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.
10/28/16
TechNews for the week: October 28; October 26; October 24;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Iraqi, Kurdish forces say they feel let down by level of U.S.-led air support; Isis launches attack on town in western Iraq in effort to divert attention from Mosul;
Push against Isis in Raqqa to begin 'within weeks'; Russia cancels Spanish fuel stop for Syria-bound warships;
5 maps that explain the history of Mosul; Turkey's New Maps Are Reclaiming the Ottoman Empire;
Inside the battle to succeed supreme leader Khamenei;
Israel: Settlers' takeover of security posts 'alarming'; Lieberman: Israel's next Gaza war will be 'last' one;
Big Brother meets 'big data": China's plan to organize its society by rating everyone;
Iceland, a land of Vikings, braces for a Pirate Party takeover;
US warns Philippines' Duterte over rhetoric, crime war; China visit was just economics, Duterte tells Japan;
2 quakes rattle Italy;
Supreme Court will review bathroom policy for transgender students; Report: California soldiers must repay enlistment bonuses;
FBI to conduct new investigation of emails from Clinton's private server;
Push to delay speaker election puts Ryan in political jam; House Republicans are preparing for years of investigations of Clinton;
Indiana State Police chief reports cases of voter fraud, but refuses to share details; Indiana Officials Target A Black Voter Registration Drive On A Technicality;
Indiana officials are trying to block almost 45,000 black citizens from voting; The truth behind voter fraud in Indiana;
Conflict over voter rights plays out in Ga. as presidential race tightens; In Georgia, high stakes, intense clashes over ballot access;
Clerk refused to set up early voting site, fearing it would help Democrats; North Carolina faces lawsuits over long voting lines and last-minute voter purges;
US Supreme Court justice sets Monday deadline for Ohio's response to voting lawsuit; America needs to move out voting's stone age;
Donald Trump vows to sue his accusers, lashes out at media; Trump picks up first major newspaper endorsement of November election;
Trump campaign boasts of 'major voter suppression' effort targeting women and black people; Team Trump has cherry-picked the polling tree clean;
Facing potential loss, Trump expands the list of conspirators plotting against him; Facebook Considers Whether Trump Posts Constitute Hate Speech;
TRUMP: 'We should just cancel the election and give it to Trump';
Professor who's predicted 30 years of presidential elections correctly is doubling down on a Trump win;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
DDoS Attacks against Dyn; 'Internet of Things' compounded hack; Chinese tech giant recalls webcams used in Dyn cyberattack;
How to defend against the internet's doomsday of DDoS attacks; Homeland Security Working on 'Principles' to Secure Internet Devices;
How security flaws in voting machines could discredit election results; How Powell's and Podesta's E-mail Accounts Were Hacked;
Amateurs, Not Russian Government, Probed in Friday's Internet Attack; UK Admitting "Offensive Cyber" Against ISIS/Daesh;
Treasury Department Tells Banks to Report Cyber Attacks; DHS Working To Finalize Cyber Incident Response Plan;
Yahoo Disclosed Content or Data of 7,779 Accounts This Year; Senators 'Concerned' About Government's Hacking Powers;
How Different Stakeholders Frame Security;
U.S. charges 61 over India-based impersonation scam; Malicious AI; Cardiac Implants Called Vulnerable to Hackers; Hardware Bit-Flipping Attacks in Practice;
Math and science
Scientists just showed what it truly means when a huge Antarctic glacier is unstable;
Shipwreck graveyard: Mysterious fleet of 40 ancient ships found in 'dead zone' under the Black Sea;
White House Orders Accelerated Response To Solar Flare Grid Threats; Unseen moons may lurk around Uranus;
Pentagon Developing Increasingly Complex Automated Weapons.;
Web and computing issues
The FCC passed sweeping new rules to protect your online privacy;
Stephen Hawking Warns About AI Technology.; AI Expert Sees No Current Need For "Guardian" Programs;
Zillow Uses Analytics, Machine Learning To Disrupt With Data;
SC Politics
Good Job On Storm Prep, Response, But What About Evacuation's Success;
Michael Slager's attorneys argue investigators intentionally deceived former officer;
Monday's Black Lives Matter show at Music Farm canceled after Charleston police inquire;
Finance and Economics
U.S. economy grew at annual pace of 2.9 percent in the third quarter, exceeding expectations; Government-Ordered Internet Shutoffs Cost $2.4 Billion Last Year;
