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Or you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/prestonrudie. |
Will controversial bra-shaking searches continue in Lakeland? |
Human right group Liberty is urging UK cops to stop using predictive policing programs that put a "technological veneer of legitimacy" on existing biased practices. |
In a report published yesterday, Liberty said that, at the very least, the force should be more transparent about their use of algorithms in carrying out police work. |
The report centres on two types of predictive policing programs – predictive mapping, where police data is used to identify crime "hotspots", and individual risk assessment, where police have used algorithms to try to predict whether someone is likely to commit a crime. |
Liberty said, however, that forces' predictive policing methods are inherently biased – mapping programs rely on "problematic historical arrest data", while individual programs "encourage discriminatory profiling and result in opaque decision-making". |
This is combined with a "severe lack of transparency" on the use of the techniques, Liberty said, and urged the cops to "fully disclose" information about how and when predictive policing is used. |
The group submitted Freedom of Information requests to 90 forces in the UK, and found that 14 had deployed, were deploying or, or planned to deploy predictive policing. |
The rise in the use of the algorithms for policing comes as forces face tough budget cuts, and closer scrutiny from human rights activist. |
Liberty said society should be wary of increasing its reliance on big data, saying it creates a culture that "allows the state to monitor us even more closely and build up intrusive profiles" of people. |
Critics have also consistently warned that the use of predictive policing could have unintended and unanticipated consequences, especially when it comes to the data used to build the algorithms. |
This could be outdated, incomplete and unreliable police data, or indirect markers for race, such as postcodes. This risks "entrenching pre-existing discrimination", Liberty warned. Baking this data into software runs the risk that it is seen as neutral – when it isn't. The fact that many people don't understand the sy... |
This "lends unwarranted legitimacy to biased policing strategies that disproportionately focus on BAME and lower income communities", the report said. |
Efforts to boost human oversight or intervention were "not sufficient" to meet its concerns, said Liberty, arguing that the challenges in ensuring police don't defer to the algorithm are "so significant they cannot be met in the short term by training or guidelines". |
Liberty also called for forces to re-evaluate their use of data for policing, and told the London Metropolitan Police to carry out a full review of its Gangs Matrix database, which was recently slammed as being "unjustifiably excessive" by the UK's data protection watchdog. |
Report author Hannah Couchman said that predictive policing was already failing society for a number of reasons. For instance, she said, it feeds into a bigger surveillance system, bolsters the notion of "pre-criminality" and puts a "glossy sheen" of technology on the processes. |
"And it fails us because it focuses on technology + big data as the solution to policing problems which are deeper, systemic issues requiring a much more considered, radical + compassionate response," she said on Twitter. |
Stock markets in Asia closed on a mixed note, with Shanghai’s Composite index SHCOMP, -0.92% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, -0.85% each losing 0.3% on the day. Japan’s Nikkei 225 NIK, -0.47% meanwhile, rose 1.4%. European markets traded slightly higher, with the Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.2%. |
Our client is an IB world school who are looking to welcome an experienced Senior Mathematics teacher from September 2018. |
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The senior school is well led by a highly regarded Head who has been in place for the last eight years. Classes are between 8 to 12 students in size. |
3. A minimum of three years' experience, preferably holding at least two of this at senior/Post 16 level. |
6. Be in a position to start a three year contract in September 2018 (arrive late August for orientation). |
An attractive package that includes a negotiable tax free monthly salary (up to 17000AED - £3300/$4600USD a month), furnished accommodation, annual flights, end of contract gratuity (as per UAE labour laws) and work visa is offered. Tuition fees are also included for candidates travelling with up to three dependents. |
Interviews are taking place immediately. To be considered for this attractive post, please click "Apply" or send an updated CV to Michael Smith - international@academicsltd.com.au . Supporting teaching references are welcomed. |
As quixotic searches for “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq continue to yield little more than chagrin, the Washington establishment is growing restive. Yet it’s hard to say what’s more bemusing about the burgeoning Sturm und Drang along the Potomac: The pointed questions about WMD-related “intelligence” cited by th... |
Cheney axis was having its way with the CIA. |
documented fact long before 9/11 that the neoconservative clique the Defense Secretary and Vice President hail from has a long history of using force and subterfuge to make intelligence say–implicitly or explicitly–what’s ideologically desired. |
The CIA can drag its feet for only so long. For example, at the height of the controversy over the SS-9–the Soviet missile, first detected in the mid-1960s, that many suspected to be a first-strike weapon–the CIA was more or less directly ordered by Melvin Laird to remove a paragraph from the Soviet NIE [National Intel... |
There are, of course, other ways to get the CIA imprimatur without being quite so interventionist. On October 7, 2002, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet sent a letter to Congress that many viewed as a rebuke to George W. Bush’s relentless characterization of Saddam Hussein as an imminent threat to America. ... |
However, almost every current or retired intelligence officer I spoke with that week had a radically different view: Tenet’s letter was, in fact, a masterpiece of equivocation, a piece of politicized intelligence whose genius lay in a judicious use of language allowing for either pro- or antiwar forces to cite it with ... |
