UC Berkeley's fastest-growing class is their introduction to data science. (The Wall Street Journal calls it a combination of computer science and statistics "to mine the growing troves of data on everything from traffic patterns to the habits of social-media users.") But that's only the beginning. UC Berkeley plans to create a new Division of Data Science -- one of their biggest reorganizations in decades -- and this fall they even began offering a major in data science. "The division will enable students and researchers to tackle not just the scientific challenges opened up by pervasive data, but the societal, economic and environmental impacts as well." "We need to consider the ethical implications of these technologies as they are being developed," says Data 8 instructor David Wagner -- "what does the world look like when decisions are made by algorithms rather than people, and how do we ensure that when we analyze data our decisions reflect not just numbers but the humans behind them?" Slashdot reader theodp writes: With a reported 1,295 students enrolled this semester, Berkeley's Data 8: The Foundations of Data Science boasts even bigger numbers than Harvard's most popular course, the more traditionally CS-focused CS50, which saw 724 students enroll this Fall.... Berkeley's embrace of Data Science coincidentally comes as Code.org is giving kudos to partners Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Amazon for helping it convince lawmakers and tens of thousands of educators that more traditional computer science is what's needed for the K-12 masses, including the adoption of a new AP Computer Science program for high school students (an AP CS version of CS50 was funded by Microsoft). So, is Data Science for All the new Computer Science for All? And, if so, will U.S. schools be looking at a major case of buyer's remorse?

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There are three possible scenarios for the political future of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Tamil National Alliance vows to back no-confidence motion against newly appointed PM amid protracted political crisis.

Lawyer for Aasia Bibi leaves Pakistan following days of protests over her acquittal by Supreme Court.

Policies the Trump administration has pursued have made it difficult for many disable people to lead independent lives.

Seven people were killed and at least 18 others wounded in Friday's attack, the latest to target Coptic Christians.

"Alexa, will you be my friend?" "I'm happy to be your friend." What should a parent do when they hear their five-year-old having that conversation? Engadget explores the question, also providing another example. Four-year-old Aiden has struggled with bullies in school, and has found an unexpected friend in his grandmother's Echo Plus. After a particularly stressful day at school, his mother, Alexandria Melton, heard her son crying in the next room. "Alexa," he asked, "are we friends?" 'Of course we are," Alexa responded. "Alexa, I love you," Aiden said. The parents aren't worried about these relationships -- but Engadget asks, should they be? Dr. John Mayer, an adolescent psychologist, says "The behaviors of kids talking to a 'non-real' entity is not new in human development." But Fran Walfish, a Beverly Hills family and relationship psychotherapist, "believes that children should not make friends with Alexa. Her main objection is that early friendship with Alexa may bring children to expect the same instant, accurate responses from real friends down the line." "Alexa has taught, or conditioned, kids to expect an immediate response," Walfish said. "Human interactiveness requires patience that allows people a chance to think, process information and retrieve responses..." Some experts and parents also note that a friendship with Alexa can help children practice friendships outside of school -- it's a trial run for the real world. Robin E. believes that since her son has became friends with Alexa, his speech has become clearer, and that he's learned to slow down and enunciate so that Alexa can understand him... While parents and teachers can generally piece together sloppy English, Alexa won't give you what you want unless you're clear and concise. Engadget also points out parents can review and listen to every interaction their child has with Alexa using Amazon's "FreeTime Unlimited" tools, "so you can pick up on any danger signs, and get a better understanding of the relationship." And in addition, "A week or a month without Alexa can help your kid refocus and find other places to socialize."

