Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Warehouses Are Tracking Workers’ Every Muscle Movement

Warehouses Are Tracking Workers’ Every Muscle Movement - Bloomberg – Walmart and other companies are testing a monitoring device for workplace safety made by a startup called StrongArm. “..StrongArm says it has about 30 clients, including Heineken NV andToyota Motor Corp., and is also establishing relationships with insurance companies interested in ways to reduce workers compensation costs. Walmart says it’s testing StrongArm in eight distribution centers and adds it has no plans to use them in stores. StrongArm says about 15,000 workers have worn its devices, and most of them use it daily. The Brooklyn, New York-based startup expects to have 35,000 daily active users by the end of next year. StrongArm acknowledges that concerns about workplace surveillance surround its work, but the company says its products are designed solely to improve safety and cites a recent study it commissioned that found users wearing them suffered 20% to 50% fewer injuries. It says it’s not tracking individual productivity and that its products aren’t used to punish individual workers or to contest workers compensation claims…”


Jeffrey Epstein's jail guards charged with falsifying records


Two correctional officers responsible for guarding Jeffrey Epstein the night he died have been charged with falsifying prison records.



Defence of strip searches is 'frightening', says ex-AFP chief


It comes as the police watchdog announces a fresh inquiry into claims several teenagers were strip-searched at an under-18s music festival.


Thousands of Disney + accounts were hacked and sold online for as little as $4.40 - The Age

Wagyu and shiraz appeal not about 'punishing Westpac': ASIC

 

Westpac accused of more than 23m breaches of anti-money ...The Guardian

Australia's financial intelligence agency has launched legal action against one of the country's biggest banks, Westpac, accusing it of more than ...

Deloitte’s CEO and head of audit are facing criticisms from within the partnership over the direction of the firm, its culture and the handling of relationships with key stakeholders, including the corporate regulator.
The allegations were made in an anonymous email sent to senior local and international leaders in the firm, as well as the parliamentary inquiry into audit quality, that claims to represent an unidentified group of partners.



 
New York Times, How FedEx Cut Its Tax Bill to $0:

FedEx LogoIn the 2017 fiscal year, FedEx owed more than $1.5 billion in taxes. The next year, it owed nothing. What changed was the Trump administration’s tax cut — for which the company had lobbied hard.

The public face of its lobbying effort, which included a tax proposal of its own, was FedEx’s founder and chief executive, Frederick Smith, who repeatedly took to the airwaves to champion the power of tax cuts. “If you make the United States a better place to invest, there is no question in my mind that we would see a renaissance of capital investment,” he said on an August 2017 radio show hosted by Larry Kudlow, who is now chairman of the National Economic Council.

A brawl involving up to 80 youths erupted in the streets of Box Hill North in the early hours of Sunday after they gathered for a party at an AirBnb.

'We make no apologies': Government in robo-debt 'backflip'


 
 Now, a sinister plan is being hatched to flood Australia with Indian workers to fill imaginary skills shortages: An Indian strategy to boost economic ties with Australia will recommend skilled Indian workers “fill the gaps” in the Australian economy.

Guidelines to counter foreign interference in the Australian university sector




Are these weapons and their employment simply an evolution of existing missiles? Or a revolution that threatens to upset the balance of power? The answer still depends on decisions yet to be made. Russia appears closest to fielding hypersonic missiles, as it aspires to deploy the Avangard glide vehicle before the year is out. The United States has ambitious goals for accuracy and precision, but its most viable programs are not expected to reach operational capability until 2022. Meanwhile, China has been characteristically vague on their hypersonic weapons while still letting it be known that they are firmly committed to their development.
For now, it seems hypersonic weapons’ predominant value is to give user countries a Clausewitzian capability (i.e., reaching a limited culminating point of victory quickly and decisively) in support of a Sun Tzu-inspired strategy (i.e., to win without fighting).

Can a Machine Learn to Write for The New Yorker? The New Yorker
 

EFF – Government Must Have Reasonable Suspicion of Digital Contraband Before Searching People’s Electronic Devices at the U.S. Border – “In a major victory for privacy rights at the border, a federal court in Boston ruled today that suspicionless searches of travelers’ electronic devices by federal agents at airports and other U.S. ports of entry are unconstitutional.  The ruling came in a lawsuit, Alasaad v. McAleenan, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and ACLU of Massachusetts, on behalf of 11 travelers whose smartphones and laptops were searched without individualized suspicion at U.S. ports of entry.”