Rally held after business sign defaced with LGBT hate speech; WPXI, 2/14/16

[Video and Article] WPXI; Rally held after business sign defaced with LGBT hate speech:

"A rally was held Sunday after a North Side business sign was vandalized with LGBT hate speech on Friday.

Dozens of people gathered to show their support after a sign at the Central Wellness Outreach Center’s was found with LGBT hate speech...

A “Hope Against Hate” rally was held, and attendees signed the sign that was defaced in hate.

"We've really turned it into a positive message when we've all come together today to show them that they're not going to win," Lane said."

Ethical issues are tripping up tech firms and the backlash can be abysmal; Irish Times, 2/11/16

Karlin Lillington, Irish Times; Ethical issues are tripping up tech firms and the backlash can be abysmal:

"Now, Europe is trying to regain the socio-political upper hand, having previously left the whole environment in the hands of the corporate world, Floridi says.

“But that is so much not the issue. The real issue is, how do you re-establish an accountable, elected, socio-political control of the internet – of what is really, the essential blood of our society. That doesn’t seem to be very clear as a problem.”

Many of the current tensions between the US and EU over issues such as corporate taxation, data protection, and privacy stem from such concerns.

Floridi was recently appointed to the EU’s new ethics advisory group, set up by European data protection supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli to consider some of these fraught areas, within the ethical dimensions of data protection.

The group has 18 months to tease out the relationships between privacy, business models, technology, human rights, and markets and their implications for privacy and data, before reporting back with a white paper...

“But we need an ethical understanding, so that can inform the political and legal side, which can then regulate digital technologies in Europe.”"

The challenge of saving lives with 'big data'; BBC News, 2/7/16

BBC News; The challenge of saving lives with 'big data' :

"As part of the soon-to-be-opened Big Data Institute in Oxford, more than 500 scientists will take up the challenge of handling the Biobank data and analysing it.

Before, researchers were full of questions they wanted to ask about human health - but had to wait years to find out the answers.

"They now have the opportunity to ask those questions in rapid time," Prof Landray says...

Research based on small numbers of patients contains too many errors, particularly when it comes to analysing the risk factors for diseases.

"We crave information about large numbers of people over long periods," he says. "That way, you get rid of the play of chance."

In the US, President Obama recently launched a Precision Medicine Initiative which plans to gather "big data" to develop more individualised care.

In China, a study of 500,000 people is doing something similar which means it will be possible to compare and contrast the health of entire populations in the not too distant future."

A Microsoft billionaire gives the public a rare view of his art; Washington Post, 2/11/16

Philip Kennicott, Washington Post; A Microsoft billionaire gives the public a rare view of his art:

"What have we learned? That a man who scored big with Microsoft more than a quarter century ago loves classic paintings of places he has visited. He can’t really say why, or even why it should matter, but he has enough money to pursue his passion on a grand scale. It’s good that he’s sharing it with us, but it comes packaged with a theme so transparently factitious that one can’t take it seriously. Curating and scholarship have been reduced to putting a sprig of parsley on the plate.

In the end, we’re supposed to feel grateful. But I don’t feel grateful. I resent the fact that when this show is over (it will travel to Minneapolis, New Orleans and Seattle through 2017), all of the art will remain in the private collection of Paul G. Allen. And I can hear the retort: That’s life, that’s capitalism, and get over it because at least it’s not in Qatar.

But the problem with collecting masterworks of great artists is that the act of ownership is in itself a kind of theft, stealing from the public commons of genius. Put another way, once a work of art is important enough to be of interest to a man like Allen, it belongs to all of us. He may not know that, but we do. And so when the show is over and the art is subsumed back into the private palaces of plutocracy, one feels its loss more keenly than any fleeting gratitude to the person who made it temporarily accessible."

ATTENTION: Library Toilet Paper Thieves, You've Been Warned; DNAInfo New York, 11/6/15

Eddie Small, DNAInfo New York; ATTENTION: Library Toilet Paper Thieves, You've Been Warned:

"Although patrons can be banned for stealing library property, this is used as a last resort, and toilet paper theft likely would not qualify, according to NYPL spokeswoman Angela Montefinise.

Staffers at the Morrisania branch put the sign up three months ago but took it down Friday — after DNAinfo New York asked about it — because it is not an official library sign, she continued.

However, if you remain responsible with your toilet paper usage anyway, we're sure Elaine Benes will appreciate it."

'Rogue scientists' could exploit gene editing technology, experts warn; Guardian, 2/12/16

Alan Yuhas and Kamala Kelkar, Guardian; 'Rogue scientists' could exploit gene editing technology, experts warn:

"A senior geneticist and a bioethicist warned on Friday that they fear “rogue scientists” operating outside the bounds of law, and agreed with a US intelligence chief’s assertion this week that gene editing technology could have huge, and potentially dangerous, consequences...

Recent advances in genetics allow scientists to edit DNA quickly and accurately, making research into diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and cancer, easier than ever before. But researchers increasingly caution that they have to work with extreme care, for fear that gene editing could be deployed as bioterrorism or, in a more likely scenario, result in an accident that could make humans more susceptible to diseases rather than less.

Earlier this week the US director of national intelligence, James Clapper, testified before the Senate as part of his worldwide threat assessment report that he considers gene editing one of the six potential weapons of mass destruction that are major threats facing the country, alongside the nuclear prospects of Iran, North Korea and China.

Bioethicist Francoise Baylis, who also spoke at AAAS and who took part in the international summit that debated gene editing last year, said the technology behind gene editing could be dangerous on a global or individual level."

Researcher illegally shares millions of science papers free online to spread knowledge; Science Alert, 2/12/16

Fiona MacDonald, Science Alert; Researcher illegally shares millions of science papers free online to spread knowledge:

"A researcher in Russia has made more than 48 million journal articles - almost every single peer-reviewed paper every published - freely available online. And she's now refusing to shut the site down, despite a court injunction and a lawsuit from Elsevier, one of the world's biggest publishers.

