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Monthly Archives: August 2016

Reporters Committee – Pentagon revises war manual to emphasize protections for journalists

News release: “The Pentagon has updated its Law of War manual to clarify that journalists are generally protected as civilians under international law. The changes, announced last week, came after media groups expressed concern that some language in the original version could put reporters at risk of being considered spies or combatants. The manual, first released in 2015, is the Department of Defense’s guide to international law as it applies to the U.S. military. The original manual drew criticism for saying that although journalists are usually civilians, they can sometimes be “unprivileged belligerents” — a category that includes guerrillas and spies. Because unprivileged belligerents do not have the same legal protections as either combatants or civilians, some media organizations argued that the categorization could be used as an excuse to indefinitely detain journalists without charges…”

Infographic – Felony Disenfranchisement State by State

Via Good: “Today, the Sentencing Project reports that about 5.8 million Americans have lost their right to vote due to a felony conviction. And 2.2 million of them are black. According to the project’s findings, it’s a discrepancy that’s likely to grow given our rates of incarceration: “People of color make up 37 percent of the U.S. population but 67 percent of the prison… Continue Reading

Paper – Human identification using WiFi signal

Full text only available to subscribers, but the abstract alone will illuminate the extensive power of Wi-Fi sensing technology: “WiFi devices are now pervasive in our environment. Recent research has demonstrated that it is possible to sense the perturbations created by human motion in the WiFi spectrum to identify basic activities, gestures and even keystrokes.… Continue Reading

Kaiser – Baltimore Draws 10-Year Blueprint To Cut Racial Health Disparities

Kaiser Health News: “Baltimore officials presented a 10-year plan Tuesday that sharply highlights the poor health status of African-Americans and aims to bring black rates of lead poisoning, heart disease, obesity, smoking and overdoses more in line with those of whites…Violence last year following the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died after… Continue Reading

Google tests search live coverage carousel

Via Google – “As a publisher, you can participate in the Search live coverage carousel pilot to notify Google when your breaking content is available. Google can then surface content more quickly than is currently possible with a standard crawl on your website. With the Search live coverage carousel, users can find content about live… Continue Reading

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework and the FTC

Via Andrea Arias at the FTC: “…The Framework provides organizations with a risk-based compilation of guidelines that can help them identify, implement, and improve cybersecurity practices.  The Framework does not introduce new standards or concepts; rather, it leverages and integrates cybersecurity practices that have been developed by organizations like NIST and the International Standardization Organization… Continue Reading

Extra Perk – Free stories delivered to NYC subway riders on lines with Free Transit WirelessWiFi

NYT- Subway Reads: Free E-Books, Timed for Your Commute  – Sponsored by Penguin Random House – “On Sunday, Subway Reads started delivering novellas, short stories or excerpts from full-length books to passengers’ cellphones or tablets. The idea is for riders to download a short story or a chapter and read it on the train. Subway… Continue Reading

LC – Chronicling America through historic newspapers

“Chronicling America is a website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of… Continue Reading

CRS – How Can the Results of a Presidential Election Be Contested?

CRS Reports & Analysis Legal Sidebar – How Can the Results of a Presidential Election Be Contested?, August 26, 2016. “In the midst of the presidential campaign season, the possibility of election fraud has been raised. This discussion briefly examines how the results of a presidential election may be contested. Although it has national impact,… Continue Reading

Pew – U.S. Public Wary of Biomedical Technologies to ‘Enhance’ Human Abilities

“Cutting-edge biomedical technologies that could push the boundaries of human abilities may soon be available, making people’s minds sharper and their bodies stronger and healthier than ever before. But a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults shows that majorities greet the possibility of these breakthroughs with more wariness and worry than enthusiasm and… Continue Reading