Monday, August 12, 2019
Blogs With Rule 5 Links
These Blogs Provide Links To Rule 5 Sites:
The Other McCain has: Rule 5 Sunday: Homeko At The Beach
Proof Positive has: Best Of Web Link Around
The Woodsterman has: Rule 5 Woodsterman Style
EBL has: Rule 5 And FMJRA
The Right Way has: Rule 5 Saturday LinkORama
The Pirate's Cove has: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup
Facebook Receives Patent for ‘Shadowbanning’ Tech
According to the report, Facebook received a patent for technology that would limit the reach of blocked content while continuing to “display the blocked content to the commenting user such that the commenting user is not made aware that his or her comment was blocked.”
Via New American:
Despite the fact that Facebook executives denied the practice in congressional testimony in April, the company was awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) earlier this month for an automated system that would “receive a list of proscribed content and block comments containing the proscribed content by reducing the distribution of those comments to other viewing users” while continuing to “display the blocked content to the commenting user such that the commenting user is not made aware that his or her comment was blocked.” A better definition of shadow banning would be hard to write.
Multiple Silicon Valley companies have denied “shadowbanning” before congress even after being exposed for it. Even left-wing news outlet Vice admitted that Twitter engages in the practice against conservatives, despite Twitter’s repeated claims to the contrary. Facebook, meanwhile, was recently outed by Project Veritas for using a “deboosting” code against unwanted content, including content from conservative users.
The fact that a company patents technology does...
School Trips to Sadiq’s London Now “HIGH RISK” Activity
VISITS TO MULTIPLE VENUES IN OTHER CITIES HAVE ALSO MOVED INTO THE SO-CALLED “TYPE B” CATEGORY, WHICH MEANS THAT THEY WILL NOW REQUIRE PRIOR APPROVAL FROM LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL.
New plans have been put in place to keep pupils safe outside outside of the classroom
Previously, such trips had been classified as “type A” activities – like field trips and visits to museums and theatres – which could be authorised by senior leaders within an individual school. Now, they will be categorised alongside “adventure” outings like kayaking, climbing and motorsports.
All overnight stays at any location also need the council to give the go ahead.
Parental consent is required for each individual type B visit, whereas type A trips require only general consent at the start of the year – although parents must still be informed of any trip away from the school.
The new policy applies to all county council-controlled schools and any others which are covered by its insurance arrangements.
There was a 10 percent increase in the number of school trips involving Lancashire schools last year – with 700,000 children taking part in 36,000 individual visits. More than 5,500 trips were classed as what was then type B activities, 3,500 of which fell into the “adventure” category. There were also 277 overseas visits.
“This shows the increasing value which is placed on giving young people the broadest educational experience,” County Cllr Phillippa Williamson, member for schools, told a meeting of the authority’s cabinet.
“It also reinforces the need to regularly review and update our policies to ensure that when children are involved in these visits, they are kept safe and well.”
The new guidelines state that the risk assessment process for all trips should be “proportionate [and] not be unduly onerous, but supportive and helpful” for those leading the visit.
Advice for emergency situations includes the need to nominate a base contact back at the school who can take any necessary action in the event of...
Why blockchain-based voting could threaten democracy
As the desire to increase voter turnout remains strong and the number of online voting pilot projects rises in the U.S. and abroad, some security experts warn any internet-based election system is wide open to attack, regardless of the underlying infrastructure.
Public tests of blockchain-based mobile voting are growing.
Even as there's been an uptick in pilot projects, security experts warn that blockchain-based mobile voting technology is innately insecure and potentially a danger to democracy through "wholesale fraud" or "manipulation tactics."
The topic of election security has been in the spotlight recently after Congress held classified briefings on U.S. cyber infrastructure to identify and defend against threats to the election system, especially after Russian interference was uncovered in the 2016 Presidential election.
Thirty-two states permit various kinds of online voting – such as via email – for some subset of voters. In the 2016 general election, more 100,000 ballots were cast online, according to data collected by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The actual number is likely much higher, according to some experts.
Mike Queen, deputy chief of staff for West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, said that while the state currently has no plans to expand the use of the mobile voting beyond military absentee voters, his office did "a ton of due diligence" on the technology before and after using it.
"Not only does blockchain make it secure, but [the blockchain-based mobile app] has a really unique biometric safeguard system in place as well as facial recognition and thumb prints," Queen said via email after 2018 General Election.
Security experts disagree. The issues around online voting include server penetration attacks, client-device malware, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and other disruptions, all associated with infecting voters' computers with malware or infecting the computers in the elections office that handle and count ballots.
"If I were running for office and they decided to use blockchain for that election, I'd be scared," said...
Trump Ending Welfare-Dependent Immigration, Saving Taxpayers Billions
A new regulation set to be published by the Trump administration will ensure that legal immigrants would be less likely to secure a permanent residency in the U.S. if they have used any forms of welfare in the past, including using subsidized healthcare services, food stamps, and public housing.
The regulation will be a boon for American taxpayers in the form of an annual $57.4 billion tax cut — the amount taxpayers spend every year on paying for the welfare, crime, and schooling costs of the country’s mass importation of 1.5 million new, mostly low-skilled legal immigrants.
The National Academies of Science released a report two years ago, noting that state and local American taxpayers are billed about $1,600 each year per immigrant to pay for their welfare, where immigrant households consume 33 percent more cash welfare than American citizen households.
A recent Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) study notes that about 63 percent of noncitizen households in the U.S. use at least one form of taxpayer-funded welfare, while only about 35 percent of native-born American households are on welfare. This means that noncitizen households use nearly twice as much welfare as native-born American households.
In California — with the largest noncitizen population in the country at almost 11 million or nearly 30 percent of the state’s total population — more than seven-in-ten, or 72 percent, of households headed by noncitizens are on at least one form of welfare. Compare that to the findings that only about seven-in-twenty, or 35 percent, of native-born households in California are on...
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