Just when it seemed like Facebook's controversies might have peaked, the company now appears to be obstructing a genocide investigation, and it's using U.S. law to do it. From a report: The West African nation The Gambia is seeking to hold Myanmar accountable for charges of genocide against the Rohingya people, an ethnic and religious minority. In 2016 and 2017, Myanmar soldiers and their civilian proxies massacred Rohingya men, women and children, raped women and girls and razed villages, forcing more than 800,000 to flee into neighboring Bangladesh. Facebook's role in these atrocities isn't news. In 2018, Facebook acknowledged it was used to "foment division and incite offline violence" in Myanmar, where the social media platform is so ubiquitous it's often synonymous with the internet. An independent report commissioned by the company documented the same, as did independent fact-finders appointed by the U.N. In response, Facebook took down the account of the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar military, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and other military officials and organizations. In 2018 alone it shut down numerous networks that sought to incite violence against Rohingya, removing 484 pages, 157 accounts, and 17 groups for "coordinated inauthentic behavior." To its credit, Facebook preserved the data and content it took down, and the company committed to cleaning up its act. "We know we need to do more to ensure we are a force for good in Myanmar," a company representative said in an official statement in 2018. Now, two years later, the company is doing exactly the opposite. In June, The Gambia filed an application in U.S. federal court seeking information from Facebook that would help it hold Myanmar accountable at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Specifically, The Gambia is seeking documents and communications from Myanmar military officials as well as information from hundreds of other pages and accounts that Facebook took down and preserved. The Gambia is also seeking documents related to Facebook's internal investigations into the matter as well as a deposition of a relevant Facebook executive. All of this information could help to prove Myanmar's genocidal intent. Back in May, The Gambia filed a similar application in U.S. court against Twitter. The case disappeared quickly because The Gambia pulled its application shortly after submitting it, presumably because Twitter agreed to cooperate. Not Facebook. Earlier this month, the company filed its opposition to The Gambia's application. Facebook said the request is "extraordinarily broad," as well as "unduly intrusive or burdensome."

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KindMind shares a report from The Register: Toyota has expanded its collaboration with Amazon Web Services in ways that will see many of its models upload performance data into the Amazonian cloud to expand the services the auto-maker offers to drivers and fleet owners. [...] Toyota reckons the data could turn into "new contextual services such as car share, rideshare, full-service lease, and new corporate and consumer services such as proactive vehicle maintenance notifications and driving behavior-based insurance." The two companies say their joint efforts "will help build a foundation for streamlined and secure data sharing throughout the company and accelerate its move toward CASE (Connected, Autonomous/Automated, Shared and Electric) mobility technologies." Neither party has specified just which bits of the AWS cloud Toyota will take for a spin but it seems sensible to suggest the auto-maker is going to need lots of storage and analytics capabilities, making AWS S3 and Kinesis likely candidates for a test drive. Whatever Toyota uses, prepare for privacy ponderings because while cheaper car insurance sounds lovely, having an insurer source driving data from a manufacturer has plenty of potential pitfalls.

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DeJoy lives in Greensboro NC, a nice small city I've been to several times. When Trump outed what they were doing to the USPS he decided he didn't want to go to jail for the rest of his life, and become a famous American traitor and lose all his nice Greensboro friends.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: A group of activists have released Landlord Tech Watch, a site that allows anyone to report where this "landlord tech" is being used and plot it on a map -- like a version of Nextdoor that turns the tables to hold property owners and real estate companies accountable. The project is the effort of technologists and tenants rights advocates, who say they're aiming to use data to shed light on the use of biometric locks, tenant screening systems, and other technology used by landlords to exert power over tenants. "It just became apparent that these technologies are increasingly being deployed in residential spaces, and there's so little public information about them," Erin McElroy, a postdoctoral researcher at the AI Now Institute and co-founder of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, told Motherboard. McElroy said the project came together following a prominent tenant dispute at Atlantic Plaza Towers, a rent-stabilized building in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The landlord, Robert Nelson, was trying to replace physical key fobs with a facial recognition system, a technology which has been repeatedly shown to exhibit racial bias. The project was abandoned after 136 tenants rallied in protest, filing a legal complaint with the New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal. "We want to be able to collectively organize tenants from multiple buildings," adds McElroy. "That's the ultimate goal -- whether it be for direct action or policy reform or both."