For those of you who aren't already using it, the site in question is Sci-Hub, and it's sort of like a Pirate Bay of the science world. It was established in 2011 by neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan, who was frustrated that she couldn't afford to access the articles needed for her research, and it's since gone viral, with hundreds of thousands of papers being downloaded daily. But at the end of last year, the site was ordered to be taken down by a New York district court - a ruling that Elbakyan has decided to fight, triggering a debate over who really owns science."

Defaced sign won't deter medical practice from its mission; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/13/16

Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Defaced sign won't deter medical practice from its mission:

"Dr. Lane, who specializes in care to the LGBT community, said the homophobic and profane graffiti saddened her. But she has a message that is more important and will connect with more people, she said...

“Unfortunately, many people that I serve are used to being victimized and marginalized,” she said. “They’re used to having to deal with this on some low level regularly in their lives. That saddens me deeply, that this happened in my space. We intentionally try to make a space that’s welcoming, where this doesn’t happen.”

Dr. Lane said the only change she anticipates in the wake of the incident is the purchase of four more signs — to show that her work will go on.

“I think that awareness that these kind of things still go on is important for Pittsburgh, as a city and us as a community, to realize,” she said. “There are people still out there that hate for no good reason.

“Many people have felt marginalized at some point in their lives, probably including the people that write these type of messages. I would encourage all people to take a good look at themselves and their lives and their families. I would think that most of us would be hard-pressed to have a family that doesn’t have someone that doesn’t necessarily fit into the box that the rest of us fit into.

“We have to remember that we don’t have to like each other. We don’t have to agree with each other’s opinions. But we do have to treat each other with dignity and respect.”"

Pitt to merge SIS, CS department; The Pitt News, 2/11/16

Taylor Mulcahey, The Pitt News; Pitt to merge SIS, CS department:

"Within the next year and a half, Pitt’s computer science department and school of information science will become one.

The new undergraduate school, the School of Computing Informatics, is slated to accept its first students in the fall of 2017 and will combine the 32 SIS faculty with the 18 CS faculty and distribute the 50-person staff in three new departments: computer science, informatics and network systems and information culture and data stewardship...

A “shift from a singular focus on high performance computing to embracing big data, data analytics, [and] the interaction between computation and information, is driving the department merger,” Larsen said.

A growing number of other universities around the country, such as University of California, Irvine, University of Michigan, Indiana University and Drexel University, have reorganized their programs in similar ways.

For Pitt, the change comes as the University looks to shift its focus to big data projects. In March 2015, Pitt teamed up with Carnegie Mellon University and UPMC to form the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance, a partnership to find new ways to use large sets of patient data in health care.

In October 2015, Pitt collaborated with UPMC, CMU and other city and county officials to open the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, which has published city and county data, such as logs of the city’s 311 calls and information about opioid deaths, online."

Darwin Day Revelation: Evolution, Not Religion, Is the Source of Morality; HuffingtonPost.com, 2/12/16

Clay Farris Naff, HuffingtonPost.com; Darwin Day Revelation: Evolution, Not Religion, Is the Source of Morality:

"Murder stands as most heinous of immoral acts, yet we find that the countries with the lowest murder rates include those with the lowest rates of religiosity: Sweden, Japan, Britain, and the Czech Republic, to name a few. Murder rates in medieval Europe, when religion was universal, were ten times modern rates. Within the U.S., states that have the highest rates of religiosity also tend to have the highest murder rates.

Homicide is not an exception; this pattern holds for other crimes. Are we perhaps capturing an affluence effect? Nope. Vietnam is a poor country (per capita GDP ~ $5,000). It is both moderately religious and murderous -- but still has a lower homicide rate than the wealthier and more devout United States.

So where does morality come from? Evolution. This is as close to certain as science gets.. Human universals are pretty good evidence for a start. It turns out that a prohibition on murder is found in every known culture. (Of course there are individuals -- drug dealers, dictators, and fanatics, for example -- who use murder as a tool of their trade, but they are the exceptions.)

Most human universals are not moral matters. Jokes, tools, and aesthetics have no inherent moral valence. That we can pick out some behaviors as morally relevant is a clue. That we can pick out some behaviors as morally relevant is a clue. It points to the fact that we have evolved moral instincts. At root they are empathy, disgust, and fairness."

On Darwin Day, 5 facts about the evolution debate; Pew Research Center, 2/12/16

David Masci, Pew Research Center; On Darwin Day, 5 facts about the evolution debate:

"Today is the 207th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, a day now celebrated by some as Darwin Day. Darwin, of course, is best known for his theory of evolution through natural selection. When Darwin’s work was first made public in 1859, it shocked Britain’s religious establishment. And while today it is accepted by virtually all scientists, evolutionary theory still is rejected by many Americans, often because it conflicts with their religious beliefs about divine creation.

While not an official holiday, Darwin Day has been adopted by scientific and humanist groups to promote everything from scientific literacy to secularism. This year, more than 100 events have been planned worldwide, many of them anchored by scientific talks or symposia. Others, such as a children’s scavenger hunt at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., are a little less serious.

Here are five facts about the public’s views on evolution as well as other aspects of the debate in the U.S. and elsewhere:"

Facebook ‘colonialism' row stokes distrust in Zuckerberg; BBC News, 2/11/16

Dave Lee, BBC News; Facebook ‘colonialism' row stokes distrust in Zuckerberg:

"The suggestion by Andreessen that India, with its history, should somehow be pro-colonialism was treated by many as absurd.

In centuries gone by, colonialism was about exploitation of resources. In the modern world, it's digital - moving in, setting up companies and building insurmountable user bases before any other company can.

That's arguably an extreme interpretation of the purpose of Free Basics - but it's the argument made by local businesses to India's telecoms regulator. An Indian social network wouldn't stand a chance against free Facebook, they said, and websites that are not part of the Free Basics scheme would lose out. The regulator agreed when it ruled in favour of net neutrality.

As did many Western onlookers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which campaigns for an open internet, said Facebook was doing what it could to open up the Free Basics scheme to local companies, the inherent flaw of the program was that Facebook remained the sole gatekeeper."

Manslaughter charges possible in Flint water crisis, says top investigator; Washington Post, 2/10/16

Michael E. Miller, Washington Post; Manslaughter charges possible in Flint water crisis, says top investigator:

"Flood described a number of possible outcomes of the investigation. He said it could turn out that the crisis was simply a result of “honest mistakes,” the Associated Press reported.

