[CNBC] Facebook has asked several major U.S. hospitals to share anonymized data about their patients, such as illnesses and prescription info, for a proposed research project. Facebook was intending to match it up with user data it had collected, and help the hospitals figure out which patients might need special care or treatment.
The proposal never went past the planning phases and has been put on pause after the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal raised public concerns over how Facebook and others collect and use detailed information about Facebook users.
"This work has not progressed past the planning phase, and we have not received, shared, or analyzed anyone's data," a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC.
But as recently as last month, the company was talking to several health organizations, including Stanford Medical School and American College of Cardiology, about signing the data-sharing agreement.
#2
The DNA Trials proposal never went past the planning phases and has been put on pause after the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal raised public concerns.....
Representatives from the NSA data center at Camp Williams and Ancestry.com in Lehi, Utah declined to be interviewed.
The Healthcare Distribution Alliance, a national trade association representing wholesale distributors of opioids had no comment as well.
#3
"Facebook reportedly intended to compare the data, which included prescription information and illnesses, with its own data that it collected from users, in order to flag users that may need hospital care."
#5
There are federal laws against doing this without the patient's consent, but then, as far as FB and the rest of the Silicon Billionaire Scum are concerned, it doesn't matter.
I wonder what would happen if I posted this to my facebook page? The one I haven't gone to in many months?
#6
Those laws do not apply if the data is 'anonymized'. That is any patient identification is removed (or scrambled). I guess there are some pretty rigid requirements as to how that is done and you have to be 'certified'.
Take that masses of data and apply analytics and you can come up with some corralations. For example that a large number of pregnancy tests insurance claims were being rejected because the patients were.... male.
Of course you have to ask yourself - What does Facebook know about healthcare? The answer is not much. And you have to wonder how 'open-ended' their use is.
FB knows enough to determine a pregger insurance claimant is susceptible to prenatal vitamin marketing, and later 'huggies' then stupid little headbows and formula.
[EgyptToday]A round of discussions over the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan in Khartoum has failed, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the press on Friday.
Shoukry headed a delegation to Khartoum on Wednesday to attend the ninth meeting to continue talks to ease Egypt’s concerns over the controversial dam.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister said no agreement was reached after 18 hours of talks; he added that officials touched on all the outstanding issues that led to such controversy.
The meetings were resumed after a four-month hiatus due to a disagreement over technical issues related to the dam’s impact on the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan.
Shoukry also described the talks as “transparent, but did not lead to actual results.” However, he added that the government will seek to resolve this issue within 30 days.
Construction of the $4 billion dam started in April 2011, triggering tension with Egypt, which has voiced concerns over the dam negatively affecting its water share of the Nile river, a sacred symbol of the Egyptian civilization.
It was expected to be inaugurated in 2017, however, only 60 percent of the dam has been built so farm according to Ethiopian press reports.
The dam is believed to affect Egypt’s agriculture, and will contradict its 87 percent of the Nile’s flow, according to treaties that date back to 1929.
[Dhaka Tribune] Describing Islam as a religion of peace, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday emphasized the need for real teaching of Islam in the country.
“We want Bangladesh to be built with a non-communal spirit. The people of all faiths will practise their own religious rituals properly. This is the principle of Islam,” she said.
She made the remarks while inaugurating construction works on nine model mosques and Islamic cultural centres in different places of the country through a videoconference from her official residence, Ganabhaban, in Dhaka.
The nine mosques and centres are being constructed under a project titled “Establishment of a total of 560 Model Mosques and Islamic Cultural Centres in each District and Upazila.”
Sheikh Hasina said her government has taken this initiative so that people can get the real teaching of Islam and exercise Islamic culture properly.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
"All religions are equal! But I only mention pisslam." Whutasurprise...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/06/2018 5:46 Comments ||
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#2
Close down the "schools" that graduate people like Amber and the problem will evaporate.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/06/2018 5:33 Comments ||
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#3
She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, an independent school in Gloucestershire,[15] and from 1979 to 1981 at Queen's College, London,[16] an independent day school for girls in London, followed by Edinburgh University where she read History.
