“A movement known as ‘right to repair’ is starting to make progress in pushing for laws that prohibit restrictions…” reports the New York Times:
This August, Democrats introduced a bill in Congress to block manufacturers’ limits on medical devices, spurred by the pandemic. In Europe, the European Commission announced plans in March for new right-to-repair rules that would cover phones, tablets, and…
Tag: Williams
What Happens When Researchers Give Thousands of Dollars to Homeless People?
CNN reports on “The New Leaf Project,” an initiative in which the University of British Columbia partnered with a Vancouver-based charity called Foundations for Social Change: Researchers gave 50 recently homeless people a lump sum of 7,500 Canadian dollars (nearly $5,700). They followed the cash recipients’ life over 12-18 months and compared their outcomes to that of a control group who…
Google is Giving Data To Police Based on Search Keywords, Court Docs Show
There are few things as revealing as a person’s search history, and police typically need a warrant on a known suspect to demand that sensitive information. But a recently unsealed court document found that investigators can request such data in reverse order by asking Google to disclose everyone who searched a keyword rather than for information on a known suspect. From…
Facebook Abandons Broken Drilling Equipment Under Oregon Coast Seafloor
Kale Williams, reporting for The Oregonian: Lynnae Ruttledge was worried when she heard Facebook planned to build a landing spot for an undersea fiber-optic cable near her Oregon Coast home. Tierra Del Mar, where the 70-year-old retired government worker lives part-time, is a tiny community north of Pacific City with no stoplights and no cell-phone service. The enclave, all zoned residential,…
Boston Votes To Ban Government Use of Facial Recognition
Boston is now the largest city on the East Coast to ban facial recognition technology for municipal use. They join cities like San Francisco, Oakland, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. CNET reports: The ordinance passed unanimously and will prevent the capital city from using facial recognition technology or obtaining software for conducting surveillance using the technology. “Boston should not be using racially…
Wrongfully Accused by an Algorithm
In what may be the first known case of its kind, a faulty facial recognition match led to a Michigan man’s arrest for a crime he did not commit. From a report: On a Thursday afternoon in January, Robert Julian-Borchak Williams was in his office at an automotive supply company when he got a call from the Detroit Police Department telling…
Reddit Co-founder Ohanian Resigns From Board, Urges Company To Replace Him With a Black Candidate
Reddit Co-founder Alexis Ohanian on Friday announced his resignation from the company’s board, saying he was stepping down and urging the company to replace him with a black candidate. From a report: “I’m writing this as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: “What did you do?'” Ohanian wrote in a blog post….
How are zoo animals handling the coronavirus shutdown?
How captive animals are coping with the sudden emptiness of the world’s zoos and aquariums Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/zoo-aquarium-animals-coronavirus-shutdown…
Should Colleges Preserve the Idea of Meritocracy?
“Is Meritocracy an Idea Worth Saving?” asks The Chronicle of Higher Education, reporting on a special forum held recently at the University of North Carolina’s Program for Public Discourse. “This discussion took place before Covid-19 changed everything. But the topics — the definition of meritocracy, the role of universities in a just society, the composition of socioeconomic class, and the real…
First-ever measure of brown dwarf wind speed
Using data from both Spitzer and ground-based telescopes, scientists have been able to measure the speed of winds on a brown dwarf for the first time ever. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/brown-dwarf-wind-infrared-radio-spitzer-vla…