The text of the Governor's order.
An analysis of the history of Ferguson, and how racist policy and policymaking has shaped it.
NYT on Autonomous Weapons and Ways to Regulate Them →
Our near-future sci-fi fantasy. Not [necessarily] as dystopian as some may assume:
In a recent article co-authored with Daniel Reisner, we argue that with proper international and national-level processes, emergent autonomous weapon systems can be effectively regulated within the existing law of armed conflict framework (Anderson, Reisner & Waxman: Adapting the Law of Armed Conflict to Autonomous Weapon Systems).
Universities Blast Congressional Probe of NSF Grants →
“If the committee wishes to override the merit review process or if it wants NSF to stop funding research related to certain issues, its members owe it to the American public to say clearly what they are doing: substituting their judgment for the expertise of scientists on the vital question of what research the United States should support,” the statement continues.
President Obama’s statement pushing for net neutrality →
This is a nice gesture. I hope something comes of it.
But talk is cheap, especially from politicians, and especially from Obama.
The FCC is an independent entity that Obama doesn’t directly control, but he did appoint a former cable-company lobbyist as FCC chairman, continuing the revolving-door problem that he said he wouldn’t do.
Pregnant, and No Civil Rights →
Scary and insane:
Based on the belief that he had an obligation to give a fetus a chance for life, a judge in Washington, D.C., ordered a critically ill 27-year-old woman who was 26 weeks pregnant to undergo a cesarean section, which he understood might kill her. Neither the woman nor her baby survived.
In Iowa, a pregnant woman who fell down a flight of stairs was reported to the police after seeking help at a hospital. She was arrested for “attempted fetal homicide.”
Supreme Court Agrees To Hear New Challenge To Obamacare →
The justices announced Friday they will decide on a lawsuit claiming that the language of the Affordable Care Act doesn't allow the government to provide tax credits to low- and moderate-income health insurance consumers using the federally run Obamacare exchanges operating in more than 30 states. The lawsuit contends that the ACA only permits subsidies to be distributed by state-run exchanges.
Pass Phrases Protected; Fingerprints Not — Curiouser and Curiouser →
And now comes another twist – a case from a lower Virginia state court (I can’t seem to find a copy of the opinion, so my analysis is based on this news report from Hampton Roads). The court held (consistent with the growing case law) that a defendant could not be compelled to unlock his cell phone by means of his passphrase. So far, so good.
But the defendant had made a mistake – he had also enabled the fingerprint unlock feature on his phone, so that it could be unlocked with the swipe of his finger. And the court went on to hold that the finger swipe was =not= protected and could be compelled.
Minimum Wage Tracks Productivity: Fair Deal on the Minimum Wage →
Good thought experiment, at least:
Anyhow, Lane wants politicians to stop raising the minimum wage so he proposes indexing it to the rate of inflation. The idea of indexation is good, but Lane has the wrong target. Back in the good old days, when we had 4.0 percent growth and 3.0 percent unemployment, the minimum wage rose in step with productivity. If it had continued to rise in step with productivity since its peak level in 1968 it would be more than $17 an hour today.