Category Archives: Profiteering

New Zealand courts banned naming Grace Millane’s accused killer. Google just emailed it out | Toby Manhire | World news | The Guardian

this is next-level. You didn’t have to go searching to find the name on the internet. Google put it right in your inbox. You didn’t even need to click to open the email. His name was in the subject field. Shouldn’t Google then be hauled before the courts? What did they have to say for themselves – was this defensible, and what processes did they have in place to stop this sort of thing happening? A spokesperson for Google in New Zealand (based in Australia) responded to those questions by saying, “we wouldn’t comment on specifics”. That’s a no-comment on the specific fact that they dispatched an email with the name of the accused – information unequivocally suppressed by NZ courts – in the headline.

Source: New Zealand courts banned naming Grace Millane’s accused killer. Google just emailed it out | Toby Manhire | World news | The Guardian

We all fell for Facebook’s utopianism, but the mask is at last being torn away | Jamie Bartlett | Opinion | The Guardian

Will anything change? Surveys show that people are suspicious of social media platforms – but keep on sharing and clicking regardless. And, yes, there are some good things about Facebook too. But resentful users do not make for a sound business model, and I suspect the coming years will see competitor platforms that promise greater privacy, built on a different approach to the “free, for data” cul-de-sac we’re trapped in. True, network effects are hard to overcome – everyone is on Facebook because everyone else is on Facebook – but the ghost of the once dominant MySpace haunts every tech CEO. One thing I’m sure of, however, is that nothing will change Zuckerberg’s mind. When the next scandal breaks, as it surely will, he’ll apologise, and then talk about connectivity – no matter how disconnected it is from reality.

Source: We all fell for Facebook’s utopianism, but the mask is at last being torn away | Jamie Bartlett | Opinion | The Guardian

Inoreader – Prominent Doctors Aren’t Disclosing Their Industry Ties in Medical Journal Studies. And Journals Are Doing Little to Enforce Their Rules

“The system is broken,” said Dr. Mehraneh Dorna Jafari, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine. She and her colleagues published a study in August that found that, of the 100 doctors who received the most compensation from device makers in 2015, conflicts were disclosed in only 37 percent of the articles published in the next year. “The journals aren’t checking and the rules are different for every single thing.”

Source: Inoreader – Prominent Doctors Aren’t Disclosing Their Industry Ties in Medical Journal Studies. And Journals Are Doing Little to Enforce Their Rules

How US billionaires are fuelling the hard-right cause in Britain | George Monbiot | Opinion | The Guardian

he Kochs’ chief political lieutenant, Richard Fink, developed what he called a three-stage model of social change. Universities would produce “the intellectual raw materials”. Thinktanks would transform them into “a more practical or usable form”. Then “citizen activist” groups would “press for the implementation of policy change”. To these ends the Kochs set up bodies in all three categories themselves, such as the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Cato Institute and the “citizens’ group” Americans for Prosperity. But for the most part they funded existing organisations that met their criteria. They have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a network of academic departments, thinktanks, journals and movements. And they appear to have been remarkably successful. As researchers at Harvard and Columbia universities have found, Americans for Prosperity alone now rivals the Republican party in terms of size, staffing and organisational capacity. It has pulled “the Republican party to the far right on economic, tax and regulatory issues”. It was crucial to the success of the Tea Party movement, the ousting of Democrats from Congress, and the staffing of Trump’s tra

Source: How US billionaires are fuelling the hard-right cause in Britain | George Monbiot | Opinion | The Guardian

Revealed: the hidden global network behind Tommy Robinson | UK news | The Guardian

A separate study of about 600 Twitter accounts, believed to be directly tied to the Russian government or closely aligned with its propaganda, found significant numbers had tweeted prolifically in Robinson’s defence.

Source: Revealed: the hidden global network behind Tommy Robinson | UK news | The Guardian

Inoreader – An Elkhart Police Officer Was Convicted of Drunken Driving — Then the Chief Promoted Him

Despite the charge and conviction, Roundtree was never disciplined by Windbigler, according to Roundtree’s personnel file. Instead, Windbigler promoted Roundtree to detective this June, less than a year after the guilty plea. The command staff neglected to inform the oversight commission of the move, even though the commission must approve such promotions, according to Jim Rieckhoff, the commission’s chairman. He says the oversight panel was notified of the promotion in a letter this week from Todd Thayer, the acting police chief. Rieckhoff also seemed unaware until told by a reporter Thursday that Roundtree had pleaded guilty.

Source: Inoreader – An Elkhart Police Officer Was Convicted of Drunken Driving — Then the Chief Promoted Him

Farewell to the INF Treaty (II) – GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY.com – Military-Industrial Complex wants contracts to build weapons no one needs!

If Russia does not cease its alleged violations of the INF Treaty within 60 days, Washington will withdraw from the treaty. Credible evidence for those alleged violations is as absent today, as sound proof of the alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The western debate is still ignoring solid Russian evidence that the USA is violating the INF Treaty with the installation of NATO’s missile defense systems in Romania and Poland. Yesterday, NATO foreign ministers blamed Russia for the abrogation of the treaty. Berlin seeks to avoid the installation of US medium-range missiles in Europe, because they would restrict the EU’s planned military autonomy. Government advisors are suggesting other armament measures against Russia.

Source: Farewell to the INF Treaty (II) – GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY.com

An Anti-Vaxxer’s New Crusade — ProPublica

Dr. David Ayoub used to be active in the anti-vaccination movement. Now he’s challenging mainstream science again — as an expert witness for accused child…

Source: An Anti-Vaxxer’s New Crusade — ProPublica

Testimony for sale to highest bidder – the lowest of the low of “expert” witnesses and self-promoters.

Finland to President Trump: We don’t rake the forest floor, but we do other things you should emulate – Los Angeles Times

Finns object to Trump’s ridiculous attempt to recruit them into the web of cynical fabrication he constantly tries to spin for political gain.

Source: Finland to President Trump: We don’t rake the forest floor, but we do other things you should emulate – Los Angeles Times