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Bloomberg
No matter how often the U.S. is hit with storms, wildfires and other natural disasters, cities and states remain poorly prepared. Houses are destroyed, transit systems are swamped, roads and bridges are wiped out. The Federal Emergency Management Agency sweeps in to help with cleanup, temporary shelter and rebuilding. But then life goes on, with little concern for next time — because the political and financial incentives work against being prepared.
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Governing
Less than a year ago, California regulators were prepared to lay down the law with manufacturers that wanted to sell driverless cars in the state. The California Department of Motor Vehicles would have required the cars to keep traditional features like pedals and steering wheels, and would have mandated that manufacturers clear any updates to their vehicles or software with an outside tester.
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Phys.org
Earlier this year, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory was able to detect a gravity wave wafting through space from two colliding black holes billions of years ago.
Now a group of researchers at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas has built a much smaller ring laser interferometer to explore how it could detect geophysical effects such as earthquake-generated ground rotation and infrasound from convective storms and have demonstrated the technology's potential as an early-warning system for natural disasters.
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Government Executive
Your food may claim to be “natural” and “healthy,” but don’t believe it. Even a granola bar can stretch the truth.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is on a mission to define the two generic terms, which companies routinely print on food packaging in hopes it will entice consumers to purchase their products. The FDA for months has been working on a definition for “natural,” and on Tuesday, it announced it would be tackling “healthy” as well.
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The Atlantic
At 3 a.m. on the morning of May 17, 2012, the town of Timpson, Texas, was awoken by the largest earthquake ever measured in the eastern half of the state. The 4.8 magnitude tremor shattered glass cabinets and knocked deer heads off the wall. “One respondent reported his fireplace came down inside his residence, and his south exterior brick wall ‘blew off’ the house,” reported a definitive study.
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Government Technology
The White House announced Sept. 26 that it is pouring an additional $80 million into technology and smart city projects to go along with last year’s initial investment of $160 million.
The effort involves a cornucopia of new projects and extended initiatives, but the bulk of the funding will be concentrated in just one agency: the National Science Foundation.
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Route Fifty
When a sewage pipe burst unexpectedly, resulting in a hepatitis outbreak in Kenton County, Kentucky, in 1984, it was suddenly clear that the pipeline infrastructure had not been mapped — and no reliable system of record existed. It was only then that the urgent need for geographic information system technology was realized. Fast-forward 30 years. The GIS team in Kenton County's Planning and Development Services agency is now viewed as one of the nation's pioneers in the GIS space.
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The Wall Street Journal
Along a scrubby mountain range on the northern rim of Los Angeles, a developer is planning to build a 188-unit luxury community in one of the state’s highest-risk wildfire zones.
In the hills of San Diego County, 150 miles to the south, builders are planning a project featuring more than 1,800 homes, 20,000 square feet of commercial space and a hotel on land scorched during one of the most destructive wildfire seasons in California’s history, in 2003.
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CNN
The New Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles has been described as one of the most complicated skyscraper projects ever attempted.
At 1,100 feet, the billon-dollar tower will be the tallest building on the Pacific Coast when it opens next year, outstripping the nearby U.S. Bank Tower.
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CNN
Temporary barriers appeared to prevent serious flooding Tuesday in Iowa's second-largest city, but officials are warning thousands of evacuated Cedar Rapids residents to stay away for a couple more days.
"It's not time yet to go back to life as usual, but we're getting close," City Manager Jeff Pomeranz told reporters late Tuesday morning after the Cedar River crested there just above 22 feet — 6 feet above what is considered major flood stage.
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CNBC
A cluster of earthquakes in Southern California the past two days jolted an area near the San Andreas Fault and was closely being watched by seismologists.
In all, more than 140 earthquakes have shaken Imperial County's Salton Sea area, including at least two 4.3 magnitude temblors that struck Monday south of Bombay Beach, according to a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist.
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