Link
- Why?
- Why??
- Why???
- The Supreme Court might destroy affirmative action because this white woman’s grades weren’t good enough - Slate
- A Colorblind Constitution: What Abigail Fisher’s Affirmative Action Case Is Really About - ProPublica
- Fisher v. University of Texas - Wikipedia
- SCOTUSBlog case file on Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
- Press the MENU button on your TV's remote.
- Select Settings.
- Highlight Smart Interactivity.
- Press RIGHT arrow to change setting to Off.
- Press the MENU button on your TV's remote or open HDTV Settings app.
- Select System.
- Select Reset & Admin.
- Highlight Smart Interactivity.
- Press RIGHT arrow to change setting to Off.
Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above
Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above
Pritchett had no idea that as he spoke, a small Cessna airplane equipped with a sophisticated array of cameras was circling Baltimore at roughly the same altitude as the massing clouds. The plane’s wide-angle cameras captured an area of roughly 30 square miles and continuously transmitted real-time images to analysts on the ground. The footage from the plane was instantly archived and stored on massive hard drives, allowing analysts to review it weeks later if necessary.
It must be the NSA or the CIA or the FBI, right? They must have a warrant, right? They must be deleting the video after a certain period of time, right?
Wrong.
It’s the Baltimore Police Department. The article and accompanying video clarify the motivation of the company providing the technology and the service to BPD. Founder Ross McNutt says he hopes technology like his will have a deterrent effect on crime in cities where its deployment is disclosed. That’s a good goal but it’s not the BPD or the company’s founder I’m worried about.
Anything on a hard drive that isn’t air gapped is vulnerable to exfiltration by hackers. That includes a massive digital video recorder covering an entire city for an indeterminate amount of time.
Scary stuff.
NJ law would require pet stores sell only rescue animals
NJ law would require pet stores sell only rescue animals
John C. Ensslin reports for The Record:
New pet stores in New Jersey would be allowed to sell only cats and dogs obtained from shelters, pounds and animal rescue organization under a bill the state Senate passed Thursday.
The bill still has to go to the Assembly and will face industry opposition there, but it’s a great step forward. Find more information about the bill here. You can read an embedded PDF of the Senate version below this post.
A Slack bot to alert about missing children
A Slack bot to alert about missing children
[caption id=“attachment_2481” align=“aligncenter” width=“700”]
Slack screenshot of MissingKidsBot[/caption]
From the product page of MissingKidsBot, built by David Markovich and Daniel Doubrovkine:
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, roughly 800,000 children are reported missing each year in the United States -- that's roughly 2,000 per day.
This is a really great idea, and something everyone with a Slack group should consider adding. However small the chances are that you’ll ever see something that might help with one of these alerts, a child’s life will always be worth it.
Nerds can look at the code over on Github. And those of you who don’t use Slack should keep an eye out for MissingKidsBot on Facebook, Skype and WhatsApp.
Apple users targeted in first known Mac ransomware campaign
Apple users targeted in first known Mac ransomware campaign
Jim Finkle reports for Reuters:
Hackers infected Macs through a tainted copy of a popular program known as Transmission, which is used to transfer data through the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing network, Palo Alto said on a blog posted on Sunday afternoon.
The cynical part of me wonders whether this is a clever move by one or more media companies to discourage the use of BitTorrent clients.
I know, maybe I need to order a tin-foil hat. But when even Kanye is pirating stuff it’s really time to bust out some innovative new tactics.
The perils of marriage equality
The perils of marriage equality
Professor Kimberly Mutcherson of Rutgers Law School writes at Concurring Opinions about Professor Katherine Franke’s recent book ‘Wedlocked: the Perils of Marriage Equality’:
We do not want to reinforce familial hierarchies by forcing people into specific family arrangements in order to warrant recognition (2 parents only), nor do we want to fetishize outsider families such that those who do not fit that model are denigrated for their choices (i.e., the adoptive parents who choose a closed adoption or the birth mother who opts for such an adoption thus perhaps not being queer enough in their choices). In thinking about the ways in which reproductive justice calls for us to respect the right to have a child, not have a child, or parent that child in a safe and healthy environment, the upshot for me is that the reproductive justice paradigm does not demand that outsider families conform to some particular form in order to help dismantle hierarchy.
