Washington Post: “Federal employee salaries on average lag behind those of the private sector by almost 31 percent, an advisory council said Tuesday, while splitting between union and non-union members on whether to recommend potential changes in the way it arrives at that figure. The average salary difference of 30.91 percent reported by the Federal… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: November 2018
Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis
The New York Times: “…When Facebook users learned last spring that the company had compromised their privacy in its rush to expand, allowing access to the personal information of tens of millions of people to a political data firm linked to President Trump, Facebook sought to deflect blame and mask the extent of the problem.And… Continue Reading
Shop Safe This Holiday Season
Mozila: “Teddy bears that connect to the internet. Smart speakers that listen to commands. Great gifts—unless they spy on you. We created this guide to help you buy safe, secure products this holiday season.” Continue Reading
How Enforcing Competition Law Could Have Stopped Big Tech
New York Magazine – The Intelligencer: “Yesterday, Amazon announced that it was opening two new campuses in Crystal City, Virginia, and Queens, New York. The preceding audition process, with dozens of local and state governments offering ridiculous financial incentives to Jeff Bezos’s megalith, made Amazon’s power over the public sector plainly clear. Elsewhere, the parliaments… Continue Reading
The Pentagon’s Getting More Secretive and It’s Hurting National Security
Defense One: “At a time of rampant executive branch corruption and large increases in defense spending, Americans are rightly concerned about the need for governmental transparency. People deserve to know how their money is being used, and what life-or-death decisions the Pentagon bureaucracy is making in their names. As President Trump asks for more defense… Continue Reading
Climate change has intensified hurricane rainfall
PBS News Hour: “Hurricane Harvey swamped Houston with seven days of pounding rain last August. When scientists went back to look at historical weather patterns, they reported Harvey dumped 20 percent more rain than it typically would have. The culprit: climate change. Today, we know that Harvey wasn’t an outlier. A new study, published Wednesday… Continue Reading
Holochain – energy efficient post-blockchain ledger system and decentralized application platform
Joe Hodnick – “Holochain is a protocol for encrypted computer communications that is designed to run entirely on distributed networks of home computers and smartphones, on a peer-to-peer, give-and-take basis. Because apps built using the holochain protocol will live exclusively on distributed networks of consumer-owned computers, these apps won’t need to interact with corporate server… Continue Reading
Report – American military advantage eroded
Providing for the Common Defense – The Assessments and Recommendations of the National Defense Strategy Commission November 13, 2018 / By: National Defense Strategy Commission. “The final report of the National Defense Strategy Commission is a compilation of the assessments of the National Defense Strategy and recommendations based on its analysis related not just to… Continue Reading
Billions spent on armored school doors, bulletproof whiteboards and secret snipers
Washington Post: “Although school security has grown into a $2.7 billion market — an estimate that does not account for the billions more spent on armed campus police officers — little research has been done on which safety measures do and do not protect students from gun violence. Earlier this fall, The Washington Post sent… Continue Reading
A Great Economy Will Not Guarantee Reelection
Axios – What the 2018 Midterms Mean for Succeeding in Washington: “Last week’s election participation by eligible voters was 49.2%, according to the latest available figures — the highest for a midterm election in 104 years (since 50.4% in 1914), according to figures analyzed by lobbyist Bruce Mehlman. Mehlman says the last time turnout approached… Continue Reading
Google, Facebook, and Amazon benefit from an outdated definition of “monopoly”
Quartz: “…big tech companies have amassed so much power that even Apple CEO Tim Cook has called for stricter regulations to be placed on them. Google owns 92% market share of internet searches, Facebook an almost 70% share of social networks. Both have a duopoly in advertising with no credible competition or regulation. Amazon, meanwhile,… Continue Reading
Treasures from NYT photo archive
“This portfolio is the first publication from Past Tense, an archival storytelling project of The New York Times. As we digitize some six million photo prints in our files, dating back more than 100 years, we are using those images to bring the events and characters of the past to life in the present. To… Continue Reading
