PostgreSQL can provide high performance summaries over multi-million record tables, and supports some great SQL sugar to make it concise and readable, in particular aggregate filtering, a feature unique to PostgreSQL and SQLite.
A huge amount of reporting is about generating percentages: for a particular condition, what is a value relative to a baseline.
External feed Read More at the Source: https://postgr.es/p/59m
The judicial construct known as qualified immunity will continue to make it harder for people to obtain redress for rights violations… at least for the time being. While there has been a more sustained movement to reform law enforcement across the nation, thanks to cops doing the sort of stuff they’ve been doing for decades, qualified immunity seems particularly bulletproof.
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. It provided government employees a way to avoid being entangled in frivolous litigation based on unsustainable allegations of rights violations. But since that point, it has morphed into an easy button for civil suits, a route cops can use to escape accountability for actual rights violations so…
A critical report on the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system issued today by the City of Chicago’s Inspector General (IG) is the latest indication of deep problems with the gunshot detection company and its technology, including its methodology, effectiveness, impact on communities of color, and relationship with law enforcement. The report questioned the “operational value” of the technology and found that it increases the incidence of stop and frisk tactics by police officers in some neighborhoods.
The IG’s report follows a similarly critical report and legal filing by the Northwestern School of Law’s MacArthur Justice Center and devastating investigative reporting by Vice News and the Associated Press. Last week, the AP profiled Michael Williams, a man who spent…
Amazon is installing high-tech cameras inside supplier-owned delivery vehicles. Workers say the cameras are a shocking invasion of privacy as well as a safety hazard.
An Amazon Prime delivery van in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons Earlier this year, Amazon revealed plans to install high-tech surveillance cameras in its fleet of delivery vans that are now ubiquitous in neighborhoods across the United States. The cameras watch drivers as well as the road and provide real-time audio feedback. While many of these drivers work in Amazon Prime–branded vehicles, they are not Amazon employees, but rather are employed by third-party contractors called delivery-service partners (DSPs) — an arrangement that,…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://jacobinmag.com/2021/08/amazon-worker-surveillance/
On Friday, California Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled that Proposition 22—the ballot measure written by Uber, Lyft, Doordash, and Instacart to deny drivers and couriers the benefits and protections of employee classification—was unenforceable and unconstitutional despite the deep-pocketed campaign’s victory in November. Writing in favor of the petitioners—the Service Employees International Union and three drivers—Roesch concluded that Prop 22 appears to only “protect the economic interests” of gig companies and undermined the constitutional authority of the state’s legislature to write and enforce labor laws. Specifically, Roesch pointed at a part of Proposition 22 that required a seven-eights legislative majority to alter Proposition 22, but even then only with the approval of the gig company drafters….
At least three major banks have decided to opt out of a new process for getting Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven directly by the Small Business Administration, The Intercept has learned, leaving their small business customers with no other recourse if the banks refuse to forgive loans or drag out the process.
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and PNC have all decided to opt out, according to emails shared with The Intercept.They are major players in the program, which Congress created to offer businesses loans to spend on payroll and other qualified expenses to help weather the shutdowns. As of the end of May, JPMorgan Chase was the top PPP lender, followed by Bank of America in…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://theintercept.com/2021/08/22/covid-ppp-loan-forgiveness/
If you think at all about liquid crystals, you probably think of display technology. However, researchers have worked out a way to use an ink-jet-like process to 3D print iridescent colors using a liquid crystal elastomer. The process can mimic iridescent coloring found in nature and may have applications in things as diverse as antitheft tags, art objects, or materials with very special optical properties.
For example, one item created by the team is an arrow that only appears totally green when viewed from a certain angle. The optical properties depend on the thickness of the material which, being crystalline, self-organizes. Controlling the speed of deposition changes the thickness of the material which allows the printer to…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2021/08/22/3d-printing-liquid-crystal/
At TorrentFreak, we have written hundreds of articles about dubious takedown notices. Today, we find ourselves at the center of another one.
Earlier this week the ‘American Society of Composers’ sent a series of “DRM Circumvention” complaints to Google, acting on behalf of the Video Industry Association of America.
These notices are similar to standard DMCA takedown requests but focus on content that violates the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision. And there’s another important distinction. Unlike normal takedown notices, there is no option to appeal a wrongful accusation.
