Jacobin – Teachers and Their Unions Are Demanding Truly Safe Schools Reopening — Not “Ignoring Science”

Feb 202021
 

Some prominent academics have taken to lecturing teachers and their unions for insisting that reopening schools is still too dangerous. Those academics are wrong: teachers are insisting on a safe, solidaristic approach to opening schools back up that protects parents, students, staff, teachers, and all of us.
Members of the teachers’ union, parents, and students participate in a march through Brooklyn to demand a safer teaching environment for themselves and for students during the COVID-19 pandemic on September 1, 2020 in New York City. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) We’re more than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, but the debate over how to conduct K–12 education in the United States…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/teachers-unions-schools-covid-reopening/

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Articles and Investigations – ProPublica – Why We Can’t Make Vaccine Doses Any Faster

Feb 202021
 

by Isaac Arnsdorf and Ryan Gabrielson ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. President Joe Biden has ordered enough vaccines to immunize every American against COVID-19, and his administration says it’s using the full force of the federal government to get the doses by July. There’s a reason he can’t promise them sooner. Vaccine supply chains are extremely specialized and sensitive, relying on expensive machinery, highly trained staff and finicky ingredients. Manufacturers have run into intermittent shortages of key materials, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office; the combination of surging demand and workforce disruptions from the…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://feeds.propublica.org/link/9499/14294695/covid-vaccine-supply

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The Register – What’s that, Lassie? Dogs show signs of self-awareness according to peer-reviewed academic study?

Feb 202021
 

Canine friends may not be as dumb as they sometimes like to appear

Canine stars of internet videos the world over have another feather in their cap as a scientific study claims they show signs of self-awareness and understanding the consequences of their actions.…

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The Register – Facebook bans sharing of news in Australia – starting now – rather than submit to pay-for-news-plan

Feb 192021
 

As News Corp and Google strike global news payments deal and bill passes lower house

Analysis + Update  Facebook has barred the sharing of news articles in Australia, effectively immediately, because it thinks Australia’s pay-for-news plan is unworkable.…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/02/17/facebook_australian_news/

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TorrentFreak – Sci-Hub: Elsevier and Springer Nature Obtain UK ISP Blocking Order

Feb 192021
 

Despite being branded ‘The Pirate Bay of Science’ for offering free access to millions of otherwise paywalled research papers, Sci-Hub is somewhat of an outlier in the piracy scene.
While sites like The Pirate Bay receive almost universal condemnation outside of piracy circles, Sci-Hub regularly receives praise from academics. Since the ultimate goal is to further knowledge and education, including among those who can least afford it, Sci-Hub is often considered to be doing valuable work.
Courts, on the other hand, have yet to rule in the site’s favor so publishers including Elsevier, Springer Nature and Wiley have been pursuing relentless legal action against Sci-Hub and founder Alexandra Elbakyan in an effort to bring the platform to…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-elsevier-and-springer-nature-obtain-uk-isp-blocking-order-210218/

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Jacobin – Andrew Cuomo Is New York’s Richard Nixon

Feb 192021
 

Governor Andrew Cuomo is threatening retribution against progressive elected officials demanding answers about underreported COVID-19 deaths and his effort to help an industry group shield nursing home executives from liability. Between his cover-ups and his bullying, Cuomo might as well be New York’s Richard Nixon.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images) Perhaps the biggest political scandal in America right now is playing out in New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo is in a lot of trouble — and rightly so. The Democratic governor did not merely wildly mismanage his state’s response to the COVID-19 emergency, while netting himself a lucrative book deal and an Emmy. He did…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/andrew-cuomo-scandal-covid-nursing-home-deaths/

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World Socialist Web Site (en) – Another 861,000 US workers file for unemployment as corporations exploit pandemic to restructure operations

Feb 192021
 

A new McKinsey Global Institute report predicts that the decline in business travel and increase in working from home will lead to fewer jobs at hotels, restaurants, mass transit and retail, while corporations employ new labor-saving technologies in factories.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/19/jobs-f19.html

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Ars Technica – Perseverance on Mars: Where it is, and what the next steps are

Feb 192021
 

Enlarge
In their first press conference following Perseverance’s successful landing on Mars, NASA and JPL scientists revealed some information on where the rover landed and what to expect for the next several days and weeks as it begins its mission in earnest.
Pics or it didn’t happen
One of the first orders of business is getting some of the images, audio, and video taken during the landing back to Earth. For now, doing so requires using a low-gain antenna to transmit data to some of the hardware in orbit around Mars. Jennifer Trosper, the deputy project manager for the rover, said that the Mars Odyssey orbiter should pass overhead briefly within the next few hours, followed by…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1743740

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The Onion – Facebook Takes Down All Posts Spreading Misinformation About Fictional Nation Of ‘Australia’

Feb 192021
 

SYDNEY—Citing potentially dangerous messages suggesting the “hoax country” might pass legislation forcing the tech giant to pay for the content its users share, Facebook took down all posts Thursday that spread misinformation about the fictional nation of “Australia” on the social networking platform. “We had to take…

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Planet GNU – Guile Potluck 2021

