April 12, 2019
Thanks to Galperin, install antivirus. And it may actually do some good.
With a series of revelatory investigative articles on stalkerware by the tech news site Motherboard (When Spies Come Home) in the back of her mind, Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at EFF, posted a message to Twitter, and it invited any victims of sexual violence who had also been threatened with hacking to contact her for help. That tweet, to Galperin's surprise, would end up taking over a significant portion of her life. Now Hacker Eva Galperin Has a Plan to Eradicate Stalkerware (Wired). [more inside]
Do you want to play a game?
Crowd source investigating images of tiny capillaries and shorten thousands of hours of Alzheimer's research to one afternoon. The Megathon is a “mega catching marathon” in Stall Catchers – a citizen science game that anyone can play to help speed up Alzheimer's research. Learn more about the game here. "Catchathons" gather communities worldwide for intense "catching marathons", breaking records while analyzing new data from Cornell University. With everyone pitching in, we can accelerate the research by orders of magnitude. [more inside]
Advanced Sci-Fi Civilizations Too Stupid To Really Exist
Media Zealot talks about your faves: The Engineers from Alien? The Humans in Avatar? Idiots. The Prawns from District 9? Morons. But wait. What about The Kryptonians (with bonus dubstep)? Total Doofuses. The Borg? (Klutzes). But let's not forget the Daleks (Cretins) and The Empire (Nazis).
"The truth is being buried in double talk and misleading court numbers"
Following a multi-year investigation by housing complex reporter Morgan Baskin, the Washington City Paper has published a bombshell story detailing efforts by the management of DC's Child and Family Services Agency to meet performance improvement benchmarks required by a federal lawsuit--by fudging the stats, cutting corners, and overcrowding social workers' caseloads past the breaking point. The article (published in print with the subhead Social workers at DC's child welfare agency live and work in breathtaking fear) describes devastating consequences for DC's at-risk children and families as well as frontline agency staff. Content warning: descriptions of child neglect and abuse.
The Rule Of Law
The Punishment Bureaucracy: How To Think About Criminal Justice Reform, Alec Karakatsanis, Yale Law Journal [more inside]
Bolsonaro Out of AMNH!
When a natural history museum hosts a president bent on destroying nature – Critics say that a planned event at the American Museum of Natural History honoring Jair Bolsonaro is antithetical to the institute’s mission and values.
LAIKA
On November 3rd 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 into Space. On board the satellite was the first Earthling to go into orbit. (SLV).
Come for the Walrus, Stay for Leaping Icebergs
David Attenborough's Scariest Moments The cliff climbing walrus caught my eye, and not a lot of good can come from this shenanigan. David Attenborough describes some thrilling experiences out on the wild Earth. The most captivating concerned leaping ice... [more inside]
Green is the new Orange
Four years ago, Alberta's NDP won a historic election. This year's Canadian election surprise looks like it might come from Prince Edward Island. [more inside]
"No One's Ever Really Gone"
The first trailer for Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker has been released (SLYT)
Prerequisites: Trig 1001, Geometry 1001
Catriona Shearer: Maths teacher and fan of geometric puzzles.
New York City And The Green New Deal
“If passed, the bill would likely be the largest single legislative mandate to cut climate pollution by any city in the world. The legislation, by one estimate, would create a demand for more than 3,600 jobs construction jobs per year and another 4,400 jobs in maintenance, services and operations, fueled by the sheer magnitude of the investment required to meet the emissions goals. ” New York City Charges Ahead With Its Own Green New Deal (HuffPost) “This rally marked the launch of the Public Bank NYC coalition, more than 20 grassroots groups seeking a banking alternative. Because public banks are not run for the benefit of private shareholders, the banks can offer lower rates and fees, and profits can be reinvested into the community rather than trickling up to the already-wealthy.” Public Banking Can Fund The Zero-Carbon Economy (In These Times) Rally Photos “The group envisions a future where the industrial waterfront accommodates not only artisanal wine and candle shops, but the assembly of solar panels and wind turbines, which would provide thousands of good-paying green-collar jobs for local residents.” Industry City: A Green New Deal Vs. Gentrification in Sunset Park
Shopping stopped at Stop & Shop
Roughly 31,000 employees of the grocery store chain Stop & Shop launched the largest private-sector strike in the U.S. in years, walking off the job at 240 stores across New England on Thursday. [more inside]
Preserving and restoring computer history
Marc Verdiell is an engineer with an interest in restoring old computers and test equipment and documenting the process in detailed and fun YouTube videos. He has restored a Xerox Alto, a mechanical calculator from 1956, a Model 19 Teletype, and an HP Spectrum Analyzer, among other things. He often works with colleagues from the Computer History Museum of California, including Ken Shirriff who was recently featured on the blue. The team's current project is restoring an Apollo Guidance Computer, of all things. I never thought there could be so much drama in poking around in aged computers but here we are. (Oh, and he made his own R2-D2. Don't miss Marc's tour of R2LA, featuring adorable children in droids.)
The Most Interesting Man In Baseball
Chris Davis is flailing his way to a dubious piece of baseball history, setting records for futility on a fledgling Baltimore Orioles team that will likely find its way toward the bottom of the standings again in 2019. Davis hit a double off James Shields last Sept. 14, but doesn’t have a hit to his name since. He ended 2018 on an 0-for-21 slump, and entered Thursday at 0-for-29 in 2019. The 0-for-50 for Davis is the longest hitless streak by a non-pitcher in major league history. [more inside]
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