I have thought about this concern since undergrad, where postcolonial literature, feminism and even semiotics courses touched on the nature of othering as an active verb, something done to a group of people. I was lucky enough to take a course in law school called Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and the Law with Professor Leonore F. Carpenter which expanded my understanding and interest in the dynamics of queer identity, family and legal frameworks.
The specific concern with which I’ve been preoccupied since then is that there is a danger in radical acceptance or the success of various equality movements. The danger I see is in achieving a nominal or “seat at the table” equality that normalizes othered groups to the frameworks of the groups that have historically done the othering.
One infuriating example of how I think about this stuff is the so-called equality of separate-but-equal, which of course was not equality at all. In the case of race, equality is not allowing non-white people to do all the stuff white people are allowed to do, but allowing non-white people to do whatever it is non-white people want to do, which is really what has always been allowed to white Americans.
I see Professors Franke and Mutcherson making a similar point about the danger of seeing marriage equality as squeezing queer couples and families into 1) heteronormative cis-gendered and/or culturally/racially segregated family models or 2) altogether new models, sometimes developed by hand-wavingly obnoxious if well-intentioned hetero-cis folks. Maybe I’m mistaken, but the overall approach as I see it being explained by these two scholars is essentially to stop putting up new roads and signs for queer families and just get the hell out of the way.
Read Mutcherson’s entire post, it’s worth it. And I’ve added “Wedlocked' to my Kindle wishlist, which is growing faster than I can keep up.
Re: Dumb conspiracy theories on Scalia's death
Enough with the conspiracy theories about Justice Scalia’s death
I read this earlier today:
"As a former homicide commander, I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia," William O. Ritchie wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, according to reports. After seeking to cast doubt on the conclusion of the deputy U.S. marshals who responded to a call from the ranch, he added, "My gut tells me there is something fishy going on in Texas."
My gut tells me there is some fishing for attention going on in the head of the former D.C. police officer who said that.
Why?
Let’s consider this:
Was it a Liberal conspiracy to get President Obama one more lasting decision about the future of United States legal policy?
Was it a “Conservative” conspiracy to give Congressional Republicans and presidential candidates something “meaningful” to “stand up” to Obama about?
Was it Ancient Aliens?
There was no autopsy, they say! There was a pillow above his head, they say! The President was told long before anyone else, they say (as if the President doesn’t get most of the news before everyone else…)!
Conspiracy theorists demand: “What is your proof Scalia wasn’t murdered?”
These stupid theories remind me of one of the frequent arguments levied against atheists: “What is your proof that there is no god??”
Who proved god exists in the first place?
Pillows
Many articles note the ranch owner who found Scalia said there was a pillow above his head, and many conspiracy theorists point to this as suspicious. I sleep with a pillow over my head every night, and another one underneath it, using the two to drown out the sounds of an increasingly conspiratorial world so I can maintain my slumber all night long.
No conspiracy. Just a light sleeper.
Politics aside
I disagreed with much of Justice Scalia’s Supreme Court jurisprudence but his presence on the Court was invaluable to the development of United States law and the debates from which it springs.
He articulated his positions in such a way that I (almost always) respected them, even when I found it hard to believe someone so intelligent was seriously asserting them. He was rarely conclusory, giving reasons for his views, and whether you agreed with those reasons or not, that’s more than most politicians (and lawyers) usually do.
His death is a loss, but there are few more certain paths to some sort of immortality than thirty years on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Photo: Then-nominee Antonin Scalia, right, with President Ronald Reagan in 1986, via Wikipedia
Google begins rolling out free internet to public housing in Fiber cities
Google begins rolling out free internet to public housing in Fiber cities
This is a big deal. I worked at the Philadelphia Housing Authority for years and talked to a lot of kids and adults about their desire to get online. Philly isn’t yet on Google’s Fiber expansion roadmap, but this is a great development.
