(California Court of Appeal) - Addressed whether an arbitration agreement could be enforced, given that it was signed only after the employee filed her employment discrimination lawsuit. Reversed and remanded for further findings.

Just Over A Year Ago Pop Icon, Television Personality And YouTuber Gaz Reynolds Launched His First Ever YouTube Show ‘The G-Log’ Aimed At The Music Industry And Entertainment World. Famous Celebrities

Lil' Kim was rockin' a futuristic look this year!

The showrunner is trailblazing a new path for women in TV.

The showrunner is trailblazing a new path for women in TV.

The former Obama staffer discusses her White House journey.

The showrunner is trailblazing a new path for women in TV.

Construction of load-carrying geosynthetic-reinforced bridge abutments are surging worldwide. The design directly supports the load of bridge girders without the need of deep foundation. TRB is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, May 26, 2020 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM Eastern that will provide an overview, comparison, and discussion of methodologies used in the design of such bridge abutments. They have the potential of alleviating the “bump at the bridge,” expediting construction, and requiring comparatively smal...

The coronavirus pandemic and its associated lockdown in most countries has forced major changes in the way people live, work and study. Online learning is now routine for many, and is largely unproblematic, not least because it has been used for many years. However, online testing is more tricky, since there is a concern by many teachers that students might use their isolated situation to cheat during exams. One person's problem is another person's opportunity, and there are a number of proctoring services that claim to stop or at least minimize cheating during online tests. One thing they have in common is that they tend to be intrusive, and show little respect for the privacy of the people they monitor.

As an article in The Verge explains, some employ humans to watch over students using Zoom video calls. That's reasonably close to a traditional setup, where a teacher or proctor watches students in an exam hall. But there are also webcam-based automated approaches, as explored by Vox:

For instance, Examity also uses AI to verify students' identities, analyze their keystrokes, and, of course, ensure they're not cheating. Proctorio uses artificial intelligence to conduct gaze detection, which tracks whether a student is looking away from their screens.

It's not just in the US that these extreme surveillance methods are being adopted. In France, the University of Rennes 1 is using a system called Managexam, which adds a few extra features: the ability to detect "inappropriate" Internet searches by the student, the use of a second screen, or the presence of another person in the room (original in French). The Vox articles notes that even when these systems are deployed, students still try to cheat using new tricks, and the anti-cheating services try to stop them doing so:

it's easy to find online tips and tricks for duping remote proctoring services. Some suggest hiding notes underneath the view of the camera or setting up a secret laptop. It's also easy for these remote proctoring services to find out about these cheating methods, so they're constantly coming up with countermeasures. On its website, Proctorio even has a job listing for a "professional cheater" to test its system. The contract position pays between $10,000 and $20,000 a year.

As the arms race between students and proctoring services escalates, it's surely time to ask whether the problem isn't people cheating, but the use of old-style, analog testing formats in a world that has been forced by the coronavirus pandemic to move to a completely digital approach. Rather than spending so much time, effort and money on trying to stop students from cheating, maybe we need to come up with new ways of measuring what they have learnt and understood -- ones that are not immune to cheating, but where cheating has no meaning. Obvious options include "open book" exams, where students can use whatever resources they like, or even abolishing formal exams completely, and opting for continuous assessment. Since the lockdown has forced educational establishments to re-invent teaching, isn't it time they re-invented exams too?

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter, Diaspora, or Mastodon.

La seguridad se ha convertido en una cuestión central para los negocios y la sociedad. El cibercrimen costará a la economía mundial más de 2 billones de dólares en 2019, según el informe IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2017 de IBM Security, y no sólo los científicos informáticos y los investigadores serán parte del talento necesario para afrontarlo. Las nuevas carreras para la próxima generación requerirán un amplio conjunto de habilidades para ocupar roles que van desde diseñadores de productos, consultores de riesgo y formuladores de políticas. La industria necesita a gente de múltiples disciplinas, personas con habilidades creativas para la resolución de problemas e impulsar la colaboración.

By Wadner Pierre

This article was originally published by UnlessWeCare.org

Screen Shot 2015-11-06 at 6.34.24 AM It has been over a month since Haiti’s Conseil Electoral Provisoire (Electoral Provisory Counsel), known as CEP, published its foreknown controversial fraudulent results for the first round presidential and second round legislative elections. The CEP’s preliminary results for the presidential elections placed President Michel Martelly’s hand-picked candidate Jovenel Moise of Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale, or P.H.T.K in the first place with 32.8 percent of the popular votes. Jaccéus Joseph, a member of the electoral council, qualified the results as unacceptable.

