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Category: Society (Page 4 of 6)

Elon demonstrably does not care who he hurts » B.C. government hit tweet limit amid wildfire evacuations

2023-07-14 /

This is yet another argument to keep AM Radio alive and vibrant. In times of emergency, they are ubiquitous, signals can travel great distances, they don’t need an internet connection, and best of all their signals are not controlled by self-serving, far-right, maniacal personalities.

Vancouver is Awesome »

A B.C. government Twitter account updating residents about driving conditions reached its tweet limit on a weekend it was sharing information about wildfire evacuations.

The incident, which occurred earlier this month, prompted the Ministry of Transportation’s DriveBC account to issue a warning.

“HEADS UP – As many others have this weekend, @DriveBC on Twitter and its sub accounts have exceeded the temporarily imposed post rate limit,” tweeted the ministry account July 2.

The least dangerous cities in the U.S.

2023-07-13 /
  1. Ridgefield, Connecticut
  2. Franklin, Massachusetts
  3. Lake in the Hills, Illinois
  4. Marshfield, Mass
  5. Arlington, Mass
  6. Fulshear, TX
  7. Zionsville, Indiana
  8. Lexington, Mass
  9. Muskego, Wisconsin
  10. Rexburg, Idaho

Among the 50 safest cities in the U.S, 18 are in Massachusetts.

For a list of the 100 safest cities in the U.S., Visual Capitalist.

Anita Hill

2023-07-12 /
Anita Hill – Law professor; witness in Clarence Thomas controversy (Source » Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia)

Anita Hill – Law professor; witness in Clarence Thomas controversy (Source » Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia)

She told us who he was.

Wikipedia »

Anita Faye Hill (born July 30, 1956) is an American lawyer, educator and author. She is a professor of social policy, law, and women’s studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment.

The transition to a zero carbon economy needs psychology as well as technology

2023-07-11 /

Note » The linked article in The Guardian is paid for by the University of Derby in the UK.

The Guardian »

“We need to appreciate that it can be challenging for people adapting to new technologies and we must consider them as part of the solution as well as just the engineering solution itself,” says Chris Sansom, professor of concentrating solar power at the University of Derby, whose research focuses on finding solutions for cleaner energy across the globe.

Sansom notes that zero carbon research is concerned with many different elements. The University of Derby has a range of leading experts exploring zero carbon in relation to decarbonising manufacturing and business processes, generating low-carbon renewable energy, transporting people by zero carbon means, as well as understanding natural processes for greenhouse gas removal. “While these may provide the scientific solutions we need, a number of things can get in the way of that,” he says – such as the challenges for local residents and other people who struggle to adapt.

Wilfrid Laurier, the seventh Prime Minister of Canada

2023-07-11 /

127 days ago, on 11 July 1896, Sir Wilfrid Laurier was sworn as the seventh prime minister of Canada, and the first French-Canadian prime minister. The McGill University educated lawyer is recognized as one of the greatest leaders Canada has ever enjoyed. Laurier’s unprecedented and unsurpassed tenure of 15 consecutive years as prime minister – from 1896 to 1911 – was marked by his sincere devotion to maintaining neutrality between English and French-speaking Canadians.

 

Sweden’s privacy protection agency orders four local companies to stop using Google Analytics as doing so unlawfully transfers personal data to the US

2023-07-10 /

Sweden issues the first major fine for illegally transferring personal data out of the EU via Google Analytics, a significant first in Europe.

VoA »

The GDPR allows the transfer of data to third countries only if the European Commission has determined they offer at least the same level of privacy protection as the EU. A 2020 EU Court of Justice ruling struck down an EU-U.S. data transfer deal as being insufficient.

The IMY said it considers the data sent to Google Analytics in the United States by the four companies to be personal data and that “the technical security measures that the companies have taken are not sufficient to ensure a level of protection that essentially corresponds to that guaranteed within the EU.”

Related » Silicon Angle | The Next Web

Democracy under threat from the far-right MAGA republicans » Disinformation researchers under investigation

2023-07-09 /

Jeff Tollefson, Nature »

Researchers who study how disinformation spreads are under investigation in the United States for allegedly helping to censor conservative opinions about COVID-19 vaccines and government elections. Jim Jordan, a US representative for Ohio, is leading the charge against the scientists. He is also one of the Republican leaders who have suggested that the Democrats have stolen the 2020 presidential election from former president Donald Trump, and who have made unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud.

