Author: KS

Arizona superintendent fails in last attempt to limit evolution teaching | Ars Technica


As we noted in our earlier coverage, Douglas has in the past suggested that schools teach intelligent design, which is the idea that life arose and diversified due to the intervention of an intelligent agent rather than evolution. It’s an idea that was generated for religious purposes, and its teaching has been ruled an imposition of religion by the courts. She has also misunderstood the status of a scientific theory in suggesting that it reflected the idea that our knowledge of evolution is uncertain. These beliefs seem to have motivated her intervention into the science standards.

Source: Arizona superintendent fails in last attempt to limit evolution teaching | Ars Technica

Another Report Shows That FOSTA Increased (Not Decreased) Sex Trafficking; Where Is The Outrage? | Techdirt

“Without being able to advertise online,” Long said, “a huge number of sex workers were forced to go outside, and many have reported that former pimps came out of the woodwork offering to ‘manage’ their business again since they were now rendered unable to find and screen clients online.”[…]“The very bill that was supposed to stop trafficking has quite literally given formerly irrelevant traffickers new life,” Long said.

Source: Another Report Shows That FOSTA Increased (Not Decreased) Sex Trafficking; Where Is The Outrage? | Techdirt

Texas Teens Can’t Graduate High School Until They’ve Been Told How To Behave Around Cops | Techdirt

To “pacify tensions” brought about by cops killing unarmed people, we’re instructing teens to become docile subhumans who should only respond to the presence of law enforcement in the manner law enforcement prefers. That’s the gist of the Community Safety Education Act Instructor’s Guide [PDF], which not only tells people to remain suitably cowed during traffic stops, but also gets the law wrong.The problems with the instruction manual (and the law… and required course itself…) begin at the beginning, in the “Tips for Educators.” The guide says instructors should remind students of their rights, as well as warn them that exercising them could get them killed.

Source: Texas Teens Can’t Graduate High School Until They’ve Been Told How To Behave Around Cops | Techdirt

Peter Thiel’s Palantir reportedly eyeing up $41bn IPO • The Register

CIA-backed data-mining business Palantir is reportedly in talks with banks to take the company public for a blockbuster sum, and could move as early as next year.Peter Thiel’s company – known for its work with the US government, spy agencies and police as well as its reported links to the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting saga – has raised some $2bn since its inception in 2004.

Source: Peter Thiel’s Palantir reportedly eyeing up $41bn IPO • The Register

How a Gang of Hedge Funders Strip-Mined Kentucky’s Public Pensions


Kentucky’s willingness to gamble massively on high-risk alternative investments for its pensions has made the state an easy mark for Wall Street hucksters.

Source: How a Gang of Hedge Funders Strip-Mined Kentucky’s Public Pensions

Trump Told Lesley Stahl He Calls the Truth “Fake News” to Discredit Journalists. So Why Did She Let Him Do It Again on “60 Minutes”?


Lesley Stahl, a 27-year veteran of CBS’s “60 Minutes,” revealed that President Donald Trump once told her that he deliberately uses the phrase “fake news” to deflect from, and to “discredit,” negative media coverage of his presidency.

Source: Trump Told Lesley Stahl He Calls the Truth “Fake News” to Discredit Journalists. So Why Did She Let Him Do It Again on “60 Minutes”?

Doc charged with involuntary manslaughter in Flint crisis wins top health award | Ars Technica


Health officials in Michigan this week honored Dr. Eden Wells with the state’s top award for an eminent career in public health—despite that Wells is currently facing several charges in connection with the Flint water crisis, including involuntary manslaughter.

Source: Doc charged with involuntary manslaughter in Flint crisis wins top health award | Ars Technica

At Largest ICE Detention Center in the Country, Guards Called Attempted Suicides “Failures”


Toiletries and clean clothes were in constant shortage and sick detainees were sometimes left in their soiled clothes, he told The Intercept. Detainees worked in the center’s kitchens for as little as $1 a day — or took cleaning shifts for no money but an extra ration of food. The food itself was so bad that it was sometimes infested with maggots, yet there was always too little of it — so that detainees would be forced to buy more at the center’s commissary. “It’s all about money,” said Hidalgo, who is now free on bond.Staff at Adelanto ignored all but the most serious medical emergencies. After Hidalgo witnessed a detainee suffer seizures and staff do nothing to help him, he started organizing a detainee-run response team to help those suffering medical and mental health crises, which were frequent. When he asked the center’s staff for help, those working with the GEO Group, the private detention company that runs the center, would refer him to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “If I asked ICE, they’d say, it’s GEO’s house, so ask them and go through them,” Hidalgo said. “Back and forth, so you end up getting nothing.”

Source: At Largest ICE Detention Center in the Country, Guards Called Attempted Suicides “Failures”

Epic Games Likely DMCA’d Its Own Fortnite Trailer, Showing The Problems With YouTube’s DMCA Process Yet Again | Techdirt

A Fortnite season 6 trailer was briefly taken down earlier this week, after receiving a strike from YouTube for copyright infringement. That alone would be strange enough, since trailers and promotional videos typically secure the rights to any third-party media ahead of time. But the real kicker here is who issued the claim: according to a screengrab posted to Reddit, it was none other than Fortnite’s own developer, Epic Games.

Source: Epic Games Likely DMCA’d Its Own Fortnite Trailer, Showing The Problems With YouTube’s DMCA Process Yet Again | Techdirt

EFF To Texas AG: Epson Tricked Its Customers With a Dangerous Fake Update | Electronic Frontier Foundation


Back in 2016, printing giant HP sent a deceitful, malicious update to millions of OfficeJet and OfficeJet Pro printers that disguised itself as a “security update.” Users who trusted HP and applied the update discovered to their chagrin that the update didn’t improve their printers’ security: rather, the updated printers had acquired the ability to reject cheaper ink, forcing the printer owners to throw away their third-party and refilled ink cartridges and buy new ones.Now, Epson has followed suit: in late 2016 or early 2017, Epson started sending deceptive updates to many of its printers. Just like HP, Epson disguised these updates as routine software improvements, when really they were poison pills, designed to downgrade printers so they could only work with Epson’s expensive ink systems.

Source: EFF To Texas AG: Epson Tricked Its Customers With a Dangerous Fake Update | Electronic Frontier Foundation