Interesting

Category: Society (Page 1 of 18)

Amazon postponing the implementing Microsoft’s cloud-based Office suite for its workforce due to security concerns

Matt Day, writing in Bloomberg »

Amazon paused the rollout after Microsoft discovered a Russia-linked hacker group had gained access to some of its employees’ email accounts. After conducting its own analysis of the software, Amazon asked for changes to guard against unauthorized access and create a more detailed accounting of user activity in the apps, some of which Microsoft also markets as Office 365.

It’s an unusual confluence of events: a massive commercial deal between two Seattle-area cloud-computing rivals, a state-sponsored hack, and an engineering collaboration that could improve the security of the world’s most widely used office productivity software.

“We deep-dived into O365 and all of the controls around it and we held – just as we would any of our service teams within Amazon – we held them to the same bar,” said CJ Moses, Amazon’s chief information security officer.

Journalists flock to Bluesky as X becomes increasingly ‘toxic’

Kat Tenbarg, writing in NBC News »

On Sunday, Musk confirmed the platform has deprioritized posts including links, which was how journalists and other creators historically shared their work. But four journalists told NBC News that after millions of users migrated to Bluesky, an alternative that resembles a pared-back version of X, after the election, they are rebuilding their audiences there, too.

“My average post that isn’t a hot-button issue or isn’t trending might not perform as well on X as it does on Bluesky,” said Phil Lewis, a senior front page editor at HuffPost who has over 400,000 followers on X and close to 300,000 on Bluesky. “Judging by retweets, likes and comments, it’s a world of difference.”

Platform and audience editors at The Guardian and The Boston Globe have publicly noted higher traffic to their news websites from Bluesky than from competitors including Threads, Meta’s X alternative. Rose Wang, Bluesky’s chief operating officer, quoted the Guardian’s stats, writing: “We want Bluesky to be a great home for journalists, publishers, and creators. Unlike other platforms, we don’t de-promote your links. Post all the links you want — Bluesky is a lobby to the open web.”

Literacy in the USA

The National Literacy Institute »

Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 130 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children

  • 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2022
  • 54% of adults have a literacy below 6th grade level
  • 45 million are functionally illiterate and read below a 5th grade level
  • 44% of the American adults do not read a book in a year
  • The Top 3 states for highest child literacy rates were Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Hampshire, in that order (highest to lowest).
  • The Bottom 3 states for child literacy rates were Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico, (highest to lowest).

More » The National Literacy Institute »

“Brain Rot” is the Oxford Word of the Year 2024

Brain Rot »

(n.) Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.

After over 37,000 votes, worldwide public discussion, and analysis of language data, Oxford has named ‘brain rot’ as their Word of the Year for 2024.

Elsewhere » The Guardian / BBC / Euronews /

European Federation of Journalists, which represents some 295,000 journalists, to stop posting content on X

The EFJ is the largest organization of journalists in Europe. They represents some 295,000 journalists in 74 journalists’ organizations across 44 countries.

European Federation of Journalists blog post (2024.11.26) »

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has decided it will no longer post content on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, from 20 January 2025, when Donald J. Trump will officially become the 47th President of the United States.

Like many European media outlets (The Guardian, Dagens Nyheter, La Vanguardia, Ouest-France, Sud-Ouest, etc.) and journalists’ organisations, such as the German Journalists’ Association (DJV), the EFJ considers that it can no longer ethically participate in a social network that its owner has transformed into a machine of disinformation and propaganda.
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One woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by their intimate partner or family member

UN Press Release »

On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25 November, the report Femicides in 2023: Global Estimates of Intimate Partner/Family Member Femicides by UN Women and UNODC reveals that femicide—the most extreme form of violence against women and girls—remains pervasive globally.

Globally, 85,000 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2023. 60 per cent of these homicides –51,100- were committed by an intimate partner or a family member. The data shows that 140 women and girls die every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative, which means one woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes.

In 2023, Africa recorded the highest rates of intimate partner and family-related femicide, followed by the Americas, and then by Oceania. In Europe and the Americas, most women killed in the domestic sphere (64 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively) were victims of intimate partners, while elsewhere, family members were the primary perpetrators.
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Canada’s top military commander calls out US senator for questioning a woman’s role in combat

Gen. Jennie Carignan, Canada’s chief of defense staff »

“After 39 years of career as a combat arms officer and risking my life in many operations across the world, I can’t believe that in 2024, we still have to justify the contribution of women to their defence and to their service, in their country. I wouldn’t want anyone to leave this forum with this idea that this is that it is some kind of social experiment.”

More » Canadian Press / Politico / The Hill

 

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