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Comment It's not a damned figher (Score 4, Informative) 178

by vague disclaimer (#60501260) Attached to: Is Boeing's '737 Max' Safe Now?

A passenger aircraft that is inherently unstable (a design feature previously reserved for combat aircraft with an extreme need for agility) is not safe, no.

"Is it good enough" isn't even close to the right question.

It evident that the major problem isn't really the Max, but the modern management culture at Boeing (see also Starliner)

Submission + - Ex-Secretary of Education: US Should've Enabled 'Anywhere Learning' 10 Years Ago

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Fifty-eight years after Roger Ebert reported on the PLATO system's potential to deliver online learning to homebound students in a 1962 News-Gazette article, Bloomberg Technology's Emily Chang takes a look at the nationwide struggle to shift to remote learning, interviewing McKinsey Education Practice Manager Emma Dorn, Khan Academy founder Sal Khan, and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In the long-term, all three seemed hopeful that EdTech and 'anywhere learning' will ultimately help promote mastery-based learning and equity, but expressed fears that remote learning will actually exacerbate achievement gaps in the short-term due to issues stemming from a lack of preparedness, broadband and device access, school resources, and support at home.

"Ninety percent of high-income students are logging into remote learning where only sixty percent of low-income students are," lamented Dorn, who called the current situation a "vast education experiment" and warned that lost learning could lead to an annual GDP loss of $270 billion. Khan also warned that an education catastrophe is not far off: "The reality is in the coming year, middle class children, upper middle class children are probably going to do fine, they're going to be engaged, there might even be some silver linings where their parents are getting more engaged than ever, finding them extra supports. While I would say 20 or 30 percent of the population is going to be a really difficult scenario."

Also concerned about the 'COVID Slide' and learning loss for the most vulnerable and marginal was Duncan ("There's a small percent of children who I think will actually learn better in this situation, but there are many, many children who are falling behind"). However, Duncan expressed higher hopes for 'anywhere learning' in the long-term: "The idea of kids just learning, you know, in a bricks and mortar building nine months out of the year, you know, five days a week, six hours a day, that doesn't make sense. Kids have to be able to learn anything they want, anytime, anywhere. Find their passion, find their genius. [...] We have to make access to devices and to broadband to the internet as ubiquitous as water and electricity and we have to really empower kids. We have to fund. We should have done this, you know, five years ago or ten years ago, but now we have to do it." Duncan was U.S. Secretary of Education from 2009-2015.

Submission + - Science Magazine Editor-in-chief: Trump lied, people died. (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by goombah99
goombah99 writes: In unequivocal terms Science Magazine's editor in chief declares "This may be the most shameful moment in the history of U.S. science policy.". The editorial's key point is that it was negligence but more like malice. "As he was playing down the virus to the public, Trump was not confused or inadequately briefed: He flat-out lied, repeatedly, about science to the American people. These lies demoralized the scientific community and cost countless lives in the United States." said H. Holden Thorp in Science Magazine this week. This follows on an august issue's lament over the dangerous policies of the unqualified presidential corona virus advisor Scott Atlas : "Although Atlas may be capable of neurological imaging, he’s not an expert in infectious diseases or public health—and it shows. He’s spreading scientific misinformation in a clear attempt to placate the president and push his narrative that COVID-19 is not an emergency." Thorp concludes his article in this prestige journal with a searing indictment "Trump was not clueless, and he was not ignoring the briefings. Listen to his own words. Trump lied, plain and simple."

Submission + - CDC report links dining out to increased Covid-19 risk (cnbc.com)

Submitted by gollum123
gollum123 writes: Dining out raises the risk of contracting Covid-19 more than other activities, such as shopping or going to a salon, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings come as many states consider the safest ways to reopen businesses, especially restaurants. Those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, “were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those with negative SARS-CoV-2 test results,” the study authors wrote. And those who were diagnosed without any known exposure to the virus were more likely to report having visited a bar or coffee shop in the previous two weeks. The increased risk makes sense; it’s easy to wear a mask in stores or in places of worship, but it’s nearly impossible to do so while eating and drinking

Submission + - Big Tech Alliance Standard For Smart Home Tech On Track For 2021 Release (macrumors.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Last year, Apple, Amazon, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance, which includes Ikea, Samsung, and Philips, announced a new working group known as "Project Connected Home over IP" that set about developing an IP-based open-source connectivity standard for smart home products, with a focus on increased compatibility, security, and simplified development for manufacturers. The group has today announced a major update on the project, stating that development is ongoing, and that work is on track for a 2021 release.

The update reveals the first concrete information about how the open-source smart home standard will work. A large number of devices will be supported by the protocol, including "lighting and electrical (e.g., light bulbs, luminaires, controls, plugs, outlets), HVAC controls (e.g., thermostats, AC units), access control (e.g., door locks, garage doors), safety and security (e.g., sensors, detectors, security systems), window coverings/shades, TVs, access points, bridges and others," as well as additional "consumer electronics products." The announcement also reveals that the group has grown significantly, now with 145 active member companies. Between these companies there are hundreds of product, engineering, and marketing experts, working across 30 cross-functional teams to deliver the new standard.