The Island's Commonwealth Parliamentary Association is looking for a young person to attend the Commonwealth Youth Parliament in the British Virgin Islands. |
The ninth sitting of the Parliament takes place in October, with up to 66 young people from across the Commonwealth attending. |
The Association is seeking a person aged 18 to 29 who is confident and articulate with an interest in the Commonwealth. |
Applicants need to explain why they would benefit from the trip and how their attendance would benefit the Isle of Man. |
The successful applicant will have the chance to experience aspects of parliamentary democracy and follow proceedings with experienced officials. |
The deadline for applications is next Friday. |
Jumping off a diving board into a pool is fun. Jumping off a diving board 10 meters above the pool? Fun, maybe, but also frightening. |
But when given a challenge on ABC’s Splash, former Miss Alabama, Katherine Webb, is the first to accept in Celebuzz’s exclusive preview. |
The 23-year-old is one of 10 celebrity contestants on the new ABC reality competition show. The contestants are trained by diving legend Greg Louganis in regulation platform and springboard diving, and will compete to have the best dive in front of a poolside audience. |
Before the official competition, they were challenged to jump off the highest board, 35 feet in the air, during one of their practices. This is a height that some professionals train for years to do, but Webb was the first to take the challenge. |
Webb’s pencil dive off the top left the others speechless — it isn’t fancy, but it was brave. |
These practice jumps give the contestants a little taste of how they will be putting their training to the test. Their jumps in the competition will be judged by two Olympians, U.S. Gold medalist David Boudia and Australian athlete and USA Dive Team director Steve Foley. |
Splash premieres Tuesday, March 19 at 8PM on ABC. |
Five explosions at a bus park in the northern city of Kano kill at least 41 people. |
At least 41 people have died in a suicide car bomb that struck a bus station in the city of Kano, northern Nigeria's busiest commercial center, in the most deadly attack in nine months that is blamed on Boko Haram rebels, officials say. |
The blasts on Monday destroyed several buses filled with passengers who were waiting to leave the station in Sabon Gari, an area mostly inhabited by immigrants from Nigeria's largely Christian south, according to Reuters news agency. |
Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from Nigeria, said a car laden with explosives rammed into buses and detonated. |
"The area has been surrounded by security forces and evacuations and investigations continue," he said. |
Meanwhile Al Jazeera's West Africa correspondent Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said neither the emergency or security services have confirmed details of the blasts or the death toll. |
"There was a huge blast at the New Road motor park," said area mechanic Tunde Kazeem. "The blast was followed by billows of black smoke and there was a lot of confusion with people rushing out of the motor park, some of them with blood on their clothes." |
Kano, in the country's mostly Muslim north, is among the cities attacked repeatedly by the Boko Haram, a group blamed for killing hundreds in Nigeria since 2009. |
"I saw three buses on fire. One of them was fully loaded with passengers waiting to leave the station at the time of the blasts," a rescue official who requested anonymity told AFP news agency. |
The station was attacked in January of last year in a blast which wounded several people and was blamed on Boko Haram. |
clothes are covered in blood," said Ibrahim Bello, holding up a blood-soaked shirt. |
No group has claimed responsibility for Monday's attack so far. |
The National Emergency Management Authority said: "Rescuers and security personnel are yet to determine the source of explosions that occured this evening at a motor park," in a statement. "While casualty figures are not available at the moment, the seriously injured have been taken to hospital and bodies evacuated." |
And who can blame her. I boggles my mind that people are defending what he said. Whatever your thoughts on birth control, he was completely out of line here, and he doesn't sorry at all to me. Sorry that he's losing some pocket money maybe. |
Why would do you that...? The internet is pretty huge. I'm pretty sure they could have stolen all of his stuff without hacking into a major company's computers. Maybe not the unreleased stuff, but seriously? |
This story disgusts me on so many levels. Why even have that many dogs if you couldn't take care of them? And then to just leave them alone to die like that? So cruel. Perhaps this woman has issues with hoarding or something, but it's still no excuse. 9 dogs are dead now because of her ignorance and neglect. I also hop... |
Nothing makes me angrier than to hear people telling others to "get over" an important part of history. I have no doubt that most Japanese people would not deny it, but then comments like this come to the forefront, and I cannot blame China for getting upset. Just like I would not go to Hiroshima, as an American, and s... |
That is absolutely horrifying... My heart just broke for this poor woman and her child. |
But why? Why would you do that? Usually there's some half baked excuse like "the baby was too noisy" or "I was stressed", or maybe even a /logical/ explanation, but I find it strange there isn't one printed here. Maybe there's more to the story. Regardless, really stupid and dangerous. |
I'm not above believing people can turn their lives around, but she really is such a wreck, it's getting harder and harder to believe she can pull this off. But if she can stay clean long enough to actually do the episode, more power to her. |
Though I agree, there's something really wrong about the fact that she is not in jail or serious, serious counseling for longer. Anyone else would still be behind bars right now. That's the power of money and fame though, I suppose. Sigh. |
That's just pathetic. I don't really blame the cops, because I'm sure they get mess like this all the time-- though it is strange they waited so long. But ultimately you have to wonder about the kind of guy who gets drunk enough to do something that stupid. I don't care how angry you are, what makes you think that woul... |
That's terrifying... One of my greatest fears. My condolences to the families of the victims. |
