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Category: North America

USA braces for impact of Thanksgiving travel on coronavirus death toll

November 30, 2020November 30, 2020Health, North America, Politics, Science, Social Issues, USA

The USA has come under much worldwide scrutiny for its response to the coronavirus pandemic crises. Whilst many other countries implemented strict lockdown measures or closed themselves to international travel, the USA’s unstructured crisis response has been indicated by many to be the reason for its current status as leader in the number of deaths so far. Worldwide the virus has seen nearly 1.5 million people die from its effects since numbers were first recorded by the World Health Organisation back in early March 2020. Since then the USA has accounted for over 250,000 of those deaths, with daily death toll numbers reaching over 2,000 a day in late November, figures similar to the first spike around May time as the second wave of the virus takes hold. 

The Thanksgiving effect 

Despite the continuing rise in the number of deaths it seems many Americans took the Thanksgiving holiday as an opportunity to travel this year. As a result experts, including the number one leading coronavirus USA expert Dr Anthony Fauci, have warned of the devastating effect this Thanksgiving holiday could have on increased number of cases – and subsequent deaths. Thanksgiving is a major holiday in the USA and one of the busiest weeks for travel each year. Some worries have been alleviated by Dr Fauci however as he has suggested that if travellers were to wear facemasks and maintain social distancing measures, the impact from the increased population movement could be restricted and kept under control. 

It has been highly recommended by Dr Fauci and other experts that anyone who has travelled during the Thanksgiving period self-quarantine at home for a minimum two week period. With Christmas fast approaching, it remains to be seen how the numbers will play out across North America, Europe and Australia as many refuse to see the jolly season ‘cancelled’ despite potentially fatal consequences.

Instagram turns 10 years old!

October 26, 2020October 26, 2020Communications, General, Networking, North America, Social Media, Start Ups, Technology, Technology News, USA

As the widely used social networking site Instagram turns 10 this year, we take a look at where Instagram started and how it has gone on to become a dominating tech player in the social media market. 

Humble beginnings

Originally started by two Standford graduates, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, it first launched in 2010 with an image posted of a dog and foot by Systrom. The dog in question was a stray in Mexico during a visit, and the featured foot was his girlfriends. Its grainy appearance hued by the dark edges of its filter epitomise what Instagram was for: finding a place for creativity in everyday life thanks to the rise of the mobile smartphone. Since then the founder has gone on to joke he might have ‘tried a little harder’ had he known that it would be the first photograph on the mega-popular social media giant that Instagram went on to become. 

Facebook buy-out

Instagram was barely a toddler and only 18 months old when it was acquired by Facebook in 2012 for an impressive price of $1 billion. The price tag was a talking point for many especially considering the young age of the company. For Instagram’s current 13 workers at the time, the news came as a relative surprise as their humble office migrated to Facebook’s famously large campus office site in California, USA. Facebook has since faced criticism for the acquisition and had to defend itself in the courts where it was accused of anti-competitive mergers and violation of trust laws amongst other tech giants, Google, Amazon and Apple.  

Turning the big 1 – 0 

Since its launch, Instagram has found a way into our daily lives – so much so that many agree they would be lost without it, and many others making their full income from the site. What started as a simple photo-sharing application has gone to become a site for commerce, activism, art, politics and more, with many people still engaging with the site’s primary mission to inspire creativity in its users.

16 year old Miami highschool student hacks school system

September 26, 2020September 26, 2020Big Data, Business, Communications, Data Management & Networks, Digital Systems Technology, Education, Government, North America, Politics, Regulation News, Software, Technology, Technology News

It’s every kids dream for school to be cancelled, but for many students 2020 has already been stressful enough. Students in Florida, USA however were shocked to find themselves locked out of their online classrooms come the first day of term this September. Having to adapt to new online learning environments already, students found themselves rightfully confused by their failed attempts for online access. 

So what happened?

Miami-Dade Schools’ online classes were brought down, a crash of the entire school system that saw students locked out of their online classes for the first three days back to school. Students and teachers alike however were taken a back to find out this was not the result of a complex hacking attack or situation: it was a 16 year student from the same school district. An unlikely teenager to carry out the attack, the result made national and international news headlines.

The 275,000 students in the school’s districts who tried to log on that morning found the system to be overloaded by data. The 16 year old junior in high school – who’s personal details have not been released – was called ‘polite’ and ‘intelligent’ by his neighbours. One neighbour, a Ben Herrera was quoted by the Miami Herald as saying: “He’s an awesome kid, […] What saddens me is how he’s going to be portrayed, and we’ve got to realize with this pandemic that kids are bored, isolated, stuck with too much time on their hands and maybe they do something irresponsible.” 
While neighbours might be showing sympathy for the boy, the school district is persuing their multiple charges of Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks. The boy claims his attack was constituted from a free and easily available free software download, which begs the question: why was the My School Online learning platform so vulnerable to an amateur attack?