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Haider Warraich, a cardiologist, writing for the New York Times: An intriguing new study from Germany offers a glimpse into how SARS-CoV-2 affects the heart. Researchers studied 100 individuals, with a median age of just 49, who had recovered from Covid-19. Most were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. An average of two months after they received the diagnosis, the researchers performed M.R.I. scans of their hearts and made some alarming discoveries: Nearly 80 percent had persistent abnormalities and 60 percent had evidence of myocarditis. The degree of myocarditis was not explained by the severity of the initial illness. Though the study has some flaws, and the generalizability and significance of its findings not fully known, it makes clear that in young patients who had seemingly overcome SARS-CoV-2 it's fairly common for the heart to be affected. We may be seeing only the beginning of the damage. Researchers are still figuring out how SARS-CoV-2 causes myocarditis -- whether it's through the virus directly injuring the heart or whether it's from the virulent immune reaction that it stimulates. It's possible that part of the success of immunosuppressant medications such as the steroid dexamethasone in treating sick Covid-19 patients comes from their preventing inflammatory damage to the heart. Such steroids are commonly used to treat cases of myocarditis. Despite treatment, more severe forms of Covid-19-associated myocarditis can lead to permanent damage of the heart -- which, in turn, can lead to heart failure.

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Nations that hoard possible COVID-19 vaccines while excluding others will deepen the pandemic, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday, issuing a last-ditch call for countries to join a global vaccine pact. From a report: The WHO has an Aug. 31 deadline for wealthier nations to join the "COVAX Global Vaccines Facility" for sharing vaccine hopefuls with developing countries. Tedros said he sent a letter to the WHO's 194 member states, urging participation. The global health agency also raised concerns that the pandemic's spread was being driven now by younger people, many of whom were unaware they were infected, posing a danger to vulnerable groups. Tedros' push for nations to join COVAX comes as the European Union, Britain, Switzerland and the United States strike deals with companies testing prospective vaccines. Russia and China are also working on vaccines, and the WHO fears national interests could impede global efforts.

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There are 12-21 million tonnes of tiny plastic fragments floating in the ocean, scientists say.

Oculus will soon require all of its virtual reality headset users to sign up with a Facebook account. The Facebook-owned company says it will start removing support for separate Oculus accounts in October, although users can maintain an existing account until January 1st, 2023. All users can maintain a distinct "VR profile" with a separate friends list. From a report: Starting later this year, youâ(TM)ll only be able to sign up for an Oculus account through Facebook. If you already have an account, you'll be prompted to permanently merge your account. If you don't, you'll be able to use the headset normally until 2023, at which point official support will end. Old headsets using non-linked accounts will still work, but some games and apps may no longer function. Developers can keep using an unlinked developer account without social functionality, and the Oculus for Business platform uses a separate login process that will remain unchanged. Facebook also says that all future unreleased Oculus devices will require a Facebook login, even if you've got a separate account already.

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America is like Microsoft, I hope. They were beasts in the 90s. Trying to destroy everything they didn't create. Later they calmed down, not deliberately, but it happened anyway. Now Microsoft is a big machine without much personality. Which is fine.

I know some are in dismay because the Democrats are appealing to Republicans, but they are doing the right thing. It's so much more important what we agree on than what we disagree about. We agree in the Constitution and government of laws. Right now, in 2020, that's what matters most. Later we can re-divide on issues, but right now, we have to organize for one thing: America.

Uber and Lyft, which are facing mounting pressure to classify their freelance drivers as full-time employees in California, are looking for another way. From a report: One option that both companies are seriously discussing is licensing their brands to operators of vehicle fleets in California, according to three people with knowledge of the plans. The change would resemble an independently operated franchise, allowing Uber and Lyft to keep an arms-length association with drivers so that the companies would not need to employ them and pay their benefits. The idea would effectively be a return to the days of how groups of black cars were run. Lyft has presented the plan to its board of directors, one person said. Uber, which already works with fleet operators in Germany and Spain, is also familiar with the business model. The companies have not committed to the franchise-like plans, said the people with knowledge of the discussions, who asked to remain anonymous because the details are confidential. Uber and Lyft are waiting to see how California's legal situation around drivers, who have been treated as independent contractors, plays out first, they said.

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Two reasons to live in this area. Blueberries and Adams marinara.

My mother would have turned 88 on Thursday. She was always on my case to eat more blueberries. She would be happy to know that I am. Esp this time of year.

I live in blueberry country. It's peak blueberry season. I bought these at Adams in Kingston.

Blueberries in season.

Every place has one of these groceries. In New Orleans it's Langenstein's. In Menlo Park, Draeger's. In Woodside, Roberts. In the Hudson Valley -- Adams. They make a lot of their own stuff. They get the best products. They have a farm where they grow a lot of the produce they sell.

Right now we have peaches and all kinds of berries, local grown, fresh and delicious. In September that's when the apples arrive. Huge boxes of them. It's something to behold. New we have blueberries.

And I'm telling you, their marinara sauce is the best. I know Adams is not an Italian name. But somehow they figured it out. Very fresh and delicious in every way. Previously my favorite marinara was San Marzano. Very good. But Adams is better imho.

Adams marinara.

If I could get all my friends to work together, we'd take over the world. My friends all have good hearts and big ideas.

Now that we all wear masks, and in NY we do, I am acutely aware of how much I depend on lip reading to understand what people say. I had to take my car in for service because an animal died in there.

Musicians, historians and literary scholars hope to find a soundtrack to the world of the Vikings.