We Need to Talk About These Weird “New York Times” Presidential Candidate Interviews
A week out from the first Democratic presidential debates, the New York Times interviewed 21 of the 24 candidates—but not Joe Biden—and asked all of them the same 18 questions. It’s a pretty fun concept, which, if not quite a substantive alternative to a debate, succeeds in illustrating just how weird and boring presidential candidates—and […]
Fatty fish without environmental pollutants protect against type 2 diabetes
If the fatty fish we eat were free of environmental pollutants, it would reduce our risk of developing type 2 diabetes. However, the pollutants in the fish have the opposite effect and appears to eliminate the protective effect from fatty fish intake. This has been shown by researchers using innovative methods that could be used to address several questions about food and health in future studies.
As we approach the release of the Librem 5 smartphone (Q3 of 2019), we're going to take a look at 1 application (or game, or feature) running on the Librem 5 Development Kit every single day.
Starting with something fun:
Day 1 - AisleRiot Solitaire
Census Case Could Cement John Roberts’ Legacy of Upholding White Power
In 1997, Duane Buck, a 34-year-old African American man, was convicted of double murder in Texas. At the trial, a court-appointed psychologist called as a witness by Buck’s lawyer testified that Buck was more likely to commit future violent crimes because he was black. “Race. Black: Increased probability,” the expert report said. Influenced by this […]
The Los Angeles County DA Has Put 22 People on Death Row. Not One of Them Was White.
In Los Angeles County, only people of color have been sentenced to death in the last seven years. In a new report titled “The California Death Penalty Is Discriminatory, Unfair, and Officially Suspended: So Why Does Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey Still Seek to Use It?” the American Civil Liberties Union details how Lacey, […]
Unexpected culprit: Wetlands as source of methane
Wetlands are an important part of the Earth's natural water management system. The complex system of plants, soil, and aquatic life serves as a reservoir that captures and cleans water. However, as cities have expanded, many wetlands were drained for construction. In addition, many areas of land in the Midwest were drained to increase uses for agriculture to feed a growing world.
Yogurt may help to lower pre-cancerous bowel growth risk in men
Eating two or more weekly servings of yogurt may help to lower the risk of developing the abnormal growths (adenomas) which precede the development of bowel cancer -- at least in men -- finds new research.
Massachusetts Can Become a National Leader to Stop Face Surveillance
Massachusetts has a long history of standing up for liberty. Right now, it has the opportunity to become a national leader in fighting invasive government surveillance. Lawmakers need to hear from the people of Massachusetts to say they oppose government use of face surveillance.
Face surveillance poses a threat to our privacy, chills protest in public places, and gives law enforcement unregulated power to undermine due process. The city of Somerville—home of Tufts University—has heard these concerns and is considering a ban on that city’s use of face surveillance. Meanwhile, bills before the Massachusetts General Court would pause the government’s use of face surveillance technology on a statewide basis. This moratorium would remain in place unless the legislature passes measures to regulate these technologies, protect civil liberties, and ensure oversight of face surveillance use.
Face recognition technology has disproportionately high error rates for women and people of color. Making matters worse, law enforcement agencies often rely on images pulled from mugshot databases—which exacerbates historical biases born of unfair policing in Black and Latinx neighborhoods. If such systems are incorporated into street lights or other forms of surveillance cameras, people in these communities may be unfairly targeted simply because they appeared in another database or were subject to discriminatory policing in the past.
Last month, San Francisco became the first city in the country to ban government use of face surveillance, showing it is possible for us to take back our privacy in public places. Oakland is now examining a similar proposal. Somerville is the first community on the East Coast to consider a ban.
The people of Somerville, with support from Ward 3 Council Member Ben Ewen-Campen, have a chance now to stand against government use of face surveillance and proclaim that they do not want it in their community. Speak up to protect your privacy rights, and demand that the Somerville City Council pass Councilor Ewen-Campen’s ordinance banning government use of face surveillance in Somerville.
Support Somerville’s ban on face surveillance
If you are in the Somerville area and would like to speak at the city’s legislative affairs council meeting, please contact organizing@eff.org.
The Somerville City Council has also endorsed a pair of bills in the state legislature that would press pause on the use of face surveillance throughout Massachusetts. Specifically, Massachusetts bills S.1385 and H.1538 would place a moratorium on government use of face surveillance.
If you are in the Somerville area and would like to speak at the city’s legislative affairs council meeting, please contact organizing@eff.org.
The Somerville City Council has also endorsed a pair of bills in the state legislature that would press pause on the use of face surveillance throughout Massachusetts. Specifically, Massachusetts bills S.1385 and H.1538 would place a moratorium on government use of face surveillance.