But it could also turn out that city, county or state officials were guilty of a “breach of duty” or “gross negligence,” exposing them to possible criminal or civil actions, he said.

Flood said that the severest possible charge, manslaughter, was “not far-fetched.” He compared charging officials with manslaughter over the water crisis to charging construction workers with the same crime for leaving open manholes unattended, resulting in death.

He said he could also pursue restitution against both private companies and governments on behalf of Flint residents affected by the water crisis, according to the Detroit News."

The internet of things: how your TV, car and toys could spy on you; Guardian, 2/10/16

Sam Thielman, Guardian; The internet of things: how your TV, car and toys could spy on you:

"Can your smart TV spy on you? Absolutely, says the US director of national intelligence. The ever-widening array of “smart” web-enabled devices pundits have dubbed the internet of things [IoT] is a welcome gift to intelligence officials and law enforcement, according to director James Clapper.

“In the future, intelligence services might use the [internet of things] for identification, surveillance, monitoring, location tracking, and targeting for recruitment, or to gain access to networks or user credentials,” Clapper told the Senate in public testimony on Tuesday.

As a category, the internet of things is useful to eavesdroppers both official and unofficial for a variety of reasons, the main one being the leakiness of the data. “[O]ne helpful feature for surveillance is that private sector IoT generally blabs a lot, routinely into some server, somewhere,” said Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “That data blabbing can be insecure in the air, or obtained from storage.”"

Not Another Net-Neutrality Story; The Atlantic, 2/9/16

Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic; Not Another Net-Neutrality Story:

"There are implications for other countries, too. Part of Facebook’s strategy for global expansion just failed, or at least suffered a serious blow, in a key country. Here’s how Kevin Roose, a writer at Fusion, puts it: “If a group of activists could successfully reframe Free Basics as an insidious land grab, rather than an act of corporate largesse, and mobilize a country against it, what’s to stop them from resisting elsewhere?” And as Ingrid Burrington wrote for The Atlantic in December, various mobile carriers in the United States offer “free” video streaming as a way to attract customers—free, in that data use doesn’t count toward a person’s monthly allotment.

“It really seems too obviously out of line to be true,” Burrington wrote, “Mobile carriers are literally partnering with large media companies to subsidize data-devouring streaming services, while what might be considered the ‘open Internet’ remains a paid service.”

In a Facebook post on Monday, Zuckerberg wrote that he is “disappointed” but committed to keep working toward connectivity goals in India. In his earlier essay, for the Times of India, he was less restrained: “Who could possibly be against this?”"

Chipotle Meeting Outlines Food Safety to Workers and Message for Public; New York Times, 2/8/16

Stephanie Strom, New York Times; Chipotle Meeting Outlines Food Safety to Workers and Message for Public:

"Chipotle Mexican Grill closed its more than 2,000 restaurants for four hours on Monday to hold a “virtual” town hall meeting with its employees about steps it said it was taking to improve food safety and regain consumers’ trust...

Marketing experts applauded the company for its transparency about the meeting, but said the company would need to do a lot more to win back the trust of consumers. Chipotle has experienced six food safety failures involving norovirus, salmonella and E. coli since July, with more than 500 customers reporting that they fell ill afterward. Most of those illnesses were associated with two outbreaks of norovirus.

“Whether that’s sufficient to persuade consumers to come back in a significant way is questionable,” said Allen Adamson, founder of BrandSimple, a marketing consultancy. “It’s going to take significant meaningful action that goes beyond telling employees to be more careful and, unfortunately, some time before consumers start to believe it.”

Mr. Adamson said the best example of a company regaining consumer trust was of Tylenol in 1982 after seven people died after taking medicine that had been tampered with...

Chipotle has started its most expensive marketing and promotion campaign ever and plans to spend some $50 million to try to lure existing customers back into its restaurants and communicate the steps it has taken to improve its food safety practices."

China Indicates Fate of 3 Missing Hong Kong Booksellers; Reuters via Voice of America, 2/4/16

Reuters via Voice of America; China Indicates Fate of 3 Missing Hong Kong Booksellers:

"Chinese police have confirmed for the first time that three of five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing were being investigated for "illegal activities" in China, according to a letter sent to Hong Kong's police Thursday.

The disappearances have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using shadowy tactics that erode the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997."

China faces diplomatic crisis over missing Hong Kong booksellers; Reuters via Japan Times, 2/7/16

Greg Torode, Reuters via Japan Times; China faces diplomatic crisis over missing Hong Kong booksellers:

"For years Gui Minhai, a China-born publisher of tabloid books on China’s leaders, had believed he could live and work overseas on a Swedish passport without fear of persecution by Chinese authorities, which ban such works on the mainland.

However, his disappearance from Thailand last October and his tearful appearance last month on Chinese state television have undermined confidence among some diplomats in the protections afforded to hundreds of thousands of holders of foreign passports in Hong Kong and China.

Reuters has confirmed that at least eight governments — including Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States — have in private raised concerns with Chinese officials, saying that detaining Gui and his associates breaches the “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China."

French privacy regulator cracks down on Facebook's use of personal data; Reuters via Guardian, 2/8/16

Reuters via Guardian; French privacy regulator cracks down on Facebook's use of personal data:

"The French data protection authority on Monday gave Facebook three months to stop tracking non-users’ web activity without their consent and ordered the social network to stop some transfers of personal data to the US.

The French order is the first significant action to be taken against a company transferring Europeans’ data to the US following an EU court ruling last year that struck down an agreement that had been relied on by thousands of companies, including Facebook, to avoid cumbersome EU data transfer rules."

Give Up Your Data to Cure Disease; New York Times, 2/6/16

David B. Agus, New York Times; Give Up Your Data to Cure Disease:

"HOW far would you go to protect your health records? Your privacy matters, of course, but consider this: Mass data can inform medicine like nothing else and save countless lives, including, perhaps, your own.

