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/

 2021-02-19  Comments Off on Jacobin – Andrew Cuomo Is New York’s Richard Nixon

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

 2021-02-19  Comments Off on World Socialist Web Site (en) – Another 861,000 US workers file for unemployment as corporations exploit pandemic to restructure operations

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

 2021-02-19  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Perseverance on Mars: Where it is, and what the next steps are

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…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/facebook-takes-down-all-posts-spreading-misinformation-1846301464

 2021-02-19  Comments Off on The Onion – Facebook Takes Down All Posts Spreading Misinformation About Fictional Nation Of ‘Australia’

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

 2021-02-19  Comments Off on Planet GNU – Guile Potluck 2021

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…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fairvote.org/the_fair_representation_act_gaining_media_traction

 2021-02-19  Comments Off on What’s New – Fairvote – The Fair Representation Act Gaining Media Traction

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

 2021-02-19  Comments Off on Planet GNU – Mike Gran: Guile Potluck 2021

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…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=XWayland-21.1-RC

 2021-02-19  Comments Off on Phoronix – XWayland 21.1 Release Candidate Offers Split From The X.Org Server

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

 2021-02-18  Comments Off on Deeplinks – LAPD Requested Ring Footage of Black Lives Matter Protests

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/

 2021-02-17  Comments Off on Jacobin – Joe Biden Spread COVID Misinformation in Last Night’s Town Hall. The Media Praised Him for It.

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/

 2021-02-17  Comments Off on Streetsblog.org – Op-Ed: Highway Expansion Would Take Md. in the Wrong Direction

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…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://local.theonion.com/something-about-the-way-society-was-exposed-as-complete-1846251067

 2021-02-17  Comments Off on The Onion – Something About The Way Society Was Exposed As Complete Illusion Over Past Year Really Getting Man Down Today

The Daily WTF – The Therac-25 Incident

Feb 172021
 

A few months ago, someone noted in the comments that they hadn’t heard about the Therac-25 incident. I was surprised, and went off to do an informal survey of developers I know, only to discover that only about half of them knew what it was without searching for it.
I think it’s important that everyone in our industry know about this incident, and upon digging into the details I was stunned by how much of a WTF there was.
Today’s article is not fun, or funny. It describes incidents of death and maiming caused by faulty software engineering processes. If that’s not what you want today, grab a random article from our archive, instead.

When you’re strapping a patient…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/the-therac-25-incident

 2021-02-17  Comments Off on The Daily WTF – The Therac-25 Incident

jwz – Morph

Feb 172021
 

Morph is composed of 155 touch sensitive and illuminated modules, connected by a flexible and expandable surface. Each module is completely reconfigurable and features six individually addressable LEDs to illuminate the six edges of the hexagonal surfaces.Here’s a much larger and more menacing version 2: If you’re like me, your first thought was, “wait, how did they tile a sphere with hexagons?” And then you notice the pentagons. I think it’s actually a Golderg icosahedron, which is the dual of a geodesic sphere. (And which, incidentally, would have made the Well World map way less stupid.)It kind of feels like my “Splodesic” screen saver came to life!Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/02/morph/

 2021-02-17  Comments Off on jwz – Morph

TorrentFreak – DISH Secures Patent for Blockchain Based Anti-Piracy System

Feb 162021
 

US-based broadcaster DISH Networks has put a lot of effort into tracking down outfits and individuals who distribute the company’s content without permission.
This has resulted in dozens of lawsuits through which the company won millions of dollars in damages. However, the piracy problem isn’t going away.
Behind the scenes, DISH continues to explore new options to tackle copyright infringement. This includes an entirely novel anti-piracy system where copyrighted content is managed and secured through a blockchain.
Blockchain Anti-Piracy Patent
The company summarized its idea in a patent application filed two years ago. After going through all the necessary processes, the “anti-piracy management” patent is now officially granted. Right on time, it seems.
The broadcaster notes that “millennials” and…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/dish-secures-patent-for-blockchain-based-anti-piracy-system-210213/

 2021-02-16  Comments Off on TorrentFreak – DISH Secures Patent for Blockchain Based Anti-Piracy System

Ars Technica – Facebook has been helping law enforcement identify Capitol rioters

Feb 152021
 

Enlarge / Supporters of former President Donald Trump, including Jake Angeli, a QAnon supporter known for his painted face and horned hat, enter the US Capitol on January 6. (credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Facebook has gone out of its way to help law enforcement officials identify those who participated in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, the company said in a Thursday conference call with reporters.
“We were appalled by the violence,” said Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president of content policy. “We were monitoring the assault in real time and made appropriate referrals to law enforcement to assist their efforts to bring those responsible to account.”
She added that this “includes helping them identify…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1741881

 2021-02-15  Comments Off on Ars Technica – Facebook has been helping law enforcement identify Capitol rioters
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