Horribly sad... I can imagine the stress this man must have been under, but that is no excuse to do that to another human being. Completely wrong. |
Yeah, it's pretty bad up here. Too many close calls on the way to work this morning! |
NetNinja -- I have no idea what you're going on about, but none of it has anything to do with the article. But if you want to make blanket statements, let's consider how odd it is that in news articles like this, if a man does something like this, that one guy is a nutjob. If a girl does something this, suddenly all wo... |
Anyway, sounds like she didn't take the breakup to well... I hope the guy comes out of it all right. |
Ugh. Complete disregard for these women's privacy and dignity. Why would you even consider doing something so wretched? It'd be one thing if he was doing it for personal use (still reprehensible and disgusting on so many levels), but then he had to go that extra, repulsive mile to make money off of it. I hope he rots. |
Beautiful! What a lovely picture. |
Huh. A xenophobic racist applauding other countries for their xenophobia. |
I'm extremely amused by the seagull, haha. He's got a "Are you kidding me with this?" look going on. |
You might as well say "It's a good thing he didn't have a flamethrower/bazooka/insert weapon of choice!". That's not really the point here. Poor kid though, I wonder what made the older one so angry. |
Very unsettling. If everything was locked up tight, I wonder if this was a double suicide or something. Quite sad no matter what. |
Well with stuff like Vocaloids, which is already really popular (basically just virtual characters that sing), this is only the next step up. I find it more disturbing that they didn't just come clean about it. But I doubt it will make a difference... Very creepy. |
Noripinhead-- I like your theory. |
The world famous Roswell “incident” was no UFO but rather a Russian spacecraft with “grotesque, child-size aviators” developed in human experiments by Nazi doctor and war criminal Josef Mengele, according to a theory floated by investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen. |
I know everyone wants to blame the mother-- and I would agree that it seems ridiculous that she had no idea this was happening. But this happens in a lot of child abuse cases. A lot of times the mother is either afraid of the husband/boyfriend (she could have been being abused as well, emotionally and/or physically) or... |
As for the scumbag himself, I hope he rots. |
Really? I don't know why, I've only seen terrible reviews about it. |
Those are so pretty! I admit though that I'd want to show them off, but because they are so small, that'd be a little difficult, haha. Very pretty though. |
This made me want to take a nap. Seems pleasant to me. |
Every article I read about Mexico, my heart feels heavy. Those poor people trapped in that hell. |
[T]he administration has only sketched out a vision of what our role is under the best-case scenario. What is our commitment and obligation in scenarios where things do not live up to the rosy expectations? Given the many partisan (and many justified) critiques levied against the Phase IV planning in the Iraq War which... |
For several decades philosopher John Caputo has been mixing postmodern philosophy with Christian theology in books like What Would Jesus Deconstruct?, The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, and most recently, The Insistence of God. He believes that the postmodern turn in philosophy can help Christians reckon with th... |
Why did you start writing about esoteric postmodern theory for nonacademic audiences? |
It began through contact with the emerging church movement. I realized that there were people trying to translate postmodern theory into practice. They were interested in contemporary philosophical hermeneutics, but they weren’t professional academics. They didn’t want to have to make a career of trying to understand J... |
These people want to reach an intellectual clarity about what they are already doing. They have already, to some extent, figured it out in praxis, but they can use my work to help them articulate what they are already doing. It provides a vocabulary. They are already forming alternate communities, engaging in alternate... |
Where do you find these people? |
These are people inside and outside the church who are restless with established religion. They are horrified by fundamentalism: its violence, its Grand Inquisitor purges. But they are also put off by mainstream religion. I have been invited to mainstream church discussion groups—ten years ago I would have been astonis... |
Yet they do think that somehow religion should translate into practice: into communities of hospitality, peace, and justice, to provide support for people who have questions and doubts and are dubious about a big, encompassing story about the meaning of life. They take the official teachings of the church with a grain ... |
I have a friend who is a member of a Catholic religious order who says he is a “lapsed Catholic.” I asked, “How does that work?” He said, “Well, I follow my community rule and I do what I am supposed to do, but I don’t believe much of it any more.” “Why don’t you leave?” I asked. He said, “The essence of my vocation is... |
That’s what Wittgenstein called a “form of life” and what Heidegger called our “mode of being in the world.” This friend sums up what I am trying to articulate. That’s the kingdom of God, with or without churches. |
Why did you decide to write a book called Truth? That sounds like something an 18th-century philosopher would do, but not a 21st-century one. |
It happens that 2013 was the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, and Penguin had the idea of putting out a series of philosophical books in honor of this occasion that would employ the motif of transportation and that were short enough and written in an accessible style so people could read these books as they... |
I have spent so much time trying to take the air out of the word truth, trying to debunk and deconstruct its absoluteness, its unchanging, eternal, and transhistorical aspects, that I had never said much in an affirmative way about what I think it does mean. I took this to be an invitation to do something that I wouldn... |
Transportation is also a central metaphor in your book. What is the relationship between transportation and truth? |
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