Over the past several years, using some $30 billion in federal stimulus money, doctors and hospitals have been installing electronic health record systems. More than 80 percent of office-based doctors, including me, use some form of E.H.R. These systems are supposed to make things better by giving people easier access to their medical information and avoiding the duplication of tests and potentially fatal errors.

Yet neither doctors nor patients are happy. Doctors complain about the time it takes to update digital records, while patients worry about confidentiality. Last month the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons went so far as to warn that E.H.R.s could “crash” the medical system.

We need to get over it. These digital databases offer an incredible opportunity to examine trends that will fundamentally change how doctors treat patients. They will help develop cures, discover new uses for drugs and better track the spread of scary new illnesses like the Zika virus."

How Limited Internet Access Can Subtract From Kids' Education; NPR, 2/6/16

Alina Selyukh, NPR; How Limited Internet Access Can Subtract From Kids' Education:

"Researchers from Rutgers University and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop collected dozens of stories like Uribe's for a new study focused specifically on lower-income families with school-age children.

They surveyed nearly 1,200 parents with kids between 6 and 13 years old, whose income is below the national median for families with children. They found that even among the poorest households, nine in 10 families do have some access to the Internet, but in many cases that means dial-up or a mobile data plan.

"Our data is one of the first, if not the first time that we can really comprehensively look at whether or not having mobile-only access — meaning that you don't have it through a computer or a desktop — whether or not it's equivalent. And what our findings show is that it is not," says co-author Vikki Katz.

The study puts in a new light the important progress that smartphones brought to many disconnected households...

And digital equity experts say, the most important thing will be changing the way we think about the issue: no longer the question of if there's access, but what's the quality."

As Flint Fought to Be Heard, Virginia Tech Team Sounded Alarm; New York Times, 2/6/16

Mitch Smith, New York Times; As Flint Fought to Be Heard, Virginia Tech Team Sounded Alarm:

"But as government officials were ignoring and ridiculing residents’ concerns about the safety of their tap water, a small circle of people was setting off alarms. Among them was the team from Virginia Tech.

The team began looking into Flint’s water after its professor, Marc Edwards, spoke with LeeAnne Walters, a resident whose tap water contained alarming amounts of lead. Dr. Edwards, who years earlier had helped expose lead contamination in Washington, D.C., had his students send testing kits to homes in Flint to find out if the problem was widespread. Lead exposure can lead to health and developmental problems, particularly in children, and its toxic effects can be irreversible.

Their persistence helped force officials to acknowledge the crisis and prompted warnings to residents to not drink or cook with tap water. Officials are now scrambling to find a more permanent solution to the problem than trucking in thousands of plastic jugs, and are turning to Virginia Tech for advice.

The scientists “became the only people that citizens here trust, and it’s still that way,” said Melissa Mays, a Flint resident who has protested the water quality."

Humane Society boss resigns after petition demands her removal; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/5/16

Madasyn Czebiniak and Anya Sostek, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Humane Society boss resigns after petition demands her removal:

"The head of the Western PA Humane Society has resigned, days after she was put on administrative leave.

Joy Braunstein had been under pressure after an online petition demanded her removal was circulated.

Statement from Joy Braunstein:

In a statement this afternoon, Ms. Braunstein said: “Given the present circumstances, I have made a personal choice to step away from The Western Pennsylvania Humane Society and resign my position effective immediately out of respect for my family and out of respect for the organization. I wish the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society well and will continue to be a supporter of the organization. At this time, I have not decided what I plan to do next professionally. Before I do, I plan to take some time with my family. I want to thank the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society for my time there and everyone else for their concern, but I have no further comment.”

Former employees estimate that in Ms. Braunstein’s 13-month tenure as executive director of the Western PA Humane Society, more than a third of the roughly 60-member staff was either fired or quit."

A Question of Moral Radicalism; New York Times, 2/5/16

David Brooks, New York Times; A Question of Moral Radicalism:

"There’s a philosophy question: If you were confronted with the choice between rescuing your mother from drowning or two strangers, who should you rescue? With utilitarian logic, the rational saint would rescue the two strangers because saving two lives is better than saving one. Their altruism is impartial, universal and self-denying. “The evil in this world is the creation of those who make a distinction between the self and other,” one man MacFarquhar writes about says.

Others Wolf calls loving saints. They are good with others’ goodness, suffering in others’ pain. They are the ones holding the leper, talking to the potential suicide hour upon hour. Their service is radically personal, direct and not always pleasant.

This sort of radical selflessness forces us to confront our own lives. Should we all be living lives with as much moral heroism as these people? Given the suffering in the world, are we called to drop everything and give it our all? Did you really need that $4 Frappuccino when that money could have gone to the poor?"

Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: Readers React on Social Media; New York Times, 2/4/16

New York Times; Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: Readers React on Social Media:

"On Tuesday, Amy Harmon reported that a prominent professor at the University of Chicago had stepped down in response to accusations of sexual harassment. The article ignited a heated discussion on Twitter, with some readers sharing their experiences of harassment in the science field.

The professor, Jason Lieb, a molecular biologist, made unwelcome sexual advances to several female graduate students at an off-campus retreat of the molecular biosciences division, according to a university investigation letter obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Lieb, 43, also engaged in sexual activity with a student who was “incapacitated due to alcohol and therefore could not consent.”

The article highlighted an increasingly tense debate over how universities deal with harassment claims in their science departments. Students and faculty members at the University of Chicago blamed the school, saying it overlooked previous accusations against Mr. Lieb when he worked at the University of North Carolina, and did not find out why he resigned abruptly from Princeton University after just seven months.

Below is a selection of the responses to the article on Twitter."

Wildly Popular App Kik Offers Teenagers, and Predators, Anonymity; New York Times, 2/5/16

Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Richard Perez-Pena, New York Times; Wildly Popular App Kik Offers Teenagers, and Predators, Anonymity:

"...experts in Internet crime caution that the app is just one of many digital platforms abused by all manner of criminals, from small-time drug dealers to terrorists.

But law enforcement officials say Kik — used by 40 percent of American teenagers, by the company’s own estimate — goes further than most widely used apps in shielding its users from view, often making it hard for investigators to know who is using it, or how. (Yik Yak is another popular app under fire for its use of anonymous messages.)...

