These pages are a modest attempt to provide up-to-date news that is relevant to the areas of mathematics, education, computer science or information technology. Reader should keep in mind that old links often disappear.
8/28/15
TechNews for the week: August 28; August 26; August 24;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Islamic State second in command killed in U.S. strike; Activists claim IS destroyed ancient Syrian temple;
Toll of Syrian air strikes near Damascus rises to 247 in 10 days; Iraq's Abadi says Baiji battle 'crucial' to ousting Islamic State;
Mahmoud Abbas Resigns As Head Of Palestinian Liberation Organization; Netanyahu anti-Iran drive strains U.S. ties, isolates Israel;
Netanyahu Wanted To Attack Iran But Was Overruled by Military; Ehud Barak's Iran bombshell could shake up Israeli politics;
Israel president: Israel has 'right' to settle in West Bank; Jewish settlers take over homes in Arab part of Jerusalem;
What's different this time in Korean standoff? North, South Korea reach deal to end tense standoff;
Support of Iran deal grows in Congress; GOP discovers it doesn't like filibusters after all;
State Department officials routinely sent secrets over email; The Hillary Clinton e-mail 'scandal' that isn't; Pro-Clinton group re-ups demand for Gowdy to turn over his emails;
Trump says the 'real' unemployment rate is 42%. He's really, really wrong;
Deputies fired for falsely accusing Seattle bus driver of profanity;
Planned Parenthood: Outside investigator found undercover videos heavily edited, unreliable;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
Defending All the Targets Is Impossible; Are Data Breaches Getting Larger?
Appeals Court Says FTC Can Regulate Corporate Cybersecurity; The Advertising Value of Intrusive Tracking;
D.C. Circuit overturns ruling against NSA bulk collection program;
Math and science
Stephen Hawking believes he's solved a huge mystery about black holes;
Found after 108 years: Message in a bottle set afloat for science; New reef that might be even bigger than the Great Barrier Reef;
Archaeologists unearth ancient Greek palace near Sparta;
Uber Announces Partnership With University For Driverless Car Research; Research Uses Quantum Dots To Turn Windows Into Photovoltaic Panels;
Study: Less Than Half of Major Social-Science Studies Are Reproducible;
Web and computing issues
Browse More Privately With the Privacy Badger; Five free encryption tools for Android data;
Five tools for defragmenting your hard disk; How to access the secret Start menu in Windows 10;
Designing Engaging Course Documents with Piktochart; Building Apps Without Code;
Bringing your own smartphone to Verizon: What you need to know;
SC Politics
SC State, former president settle lawsuit;
Finance and Economics
Economy in U.S. Grew More Than Forecast in Second Quarter; Why are the markets dropping? Don't blame the Fed; Blame China;
Chinese textile mills bring jobs back to South Carolina, elsewhere in U.S.;
Iran Says It Will Raise Oil Output 'at Any Cost'; Ecologists Call For Dam Removal, Increased Use Of Solar;
How companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor blacks; Solyndra solar panel company repeatedly misled federal officials;
Pastor Accused of Insider-Trading Hacking Gets Bail;
Companies liable for labor violations by franchisees;
Other news
Scott Adams on Political Reporters Cover a Business Candidate;
Mormon Church will stay in Boy Scouts;
Education:
ACT Sounds Alarm over U.S. Student Test Results; These Videos Could Change How You Think About Teaching;
Tuition Discount Rates Rise Again, Signaling Potential Challenges for Private Colleges; ED Has Massive Student Debt Portfolio;
Many High School Students Supplementing Studies With MOOCs; How Students Cheat in MOOCs;
How to Help the Students With No Homes;
The Ins and Outs of Outsourcing Building Management; Legal Fight Over U. of Kansas Lecturer's Records Is Settled;
When Creating an Endowed Chair Poses a Dilemma for a College; 2 Resign at Portland State Over $100-Million Donation That Never Was;
Are College Football Coaches About to Start Fining Players; Auburn Reversed Course on Cutting a Major Favored by Athletes;
Illinois Football Coach Is Fired Over Allegations He Mistreated Players;
8/21/15
TechNews for the week: August 21; August 19; August 17;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
U.S. believes Islamic State launched mustard attacks in Syria, possibly Iraq; Israel threatens Syria with response after rocket fire;
A decade later, many Israelis see Gaza pullout as a big mistake; Huckabee: West Bank is part of Israel;
PA accuses Hamas of 'Gaza split' talks with Israel; Hamas: 'Positive contacts' with Israel on Gaza truce; Israel opposition head meets Abbas, warns of '3rd intifada';
Israel-Palestine Conflict: French UN Security Council Resolution Off The Table In Favor Of Palestinian Statehood?