Submission + - SPAM: Amazon's murky world of one-star reviews

Submitted by Thelasko
Thelasko writes: Fake positive reviews on the net are a well-known problem,.
Previous reports have exposed "factories" of bogus reviewers involved in posting five-star write-ups in exchange for freebies.
Only last week, the Financial Times reported some of Amazon's top-ranked UK reviewers appeared to be engaged in such activity. Amazon removed 20,000 fake positive posts over the weekend.
But some sellers now believe it's fake one-star feedback that is the new front of review manipulation.

"I think that now sellers have realised it's very hard to fake getting four-star or five-star reviews," Says consultant Janson Smith.
"So they're like 'hang on let's now bring the competition down so that our score is relatively higher'."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: Unredacted suit shows Google's own engineers confused by privacy settings

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Newly unsealed and partially unredacted documents from a consumer fraud suit the state of Arizona filed against Google show that company employees knew and discussed among themselves that the company's location privacy settings were confusing and potentially misleading.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office launched its own investigation following the AP report, and in May 2020 the state sued Google, alleging that the company violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

The initial lawsuit was heavily redacted, as the Arizona Mirror reports. But following an August 3 petition from trade groups Digital Content Next and the News Media Alliance, the judge has ordered several documents related to the case to be unsealed, and a new, less-redacted version of the suit is now available.

Flashback: Hotel Googlefornia. "Behind the scenes, Hill’s specialty VPN blocked her devices from trying to ping Google’s servers more than 15,000 times — in just the first few hours. After a week, it had stopped more than 100,000 attempts to share data with Google. And to repeat, this is after Hill had stopped using any of Google’s apps or services. The company has its tendrils all throughout the internet."
Link to Original Source

Submission + - TikTok to launch court action over Donald Trump's crackdown (theguardian.com)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: TikTok has said it will mount a court challenge to the Trump administration’s crackdown on the popular Chinese-owned service, which Washington accuses of being a national security threat. Amid tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, Donald Trump signed an executive order on 6 August giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance – effectively setting a deadline for a potential pressured sale of the viral video sensation to a US company.

"Even though we strongly disagree with the administration’s concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good faith to provide a constructive solution," TikTok said in a statement. "What we encountered instead was a lack of due process as the administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses. “To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the executive order through the judicial system." ByteDance said on Saturday night that it would file the lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday.

Submission + - SPAM: US WeChat users sue Trump

Submitted by Hmmmmmm
Hmmmmmm writes: The complaint, filed Friday in San Francisco, is being brought by the nonprofit U.S. WeChat Users Alliance and several people who say they rely on the app for work, worship and staying in touch with relatives in China. The plaintiffs said they are not affiliated with WeChat, nor its parent company, Tencent Holdings.

  “We think there's a First Amendment interest in providing continued access to that app and its functionality to the Chinese-American community,” Michael Bien, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said Saturday.

  “The first thing we’re going to seek is a postponement of the implementation of the penalties and sanctions —- a reasonable period of time between explaining what the rules are and punishing people for not complying with them,” Bien said.

  “Since the executive order, numerous users, including plaintiffs, have scrambled to seek alternatives without success. They are now afraid that by merely communicating with their families, they may violate the law and face sanctions," according to the complaint.

Zhu believes the executive order means a complete ban on WeChat in the US because a previous executive order (No. 13873) cross-referenced by the one on WeChat had defined the term “transaction” to include the downloading and use of an app.

The consequences could be dire – if someone chooses to disobey the executive order, they may face a civil fine of $300,000 per violation and jail time, according to the Alliance’s analysis.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - SPAM: SpaceX raises $1.9 billion in latest funding round: report

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: SpaceX has raised over $1.9 billion in new funding this month, representing its largest single fundraising round to date, according to a report from SpaceNews.

A regulatory filing on Tuesday (Aug. 18) showed that 75 investors made equity investments in Elon Musk's launch company. SpaceX is also selling an additional $165 million in common stock, which would put the final amount of new funding at $2.07 billion, SpaceNews reported.

The California-based company raised more than $346 million in May after increasing the ceiling to $350 million, up from $250 million in February, according to the company's earlier filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). "None of those SEC disclosures were filed at the end of SpaceX's fundraising rounds. If both rounds are funded to completion, then SpaceX will have raised $2.41 billion," Space News reported.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Bletchley Park Museum to layoff a third of it's staff (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by simpz
simpz writes: The Guardian is reporting that Bletchley Park Museum is planning to make a third of it's staff redundant. This, of course, the museum of British wartime codebreakers, including famously Alan Turing.

I personally think Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Twitter etc should all chip in to stop this from happening. Without Alan Turing and others, they wouldn't have a business, and to these companies this is small change.

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