The #FreeBritney movement has its day in court

September 26, 2020September 26, 2020Business, Internet of Things (IoT), North America, Politics, Social Issues, Social Media

For those not versed in some of the further stretches of celebrity internet blogs and conspiracy theory Reddit, you might not have heard of the Free Britney movement. The online and now IRL (in real life) activist movement started with the – now famous – hashtag: #FreeBritney, which really gained its current and growing momentum in April 2019. The hashtag, being spread across multiple different social media platforms, has gone on to gain notoriety, with lots more conspiracy theories surrounding the case and its content appear online. 

Overprotected: Britney Spears, A Life Story

The spiraling downfall of iconic pop star Britney Spears was spread internationally across headlines in the late 2000s. After glossing our TV screens and magazine pages with their youthful and sexy allure, screaming of new money and celebrity high life, the public relished in their front-row seat to Spears’ mental breakdown, via the everpresent lens of the paparazzi. Interest in the popstar’s downfall came in 2007 on February 16th, when Britney famously shaved her head in public. The controversial converatorship, which has seen Spears grant all rights to her father and have no control over her legal estate, or financial and personal assets, started subsequently in 2008. A conservatorship is said to be unusual in younger and more capable persons such as Spears. It is usually reserved for those more elderly, often with symptoms of dimentia, or those that are mentally ill and unable to make their own decisions. 

Stick me, baby? Not this time!
Whilst it is awful to think of the #FreeBritney movement’s proposition: that Spears’ father has taken Spears effectively an economic prisoner, there is a glimmer of hope around the corner. Britney has called for her future court proceedings to be made public, after the conservatorship was extended until February 2020. For Spears’ fans who care so deeply about her wellbeing, this is thankful news. For the wider growing audience of interested spectators, this is the latest development in Spears’ eternally public life.

Trump pooh-poohs potential TikTok deal

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020Big Data, Business, China, Communications, General, Government, Info Tech, Main, North America, Social Media, Technology News

The TikTok saga continues in the US, with Donny Trump expressing a lack of enthusiasm over the prospect of American tech company Oracle taking over the popular video app (or at least part of it). Details of Oracle’s bid are expected any time now, but Trump has already poured cold water on the idea.

“I’m not prepared to sign off on anything. I have to see the deal,” Trump told reporters at the White House Wednesday.“It has to be 100 percent as far as national security is concerned.”

Trump, along with many others in Washington, maintains that TikTok represents a threat to US national security. The argument is that ByteDance has a sort of 2 way radio going with the Chinese Communist Party, collecting data from American TikTok users (there are reportedly 100 million of them) and then handing it over to Beijing.

ByteDance denies that such a relationship exists but, needless to say, Washington isn’t convinced. In August Trump has announced that he will ban the app in the US unless ByteDance sells it to an American company. In addition to the privacy concerns, Trump alleged that TikTok “censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive.” It also serves as a platform for political disinformation, he charged.

At first it appeared that Microsoft would save the day, but talks with ByteDance fell through, opening the door for Oracle.

The word now is that Oracle is seeking a minority stake in the Chinese company, rather than taking it over completely. AP reports that, according to the terms of this deal, ByteDance would give control of user data to Oracle and allow the US corporation to review—but not author—code and updates.

Trump stated he would be against such a deal.

“Conceptually, I can tell you I don’t like that,” he said. “If that’s the case, I’m not going to be happy with that.”

Trump was apparently hoping the US government would get a piece of the deal, and was distraught to be told otherwise.

“Amazingly, I find that you’re not allowed to do that,” he told reporters. “If they’re willing to make big payments to the government they’re not allowed because … there’s no legal path to doing that. How foolish can we be?”

The deadline for a deal is 20 September. Whether or not that can be extended is unclear.

Trump, economists criticize Fed’s interest rates cut

August 1, 2019Countries, Financial News, North America, Politics, Regions, Regulation News, USANo Comments

The Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point failed to pacify US President Donald Trump, who has routinely hit out at Fed chair Jerome H. Powell for keeping rates too high. The federal funds target rate range is now 2% to 2.25%.

“As usual, Powell let us down, but at least he is ending quantitative tightening, which shouldn’t have started in the first place – no inflation,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “We are winning anyway, but I am certainly not getting much help from the Federal Reserve!”

