tfpl blog: Enterprise Risk Management Meeting- September

I recently attended the September ERM meeting; speakers were John Summers, Chief Risk Adviser at Rio Tinto and Neil Allen, Director at Systemic Consult Ltd, the discussion was about the connectivity between different risks within the same company and how they can affect each other; it was discussed that the need to understand how risks are connected and how many connections a risk has is essential in helping identify the key risk areas within a business; the strength of the connection also has to be taken in to account representing the likelihood of the risk coming to fruition and having an effect.

In conclusion I feel that the analysis of risk connections is a very usefully tool to aid the Risk Manager in identifying key risk areas that may previously have been seen as low risk on their own could have a large number of connections that could cause a domino effect throughout other areas of the company.

Source: http://blog.tfpl.com/tfpl/2012/09/enterprise-risk-management-meeting-september.html

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The biggest risk to BC preparedness - third-party risk - Security & Risk

At the recent Disaster Recovery Journal Fall World conference, I gave a presentation of the state of BC readiness. I had some great discussions with the audience (especially about where BC should report), but one of the statistics that really stood out for me and I made it a point to emphasise with the audience, is the state of partner BC readiness.

According to the joint Forrester/Disaster Recovery Journal survey on BC readiness, 51% of BC influencers and decision-makers report that they do not assess the readiness of their partners. If this doesn?t shock you, it should. Forrester estimates that the typical large enterprise has hundreds of third-party relationships - everyone from supply chain partners to business process outsourcers, IT service providers and of course cloud providers. As our reliance on these partners increases so does our risk - if they?re down, it greatly affects your organization?s business performance. And with the increasing availability of cloud services, the number of third parties your organisation works with only increases, because now, business owners can quickly adopt a cloud service to meet a business need without the approval of the CIO or CISO and sometimes without the approval of any kind of central procurement organisation.

Even among those organisations that do assess partner BC readiness, their efforts are superficial. Only 17 percent include partners in their own tests and only 10% conduct tests specifically of their critical partners.

If you?re not assessing the BC readiness of your partners through assessments of their capabilities, reviews of their plans, testing, and negotiation of specific uptime SLAs, your BC program and strategies are incomplete. You?re simply not ready.

So what should you do about it? First, if as a BC manager or director you don?t have a strong relationship with your sourcing and vendor management team, that is the first item to address. You need to be sure that your sourcing team brings you in to vendor strategy discussions early and includes you in RFP development, vendor selection, and contract negotiation. Second, you must adjust your business impact analysis surveys and your risk assessments to better focus on partnerships. Third, you must start now assessing your existing partnerships - what are the SLAs that we have in place? Which vendors are the least prepared? Fourth, from here on out, you must insist that as part of contract negotiation and relationship review, partners participate in BC testing and exercises - it?s not enough to just read over their documented BCPs.

For the broader BC community, I?m interested to understand how third-party risk is affecting your BC programs and strategies.

Source: http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/security-and-risk/2012/09/the-biggest-risk-to-bc-preparedness---third-party-risk/

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Economic Incentives: NERI Income Tax Proposal

The third Quarterly Economic Observer of the Nevin Economic Research Institute contains a specific income tax proposal for the upcoming budget.? The proposal is to raise the effective income tax rate of the top 20% of income tax cases by 1.5 percentage points.

We propose a modest increase in the effective income taxation rate faced by the top 20% of tax cases. Overall we suggest that the effective income tax paid by this group rises by 1.5% in 2013; meaning that on average the top 20% of tax cases would pay almost 23% of their income in income taxation in 2011.

The data used is from this Parliamentary Question tabled to the Minister for Finance in July.? Here I propose to use the data from another Parliamentary Question to assess the impact of this proposal on different income levels.? This provides us with the following table for 2011 incomes.

The table does not allow us to work out exactly the top quintile of tax cases (to which the NERI proposal would apply) but a quick calculation shows that the number of tax cases in excess of ?50,000 is equal to 22.8% of the total.? It is likely that any change to the tax system would apply to a certain income threshold rather to a certain proportion of tax changes.? We will proceed by applying the proposal to this group.

Here are the average incomes, average amount of tax paid and the effective tax rates for the income brackets given in the PQ.

The table shows the progressive nature of the Irish tax system with the effective Income Tax rate rising from 4% for those earning between ?20,000 and ?30,000, to 14.5% for those earning between ?50,000 and ?60,000, to 25% for those between ?150,000 and ?175,000, up to a high of 34% for the ultra-high earners over ?2,000,000.? These effective tax rates and the progressiveness of them would be even greater if PRSI and USC were included.