#2
Barber shop quartet cant be a beauty shop quartet at the same time you fake cops, comprende? Now, try to get back to solving Londonistans rising crime crisis.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The prominent Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, detained in La Belle France over rape allegations, paid a woman to stay silent about their relationship in 2015, the Belgian judiciary said.
Ramadan, 55, paid the Belgian-Moroccan woman 27,000 euros ($33,000) to stop posting details about their affair online, Luc Hennart, president of the Court of First Instance in Brussels, confirmed to AFP Wednesday.
The Oxford professor was detained by a French court in February over charges that he raped two Moslem women in La Belle France.
A third woman has since made further allegations of rape. Ramadan denies all the charges.
Hennart said a public judgment was made in Brussels in May 2015 between the professor and the woman, Majda Bernoussi, after she posted online about his "psychological grip" on her.
She did not accuse him of rape or sexual assault.
The agreement "provides that Majda Bernoussi deletes her online posts and stops publishing new ones, for a sum of money given by Tariq Ramadan," Hennart said.
Bernoussi also agreed to no longer send "offensive or threatening messages" to the professor and his family, according to French news website Mediapart.
Ramadan’s two accusers in La Belle France went to the police in late October, both alleging that he had raped them in French hotel rooms.
A professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford, Ramadan has been on leave since November after the allegations emerged.
One of European Islam’s best-known figures, he has dismissed the accusations against him as a smear campaign by his enemies and his lawyers argue there are inconsistencies in the women’s accounts.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
He's being persecuted. Stormy going after Trump is for the sake of the Republic....
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/06/2018 5:53 Comments ||
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[Michael Isikoff at Yahoo] A former top CIA official who served as the agency’s station chief in Moscow is sharply criticizing his former boss, John Brennan, accusing him of doing Vladimir Putin’s "bidding" through his harsh attacks on President Trump.
In an interview on the Yahoo News podcast "Skullduggery," CIA veteran Daniel Hoffman charged that Brennan’s public comments and tweets in recent weeks have played into Putin’s hands, helping the Russian leader stoke political divisions within the country and thereby undermine U.S. national security.
"I don’t think we’ve ever seen something like this," said Hoffman about Brennan’s public comments about the president. "Gosh, I can’t remember ever seeing an instance of this in our history where a retired director of the CIA went as far as he did."
In an interview on the Yahoo News podcast "Skullduggery," CIA veteran Daniel Hoffman charged that Brennan’s public comments and tweets in recent weeks have played into Putin’s hands, helping the Russian leader stoke political divisions within the country and thereby undermine U.S. national security.
"I don’t think we’ve ever seen something like this," said Hoffman about Brennan’s public comments about the president. "Gosh, I can’t remember ever seeing an instance of this in our history where a retired director of the CIA went as far as he did."
Hoffman was reacting to a series of tweets and public statements the former CIA director has made in recent weeks after signing a contract to be a commentator for NBC News.
In one tweet on March 17, Brennan reacted to Trump’s apparent gloating about the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (the president called it a "a great day for Democracy") by writing about the president: "When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history."
Then, in a March 21 appearance on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe," Brennan said of Trump: "I think he is afraid of the president of Russia. One could speculate as to why. The Russians may have something on him personally that they could always roll out and make his life more difficult."
Brennan declined to comment for this story. But shortly after his "Morning Joe" comments, he emphasized to the New York Times that he had no hard evidence that the Russians had blackmail material on Trump, notwithstanding the contents of a still-uncorroborated dossier prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele making similar allegations. "I do not know if the Russians have something on Donald Trump that they could use as blackmail," he told the Times.
#1
"I don’t think we’ve ever seen something like this," said Hoffman about Brennan’s public comments about the president. "Gosh, I can’t remember ever seeing an instance of this in our history where a retired director of the CIA went as far as he did."
It's not just the onerous, Deep State puppet master Brennan, it's Clapper, Hayden, and a number of other former directors and senior intelligence community wonks.
#3
Well yeah. They're fueling separatism and anti-togetherness. They don't give a shit if they hurt America as long as they get to take shots at Trump.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
04/06/2018 15:43 Comments ||
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[Breitbart] House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) is demanding that the Justice Department hand over an unredacted version of the document it used to launch the Trump-Russia probe in July 2016.