EU trade deal with Canada salvaged after Belgian regions concede;
Average premiums for popular Affordable Care Act plans rising 25 percent for 2017; Why employees feel so pinched by health-care costs;
IRS Announces 2017 Tax Rates, Standard Deductions, Exemption Amounts And More;
Housing Bust 2? Subprime No-Down-Payment Mortgages Surge, 'Shadow Banks' Dominate;
The next chapter of globalization is unfolding at a Chinese billionaire's factory in Ohio; Self-Interest Motivating Silicon Valley's Push For Immigration Reform;
AT&T to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion; TD Ameritrade to Buy Scottrade Financial Services for $4 Bn;
Majority of active US, EM and global funds underperform index;
Google Announces It's Halting Fiber Roll Out;
Study: Utilities Undervalue Rooftop Solar By 20 Percent; CCAs Could Displace Up To 40 Percent Of Electricity Load In California;
Maine Wind Farm Proposals Rejected By Clean Energy Coalition; Lake Erie May Be Site Of Next Offshore Wind Farm;
NC Governor Replaces Attorney General On Alcoa Hydroelectric Dams Case; Major Ohio Corporations Urge State Republicans To Reinstate Renewable Energy Standards;
NHTSA Releases Cybersecurity 'Best Practices' Guidelines To Automakers;
Other news
The best explanation of gerrymandering you will ever see;
Education:
U.S. fourth- and eighth-graders show gains on national science test; Despite Some Gains, US Students' Science Scores Still Lackluste;
What colleges could learn from the military about serving low-income students; How Colleges Can Do Better at Helping Students Get Jobs;
Coalition Of Colleges Release Draft Competency-Based Education Standards; Tips for Effective Online Learning;
Tuition and Fees at Thousands of Colleges; CFPB Blames Servicers For Low Income-Driven Loan Repayment Program Participation;
Faculty Strike Ends in Settlement at Pennsylvania's State-Owned Colleges;
Brigham Young Will Grant Disciplinary Amnesty to Sexual-Assault Victims;
The Tricky Task of Teaching About Trump;
10/21/16
TechNews for the week: October 21; October 19; October 17;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Iraqi forces begin assault to retake Mosul from Islamic State; Tough resistance from Islamic State slows Iraqi advance; Islamic State forces attack Iraq's oil-rich city of Kirkuk;
Four maps that explain the chaos of the Middle East;
UNESCO adopts controversial resolution on east Jerusalem;
What America's new war looks like in Afghanistan's most violent province; Two Americans killed in attack on coalition base in Afghan capital;
Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte announces 'separation' from US;
Fear of an imminent terrorist attack runs deep around the world;
A black pedestrian was stopped by police. A bystander recorded his 'humiliating' arrest.; The number of police officers killed by suspects declined last year;
Texting driver killed a 79-year-old man. Her sentence: 4 days in jail;
Kansas Gov. Brownback wary of tax hike but won't rule it out;
GOP obstructionism gone haywire: No new Supreme Court justices until the next Republican president;
Winners and losers from the final presidential debate; A side-by-side summary of Clinton and Trump policy positions;
Fact-checking the third Clinton-Trump presidential debate; Trump, Clinton trade caustic barbs as roast turns bitter;
Texas Governor says Alleged voter fraud in Tarrant County triggers investigation; Republicans created the 'voter fraud' monster. Now it's tearing their party apart;
A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast; Here's the completely legal way to 'rig' an election;
Dirty money: Trump and the Kazakh connection; Despite Hacking Charges, Putin Denies Election Tampering;
Trump declines to say whether he would accept result of election if he lost; Donald Trump's son-in-law talking about setting up 'Trump TV';
Journalists Criticizing Trump Face 'Considerable' Anti-Semitic Tweets;
The Harsh Electoral Math: Ohio Will Be Forgotten;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
October Crypto-gram Newsletter, Security economics, hacking and more; President Obama Talks About AI Risk, Cybersecurity, and More;
Attacks on web provider disrupt sites on U.S. East Coast;
Intelligence Oversight and How It Can Fail; Police facial-ID tech raises civil rights concerns;
Yahoo Seeks Help from U.S. on National Security Orders; 10 Tips for Identifying and Dealing With Phishing Email;
Math and science
Europe steers lander towards Mars surface; European Mars lander's fate unclear, signs 'not good';
Pentagon's massive new telescope is designed to track space junk and watch out for killer asteroids;
