U.S. begins airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria →

Two U.S. defense officials identified the partner nations as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. One official described them as “full participants” in the airstrikes in Syria but did not give further details, saying it was up to those countries to fully disclose their roles.

Qatar also sent military aircraft to play a supporting role but did not carry out strikes, a third U.S. defense official said.

Ebola Cases Could Reach 1.4 Million Within Four Months, C.D.C. Estimates →

Dire:

In the worst-case scenario, the two countries could have a total of 21,000 cases of Ebola by Sept. 30 and 1.4 million cases by Jan. 20 if the disease keeps spreading without effective methods to contain it. These figures take into account the fact that many cases go undetected, and estimate that there are actually 2.5 times as many as reported.

In the best-case model, the epidemic in both countries would be “almost ended” by Jan. 20, the report said. Success would require conducting safe funerals at which no one touches the bodies, and treating 70 percent of patients in settings that reduce the risk of transmission. The report said the proportion of patients now in such settings was about 18 percent in Liberia and 40 percent in Sierra Leone.

Mass opposition rally in Bahrain rejects royal reforms, calls for full democracy →

The rally was organised by the island’s opposition and came a day after Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa issued a statement detailing proposed reforms with the aim of accelerating “the resumption of dialogue” with opposition groups.

A national dialogue process has been stalled since January due to sharp differences of opinion over Bahrain’s three yearlong uprising and a failure to agree on a format and agenda for the talks.

Books for the Horde: The New Jim Crow, Chapter One →

The New Jim Crow sounds like a great book. From Coates' review:

And despite claims of shrinking government and kicking the poor off the dole, mass incarceration effectively meant a new sprawling bureaucracy. Prisons, it turns out, are expensive. "The reality is that the government was not reducing the amount of money devoted to management of the urban poor,' Alexander writes. "It was radically altering what the funds would be used for. The dramatic shift toward punitiveness resulted in a massive reallocation for public resources. By 1996, the penal budget doubled the amount that had been allocated to AFDC or food stamps."

The FBI’s Facial Recognition Program →

 

The system is said to be only moderately effective — it will typically return 50 possible matches for an inquiry and operates to the level that there is an 85% chance that the correct identity will be on the list.  Still, that seems a vast improvement from the broader sea of identity matching problems.

Likely another instance of technology outstripping cultural understanding of its implications. The author includes a summary of applicable laws.