In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday, Nunes directed them to give the document, known as an electronic communication or EC, and other requested documents by next Wednesday.
He also threatened legal action: "Be advised that failure to comply in a satisfactory manner will result in the Committee pursuing all appropriate legal remedies, including seeking civil enforcement of the August 24 subpoenas in federal district court."
Nunes, in seeking to find out exactly what sparked the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign and the extent the infamous Clinton-funded dossier played a role, has sought the EC from the FBI since last August.
He subpoenaed for the EC on August 24, 2017. He said the committee was given a heavily redacted form. On February 27, 2018, Nunes requested Wray’s assistance in obtaining the EC. On March 14, 2018, the committee was given access to a still heavily redacted version.
Nunes said he called Wray the next day to tell him it was unsatisfactory. On March 23, 2018, the FBI’s Assistant Director for Legislative Affairs Gregory Brower informed the committee the FBI was refusing to redact the document, based on its supposed sensitivity.
Nunes rejected that argument in his letter, published by Fox News.
[ConservativeTreehouse] As CTH has continued to remind, on the issue of confronting China’s trade practices, President Trump will not back down:
WHITE HOUSE ‐ Following a thorough investigation under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) determined that China has repeatedly engaged in practices to unfairly obtain Americas intellectual property. The practices detailed in the USTRs investigation have caused concern around the world. Chinas illicit trade practices ignored for years by Washington have destroyed thousands of American factories and millions of American jobs. On April 3, 2018, the USTR announced approximately $50 billion in proposed tariffs on imports from China as an initial means to obtain the elimination of policies and practices identified in the investigation.
Rather than remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers. In light of Chinas unfair retaliation, I have instructed the USTRto consider whether $100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate under section 301 and, if so, to identify the products upon which to impose such tariffs. I have also instructed the Secretary of Agriculture, with the support of other members of my Cabinet, to use his broad authority to implement a plan to protect our farmers and agricultural interests.
Notwithstanding these actions, the United States is still prepared to have discussions in further support of our commitment to achieving free, fair, and reciprocal trade and to protect the technology and intellectual property of American companies and American people. Trade barriers must be taken down to enhance economic growth in America and around the world. I am committed to enabling American companies and workers to compete on a level playing field around the world, and I will never allow unfair trade practices to undermine American interests. (read more)
President Trump will not back down from his position; the U.S. holds all of the leverage and the issue must be addressed. President Trump has waiting three decades for this moment. This President and his team are entirely prepared for this.
We are finally confronting the geopolitical Red Dragon, China! My mutual fund investments have gone off-the-scale bi-polar. For some reason, however, I am more fascinated than panicked.
[Atimes] Officials have sought financial help from Beijing and Riyadh instead of the International Monetary Fund to manage the country's grim economic position.
Pakistan plans to seek financial assistance from China and Saudi Arabia to get out of the grave financial crisis it faces to bridge the country’s external account deficit ahead of budgetary proposals for the 2018-19 fiscal year.
A well-placed source in the Ministry of Finance told Asia Times that instead of approaching the International Monetary Funds (IMF) for a bailout, officials have proposed that the government ask wealthy friends such as China and Saudi Arabia to help Pakistan overcome its dire economic situation.
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Miftah Ismail confirmed last week that the government contacted friendly countries for assistance to get the economy back on track at a time when preparations are already underway for budget proposals for the next fiscal year.
Posted by: 3dc ||
04/06/2018 12:02 ||
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[DAWN] The Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) cyber crime wing on Thursday nabbed Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! a man posing as a pir (faith healer) for allegedly sexually abusing women and then blackmailing them.
A resident of Haripur, the man is accused of harassing women who approached him for solutions to their problems, the FIA said. He would then use the videos and pictures of the women to blackmail them.
Numerous videos have been found in the accused's possession, the agency said. He was remanded into FIA's physical custody for seven days by a local court after a case was registered against him.
Cases of fake faith healers using their perceived position in society to abuse, blackmail and harass women and men are not uncommon in Pakistain.