Retiring founder wants $1M for his SCOTUS audio archive
Retiring founder wants $1M for his SCOTUS audio archive
Oyez is a robust archive of audio recordings and other information spanning much of the history of the Supreme Court of the United States. Its founder Chicago-Kent College of Law Professor Jerry Goldman is looking for a buyer as he nears retirement. Jess Bravin reports at the Wall Street Journal:
The sticking point, however, isn’t the annual budget; Harvard Law School, for one, has offered to pick up the operating cost. But Mr. Goldman also wants to be paid for the sweat he’s put into his baby–or at least the intellectual property it represents—something he estimates is worth well over $1 million.
Here comes an entitled opinion right here: A decision to somehow “close down” Oyez if no one is willing to put up six or seven figures for it would be morally bankrupt and stain Professor Goldman’s otherwise admirable legacy.
No Rey, No Way
LucasFilm to toy vendors: No Rey
Michael Boehm at Sweatpants and Coffee:
The insider, who was at those meetings, described how initial versions of many of the products presented to Lucasfilm featured Rey prominently. At first, discussions were positive, but as the meetings wore on, one or more individuals raised concerns about the presence of female characters in the Star Wars products. Eventually, the product vendors were specifically directed to exclude the Rey character from all Star Wars-related merchandise, said the insider.
I want to be infuriated and surprised by this revelation, but I’m just infuriated.
U.S. DOT paving way for self-driving cars (and a Klingons aside)
U.S. DOT paving way for self-driving cars
Chris Ziegler reports at The Verge:
DOT and NHTSA will develop the new tools necessary for this new era of vehicle safety and mobility, and will seek new authorities when they are necessary to ensure that fully autonomous vehicles, including those designed without a human driver in mind, are deployable in large numbers when demonstrated to provide an equivalent or higher level of safety than is now available.
This is far more progressive than I expected the federal government to be on the autonomous transportation vehicle front, primarily for safety reasons. It’s good news.
More than 13,000 untested rape kits in Florida
More than 13,000 untested rape kits in Florida
This bit sent shivers down my spine:
After Detroit processed a backlog of 11,000 rape kits, police identified more than 100 serial rape suspects.
Why shivers? Because it instantly prompts me to wonder how many women were raped who wouldn’t have been raped if these kits were more efficiently processed.
Cosby charged with sexual assault
Bill Cosby charged with sexual assault in Pennsylvania
The TV legend is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand when she visited his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. A probable cause affidavit filed by investigators this week alleges that Cosby “sought to incapacitate” Constand by giving her a mix of pills and wine that sent her slipping in and out of consciousness and left her unable to consent to sexual activity. Priligy brand and generic Priligy effectiveness reviews read on http://howmed.net/priligy-dapoxetine/.
Ms. Constand settled her civil case against Mr. Cosby but the latter’s statements in a deposition taken for that case and released to the public by request of the press triggered the Montgomery County District Attorney’s obligation to prosecute Cosby.
Is sending porn illegal in Pennsylvania?
Is sending porn illegal in Pennsylvania?
Dave Davies writes on his WHYY blog, Off Mic:
It's right there in the state crimes code; it's a third-class misdemeanor to "sell, lend, distribute, transmit, exhibit, or give away or show any obscene materials to any person 18 years of age or older..." (There's a separate statute prohibiting distribution of pornography to anyone younger than 18.)
He’s right, you can find it at 18 Pa . C.S. 5903. Davies goes on to explain the difficulty of defining “obscenity,” a function of the concept’s basis in community standards which can vary from community to community.
Katie Floyd's 3 Tips For Family Tech Support
Katie Floyd’s 3 Tips For Family Tech Support
Great advice for every geek dreading the holiday “Can you help me with my computer?” conversations.
Laser-armed fighter jets by 2020
Laser-armed fighter jets by 2020
Thom Patterson writes for CNN:
Here's how Air Force special ops might use them: The commander of USAF special ops, Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, said last September that by 2020 he wants them on C-130J Ghostrider gunships for landing zone protection.The laser weapons would take out possible threats like enemy vehicles, or disable infrastructure such as cell towers.
I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens last night (more on that coming in an article later) so laser weapons seem an appropriate story to share today.