Founded in 2009 and based in Canada, Kik aspires to become the Western version of WeChat, the hugely successful messaging service in China that offers free texting, e-commerce and content delivery. Its main appeal is privacy and anonymity: The app is free, and allows people to find strangers and communicate with them anonymously, through a user name."

Big Data Ethics: racially biased training data versus machine learning; BoingBoing.net, 2/5/16

Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net; Big Data Ethics: racially biased training data versus machine learning:

"Writing in Slate, Cathy "Weapons of Math Destruction" O'Neill, a skeptical data-scientist, describes the ways that Big Data intersects with ethical considerations.

O'Neill recounts an exercise to improve service to homeless families in New York City, in which data-analysis was used to identify risk-factors for long-term homelessness. The problem, O'Neill describes, was that many of the factors in the existing data on homelessness were entangled with things like race (and its proxies, like ZIP codes, which map extensively to race in heavily segregated cities like New York). Using data that reflects racism in the system to train a machine-learning algorithm whose conclusions can't be readily understood runs the risk of embedding that racism in a new set of policies, these ones scrubbed clean of the appearance of bias with the application of objective-seeming mathematics.

We talk a lot about algorithms in the context of Big Data but the algorithms themselves are well-understood and pretty universal -- they're the same ones that are used in mass-surveillance and serving ads. But the training data is subject to the same problems experienced by all sciences when they try to get a good, random sampling to use in their analysis. Just like bad sampling can blow up a medical trial or a psych experiment, it can also confound big data. Rather than calling for algorithmic transparency, we need to call for data transparency, methodological transparency, and sampling transparency."

Twitter says it’s shut down more than 125,000 accounts promoting ISIS since mid-2015; Washington Post, 2/5/16

Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post; Twitter says it’s shut down more than 125,000 accounts promoting ISIS since mid-2015:

"Twitter has suspended more than 125,000 accounts for promoting terrorism related to ISIS since the middle of 2015, the social media firm announced Friday.

The news comes as Obama administration officials have appealed to tech companies such as Twitter to help counter violent extremism online. The company has also been under pressure from groups that track jihadi activity on the Internet to do more to remove ISIS propaganda from its platforms."

When a Public Family Is Publicly Attacked; New York Times, 2/5/16

KJ Dell'Antonia, New York Times; When a Public Family Is Publicly Attacked:

"While Ms. Howerton and her supporters report Twitter accounts for abuse, she is also asking YouTube to take down the video commentary that makes use of her video and other family images. She has filed a privacy complaint, which YouTube rejected, and is waiting for it to respond to her new complaint, alleging copyright violation. Neil Richards, a law professor at Washington University and author of “Intellectual Privacy: Rethinking Civil Liberties in the Digital Age,” said he thinks Ms. Howerton’s belief that she can regain control of the footage may be overly optimistic.

“The use of home video and family images for political debate is something that has real consequences,” he said. “She has made her life choices, her experiences, her children’ experiences, a matter for public debate. When people do this they do expose themselves to criticism and attacks and some of them are quite unpleasant.”

Eric Goldman, a professor of law and director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law, agreed that because Ms. Howerton herself used family video as part of a political discussion, she may have little legal recourse when that video is used as part of a larger video engaged in social commentary on the same topic. In many situations, videos or pictures posted online can become “fair game” for critics to use in online attacks against the poster’s position or for other undesirable political or social statements, Mr. Goldman said in an email."

Senator Rob Portman to Oppose Pacific Trade Pact; New York Times, 2/4/16

Jackie Calmes, New York Times; Senator Rob Portman to Oppose Pacific Trade Pact:

"In a clear sign of the trouble facing President Obama’s trade pact with Pacific Rim nations, one of the most influential congressional Republicans on trade issues announced on Thursday that he would oppose it unless significant changes were made.

The lawmaker, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who was a trade ambassador under President George W. Bush, objects to the accord’s provisions on currency manipulation, auto parts and pharmaceutical industry protections. Lawmakers in both parties have raised the same issues, but Mr. Portman’s authority on trade is certain to carry extra weight with colleagues...

The separate objection of many Republicans, that the pact weakens patent protections for pharmaceutical companies to make drugs more affordable and accessible globally, has been led by Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah and chairman of the Senate committee responsible for trade, a longtime proponent of the drug industry...

Only Malaysia has ratified it so far."

State police investigating suspected cheating at its academy; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/4/16

Karen Langley and Kate Giammarise, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; State police investigating suspected cheating at its academy:

"The head of the Pennsylvania State Police says that the agency is investigating suspected cheating at its academy, and that anyone found to have cheated would “face swift and certain discipline.”

State Police Commissioner Tyree Blocker said in a statement Thursday that at the end of December, internal affairs at the state police initiated “a full and comprehensive investigation” into the suspected cheating...

Allegations that as many as 40 cadets from the 144th class, scheduled to graduate in March, may have cheated on tests were first reported by ABC27 News in Harrisburg."

Cops will adapt big data platform to secure Super Bowl; FedScoop.com, 2/5/16

Alex Koma, FedScoop.com; Cops will adapt big data platform to secure Super Bowl:

"Law enforcement agents and first responders in Northern California are turning to some software that harnesses the power of data to help keep fans safe at the Super Bowl, one of the most daunting security challenges of the year.

The state first started using the program last year — known as the “California Common Operating Picture” and powered by Haystax Technology’s “Constellation” analytics platform — and now law enforcement agencies of all shapes and sizes are preparing to use it to collect thousands of pieces of data about potential threats ahead of the big matchup in Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium.

In a briefing here at Haystax’s headquarters, Chief Technology Officer Bryan Ware laid out just how federal, state and local agents across the region have been using the system to keep a close eye on potential trouble makers and targets ahead of the Super Bowl, and how 13 different monitoring centers run by various government agencies will use it the night of the game to stay ahead of any security concerns."

Humane Society boss on leave says she is victim of smear campaign; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/4/16

Madasyn Czebiniak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Humane Society boss on leave says she is victim of smear campaign:

"The allegation in the change.org petition that has drawn by far the most attention concerns Ms. Braunstein’s decision to purchase the collie for her family, reportedly for $1,000.