Last month, a 'faith healer' was arrested from Gujranwala for subjecting two minor girls to sexual assault.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Islamabad police on Thursday jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! a policeman deployed in the capital over charges of raping a female domestic worker.
On the woman's complaint, police registered a first information report (FIR) under section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC) and arrested the nominated suspect ‐ a constable stationed at Police Lines Headquarters.
The woman stated in her complaint that she was waiting at a bus stop on Wednesday evening when she was approached by a young man travelling in a car. The man inquired about her profession and offered to accompany her to his relative's house for some domestic work, to which the woman agreed.
Upon reaching the house, located on the third floor of a building, the woman said she was pulled into the house by another man who was already present there.
The accused, who later turned out to be a policeman, then started assaulting her and subjected her to rape, the woman alleged.
The woman, in a video footage recorded by news hounds, is seen alleging that the accused policeman was under the influence of drugs when he assaulted her.
According to the woman, the accused did not pay heed to her pleas to let her go. Eventually, she was able to escape the scene and run to a flat downstairs to seek help.
The accused policeman was arrested early on Thursday, while the woman was allowed to go home after a medical examination. The awaited report of the medical exam will ascertain if rape took place.
Since the beginning of 2018, there has been a marked upsurge in the reporting of sexual abuse cases across Pakistain. The brutal rape and murder of Zainab Ansari in Kasur earlier this year in particular shocked the entire country, with #JusticeforZainab becoming the rallying cry in a nationwide drive to end violence against women and kiddies.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2018 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] A mother of four was allegedly bumped off by her brother on Thursday in Mehmood Panhwar village near near Shikarpur, Sindh, in what police said they were treating as an 'honour killing'.
Muhammad Hajan Gadani, the SHO of the local cop shoppe, told news hounds that a divorcee, identified as Sheharbano, was rubbed out with a shotgun by her brother, Abdullah Panhwar, who was assisted by unknown men.
Gadani further stated that the victim had been divorced around eight or 10 years ago by her husband, who had accused her and a relative of 'karo-kari ...the Pak practice of murdering women on suspicion of having had 'illicit relations' with other than a close relative... '. However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... the matter had been settled soon after the incident and the victim had taken up residence with her brother, Abdullah.
However, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... the brother on Thursday murdered his sister due to "criticism of her character" by members of a rival group from the Panhwar clan, the SHO said.
Police had handed over the body of the dear departed to her relatives after conducting a postmortem examination at the Taluka Hospital, Lakhi Ghulam Shah.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2018 00:00 ||
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[Guardian] Humans continue to produce new neurons in a part of their brain involved in learning, memory and emotion throughout adulthood, scientists have revealed, countering previous theories that production stopped after adolescence. The findings could help in developing treatments for neurological conditions such as dementia.
Many new neurons are produced in the hippocampus in babies, but it has been a matter of hot debate whether this continues into adulthood ‐ and if so, whether this rate drops with age as seen in mice and nonhuman primates.
Although some research had found new neurons in the hippocampus of older humans, a recent study scotched the idea, claiming that new neurons in the hippocampus were at undetectable levels by our late teens.
Now another group of scientists have published research that pushes back, revealing the new neurons are produced in this brain region in human adults and does not drop off with age. The findings, they say, could help in the hunt for ways to treat conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s to psychiatric problems.
[AnNahar] Forty-three Cambodians deported by the United States arrived in Phnom Penh on Thursday, the largest batch yet under a controversial deal that enables America to expel legal residents with criminal records.
More than 600 US-based Cambodian convicts have been forcibly returned to the Southeast Asian country since 2002.
Many were war refugees who were raised in the states and now arrive as strangers in their homeland, severed from relatives in the US and unable to speak the local language.
Cambodia said last year it wanted to rewrite the agreement, which it criticised as a "double punishment" for deportees who are shipped back after serving sentences in US jails.
In protest of the arrangement, Cambodia delayed processing paperwork for returnees for several months.
But it began cooperating again after the US retaliated by levying visa sanctions against senior foreign ministry officials in September.
The new arrivals landed at Phnom Penh's airport on Thursday morning and were whisked away in police vans to an immigration department, a senior immigration official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
"They arrived at 7:45 am this morning," he said.