Hamas 'seizes Israeli spy dolphin' off Gaza;
Is Iran deal a threat to Israel? New signs military is at odds with Netanyahu; Opinion: Iran and American Jews; Israel's Other Existential Threat Comes From Within;
Iranian hard-liner says Supreme Leader opposes nuclear deal; Khamenei says Iran will block U.S. influence, no matter the nuclear deal;
Hundreds of US rabbis voice support for Iran nuclear deal; Republicans' alternate reality on the Iran nuclear deal;
Tensions rise as North and South Korea exchange artillery fire;
Greek prime minister calls elections after party rebellion;
House lawsuit against Obama is turning into a real problem for the president;
Tea Party could lose Senate for GOP;
Ill. Senate Democrats ignore Rauner, override veto on bill to avert lockout, strike;
Donald Trump's surprisingly savvy analysis of American politics; 20 times Donald Trump has changed his mind since June;
Trump to O'Reilly: The 14th Amendment is unconstitutional; Trump as Commander in Chief? Tune in for a Foreign Policy Reality Show;
Red-State Bible-Thumpers Don't Want to Live Next to Blue-State Hippies;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
August Crypto-Gram Newsletter, backdoors, privacy, vulnerabilities and more; AT&T helped U.S. NSA in spying on Internet traffic;
SS7 Phone-Switch Flaw Enabled Surveillance; NSA Plans for a Post-Quantum World;
FAA records show surge in near collisions between airplanes, drones in U.S.;
Inside the Most Insecure Voting Machines in America; Cloud security: 10 things you need to know; Nasty Cisco Attack;
Did Kaspersky Fake Malware; More on Mail Cover; Oracle CSO Rant Against Security Experts; No-Fly List Uses Predictive Assessments;
Microsoft issues emergency patch for all versions of Windows;
The Real Security Rules That Applied to Hillary Clinton's Email Server;
Math and science
Confederate Warship, Weapons Recovered from Georgia River;
Apple Is Building A Self-Driving Car; Making Carbon Nanofibers From Carbon Captured From Atmosphere;
This interactive map shows how wrong other maps are; Study raises doubts about early-stage breast cancer treatments;
Hyperloop To Break Ground In May 2016, North Of Los Angeles;
The 5 Worst Habits of Runners; Prep for Your 5K in 6 Weeks;
Web and computing issues
Potential of Invisible App Market; Making Made Easier with 123D Apps;
When is the Top-Level Domain (TLD) Relevant in a Domain Name Dispute?;
11 Programming Languages That Lost Their Mojo;
SC Politics
Duty free: S.C. manufacturers, distributors seeing benefits of foreign trade zones;
South Carolina's Coming Robocall Apocalypse;
Finance and Economics
US Wind Power Lags Behind Europe; Shell Wins Approval to Drill for Oil in Alaskan Arctic Waters; Marcellus Shale Gas Supply Affecting Western Drillers;
How the Skills Gap Is Threatening the Growth of App Economy;
California Land Sinking From Groundwater Pumping;
Walker's healthcare plan is perfect, if you want almost no insurance at all;
American Express is no longer America's favorite credit card company;
Other news
Novelist Pat Conroy was 'dying' three years ago. Here's how he got healthy;
Every county in America, ranked by scenery and climate;
Education:
The top 25 colleges in America;
The Higher-Ed Landscape in Iowa: State Cuts and Tuition Jumps; In Costly Places, Professors Can Be Expensive; For-Profit Colleges Target Vets For Cash;
New Report Details How Often Pell Recipients Fail to Graduate; WSJ Analysis: Swelling Of Graduate Loans Causes Concern; Higher Enrollment, Greater Diversity;
Early Results from Common Core Tests Show Academic Gains;
Tennessee Stops Requiring Remedial Courses For Less-Prepared Students;
U. of Texas Regents Approve Policy Allowing Campus Chiefs to Sway Admissions;
Wright State U. Seeks to Fire Provost and 2 Others Amid Visa Investigation;
Public-College Leaders' Use of Private Email Accounts Could Go Undetected;
Colleges Paying Out Millions More to Players in Response to NCAA Rule Change; NLRB Dismisses Northwestern Football Players' Bid to Unionize;
Investigation Skewers Baylor U.'s Handling of Rape Case Involving Football Player;
8/14/15
TechNews for the week: August 14; August 12; August 10;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Expanding U.S. role in Iraq strains awkward alliance with Iran; A new fight over oil shows why it's so hard to keep Iraq from splintering;
US military official: 'We were outraged' when Turkey pulled a fast one right after the anti-ISIS deal; Iraqi leader announces measures aimed at fighting graft, dysfunction;
Angry Afghan leader assails Pakistan as haven for deadly Taliban attacks;
Why Understanding Iran's Anti-Semitism Matters; US intervenes in case against Palestinians over Israel attacks;
