Weekly Meanderings, 29 August 2015

Weekly Meanderings, 29 August 2015 August 29, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-08-27 at 6.38.28 AMWhen and when not to use your cell phone, a Pew Study.

If etiquette’s a majority consensus on acceptable behavior, and this is what the majority thinks and does, then the rules on using your phone in public have permanently changed (…for better or worse). What’s more, they’re likely to continue changing in the future: Pew found, predictably, that young people are “generally more permissive than their elders about cellphone use.”

Police surveillance, by Brad Heath — stingray:

Powerful technology, used dishonestly. When the law isn’t lawful it becomes lawlessness.

Police and court records in Baltimore offer a partial answer. USA TODAY obtained apolice surveillance log and matched it with court files to paint the broadest picture yet of how those devices have been used. The records show that the city’s police used stingrays to catch everyone from killers to petty thieves, that the authorities regularly hid or obscured that surveillance once suspects got to court and that many of those they arrested were never prosecuted.

Defense attorneys assigned to many of those cases said they did not know  a stingray had been used until USA TODAY contacted them, even though state law requires that they be told about electronic surveillance.

“I am astounded at the extent to which police have been so aggressively using this technology, how long they’ve been using it and the extent to which they have gone to create ruses to shield that use,” Stephen Mercer, the chief of forensics for Maryland’s public defenders, said.

Prosecutors said they, too, are sometimes left in the dark. “When our prosecutors are made aware that a detective used a cell-site stimulator, it is disclosed; however we rely upon the Police Department to provide us with that information,” said Tammy Brown, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore’s State’s Attorney. “We are currently working with the Police Department to improve upon the process to better obtain this information in order to comply with the law.”

Problems in Harlem — too many want in the churches:

Harlem was once the overlooked New York neighbourhood that tourists just didn’t visit.

But now the opposite is the case.

125th street is awash with tourists on foot or on sightseeing buses, and one of the “must see” attractions on peoples lists is attending a gospel choir service.

Although gospel music is part of the heritage and spirit of the neighbourhood, some have suggested that scenes in local churches are starting to resemble a Hollywood movie. Tourists visiting have become an issue of contention, to the extent that some are now shut out of services.

Harlem gospel tours, for example those run by Harlem Spirituals, offer visitors the opportunity to learn about Harlem’s history, with the NYC tourism website recommend they end with a “soul-stirring” music from a live choir.

But entertaining tourists is not the main aim of church leaders, who mainly just want to sing and preach.

This occasionally takes place out on the streets, where tourists who want to get a taste of a gospel service are more welcome.

Rod Liddle says this expression needs to go:

6. Wrong side of history

If someone says you’re on the wrong side of history, it is their smug and stupid way of telling you that you are wrong and they are right, no more. Conservatism is always on the wrong side of history because it is innately opposed to profound social change. Social change is always good, you see, even when it is utterly calamitous or pointless or unnecessary.

Silicon valley profile, by Brian Fung:

Silicon Valley has a reputation for being filled with egghead coders who popped out of college as brilliant engineers (or who never finished college in the first place). Films like “The Social Network” have played a big role in popularizing this impression. Google, too, is notorious for putting job candidates through grueling programming tests. Against these geniuses, what hope would a humanities or social science major have of getting a job at one of these companies?

Quite a lot, actually. In fact, liberal arts graduates joined the ranks of tech companies at a faster clip in the past few years than their engineering and computer-science counterparts, according an analysis by LinkedIn of its own users. And of the recent liberal arts grads the company examined, as many as 2 in 5 now work at an Internet or software company. That’s a staggering number.

Coding isn’t the biggest role for these folks — that is, liberal arts majors who graduated from college between 2010 and 2013 and who lack graduate degrees — but programming is still surprisingly high on the list. According to LinkedIn’s study, it’s the third most popular job.


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