Kids Use Tech So Much They Can’t Hold A Pencil Anymore, Doctors Say
February 26th, 2018Swipetarded parents. Swipetarded children.
This should be a boon for the public school to private prison gravy train.
Via: Guardian:
Children are increasingly finding it hard to hold pens and pencils because of an excessive use of technology, senior paediatric doctors have warned.
An overuse of touchscreen phones and tablets is preventing children’s finger muscles from developing sufficiently to enable them to hold a pencil correctly, they say.
“Children are not coming into school with the hand strength and dexterity they had 10 years ago,” said Sally Payne, the head paediatric occupational therapist at the Heart of England foundation NHS Trust. “Children coming into school are being given a pencil but are increasingly not be able to hold it because they don’t have the fundamental movement skills.
“To be able to grip a pencil and move it, you need strong control of the fine muscles in your fingers,. Children need lots of opportunity to develop those skills.”
Apple Confirms It Uses Google’s Cloud for iCloud
February 26th, 2018Via: CNBC:
A file that Apple updated on its website last month provides the first acknowledgment that it’s relying on Google’s public cloud for data storage for its iCloud services.
The disclosure is fresh evidence that Google’s cloud has been picking up usage as it looks to catch up with Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud infrastructure business.
CDC Epidemic Intelligence Officer Left Work Feeling Ill, Hasn’t Been Seen Since
February 25th, 2018Update: Body of CDC Worker Who Mysteriously Disappeared in February Found in a River
Via: Business Insider:
The mystery surrounding the February disappearance of a 35-year-old Centres for Disease Control and Prevention worker ended tragically this week, with the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department finding the CDC commander’s body in a river late Tuesday evening.
The Atlanta Police Department confirmed to Business Insider that Timothy Cunningham’s body was recovered in the Chattahoochee River in northwest Atlanta. Cunningham was wearing his favourite jogging shoes when he was found by a group of fishermen, police said.
Cunningham left work at the CDC feeling sick on February 12, then tried to call his mum on his drive home, but hadn’t been heard from since.
Maj. Michael O’Connor of the Atlanta Police Department said in February that Cunningham had recently been turned down for a promotion at work, and left feeling ill shortly after his supervisor explained why he’d been passed over.
Cunningham drove off that day and was never seen alive again, even as his car, credit and debit cards, dog, keys, and mobile phone were all recovered at his home, the police said.
“We found that to be an unusual circumstance in a missing persons case,” Major O’Connor told reporters at a press conference on Thursday afternoon. The only thing police said they found in Cunningham’s pockets when his body was recovered were three crystals.
Police said they “knew he was a collector of crystals.”
The muddy river spot where the officer was found wasn’t too far from his house, but there weren’t any roads or running trails nearby, so it’s not clear exactly how Cunningham got in there. Police say they’d conducted a “very thorough” search of the riverbanks in that area on February 23, but didn’t find any signs of the missing commander.
“We may never be able to tell you how he got into the river,” O’Connor said. Doctors who’ve examined his body say there’s no evidence of trauma or foul play, and they believe the cause of death is drowning.
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Via: NBC:
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employee was last seen 11 days ago, when he left work early after complaining that he felt unwell, Atlanta police said Friday.
Timothy Cunningham, 35, works as a commander in the U.S. Public Health Service and has responded to the Ebola virus and the Zika virus outbreaks, the CDC said. He holds two degrees from Harvard.
Police are now conducting a search for Cunningham and have enlisted the help of his family, friends and the alumni network of his alma mater Morehouse College.
China Sets Stage for Xi to Stay in Office Indefinitely
February 25th, 2018Via: Reuters:
China’s ruling Communist Party on Sunday set the stage for President Xi Jinping to stay in office indefinitely, with a proposal to remove a constitutional clause limiting presidential service to just two terms in office.
Apple Moves to Store iCloud Keys in China, Raising Human Rights Fears
February 24th, 2018Via: Reuters:
When Apple Inc begins hosting Chinese users’ iCloud accounts in a new Chinese data center at the end of this month to comply with new laws there, Chinese authorities will have far easier access to text messages, email and other data stored in the cloud.
