threats

24Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

During Heat Waves Conditions In Prisons Pose Deadly Threats To Incarcerated People And Prison Staff

Extreme heat is taking an increasing toll across the U.S. in summertime. People who are incarcerated are among society’s most vulnerable groups and have been especially affected. More than a dozen states do not have air conditioning in all of their prison units, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. In Texas, where I work, only about 30% of prisons are fully air-conditioned. Many of these states also face some of the highest heat risks in the U.S., according to recent studies. Prisons concentrate hundreds or thousands of people in buildings that were designed without planning for extreme heat and heat waves. Prison building materials and designs can increase exposure to heat...

Under The Threat Of Lawsuits – SEC Is Considering Climate Disclosure Rules For U.S. Companies

7Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, IN OTHER NEWS

Under The Threat Of Lawsuits – SEC Is Considering Climate Disclosure Rules For U.S. Companies

Better information leads to better decisions – this is the idea behind a regulatory device known as “mandated disclosure.” Mandated disclosures are all around you, from calorie counts on fast food restaurant menus to conversations with doctors around informed consent. But the biggest experiment yet in mandated disclosure may be an expected U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposal to extend these ideas to climate impacts facing U.S.-listed companies. The disclosure rule, expected to be proposed soon, would require publicly traded companies to release information to investors about their emissions and how they are managing risks related to climate change and future climate regulations. While it is easy to spot risks facing companies like ExxonMobil, which produces and sells fossil ...

Undesirable Threats To Student Privacy Plaque Remote Education

6Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, IN OTHER NEWS

Undesirable Threats To Student Privacy Plaque Remote Education

An online “proctor” who can survey a student’s home and manipulate the mouse on their computer as the student takes an exam. A remote-learning platform that takes face scans and voiceprints of students. Virtual classrooms where strangers can pop up out of the blue and see who’s in class. These three unnerving scenarios are not hypothetical. Rather, they stand as stark, real-life examples of how remote learning during the pandemic – both at the K-12 and college level – has become riddled with threats to students’ privacy. As a scholar of privacy, I believe all the electronic eyes watching students these days have created privacy concerns that merit more attention. Which is why, increasingly, you will see aggrieved students, parents and digital privacy advocates seeking to hold schools an...

Hit ’em where it hurts – how economic threats are a potent tool for changing people’s minds about the Confederate flag

17Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Hit ’em where it hurts – how economic threats are a potent tool for changing people’s minds about the Confederate flag

Activists nationwide have resumed demanding the removal of statues and symbols that are considered racially offensive – such as of slave owners, Confederate leaders and the Confederate flag. The requests – and related boycotts and threats of other economic protests – have been part of the national controversy about racism in American life and have sparked questions about how to recognize traumatic elements of U.S. history. Typically, the debate about the role of Confederate imagery in public life is seen as a political, social or racial issue. But in recent research, we discovered that economic concerns could be effective in shifting Southerners’ attitudes about Confederate symbols. Public officials and individual citizens alike are more likely to oppose the presence of Confederate symb...

Predicting the coronavirus outbreak: How AI connects the dots to warn about disease threats

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

AI, COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, TECHNOLOGY

Predicting the coronavirus outbreak: How AI connects the dots to warn about disease threats

Canadian artificial intelligence firm BlueDot has been in the news in recent weeks for warning about the new coronavirus days ahead of the official alerts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. The company was able to do this by tapping different sources of information beyond official statistics about the number of cases reported. BlueDot’s AI algorithm, a type of computer program that improves as it processes more data, brings together news stories in dozens of languages, reports from plant and animal disease tracking networks and airline ticketing data. The result is an algorithm that’s better at simulating disease spread than algorithms that rely on public health data – better enough to be able to predict outbreaks. The company uses the t...