, the Marine Corps’ mandatory 3 miles per day is NOT ENOUGH!!!
I haven’t broken a sweat working out for pretty much all of 2019. Now my “workouts” are strolls. When the weather is lovely, I walk outside my office or home. When the weather is too hot or cold, I walk inside the huge government buildings I work in or on the weekends go to a mall.
Using my wearable, I track the steps. I’ve discovered that I’m actually more successful if I do more short walks than if I commit to a 30- or 40-minute walk. A 10- to 15-minute walk once per hour is actually better since I’m too busy to spend a lot of time on a long walk. Additionally, working constantly on the computer as I do, a break every hour is a nice distraction from a screen-weary mind and screen-bleary eyes.
I actually achieved one mile running in circles in my daughter’s ballet class because the teacher was late and the girls were bored, so when a few of them started running in circles, I joined in to encourage them.
I shoot for 12,000 steps every day. Today I’m at 16,500. But the number of steps isn’t dictated by my weight loss goals, it’s actually dictated by how many steps normally correspond with the highest quality heart rate dip and best deep sleep. After monitoring my activity for a while, I realized that anything less than 12,000 steps and my sleep quality suffers. So, as counter intuitive as all this is, the steps are for sleep quality and not for operating in a caloric deficit.
I’ve been working on adding strength training, but I’ve been adding it the same way I do my endurance, without breaking a sweat or feeling any pain or torture. I have 2 10-pound weights by my desk and 2 at home. They are well within my ability to lift and my hope is to do 5 sets of bicep curls, shoulder presses and tricep presses per day, one set at a time, separated by an hour or more. I also love STEALTH Plankster Core Trainer, but I also use it lightly. Every hour or so, just one minute of planking with the video game. It’s fun, easy and involves no sweat or torture, but I see great gains from light, but constant training as opposed to 30 minutes of hard, intense training that leaves me exhausted.
Another bonus: no crazy logistics of carrying all my fitness clothes and shower gear and adding a shower after I arrive at work on the bike or after 30 minutes in the gym. I love the no-exercise exercise. It has completely upended everything I ever thought about fitness.
I do sometimes jog, but it’s only because I’m short on time and need to get more steps in. It honestly makes no difference how fast or slow I do my 12,000 steps. The deep secret is just move. Slowly, constantly throughout the day and your body and sleep will thank you. You’re quality of life will radically improve and so will your blood work.
It’s literally as easy as a walk in the park.
35-Year Public Affairs & IT Professional 