Link Roundup July 2021

[wepon]

Richardson will miss Olympic 100 after marijuana test

After the London Olympics, international regulators relaxed the threshold for what constitutes a positive test for marijuana from 15 nanograms per milliliter to 150 ng/m. They explained the new threshold was an attempt to ensure that in-competition use is detected and not use during the days and weeks before competition.

I'm a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week

Many of the 850 workers at the facility say they work 84 hours a week with no days off. Workers are nominally supposed to work eight-hour shifts, but because of shortages, workers are often forced to add on an extra four hours before or after their shifts. Workers call these extended shifts "suicides," because they say the schedule kills you over time. Some workers haven't had a single day off in five months, including Saturdays and Sundays.

Boston Pride dissolves amid diversity complaints

In 2020, a Boston Pride statement addressing police brutality after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor reportedly removed any reference to Black Lives Matter, according to New England LGBTQ outlet The Rainbow Times, resulting in 80 percent of the group’s volunteers to quit in protest. "We wrote in that statement, 'We stand with Black Lives Matter. We stand against police brutality,’” Casey Dooley, former Boston Black Pride chair, told WBUR. "The communications team then gave that letter to the board. The board then proceeded to take out Black Lives Matter and police brutality.”

Public Transit Is a Public Good. It’s Time to Fund It That Way.

This is the year we almost let public transportation die. The cuts that cash-strapped transit agencies proposed before being bailed out by Congress—eliminating 40 percent of New York City’s subway service, a fifth of the DC region’s Metro stations, two-thirds of Atlanta’s bus routes—wouldn’t have been their instant demise, but it was hard to see a way out of the death spiral of mutually reinforcing service cuts and ridership losses.

Google employees angered by search giant's 'hypocritical' remote work policies

After this story was published, Newshub, a New Zealand news site, reported that Immigration New Zealand had granted Hölzle an exception to the country's COVID-19 border restrictions. News of Hölzle's relocation especially stung because he has been particularly vocal against remote work, employees said. De Vesine, the resigning Googler, said Hölzle had a policy of not letting people work remotely unless they were assigned to an office and that he wouldn't consider remote work for people who hadn't reached a certain level of seniority.

For The Climate And Fairness, Take Buses And Sidewalks Before Electric Cars

Getting people out of cars rarely happens in America, yet planners in most U.S.cities are thinking about how to make it happen. Cars and trucks account for roughly a quarter of all the country's greenhouse emissions, and stopping climate change requires that those emissions sink to almost zero. Electric vehicles are only part of the answer, climate experts say. Focusing on electric vehicles as the primary solution can actually make racial and income disparities worse, and undercuts more broad-based solutions.

Taken

In general, you needn’t be found guilty to have your assets claimed by law enforcement; in some states, suspicion on a par with “probable cause” is sufficient. Nor must you be charged with a crime, or even be accused of one. Unlike criminal forfeiture, which requires that a person be convicted of an offense before his or her property is confiscated, civil forfeiture amounts to a lawsuit filed directly against a possession, regardless of its owner’s guilt or innocence.

'You Strike a Match'

The cost of the women’s election-night sabotage was estimated at $2.5 million. Over the next six months, they taught themselves to use oxyacetylene torches, which they used to damage four different pipeline valves in three counties across Iowa.

Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

There was also tension between the safety and sales teams about professional hosts who manage multiple properties and whose removal from the platform for a safety violation could cost Airbnb hundreds of listings.

Biden team may partner with private firms to monitor extremist chatter online

A source familiar with the effort said it is not about decrypting data but rather using outside entities who can legally access these private groups to gather large amounts of information that could help DHS identify key narratives as they emerge. The plan being discussed inside DHS, according to multiple sources, would, in effect, allow the department to circumvent those limits.

U.S. Military Training Document Says Socialists Represent “Terrorist” Ideology

A section of the training document subtitled “Study Questions” includes the following: “Anarchists, socialists and neo-nazis represent which terrorist ideological category?” The correct answer is “political terrorists,” a military source briefed on the training told me.

Military Removes Training Document Conflating Socialists With Terrorists

The U.S. Navy has removed a training document that appeared to conflate socialists with terrorists, following The Intercept’s publication of that document on June 22.

Majority of bitcoin trading is a hoax, new study finds

An analysis published by Bitwise this week shows that 95 percent of bitcoin spot trading is faked by unregulated exchanges. The survey, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, echoes concerns by regulators that cryptocurrency markets are still ripe for manipulation.

Amazon Introduces Tiny ‘ZenBooths’ for Stressed-Out Warehouse Workers

Based on a video released on an Amazon Twitter account, plants sit on a shelf and a fan runs to cool down the employee. The skylight on top is tinted blue. Pamphlets and signs adorn the walls. A computer waits for the employee to load up a guided meditation video.

Carbon Tax, Beloved Policy to Fix Climate Change, Is Dead at 47

Looking back, some political scientists say that the reasons for the failure of efficient carbon policy, at least in the United States, are clear. With the exception of Canada, every country that has adopted carbon pricing has no major fossil-fuel industry, notes Nina Kelsey, a political scientist at George Washington University. (Coal-rich Australia once adopted a carbon price, then repealed it.)

British fashion brand Timbuktu accused of 'cultural appropriation' for trademarking 'Yoruba'

Timbuktu, an outdoor clothing brand based in northern England, filed to trademark the word "Yoruba" in 2015, records from the UK's Intellectual Property Office show. But the registration sparked anger on Sunday when the owner of CultureTree, an African cultural center in London, wrote that she had attempted to trademark "Yoruba Stars" and claimed she faced a challenge from Timbuktu due to its similarity to the phrase the company had registered. In the United Kingdom, a proposed trademark can be challenged if it conflicts or bears similarity to one that was previously approved.

'I'm the original voice of Siri'

Apple won't confirm it. But Bennett says she is Siri. Professionals who know her voice, have worked with her and represent her legally say she is Siri. And an audio-forensics expert with 30 years of experience has studied both voices and says he is "100%" certain the two are the same.

Doctor accused of stealing COVID vaccine speaks out after grand jury declines indictment

The decision comes after two days of testimony in the case of Dr. Hasan Gokal, who was a Harris County Public Health worker, and months after a judge dismissed the case due to a lack of probable cause.

Queen’s speech: voters will need photo ID for general elections

However, the dozens of announcements are unlikely to include details of long-awaited reforms to funding for adult social care, a 2019 Conservative manifesto promise which has been parked pending cross-party discussions.

Canon put AI cameras in its Chinese offices that only let smiling workers inside

Tech company Canon has come up with a downright dystopic way to tackle the problem of workplace morale: it’s installed cameras with AI-enabled “smile recognition” technology in the offices of its Chinese subsidiary Canon Information Technology. The cameras only let smiling workers enter rooms or book meetings, ensuring that every employee is definitely, 100 percent happy all the time.

Four men arrested for breaking sodomy law in Maryland police raid

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office raided the Bush River Books & Video store in Abington on May 20, arresting eight men accused of engaging in sexual acts with other men and one accused of soliciting prostitution from an undercover female deputy.