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Linus Torvalds "has shown already for the new Linux 4.20~5.0 cycle he isn't relaxing his standards but is communicating better when it comes to bringing up coding," reports Phoronix, adding "So far it looks like Linus' brief retreat is paying off with still addressing code quality issues -- and not blatantly accepting new code into the kernel as some feared -- but in doing so in a professional manner compared to his past manner of exclaiming himself over capitalized sentences and profanity that at time put him at odds with some in the Linux kernel community." AmiMoJo quotes their report: Last Saturday he took issue with the HID pull request and its introduction of the BigBen game controller driver that was introduced: the developer enabled this new driver by default. Linus Torvalds has always frowned upon random new drivers being enabled by default in the kernel configuration driver. [H]e still voiced his opinion over this driver's default "Y" build configuration, but did so in a more professional manner than he has done in the past: We do *not* enable new random drivers by default. And we most *definitely* don't do it when they are odd-ball ones that most people have never heard of. Yet the new "BigBen Interactive" driver that was added this merge window did exactly that. Just don't do it. Yes, yes, every developer always thinks that _their_ driver is so special and so magically important that it should be enabled by default. But no. When we have thousands of drivers, we don't randomly pick one new driver to be enabled by default just because some developer thinks it is special. It's not.... Please don't do things like this. Phoronix also describes another "kernel oops" testing Torvalds' patience, in which Linus responded tactfully that "What makes me *very* unhappy about this is that if I'm right, I think it means that code was literally not tested at all by anybody who didn't have one of the entries in that list."

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Long-time Slashdot reader Zorro shared this article from Bloomberg: Not long before he died, tech visionary Paul Allen traveled to the south of France for a personal tour of a 35-country quest to replicate the workings of the Sun. The goal is to one day produce clean, almost limitless energy by fusing atoms together rather than splitting them apart. The Microsoft Corp. co-founder said he wanted to view the early stages of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in Cadarache firsthand, to witness preparations "for the birth of a star on Earth." Allen wasn't just a bystander in the hunt for the holy grail of nuclear power. He was among a growing number of ultra-rich clean-energy advocates pouring money into startups that are rushing to produce the first commercially viable fusion reactor long before the $23 billion ITER program's mid-century forecast. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Peter Thiel are just three of the billionaires chasing what the late physicist Stephen Hawking called humankind's most promising technology. Scientists have long known that fusion has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry, but development costs have been too high for all but a handful of governments and investors. Recent advances in exotic materials, 3D printing, machine learning and data processing are all changing that. "It's the SpaceX moment for fusion," said Christofer Mowry, who runs the Bezos-backed General Fusion Inc. near Vancouver, Canada. He was referring to Elon Musk's reusable-rocket maker. "If you care about climate change you have to care about the timescale and not just the ultimate solution. Governments aren't working with the urgency needed." The company Allen supported, TAE Technologies, stood alone when it was incorporated as Tri-Alpha Energy two decades ago. Now it has at least two dozen rivals, many funded by investors with a track record of disruption. As a result, there's been an explosion of discoveries that are driving the kind of competition needed for a transformational breakthrough, according to Mowry. The article reports one fusion company founded last year by six MIT professors is "confident they'll be able to produce a prototype of a so-called net energy reactor by 2025."

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New US economic sanctions on Iran will come in effect on Monday, possibly hurting Iranian citizens the most.

The world is losing plants at an unprecedented rate with around one in five thought to be at risk of extinction. The race is on to store back-up copies in seed banks.

Twitter has deleted over 10,000 disinformation bots discouraging Americans from voting in Tuesday's midterm elections. An anonymous reader quotes CNN: Twitter said that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had brought the accounts to their attention. "For the election this year we have established open lines of communication and direct, easy escalation paths for state election officials, DHS, and campaign organizations from both major parties," the spokesperson said. The company said it believes the network of accounts was run from the United States. The 10,000 accounts were deleted in late September and early October, Reuters reports: The number is modest, considering that Twitter has previously deleted millions of accounts it determined were responsible for spreading misinformation in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Yet the removals represent an early win for a fledgling effort... The DCCC launched the effort this year in response to the party's inability to respond to millions of accounts on Twitter and other social media platforms that spread negative and false information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and other party candidates in 2016, three people familiar with the operation told Reuters... The DCCC developed its own system for identifying and reporting malicious automated accounts on social media, according to the three party sources.

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Uncertainty about the status of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland is a major obstacle in Brexit talks.

The funeral began at a Bangkok temple with a Buddhist bathing rite using water bestowed by the Thai King.

The White House reimposes economic and trade penalties against Tehran that were lifted under 2015 nuclear deal.