Miami Herald’s Jacqueline Charles reported, Joseph refused to sign “the presidential and legislative preliminary results” because of irregularities and frauds that plagued them. Joseph thought his refusal to endorse the results would prompt the Tabulation Center to verify “the allegations of electoral fraud, including checking the voter registration lists against the ballots cast in the Oct. 25” elections to avert an unnecessary electoral crisis.

Joseph said, “We asked the director of the Tabulation Center did he have enough time to thoroughly verify if there was fraud.” According to Joseph, the director told them, “[H]e didn’t have enough time for that.”

Despite Joseph’s insistence on verifying and correcting the irregularities and frauds threatening the credibility of the results, CEP’s President Pierre-Louis Opont decided to publish the tainted results. The electoral crisis that was avoidable is now becoming an inevitable crisis. This man-made electoral dispute could further derail the political and social stability of the country.

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I'm working on doing more selling zines direct to stores, and since I haven't been traveling around much lately, I need your help! Let me know if you know of any stores that carry zines! I already sell directly to some - like Woodenshoe, Red Emmas, City Lights, Powells, Bound Together, Needles and Pens, Downtown Books and News, Quimbys... but I know there are a lot more stores out there that I don't know about.
Thanks!!

I won't lie to you. My brain was Ok this morning accepting the fact that a walk was on the way after breakfast . It also knew that today was shopping day . The day of a telekit from work. It was my feet that were complaining . Complaining loudly at that

The former captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt was relieved from his duties in response to his concerns about coronavirus spreading on his ship.

Friends played touch football and shared sweaty exercise equipment while others kept their distance from others

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, whose outspoken style and aggressive proposals on school diversity have made him a lightning rod in charged city schools debates, is traveling with two body guards after receiving menacing messages.

Many teachers have been relying on the videoconferencing platform to chat with students during remote learning.

The former captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt was relieved from his duties in response to his concerns about coronavirus spreading on his ship.

Coronavirus: While food banks struggle, L.A.'s schools are feeding the hungry

A since deleted video by Jimmy Kimmel alleges that Vice President Mike Pence delivered empty boxes of personal protective equipment.

Now is the time to stay at home and allow us to bring much needed supplies to your front door.

Officers found a woman wounded by gunshots about 4 p.m. in the 400 block of North Denny Street, IMPD said.

Angela Summers, 45, was shot around 4 p.m. Monday while working in the 400 block of North Denny Street. She died later at an area hospital.

Tony Cushingberry-Mays, 21, was arrested Wednesday in the shooting that killed letter carrier Angela Summers in Indianapolis.

Ronald, not known as a shooter, breaks a long dry spell, and Willie Veasley follows with a 3 to push the Bulldogs over the Orange

Hayward scored eight of his 22 points in the closing six minutes, and Butler knocked off Kansas State 63-56 Saturday in the NCAA West Regional final.

The cost of Britain's controversial new aircraft carriers is set to rise by at least £1bn, and perhaps almost £2bn, as a result of the government's decision taken last October to make them compatible with different aircraft than those originally envisaged.

One defence industry veteran said the final bill was bound to be nearer £10bn, though a government official insisted that was way over the top.

The Ministry of Defence and the Treasury believe that total final costs could be nearer £6bn, if only one of the carriers is reconfigured to take the preferred version of America's Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

An MoD official said no final decision had been taken on whether the first carrier to be built, the Queen Elizabeth, or the second carrier, the Prince of Wales, or both would be reconfigured.

He said it would probably be the case that changing the design specification for the Prince of Wales would be the cheapest option. But if that happened, it is not clear when - if ever - the Queen Elizabeth, due to enter service in 2019, would actually be able to accommodate jets (as opposed to helicopters).

Whatever happens, the increase in the bill will be substantial - and is only regarded by the Treasury as affordable because the increment is likely to be incurred later than 2014/15, when the expenditure constraints put in place by the Chancellor's spending review come to an end.

The Treasury is adamant that the MoD will receive no leeway to increase spending before then.

