Why countries keep bowing to Apple and Google’s co

How Big Tech is dictating the terms of the coronavirus response to national governments - The Verge

Apple’s operating-system policy reportedly forced a change to a German contact-tracing scheme

Apples operating-system policy reportedly forced a change to a German contact-tracing scheme Illustration by Grayson Blackmon and Alex Castro / The Verge This story is part of a group of stories called The Interface is a daily column and newsletter about the intersection of social media and democracy. Subscribe here. On Monday the six Bay Area counties announced that they would extend stay-at-home orders through May, citing ongoing difficulties in preparing for future spikes in new cases. A prominent question as elected officials attempt to govern through the next several months is to what extent they will rely on technology solutions to help them identify possible infections. Over the weekend, we saw a variety of ideas on this subject begin to play out around the world. First, Apple and Google announced some changes to their collaboration on a system-level API for public health authorities, which will use peoples smartphones to inform them when they have been in the presence of someone who is later diagnosed with COVID-19. The changes are largely meant to address privacy concerns, but to me theyre most notable for a change in terminology. Instead of contact tracing, the companies are now referring to their project as an exposure notification system. I had previously argued here that Bluetooth-based solutions were unlikely to be effective for real contact tracing, which requires human beings to track down leads. But exposure notification seems like something these companies are well suited to do, and Im glad theyre now thinking about it in those terms. One country that has been persuaded of the companies approach is famously privacy-conscious Germany. Germans were instrumental in devising the (tongue twister alert) Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing project, an effort to do exposure notification in a way that protected citizens from their governments. But the project would have required operating system-level changes to Apples iOS by making Bluetooth available to public-health apps that sought to process exposure notifications on a central server controlled by the government. For privacy reasons, Apple said no, and now Germany has signed on with Apples system. Here are Douglas Busvine and Andreas Rinke in Reuters: Germany changed course on Sunday over which type of smartphone technology it wanted to use to trace coronavirus infections, backing an approach supported by Apple and Google along with a growing number of other European countries. [...] Germany as recently as Friday backed a centralised standard called Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT), which would have needed Apple in particular to change the settings on its iPhones. When Apple refused to budge there was no alternative but to change course, said a senior government source. (As an aside, the idea that we live in a time where Apple is telling Europe what forms of exposure notification will be permitted is basically the entire thesis behind / pitch for the existence of this newsletter. Not because I believe Apple abused its power, but because the world is still catching up to the idea that Apple and a handful other tech giants have this power.) England, on the other hand, has said to hell with it. The countrys National Health Service is developing its own contact-tracing app that it says will work even when it is in the background and the screen is off, a limitation that has stymied other such apps. The reason it is developing its own app is so that it can process exposure notifications on its own server the thing that Apple declined to implement for Germany at the operating system level. Heres Leo Kellion reporting for the BBC: Engineers have met several core challenges for the app to meet public health needs and support detection of contact events sufficiently well, including when the app is in the background, without excessively affecting battery life, said a spokeswoman for NHSX, the health services digital innovation unit. [...] It has opted for a centralised model to achieve this - meaning that the matching process, which works out which phones to send alerts to - happens on a computer server. This contrasts with Apple and Googles decentralised approach - where the matches take place on users handsets. The NHS says it will be easier to notify people believed to be infected using a centralized approach. Well see! Meanwhile, Australia says 1 million people have downloaded its own contact-tracing app, COVIDSafe, which also uses a centralized approach. The app is based on Singapores open-source TraceTogether app, whose effectiveness at exposure notification is somewhat under dispute. (Not least because only a small minority of the population is using it.) Western approaches to exposure notification continue to be rooted in privacy fears, but thats not the case everywhere. Last month, Israels internal service, the Shin Bet, was granted emergency powers to track confirmed cases of COVID-19 and analyze patients movements to aid in contact tracing. It