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She Was Fired After Raising Questions About a DNA Test. Now She’s Getting $1 Million.

Marina Stajic, an official at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York City, raised concerns that the test could lead to wrongful convictions. Her bosses were livid.

Click to view the original at nytimes.com

Hasnain says:

This is just sad / scary.

"Mr. Scheck said: “Not only is it wrong as a matter of science and good public policy to retaliate against someone who is just voting to disclose a validation study, but now it turns out they never did the study.”"

Posted on 2019-04-28T18:23:23+0000

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Multiple Injured, One Fatality After San Diego Synagogue Shooting

Authorities have identified the suspect as John Earnest and say he's also being investigated in a fire at a mosque in a nearby city last month.

Click to view the original at hollywoodreporter.com

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Gunmen kill polio vaccinator in southwestern Pakistan

Attack on vaccination team raises toll in similar attacks since 2012 to at least 95, according to an Al Jazeera tally.

Click to view the original at aljazeera.com

Hasnain says:

Anti-vax taken to the extreme. 3 killed this week :(

"Polio vaccination campaigns in Pakistan have often been the subject of misinformation, with parents concerned about rumours that the vaccines would either neuter their children or harm them in some other way."

Posted on 2019-04-25T14:48:58+0000

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Mueller report: Russia hacked state databases and voting machine companies

Russian officers injected malicious SQL code and extracted information, they also sent spearphishing emails to election officials company executives.

Click to view the original at rollcall.com

Hasnain says:

Ignoring the politics of this (for the purposes of this post - even though the politics is infuriating)...

Just the other day I gave a talk on security and explained SQL injection, what it was, how it's so easy to protect against it and how sad I am that it's 2019 and this is still so common.

And then this happens :|

Posted on 2019-04-23T06:31:04+0000

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Sri Lanka Bombings Live Updates: ‘It Was a River of Blood’

Multiple explosions killed more than 200 people at churches and high-end hotels across the country. Seven people were arrested in connection with the wave of bombings.

Click to view the original at nytimes.com

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Burned to death for reporting sexual harassment

Nusrat was set on fire after accusing her headmaster of sexual harassment, but spoke out before dying.

Click to view the original at bbc.com

Hasnain says:

This is something I read the other day but mulled sharing because it's so sad.

But we should be aware of what's going on and how lucky we are to not be directly affected by this.

And realize we need to do more to stop stuff like this from happening.

Posted on 2019-04-21T06:06:14+0000

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Hasnain says:

In this post, the author argues programming isn’t the great equalizer it’s often touted to be - because it’s only accessible to those speaking English.

Which is an entirely fair point. I wish the situation could be changed. The author does mention it’s fairly easy to create a transpiler to move over the keywords and convert to something existing code can work with, but I think they’re under estimating the cost of translating all existing code - since you need to translate over function names, documentation, and so on.

Seems like a Herculean task.

Posted on 2019-04-18T06:17:00+0000

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Scientists: We kept pig brains alive 10 hours after death. Bioethicists: "Holy shit."

Scientists hooked 32 dead pig brains up to a machine to revive them. And it worked.

Click to view the original at vox.com

Hasnain says:

So that episode of Fringe where they go “he’s only been dead a few hours, it’s not too late, we can still read their memories” wasn’t too far off the mark?

Posted on 2019-04-18T02:23:26+0000

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An actress lived for decades in this New York City apartment -- for $28 a month

Until March of this year, one woman was lucky enough to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village -- one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods -- for about the cost of a cab ride.

Click to view the original at cnn.com

Hasnain says:

This piece combines a quick look at rent control with a human interest story.

""I think she was embarrassed at how the place looked, but I also think she was embarrassed that she didn't pay much in rent," Pomerantz said."

Posted on 2019-04-14T16:47:15+0000

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Death By 1,000 Clicks: Where Electronic Health Records Went Wrong

The U.S. government claimed that turning American medical charts into electronic records would make health care better, safer and cheaper. Ten years and $36 billion later, the system is an unholy m…

Click to view the original at khn.org

Hasnain says:

Bad software literally killing people. This is so scary and I feel like some of this stuff should be prosecuted criminally.

"Foster began with Monachelli’s medical records, which offered a puzzle. Her doctor had considered the possibility of an aneurysm and, to rule it out, had ordered a head scan through the clinic’s software system, the government alleged in court filings. The test, in theory, would have caught the bleeding in Monachelli’s brain. But the order never made it to the lab; it had never been transmitted"

Posted on 2019-04-14T05:57:21+0000

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The first picture of a black hole opens a new era of astrophysics

Astronomers used a network of telescopes around the world to take a picture of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87.

Click to view the original at sciencenews.org

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Hasnain says:

This was a surprisingly down to earth and humble perspective. Wish more people were like her.

“In what ways did your dad change, other than having a jet?
Actually, having a jet is a really big deal. If I were queen of the world, I would pass a law against private jets, because they enable you to get around a certain reality. You don’t have to go through an airport terminal, you don’t have to interact, you don’t have to be patient, you don’t have to be uncomfortable. These are the things that remind us we’re human.”

Posted on 2019-04-03T11:52:16+0000

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Hasnain says:

Author explains how making this distinction is vital in helping productivity and getting things done.

"A better option is attention management: Prioritize the people and projects that matter, and it won’t matter how long anything takes.

Attention management is the art of focusing on getting things done for the right reasons, in the right places and at the right moments."

Posted on 2019-04-02T07:19:39+0000

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Hasnain says:

Learnt more about ketchup than I thought I'd ever want to know. This is filled with great tidbits like

" Swedes love “Depression spaghetti” — ketchup poured over pasta as a sauce, as many Americans did during the 1930s and probably still do."

Posted on 2019-04-01T08:31:05+0000