Irreversable DRM Circumvention Takedowns
Whether the site operators agree with the takedowns or not, they are generally irreversible. The DMCA doesn’t prescribe a takedown and counter-notification scheme for these notices and Google previously confirmed…
At least three major banks have decided to opt out of a new process for getting Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven directly by the Small Business Administration, The Intercept has learned, leaving their small business customers with no other recourse if the banks refuse to forgive loans or drag out the process.
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and PNC have all decided to opt out, according to emails shared with The Intercept.They are major players in the program, which Congress created to offer businesses loans to spend on payroll and other qualified expenses to help weather the shutdowns. As of the end of May, JPMorgan Chase was the top PPP lender, followed by Bank of America in…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://theintercept.com/2021/08/22/covid-ppp-loan-forgiveness/
Enlarge / A medieval form of mead called “bochet” calls for caramelizing raw honey in a cauldron over an open flame. (credit: Screenshot/Gemma Tarlach/Gastro Obscura)
Ah, mead, that sweet, honeyed alcoholic beverage that has been a staple at Renaissance Fairs for decades (along with giant turkey legs). It’s also increasingly popular among home craft brewers since it’s relatively easy to make. Those in search of a unique challenge, however, are turning to a special kind of medieval mead called bochet. The only known detailed recipe for bochet dates back to the late 14th century and was lost for centuries, until it was rediscovered around 2009.
Fermentation in general has been around for millennia, and mead (“fermented honey…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1788923
A devastating increase in COVID-19 cases is sweeping across the US, driven both by the Delta variant and the ongoing criminal response of the ruling elite to the pandemic.
External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/30/pand-j30.html
The court ruling was the result of over two weeks of court battles and appeals by Republican Governor Larry Hogan’s administration after two lawsuits filed June 30 opposed the order cutting off enhanced benefits.
External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/20/mary-j20.html
These are glorious. Sound on!Motus Art:Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/07/flip-digit-fluids/
‘Who knows how he may be received…’
Audacity’s new owner Muse Group has been accused of threatening to land a developer in legal hot water, a move that could result in the programmer being forced to return to China to face a government of which he has been a vocal critic.…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/07/20/muse_group_deportation_threat/
Photo by Rory Mitchell, The Mercantile, 2020 – CC by 4.0 (L-R) Brewster Kahle, Tamiko Thiel, Carl Feynman at Thinking Machines, May 1985. Photo courtesy of Tamiko Thiel. A Library of Everything As a young man, I wanted to help make a new medium that would be a step forward from Gutenberg’s invention hundreds of years before. By building a Library of Everything in the digital age, I thought the opportunity was not just to make it available to everybody in the world, but to make it better–smarter than paper. By using computers, we could make the Library not just searchable, but organizable; make it so that you could navigate your way through millions, and maybe…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://blog.archive.org/2021/07/21/reflections-as-the-internet-archive-turns-25/
Urban crime is the golden child of local media, as recent FAIR coverage (6/21/21) has shown. But as FAIR’s Julie Hollar recently noted, the amount of attention given to a topic does not always reflect the seriousness of the situation.
The original KGO report (6/15/21) that sparked hundreds of followup stories.
An alleged “crime surge” at Walgreens drugstores in San Francisco was a hot topic for Bay Area news outlets in the early months of 2021. When Lyanne Melendez, a reporter for the ABC-owned KGO-TV in San Francisco, tweeted out a cellphone video of a brazen shoplifter, it elevated this narrative into a nationwide story. The video purports to show a man apparently filling a garbage bag with…
External feed Read More at the Source: https://fair.org/home/shoplifting-is-big-news-stealing-millions-from-workers-is-not/
Just because government officials may not like the tone of the criticism they’re receiving doesn’t mean they can use their government power to mandate civility. That’s the determination of the Sixth Circuit Appeals Court, which has struck down part of an Ohio school board’s rules of (public) engagement.
Following a school shooting in 2016, the Madison (OH) Local School District came up with a preventative plan — one that involved allowing school staff to carry concealed weapons. This didn’t play well with some parents. It also didn’t play well with some of the district’s students, who staged a walkout to protest gun violence. Following the discipline of those students, some residents decided to attend a school board…
The US Defense Department has canceled the cloud computing solicitation known as JEDI and replaced it with a request for a more advanced IT platform that will enable imperialist warfare to be fought with artificial intelligence and unprecedented information gathering and processing power.
External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/07/09/jedi-j09.html