The EARN IT Act is dangerous. It threatens speech on the internet and tech companies' ability to provide secure communications for their users. There may not be anything about encryption in the dry text of the bill, but the threat is there all the same. No one knows what "best practices" the law will demand from online services, but the bill's focus on child porn strongly suggests any platform that "allows" this information to be transmitted using encrypted communications will be targeted by the government.

Bill Barr and Chris Wray have made it clear encryption is the enemy. Both have advocated for encryption backdoors, even if they're both too cowardly to use that term. No one thinks the government and service providers shouldn't do all they can to prevent the sharing of child porn, but undermining encryption isn't the solution. It may shield some child porn producers and consumers from detection, but the government's efforts in this area show encryption hasn't posed much of a problem to investigators and prosecutors.

Encryption protects people who aren't criminals. As Runa Sundvik explains for TechCrunch, targeting encryption via the EARN IT Act also threatens some of the foremost beneficiaries of the First Amendment: journalists.

[T]echnology experts warn the bill not only fails to meet the challenge, it creates new problems of its own. My job is to enable journalists to do their work securely — to communicate with others, research sensitive stories and publish hard-hitting news. This bill introduces significant harm to journalists’ ability to protect their sources.

Strip communications platforms of their encryption and you make it that much easier to expose journalists' sources and snoop on their communications. This isn't an existential threat. It's an actual threat. The FBI has spied on journalists and several successive presidential administrations have made rooting out leakers a priority.

But it does more than harm journalists. It also harms the people they're trying to reach: readers. Encryption protects readers who visit news sites utilizing HTTPS. That's almost all of them at this point. This ensures their connection is shielded from people trying to snoop on their web activity. More importantly, it ensures the sites they reach are legit and the content originating from the journalists the site says it is.

If EARN IT becomes law, whistleblowers and other sources will see their secure options disappear. Tor, Signal, etc. will be considered nothing more than aiders and abettors of criminal activity. Anything secured by encryption will be treated as a virtual dead drop for criminal content.

Protecting children from exploitation is important. But the tradeoff legislators are demanding isn't actually a tradeoff. The American public will receive no net benefit from this tangential attack on encryption. Very often we're first informed about serious government misconduct by journalists. Destroying this outlet works out well for the government so often exposed as untrustworthy, but it does nothing for the governed.

Recent advancements in Machine Learning (ML) have taught us two main lessons: a large proportion of things that humans do can actually be automated, and that a substantial part of this automation can be done with minimal human supervision. One no longer needs to select features for models to use; in many cases people are … Continue reading Three Paper Thursday: Adversarial Machine Learning, Humans and everything in between →

After attending a conference a couple months ago and being forced to sit through some pretty bad presentations, I had in mind to discuss the importance of grad students learning how to put together and deliver a good presentation. This skill is critical and I can't believe how many scientists struggle with presentations.  I know it's tough and I know when you're nervous it ; (read more)

Source: Suzy - Discipline: Careers

December 6, 2015, 10:50 AM|Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, believes there must be an international coalition led by Arab nations in the fight against ISIS. Continue reading →

eLearning, to me, seems like an exciting new field that has barely been tapped and which has a wide open future. However, no matter how exciting and universal it seems, it is really a subset of training, instruction, education, etc. So, before I really embark on this adventure in eLearning, maybe I should think about […]

IBM and Sesame Workshop today announced that Georgia’s Gwinnett County Public Schools, one of the nation’s top urban school districts, has completed an initial pilot of the industry’s first cognitive vocabulary learning app, built on the IBM and Sesame intelligent play and learning platform. The new platform, powered by IBM Cloud, enables an ecosystem of software developers, researchers, educational toy companies, and educators to tap IBM Watson cognitive capabilities and Sesame Workshop’s early childhood expertise to build engaging experiences to help advance children’s education and learning. The cognitive vocabulary app is one of the first of many cognitive apps, games, and educational toys that will be built over time on this new platform, as a result of the two companies’ collaboration announced last year.

IBM Japan today announced that Sony Corporation and Sony Global Education, a subsidiary of Sony that works to provide global educational services, have developed a new blockchain-based student education records platform. With the solution, school administrators can consolidate and manage students' educational data from several schools, as well as record and refer their learning history and digital academic transcripts with more certainty. The new platform, developed using IBM Blockchain, uses blockchain technology running on the IBM Cloud to track students’ learning progress, as well as establish transparency and accountability of scholastic achievements between students and schools.