That’s because of a change to how the company handles the cryptographic keys needed to unlock an iCloud account. Until now, such keys have always been stored in the United States, meaning that any government or law enforcement authority seeking access to a Chinese iCloud account needed to go through the U.S. legal system.
Now, according to Apple, for the first time the company will store the keys for Chinese iCloud accounts in China itself. That means Chinese authorities will no longer have to use the U.S. courts to seek information on iCloud users and can instead use their own legal system to ask Apple to hand over iCloud data for Chinese users, legal experts said.
Daimler’s Truck Boss Thinks Tesla Semi Specs Defy Laws of Physics, Musk Thinks Production Tesla Semi Will Exceed Specs for Same Price
February 24th, 2018Via: Electrek:
As we reported last week and discussed on the Electrek podcast yesterday, many people still have a difficult time wrapping their head around the Tesla Semi specs that the company announced last year.
But now CEO Elon Musk says that he is ‘optimistic’ they can beat those specs with the production version of the electric truck.
Earlier this week, Daimler’s head of trucks suggested that the Tesla Semi specs defy the laws of physics and is passing them by if they are true.
The German automaker added itself to a long list of industry people with doubts about Tesla’s ability to deliver on those specs.
Related: DHL: Numbers Starting to Add Up for Tesla Trucks
Thanks to “Consent” Buried Deep in Sales Agreements, Car Manufacturers Are Tracking Tens of Millions of U.S. Cars
February 24th, 2018Via: BoingBoing:
Millions of new cars sold in the US and Europe are “connected,” having some mechanism for exchanging data with their manufacturers after the cars are sold; these cars stream or batch-upload location data and other telemetry to their manufacturers, who argue that they are allowed to do virtually anything they want with this data, thanks to the “explicit consent” of the car owners — who signed a lengthy contract at purchase time that contained a vague and misleading clause deep in its fine-print.
Car manufacturers are mostly warehousing this data (leaving it vulnerable to leaks and breaches, search-warrants, government hacking and unethical employee snooping), and can’t articulate why they’re saving it or how they use it.
SpaceX Begins Starlink Satellite Broadband Trial
February 24th, 2018Via: cnet:
A pair of small satellites named for an adventurous Belgian cartoon character could serve as proof of concept for an ambitious global broadband service envisioned by Elon Musk.
After days of delays, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the two small satellites, newly dubbed Tintin A and B by Musk (but known more formally as Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b), lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force base in California on Thursday morning.
A Larger Role for Midwives Could Improve Deficient U.S. Care for Mothers and Babies
February 24th, 2018Via: ProPublica:
In Great Britain, midwives deliver half of all babies, including Kate Middleton’s first two children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. In Sweden, Norway and France, midwives oversee most expectant and new mothers, enabling obstetricians to concentrate on high-risk births. In Canada and New Zealand, midwives are so highly valued that they’re brought in to manage complex cases that need special attention.
All of those countries have much lower rates of maternal and infant mortality than the U.S.
…
Now a groundbreaking study, the first systematic look at what midwives can and can’t do in the states where they practice, offers new evidence that empowering them could significantly boost maternal and infant health. The five-year effort by researchers in Canada and the U.S., published Wednesday, found that states that have done the most to integrate midwives into their health care systems, including Washington, New Mexico and Oregon, have some of the best outcomes for mothers and babies. Conversely, states with some of the most restrictive midwife laws and practices — including Alabama, Ohio and Mississippi — tend to do significantly worse on key indicators of maternal and neonatal well-being.
Construction Begins on Jeff Bezos’ $42 Million 10,000-Year Clock
February 24th, 2018Via: The Verge:
Installation has finally begun on Jeff Bezos’ 10,000-year clock, a project that the Amazon CEO has invested $42 million in (along with a hollowed-out mountain in Texas that Bezos intends for a Blue Origin spaceport), with the goal of building a mechanical clock that will run for 10 millennia.