It’s an allegation that is, on its face, “bizarre,” said George Loewenstein, Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, speaking just as an observer. “Ridiculous conflicts are not generally about the conflict itself, but an internal power struggle,” he said. “When people are really beloved, it’s unbelievable the things they can do and get away with, but if there are people who don’t like them, then any misstep will bring them down.”

From an ethical perspective, what Ms. Braunstein does in her private life shouldn’t matter, he said.

“Should the director of an adoption agency not have biological children? Should an indie filmmaker not go to Hollywood movies? It’s absurd to hold people up to such a rigid standard of behavior.”

But for some observers in the field of animal rescue, Ms. Braunstein’s advocacy position means that even her private actions send a message."

If China Ever Uses Copyright to Censor Tank Man, It Will Be America’s Fault; Motherboard, 2/1/16

Sarah Jeong, Motherboard; If China Ever Uses Copyright to Censor Tank Man, It Will Be America’s Fault:

"Imagine a future where news agencies, historical archives, academic resources, and humanitarian organizations across the world all receive the same US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice, sent by a Chinese firm: Take down the Tank Man photo, or be sued for copyright infringement.

There is perhaps no better-known image associated with the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre: an unknown man in a white shirt and black trousers, grasping a bag in one hand, stands in front of a line of tanks, halting their progress.

Tank Man is a subversive image for the Chinese government, and for internet users in that the country, the photo—like many other references to the 1989 protests—has been censored by the authorities. It would be insanity if copyright were used to expand that censorship beyond China’s borders, but thanks to the United States copyright lobby, this absurd hypothetical is a little more realistic than you’d expect.

There’s more than one photograph of Tank Man, but for such a long, momentous stand-off, the photographs are surprisingly few. At least one of these photographs now belongs to Visual China Group, which purchased it from none other than Bill Gates himself, included inside of a massive bundle of copyrights to “historic news, documentary, and artistic images” that includes images of the Tiananmen Square protests.

Visual China Group has announced a partnership with Getty to license the images, so censorship doesn’t look like it’s in the cards."

Google to point extremist searches towards anti-radicalisation websites; Guardian, 2/2/16

Ben Quinn, Guardian; Google to point extremist searches towards anti-radicalisation websites:

"Users of Google who put extremist-related entries into the search engine are to be shown anti-radicalisation links under a pilot programme, MPs have been told by an executive for the company. The initiative, aimed at countering the online influence of groups such as Islamic State, is running alongside another pilot scheme designed to make counter-radicalisation videos easier to find.

The schemes were mentioned by Anthony House, senior manager for public policy and communications at Google, who was appearing alongside counterparts from Twitter and Facebook at a home affairs select committee hearing on countering extremism. “We should get the bad stuff down, but it’s also extremely important that people are able to find good information, that when people are feeling isolated, that when they go online, they find a community of hope, not a community of harm,” he said."

The Intercept admits reporter fabricated stories and quotes; Guardian, 2/2/16

Julia Carrie Wong, Guardian; The Intercept admits reporter fabricated stories and quotes:

"Digital magazine The Intercept has fired reporter Juan Thompson after discovering “a pattern of deception” in his reporting. In a note to readers, editor-in-chief Betsy Reed revealed that Thompson had fabricated quotes in several stories and created email accounts in order to impersonate people.

“Thompson went to great lengths to deceive his editors, creating an email account to impersonate a source and lying about his reporting methods,” Reed wrote.

Following an investigation into Thompson’s reporting, the publication is retracting one story in its entirety and appending corrections to four others. Among the inconsistencies The Intercept discovered were quotes “attributed to people who said they had not been interviewed” and quotes that could not be verified."

Chicago Professor Resigns Amid Sexual Misconduct Investigation; New York Times, 2/2/16

Amy Harmon, New York Times; Chicago Professor Resigns Amid Sexual Misconduct Investigation:

"Both the University of California, Berkeley, and the California Institute of Technology have fielded criticism recently for failing to publicly acknowledge their own conclusions that a prominent male scientist on each faculty had harassed female students until the details were uncovered by news media. A third case was reportedly unearthed only because of a bureaucratic error at the University of Arizona.

“Although institutions proclaim that they have zero tolerance for abuse of the policies that they claim to enforce, too often their primary concern seems to be secrecy and reputation management,” the science journal Nature wrote in a Jan. 20 editorial headlined “Harassment Victims Deserve Better.”

At Chicago, students praised the university for swift and decisive action. But some students and faculty members also raised pointed questions about whether the university had placed female graduate students at risk by hiring Dr. Lieb, who brought scientific cachet and a record of winning lucrative grants to a department that had recently lost two of its stars to other institutions.

He was put on staff despite potential warning signs.

Before he was hired, molecular biologists on the University of Chicago faculty and at other academic institutions received emails from an anonymous address stating that Dr. Lieb had faced allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct at previous jobs at Princeton and the University of North Carolina."

My Secret Policeman; New York Times, 2/2/16

Mona Eltahawy, New York Times; My Secret Policeman:

"I joke with friends that a phone call is a promotion of sorts. From the start of my journalism career in Egypt in the early 1990s, I joined the many journalists and activists who are surveilled by the government. Sometimes, a state security officer would send a note inviting me to tea — what a perfect euphemism for an interrogation — at headquarters...

I often wonder if Omar Sharif made the transition from one to the other. And I worry what he and his colleagues are doing with the Egyptian government’s increasing ability to trawl data from applications like Skype, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with the help of See Egypt, the sister company of the American-based cybersecurity firm Blue Coat.

National Security is also busy rounding people up. Four members of the April 6 Youth Movement’s political bureau were recently taken from their homes in middle-of-the night raids. The government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi also targeted Facebook group administrators, a publishing house and an art gallery in a crackdown ahead of last month’s anniversary of the 2011 revolution."

U.S. and Europe in ‘Safe Harbor’ Data Deal, but Legal Fight May Await; New York Times, 2/2/16

Mark Scott, New York Times; U.S. and Europe in ‘Safe Harbor’ Data Deal, but Legal Fight May Await:

"European officials on Tuesday agreed to a deal with the United States that would let Google, Amazon and thousands of other businesses continue moving people’s digital data, including social media posts and financial information, back and forth across the Atlantic.