Unitec Institute of Technology, one of New Zealand’s largest tertiary institutions, is consolidating its core IT infrastructure onto IBM Cloud to facilitate a world class learning experience for its students.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the Gold Coast has been selected as a recipient of an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant (#smartercities). The grant will give the Gold Coast City Council the opportunity to work with a team of IBM experts to analyse and recommend ways to improve the city’s public safety disaster response capabilities.

The IBM Research findings achieve the highest recorded accuracy of 86 percent by using deep learning and pathology insights to identify the severity of diabetic retinopathy.

Luke Skywalker discovers a powerful lesson that can be valuable to your own younglings.

Mornings go best when I’m ready to go before anyone else gets out of bed. I need to save my knees for my commute and cannot take the stairs at work. (Having discovered how much this helps, I am now reconsidering all the previous times in my life when my knee issue flared up.) I … Continue reading Things I learned in 4 months of full time employment

I have to say, I think Anand is learning more at home being unschooled than he was in school, and is much happier. Which isn’t to say that he isn’t missing some things that could use more disciplined teaching, and I’m hoping Kevin and I will have more time to do that this summer after the semester’s … Continue reading "Learning From Home"

Flushed with the feeling of success that comes from having cleaned my office to such a degree that the rugs are now visible, I thought today that I would take on the problem of excess books. Surely there are some I don't actually need. So I chose a shelf at near-random (it was one of those actually accessible without moving the boxes of books stacked before it to another location), and started going through both rows (the shelves are double-stacked, of course) to see what they contained.

Only to discover that the shelf was stocked with books placed there at seeming random. Mr. Evelyn's diary lies cheek-to-jowl with Gertrude Stein's Picasso. Jeff Danziger's Teed Tales abuts, appropriately enough, a history of Vermont. There is a collection of stories by T. Corgahesson Boyle, Zora Neale Hurston's autobiography, a novel by Sean Stewart, and a collection of essays by Ursula K. Le Guin. These last two, by the way, are misfiled since I have a science fiction section arranged almost alphabetically by author and a designated place for stacks of SF criticism and related essays. Which is where Gwyneth Jones' Joanna Russ should be as well.

Here's T. H. White's wonderful collection of mythical animals from medieval bestiaries, The Book of Beasts. The Return of Fursey! Mosses from an Old Manse. Flann O'Brien's The Best of Myles reappears from hiding; after I've obsessively reread it a few times,  I'll have to hide it somewhere else among my books, if I'm ever to read anything else. Oh, but there's also John McPhee's The Pine Barrens, which some of us persist in thinking his best book. Though it has competition. And here is a battered but charming old hardcover of Charles Fort's The Book of the Damned. I have a biography of Fort around here somewhere, though I doubt I'll find it today. Some few of these I haven't read--Fishing from Earliest Times is one example, though I'm sure I'll get to it soon. But I've read every story in The Corrector of Destinies, Melville Davidson Post's extremely odd collection of detective fiction (sort of), and I'll have to blog about it here someday.

There are thirty shelves of books on one wall of my office and my first attack upon the one provided me with nothing to cull,  And I've put aside a short stack of books to read or reacquaint myself with. Not have I done much to organize it--but wait! Here, just one shelf below is Damon Knight's Charles Fort. Up it goes, alongside The Book of the Damned, so nobody could say the last hour was wasted. Though it came close.

Nor was I able to impose a theme upon the shelf, other than Books I Am Delighted to Possess. But maybe that's enough.

In any case, it will have to do.


Above: For technical reasons, I'm having difficulty uploading a picture of the wall of books in my office. So here's a pic of part of the wall of books in my bedroom. 

Google Adsense it’s usually the first place people go who want to monetize their websites and blogs with the hope those Adsense earnings will net them some big cash. Normally these ads will be matched to your site based on the content and browsing history of the people visiting your site. The goal is to tailor make ads that will hopefully be appealing for people to click on......................

Number 5: It's impossible to overwater terracotta pots. READ MORE...

Michael McEwan speaks to Chris Creegan, Chief Executive of the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability (SCLD) about Learning Disability Week 2017.

The theme for this year is: 'Looking back, thinking forward', which will celebrate achievements, ask searching questions about what needs to happen going forward, and engage the general public on the subject, in the hope of changing attitudes. Chris also gives us some information on SCLD - its ambitions, and current and future focus.

What's on over Learning Disability Week.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Something Elated by Broke For Free

As part of Learning Disability Week 2017, we held a roundtable discussion on the topic of parents with learning disabilities to coincide with the launch of our new Iriss Insight on the topic. The discussion highlights how best we can support families where one or both parents have learning disabilities, raises awareness of the key issues, and promotes debate and progress.