Later on most were taken to an NGO that helps provide housing and job support for deportees, known colloquially as "Khmericans", in Phnom Penh.
The group, which is the largest to arrive in one batch in 15 years, were flown in from the US in shackles, said Bill Herod, an American who works with the Khmer Vulnerability Aid Organisation (KVAO).
"It's been an unbelievably difficult experience (for the group)," he told AFP, slamming the repatriation policy as "unjust and unfair".
"These people don't have any real connection to Cambodia. Their parents are from Cambodia but they are Americans socially, they eat American food, they listen to American music."
Most of the Khmericans were newborns and toddlers when their families fled the Khmer Rouge, which killed or starved to death nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population in the late 1970s.
It wasn't until 1996, years after they arrived as refugees in America, that the US passed laws mandating the deportation of greencard-holders convicted of felonies.
Some are swooped up years after they have been released from prison and returned to normal life.
Over the past year US authorities have ramped up immigration raids under President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... , whose administration has taken a hardline stance on expelling criminals and undocumented migrants colonists.
#1
Big Surprise! Somebody does not want their criminals back.
And someone please tell the author that millions of illegal and legal immigrants arrive as strangers to America every year; evan unaccompanied children.
#2
Nevertrumper's are sh*tbags who figured opposing Trump would bring on their salad days. I hope Williamson gets to experiencce homelessness firsthand.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/06/2018 5:31 Comments ||
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#3
Yah, I heard over at Ace's the Twits were abuzz with "Learn to Code" and "Rent a Uhaul..."
#5
means learn how to be a data guru through writing computer code. Hottest job description on the planet and we don't have enough good ones. Example languages are Python, R, or any languages that deal with AI, machine learning etc.
#6
It means "Go try to join a sucky industry that practices massive age discrimination and fires everyone over 50 even if they do have experience, much less if they don't."
We have Borat Obama on tape saying he wanted to destroy all those industries and now cork sucking iceholes like Williamson and Sasse want to pretend it was part of a natural free-market process and the rest of us need to learn to adapt.
#7
Only if you plan on working in Shiticon Valley. There are jobs for tech expertise outside that exist. I found employment in Idaho at age 61. As we witness the implosion of Google, Facebook et. al, the 90-Day wonders in charge are currently experiencing maturity pains that only a significant work history can solve. No substitution for experience and attitude.
#8
> A lot of people there were really optimistic that the solution to technological unemployment was to teach unemployed West Virginia truck drivers to code so they could participate in the AI revolution. I used to think this was a weird straw man occasionally trotted out by Freddie deBoer, but all these top economists were *super enthusiastic* about old white guys whose mill has fallen on hard times founding the next generation of nimble tech startups.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
04/06/2018 15:39 Comments ||
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#9
Silicon Valley seems to have a hard-on for deciding that since they think certain jobs suck that you would be better off without them.
They also seem to be hot for the idea of making all vehicles self-driving and unemploying truck drivers.
Since losing my business and starting with my current employer as a shipping/receiving guy I have spent a great deal of time dealing with truckers. In this little backwater part of SW Louisiana, about 3/4 of the oilfield truck drivers seem to be black, and I think about that every time I see something about their latest self-driving-vehicle wet dreams.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[CNBC] Facebook has asked several major U.S. hospitals to share anonymized data about their patients, such as illnesses and prescription info, for a proposed research project. Facebook was intending to match it up with user data it had collected, and help the hospitals figure out which patients might need special care or treatment.
[EgyptToday]A round of discussions over the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan in Khartoum has failed, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the press on Friday. 
[Dhaka Tribune] Describing Islam as a religion of peace, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday emphasized the need for real teaching of Islam in the country.
[Michael Isikoff at Yahoo] A former top CIA official who served as the agency’s station chief in Moscow is sharply criticizing his former boss, John Brennan, accusing him of doing Vladimir Putin’s "bidding" through his harsh attacks on President Trump.
[DAWN] Islamabad police on Thursday 
[DAWN] A mother of four was allegedly 
[AnNahar] Forty-three Cambodians deported by the United States arrived in Phnom Penh on Thursday, the largest batch yet under a controversial deal that enables America to expel legal residents with criminal records.
