Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Pelosi Aftermath

NEWS YOU CAN USE:  Where to get legal help if you have been blacklisted by today’s control freaks.


Surprise – the Australian Great Barrier Reef has “Bounced Back” from Climate Change.


The U.S. made a breakthrough battery discovery — then gave the technology to China. I mean, when it’s NPR pointing out how stupid this is. . .



Ryan, Meghan J., Understanding Criminal Justice Innovations (June 14, 2022). Journal of Law & Innovation (2022 Forthcoming), SMU Dedman School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 562, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4136813 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4136813 

“Burgeoning science and technology have provided the criminal justice system with the opportunity to address some of its shortcomings. And the criminal justice system has significant shortcomings. Among other issues, we have a mass incarceration problem; clearance rates are surprisingly low; there are serious concerns about wrongful convictions; and the system is layered with racial, religious, and other biases. Innovations that are widely used across industries, as well as those directed specifically at the criminal justice system, have the potential to improve upon such problems. 

But it is important to recognize that these innovations also have downsides, and criminal justice actors must proceed with caution and understand not only the potential of these interventions but also their limitations. Relevant to this calculation of caution is whether the innovation is broadly used across industry sectors or, rather, whether it has been specifically developed for use within the criminal justice system. These latter innovations have a record of not being sufficiently vetted for accuracy and reliability. Accordingly, criminal justice actors must be sufficiently well versed in basic science and technology so that they have the ability and the confidence to critically assess the usefulness of the various criminal justice innovations in light of their limitations. 

Considering lawyers’ general lack of competency in these areas, scientific and technological training is necessary to mold them into modern competent criminal justice actors. This training must be more than superficial subject-specific training, though; it must dig deeper, delving into critical thinking skills that include evaluating the accuracy and reliability of the innovation at issue, as well as assessing broader concerns such as the need for development transparency, possible intrusions on individual privacy, and incentives to curtail individual liberties given the innovation at hand.”



20 Percent Of The USAF’s B-2 Force Is Deployed ‘Down Under’ The Drive. “Great. In case of war, China’s primary nuclear attack target will only be about 20 kilometers away.”


A Democrat more dangerous than Nancy PelosiAlex Lo, South China Morning Post 


How a missile in Kabul connects to a Speaker in Taipei Pepe Escobar, The Cradle 


‘Take down Pelosi’s plane’: Chinese react online to Taiwan visit FT


UK Guardian - Educational publisher Pearson will sell textbooks as non-fungible tokens (NFTs): “Textbook publisher Pearsonplans to profit from secondhand sales by turning its titles into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), its chief executive has said. Educational books are often sold more than once, since students sell study resources they no longer require. 

Publishers have not previously been able to make any money from secondhand sales, but the rise of digital textbooks has created an opportunity for companies to benefit. NFTs confer ownership of a unique digital item by recording it on a decentralised digital register known as a blockchain. Typically these items are images or videos, but the technology allows for just about anything to be sold and owned in this way. 

After the release of Pearson’s interim results, CEO Andy Bird explained his plan to sell digital textbooks as NFTs, allowing the publisher to track the ownership of a book even when it changes hands, Bloomberg reported. “In the analogue world, a Pearson textbook was resold up to seven times, and we would only participate in the first sale,” he said, explaining that “technology like blockchain and NFTs allows us to participate in every sale of that particular item as it goes through its life”…


Dem senator on huge IRS expansion: If you’ve paid your taxes, you should have nothing to fear. “This is like saying that you must be guilty if you decline to talk to the cops about a crime they’re investigating. Yet it was a popular take among lefties on the ol’ Twitter machine this weekend.”