European Space Agency seeks diversity in new astronaut drive

Are you calm under pressure and zero gravity, open to extra-terrestrial travel and female? If so, you could be a prime candidate for the European Space Agency’s first astronaut recruitment drive in 11 years. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-european-space-agency-diversity-astronaut.html…

AI Is Being Used to Screen Job Applicants

The BBC reports on “the computers rejecting your job application,” noting that applicants are now being screened with AI-scored tests that involve counting dots in boxes and matching emotions to facial expressions: The questions, and your answers to them, are designed to evaluate several aspects of a jobseeker’s personality and intelligence, such as your risk tolerance and how quickly you respond…

Can You Tell a Programming Language Inventor From a Serial Killer?

Slashdot reader DevNull127 writes: A new web quiz challenge visitors, “Can you tell a coder from a cannibal? A mathematician from a murderer? Try to spot who liked hacking away at corpses rather than computers.” One commenter on BoingBoing says the quiz brought back memories of doing IT recruitment in the 1990s. “After a few months at that job, I started…

Report Finds Extremists Did Use Facebook to Plan Capitol Attack

NBC News reports: A number of pro-Trump extremists used Facebook to plan their attack on the U.S. Capitol, a watchdog organization has found, contradicting claims by Facebook’s leadership that such planning was largely done on other sites. Private Facebook groups spent months advising one another about how to “take down” the U.S. government, particularly after Joe Biden was elected president, according…