Links May 2021
May 29, 2021
"A group of California lawmakers on Thursday touted 11 bills they’re advancing to get better control of the worsening wildfires that have razed towns and neighborhoods across the state in recent years." sfchronicle.com
"To know whether incidental collection is good or bad or neutral with respect to the civil liberties of its subjects, you have to know not merely that it occurred, but what happened to the information afterwards." lawfareblog.com
"You know how kids say you have to trick the meta on Instagram or on Tik Tok to get on top of the algorithm, you have to do three posts a day and you have to use these hashtags? He’s saying that’s what we need to do with music." newrepublic.com
"Whistleblower status offers Jones certain protections under Florida law, including the potential for reinstatement or compensation should the ongoing investigation find the department retaliated against Jones for the concerns she raised last year." miamiherald.com
"The administration has also issued a 'Do Not Travel' warning to American citizens urging them to steer clear of Belarus and a notice to American pilots to 'exercise extreme caution' when considering flying in Belarusian airspace, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Friday night." blooomberg.com
"The unsealed versions of the documents paint an even more detailed picture of how Google obscured its data collection techniques, confusing not just its users but also its own employees." businessinsider.com
May 26, 2021
"Because I point this out, crypto enthusiasts call me a Luddite, statist, technophobe or worse." wsj.com
"The bottom line: Aggressive content moderation aimed at limiting extremist content can work, but 'decisions to enforce rules and address threats of extremism are often prompted by tragedy instead of proactive thinking,' said Holt." axios.com
May 23, 2021
"Or better yet, perhaps we should give our eyeballs a rest — at least from our personal screens." latimes.com 📰
"There are even bonds that, completely against chemical orthodoxy, involve no electrons at all." newscientist.com
Advocates Worry Blackstone Sale Will Take Affordable Housing Crisis From Bad to Worse | The planned sale of 66 apartment buildings to the New York-based Blackstone Group highlights both the vulnerability of naturally affordable housing and the lack of requirement for owners to notify local governments of plans to unload properties. voiceofsandiego.com
"At the same time, Koch’s corporate empire has suddenly stepped up its real estate purchases during the pandemic – including making large investments in real estate companies with a potential financial interest in eliminating eviction restrictions." theguardian.com
"New UK government research suggests two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine are needed to provide strong protection against symptomatic infection from the coronavirus variant first identified in India, according to two people briefed on the preliminary data." ft.com
"I was bumped to third place in the 55-meter dash in 2019, behind two transgender runners." usatoday.com
"When the Cincinnati Post, which served both Ohio and northern Kentucky, shut down Sam Schulhofer-Wohl and Miguel Garrido observed that 'fewer candidates ran for municipal office […] incumbents became more likely to win reelection, and voter turnout and campaign spending fell.'" localnewslab.org
May 20, 2021
SFUSD presentation on "detracking" math corriculum. docs.google.com
"What’s more, genome sequencing has revealed the more dangerous U.K., Californian, and Brazilian variants of the virus have infected people in Mendocino County — and the especially worrisome India variant has been detected in nearby counties." mendovoice.com
Covid-19 news: Test and Trace delay let variant spread in England: newscientist.com
"At its core, the biggest reason why any webmaster should care about Core Web Vitals (CWV) is that Google said it is going to be a ranking factor from June 2021 onward." thisweekinblogging.com
"The U.S. Postal Inspection Service uses Clearview’s facial recognition database of over 3 billion images from arrest photos collected from across social media 'to help identify unknown targets in an investigation or locate additional social media accounts for known individuals,' according to materials reviewed by Yahoo News." news.yahoo.com
"If you mention John Stuart Mill’s arguments on free speech to 'a bright 19-year-old in Oxford, they look at you a bit blankly'." newstatesman.com
"This envy makes the big dogs at telecom companies easy prey to the sale pitches from investment bankers." om.co
Letters to the Editor: Stimulus? Gov. Newsom, I still haven’t received my unemployment benefits: latimes.com 📰
Why Are Tech Companies Pretending to Be Governments?: nytimes.com
The CEO of Basecamp has a funny sounding last name. world.hey.com
May 19, 2021
"It sets forth indicators of 'white supremacy culture in the mathematics classroom,' including a focus on 'getting the right answer,' teaching math in a 'linear fashion,' requiring students to 'show their work' and grading them on demonstrated knowledge of the subject matter." wsj.com
"A case in point is the recent report by the American Mathematical Society that accuses, by implication, the entire mathematics community, with the thinnest of specific evidence, of systemic racial discrimination." persuasion.community 🐤
May 18, 2021
Meet the Tech Startups Battling America's Raging Wildfire Problem | Silicon Valley is joining the fight against wildfires. But saving lives will require cutting through red tape, fast. inc.com
"He remembered the vision of Detroit that Rand had conjured: 'Detroit was sort of falling apart, someone was farming in the middle of the city—and this was 1957, it was sort of a crazy thing, and it’s disturbingly more true today.'" newyorker.com
"Put another way, software developers would make up about 15 out of every 10,000 married couples if Bay Area residents wed each other at random. But actually, they make up an estimated 90 in 10,000 couples, or close to 1%." sfchronicle.com 📰
May 17, 2021
Former Apple Engineer Accuses Company of Defamatory Statements Over Dismissal | Author of controversial ‘Chaos Monkeys’ says tech giant was aware of his book’s contents before hiring him: wsj.com
May 16, 2021
"In the first scene of the new documentary, Tell Them We Were Here, when we witness artist and performer Cliff Hengst singing 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco' through a bullhorn while climbing up a steep city street, we suspect we’re in the right place, at least physically." eastbayexpress.com 📰
"While I was examining the private intelligence business, it became clear that I needed to look at another profession, the one where my career had been spent — journalism." nytimes.com
May 15, 2021
"'Ellen could pluck you off YouTube and make you a star,' said Joe Kessler, the global head of the United Talent Agency’s UTA IQ division, which uses data analytics to advise clients on digital strategies." nytimes.com
"Long warned by parents and teachers about the risks of sexual assault and disease, they are also leery of any distraction that might throw them off a professional course—and even of 'catching feelings,' their term for becoming emotionally entangled." wsj.com
May 14, 2021
A Kevin Spacey Accuser Tried to Sue Anonymously. A Judge Said No.: nytimes.com ➰
May 14, 2021
"But a month later, a report made public findings that the company had in fact sold rights to student repayment contracts to generate cash up front." sfchronicle.com
May 13, 2021
"Some residents of Kensington, a small unincorporated community just north of Berkeley, have banded together to reduce the risk of a catastrophic wildfire. And mostly, that consists of sitting at their computers for hours, keeping a close eye on images from remote fire cameras for any sign of smoke or flames." sfchronicle.com 📰
‘Microfarms’ come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts: latimes.com 📰
Donors gave millions to Garcetti nonprofit but kept their identities secret, Times analysis finds: latimes.com
"Buss knows what it’s like to be in the crowd for those moments, owning a second-row seat for his 20-year run with the Lakers. She relished the oohs and aahs from Laker fans because Bryant wasn’t just a competitor, he was a performer." latimes.com
May 12, 2021
YouTube puts $100 million into creator fund to rival TikTok: latimes.com 📰
Snap suspends anonymous Q&A apps Yolo and LMK after lawsuit over teen’s death: latimes.com 📰
"His family found him dead June 23, 2020. The history on his phone showed that he had been searching for 'Reveal YOLO Username Online' earlier that morning." latimes.com
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This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