With billions of dollars of business potentially at stake, the data-transfer deal was the result of more than three months of often tense negotiations between United States and European Union policy makers, who have clashed over what level of privacy individuals can expect when companies and government agencies follow ever-expanding digital footprints.

Part of the challenge is balancing individuals’ privacy concerns with national security obligations, particularly in light of mounting fears about international terrorism.

The agreement announced on Tuesday aims to address those privacy concerns and strike that balance by including written guarantees by the United States — to be reviewed annually — that American intelligence agencies would not have indiscriminate access to Europeans’ digital data when it is sent across the Atlantic. Whether that provision will reassure privacy-rights groups remains to be seen."

Menacing Video Posted by Chechen Leader Alarms Critics of Putin in Russia; New York Times, 2/1/16

Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times; Menacing Video Posted by Chechen Leader Alarms Critics of Putin in Russia:

"Members of Russia’s political opposition reacted with fear and outrage on Monday after one of President Vladimir V. Putin’s most loyal and aggressive allies posted a menacing video online that appeared to show a Kremlin critic in the cross hairs of a sniper’s rifle.

The video, posted to the Instagram account of Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, shows Mikhail M. Kasyanov, a former prime minister of Russia turned Putin critic, on a visit to Strasbourg, France, with another opposition politician, Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Mr. Kadyrov, a former Islamist rebel, has repeatedly criticized opposition figures as traitors trying to undermine Russia for the benefit of their Western masters, and has called for the use of Soviet-era tactics against “enemies of the people,” who he has said should be put on trial or committed to psychiatric wards...

The video, posted on Sunday, received more than 17,500 likes in 24 hours before it was removed on Monday. Mr. Kadyrov seemed to accuse Instagram of censoring him because of his anti-American views. “As soon as I said a few words about the U.S. hellhounds, they have deleted my post on Instagram,” he wrote, referring to Mr. Kasyanov and Mr. Kara-Murza. “Here you have it, the celebrated American freedom of speech!”

A spokeswoman for the social network said in an email that the post was removed because it violated Instagram’s guidelines against threats or harassment."

At Berkeley, a New Digital Privacy Protest; New York Times, 2/1/16

Steve Lohr, New York Times; At Berkeley, a New Digital Privacy Protest:

"While some of the professors criticize the monitoring program as one that invades their privacy, the University of California has responded that “privacy perishes in the absence of security.”

It’s part of the larger challenge that fast-moving technology poses for social values. Every day, corporations, government agencies and universities must balance the need for computer security with the expected right to privacy of the people who use their networks. In different settings, there are different rules, expectations and levels of threat.

“We’re really just starting to sort out the risks and rules for digital security and data collection and use,” said Elana Zeide, a privacy expert at New York University’s Information Law Institute."

Cheating Cyclist Caught with Secret Motor Hidden In Bike Frame; Popular Mechanics, 2/1/16

Jay Bennett, Popular Mechanics; Cheating Cyclist Caught with Secret Motor Hidden In Bike Frame:

"A Belgian cyclist competing in the cyclocross world championships had her bike confiscated by race officials to investigate a case of "technological fraud," and sure enough, she had a motor hidden in her bicycle.

The 19-year-old rider Femke Van den Driessche suffered a mechanical failure that forced her to walk her bike on the final lap of the race...

The UCI, professional cycling's governing body, has long suspected that this type of cheating, known as "bike doping" or "mechanical doping," has been going on in professional races. Tour de France riders had their bike's periodically checked last year, but this is the first time a rider has been caught using a motorized bike."

Unpublished Black History; New York Times, 2/1/16

Rachel L. Swarns, Darcy Eveleigh, and Damien Cave, New York Times; Unpublished Black History:

"Hundreds of stunning images from black history, drawn from old negatives, have long been buried in the musty envelopes and crowded bins of the New York Times archives.

None of them were published by The Times until now.

Were the photos — or the people in them — not deemed newsworthy enough? Did the images not arrive in time for publication? Were they pushed aside by words here at an institution long known as the Gray Lady?...

Every day during Black History Month, we will publish at least one of these photographs online, illuminating stories that were never told in our pages and others that have been mostly forgotten...

Many of these photographs, and their stories, are equally intriguing. But the collection is far from comprehensive. There are gaps, for many reasons."

No More Exposés in North Carolina; New York Times, 2/1/16

Editorial Board, New York Times; No More Exposés in North Carolina:

"The industry should welcome such scrutiny as a way to expose the worst operators. Instead, the industry’s lobbyists have taken the opposite approach, pushing for the passage of so-called “ag-gag” laws, which ban undercover recordings on farms and in slaughterhouses. These measures have failed in many states, but they have been enacted in eight. None has gone as far as North Carolina, where a new law that took effect Jan. 1 aims to silence whistle-blowers not just at agricultural facilities, but at all workplaces in the state. That includes, among others, nursing homes, day care centers, and veterans’ facilities.

Anyone who violates the law — say, by secretly taping abuses of elderly patients or farm animals and then sharing the recording with the media or an advocacy group — can be sued by business owners for bad publicity and be required to pay a fine of $5,000 for each day that person is gathering information or recording without authorization...

Activists who pose as employees to gain access to farming operations, the judge wrote, “actually advance core First Amendment values by exposing misconduct to the public eye and facilitating dialogue on issues of considerable public interest.”

As far back as the publication of “The Jungle,” which documented the horrific conditions inside Chicago meatpacking plants in the early 20th century, the public has relied on journalists and activists to expose dangerous abuses and misconduct by businesses."

iFest 2016: Feb. 1, 2016 10 AM - 11 AM Workshop: "Ethics, the Great Dilemma, and Managing through Conflict"

iFest 2016: Feb. 1, 2016 Workshop: "Ethics, the Great Dilemma, and Managing through Conflict" : "Monday, February 1

Workshop: "Ethics, the Great Dilemma, and Managing through Conflict"

Facilitators: Leona Mitchell, Visiting Professor of Practice and Former IBM Executive; Kip Currier, Assistant Professor, PhD, JD

Monday, February 1, 10:00 - 11:00 AM

3rd Floor Theatre, School of Information Sciences

Anyone whose professional path involves working in teams, managing others, serving a client, or being a client, knows that conflicts can consume an inordinate amount of time and can be the most challenging barriers to a successful outcome. Join Leona Mitchell, professor of practice in the School of Information Sciences (and with over a decade of senior leadership experience at IBM) and Kip Currier, Assistant Professor, PhD, JD at the iSchool at Pitt, as they share philosophies and strategies on identifying, managing, and resolving conflicts. These strategies are applicable to both classroom and work settings, and this session ls open to all students at all levels."