The huge trade-off at the heart of the Iran deal; Retired generals and admirals back Iran nuclear deal;
Kerry's claim that Bush offered Iran 'way beyond' what Obama negotiated;
Republican debate highlights GOP obsession with Egypt's Sissi;
Obamacare Could be Heading to the Supreme Court (Again);
Kansas Anti-Voting Crusader Plans Purge Of 30,000 Citizens From Voting Rolls; Republican supermajority has failed Tennessee;
Chicago public schools to lay off 1,500 teachers and staff;
Rand Paul: Income Inequality Comes From 'Some People Working Harder' Than Others;
Clinton's attorney hands over private e-mail server, thumb drive to FBI; Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig Eyes Protest Bid for President;
With Donald Trump's Rise, Fox News Reaps What It Sows; The NRA-ification of the Republican Party; Oath Keepers: The heavily armed white vigilantes in Ferguson, explained;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
DefCon Hacker Details How to Forge Death, Birth Records Online; Chinese Unicorn Team Hacks GPS at DefCon;
A temporary fix to Major flaw in Android texting; Are fingerprints the new passwords? Security experts sure hope not; Algorithmic Bias;
Another Salvo in the Second Crypto War (of Words); Cryptography from the 13th Century;
Exclusive: Russian antivirus firm faked malware to harm rivals;
Intimidating Military Personnel by Targeting Their Families;
Math and science
The science of skipping breakfast: How government nutritionists may have gotten it wrong; Conflicts of interest among researchers and the food industry;
"Rogue" Drones An Increasing Problem; Never Mind Turing Tests. What About Terminator Tests? Chinese Army Students Use Mind-Control Robots;
Many High-Risk Medical Devices Get FDA Approval With Only A Single Trial;
Treasure hunters find coded WWII message, uncover hilarious story;
Capturing the secret lives of squirrels;
Web and computing issues
Verizon is totally changing the way it sells cellphones; The Implications of the EU 'Right to Be Forgotten' Law on Web Searches;
Windows 10 Vs. Windows 7: What Enterprise IT Needs To Know; The state of cloud computing: 10 things you need to know;
Windows 10: Five free apps you should download; How to Lock Down Windows 10's Privacy Settings; 10 Apps That Help You Manage Your Time Effectively;
How to see all the companies tracking you on Facebook - and block them; App lets you text without Wi-Fi or a data plan anywhere in the world;
Google Fights to Keep Trademark from Becoming Generic;
SC Politics
The Southernization of the American Economy; Surprise: South Carolina Shows It Can Be Progressive;
Chamber pushes road to connect Charleston, Summerville and Ridgeville; Steinberger: Offshore Drilling = Prosperity;
Finance and Economics
What China's surprise currency devaluation means for its economy and the world; What yuan devaluation means for China, other countries;
What's happening in the oil market right now is 'unprecedented'; U.S. Oil Falls to Six-Year Low; Investigation: Fracking Destroys Air Quality In New Mexico;
Greece reaches new debt deal but critics brand targets 'utterly unachievable'; Kerry: Dollar could suffer if U.S. walks away from Iran deal;
Emergency Declared In Colorado After EPA Accidentally Pollutes River; EPA Could Be On Hook For Damages In Colorado Spill;
The 10 worst states for property taxes; The stark difference between states that have embraced Obamacare - and those rejecting it;
Black poverty differs from white poverty;
NASA To Test UAV Air Traffic Control System;
Hackers who breached corporate wires made millions off insider trading; FERC judge says BP rigged market;
Hotel experts weigh in on flap over Expedia-Orbitz deal; The SEC is The paper lobby's new federal target;
Federal Circuit Questions Right to Block Internet Communications; Federal Circuit Revives Limelight v. Akamai Patent Case;
Survey Reveals 3D Printing's Imminent Impact on Manufacturing;
Other news
Jon Stewart's Last 'Daily Show': 10 Leadership Lessons;
"Was the Civil War fought over slavery?": Here's the video to show idiots who think the answer is "No";
Survivor recalls life in internment camp for Japanese-Americans; What Nagasaki looked like before and after the bomb;
The 100 fattest cities in America;
Education:
Indiana's got a problem: Too many teachers don't want to work there anymore;
U. Illinois Officials Kept Secrets by Using Personal Emails; U. Illinois to dismiss chancellor, rejects $400,000 bonus;
With State Support Shrinking, Wisconsin Lawmakers Float the Idea of Campus Mergers;
'Machine Teaching' Is Seen as Way to Develop Personalized Curricula;
