"EduSense is minimally obtrusive. It uses two wall-mounted cameras -- one facing students and one facing the instructor. It senses things such as students' posture to determine their engagement, and how much time instructors pause before calling on a student. 'These are codified things that educational practitioners have known as best practices for decades,' Harrison said." This is some top level Orwellian shit. And I'm not being hyperbolic here. This is Winston Smith's workout in front of the TV. (Grokked from Ali A Olomi)
"A proposed (Las Vegas) ordinance to criminalize camping or sleeping on downtown streets when beds are available at established shelters passed Wednesday night against a backdrop of protests in and around city hall." Criminalizing the poor.
There's a fungus among us. "In a new study in Nature Microbiology, McCall and her co-authors found that the fungal diversity was actually higher in urban homes, and it might be because of peoples' cleaning products and urban lifestyles."
"The Ohio Senate passed two anti-abortion bills Wednesday, including one that would require physicians to notify patients that an abortion can be reversed -- a procedure that hasn’t been scientifically proven." Conservatives, getting between you and your doctor and making that doctor tell you bullshit.
"The powerful gene-editing technique known as CRISPR has raised a lot of hope in recent years for its potential to offer new ways to treat many diseases, including cancer. But until now, scientists have released very little information about results of tests in patients." Note the caveats outlined in the article. Also, if you'll remember, the first tests using a previous form of genetic manipulation had serious side-effects.
"Two former employees of Twitter were charged with spying for Saudi Arabia by snooping into thousands of private accounts seeking personal information about critics of the Riyadh government, according to court documents filed Wednesday in San Francisco."
How go the Trade Wars? "China says it has agreed with the US to cancel existing trade tariffs in phases." Uh, yeah. I'll wait for the tweet.
"Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday the United States was not fulfilling its pledge to remove a Kurdish militia from a Syrian border region and he will raise the issue when he meets President Donald Trump next week."
"The Kentucky Republican Party filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Wednesday accusing Democrat Matt Jones of 'serious violations' of campaign regulations." Too bad Mitch McConnell is one of the architects of dismantling the FEC by not approving commissioners so the FEC now does not have a quorum to vote to either start a new investigation or to impose sanctions or fines. Instant Karma is gonna get you. But then Jones hasn't file paperwork for running, and this is just an attempt to silence an effective critic.
"President Trump's former attorney general and long-time Alabama Republican senator is expected to announce he is once again running for the seat he held for 20 years, according to two GOP sources. Sessions is facing a Friday filing deadline to declare his candidacy." Because of course he is.
Projection is endemic in conservative circles. "President Donald Trump encouraged supporters to elect the Republican candidate in Louisiana’s gubernatorial runoff at a campaign rally in Louisiana Wednesday night, portraying the Democratic party as 'totalitarian' and 'willing to do illegal acts' in order to remove the president from office."
"FOX News host Bret Baier played a recording of Rand and his father Ron Paul defending whistleblowers & then asked Rand Paul if he thinks whistleblowers should only be protected if he agrees with them." What I think is hilarious is he tries "both side-ism" then goes on to defend his hypocrisy… all while misstating that those who were against Snowden are now wanting to protect Trump's whistleblower. I was there, Rand. It was conservatives going after Snowden. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"John Bolton trying to 'walk that tightrope' over role in Trump's impeachment inquiry."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, "'What I can tell you about the Trump policy toward Ukraine: It was incoherent, it depends on who you talk to, they seem to be incapable of forming a quid pro quo, so no I find the whole process to be a sham and I'm not going to legitimize it.'" Too dumb to commit the crime is not a defense.
"To Trump himself, Sondland was once a Never Trumper who first globbed on to the low-energy Jeb before shifting his undying loyalty to little Marco. When neither of those Republican gods were able to confer any honor upon his wealthy shoulders, Sondland did what any principled conservative would do: he wrote a $1m check to Trump and asked for an ambassadorship." That doesn't even rise to the level of "situational ethics." But the Trump Administration fingered Sondland for the fall, but they forgot to tell Sondland.
"Democrats say they have questions about her knowledge of how much Pence knew about efforts by Trump and those around him to push Ukraine to launch investigations into Joe Biden and his son, as well as 2016 election interference. There is no evidence of wrongdoing of either Biden in Ukraine… Though Pence was not on that call, he has met with and held a call with Zelensky himself." President Pelosi?
"President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said on Wednesday that he had assembled a legal team to represent him in the criminal investigation into his activities related to Ukraine, an announcement that came after weeks of sputtered attempts to find a lawyer willing to take him on as a client." You know it's bad when people say, "ya know, I'd rather not have my name tied to this very public case."
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