reportedly marked the first time Israel had used technology built for counterterrorism purposes for civilian uses. But Israelis have their privacy sensitivities, too. On Sunday, Israels top court ruled that if the Shin Bet wishes to continue the practice, it will need to be explicitly permitted in legislation. It was a weirdly rare reminder that, while so much of the pandemic response has focused on technology on testing and tracing lawmakers have a role to play, too. The Ratio Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms. Trending up: WhatsApp has drastically lowered the number of viral forwarded messages on the platform. Earlier this month, the company limited the number of people a viral message could be forwarded to to just one, and now it says viral forwards are down 70 percent. (Neha Alawadhi / Business Standard) Pandemic Amazon is asking warehouse employees who have stayed away from work during the pandemic to return for scheduled shifts beginning May 1st, or request a leave of absence. The company offered unpaid time off without penalty for workers uncomfortable with coming in, but it only runs through April. Heres Matt Day at Bloomberg: The largest online retailer has been scrambling to deal with a surge in orders that arrived just as outbreaks of COVID-19 began to hit its ownranks. Some workers have said Amazon wasnt doing enough to keep them safe, cries that led to walkouts and protests rarely seen in Amazons workforce. Amazon stepped up the cleaning of its facilities and forced workers to keep their distance from one another. But many employees at warehouses across the U.S. stayed home, either out of fear of catching or spreading the disease, or to care for children unable to attend school. Some had hoped to continue to stay away until the pandemic recedes and businesses reopen. Amazon reportedly reinstated a warehouse worker who says she was fired after she stayed home to protect her kids from COVID-19. The company relented after roughly 50 employees went on strike. Amazon suggested the report contained misinformation without elaborating. (Lauren Kaori Gurley / Vice) Amazon is piloting the use of video conference calls to verify the identity of new merchants who want to sell goods on the platform. Its part of the companys plan to counter fraud without in-person meetings in the pandemic. (Reuters) Amazon is strengthening its position in the retail market in ways that could outlast the pandemic and raise antitrust concerns. Increasingly, manufacturers of in-demand products are catering to Amazon, while competing retailers take the leftovers. (Renee Dudley / ProPublica) Two US lawmakers spearheading an antitrust investigation into Amazon are looking into whether the company lied to Congress about using data on independent sellers to create its own products. (Makena Kelly / The Verge) A French court rejected Amazons appeal against a ruling that restricts what it can deliver during the coronavirus crisis. The news marks a victory for unions that had criticized the companys safety measures. (Mathieu Rosemain and Sarah White / Reuters) Last week, the federal government scrambled to stave off a potential wave of public health emergencies sparked by President Trumps dangerous suggestion that injecting bleach might cure people of COVID-19. (Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Lena H. Sun / The Washington Post) European Union officials softened their criticism of China in a report documenting how governments push disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic. The officials were bowing to heavy pressure from Beijing. (Matt Apuzzo / The New York Times) Bill Gates saw the coronavirus coming. Heres his plan to beat it. (Ezra Klein / Vox) A US Army reservist and mother of two has become the target of a conspiracy theory that claims she brought COVID-19 to China, despite never having tested positive for the virus. Its turned her life upside down. (Donie OSullivan / CNN) Instacart has turned profitable for the first time ever, thanks to skyrocketing sales. Demand for grocery deliveries is skyrocketing during the coronavirus pandemic. (Amir Efrati / The Information) Instacart plans to add 250,000 new workers. Its also extending the sick pay period for shoppers with COVID-19, and introducing new safety measures for workers, including an in-app wellness check. (Kim Lyons / The Verge) Trolls and bots are flooding social media with disinformation encouraging states to end the quarantine. The bots have helped stoke protests calling on government officials to let people go back to work, despite the ongoing health risks. (Thor Benson / Business Insider) Child abuse images and online exploitation are surging on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as tech companies moderation efforts continue to be constrained during the coronavirus pandemic. (Olivia Solon / NBC) While most people in the US are waiting for antibody tests to become available, some wealthy and well-connected individuals are already getting access to them. The vast majority of these tests been vetted by the Food and Drug Administration and are not guaranteed to be accurate. (Emily Mullin / OneZero) Doctors are becoming social media influencers as people struggle to find accurate information about the pandemic. But online fame comes with risks that are only heightened by the importance of their job. (Abby Ohlheiser / MIT Technology Review) Influencers are offering free money to followers as the pandemic continues to disrupt peoples livelihoods. While influencers typically frame the move as charity, its also a a savvy growth strategy. (Taylor Lorenz / The New York Times) Food delivery by robot is surging during the pandemic. It could accelerate a shift away from human delivery workers. (Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica) Lockdown measures have stopped many protesters from going outside. So theyre getting creative online. (Christopher Miller / BuzzFeed) DJs are live streaming sets to big online audiences as the coronavirus pandemic keeps people trapped indoors. But few artists are actually getting paid. (Shawn Reynaldo / Pitchfork) Virus tracker Total cases in the US: At least 977,256 Total deaths in the US: More than 50,000 Reported cases in California: 43,787 Total test results (positive and negative) in California: 553,409 Reported cases in New York: 292,027 Total test results (positive and negative) in New York: 826,095 Reported cases in New Jersey: 111,188 Total test results (positive and negative) in New Jersey: 227,775 Reported cases in Massachusetts: 54,938 Total test results (positive and negative) in Massachusetts: 244,887 All total cumulative. Case data from The New York Times. Test data from The COVID Tracking Project. Governing Nearly two years since the General Data Protection Regulation was passed in Europe, its still struggling to fulfill its promise. The privacy law was heralded as a model to crack down on the invasive, data-hungry practices of Big Tech. Adam Satariano at The New York Times has the story: But since the law was enacted, in May 2018, Google has been the only giant tech company to be penalized a fine of 50 million euros, worth roughly $54 million today, or about one-tenth of what Google generates in sales each day. No major fines or penalties have been announced against Facebook, Amazon or Twitter. The inaction is creating tension within European governments, as some leaders call for speedier enforcement and broader changes. Privacy groups and smaller tech companies complain that companies like Facebook and Google are avoiding tough oversight. At the same time, the publics experience with the G.D.P.R. has been a frustrating number of pop-up consent windows to click through when visiting a website. President Trump retweeted a gif of Joe Biden with his tongue out. On Twitter, people tried to claim this was a deepfake. Its not, and the distinction matters. (Samantha Cole / Vice) A young mechanic at a Honda dealership in Indiana was fired from her job after management learned she was making amateur porn on OnlyFans outside of work. Her boss said the account might encourage [her coworkers] to approach you with unwanted sexual conduct or comments. (Otillia Steadman / BuzzFeed) Chinese regulators ordered ByteDance to suspend downloads of its nascent Slack-style office app after discovering content from banned sites like Facebook and Twitter. The move was a blow to the startups broader internet ambitions. (Zheping Huang / Bloomberg) Industry Twitter turned off its original SMS service in most countries. The change marks the end of an era for Twitter: when the service launched, it was built around SMS. (Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge) Inside Magic Leaps bait and switch. The VR company raised $2.6 billion dollars, then laid off half its employees, while hardly releasing anything at all in seven years. (Jon Evans / TechCrunch) Things to do Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine. Find a COVID-19 test year you. AllClear is a new open-source project that claims to have the most comprehensive listing of testing sites in the United States more than 9,000 so far. Remix these public domain audio clips. The Library of Congress is begging you to! Watch Christine Baranski, Meryl Streep, and Audra McDonald perform Ladies Who Lunch on Zoom in honor of Stephen Sondheims 90th birthday. Theyre all great but McDonald goes truly HAM and its wonderful to see and hear. Those good tweets zoom calls are exhausting because actually listening takes half the energy of performing the act of listening Sarah Marshall (@Remember_Sarah) April 27, 2020 Whats something youre proud of about this quarantine? For me its that I never finished The Irishman Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) April 27, 2020 And finally... Commissioner Resigns After He Threw a Cat During Zoom Meeting Christopher Mele has a tale of what not to do at work during quarantine: The cat meowed loudly again. OK, first, Id like to introduce my cat, Mr. Platzer said, lifting it close to the camera and then, with two hands, tossing it off screen. The cat squeaked as it was being thrown, and a thud could be heard. Please do not throw your cats off screen when you are on Zoom! Honestly it was the only part of your appearance on Zoom that any of us were looking forward to. Talk to us Send us tips, comments, questions, and fan fiction about tech giants declaring themselves to be nation states: [email protected] and [email protected]

Facebook just killed its ‘pseudoscience’ category for ad targeting - The Verge

Facebook has removed the “pseudoscience” category from the list of options advertisers can use to target people, following an investigation by The Markup. The social media platform’s ad portal showed more than 78 million people were interested in the pseudosc…

For years, advertisers were able to target people interested in pseudoscience Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook has removed pseudoscience from the list of categories advertisers can use to target people, following an investigation from The Markup. While no longer available as of Wednesday, the social media platforms ad portal showed more than 78 million Facebook users were interested in pseudoscience, The Markup reports. Weve removed this targeting option to prevent potential abuse in ads, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed in an email to The Verge. Its curious why Facebook had such a category available, even as the company works to combat misinformation about the novel coronavirus pandemic on its platforms. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post on April 16th that Facebook had added warning labels on 40 million posts related to COVID-19. Coronavirus misinformation and hoaxes have been rampant on social media, including everything from lies about Bill Gates to false claims that 5G towers caused the virus. And overhyped cures and treatments have been a particular area of concern. Zuckerberg said last week that the company was adding a Get The Facts section with articles written by independent fact-checking partners debunking misinformation about the coronavirus and would connect people who had previously engaged with harmful misinformation about COVID-19 to accurate information. Among the new initiatives Facebook announced was a box that will appear for people who liked, reacted to, or commented on a post that Facebook later removed for misinformation, with a link to the World Health Organizations website. The new initiatives to battle coronavirus misinformation followed a report by human rights group Avaaz, which found 100 pieces of misinformation regarding the virus on Facebook were shared more than 1.7 million times and viewed about 117 million times. Avaaz urged Facebook to inform anyone who has viewed coronavirus misinformation on its platforms and tell them exactly what was incorrect. View all 406 stories

The iPad is still an iPad, even with a Magic Keyboard - Top News Headlines

The Magic Keyboard makes the things the iPad already does somewhat nicer. iPadOS remains the most enjoyable computer I use right up to the point where I need to do something complicated, at which point it becomes something else entirely.

Nice hardware doesnt change limiting software Im writing this newsletter out to you on the new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro. I used to not be able to write the newsletter with the iPad my process unfortunately involves dealing directly with HTML code because my newsletter provider hasnt seen fit to update its version of the CKEditor WYSIWYG since 2014. Now I can, and I think the reason why is interesting for anybody who wants to push their iPad to do more. No, the Magic Keyboard hasnt magically solved these problems. Instead, it has made the things the iPad already does somewhat nicer. The iPad with iPadOS remains the most enjoyable computer I use right up to the point where I need to do something complicated, at which point it becomes something else entirely. On a traditional computer, solving a complicated problem is a matter of searching around the internet until you discover a new ability or find a fix. It might be beyond your skills, but you rarely are stopped cold. On the iPad, the first step isnt necessarily looking for the solution itself, but looking to see if youre even allowed to do the thing you need to do. For me, it was inspecting HTML source code for particular elements on a web page, which Safari doesnt let you do. Youre reading Processor, a newsletter about computers by Dieter Bohn. Dieter writes about consumer tech, software, and the most important tech news of the day from The Verge. This newsletter delivers mostly daily, which nets out three to four times a week, some of which include longer columns. You can subscribe to Processor and learn more about it here. Processor is also a YouTube series with the same goal: providing smart and surprising analysis with a bit of humor. Subscribe to all of The Verges great videos here! By subscribing, you are agreeing to receive a daily newsletter from The Verge that highlights top stories of the day, as well as occasional messages from sponsors and / or partners of The Verge. Some of you are reading the previous sentence and scoffing that Id ever ask an iPad to do such a thing. Others are wondering why I dont just switch newsletter providers or find some other solution that gets around this limitation. All valid points, but Im obstinate. I have a process that works on Windows, another for macOS, and yet another on ChromeOS. I wasnt going to let the iPad beat me. But more to the point, Apple is obstinate in ways both good and bad. Obstinately refusing to just copy over all the stuff I think I want from a desktop operating system means that the iPad wont just get used like a desktop OS (which is what happens with the Surface). On the other hand, sometimes that obstinacy means its hard to know if the iPad will allow you to do something advanced in the first place. There are rules against apps running certain types of code, for example, which makes it a challenging device for app developers to use. Was my HTML problem one of those kinds of issues, or was it just something Apple hasnt gotten around to adding yet like when it added USB drive support? Apple's dropping new iPads with whiz-bang Lidar features and shiny new cases and all I want is an iPad with a proper shell where I can run homebrew, docker, python, cron jobs and the like. Jon Soini (@soini) March 18, 2020 I think the answer might be both? It turns out that there is a Siri Shortcut the system for automating certain tasks on the iPad that lets you grab source code. From there, it was a matter of teaching myself some Siri Shortcut methods then a lot of trial and error. I think hiding what is a core browser function on every other platform inside the iPads macro app is loopy, but at least it worked. What does all of this have to do with the Magic Keyboard? Simply this: I think a lot of the pent-up demand for it and its trackpad is actually pent-up demand to see if the iPad can finally be made to do things that it still struggles to do today. I reviewed the Magic Keyboard yesterday and I think its incredibly well-made. The trackpad has made manipulating text ten times easier than before, which has in turn made the iPad Pro much more useful to me in situations where I would want to use it like a laptop. But I never expected the Magic Keyboard to ...magically make some of the limitations Ive run into on the iPad go away, and neither should you. Sometimes new hardware, even if it has new features like a trackpad, doesnt unlock new features. Instead, it can just make your experience a little less annoying. As I noted in the review, I think Apple could have made different design choices that might have helped the Magic Keyboard do more than make using the iPad as a laptop nicer. I think it makes a better keyboard dock than a mobile keyboard case. For $299 or $349, I think you should get much more than a keyboard dock. Id like to say that another company will come in and offer something more versatile for a lower price, but I am not holding my breath. The lack of third-party iPad Pro accessories that take advantage of the Smart Connector remains one of the weird mysteries in consumer tech one that I think will never get solved. Verge Deal of the day  We usually reserve this spot to talk about deals on niche products. But its hard to deny the practicality of Ankers four-port USB 3.0 hub, which is $7 right now at Amazon when you use the offer code AKUSBHUB at checkout. Since Ive started working from home, Ive driven myself crazy reaching behind my PC every hour or so to swap USB devices. Plus, Im simply running out of spots to plug in stuff. With this hub, youll have a few more ports, and theyll probably be easier to access. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy. Prices displayed are based on the MSRP at time of posting. Gadget news Microsoft prepares to launch Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2. If these reports pan out, it could mean that Microsoft wants to take on the MacBook Pro even more directly for the pro market. HPs redesigned Envy laptops take a cue from the excellent Spectre x360. Samsungs Galaxy S10 Lite will launch in the US on April 17th for $650. This looks ... well this looks less good in the wake of the iPhone SE announcement. Apple is tweaking how MacBooks charge to extend battery lifespan. I love this because it lets me noodle on what symbols mean, my favorite pastime. Now the full battery icon in your menu bar wont mean your battery has the maximum possible charge, but instead the maximum charge thats less likely to harm your MacBooks longevity, based on your computers best interpretation of your recent charging and use habits. What amuses me is that I dont think the second one is more complicated than the first one, because semiotics. Id explain but my boss Nilay would take the newsletter away if I went on. LG teases new 5G Velvet phone with raindrop camera. Reviews The new Moto G Stylus and G Power are surprisingly adept cameraphones. Cameron Faulkner is impressed with the cameras in his review. At $250, youd expect a lot worse. LG V60 Dual Screen review: V for versatility. Chris Welch reviews LGs flagship. There really are a lot of unique things you can do here: Headphone jack! Dual screen! Stylus support! Its a list of priorities that other phone makers ignore though maybe thats because those features dont sell phones. But Welch says this thing has stellar battery life (at the cost of screen quality), and battery life is definitely a good way to sell phones. More from The Verge Fandango just purchased Vudu from Walmart to better compete against Amazon, iTunes. Walmart hasnt been the best steward, but it also let Vudu find its niche with premium video quality. Dearly hoping that Fandango and its parent company (which, disclosure, has invested in our parent company) doesnt mess this one up. Offshore drilling has dug itself a deeper hole since Deepwater Horizon. On the ten-year anniversary of the spill, Justine Calma looks at the current state of offshore drilling: Drilling at new depths unlocks untapped oil reserves and has become easier with newer technologies. But those opportunities come with greater dangers and less margin for error, experts tell The Verge. The lesson from Deepwater Horizon is [that] at the same time that the technology for extraction was progressing very rapidly I mean its quite amazing actually what theyve been able to do the technology for safety lagged, says Donald Boesch, president emeritus of the University of Marylands Center for Environmental Science. Lo-fi beats to quarantine to are booming on YouTube. Julia Alexander looks at a rising trend right now: Without a dedicated workspace, people find it challenging to get into a flow and are easily distracted, especially when surrounded by distractions at home, Pritchard said. The sudden growth of lo-fi live streams, in my opinion, is clearly representative of that struggle and people seeking to find means to get back into a productive workflow and really focus on the tasks at hand. How engineers are operating deep-space probes, Martian rovers, and satellites from their homes. Imagine running NASAs projects from a chat app like Slack. Must be a nightmare! Loren Grush looks into how they do it: Now, that entire routine has been moved online. She says she has about 15 to 20 chat rooms open for all of the engineers and rover planners not to mention telecons with scientists across the country. The level of intensity has gone up because youre kind of always watching things, Bridge says. Im also not exercising anymore, she jokes. I used to walk around, and now Im staring at a computer station for hours on end without moving. Microsoft launches Plasma Bot to recruit recovered COVID-19 patients to help treat sick ones. Sewer systems are a window into the coronavirus pandemic. This story from Nicole Wetsman is some good shit.