Trump went on to say that he would like to see further and more aggressive rate cutting going forward.

“What the Market wanted to hear from Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve was that this was the beginning of a lengthy and aggressive rate-cutting cycle which would keep pace with China, The European Union and other countries around the world.”

But Trump was not the only one critical of the cut. Two Fed officials also disagreed with the decision, albeit for different reasons.

CNBC reports that Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren and Kansas City Fed President Esther George—who had both expressed misgivings about a potential rate cut—both voted against the measure, arguing that rates ought to remain unchanged.

“Given that the economy is quite strong, given that I do think that inflation is going to be very close to 2%, and given that the growth in the economy is satisfactory, I think that’s an environment where you don’t have to take a lot of action,” Rosengren told CNBC.

Others were critical as well. Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank, slammed the rate cut as an “unwise decision,” arguing that “The Fed’s decision today is like in the days when doctors bled their patients to heal them.”

He added that, in his view, the Fed “manufactur[ed] reasons to cut interest rates despite a strong economy with no recession signs apparent anywhere out on the horizon.”

The decrease was the first since 2008, when the Fed hacked rates down to almost zero percent in the midst of massive economic fallout caused by the US subprime mortgage crisis.

Boeing Awaits Fate, Passengers Wait

July 31, 2019Countries, North America, Oceania, Regions, Technology News, USANo Comments

Hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger airplanes remain grounded across the world pending conclusion of an ongoing investigation into two fatal crashes, only months apart, in 2018 and 2019. Some airlines are finding it difficult to cope with their diminished fleets. If you find your flight delayed, this may be why.

The crashes and causes

Shortly after takeoff on 29 October 2918, Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 passengers and crew on board. The plane was reported to have entered the sea at a sharp angle, and an investigation pointed out that a likely flaw in an automated system that controlled the aircraft’s pitch, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). 

On 10 March 2019, just over four months later, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, traveling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, crashed under similar circumstances. Two minutes after takeoff, the plane’s MCAS engaged, sharply pitching the aircraft back towards the ground. Over the course of the next four minutes, the pilots struggled to disengage the MCAS while retaining other forms of automated/assisted control. Flight data shows drastically fluctuating rates of climb, descent, and air speed. The MCAS engaged a second time; shortly after, the aircraft struck the ground at nearly 1100 kilometers per hour, killing all 157 persons aboard.

Boeing’s new best-seller..

The Boeing 737 was developed in the 1960’s and is the most popular commercial passenger aircraft. The 737 MAX was introduced in 2011, featured larger engines, and became Boeing’s fastest-selling plane ever. Put briefly, the engine’s increased weight made stalling more likely in some ascent conditions. The MCAS was designed to detect these stalls and adjust engine and tail fin angles to push down the plane’s nose to counteract them.

..and how it was (allowed to be) made

The MCAS directly caused both flights. This having been established, inquiries into the development and implementation of the system are now underway, with Boeing currently under investigation by the Justice Department and FBI. A former Boeing engineer has reported that developers were under explicit commands to minimize the cost of the 737 renovation (to the 737 MAX) as well as to downplay changes in design and features in order to more smoothly pass Federal Aviation Administration standards. FAA certification processes are partially outsourced to airline producers, one of those being Boeing.

Fallout

Much of the reignited discussion of the 1986 Chernobyl reactor explosion focuses on how a country could knowingly (the fail switch that actually sparked the temperature spike was discovered, but not revised, due to anticipated costs) endanger its citizens and the world. How reckless of them! 

We now have a crater in Ethiopia, with debris reaching up to nine meters into the ground, made by a plane that was hastily created, certified, and sold by a company across the world. Take it from there.

Fall in Asian markets reflects pessimism over US-China trade deal

July 31, 2019Asia, China, Countries, Financial News, North America, Politics, Regions, Regulation News, South East Asia, USANo Comments

Negotiations between Washington and Beijing over a trade deal may be ongoing, but that doesn’t mean people are optimistic about the potential for a settlement, as evinced by the fall in Asian markets during early trading Wednesday.

The decline came in the wake of a Twitter rampage from US President Donald Trump—who has been less than consistent (one might say erratic) on this issue—in which he lit into China for not importing more agricultural products from the US and took credit for the Asian country’s allegedly failing economy.

“China is doing very badly, worst year in 27 – was supposed to start buying our agricultural product now – no signs that they are doing so. That is the problem with China, they just don’t come through. Our Economy has become MUCH larger than the Chinese Economy is last 3 years,” he wrote.

Continuing he wrote:

“My team is negotiating with them now, but they always change the deal in the end to their benefit.”