Tell your legislators to press the pause button on face surveillance
Polling from the ACLU of Massachusetts has found that 91 percent of likely voters in the state support government regulation of face recognition surveillance and other biometric tracking. More than three-quarters, 79 percent, support a statewide moratorium.
Governments should immediately stop use of face surveillance in our communities, given what researchers at MIT’s Media Lab and others have said about its high error rates—particularly for women and people of color. But even if manufacturers someday mitigate these risks, government use of face recognition technology will threaten safety and privacy, amplify discrimination in our criminal justice system, and chill of every resident’s free speech.
Support bans in your own communities and tell lawmakers it’s time to hit the pause button on face surveillance across the country.
“Hardhats vs. Hippies”: How the Media Misrepresents the Debate Over the Green New Deal
A recent Politicoarticle about the Green New Deal resolution put forward in February by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) features many grumblings from blue-collar union members about the potential economic disruption and the loss of jobs—even though the resolution calls for union rights and a federal jobs guarantee for workers. The article opens with Robbie Hunter, the president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, which represents 450,000 construction workers and apprentices, who is leading a union-led advocacy campaign called #BlueCollarRevolution. A drastic shift away from oil industry jobs in California, Hunter contends, could “export our jobs, while doing nothing for the end game, which is the environmental."
Trump Says ICE Will Start Removing “Millions of Illegal Aliens.” Here’s What’s Actually Happening.
On Monday evening, one day before officially launching his reelection bid, President Donald Trump tweeted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will soon begin “the process of removing” millions of undocumented immigrants from the country. Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into […]
Raw Data: Suicide Rates Among Men and Women
Axios reports today on “Generation Z’s suicide epidemic.” Among the older half of Generation Z, suicide is the “highest it’s been since at least 1999.” That’s true, and among girls it’s the highest it’s ever been. But among boys it’s not quite at its peak from the late 80s and early 90s—though it will get […]
Two new Earth-like planets discovered near Teegarden's Star
An international research team has discovered two new Earth-like planets near one of our closest stars. Teegarden's Star is about 12.5 light years away and is one of the smallest known stars.
New study shows how environmental disruptions affected ancient societies
A new study shows that over the past 10,000 years, humanity has experienced a number of foundational transitions, or 'bottlenecks.' During these periods of transition, the advance or decline of societies was related to energy availability in the form of a benign climate and other factors.
New insight from Great Barrier Reef coral provides correction factor to climate records
Newly developed geological techniques help uncover the most accurate and high-resolution climate records to date, according to a new study. The research finds that the standard practice of using modern and fossil coral to measure sea-surface temperatures may not be as straightforward as originally thought. By combining high-resolution microscopic techniques and geochemical modeling, researchers are using the formational history of Porites coral skeletons to fine-tune the records used to make global climate predictions.
Think you're entitled to privacy on Facebook? Think again. https://static.nytimes.com/email-content/PRIV_14418.html?campaign_id=122&instance_id=10302&segment_id=14418&user_id=3593d0a3aec76354dafb17a2c0249e69®i_id=91658101 #privacy
Leaving microbes out of climate change conversation has major consequences, experts warn
Leading microbiologists have issued a warning, saying that not including microbes -- the support system of the biosphere -- in the climate change equation will have major negative flow-on effects.
Certbot's Website Gets a Refresh
Certbot has a brand new website! Today we’ve launched a major update that will help Certbot’s users get started even more quickly and easily.
Certbot is a free, open source software tool for enabling HTTPS on manually-administered websites, by automatically deploying Let’s Encrypt certificates. Since we introduced it in 2016, Certbot has helped over a million users enable encryption on their sites, and we think this update will better meet the needs of the next million, and beyond.
Certbot is part of EFF’s larger effort to encrypt the entire Internet. Websites need to use HTTPS to secure the web. Along with our browser add-on, HTTPS Everywhere, Certbot aims to build a network that is more structurally private, safe, and protected against censorship.
This change is the culmination of a year’s work in understanding how users interact with the Certbot tool and information around it. Last year, the Certbot team ran user studies to identify areas of confusion—from questions users had when getting started to common mistakes that were often made. These findings led to changes in both the instructions for interacting with the command-line tool, and in how users get the full range of information necessary to set up HTTPS.
The new site will make it clearer what the best steps are for all users, whether that’s understanding the prerequisites to running Certbot, getting clear steps to install and run it, or figuring out how to get HTTPS in their setup without using Certbot at all.
Over a year ago, Let’s Encrypt hit 50 million active users—and counting. We hope this update will help us expand on that peak, and make unencrypted websites a thing of the past.
#ShlaerMellor, #FunctionPointAnalysis, #punk, #environmentalist, #unionAdvocate, #anarchosocialist
"with a big old lie and a flag and a pie and a mom and a bible most folks are just liable to buy any line, any place, any time" - Frank Zappa