Feb 192021
 

 Hello All-In celebration of the (slightly belated) 10-year anniversary of Guile v2.0, we’re having another Guile Potluck!  The Guile Potluck is a randomly annual event to give people a chance to show off their Guile projects and skills.  Think of it as a game jam, but, not constrained to games. To participate, on or before Mar 6, send an email to guile-user@gnu.org with Potluck in the subject line. Please include instructions on how to find your entry, which could be anything you like.  For example,   – a script showing off some feature of Guile or your favorite Guile library   – a blog post describing something interesting about Guile   – an updated release of a neglected library   – a…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://lcinexile.blogspot.com/2021/02/guile-potluck-2021.html

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What’s New – Fairvote – The Fair Representation Act Gaining Media Traction

Feb 192021
 

Gerrymandering. Partisan gridlock. No-choice elections. Lack of diverse representation. These challenges, compounded with the rise of apathy towards our democratic institutions, have led to the most socially and politically divided moment in our lifetimes. Despite these overwhelming challenges, the  passage of the Fair Representation Act would help heal our electoral institutions and lead to better governance. 
With almost 90 percent of congressional districts completely safe for the party that holds them, single-winner, winner-take-all elections don’t work well for urban Republicans, red-state Democrats, independents, women and communities of color. It also doesn’t work for the candidates who fear being primaried in their home districts, forcing them to appeal to a more vocal minority of voters.
The Fair Representation Act…

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Planet GNU – Mike Gran: Guile Potluck 2021

Feb 192021
 

 Hello All-In celebration of the (slightly belated) 10-year anniversary of Guile v2.0, we’re having another Guile Potluck!  The Guile Potluck is a randomly annual event to give people a chance to show off their Guile projects and skills.  Think of it as a game jam, but, not constrained to games. To participate, on or before Mar 6, send an email to guile-user@gnu.org with Potluck in the subject line. Please include instructions on how to find your entry, which could be anything you like.  For example,   – a script showing off some feature of Guile or your favorite Guile library   – a blog post describing something interesting about Guile   – an updated release of a neglected library   – a…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://lcinexile.blogspot.com/2021/02/guile-potluck-2021.html

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Phoronix – XWayland 21.1 Release Candidate Offers Split From The X.Org Server

Feb 192021
 

XWayland 21.1 is moving forward as a standalone XWayland release separated from the X.Org Server. Given that X.Org Server 1.21 isn’t moving toward release with no one stepping up to oversee that long overdue update, Red Hat engineers have devised the plan for standalone XWayland releases that are separated from the rest of the xorg-server code-base to at least get the updated X11 client on Wayland support out to users…

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Deeplinks – LAPD Requested Ring Footage of Black Lives Matter Protests

Feb 182021
 

Along with other civil liberties organizations and activists, EFF has long warned that Amazon Ring and other networked home surveillance devices could be used to monitor political activity and protests. Now we have documented proof that our fears were founded.
According to emails obtained by EFF, the LAPD sent requests to Amazon Ring users specifically targeting footage of Black-led protests against police violence that occurred in cities across the country last summer. While it is clear that police departments and federal law enforcement across the country used many different technologies to spy on protests, including aerial surveillance and semi-private camera networks, this is the first documented evidence that a police department specifically requested footage from networked…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/02/lapd-requested-ring-footage-black-lives-matter-protests

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Jacobin – Joe Biden Spread COVID Misinformation in Last Night’s Town Hall. The Media Praised Him for It.

Feb 172021
 

In a viral moment last night, Joe Biden told an eight-year-old girl at a CNN town hall that kids rarely contract or transmit the coronavirus. But the science says otherwise — yet the media recklessly let Biden get away with spreading misinformation.
President Joe Biden is not leveling with the public about the severity of the COVID crisis. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images) Last night’s CNN town hall with Joe Biden had a number of notable moments: the president predicting the pandemic could subside by Christmas, offering to personally help a woman secure a vaccine for her son, or brusquely replying that he was “tired of talking about Donald Trump” —…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/02/joe-biden-misinformation-covid-19-media-town-hall/

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Streetsblog.org – Op-Ed: Highway Expansion Would Take Md. in the Wrong Direction

Feb 172021
 

Eyal Li, Union of Concerned Scientists
It’s well known to sustainable transportation advocates that our transportation sector is the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States — and cars and small trucks account for the largest share of this pollution. Still, people frustrated with congestion on their commutes often clamor for building more and bigger highways. The reality is that these projects usually increase emissions without making getting around any easier, yet elected officials keep forging ahead with them.
Gov. Larry Hogan’s proposed managed lane expansions to I-495 and I-270 is a textbook example. The stated purpose of this project is to reduce congestion. But studies show that highway expansions don’t really relieve traffic — they can…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/02/15/op-ed-highway-expansion-proposal-would-take-md-in-the-wrong-direction/

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The Onion – Something About The Way Society Was Exposed As Complete Illusion Over Past Year Really Getting Man Down Today

Feb 172021
 

VANCOUVER, WA—Unable to shake off an overall negative feeling he couldn’t attribute to anything in particular, local man Paul Carpenter confirmed Monday that something about the way society was exposed as a complete illusion over the past year was really getting him down today. “Maybe it’s just quarantine talking, but…

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