Newer Cars With Hundreds Of Millions Of Lines Of Code Require Software-Driven Design Solutions;
Hampton Roads' solution to stop the land from sinking? Wastewater;
Web and computing issues
Machine Bias: What algorthms decide for us; At Facebook, algorithms choose the news. And sometimes they don't get it quite right;
Voter fraud and the dead: How tech sets things right;
Microsoft Says Speech Recognition Technology Now On Par With Humans;
10 timesaving Excel tricks you might not know about; Exploring Google Sheets;
SC Politics
Experts say new voter ID laws, polling places could prove troublesome; The fear industry fires up the right;
Sales tax referendum support waning after Summey, I-526 fallout;
Charleston area development bears some blame for stormwater flooding;
Finance and Economics
China GDP on target with 6.7% growth; How a small Belgian region could derail a major free-trade agreement; Brexit Could Negatively Impact UK Research;
California AG investigating Wells Fargo on allegations of criminal identity theft; American Bankers Association Releases FinTech Playbook;
Manufacturing Sector Struggles To Find Software Engineers, Developers; Research Finds Worsening Gender Gap In Computing Fields;
Grid Improvements Lessen Length Of Outages Following Major Storms;
Green Groups Worry Clean Power Plan Will Drive More Natural Gas Generation; Federal Task Force Recommends Safety Upgrades For Natural Gas Storage Facilities;
Colorado Shifts To Wind Power As Mountain States Shift to Natural Gas; Power Industry Challenges New York Subsidies Plan For Upstate Nuclear Plants;
Study: Solar Power Has Value For Utilities, Customers; Report Finds Solar Power Compensation Isn't Enough;
Transportation Group Says White House Should Oversee Driverless Cars; USDOT To Establish Autonomous Vehicle Advisory Committee;
Robot Pilot Technology Being Developed For Cargo And Passenger Planes;
Other news
Americans now live in two worlds, each with its own reality;
Trump didn't invent the 'rigged election' myth. Republicans did;
Education:
U.S. Sets High School Graduation Rate Record; The 50 majors with the highest earnings; A Defense of the Multiple-Choice Exam;
The Next Great Hope for Measuring Learning; To Improve Student Success, a University Confronts the Email Deluge;
What You Need to Know About the Overtime Rule and Higher Ed; Admissions Offices Scramble to Comply; Forget Accreditation. Bring On the College Audit;
Report: A Third of Student-Loan Borrowers Will 'Re-Default' in Next 2 Years; A Closer Look at Income-Based Repayment;
Princeton Will Pay $18 Million to Settle Suit Over Property-Tax Exemption;
Faculty at Pennsylvania's State-Owned Colleges Launch First-Ever Classroom Strike; Strike Throws Pennsylvania's State-Owned Colleges Into 'Organized Chaos';
College of New Rochelle president out as school's finances probed; Board Orders Audit of All Flights by Iowa State's President;
Big 12 expansion is dead for now; NCAA Cites U. of Louisville for 4 Major Rules Violations;
10/14/16
TechNews for the week: October 14; October 12;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
Turkey's Kurds are in the crosshairs as a government crackdown widens;
Saudi airstrikes on Yemeni civilians may have put a target on the backs of U.S. troops; Navy launches Tomahawk missiles at rebel sites in Yemen after attacks on U.S. ships;
Jerusalem Holy Site Declared Muslim, Not Jewish;
Russian Television Warns of Nuclear War Amid US Tensions; Russian Ultra-Nationalist Says Vote Trump Or Risk Nuclear War;
The world now has more borders with barriers than at any time in modern history;
Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes;
Judge opens door to charge Chris Christie with a crime on Bridgegate;
Winners and losers from the second presidential debate; Trump unleashes a stream of falsehoods;
More Trump tapes surface with crude sex remarks; After failing to seduce Nancy O'Dell, Trump reportedly tried to have her fired;
Wikileaks releases emails allegedly showing extracts from Clinton's paid speeches to Wall Street;
Hacked WikiLeaks emails show concerns about Clinton candidacy; The inherent peril in trusting whatever WikiLeaks dumps on us;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
Cybersecurity Issues for the Next Administration; Serious security: Three changes that could turn the tide on hackers;
White House Vows 'Proportional' Response to Russian Hacking; Senator Wants Gov't to Release Secret Court Order Against Yahoo;
Security Economics of the Internet of Things; CSA Released Internet Of Things Security Road Map;