The final column gives the new effective Income Tax rates under the NERI proposal.? These are unchanged for all incomes up to ?50,000 and thereafter are increased by 1.5 percentage points.? The report is silent on how this would be achieved but makes some suggestions that could be considered such as tax credits and the USC.? The report does rule out increases in the marginal tax rate (page 26)

Further changes in the marginal rate of tax (which currently is at 52% when maximum USC and PRSI rates are included) are not proposed.

The final table looks at the impact of the proposed increase in the effective tax rate by 1.5 percentage points for all tax cases above ?50,000.? All incomes up to ?50,000 are omitted are there are no changes proposed here.

The impact is an extra ?690 million of tax revenue.? This compares to ?650 million estimated for the NERI proposal.? As that only included 20% of tax cases and the above table is applied to the top 22.8% of tax cases it is clear that they are similar.

Of the extra ?690 million that would be collected ?388 million (56%) comes from tax cases with incomes of less than ?100,000.? Those in the ?50,000 to ?60,000 income bracket would see their income tax bill rise from ?7,911 to ?8,731 (a rise of 10.4%).? Those in the ?500,000 to ?750,000 income bracket would see their income tax bill rise from ?167,145 to ?176,138 (a rise of 5.4%).

Source: http://economic-incentives.blogspot.com/2012/09/neri-income-tax-proposal.html

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Jason and Michael's Contemporary Farm House House Tour ...

Name: Jason Mathews of SHERIDAN + COMPANY, Michael Nielsen, their sons Nick and Linus, and a brood of chickens.
Location: Ballard; Seattle, Washington
Size: 1,900 square feet
Years lived in: 4 years; owned

You might remember the SHERIDAN + COMPANY showroom tour we published last week. If you liked what you saw, then you may love owner Jason Mathews and his partner Michael's contemporary farm house.

The couple has created a rustic yet modernized family home in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, using vintage treasures and sleek interior touches. The house is cleanly designed and orderly, despite the jubilant rumblings of two little boys, who were excited and knowledgeable about chickens and Star Wars, despite their playfulness resulting in a bunch of adorably blurry family photos I took (not pictured).

The house has a warm and light-filled atmosphere, which balances the many elegant, cool colors that they have used in the living room, bedroom and guest room. Plus, the touches of quirky design that pepper each corner, such as a taxidermy pheasant or a giant peanut on the coffee table, are playful and heart-warmingly fun. If you love this look, and live in the area, definitely check out SHERIDAN + COMPANY for design services or interiors.

Apartment Therapy Survey:

Our Style: I want our house to be a balanced mix of beautiful, masculine and functional. We use everything--no museum pieces and we avoid trends. I think a room should by timeless. I don't want to live in a Mad Men set or a barn but I do want to layer elements of both.

Inspiration: I'm inspired by old barns, farm houses and mixing those elements with modern and industrial touches.

Favorite Element: That is like picking a favorite child, but we do love the vintage medicine cabinet that now serves as a bar. It bought at a flea market in Park Slope, Brooklyn where we used to live. Michael carried it home on top of his head.

Biggest Challenge: For me designing other people's homes come naturally, but creating my own space is a challenge. When you are a designer and it is your own house, there are no limits ... except for budget. That can make the decision making narrowing down choices long and a little daunting. But it is also exciting. You can break all the rules you want!

What Friends Say: We're always pleased when visitors first walk in and say, "are you sure you have kids?" Nick and Linus play all over the house, but we all do a good job of cleaning up toys and putting them back in the playroom. Nick especially loves keeping them organized.

Biggest Embarrassment: We need to replace the carpet in the playroom, we've had some minor floods and other accidents that come with having little kids.

Proudest DIY: Changing out some boring light fixtures left by the previous owners that better reflect our personality and style.

Biggest Indulgence: At the time it was our sofa bought before I started doing interior design. We searched for months living with uncomfortable sitting chairs in our sitting room but holding out for exactly the right piece. When we finally found it it was as if the skies had opened up: the perfect length, perfect width, perfect style. It didn't matter how much it cost--we had to make payments on it but it was worth it! Now it needs to be recovered, but I still love it.

Best Advice: If you see something you like, buy it. There's nothing worse than going back the next day and finding the treasure is gone. Trust your gut.

Dream Sources: Vintage or antique stores. Mixing old things with new things gives a place soul. I like objects that have a story.

Resources of Note:

PAINT & COLORS

? Benjamin Moore - Crisp Khaki
? Dining Room - Martha Stewart/Home Depot Wrought Iron
? Living Room - Martha Stewart/Home Depot Bedford Gray
? Guest Room - Martha Stewart/Home Depot Whetsone Gray
? Inside kitchen cabinets - Martha Stewart/Home Depot Yam

ENTRY

LIVING ROOM

DINING ROOM

KITCHEN

BEDROOM

? Bed: Bernhardt Interiors
? TV Stand: Ikea
? Night stands: Crate & Barrel
? Silver Coral Drawer Pulls: Anthropologie

GUEST BEDROOM

Thanks, Jason and Michael!

(Images: Andie Powers)

? HOUSE TOUR ARCHIVE: Check out past house tours here.
? Interested in sharing your home with Apartment Therapy? Contact the editors through our House Tour Submission Form.
? Are you a designer/architect/decorator interested in sharing a residential project with Apartment Therapy readers? Contact the editors through our Professional Submission Form.

Source: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/jason-and-michaels-modern-farm-house-177667

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New Nooks Bitten by the Showbiz Bug

Battered bookseller Barnes & Noble has joined the slew of vendors releasing new tablets for the holiday season, announcing the latest additions to its Nook tablet family on Wednesday, but the content that will grace their screens is getting just as much attention. The tablets are the 7-inch Nook HD and 9-inch Nook HD+.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/23d9906f/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C76250A0Bhtml/story01.htm

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Reporter killed in violence after Damascus blasts

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Near-roadway air pollution a major contributor to asthma in Los Angeles County, USC research finds

Near-roadway air pollution a major contributor to asthma in Los Angeles County, USC research finds

Monday, September 24, 2012

Research conducted at the University of Southern California (USC) indicates that at least 8 percent of the more than 300,000 cases of childhood asthma in Los Angeles County can be attributed to traffic-related pollution at homes within 75 meters (a little less than 250 feet) of a busy roadway.

The study also indicates that previous estimates of childhood asthma exacerbation related to air pollution may have underestimated the true burden of exposure on society. The research was published online Sept. 24, 2012, in Environmental Health Perspectives and was conducted in collaboration with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and Sonoma Technology, Inc. The study focused on the Los Angeles basin.

"Our findings suggest that there are large and previously unappreciated public health consequences of air pollution in Los Angeles County and probably other metropolitan areas with large numbers of children living near major traffic corridors," said Rob McConnell, professor of preventive medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

The USC study also looked at new state of California policies intended to cut back on vehicular greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. An important goal of these policies is to reduce vehicular emissions of greenhouse gases, both by improving fuel efficiency and reducing vehicle miles traveled by increasing use of public transportation. As part of these policies, housing developers would be offered incentives, such as speeding up environmental review to design projects located closer to transit stops with bus or rail service that will encourage use of fuel efficient mass transit. The investigators note, however, that transit stops are often located on or near busy roads and that there has been little study of the impact of these policies on exposure to children living near major roadways.

The study concludes that better information is needed to develop the optimal mix of policies that reduce sprawl, encourage walking and use of mass transit to reduce vehicle miles traveled, greenhouse gases and regional air pollution, and also to reduce children's near-roadway exposure to emissions from vehicles still traveling on roadways.

"Plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change offer an opportunity to develop 'win-win' strategies that will maximize the health benefits from reduction both of greenhouse gases and of air pollutants that directly harm children," McConnell said.

"There is also emerging evidence that other diseases may be caused or exacerbated by urban air pollution, including atherosclerosis, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and neurological disorders," McConnell added. "Thus, policies to combat climate change may have near-term health benefits beyond reducing the burden of disease due to asthma."

The researchers estimated the effects of air pollution on children suffering from asthma by using data from sources including the Children's Health Study, a long-term study of effects of air pollution ongoing since 1993. Regional air pollution measurements from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and area maps were used to estimate exposure to near-roadway pollution in the Los Angeles area. This information was linked to population data.

Asthma exacerbation in this study was connected to regional pollutants including nitrogen dioxide and ozone that cover large parts of the air basin, and to near-roadway pollutants that are responsible for the development of asthma. The researchers found that living near busy roads contributed disproportionately to the more serious exacerbations of asthma in children, including emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

In addition, a 20 percent reduction in children's near-roadway pollution exposure would result in an estimated 5,900 fewer cases of childhood asthma in the County, according to the research, whereas a 20 percent increase in exposure would result in 5,900 more cases of asthma.

###

University of Southern California - Health Sciences: http://uscnews.usc.edu/archives/health/

Thanks to University of Southern California - Health Sciences for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/123756/Near_roadway_air_pollution_a_major_contributor_to_asthma_in_Los_Angeles_County__USC_research_finds

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