Sorry HR, your job descriptions suck
Machine Intelligence In The Real World
[...] Textio is a text editor that recommends improvements to job descriptions as you type. With it, I can go from a 40th percentile job description to a 90th percentile one in just a few minutes, all thanks to a beautifully presented machine learning algorithm.
I respect Human Resources professionals. Their job can be shitty. But so can their job descriptions. The prospects who know what you mean by “incumbent” are probably too pedantic and detail-oriented to apply to the likely underpaid and/or intellectually vapid position you’re hiring for. The ones who don’t know what you mean don’t actually know what they’re applying to, which makes them terrible prospects.
If machine learning can remedy that, I hope it gains wider use. But I don’t think machine learning is necessary to stop writing the kind of drivel that passes for a job description these days. It’s a classic failure of capitalism: when demand dramatically outstrips supply, quality decreases without consequences to the supplier. This goes for jobs, treatment by employers, and even job descriptions. They were never exactly the pinnacle of eloquence, but I’ve seen a serious decline in the past year or so.
Many legal filings written by attorneys are also full of reader-hostile jargon and nonsense clearly included because the lawyer’s writing professor said it should be included, or because the named partner at their first firm always used it. It’s one of the most infuriating and offensive aspects of modern U.S. professional culture as far I’m concerned:
“We do it this way because we do it this way, because the people before us did it this way, that’s why we do it this way.”
Never, ever say that to me. It triggers an almost instinctual, lizard-brain contempt in me and an assumption that whoever said it is incapable of critical thinking or analytical reasoning, and I can be a real asshole when I think that about someone.
"A slower-track school where they do well"
“A slower-track school where they do well”
I’m just going to leave this Justice Scalia quote right here:
There are those who contend that it does not benefit African Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well.
Further reading:
Israeli Supreme Court Rejects Family Petition To Bury Trans Woman As Their “Son"
Israeli Supreme Court Rejects Family Petition To Bury Trans Woman As Their “Son"
Peleg, who was 31, had long been concerned about a battle with her ultra-orthodox family after her death. Their beliefs forbid cremation, and she worried they would attempt to have a religious burial under her male name. Peleg paid for her own cremation in March 2014 at the one funeral home in Jerusalem that performs the service, and filed a will with an attorney a day before her suicide and asked that he fight for her wishes if her family attempted to interfere.
This is heartening. No one should be driven to suicide by discrimination against who they are, but the ultimate insult is ignorance of one’s post-death wishes, because when are we more vulnerable than in death?
Adele's '25' on Pandora
Pandora confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that every track from Adele'e new album is available through its radio service. That's not going to be a particularly great way of listening to 25 — because Pandora is a radio service, it means you can't choose what to listen to and will have to wait for a station to play the new songs — but it does mean that Adele's album is streaming in some form. You just have to be really, really patient to hear it all.
Pandora’s strange licensing niche usually works against it but here, despite the inability to listen through the songs in order, Pandora has something like an exclusive.
I wonder if Adele’s lawyers told her that keeping it off the on-demand streaming services means the track order she chose will not be the one many people hear the first time they hear the songs.
I don’t know how much that matters to modern musicians, or to someone like Adele, who doesn’t really have a customer acquisition problem.
For the, er, record, I prefer to listen to an album in order if possible.
Vizio TVs spy on you, here's how to disable it
Vizio TVs spy on you, here’s how to disable it
Vizio’s technology works by analyzing snippets of the shows you’re watching, whether on traditional television or streaming Internet services such as Netflix. Vizio determines the date, time, channel of programs — as well as whether you watched them live or recorded. The viewing patterns are then connected your IP address - the Internet address that can be used to identify every device in a home, from your TV to a phone.
This is a damn good reason not to buy a Vizio TV. I won’t rant about opt-out/opt-in again. But I found Vizio generally had a good price-to-quality ratio: not top shelf hardware, but not top shelf prices, either. So this shadiness is a shame.
A shamey-ness?
Anyway, props to Samsung and LG, who, according to Julia Angwin at ProPublica, require user consent before enabling the sort of tracking Vizio turns on by default.
Disable Vizio "Smart Interactivity"
Vizio obviously knows how shady its default spying is because they have a page named after the feature which begins with information on how to turn it off: