Weird News Stories

[Walsingham]

This is a serious issue and I wish to have more studies on it.

 

I concur.

[Raithe]

CNN - Unpain Interns Can be Sexually Harassed

 

 

 

Here's more fuel for the fiery debate over unpaid interns: It turns out they're also not protected from sexual harassment.

A New York federal district court ruled last week that Lihuan Wang, an intern at a TV broadcaster named Phoenix Satellite Television U.S., could not bring a sexual harassment claim under New York human rights laws because she was not paid, and therefore not considered an employee.

 

Wang was a graduate student at Syracuse University in 2009 when she interned in the New York bureau of Phoenix Satellite Television, the American subsidiary of Hong Kong-based media conglomerate Phoenix Media Group.

 

In a lawsuit, she said the station's Washington D.C. bureau chief Zhengzhu Liu sexually harassed her after luring her to his hotel room on the pretext that he wanted to talk about her job performance and the possibility of hiring her full time.

 

When the two were alone, Wang alleged that Liu threw his arms around the then 22-year-old intern, tried to kiss her and "squeezed her buttocks with his left hand." After she refused to let him go any further and left the hotel, she said Liu no longer expressed interest in permanently hiring her.

New York Judge Kevin Castel ruled that Wang can't assert these claims, because as an unpaid intern, she didn't have the status of an employee.

"It is uncontested that Wang received no remuneration for her services," Castel wrote. "New York City's Human Rights Law's protection of employees does not extend to unpaid interns."

 

Wang has since moved back to China. According to the ruling and a lawyer for Phoenix Satellite, Liu was terminated from his job once the company investigated the allegations. Wang and Liu couldn't be separately reached for comment.

 

The ruling comes at a time when a growing number of interns are suing high profile employers like Condé Nast and Hearst seeking to be paid for their work. Some of the interns have won cases or settlements against Fox Searchlight Pictures and Charlie Rose.

Working without pay, clearly, isn't the only issue. Interns like Wang have been filing harassment claims to no avail for decades.

 

In 1994, nursing student Bridget O'Connor brought a sexual harassment lawsuit in New York against a psychiatric hospital at which she interned.

Shortly after she started her internship, one of the doctors began referring to her as "Miss Sexual Harassment" and suggested she get undressed before meeting with him. She said the harassment was in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The court ruled that since O'Connor did not get a salary, benefits or sick time, she was not considered an employee and not protected under the law. A federal appeals court affirmed the decision, and threw out the claim.

 

Similarly, in 2007, Washington D.C. district court judge Ellen Segal Huvelle dismissed claims brought by an unpaid intern against a chiropractor's office, under similar grounds.

 

So far, only one state, Oregon, has broadened out the standards for harassment to protect unpaid interns. The state passed a law in June that extends such protections to all interns, whether they're paid or not. Attorney Lynne Bernabei, who represented Wang in the New York Phoenix television case, said there's a big hole in employment law that needs to be filled to protect interns.

"As young interns, these are the most vulnerable people and clearly they should be protected," she said.

 

 

[Walsingham]

*Wonders how fast he can arrange for an unpaid intern, and how to make the advert not seem like a trap*

[Walsingham]

Naked urinating airport man tasered.

 

Anyone else suspect that the tasering was just a wee bit to teach the disgusting bastard a lesson?

[Malcador]

Probably because they don't want to wrestle a urine soaked naked guy into submission.

[kgambit]

Probably because they don't want to wrestle a urine soaked naked guy into submission.

 

Well the article did say that he was "dry tasered".  Maybe he just did his best puppy impersonation and peed on the side of a plane?

[Raithe]

http://youtu.be/rDtFoPWBoLc

[Walsingham]

Living man "legally dead"

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24486718

 

If he's legally dead, would it be possible to prosecute someone for shooting him?

[Gfted1]

At least he wont have to pay taxes.

[Elerond]

At least he wont have to pay taxes.

 

Aren't taxes tied in income, so you need pay them even after dead if you still have income and usually it is also so that all your income and proberty belongs to your heirs (of course usually there isn't living deads to be considered).

[Amentep]

 

 

The ruling comes at a time when a growing number of interns are suing high profile employers like Condé Nast and Hearst seeking to be paid for their work. Some of the interns have won cases or settlements against Fox Searchlight Pictures and Charlie Rose.

Working without pay, clearly, isn't the only issue. Interns like Wang have been filing harassment claims to no avail for decades.

If you take an unpaid internship where its clearly stated to be unpaid...how can you turn around and complain you got no pay?

[Keyrock]

We Muricans infected Japan (and the rest of the world) with greasy fast food, now Japan does it better than us.

 

http://rocketnews24.com/2013/08/28/363013/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm about to have a heart attack just from looking at that.

  

[Raithe]

Dang, now I'm tempted to get a superburger from the kebab shop tonight..

[Lexx]

I think I am getting arteriosclerosis from just looking at the pictures.

[Walsingham]

Gods. Those formed 'pork rib' things. Can't remember the last time I even saw one.

 

 

Not sure that's food 'done better'. Just 'larger and more greasy'.

[pmp10]

 

 

The ruling comes at a time when a growing number of interns are suing high profile employers like Condé Nast and Hearst seeking to be paid for their work. Some of the interns have won cases or settlements against Fox Searchlight Pictures and Charlie Rose.

Working without pay, clearly, isn't the only issue. Interns like Wang have been filing harassment claims to no avail for decades.

If you take an unpaid internship where its clearly stated to be unpaid...how can you turn around and complain you got no pay?

 

For example because you are forced into extra hours not covered by the agreement.

To say nothing about different set of duties that consist mostly of manual labor.

[Hiro Protagonist]

"Living Ohio man Donald Miller ruled 'legally dead'"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24486718

 

A judge this week found death rulings cannot be overturned after three years. Judge Allan Davis handed down the ruling in Han**** County, Ohio, probate court on Monday, calling it a "strange, strange situation", according to media reports. "We've got the obvious here. A man sitting in the courtroom, he appears to be in good health,'' he said, finding that he was prevented by state law from declaring Mr Miller legally alive. "I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still deceased as far as the law is concerned."

 

The phrase "only in America" comes to mind. Heaven help him if he wants to travel and needs a passport – Passport page would need additional entries;

DOB – date of birth
DOD – date of death
DO reB -date of re-birth

 

 

Would this legally dead person be responsible for any crimes they may commit, would they have to pay tax? Well, I guess in the US he could not pay tax if he wanted to nor could anyone legally employ him because his social security number was cancelled. It's very interesting in the legal sense since he is currently not restricted by any laws due to him being dead but conversely he is also not protected by any laws due to being dead. It is not illegal to kill a dead person. Possibly they could be charged with interfering with a corpse but that is a minor thing.

[Walsingham]

I have given it much thought and decided that his only option now is to put on a 'disguise' and fight crime.

[Walsingham]

A yellowish secretion called castoreum is extracted from the animals' scent-laying anal glands, and is sometimes mixed into perfumes and stuff we eat. It's an alternative to vanilla beans, vanillin, conifer tree extract and other sources of vanilla flavour, and is "generally recognised as safe" by the US authorities. The arse milk is typically collected after skinning the beaver and drying out its scent sacs over burning wood.

 

Call me squeamish, but I'm rethinking my food plans.

[Amentep]

I have given it much thought and decided that his only option now is to put on a 'disguise' and fight crime.

 

As the Golden Age character, The Purple Zombie.

[kgambit]

I have given it much thought and decided that his only option now is to put on a 'disguise' and fight crime.

 

[Hiro Protagonist]

I've heard of outdoor pit dunnies being called the 'long drop' before but ....

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6c1_1381171219

 

The comments to the story are great.

[Raithe]

Just to throw in the odd article from io9..

 

 

io9 - The Backfire Effect shows why you can't use facts to win arguments

 

 

"Never let the facts get in the way of a good story" isn't just a maxim for shady politicians and journalists. It's also the way people often live their lives. One study indicates that there may even be a "backfire effect," which happens when you show people facts that contradict their opinions.

 

The study tested this effect by having people read a dummy story about a political issue at the time. One such story was regarding the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. People rated how politically conservative they were, and answered some preliminary questions. (Some of the questions were a bit extreme. The study did mini-tests to examine whether thoughts of mortality made people more fearful and nationalistic, and so participants were asked to "jot down" what they thought the process of dying was like. This writing exercise was not found to have any effect on people's responses afterwards.)

 

After their little essay on death, the participants were given one of two copies of a news story. Both had a quote from then-President Bush which was taken out of context and which seemed to indicate that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. One version had a quote from the Duelfer Report showing that there was no evidence of stockpiles of these weapons and no programs to create them. The other version did not include a discrediting quote.

 

After reading one version or the other of this article, the participants were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with a statement claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction prior to the US invasion. The people who rated themselves as liberal, left of center, or centrist, did not agree — and whether they read the correction had little effect on their views. The people who rated themselves as conservative did agree. And they agreed even more, when they read the article with the correction than when they read the article without the correction.

 

The study did a few other similar experiments, all with the same theme. And there were things that would amplify this "Backfire Effect." Participants in the experiments were more likely to experience the Backfire Effect when they sensed that the contradictory information had come from a source that was hostile to their political views. But under a lot of conditions, the mere existence of contradictory facts made people more sure of themselves — or made them claim to be more sure.

Everyone has experienced the frustration of bringing up pertinent facts, in the middle of an argument, and having those facts disregarded. Perhaps the big mistake was not arguing, but bringing up facts in the first place.

[Walsingham]

Really interesting, Raithe.

[Raithe]

Ouch. The dangers of social media and keeping an eye on your personal data I guess..

 

Open Letter to New York Comic Con - Protect Our Secret Identities

 

 

Last weekend at New York Comic-Con, a lot of attendees found themselves tweeting ecstatically about the convention — without having written those tweets, because NYCC had hijacked people's social media accounts that were linked to their badges. In this open letter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains why that's heinous.

 

Dear comic/sci-fi/fantasy/etc. convention organizers:

You may have read about the galactic frack-up at New York Comic-Con last week, in which hundreds of convention-goers learned that NYCC was posting hideously uncreative, gratuitously gleeful promotional tweets from their personal Twitter accounts. As a convention organizer yourself, these tweets and the subsequently trollful complaints may have filled up your feed. Nightmares of similar PR disasters may have (should have) have kept your heart racing as you tried to sleep.

NYCC attendees contacted us to ask what can be done about it, and that's why I entreat you today to think thoroughly through future attempts to lever technology against the fandoms, particularly when it comes to linking convention badges to personal data, including location.

Here's what happened, according to Polygon:

Within hours of the show opening its doors, members of the press, professionals and attendees discovered that their Twitter accounts were automatically sending out messages praising the show. Among those whose accounts tweeted without their knowledge were my own, IGN's Greg Miller, Ain't It Cool News' Harry Knowles, Attract Mode's Matt Hawkins and, according to Twitter, hundreds of others.

 

The pre-written tweets — more than 500 of them — were sent out on accounts shortly after the doors opened. They included the phrases "So much pop culture to digest! Can't. handle. the. awesome. #NYCC," "I can't get enough #NYCC!" and "So much to see, so much to do! #NYCC 2013 I love you!"

Unsurprisingly, fans at NYCC had enough of these promotional tweets as soon as the con started. Polar. Opposite. Of. Awesome. Apparently, when attendees activated their RFID-enabled badges, they unintentionally granted NYCC's organizers—ReedPOP—the ability to post tweets on their behalf. According to Kotaku (and others), NYCC has since apologized for being "too enthusiastic in our messaging and eagerness to spread the good word about NYCC," and shut down the program.

 

Being too enthusiastic is only one issue. Regardless of the messaging, ghost tweets are at best tacky, at worst creepy, and always unnecessary. If there's one thing you can count on from geek conventioneers: they will tweet like Judge Dredd drops bodies—without any help. Even more problematic is that if even journalists such as Jill Scharr, for whom words are their livelihood, were unaware they were granting that kind of authority over their online personas, then NYCC did not do an adequate job of making its intentions clear. As a result, NYCC has tainted the safe spaces that these gatherings are to many a geek.

There's another element worth addressing as well when it comes to safe spaces. Newsarama explained in detail how NYCC is using RFID chipped badge to ensure only paying attendees get in the door. The badges are designed to uniquely identify attendees and, according to NYCC:

That data collected through RFID technology includes, for instance, how many Fans enter NYCC, the date and time of their visit, the number of times they enter and exit and which entrances or exits they use. This information may be used for internal purposes to help make NYCC a better experience for everyone.

Social-media activation of the badge was optional; in exchange, an attendee received a bunch of free electronic comics and, in the words of NYCC, unlocked "a whole new level of awesomeness." But it also meant that a lot more personal information beyond your name were identified with the badge. While this year it was just about identification, a ReedPOP executive told Newsarama that much bigger plans are on the horizon:

"This year is about successful implementation of NYCC ID. Once that is done, the options are pretty limitless of how we might use the technology to improve the experience for our fans."

"Limitless" is not a word we like to see associated with locational tracking. There should absolutely be limits. Newsarama's piece discusses the possibility of 1-to-1 person tracking, a technology that could theoretically allow a controller to follow say, Stan Lee, as he makes his rounds along a convention floor. That, indeed, would be an astonishing development for the pop-culture-razzi, but only if Stan the Man agreed to it himself. And by "agree," we mean a fully-informed permission, not the fuzzy consent that happened this year with Twitter access.

 

What we don't want to see is massive tracking using RFID chips (or any other easily trackable or hackable technology) in badges, whether that's real-time tracking or requiring check-ins at every panel entrance. Obviously, these are very public events and an attendee can't expect a lot of privacy—they're likely to pop up in the background of hundreds of photographs posted to social media. At the same time, there is a certain anonymity in crowds, and it's an anonymity built into the culture of cons.

 

How many fans would steer clear of controversial graphic novels or manga tables (or even cheesy guilty childhood pleasures) if they knew someone was creating a log of every booth where they lingered? Think about the young LGBT artists who have yet to come out to their parents, but are finding the courage through sitting in the back of a queer comics panel. Would they still enter if they had to scan their personally identifiable badges at the door? Once you open the gate to this technology for third-party marketing, businesses outside the convention hall will be able to track your attendees. Won't that chill the tradition of proudly wearing a badge every moment, from the pre-preview night happy hour to the last after party?

 

And what about the cosplayers? What about protecting their secret identities?

Any good convention can be measured by the superheroes and supervillains, robots and road warriors, zombies and zoo animals, roaming the floor in elaborate costumes. While they're in uniform, these cosplayers shift identities and become Deadpool, Princess Breakfast, or a steampunk Dalek. And they should be able to retain those identities. They should not have to involuntarily wear a chip broadcasting personal information and they should not be tracked, which in itself creates identifiable data. At EFF, we've argued that, with locational data, whether it's license plate readers or GPS tracking, all you need is a few data points about a person's whereabouts to determine very personal things about them.

Similarly, if you have someone's name and a few places they were in a given period of time, you can easily determine that the magnificent Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is actually Alfred Merkowitz from Beatrice, Nebraska.

Some of this may be unavoidable as conventions, like all things, adapt and experiment with new technologies. However, as an organizer, you do need to self-impose limits. Here a few privacy principles you might consider:

• If you must log data on users to protect access to the venue, limit it to the entrance and exits, not to individual rooms or the exhibition hall.
• Allow users to register public-facing alter egos, whether that's the name on the front of a badge, or on the RFID chip or barcode that will be scanned by organizers and vendors.
• Do not use tracking technology, such as cell-phone pinging, RFID tracking, or facial recognition. Further, in your vendor/attendee agreements, prohibit third-party use of these mass data collection technologies in the convention center.
• No personal data should be stored longer than is necessary to provide the optimal attendee experience, with the exception of the basic details needed for registration renewal. If you collect location information for traffic-flow analysis, this data should be fully disassociated from identities of the badge holders.
• Be crystal clear in your privacy agreements and terms what you will and won't collect and how people can opt out. If a journalist misses it, you've buried it too deeply in the fine print.
• Avoid using technologies that can be accessed or exploited by third-parties with no affiliation with the convention.
• Again, don't post content through your attendees social media accounts. They're fans, not Borg.

As you move forward, you should ground yourself in the ideal presented by Alternative Press Expo, the indie-centric little brother to San Diego Comic-Con that also ran last weekend. No chips. No fake tweets. The badges were plain old card stock hanging at the end of metal beaded chain.

You can still have a convention at the cutting edge of culture, without bleeding your attendees' privacy away.