An MoD spokesman sent me the following statement late last night:

"The conversion of the Queen Elizabeth Class...will allow us to operate the carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter that carries a greater payload, has a longer range and is cheaper to purchase. This will give our new carriers, which will be in service for 50 years, greater capability and interoperability with our allies. Final costs are yet to be agreed and detailed work is ongoing. We expect to take firm decisions in late 2012."

The disclosure of the rise in costs is bound to reopen the debate about whether the UK really needs new carriers, especially since the UK will be without any aircraft carrier till 2019, following the decision to decommission Ark Royal.

The latest increase in likely expenditure on the enormous carriers - which are almost the size of three football pitches - stems from the decision of the Ministry of Defence in October to change the design one or both of them so that they can be used by the carrier version of America's Joint Strike Fighter.

This would mean they have to be fitted with catapults and traps - or "cats and traps" - rather than ramps.

The likely final cost will depend on whether the cats and traps are cheaper traditional steam devices, or newer-technology electromagnetic ones - and also whether the cats and traps are fitted to both carriers or just one.

Industry and government sources tell me that even if the MoD goes for the cheaper option, and even if the cats and traps are fitted to only one carrier, the additional bill will still be of the order of £1bn.

The hope however would be that in the longer term savings could be achieved because the maintenance costs of the more conventional Joint Strike Fighter should be lower.

One of the reasons the refit could be relatively more expensive is that for one of the carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth, there would have to be a retrofit - because so much work has already been done on it.

"Retrofitting is always very pricey" said a senior defence executive.

The carrier project has been beset by controversy and cost increases.

In June 2009, I disclosed that the carrier costs had soared by more than £1bn as a result of a decision taken by the previous government to delay their entry into service.

Then last October the government, in its Strategic Defence and Security Review, came close to cancelling one or both carriers.

In the end, it committed to build both, but with the strange caveat that it might end up using only one of them. This was the reason given by the Prime Minister David Cameron in the Commons for building both:

"They [the previous government] signed contracts so we were left in a situation where even cancelling the second carrier would actually cost more than to build it; I have this in written confirmation from BAE Systems".

However in a memo to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Ministry of Defence estimated that cancelling both contracts would have saved £2bn and cancelling just one would have saved £1bn.

The MoD told MPs that "as the cancellation costs would have had immediate effect, the costs in the short term would have been significantly higher than proceeding with both carriers as planned; nearly £1bn more in financial year 2011/12 if both carriers had been cancelled".

The MoD was also concerned that cancelling the carriers would have undermined British capability and know-how in the manufacture of complex warships.

The carriers, called Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers, are being built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, whose members are the UK defence giant BAE systems, the British engineering group Babcock, and Thales of France. The Ministry of Defence is also described as both a member of the Alliance and a customer.

Update 15:06:It has been pointed out to me, by what you might term a grizzled sea dog, that the UK does still possess two ships that can take aircraft. They are HMS Illustrious and HMS Ocean (which is a commando carrier with a flat top).

However they can't accommodate jet airplanes, only helicopters - so for veteran sailor it was a terrible error for the government to scrap the illustrious Harrier jumpjet.

He also takes the view, which I've heard from many other military personnel, that it would be bonkers to convert only one of the new carriers to take the carrier version of the Joint Strike Fighter - because if that were to happen, one of the carriers would be an enormous white elephant, and the other would not be able to provide a service for 100% of the time (it would need periodic servicing).

That said, the cost of retro-fitting the first carrier being built now and also redesigning the other one would certainly be nudging £2bn, maybe more.

He believes there is powerful strategic logic to building two new huge ships able to handle jets.

The problem for David Cameron is that he may find it hard to make the strategic case, since last autumn he justified building the two on the basis that it would not save any money to cancel one - which is not the most positive case for what turns out to be a very substantial public investment that anyone has ever advanced.

Repórter da BBC volta a entrevistar líder de grupo após vídeo que virou meme.

It was "heartbreaking" not to have Fisher on set for the new Star Wars film, says director J.J. Abrams.

Former defence minister says cargo plane shot down as it tried to land in the southern town of Bardale.

A new robot from a Boston start-up is designed to make walking easier by carrying your belongings for you.

Hear about volunteer travel with the Peace Corps as the Amateur Traveler talks to Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet. Director Hessler-Radelet not only served in the Peace Corps herself in Western Samoa but 4 generations of her family have done so.