And in conclusion:

“China has lost 5 million jobs and two million manufacturing jobs due to the Trump Tariffs. Trumps [sic] got China back on its heels, and the United States is doing great.”

Trump did not provide any sources to back up the stated figures, but then I probably didn’t have to tell you that.

MarketWatch summed up the immediate fallout, reporting that “Japan’s Nikkei slid 1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index  fell 1.3%. The Shanghai Composite retreated 0.8% while the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite lost 0.5%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1% as North Korea tested more short-range ballistic missiles, and benchmark indexes in Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia all fell. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2%.”

Individual stocks were also down.

MarketWatch reports that, in addition to Trump’s unpredictability, an ongoing trade dispute between South Korea and Japan is roiling markets. Said dispute stems from Tokyo’s decision to deny South Korea a special trade status known as “white country.”

Alarming percentage of food delivery drivers eat from orders

July 31, 2019Asia, Australia, Countries, FMCG, North America, Oceania, Regions, Regulation News, Social Issues, Technology News, USANo Comments

Think twice next time you’re about to tip the man or woman delivering food to your house. According to a recent survey conducted by US Foods, nearly 30 percent of delivery drivers have swiped something from a customer’s food order.

The survey interviewed some 500 delivery drivers who worked for various apps (including UberEats, GrubHub and DoorDash). Twenty-eight percent of those drivers confessed to having taken food from a customer’s order prior to delivering it, while more than half (54 percent) admitted to thinking about doing so.

From the report: “We’re sorry to report that sometimes, impulse gets the best of deliverers, and they violate their sacred duty by taking some of the food!”

As you might expect, customers (1,500 of whom were polled by US Foods as part of the same study) are less than thrilled by the idea of a delivery driver lifting a bit of their meal. US Foods asked customers to to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 meaning “no big deal” and 10 meaning “absolutely unacceptable”), how upset they would be to learn that such a thing occurred, and the average response was 8.4. No surprise there.

Meanwhile, 85 percent of customers said they would like their order to come with a sticker or label which, if broken, would indicate that the delivery boy/girl had gotten hungry on the drive over.

Taking food from an order is of course a violation of company policy: if caught, drivers are liable to be fired.

On the flip side, drivers had some bones to pick as well. Sixty percent of those surveyed said they were “consistently irritated” by a lack of tips. MarketWatch reports:

“On the customer side, 95% of those surveyed said they tipped their drivers, though 66% said service and delivery fees — which don’t go to the driver — affected how much they tip. $5 was the average tip for about one in three customers, but 57% of customers said they tipped less than that. Just 11% said they tipped an average of $6 or more.”

Upon hearing this news, customers might be even less inclined to tip, further enraging delivery drivers and leading them to retaliate by, well, stealing some food. Sounds like a vicious cycle.

Lawyer for Epstein accusers says wealthy sex offender may have bounty on his head

July 31, 2019Countries, North America, Politics, Regions, Social Issues, USANo Comments

A lawyer representing several alleged victims of billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein recently speculated that the convicted sex offender’s life may be in danger from people who do not want him to testify.

Spencer Kuvin represents three of Epstein’s many accusers. His comments came after news reports that Epstein, a former acquaintance of current US President Donald Trump as well as previous President Bill Clinton, had possibly attempted to kill himself in his jail cell last week.

According to various sources, Epstein was found lying on the floor of his cell in the fetal position, half-conscious with markings on his neck. Some speculated that he had attempted to hang himself, while others stated that Epstein’s may have staged the suicide attempt so as to be granted a transfer to a different jail.

In support of the latter theory, a source said Epstein’s injuries were superficial and inconsistent with a genuine suicide attempt.

Yet another theory holds that Epstein was assaulted by fellow inmates.

In response, Kuvin stated during an interview with the Sun Online:

“I question whether or not it was a true suicide attempt that Mr. Epstein was involved in in jail or whether or not there may be some powerful people who just don’t want him to talk.”

Kuvin seems to be implying, as others already have, that Epstein has incriminating information about certain individuals who have the power to prevent him from talking in court.

“If he goes on trial, everyone he’s been in contact with will ultimately be fair game,” Kuvin said, adding, “If he’s going to implicate anyone in power that has the ability to reach in and somehow get to him, his life is definitely in jeopardy.”

The 66-year-old was arrested and indicted earlier this month on sex trafficking charges. He stands accused of sexually assaulting dozens of underage girls—some as young as 14—at his properties in New York City and Palm Beach.

He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

Epstein previously served a 13 month sentence after pleading guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges.

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