A new study has found that pollution from microplastics is widespread in the Arctic Ocean, and 92% of those particles are minuscule synthetic fibers from our clothes. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/polyester-fibers-arctic-ocean-microplastic-pollution…
Tag: Assaults
Lawsuits Filed Against Lyft Alleging Sexual Assaults By Drivers
Slashdot reader Charlotte Web quotes SiliconValley.com: Bay Area ride-hailing giant Lyft is accused in a series of new lawsuits of failing to protect female passengers from rape by drivers. One plaintiff claims she was 15 when her driver raped her and then forced her to take an anti-pregnancy pill. The December legal actions are part of a “mass tort” lawsuit initiated…
MasterCard, VISA To Stop Processing Payments On Pornhub
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Mastercard Inc said on Thursday it was ending the use of its cards on Pornhub after its investigation confirmed the presence of unlawful content on the sex videos site. Pornhub said on Tuesday it had banned video downloads and was allowing only certain partner accounts to upload content after a New York Times…
CNET: Police Are Using Facial Recognition For Minor Crimes, ‘Because They Can’
“Police often frame facial recognition as a necessary tool to solve the most heinous crimes, like terrorist attacks and violent assaults, but researchers have found that the technology is more frequently used for low-level offenses,” reports CNET: In a recent court filing, the New York police department noted that it’s turned to facial recognition in more than 22,000 cases in the…
Study Sounds Alarm on 5G Fake News, EU Needs To Promote Benefits
European Union leaders need to tackle urgently disinformation on 5G technology, which is central to the bloc’s economic recovery from COVID-19 and its plans to catch up with the United States and China, a study by telecoms lobby group ETNO showed. From a report: Conspiracy theories that tie the wireless technology to the spread of the novel coronavirus have seen mobile…
San Diego’s Police Are Using Video from ‘Smart’ Streetlights
Slashdot reader Tekla Perry is also senior editor at IEEE Spectrum, and brings a story about San Diego’s 3,300 “smart streetlights,” each one equipped with “an Intel Atom processor, half a terabyte of storage, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios, two 1080p video cameras, two acoustical sensors, and environmental sensors that monitor temperature, pressure, humidity, vibration, and magnetic fields.” San Diego’s smart streetlights…
Uber Loses $1.4 Billion in Value After Acknowledging Thousands of Sexual Assaults
“Uber’s stock market value fell by $1.4 billion Friday, on the heels of the company’s release of a safety report revealing that 3,000 incidents of sexual assaults took place during its U.S. rides in 2018,” reports the Bay Area News Group: On Thursday evening, Uber released its long-awaited safety study, which revealed that the company received 3,045 reports of sexual assaults…
Is daylight time worth the trouble?
This is the weekend we “fall back” here in the U.S. Are you glad? Sad? Mad? Advocates say daylight time saves energy and wins wars. Studies show injuries and illnesses rise when clocks change. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/is-daylight-saving-time-worth-the-trouble…
Should We Be Allowed To Kick Robots?
“Seen in the wild, robots often appear cute and nonthreatening. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be hostile,” argues a new article in Wired, reporting on what appears to be a pre-meditated kicking of a Knightscope K5 patrol robot in a parking lot in California: K5’s siblings, it turns out, don’t fare much better. In 2017 a drunk man attacked a K5…
Police Use of DNA Leads To Backlash, Policy Change For GEDmatch
Police investigators have used popular online DNA databases to solve at least 50 open murder and rape cases, reports the Associated Press. But now, “complaints about invasion of privacy have produced a backlash, leading the Florida-based database known as GEDmatch to change its policies.”
The nonprofit website’s previous practice was to permit police to use its database only to solve homicides and…