News You Can Use

[mes5464]

The only voting I support is caucusing. Voting in person, just like in the BoM.

Paper ballots are back in vogue thanks to Russian hacking fears

Once about as newsworthy as water meters, the voting machines and computers used to record and tally the nation's ballots are suddenly a hot button issue due to mounting evidence Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

According to the FBI, as many as 39 states had their election systems scanned or targeted by Russia. There's no evidence of votes changed. But given the stakes, some state agencies that run elections are trying to curb any further interference prior to mid-term elections in November.

[mes5464]

Paper ballots are back in vogue thanks to Russian hacking fears

Once about as newsworthy as water meters, the voting machines and computers used to record and tally the nation's ballots are suddenly a hot button issue due to mounting evidence Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

According to the FBI, as many as 39 states had their election systems scanned or targeted by Russia. There's no evidence of votes changed. But given the stakes, some state agencies that run elections are trying to curb any further interference prior to mid-term elections in November.

[mes5464]

Powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes off Japan coast | Daily Mail Online

The earthquake hit some 281km South East of Kamaishi, off the coast of Japan
Depth of the quake, which struck at 2.37am local time, was measured at 10km 
There have been no reports of injuries or deaths from the epicenter or surrounding area

[mes5464]

For weeks, Equifax customer service has been directing victims to a fake phishing site - The Verge

Earlier this month, hackers broke into Equifax's servers and stole 143 million people's personal information, including their Social Security numbers. In response to the attack, Equifax set up a website — www.equifaxsecurity2017.com — for possible victims to verify whether they're affected. Because the process involves sharing sensitive information, consumers have to trust they're entering their data in the right place, which can be tricky because the breach-recovery site itself isn’t part of equifax.com. If users end up on the wrong site, they could end up leaking the data they're already concerned was stolen.

[mes5464]

Who's the racist? Kanye West? They were just sing the song as he wrote it.

Sorority probed after singing n-word lyric in Kanye West song | New York Post

Some sorority sisters at the University of New Hampshire are being investigated after a video showing them singing along to a Kanye West song containing the n-word was posted on social media.

The Snapchat video shows the members of Alpha Phi Sorority dancing at a party and singing the n-word as part of the lyrics to the song. It prompted other students to condemn the sorority’s “ignorant and insensitive” behavior.

The critique was posted Tuesday on an anti-racism student Facebook group called “All Eyes on UNH.”

“A member of Alpha Phi Sorority put up this video of girls singing along to ‘Gold Digger’ by Kanye West on her Instagram story,” the post reads. “The girls sing the N-word without thinking of the implications.”

“This is a showcase of ignorance and that the Panhellenic Council should do better in combating racism. The first step is addressing willful ignorance.”

[mes5464]

Nestlé Makes Billions Bottling Water It Pays Nearly Nothing For - Bloomberg

In rural Mecosta County, Mich., sits a near-windowless facility with a footprint about the size of Buckingham Palace. It’s just one of Nestlé’s roughly 100 bottled water factories in 34 countries around the world.

[mes5464]

An apocalyptic mass extinction will begin in 2100, scientists say | New York Post

A mass extinction that wipes out humanity will be under way by the year 2100, scientists have claimed.

By the end of the century, it’s feared that so much carbon will have been added to the oceans that the planet will have passed a “threshold of catastrophe” which leads to the destruction of our species.

[mes5464]

Monsanto’s New Weed Killer, Dicamba, Divides Farmers - The New York Times

Farmers planted a new kind of seed on 25 million acres of soybean and cotton fields this year. Developed by Monsanto, the seeds, genetically modified to be resistant to a weed killer called dicamba, are one of the biggest product releases in the company’s history.

But the seeds and the weed killer have turned some farmers — often customers of Monsanto, which sells both — against the company and alarmed regulators.

Farmers who have not bought the expensive new seeds, which started to appear last year, are joining lawsuits, claiming that their crops have been damaged by dicamba that drifted onto their farms. Arkansas announced a 120-day ban of the weed killer this summer, and it is considering barring its use next year after mid-April. Missouri briefly barred its sale in July. And the Environmental Protection Agency, not known for its aggressiveness under President Trump, is weighing its own action.