How Europe is fighting to change tech companies' 'wrecking ball' ethics; Guardian, 1/30/16

Julia Powles and Carissa Veliz, Guardian; How Europe is fighting to change tech companies' 'wrecking ball' ethics:

"Culture and ethics beyond law...

European politicians want the new General Data Protection Regulation – the most-debated piece of EU legislation ever – to be part of the solution, along with the remainder of Europe’s pioneering fundamental rights framework. But law is not, and cannot be, the whole. Mostly, it’s about culture and ethics.

One European institution wants to seize this broader challenge. The European data protection supervisor, or EDPS, is the EU’s smallest entity but also one of its most ambitious, and immediately followed Schulz’s address by announcing a new ethics advisory group.

EDPS hopes this group will lead an inclusive debate on human rights, technology, markets and business models in the 21st century from an ethical perspective.

Six individuals have been selected to spearhead what is initially a two-year investigative, consultative and report-writing initiative: iconoclastic American computer scientist and writer Jaron Lanier; Dutch data analytics consultant Aurélie Pols; and four philosophers, Peter Burgess, Antoinette Rouvroy, Luciano Floridi and Jeroen van den Hoven, who bring experience in political and legal philosophy, logic, and the ethics and philosophy of technology.

Technology needs a moral compass

Bringing ethics into the data debate is essential."

White House denies clearance to tech researcher with links to Snowden; Guardian, 1/29/16

Danny Yadron, Guardian; White House denies clearance to tech researcher with links to Snowden:

"The White House has denied a security clearance to a member of its technology team who previously helped report on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

Ashkan Soltani, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and recent staffer at the Federal Trade Commission, recently began working with the White House on privacy, data ethics and technical outreach. The partnership raised eyebrows when it was announced in December because of Soltani’s previous work with the Washington Post, where he helped analyze and protect a cache of National Security Agency documents leaked by Snowden.

His departure raises questions about the US government’s ability to partner with the broader tech community, where people come from a more diverse background than traditional government staffers."

Aaron Swartz and copyright wars in the Internet age; Boston Globe, 1/28/16

Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe; Aaron Swartz and copyright wars in the Internet age:

"Swartz is a particularly tragic casualty of a conflict as old as the Gutenberg Bible. When copycats can easily republish the latest Charles Dickens novel or Adele CD, how will artists and publishers get paid? But laws to protect intellectual-property rights can cripple the free exchange of ideas.

Justin Peters seems as helpless as the rest of us to resolve this dilemma. But in his lucid and witty new book, he ably sketches the contours of the dilemma...

Peters places Swartz’s well-meant misdeeds in historical context, showing how this young man was one of many smart, ambitious combatants on both sides of the copyright wars.

"I can’t fault Peters’s sympathy for Swartz, and I share his opinion that the prosecutorial sledgehammer fell much too hard. But Peters seems a little too inclined to play the populist, sneering at the pro-copyright arguments of publishers. Yes, our current intellectual property statutes are absurdly restrictive. But apart from strong protections, how would artists and writers hope to make a decent living?

The conundrum continues, with activists on both sides engaged in constant efforts to redraw the boundaries. Peters’s new book is an excellent survey of the battlefield, and a sobering memorial to its most tragic victim."

30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself; NPR, 1/28/16

Howard Berkes, NPR; 30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself:

"The space shuttle program had an ambitious launch schedule that year and NASA wanted to show it could launch regularly and reliably. President Ronald Reagan was also set to deliver the State of the Union address that evening and reportedly planned to tout the Challenger launch.

Whatever the reason, Ebeling says it didn't justify the risk.

"There was more than enough [NASA officials and Thiokol managers] there to say, 'Hey, let's give it another day or two,' " Ebeling recalls. "But no one did."

Ebeling retired soon after Challenger. He suffered deep depression and has never been able to lift the burden of guilt. In 1986, as he watched that haunting image again on a television screen, he said, "I could have done more. I should have done more."

He says the same thing today, sitting in a big easy chair in the same living room, his eyes watery and his face grave. The data he and his fellow engineers presented, and their persistent and sometimes angry arguments, weren't enough to sway Thiokol managers and NASA officials. Ebeling concludes he was inadequate. He didn't argue the data well enough."

Academics Want You to Read Their Work for Free; Atlantic, 1/26/16

Jane C. Hu, Atlantic; Academics Want You to Read Their Work for Free:

"Whitaker, who founded two other Elsevier journals and has a combined 50 years of editorial experience with the company, came into his new position after he heard about the former Lingua board’s actions and contacted Elsevier to express his dismay. “I disagreed with just about everything they were doing,” he said. He came out of retirement to sign a new contract with Elsevier in early January, and has since recruited several interim editors. He says that he and his editorial staff have received a fair amount of animosity from Glossa supporters.

But Whitaker stands firmly in favor of for-profit publishing; noting that publishers’ profits allow them to invest in new projects. (Elsevier gave Whitaker funds to found two new journals—Brain and Cognition and Brain and Language.) Plus, he says, profits ensure longevity. “That’s one of the many reasons I support the idea of a publisher that makes money,” he says. “Lingua will be here when I retire, and Lingua will be here when I die.”

The fate of Cognition, meanwhile remains to be seen. Barner and Snedeker plan to submit their petition to Elsevier on Wednesday. “The battle has been taken from a very small region—linguistics—to a much larger one,” says Rooryck. Barner and Snedeker are staying silent about their long-term plans, but their request sends a clear message to publishers: Scientists are ready for change."