Comment Poorly named title (Score 1) 1
There's pros and cons to the ISDS provisions in such agreements as NAFTA and TPP, but I'd hardly consider such arbitration a vector for ruling the world.
Submission + - Google Testing Software to Judge Hollywood and TV's Portrayal of Women 1
theodp writes: Aside from it being hosted in a town without a movie theater, the 2016 Bentonville Film Festival was also unusual in that it required all entrants to submit "film scripts and downloadable versions of the film" for judgment by "the team at Google and USC", apparently part of a larger Google-funded research project with USC Engineering "to develop a computer science tool that could quickly and efficiently assess how women are represented in films" (an award for "Highest Diversity Score" was awarded at the film fest, fittingly to the film 'Tested'). Fest reports noted that representatives of Google and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy appeared in a "Reel vs. Real Diversity" panel presentation at the fest, where the importance of diversity and science to President Obama was discussed, and the lack of qualified people to fill 500,000 U.S. tech jobs was blamed in part on how STEM careers have been presented in film and television. White House Visitor Records show that in the weeks leading up to the festival, representatives of the Bentonville Film Fest and Google met at the White House with scores of female educators, advocates, and activists from universities and nonprofits, as well as execs from the toy, game, film, television, print, and retail industry. In a 2015 report on a Google-sponsored USC Viterbi School of Engineering MacGuyver-themed event to promote women in engineering, USC reported that President Obama was kept briefed on efforts to challenge media's stereotypical portrayals of women. As for its own track record, Google recently updated its Diversity page, boasting that "21% of new hires in 2015 were women in tech, compared to 19% of our current population," although its most recently posted EEO-1 report showing actual headcount is still from a pay period in 2014.
Comment What's wrong with GFCI and Tamper proof outlets? (Score 2) 284
I like your thinking about possible safety avenues, but I'm not sure any of them have any real merit.
Regarding toddlers sticking metal objects into the socket, the 2008 National Electric Code calls for tamper proof outlets, which are already adopted by an overwhelming majority of states. Those are fairly cheap and prevent sticking items in one side of the socket. GFCIs have been around for quite a while that trip if it detects a slight imbalance in electric flow, sending the current through a relay which cuts the power.
I don't see how and outlet could logically not allow current t o flow if it risks overloading the circuit since it would need to have the draw first to determine that. Isn't this what circuit breakers are traditionally for? Implementing that in an outlet would seem to be like a GFCI where it trips that outlet but leaves the circuit functional. I'm pretty sure voltage would require the device to be smarter, not the outlet.
Grounding on an outlet (the third prong) is only good for protecting equipment, not people. Again, the device would be able to make that determination if its smart enough, the outlet has no practical way of enforcing that without being able to tell a smart device to actually flow current through ground and then sense it for verification. An outlet on its own can't do it, and assuming both outlets and devices were changed to support it, said device would then trip a GFCI if it wasn't plugged into one of these special outlets.
Comment Yes, the customer pays indirectly, but that still (Score 3, Insightful) 93
Yes, the customer pays indirectly, but that still doesn't change the fact that AA is being forced to provide the information through an intermediary that is a competitor. We have both sides that have a stake in how the information is transferred in an effort to reduce costs on their end, increasing profits, which inversely affects the other. I'm torn between siding with AA who owns the information, and Orbitz who was/is already wired to use their provider. As a consumer, I could wash my hands of this as I rarely fly AA due to costs, but I think the principle of the matter is important here.
Comment Am I missing something? (Score 4, Insightful) 93
Maybe I'm misinterpreting the article, but what is up with a business (AA) being forced to use a specific third party processor owned by a competitor and paying for the "privilege" in this manner. AA is the originator of the information and it should be at their discretion to which global distribution systems they publish it to
According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_reservations_system) there are a handful of systems. The top two each serve just under half of the U.S. market share, one of which is created by American Airlines. The next largest is Travelport's "Worldspan" which is used by Orbitz.
Comment Calculation error? (Score 2, Informative) 307
If prepaid runs less then $.01/min, then shouldn't you be able to get 450 minutes a month for less then $4.50, as opposed to the $8 you stated?
UK Rejects Extending Music Copyright 338
timrichardson writes "The British Government has rejected extending copyright for sound recordings. This is an important development in the face of trends to extend copyright duration, although it leaves British copyright protection for music recordings at a shorter duration than for written works. The decision came despite fierce lobbying from the large British music industry. The music industry will now lobby directly to the European Commission, but without the support of the national government, its position is significantly weakened. British copyright for music recordings therefore remains at 50 years after the date of release of a recording, in contrast to 95 years in the US and 70 years in Australia."
PubPat Kills Four Key Monsanto Patents 436
IP Ergo Sum writes "PubPat's request for reexamination resulted in the rejection of four key Monsanto patents. According to PubPat, those particular patents were being used to 'harass, intimidate, sue — and in many cases bankrupt — American farmers.'"
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