[mes5464]

'Shocked': Maine Woman Ordered by City to Take Down Pro-Trump Signs - NECN

A Rockland, Maine, woman says she would rather go to jail than take down her pro-Donald Trump signs.
Susan Reitman has hung two banners on her front gate: One that says "I love Trump" and another that says "He Won, Get over it."
She received a notice from the city’s code enforcement office a few days ago, asking her to take them down.
"I was shocked," she said. "This is my freedom of speech. People have a right to voice their opinion."

[mes5464]

Artificial intelligence pioneer calls for the breakup of Big Tech - Axios

Yoshua Bengio, the artificial intelligence pioneer, says the centralization of wealth, power and capability in Big Tech is "dangerous for democracy" and that the companies should be broken up.

Why it matters: Bengio is a professor at the University of Montreal and a member of the three-man "Canadian Mafia" that pioneered machine learning, the leading method used in AI. His remarks are notable because of his influence in the AI community and because he or his peers all either directly lead or consult for Big Tech's AI programs. Says Bengio: "Concentration of wealth leads to concentration of power. That's one reason why monopoly is dangerous. It's dangerous for democracy."

[mes5464]

Spain Hires Cruise Liner to House Police in Rebel Catalonia - Bloomberg

Spain has discreetly hired ferries to be moored in the Port of Barcelona as temporary housing for possibly thousands of police specially deployed to keep order in rebel Catalonia and help suppress an illegal independence referendum.

[mes5464]

Could Russia (or Mexico) bribe the feds to regulate Drudge? | TheHill

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this month that his company sold over $100,000 in social media advertising to a Russian government-controlled front group during the 2016 election cycle. While that amount is a relative pittance and critics are saying the ads were poorly produced — where is Bill Maher when you really need him? — the discovery has raised alarms.

It’s ironic, of course, that America’s media elites are suddenly alarmed, considering that the CIA and intelligence agencies abroad have engaged in similar activity for decades. But putting that aside, what if the bigger danger comes not from amateurish foreign advertisers, but from foreign governments seeking to influence the American regulatory agencies meant to act as the citizens' watchdogs?

Could a foreign government — such as Russia, Ukraine, or Mexico, for example — bribe or “incentivize” a federal agency such as the Federal Election Commission to regulate (or "rein in") conservative news websites? 

[mes5464]

Silicon Valley giant Y Combinator to branch out basic income trial

Start-up accelerator Y Combinator plans to roll out its initial cash handout trial to thousands of people across two U.S. states.

Its President Sam Altman has been one of many top Silicon Valley bosses to get behind the idea of basic income – the idea that all citizens should be paid a regular sum of money regardless of their employment status.

The incubator has already piloted a study of the effects of introducing a basic income. It gave cash handouts to residents of Oakland, California, to test how money would affect individuals' behavior.

Y Combinator's Basic Income Project will select 3,000 individuals from two U.S. states at random to compare how one group of people who receive a basic income will behave as opposed to another sample who do not.

Out of those 3,000, 1,000 will receive $1,000 per month for up to five years, while 2,000 will receive $50 a month for comparison.

[mes5464]

Too bad this will not stand.

D.C. court rules tracking phones without a warrant is unconstitutional - CBS News

Law enforcement use of one tracking tool, the cell-site simulator, to track a suspect's phone without a warrant violates the Constitution, the D.C. Court of Appeals said Thursday in a landmark ruling for privacy and Fourth Amendment rights as they pertain to policing tactics.

The ruling could have broad implications for law enforcement's use of cell-site simulators, which local police and federal agencies can use to mimic a cell phone tower to the phone connect to the device instead of its regular network. 

In a decision that reversed the decision of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and overturned the conviction of a robbery and sexual assault suspect, the D.C. Court of Appeals determined the use of the cell-site simulator "to locate a person through his or her cellphone invades the person's actual, legitimate and reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her location information and is a search." 

