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Daily Archives: January 29, 2018

This Land is Your Land Rotting cabins, closed trails: why we’re shining a light on US national parks

theguardian: This Land is Your Land Rotting cabins, closed trails: why we’re shining a light on US national parks. “Amid dangers from the Trump administration and climate change, sites including the Grand Canyon and Zion national park are facing yet another threat: ‘massive disrepair.’ As threat to America’s public land increases so does our coverage by Alastair Gee. “The National Park Service is the protector of some of America’s greatest environmental and cultural treasures. Yet a huge funding shortfall means that the strain of America’s passion for its parks is showing. Trails are crumbling and buildings are rotting. In all there is an $11bn backlog of maintenance work that repair crews have been unable to perform, a number that has mostly increased every year in the past decade. National parks are just one part of an unparalleled system, managed by the government and held in trust for the public, and spanning over 600m acres of forests, deserts, tundra and glacier-covered peaks, as well as historical sites such as the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. They are integral to American life: an ancestral home for Native Americans; a retreat for vacationers, sportspeople and hunters; a source of grazing; and an economic engine. Yet their future is uncertain…”

If you have an android device – read about Google’s Location History tracking

Quartz – If you’re using an Android phone, Google may be tracking every move you make [no this is not a Sting lyric]: “The Alphabet subsidiary’s location-hungry tentacles are quietly lurking behind some of the most innovative features of its Android mobile operating system. Once those tentacles latch on, phones using Android begin silently transmitting… Continue Reading

How High-Powered Lobbying and PR Firms Launder Influence for Foreign Governments

POGO – “When foreign governments need help navigating the DC swamp, there’s a whole host of high-powered DC lobbying and well-connected public relations firms eager to help them—for a hefty fee. Lax enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act or FARA, a law designed to shed light on when foreign actors are trying to sway… Continue Reading

The Modern Research Data Portal: a design pattern for networked, data-intensive science

Chard K, Dart E, Foster I, Shifflett D, Tuecke S, Williams J. (2018) The Modern Research Data Portal: a design pattern for networked, data-intensive science. PeerJ Computer Science 4:e144 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.144 “We describe best practices for providing convenient, high-speed, secure access to large data via research data portals. We capture these best practices in a new… Continue Reading

Almost Half of Companies Globally Failing to Comply with Data Privacy Regulations

“Many businesses and other organizations are struggling to comply and stay current with the data privacy regulations in effect where they operate around the globe, according to a new Thomson Reuters survey. Nearly half of organizations surveyed said they are failing to adhere to data privacy regulations, reports the Thomson Reuters Data Privacy Compliance Survey.… Continue Reading

Report – The Technologies Behind Precision Propaganda on the Internet

New America’s Public Interest Technology team – Digital Deceit – The Technologies Behind Precision Propaganda on the Internet: “Over the past year, there has been rising pressure on Facebook, Google and Twitter to account for how bad actors are exploiting their platforms. The catalyst of this so-called “tech-lash” was the revelation last summer that agents… Continue Reading