IAEA Director Cites Cyber Attack on Nuclear Power Plant; Second Hacking Group Uses Malware to Rob Banks Online;
Fed President Says Cybersecurity Threats Growing Quickly; Indiana's Voter Registration Data Is Frighteningly Insecure;
Free Online Cybersecurity Economics Course; The Psychology of Bad Password Habits;
Prisons try to stop drones from delivering drugs, porn and cellphones to inmates;
Murder Is a Relatively Recent Evolutionary Strategy;
Math and science
Closest Earth-Like Planet May Be More Earth-Like Than We Think; More than 200 new craters have formed on Moon at a rapid rate;
The universe may have 10 times as many galaxies as we thought;
Ancient site could rival Stonehenge as world's oldest observatory;
Researchers Develop Drones For Use Inside Body;
Experts Say Zipper Merge Method Helps Reduce Traffic Congestion;
Vanderbilt mathematics professor emeritus Bjarni Jonsson dead at 96; Meet the New Math, Unlike the Old Math;
Web and computing issues
Google Assistant: The smart person's guide; 3 ways to dashboard-mount your smartphone;
Why Do We Still Need Paper Docs;
SC Politics
Matthew makes local landfall, but Charleston weathers the storm; West Ashley neighborhoods demand major changes following continued flooding;
Convicted felon Thomas Ravenel endorses Donald Trump;
Finance and Economics
Aging, not the financial crisis is a devastatingly simple explanation for America's economic mess; 'Quiet catastrophe': A record number of prime-age American men aren't working;
Russia and Turkey agree gas pipeline deal;
Wells Fargo CEO steps down in wake of sham accounts scandal; Banks adopting blockchain 'dramatically faster' than expected;
Economists say population changes threaten to make Kansas budget problems worse in future;
Appeals court reverses ruling for DuPont in overtime lawsuit; Verzion Says Yahoo Breach Could Impact Purchase Price;
Shale Environmental Impact Studies Must Take Infrastructure Into Account; Pennsylvania Adopts New Rules For Fracking.; Emissions Regulation Reduces Haze At National Parks;
Army, DOJ, Interior Department Request Pause In Construction Of Dakota Access Pipeline; Dakota Access Pipeline Construction Resumes;
Energy Transfer Continues With Dakota Access Pipeline Despite Obama's Request, Protests;
World's Largest Solar Array Planned In Nevada Desert; Bills Introduced To Provide Tax Credit For Investments In Energy Storage Technology;
GE To Acquire LM Wind For $1.95B; SCE, GE To Partner On Battery Storage And Gas Turbine Hybrid; States Urged To Recognize Cost Of Net Metering;
Automakers Focus On Integrating Vehicles Into The Internet Of Things; Automakers "Intensifying Development" Of Fuel-Efficient Vehicles;
Electric Vehicles May Not Benefit Environment In Some Parts Of The US;
UC-Boulder Engineers Convert Brewery Wastewater Into Energy Cells For Biobatteries;
Other news
Hillary Clinton and the rebirth of the Tea Party;
The long history of the U.S. interfering with elections elsewhere;
Education:
College President: Schools Must Impart Universal Workplace Skills; Perkins Reauthorization Stalls In Senate;
Despite Spending Less On College, West Virginia Families Have Heavier Student Loan Burden; Courting Youth Vote, Trump Proposes Liberal Student Loan Repayment Plan;
How College Recruiters Are Using Snapchat, the App That Half of High Schoolers Use;
As Concerns Grow About Using Data to Measure Faculty, a Company Changes Its Message;
Education Dept. Settles With DeVry Over Job-Placement Claims; What a Landmark Finding in a Title IX Case Means for Colleges;
Rhode Island Plan Would Replace College Textbooks With Free Materials;
After 4-Year Delay, Kansas Colleges Move to Carry Out Campus Gun Law;
Kentucky's Governor Has Raised Hackles Across Higher Ed; Kennesaw State Names Controversial Politician as President Without National Search;
As Sports Spending Soars, Programs Scramble to Keep Up;
NLRB Says Northwestern's Restrictions on Football Players Are 'Unlawful'; Sonny Vaccaro Plans One Last Push Against the NCAA;
10/7/16
TechNews for the week: October 7; October 5; October 3;
War, Politics and Reports (Also, see Finance and Economics)
U.S. helped clinch Iraq oil deal to keep Mosul battle on track; U.S. is suspending its efforts to work with Russia on the Syria cease-fire;
White House accuses Israel of betraying trust; Icc Probe To Target Both Israelis And Palestinians;
Taliban launches attacks on Afghan city of Kunduz;
Colombia's Santos, FARC scramble to revive peace after shock vote;
Antonio Guterres to be next UN secretary general;
The bottomless incompetence of congressional Republicans;
Kansas Governor: State Would Have to Raise Taxes if It Loses Supreme Court Case; Facing angry voters, Kansas GOP Senate candidates vow to fix budget mess;
