Non-IT News Thread
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Felicity Huffman: Desperate Housewives star charged in exam cheating scheme
Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman is among more than 40 people charged in a US college cheating scam, according to unsealed court records.
The alleged scheme involved helping students cheat on entrance exams, as well as getting non-athletic students admitted on fake athletic scholarships.
Elite schools Yale, Stanford and Georgetown were among the destination universities.
There was no suggestion that the schools were involved in wrongdoing.
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Brexit: MPs reject Theresa May's deal for a second time
Theresa May's EU withdrawal deal has been rejected by MPs by an overwhelming majority for a second time, with just 17 days to go to Brexit.
MPs voted down the prime minister's deal by 149 - a smaller margin than when they rejected it in January.
Mrs May said MPs will now get a vote on whether the UK should leave the EU without a deal and, if that fails, on whether Brexit should be delayed.
She said Tory MPs will get a free vote on a no-deal Brexit.
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Boeing: Europe and India join wave of countries grounding the 737 Max
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“Yelp, but for MAGA” turns red over security disclosure, threatens researcher
63Red Safe app—a "Green Book" for conservatives—left APIs exposed.
A new application from the "conservative news" site 63red, called 63Red Safe, is advertised as a sort of "Green Book" for the MAGA set. It lets users rate local businesses "from a conservative perspective," according to the app's Google Play listing, "helping insure[sic] you're safe when you shop and eat!" And in this case, "safe" means freedom to wear "Make America Great Again" clothing without having to bear verbal challenge.
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Lori Loughlin daughters in spotlight amid college bribery probe
The daughters of Hollywood actress Lori Loughlin have been thrust into the spotlight as their mother stands accused of paying a hefty bribe to get them into a top university.
Ms Loughlin, the star of US sitcom Full House, and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, were among dozens charged on Tuesday in a college admissions and cheating scandal.
Court documents say the couple "agreed to pay bribes totalling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC [University of Southern California] crew team".
Authorities say neither daughter was actually part of any rowing team.
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College admissions scandal: The extreme lengths parents go to
The alleged college cheating scandal in the US, which accuses the rich and famous of paying vast sums to fraudulently enhance their children prospects, has sparked a conversation over the role money and privilege play in the US education system.
The scandal involves various illegal tactics to boost the probability that the children of wealthy parents will be admitted to elite universities.
While some of the details are bizarre - including super-imposing student's heads onto athletes' bodies - many see parallels between this alleged scam and the way wealth affects education more generally.
Many took to social media to express their anger at the injustice of US education system.
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@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:
Lori Loughlin daughters in spotlight amid college bribery probe
The daughters of Hollywood actress Lori Loughlin have been thrust into the spotlight as their mother stands accused of paying a hefty bribe to get them into a top university.
Ms Loughlin, the star of US sitcom Full House, and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, were among dozens charged on Tuesday in a college admissions and cheating scandal.
Court documents say the couple "agreed to pay bribes totalling $500,000 in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the USC [University of Southern California] crew team".
Authorities say neither daughter was actually part of any rowing team.
The stuff I read said the husband is not (yet) charged. It was her doing.
Or maybe it was a different couple. So many. I lose track.
Also, the one daughter posts videos about how she is only in school to party.
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@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
Also, the one daughter posts videos about how she is only in school to party.
Yup, BBC ran an article on that, too!
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Ethiopian Airlines: Ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, says CEO
The boss of Ethiopian Airlines has called for the grounding of all Boeing's 737 Max 8 aircraft until it is established they are safe to fly
Many countries have already suspended the plane after one the airline's jets crashed on Sunday minutes after take-off, killing all 157 people on board.
But US officials say the jet is safe.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said a review had showed "no systemic performance issues" and that there was no basis for grounding the aircraft.
He accepted that Boeing and the FAA must have their reasons for arguing that the 737 Max 8 is safe. But "extreme precaution" was needed and "all of us who have grounded the plane have very good justification," Mr Tewolde said.
Both aircraft were brand new and in both cases there were problems minutes after take-off, he said.
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Because with zero facts about anything political expediency is just ground it all.
Two planes crashed, months apart. Shut everything down.
I’ve not reread the previous crash news, but wasn’t it determined to be a combination of bad sensors and pilots not recognizing that and disabling it?
And Boeing issued updated guidelines for that until the patch was available?
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@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
Because with zero facts about anything political expediency is just ground it all.
Two planes crashed, months apart. Shut everything down.The issue is that Boeing caused the first crash through gross negligence and the second one appears to very likely be a potential copy of it. I think the real question is... why weren't they all already grounded once we learned how bad they were from the first one and that we knew it was Boeing at fault? The second crash isn't needed for this to already be done.
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Anti-vax parents sue to keep unvaccinated kids in school during outbreak
County fiercely defends restrictions amid measles outbreak that has sickened 145.
As New York’s Rockland County grapples with a large and lengthy outbreak of measles, a group of anti-vaccine parents sued officials for temporarily barring their unvaccinated children from school—and the county is not having it.
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@JaredBusch said in Non-IT News Thread:
I’ve not reread the previous crash news, but wasn’t it determined to be a combination of bad sensors and pilots not recognizing that and disabling it?
And Boeing issued updated guidelines for that until the patch was available?Sort of. It was a broken system and pilots trained and informed that it worked differently than it did. The official information from Boeing didn't match what the system did. The pilots might have been able to save the plane had Boeing not made the system work inappropriately and if they had told someone what they had done. But they did something that was incorrect (gave incorrect data, misused proper input) and then hid it.
I think that the only fault at this point lies in allowing the 737 Max 8 to have stayed in the air this long. It should have been grounded the instant that they learned why the first crash happened.
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@mlnews said in Non-IT News Thread:
Anti-vax parents sue to keep unvaccinated kids in school during outbreak
County fiercely defends restrictions amid measles outbreak that has sickened 145.
As New York’s Rockland County grapples with a large and lengthy outbreak of measles, a group of anti-vaccine parents sued officials for temporarily barring their unvaccinated children from school—and the county is not having it.
That's the county where @Katie used to live, right across the river from Westchester where I had a house up until a year ago.
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Study: Hacking 10 percent of self-driving cars would cause gridlock in NYC
Multiple networks for connected vehicles could mitigate risk of a widespread hack.
In 2015, a pair of hackers demonstrated just how easy it was to break into the UConnect system of a Jeep Cherokee, remotely manipulating the speed, braking, steering, even shutting the car down entirely. Vehicles on the road will only have greater interconnectivity from this point forward, with self-driving cars on the horizon. That poses a unique potential risk: if someone can hack one car, what happens if they manage to hack many at once in a major metropolitan city?
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Clowning on NASA: Impressionist James Adomian on his Bond-villain Elon Musk
“So we have this Teddy Ruxpin with Elon Musk’s consciousness uploaded into it…”
“By the way, my accent? It’s correct," "Musk" told a sold out theater on Friday night toward the beginning of "his" SXSW Comedy keynote, Elon Musk: The Frightening and Awful Future of Humanity. "I’m South African and also Canadian, so I’m evil but kind of shy about it.”
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US to ground all Boeing crash aircraft
