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Submission + - Canadian schools burning and burying old Tin Tin and Asterisk books over race (google.com) 1

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: A major literary clean-up took place in the libraries of the Providence Catholic School Board, which brings together 30 French-language schools throughout southwestern Ontario. Nearly 5,000 children's books on Aboriginal people were destroyed in an effort to reconcile with the First Nations the country's French Language broadcaster reports.

Books that featured crafts described as cultural appropriation were also withdrawn.

Submission + - 50,000 Facebook posts leading up to Jan 6 riot go missing to due to 'glitch'. (politico.eu)

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: The social media company said it was a technical error, and has been fixed, but tens of thousands of posts are still missing.

Researchers first discovered the missing posts after comparing two versions of a Crowdtangle database of Facebook content produced by U.S. media outlets between September 2020 and January 2021. The academics flagged the issue to Facebook on August 3 — hours before the company suspended Edelson and two other researchers' accounts, including their access to Crowdtangle, for their separate work around political ads.

Submission + - Major U.K. science funder to require grantees to make papers free (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: The policy by the funder, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will expand on existing rules covering all research papers produced from its £8 billion in annual funding.

About three-quarters of papers recently published from U.K. universities are open access, and UKRI’s current policy gives scholars two routes to comply: Pay journals for “gold” open access, which makes a paper free to read on the publisher’s website, or choose the “green” route, which allows them to deposit a near-final version of the paper on a public repository, after a waiting period of up to 1 year.

From April 2022, that yearlong delay will no longer be permitted: Researchers choosing green open access must deposit the paper immediately when it is published.

Submission + - SPAM: Total Deaths Due to COVID-19 Underestimated by 20 per cent in US Counties

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: More than 15 months into the pandemic, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is nearing 600,000. But COVID-19 deaths may be underestimated by 20 percent, according to a new study from the journal PLOS Medicine. The study uses data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to estimate the number of deaths in 2,096 counties from January to December 2020 above what would be expected in a normal year, or “excess deaths.”

For every 100 excess deaths directly attributed to COVID-19, there were another 20 excess deaths not attributed to COVID-19. In other words, 20 out of every 120 excess deaths, or 17 percent, were not directly attributed to COVID.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Memo shows Canada hopes to regulate news sites, podcasts, audio books and porn (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: Canadian Trudeau government has tried deflecting concern with that it's new legislation will only make “web giants” pay their fair share. Yet according to an internal government memo, they envision a far broader regulatory reach identifying podcasts, audiobooks, home workout apps, adult websites, sports, and even foreign video services such as Britbox, BBC and CPAC as ripe targets for regulation.

C-10 requires national registration, disclosure of financial and viewership data, Canadian content discoverability requirements (yes, that could mean Canadian discoverability for pornography services), and mandated payments to support Canadian film, television, and music production.

Submission + - Scheme flooding in Tor may be able to profile users (schemeflood.com)

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: Tor users, beware: 'Scheme flooding' probes for installed apps with custom URL schemes, it's possible to build 32-bit user profiles. Visiting the schemeflood.com site using a desktop (not mobile) browser and clicking demo generates a flood of custom URL scheme requests using a pre-populated list of likely apps that may generate a response. It's not very accurate but could cross track you if you're visiting some sites with Tor and others with a conventional browser.

Submission + - Tiny, Wireless, Injectable Chips Use Ultrasound to Monitor Body Processes (columbia.edu)

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: Columbia Engineers develop the smallest single-chip system that is a complete functioning electronic circuit; implantable chips visible only in a microscope point the way to developing chips that can be injected into the body with a hypodermic needle to monitor medical conditions.

Sadly, one may also imagine that this technology will become a boogieman amongst the anti-science crowd.

Submission + - Happy 50th Birthday FTP (filestash.app) 1

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: April 16 1971 is not only the date where the Rolling Stone first released Brown Sugar, it is also the publication date of RFC 114 which mark the birthday of FTP.

Comment Competing with real sports watches may not be wise (Score 2) 18

by sandbagger (#61204786) Attached to: Apple Considers Launching Rugged Watch For Extreme Sports

Polar and Garmin have been making sports watches for athletes for decades. The software and stats they have for serious athletes validates the market but, really, is this where Apple needs to spend money to compete? Tracking vertical oscillation as you run is valuable for runners and other weird statistics is important for runners but really how much will Apple spend developing this and other features to compete for the small market place for serious athletes.

Also, let's not under estimate how brutally competent the competition is. Garmin makes radar systems that connect with their watches so that riders can be alerted about cars approaching from behind.

Apple makes excellent consumer products. Polar's heart rate monitor is as close to medical grade as it gets. Apple could push their chips in to compete, sure, but for how big a return for a comparatively small marketplace.

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