It involved Bianca Wood, People First Scotland; Gillian McIntyre, University of Strathclyde; Andy Miller, Policy and Implementation Officer at Scottish Commission for Learning Disability (SCLD); Amanda Muir, Development Manager at Equal Say; and David Barr, Assistant Director at Aberlour.

Bianca is chairperson of the People First (Scotland) Parents' Group, a self-advocacy group of parents with learning disabilities.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Something Elated by Broke For Free

Learning Disability Week will take place from 14 to 20 May 2018.

Michael McEwan speaks to Linda Mitchell from the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability (SCLD) about the week's activities.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Something Elated by Broke For Free

Our roving reporter on disability issues, Michael McEwan, attended a number of events over Learning Disability Week 2018 (14-20 May) and spoke to the organisers.

We hear about 'Be the Change' campaign created by Enable Scotland, Project Ability and Mind the Gap theatre performance organised by the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability (SCLD).

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

For the launch of Learning Disability Week 2019, Michael McEwan spoke to Libby Clement from Scottish Commission for Learning Disability (SCLD); James Morton, Bake Off finalist; and Jonathan McKinstry, a nominee in the 2018 Learning Disability Awards.

This year's theme is 'community'. Communities are at their best when everyone is active in their community, connected to people within their community, and feels included by their community.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

read more

The wildfire disaster that struck Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada in May 2016 destroyed more than 2,400 structures and created insured losses of more than $3.5 billion. The incident captured the hearts and minds of the media and citizens the world over,

This is a paper produced as part of the PROP2 (Practitioner Research: Outcomes and Partnership) programme, a partnership between the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and IRISS that was about health and social care in Scotland. This paper was written by Elaine Monteith from ENABLE Scotland who participated in the PROP2 programme. What this research paper explores: All women are asked to go to the doctor every few years to get a check for cancer but women who have a learning disability don’t go for these checks as often as other women. The paper explore what barriers there are for women attending for checks and also looks at what could be done to encourage women them to attend.

Report 68 published by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) in November 2014. This report will help readers to understand the Learning Together methodology.

SCLD brings together some of the most respected practitioners and thinkers from across the learning disability sector who work alongside people who have learning disabilities and their families and carers.The team at SCLD is focused on delivering real change through influencing policy, identifying and sharing evidence and good practice and challenging public attitudes. SCLD aims to be a knowledge hub – offering support, information and new ideas about learning disability in Scotland.

British Institute of Learning Disabilities services help develop the organisations who provide services, and the people who give support.

Evaluation report for the inter-authority learning exchange between Shetland Islands, Falkirk and Glasgow Councils throughcare and aftercare teams. In February 2014 a member of the Throughcare and Aftercare team from Shetland, spent two weeks in each host authority as a means of developing and sharing practice, experience and learning. The report describes the planning process, in-situ experience, and post-exchange learning of participants, it also report highlights the positive learning outcomes and benefits achieved for all participating local authorities. The report identifies ideas for future applications of such a learning and practice exchange model to improve practice for looked after young people and care leavers.

View full details for Learning and Development Adviser (Early Years) job in Edinburgh on s1jobs.com

When: Mon Apr 4, 2016 to Wed Apr 6, 2016 

Where: Europa Hotel, Great Victoria Street, Belfast BT2 7AP, United Kingdom
Event Status: confirmed
Event Description: An international conference of interest to anyone involved with the professional development of students in any field of health or social care. Supporting students in practice settings is an integral part of the preparation of health and social care professionals. Practice and Field Educators enable students to acquire, develop, apply and transfer educational knowledge, skills and attributes to support their learning within the workplace learning environment. This conference will focus on evaluating learning and assessment of performance. For further information, please visit the event website

Fire chiefs from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States gathered in Quincy, Massachusetts at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Urban Fire Forum (UFF) to listen to first-hand accounts of some of the biggest emergency response incidents over the past 15 months, including hurricane response in Texas and Florida, the Grenfell Tower fire in London, and the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando.

by Nina Coslov

In my early 40s, I started noticing changes in my body. A once great sleeper, I was now waking at 2 a.m. – often with lots of energy and sometimes with anxiety. I’d be awake for about 3 hours before I could get back to sleep. Around the same time, premenstrual breast tenderness returned — something I hadn’t experienced since my 20s, before I had children. Not long after, I’d notice from time to time a pervasive edginess, a revving — an energetic ... More

The post The Very Early Perimenopause: What We Can Learn from Dr. Jerilynn Prior’s Research appeared first on Our Bodies Ourselves.