Watchdogs warn COVID-19 apps come with privacy risks to Canadians - Bowen Island Undercurrent

OTTAWA — Governments that want to use smartphones to trace the movements of Canadians during the COVID-19 crisis should handle personal information with care, privacy watchdogs from across the . . .

OTTAWA Governments that want to use smartphones to trace the movements of Canadians during the COVID-19 crisis should handle personal information with care, privacy watchdogs from across the country warned Thursday in a united call for caution. Privacy commissioners have been warning of potential risks associated with government COVID-19 apps since provinces started musing about the idea a few weeks ago. The apps work by keeping a record of when one phone gets close to another, and then alerting users if they've come into contact with someone who has a confirmed or presumed case. Alberta introduced its ABTraceTogether app last week, and New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador are looking at developing their own. "The choices that our governments make today about how to achieve both public health protection and respect for our fundamental Canadian values, including the right to privacy, will shape the future of our country," the federal, provincial and territorial privacy commissioners wrote in a joint statement Thursday. Federal privacy czar Daniel Therrien said the health crisis calls for some flexibility when it comes to the application of privacy laws, but there is a way to use technology to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus without sacrificing fundamental rights to privacy. "Everything hinges on design, and appropriate design depends on respect for certain key privacy principles," Therrien said in a statement Thursday. Therrien and the other commissioners said that while app developers need to respect Canada's privacy laws, those laws aren't always effective in the digital world. They released a set of guidelines for provinces, urging them to be transparent and accountable about how their apps work and what is being done with users' personal information. The commissioners stressed participation should be voluntary and users should provide clear consent to whatever they're signing up for. The apps should also be secure to safeguard personal data, which should be destroyed once the crisis is over, they said. Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said her team is keeping an eye on the apps in development across the country to see if one could be adopted at the national level, but privacy will be the main concern. "I think if there are certain tools that are better than others, that's the kind of knowledge that you want to share," Tam said at a briefing Wednesday. "Not just whether the application works, but all of the policies that go with it, like privacy, which I think is the most paramount of some of the policy discussions." The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta is already reviewing the app deployed in Alberta, and will be issuing recommendations to the provincial government. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2020.

Top Norris Trophy winners debated by NHL.com - NHL.com

The Norris Trophy has been awarded to the NHL's best defenseman since 1954. But which of the 65 seasons in which the Norris was awarded is the best? We asked seven NHL.com writers for their opinion.

