Sunday, December 22

Tag: research

Democratic candidates want to boost school funding – research shows that will help low-income students
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POLITICS

Democratic candidates want to boost school funding – research shows that will help low-income students

Research shows that school funding impacts student achievement. Rido/Shutterstock.com With few exceptions, the various Democratic plans for public education share a common theme: more funding, less privatizing. Candidates Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders have promised to dramatically increase or triple current federal funding for low-income students and curtail charter school growth. Elizabeth Warren recently went even further, promising to quadruple federal funding for low-income students and end federal funding for charter expansion. These proposals have provoked a deluge of harsh responses from commentators. Increasing public education funding and limiting charters, critics say, is nothing more than pandering to teacher unions and demonizing charter schools. While this cr...
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Journalism

Google suspended facial recognition research for the Pixel 4 smartphone after reportedly targeting homeless black people

Google suspended a research programme designed to improve its facial recognition after a report surfaced that its contractors had been tricking black homeless people into letting their picture be taken. Anonymous contractors told the New York Daily News they been instructed to find people with darker skin tones to improve facial recognition on Google's upcoming Pixel 4 smartphone. The New York Times reported Friday that the company had suspended its facial recognition research. Subjects were offered a $5 gift card, and one source told the outlet they were specifically told to target homeless people because they were less likely to talk to the press. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.   Google has suspended a facial recognition research programme designed to ...
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Gun Violence Research Matters. Here’s Why
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Gun Violence Research Matters. Here’s Why

Private and individual donors—and recently a few states—have been stepping into a federal funding void to finance gun violence research. The California Department of Justice took a call about a 21-year-old man threatening to shoot his co-workers after being fired from his job. A search of his home uncovered 400 rounds of ammunition. And a 24-year-old California man with a history of alcohol and drug abuse told his mother he was going to kill employees and relatives in the family business, and then himself by shooting or bombing. His uncle closed the business the next day and three days later called police, who confiscated 26 firearms, including 18 semiautomatic pistols. In both instances, which occurred between 2016 and 2018, court-issued extreme risk protection orders  a...
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High School Student Used the Dark Web to Research on How to Make a Bomb
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IN OTHER NEWS

High School Student Used the Dark Web to Research on How to Make a Bomb

One of two high school students accused of plotting an attack on a Jacksonville private school campus reportedly used the dark web to research how to make a bomb. The two boys, who have since been expelled from the school, were caught up in a heated argument that resulted in a fight ending with both being hospitalized. After the fight, the school authorities looked into the teens’ earlier activities to learn what had caused the quarrel. The administration’s investigations resulted in the discovery of past conversations between the boys that indicated they had intentions of creating violence on the school campus. 17 year old Grant Shirley from Port St. Lucie and 15 year old Matthew Guey from Huston were resident students at the San Jose Campus of the Bolles School. Shirley and Guey were ...
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Research Shows Entire Black Communities Suffer Trauma After Police Shootings
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IN OTHER NEWS

Research Shows Entire Black Communities Suffer Trauma After Police Shootings

Police killings of unarmed African Americans have created a mental health crisis of enormous proportions. Following several nationally publicized police killings of unarmed Black Americans in the United States, Eva L., a fitness instructor who identifies as Black, started to experience what she describes as “immense paranoia.” She would often call in sick, because she feared risking an encounter with police upon leaving her house. She also started to second-guess her and her husband’s decision to have children. “Seeing Black bodies murdered and physical/emotional violence online and on the news” was a trauma she could no longer bear, Eva says. “I was terrified of bringing a child into the world we live in and experience as Black people. I thought not having kids was a truer sign of l...
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