Security researchers are sounding the alarm over newly discovered vulnerabilities in some popular online learning management system (LMS) plugins that various organizations and universities use to offer online training courses through their WordPress-based websites. According to the Check Point Research Team, the three WordPress plugins in question — LearnPress, LearnDash, and LifterLMS —

This morning, I attended a meeting of a coalition of local organizations who provide services for people who are unstably housed. I was glad for the opportunity to listen to how the members of these organizations are supporting our community, and I was especially touched by how a couple of these members reached out to... Continue Reading →

Ah, yes, a fine example of a sketchy leasing agent getting bested by a truly, professional revenge. This tenant was well equipped to educate the leasing agent on the finer details of how the lease worked. Makes you wonder how many more unsuspecting tenants that leasing agent might've fooled. Well, not this one.

Check out more juicy apartment drama with this story about a dude who was threatened by his landlord, and proceeded to go full Karen. 

This has to be one of the best ways to learn English grammar: by being the cutest little grammar cops around!

So you have invested in the ACN MLM Opportunity and let us be honest whilst ACN is a great company with good products and services you want more results? Well you have come to the right place. I am going to share a very simple strategy to generate a hurricane of leads for your ACN MLM Opportunity.

As an Advocare Distributor to make a residual income you need to make as much sales as possible and build the biggest down-line possible within your budget, right? Here are two secrets that your up-line kept quiet that will help you achieve just that!

So you have read all the Advocare Reviews but you just want to know: how am I going to actually make some money in the Advocare business? That is fair enough, lets face it that is what network marketing is about. It is a way to build a profitable business with a limited start up budget.

My plan is to give you 2 very easy techniques to get some real targeted web site traffic to your money site or Blog. One of the major issues that new marketers face is getting traffic.

I am going to explain what, in my opinion, is the correct social marketing theory. Not just that, I am also going to explain 2 ways to make good use of it in your business.

What is the best on-line marketing strategy? How can articles really help you? Well if you follow these simple tips you will find out why so many people are using it.

This week’s deal is on a deck of cards that will make you a better designer! 

> The Design Deck: the fun way to learn design!

Flashcards are a proven way to learn new concepts fast, and poker is a proven way to have fun and MAYBE win some money. That’s win/win/win(?)! This high-quality deck of playing cards features 56 cards, each with a succinct summary of a different design concept, philosophy, or idea so that you can up your game while playing a game. 

For a limited time, you can save 20% on this beautiful collectable that will make the perfect gift for the designer/s in your life — .or for yourself! Order now in time for the holidays! 

> Check out the deal here.

Advice for those who are trying to get published or who want a longterm career in the publishing industry: you need to develop a thick hide when it comes to criticism. 

No matter what stage you are in your career, if you are putting yourself and your work out there for people to see (whether it's agents or editors or art directors or reviewers or other readers), you WILL get criticism. It might be criticism in the form of critiques from a trusted group of writer or illustrator friends. It might be a form rejection letter or detailed rejection letter. Even after you get a contract, you will be getting feedback and change requests from your editor or art director. After your book comes out, some people will not like your book -- and some of those people may be reviewers.

If you are sensitive to harsh judgement, you need to find a way to cope with this early on if you want to stay in the game. Just don't do it in public!

For critiques of your work, never make changes right away. This is especially important for those who are insecure about their own skills! Let the feedback sit for at least a day or two (longer if you can wait), THEN come back to it with more objectivity. Do you agree with the feedback? Don't blindly make a change to your manuscript if you don't agree or understand why.

And never, ever respond to negative reviews in public.

Some useful resources:

Gail Carson Levine has great advice about how to take criticism, particularly from a critique.

11 Writers On How They Deal With Criticism - by Jason Diamond.

6 Top Tips For Dealing With Criticism Of Your Writing - from WritersEdit. This piece advises AGAINST reading all (if any) of your reviews in Goodreads and other places geared toward readers; I've heard this piece of advice from a prominent author in her workshop as well.

Deal With Criticism Like A Pro - by Bryan Collins on WritetoDone. This advice is mainly geared toward negative feedback from an editor; Bryan is a nonfiction freelance writer.

While I was upset that I was unable to lockdown travel plans for the weeklong National Holiday...staying in Guilin has given me the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the city and the culture and a few other things as well.1. They save th