Bodycams Beginning To Percolate in Schools;
U. of North Carolina Reports New Potential Violations to NCAA; Judge Rejects Florida State's Bid to Dismiss Suit by Ex-Quarterback's Accuser;
8/7/15
TechNews for the week: August 7; August 5; August 3;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Why the ISIS threat is totally overblown; The Iraqi fight to take back Ramadi; US-led warplanes are going after ISIS' most devastating weapon;
Flow of jihadists into Syria dries up as Turkey cracks down on the border; In blow to training program, U.S.-backed rebels abducted in Syria;
Israeli leaders propose harsh new measures to fight 'Jewish terrorism'; Israel court extends detention of extremist Jewish leader;
The military operation in Gaza that still haunts Israel one year later; Inspired by Gandhi, a Palestinian Resists Israeli Settlements;
Iran's hard-liners want a better nuclear deal, too; Kerry Wins Gulf support for Iran deal; Obama: Iraq war backers now seek to derail Iran nuclear deal;
Republicans 'Have Themselves to Blame' on Iran Vote Blunder;
The Republican Road Block Ahead; Republicans slam brakes on voting rights bill; Republican effort to strip Planned Parenthood funding stalls in Senate;
Legislative pushes to limit rights, workplace protections;
Separatists Claim Texas Never Joined United States; Some Americans refuse to give up on Confederate flag;
Charles Koch Blasts Subsidies & Tax Credits, But His Firm Has Taken $195 Million Worth of Them;
Republican candidate Donald Trump's platform: Because I said so;
Christie to teachers union: You deserve a punch in the face;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
Chinese Government To Embed Cyber Police Within Internet Companies; Russia Blamed for Cyberattack on Pentagon's E-mail System;
Hacked e-mails: Boeing wants its drones to hack computers from the sky; Shooting Down Drones;
'Certifi-Gate' Flaw Lets Hackers Spy Using Android Phones; Attackers can access Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive files without a user's password;
Hackers can remotely steal fingerprints from Android phones; Face Recognition by Thermal Imaging;
The Outing of ECHELON;
Advertisers Say 'Right to be Forgotten' Violates 1st Amendment;
Math and science
Institute Established To Develop New Technologies For Smart Grids; Drone Researchers See the Technology Grounded by Federal Safety Rules;
Engineers Working On Project To Clean Up Orbital Debris;
When Researchers State Goals for Clinical Trials in Advance, Success Rates Plunge;
Web and computing issues
Group Outlines Plan for U.S. Transition of ICANN;
What you need to know about artificial intelligence, and the imminent robot future; How NASA astronauts are 3D printing in space;
Students and teachers: Check if you can get Office 365 for free now; How to take a screenshot in any version of Windows;
SC Politics
Time To Deal With The Elephant In The State's Room;
Finance and Economics
U.S. added 215,000 jobs in July; unemployment rate unchanged 5.3 percent; Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to send taxpayers $8.3 billion this quarter;
Kansas collects $3.7M less in taxes than expected this month;
Tax filing problems could jeopardize health law aid for 1.8M; New review finds Patent office stresses quantity over quality;
S.E.C. Approves Rule on C.E.O. Pay Ratio; Court Allows Class-Action Status in Data Breach Lawsuit;
Uber heads to court over how it classifies its drivers; Senate Panel Votes To Block EPA Rule For Power Plants;
GE Reentering Energy Storage Market;
Drones Should Fly Higher;
Ten jobs that automation won't kill off;
Other news
Hitchhiking robot destroyed in Philadelphia, ending cross-country trek;
Is It OK to Argue In Front of Your Kids?
Watch 16 memorable moments from 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart';
Education:
Competency-Based Education Changing Traditional College Model; A College System Measures How Low-Paying Degrees Serve the Public Good;
What the Public Wants From Accreditation; How Colleges Assign Roommates, and Why It Matters; Do Fraternities Have a Place on the Modern Campus?
Speaker says When California Eliminated Its Higher-Ed Commission, Little Was Lost;
Following the Money in Ed-Tech Investment: Number of Mergers Grows; Textbook Costs Soaring;
Idaho DOE Considers New Science Standards;
Princeton President Discusses School;
Head Coach Resigns After Probe of Georgetown U.'s Track Program; U. of Minnesota's Athletics Director Resigns After Sending 'Inappropriate Texts';
Vanderbilt Football, Plagued by Rape Charges, Apologizes for Tweet About 'Permission'; Woman Who Alleged Rape by 3 Oregon Athletes Will Get $800,000 Settlement;