Big Brother » France set to allow police to spy through phones

2023-07-09 /

» Security and privacy. You cannot have a functioning democracy without both.

Le Monde »

French police should be able to spy on suspects by remotely activating the camera, microphone and GPS of their phones and other devices, lawmakers agreed late on Wednesday, July 5. Part of a wider justice reform bill, the spying provision has been attacked by both the left and rights defenders as an authoritarian snoopers’ charter, though Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti insists it would affect only “dozens of cases a year.”

Covering laptops, cars and other connected objects as well as phones, the measure would allow the geolocation of suspects in crimes punishable by at least five years’ jail. Devices could also be remotely activated to record sound and images of people suspected of terror offenses, as well as delinquency and organized crime.

The provisions “raise serious concerns over infringements of fundamental liberties,” digital rights group La Quadrature du Net wrote in a May statement. It cited the “right to security, right to a private life and to private correspondence” and “the right to come and go freely”, calling the proposal part of a “slide into heavy-handed security”.

 

America’s drive to compete with China requires lots more skilled workers. Tennessee’s free technical education, and its partnerships with Volkswagen and Nissan, offer a glimpse of the future

2023-07-07 /

Bloomberg »

Federal incentives are driving investments in the electric-car industry worth more than $100 billion. Every state wants a piece of the action, and Tennessee is getting plenty. It’s a lynchpin of the new Battery Belt that stretches from Michigan to Georgia. More than $16 billion in EV capital has poured into the state since 2017. Last year, Ford Motor Co. broke ground on a giant new plant near Memphis that’s slated to open in 2025 and churn out half a million electric trucks per year.

But the drive to reboot manufacturing and claim national leadership in strategic technologies is about to crunch up against a shortfall in trained workers — and impose new demands on technical education all across America.

US federal government approves largest-ever offshores wind project, expected to generate around 1,100 megawatts of clean energy

2023-07-06 /

Quartz »

Biden’s wind power goals, by the digits

  • 380,000: Homes the Ocean Wind 1 project can power with its energy, according to the interior department
  • 3,000: “Good-paying” jobs the New Jersey project will generate “through development and a three-year construction cycle,” the federal agency said
  • 98: The number of wind turbine generators the Ocean Wind 1 project has permission to construct, according to the Record of Decision (ROD) documents. Additionally, it can build three offshore substations within its lease area
  • $695 million: How much Ørsted expects to spend on the Ocean Wind 1 project in New Jersey. It has some federal help—the New Jersey legislature narrowly approved a bill last week to let Ørsted keep federal tax credits to insulate it from rising costs due to inflation and the covid-19 pandemic hangover
  • 30 gigawatts (GW): President Biden’s offshore wind power generation goal by 2030, which will power 10 million homes, and create 77,000 jobs

Earth is getting ‘hotter, drier and more flammable’ due to climate change

2023-07-06 /

Euronews »

“Projections indicate that if Spain does not cut severely the emissions that cause global warming, the country will become hotter, drier, more arid and flammable,” says Maria José Caballero, Unit Head of Rapid Response at Greenpeace Spain.

“It will experience more floods and high-intensity fires and the impacts of sea-level rise. The data in the report shows the urgency of cutting emissions and tackling the climate crisis by taking ambitious measures, to which all political parties must commit.”

First major survey of British doctors with Long Covid reveals debilitating impact on health, life and work

2023-07-05 /

BMJ »

Key findings include:

  • Doctors reported a wide range of symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, muscular pain, nerve damage, joint pain, ongoing respiratory problems and many more.
  • Around 60% of doctors told the BMA that post-acute Covid ill health has impacted on their ability to carry out day-to-day activities on a regular basis;
  • Almost one in five respondents (18%) reported that they were now unable to work due to their post-acute Covid ill-health;
  • Less than one in three (31%) doctors said they were working full-time, compared to more than half (57%) before the onset of their illness;
  • Nearly half (48%) said they have experienced some form of loss of earnings as a result of post-acute Covid;
  • 54% of respondents acquired Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, and 77% of these believed that they contracted Covid -19 in the workplace;
  • A small minority of doctors had access to respiratory protective equipment (RPE) around the time that they contracted Covid-19, with only 11% having access to an FFP2 respirator and 16% an FFP3 respirator;
  • More than 65% of doctors responding said their post-acute Covid symptoms had not been investigated thoroughly and effectively by an NHS long Covid clinic or centre. And almost half of doctors reported not even being referred to an NHS long Covid clinic at all.
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