Florida Gov. Says Voter Registration Deadline Won't Be Extended Despite Hurricane Matthew;
Illegal Dark Money In Wisconsin; Judge orders Wisconsin to investigate reported failures to issue voter IDs; The catch-22 that could hand Wisconsin's electoral votes to Trump;
Due Process includes law enforcement officers;
Winners and losers from the vice-presidential debate;
GOP Chairman of Wall Street Committee Held Fundraiser With Official from 'Domestic Terrorist' Group;
Watchdog group accuses Clinton campaign of election law violations;
Trump's tax payments hit a new low for presidential candidates; Tax Records Show Trump May Have Not Paid Any Taxes for Nearly Two Decades;
Trump Foundation in violation of state law, ordered it to cease fundraising; As news of Trump's taxes breaks, he goes off script at a rally in Pennsylvania;
Newly released video deposition shows Trump in character: winging it; Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005;
Trump's appeal was just perfectly summed up by Chris Matthews; Hillary Clinton is a 68-year-old woman. And plenty of people hate her for it;
A Rigged Election? What Voters Are Saying;
Math, science and technology:
Security issues
Homeland Security Official Confirms Election Hacking Attempts; Russia could 'doctor' hacked emails, U.S. officials warn;
U.S. officially accuses Russia of conducting hacking campaign to influence 2016 elections; Government contractor secretly arrested for allegedly removing classified materials;
Yahoo Built System to Scan Emails for NSA, FBI; Yahoo Calls Report 'Misleading';
US and China in Cyberspace; Satellites May Be Next Cybersecurity Battleground; The Culture of Cybersecurity;
Security Design: Stop Trying to Fix the User; Quantum Tokens for Digital Signatures;
Hackers Targeting Internet Of Things Devices For Cyberattacks;
Math and science
Gravity Fluctuations Could Indicate Subsurface Ocean On Saturn's Moon Dione; Do Black Holes Die;
Who should take statins? A vicious debate over cholesterol drugs;
Humans Won't Ever Live Far Beyond 115 Years; Yawn duration predicts brain weight and cortical neuron number in mammals;
Web and computing issues
Judge Refuses to Block U.S. Transition of Internet Role;
FTC Study Urges Reforms to Limit Impact of Patent Trolls;
Facebook Discussing 'Free Basics' Program with U.S. Government;
How Google Wifi Works for Home, Small-Business Networks;
SC Politics
Recordings show Summey playing both sides on I-52;
College of Charleston students take refuge at USC;
Finance and Economics
US adds just 156,000 jobs, unemployment rate rises to 5.0%; Pound plunges and FTSE 100 heads for record high as fears over hard Brexit intensify;
Illinois Suspends Wells Fargo Business; America's Monopoly Problem; Different Types Of Investment Scams;
Drinks, junkets and jobs: How the insurance industry courts state commissioners;
The most shocking part of Donald Trump's tax records isn't the $916 million loss everyone's talking about;
EU resumes investigation into DuPont Dow merger deal;
Oklahoma Limits On Disposal Wells Reduce Earthquakes, Affect State Economy; GE Rotor UAV To Speed Methane Inspections For Oil Industry;
Clean Energy Cost Declines Illustrated In One Chart; US Farms Given New Value By Wind Energy Prospects;
Uber Acquires Otto In Move To Develop Self-driving Trucks; Self-driving Uber Makes Wrong Turn Down One-way Road;
Deutsche Post Designs Electric Delivery Van That Could "Upend" Auto Industry.; Chinese Ride-Hail Company Didi Developing Self-Driving Cars;
US Army To Begin Testing GM Hydrogen Fuel Cell Battery-Powered Pickup Truck;
Verizon, AT&T Consider Using UAVs To Expand Cell Service;
Other news
Art of the Steal: This Is How Trump Lost $916M and Avoided Tax;
America Is Turning Into a Confederacy of Dunces;
Education:
When Racism Reappears, How Can a Campus Show It Has Made Any Gains;
New Mexico colleges grappling with cuts fear new proposal; What a $2-Billion Loss Really Means for Harvard and Its Endowment;
How Western Carolina U Quelled Controversy Over a Koch-Financed Center; Stanford Hangs Up on Telemarketing; Will Others Follow;
Sudden Demise of Start-Up Textbook Supplier Leaves Small Colleges to Scramble;
FAFSA's earlier Oct. 1 kickoff gives families fewer excuses; New York Fed Predicts Increase In Student Loan Defaults;
Former ITT Students Struggle To Transfer Credits To New Schools;
Iowa State President Apologizes to Students for Flying University Plane on Personal Trips;
ROTC reforms weapons training after campus drills are mistaken for active shooters;
Baylor U.'s Title IX Coordinator Resigns; Says She Was Set Up to Fail;