China’s Artificial Intelligence Surveillance State Goes Global – The Atlantic The nanny apps work in tandem with the police, who spot-check phones at checkpoints, scrolling through recent calls and texts. Even an innocent digital association—being in a group text with a recent mosque attendee, for instance—could result in detention. Staying off social media altogether is no solution, because digital inactivity itself can raise suspicions. The police are required to note when Uighurs deviate from any of their normal behavior patterns. Their database wants to know if Uighurs start leaving their home through the back door instead of the front. It wants to know if they spend less time talking to neighbors than they used to. Electricity use is monitored by an algorithm for unusual use, which could indicate an unregistered resident.
What the SAT’s Adversity Score Means for Its Racist Past – The Atlantic The original Scholastic Aptitude Test was invented in 1926 by Carl Brigham, a Princeton alumnus and avowed eugenicist who created the test to uphold a racial caste system. He advanced this theory of standardized testing as a means of upholding racial purity in his book A Study of American Intelligence.
Conversation Piece – Futility Closet French conceptual artist Julien Berthier designed this yacht, known as the Love Love — it’s fully seaworthy but appears perpetually to be sinking.
Coronavirus shutdown causes new threat: Legionnaire’s disease – CNN The plumbing in buildings that have been closed for months because of the coronavirus pandemic could provide a perfect breeding ground for Legionella and other waterborne pathogens, the CDC cautions.
It even happened to the CDC itself.
“During the recent closures at our leased space in Atlanta, working through the General Services Administration (GSA), CDC directed the landlord to take protective actions,” the CDC said in a statement to CNN.