Day's Headlines: Recognizing Half of U.S.; Fading Sunday; Chicago's Illogical Transgender Rulling; Banned Books; Training Kids for War; Ignoring Missile Treaty; Philippines Ram; Miami Zika Pools; Horse Tech for Humans; and Mars in Ultaviolet

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Recognizing Half of U.S.; Fading Sunday; Chicago's Illogical Transgender Rulling; Banned Books; Training Kids for War; Ignoring Missile Treaty; Philippines Ram; Miami Zika Pools; Horse Tech for Humans; and Mars in Ultaviolet

Privacy

Half of US adults are recorded in police facial recognition databases, study says theguardian

A report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology georgetown.edu found that more than 117 million adults are captured in a “virtual, perpetual lineup”, which means law enforcement offices across the US can scan their photos and use unregulated software to track law-abiding citizens in government datasets.

Also see the report: The Perpetual Line-up perpetuallineup.org

Society

With so few people going to church [in England], they may no longer need to hold Sunday services independent.co.uk

The Church of England is considering scrapping a law that requires churches to hold services on Sunday, after a big drop in the number of people going to church.

Judge sides against parents who want to ban transgender student from locker room in [Illinois] District 211 chicagotribune

In a lengthy report and recommendation, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert wrote that high school students "do not have a constitutional right not to share restrooms or locker rooms with transgender students whose sex assigned at birth is different than theirs."

How My Books are Being Banned at the Society of Biblical Literature michaeljkruger

Dr. John Kutsko, executive director of the Society of Biblical Literature, has just announced that InterVarsity Press–one of the largest evangelical presses in the country– will be suspended from having a book stall at the annual SBL meeting (starting in 2017).

The reason for this ban is the recent decision by InterVarsity to uphold the biblical view of marriage and to ask their employees to do the same.

Russia

Inside Russia’s Military Training Schools for Teens time

One morning this spring, Sarah Blesener, an American documentary photographer, got a chance to visit a school in the Moscow suburb of Dmitrov, where lessons in basic military training are available to students a few times a week. She was expecting to see kids in uniforms, saluting the flag and doing drills, much like the courses one might find in U.S. high schools that offer programs for cadets. Instead she found a classroom of students, some as young as 11, learning to assemble and load Kalashnikov assault rifles militaryfactory. Out in the schoolyard, a safety lesson focused on the proper use of biohazard suits in the event of nuclear or chemical fallout.

Russia Is Moving Ahead With Missile Program That Violates Treaty, U.S. Officials Say nytimes

The concern goes beyond those raised by the United States in July 2014, when the Obama administration said that Russia had violated the 1987 treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces by conducting flight tests of the missile.

American officials are now expressing concerns that Russia is producing more missiles than are needed to sustain a flight-test program, spurring fears that the Kremlin is moving to build a force that could ultimately be deployed.

Philippines

Police Van Rams Protesters At Anti-U.S. Demonstration In Philippines npr.org v

"Associated Press TV footage showed the van repeatedly ramming the protesters as it drove wildly back and forth after activists surrounded and started hitting the vehicle with wooden batons they seized from police.

Note: I didn't watch the included video, which is said to be graphic in nature.

Pestilence

Eighth Pool Of Mosquitoes Test Positive For Zika In Miami Beach miami.cbslocal

Miami-Dade Mosquito Control officials confirmed the find on Tuesday. The pool was retrieved back on October 5th from a trap located at 1236 Drexel Avenue which is within the Zika transmission zone.

Medical Tech

Tech

Microsoft Speech Recognition Achieves ‘Human Parity’ newsweek

Harry Shum, who heads the Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research group microsoft, added: “Even five years ago, I wouldn’t have thought we could have achieved this. I just wouldn’t have thought it would be possible.”

According to the paper, the speech recognition system makes the same or fewer errors than professional transcriptionists. While it is the first time a computer has recorded a word error rate lower than a human, it is still far from perfect.

Space

MAVEN Ultraviolet Images Reveal Hidden Secrets of Mars sci-news

New images from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) nasa.gov spacecraft show the ultraviolet glow from the Red Planet’s atmosphere in detail, revealing dynamic, previously invisible behavior. They include the first images of ‘nightglow’ from nitric oxide. Additionally, dayside images show how ozone amounts change over the seasons and how afternoon clouds form over Martian volcanoes.

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