[mes5464]

Facebook Messenger Will Suggest Fandango Movie Tickets Based on Chats | Variety

If you’re talking about going to see a movie with your friends on Facebook Messenger, you may soon see a new option pop up from Fandango — offering info and ticketing right within the chat app.

On Thursday, Facebook Messenger will launch automated suggestions for the Fandango chat extension available to users in the U.S., along with suggestions for GIF-sharing and “quick replies.”

The feature uses Facebook’s “M” artificial-intelligence virtual assistant technology, which the company rolled out broadly this spring. The M assistants suggest different capabilities within Messenger discussions, including sending stickers, requesting or sending a payment, launching ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft, starting a poll, making a plan, and sharing location.

[mes5464]

Mystery in Salt Lake City: where have hundreds of homeless people gone? | US news | The Guardian

Following a police operation, even officers seem puzzled by the whereabouts of hundreds of people who lived around a downtown emergency shelter

[mes5464]

Health Insurers in New Mexico To Implement Record-High Premium Increases

Insurers will increase premiums next year from a range of 36 to 41 percent for midlevel insurance plans. For all plans, premiums are expected to rise a range of 17 to 49 percent.

Sixty percent of consumers in New Mexico will qualify for subsidies to lower the cost of the increasing premium.

"I feel sorry for the other 40 percent though," said John Franchini, the state's insurance superintendent. "Forty percent have to pay the full brunt of the rate increases."

[mes5464]

3 teens arrested after armed threat to kill McDonalds employees when food was not ready | WJLA

The three men went into the McDonalds in the Chantilly Shopping Center at about 9 p.m. Thursday. When their food was not ready, an argument broke out. One man pulled up his shirt to show a gun in his waistband and threatened to kill the employees, according to a statement from Fairfax County Police.

[Joel]

[mes5464]

Chinese robot dentist is first to fit implants in patient’s mouth without any human involvement | South China Morning Post

Successful procedure raises hopes technology could avoid problems caused by human error and help overcome shortage of qualified dentists

[mes5464]

Tattoos move into cultural mainstream

With a 2015 YouGov poll suggesting that almost one fifth of British adults have tattoos, and other research suggests that visible body art may be becoming less of a barrier to employment - a longstanding problem for tattoo enthusiasts.

[Joel]

[mes5464]

Conservative Roman Catholic theologians accuse pope of spreading heresy - Chicago Tribune

Several dozen tradition-minded Roman Catholic theologians, priests and academics have formally accused Pope Francis of spreading heresy with his 2016 opening to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics.

In a 25-page letter delivered to Francis last month and provided Saturday to The Associated Press, the 62 signatories issued a "filial correction" to the pope — a measure they said hadn't been employed since the 14th century.

The letter accused Francis of propagating seven heretical positions concerning marriage, moral life and the sacraments with his 2016 document "The Joy of Love" and subsequent "acts, words and omissions."

[mes5464]

Stratford acid 'attack': Police arrest 15-year-old boy after six injured near Westfield centre | The Independent

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested after six people were injured on Saturday night in what police suspect was a mass acid attack in Stratford, east London.

It came after a "noxious substance" was thrown in several areas – including by the Westfield shopping centre and Olympic Park – during a stand-off between two groups of males, police said.

Witnesses described how innocent victims caught in the crossfire screamed in pain after being hit with fluid, with one shouting: "‘I can’t see, I can’t see."

They said the attacks came after a brawl erupted inside the Stratford Centre between the youths and the trouble then spilled outside.

[mes5464]

Bali volcano eruption fears spark exodus of more than 35,000 - ABC News

More than 35,000 people have fled a menacing volcano on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, fearing it will erupt for the first time in more than half a century as increasing tremors rattle the region.

The numbers Sunday from disaster officials are more than double previous estimates and are continuing to rise, they say. It includes people who left voluntarily as well as those told to evacuate from a 9-12 kilometer (6-8 mile) zone around Mount Agung.