The Norris Trophy has been awarded to the NHL's best defenseman since 1954.The names of the players that have won this award, which is selected in a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers Association at the end of the regular season, are legendary.  Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins won the Norris a record eight consecutive seasons (1968-75), and Doug Harvey of the Montreal Canadiens and Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings each won it seven times. But which of the 65 seasons in which the Norris was awarded is the best? We asked seven NHL.com writers for their opinion: [RELATED: All Norris Trophy winners | Top Conn Smythe Trophy winners debated by NHL.com] Larry Robinson, Montreal Canadiens, 1976-77 Robinson was all-universe this season, which culminated in the second championship of the Canadiens' run of four consecutive Stanley Cup titles to close out the decade. A member of Montreal's vaunted Big Three on defense, with Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe, Robinson equaled his NHL career high for goals with 19, and had an NHL career-best 85 points, 66 assists and 196 shots. And if you weren't worried about his offensive threat, finishing the season at plus-120, you kept your head up unless you relished being run over by the freight train wearing No. 19, which was retired to the rafters of Bell Centre in 2007. -- Dave Stubbs, columnist Bobby Orr, Boston Bruins, 1970-71 It's Orr, no question. You could pick almost any of his eight Norris Trophy-winning seasons and call that one the best, but 1970-71 was truly one for the ages. He scored 139 points (37 goals, 102 assists) in 78 games. He led the NHL in assists and was second in scoring behind teammate Phil Esposito, who had 152 points (76 goals, 76 assists) in 78 games. Orr's plus-124 remains tops among all Norris Trophy winners, with only Robinson (plus-120, 1976-77) coming close. Sure, Orr's Bruins were stunned by the Canadiens in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but that doesn't diminish his magical season. -- William Douglas, staff writer Video: Bobby Orr revolutionized defensive position Bobby Orr, Boston Bruins, 1970-71 No defenseman in history had more assists (102) or points (139) in a single season than Orr did in 1970-71. He holds five of the top eight single-season point totals by a defenseman and this was his coup de grace. But Orr was about so much more than scoring. He finished the season at plus-124, an NHL record that stands to this day. When he was on the ice, he dominated in each end. This easily was the greatest single season by an NHL defenseman. The numbers say so, and so did the eye test. -- Mike Zeisberger, staff writer Brian Leetch, New York Rangers, 1991-92 Leetch was the epitome of power and grace. No NHL defenseman has scored at least 100 points since Leetch had 102 in 1991-92. He is one of five NHL defensemen to score 100 or more points in a season and led all defensemen in assists (80) and points-per-game (1.28) in 80 games, winning the Norris for the first of his two times. The other came in 1996-97, when he scored 78 points (20 goals, 58 assists) in 82 games. A 2009 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, Leetch played 17 of his 18 seasons with the Rangers and finished with 1,028 points (247 goals, 781 assists) in 1,205 games. -- Mike G. Morreale, staff writer  Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings, 2001-02 The depth and breadth of Lidstrom's NHL career is a marvel, and I believe his second Norris Trophy win is the high-water mark that can match his revered seventh. Lidstrom won a personal triple crown in 2001-02, taking the Norris, the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. At age 31, he was in the lengthy prime of his 20-season career and already well-known for his ability to be the most efficient player in the game. He could play big and bigger minutes and still maintain peak effectiveness against the opposition's best. There's no better example than that season, when Lidstrom had 59 points (nine goals, 50 assists) in 78 games, playing 28:49 per game, then having 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in 23 postseason games, playing 31:10 per game. -- Tim Campbell, staff writer Video: Nicklas Lidstrom won seven Norris Trophies Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings, 2010-11 Lidstrom was 40 years old when he won the Norris Trophy for the seventh time in 2010-11. And it wasn't like it was a career achievement award, either. He was second among NHL defensemen that season with 62 points. You know how many NHL defensemen have scored at least 40 points after age 40? Nicklas Lidstrom in 2010-11. That's it. He also tied for fourth with 16 goals and averaged 23:28 of ice time in 82 games. Oh, and how many defensemen have averaged 20-plus minutes while playing 82 games at age 40? Yup, just Lidstrom. No other defenseman at that age has been that productive and that durable. Teammates and coaches nicknamed Lidstrom ''the perfect human,'' but seasons like the one he had in 2010-11 took it to another level. -- Adam Kimelman, deputy managing editor Chris Pronger, St. Louis Blues, 1999-2000 Pronger became the second defenseman to win the Norris Trophy and the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player in the same season, joining Orr. No defenseman has been voted a finalist for the Hart since Pronger won it. The St. Louis Blues went 51-19-1 with 11 ties to win the Presidents' Trophy for finishing first in the League standings with 114 points, an improvement of 27 points from 1998-99. Pronger was second in the NHL among defensemen with 62 points (14 goals, 48 assists), behind Lidstrom (73), and led the League with a plus-52 rating and 30:14 of ice time per game. -- Tom Gulitti, staff writer

Deadpool 2 production company fined nearly $290K by B.C. agency after woman's death - CBC.ca

The production company behind the megahit Deadpool 2 has been fined nearly $290,000 for violating multiple safety rules leading to the death of a stuntwoman on a set in Vancouver in 2017.

The production company behind the megahit Deadpool 2 has been fined nearly $290,000 for violating multiple safety rules leading to the death of a stuntwoman on a set in Vancouver. An investigation by WorkSafeBC identified a number of failures by TCF Vancouver Productions Ltd., a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, in connection with the death of Joi SJ Harris in August 2017. The agency says the company instructed her not to wear safety headgear while operating a motorcycle. Harris died after being thrown from the motorcycle and crashing into the ground-floor window frame of a building after she rode through the doors of the Vancouver Convention Centre and off a ramp placed on a set of stairs. WorkSafeBC says in a report issued last fall that among other violations, the company did not conduct a risk assessment addressing safety controls, motorcycle speed and equipment limitations. It also did not ensure Harris was provided with new worker orientation and adequate supervision for someone who had no prior experience as a stunt double in the film industry. "TCF failed to ensure that the workplace was designed with safety controls in place so that the operator or the motorcycle could not proceed beyond the perimeter of the film set,'' the report says of the woman it describes as an experienced racer.The report also says there were no barriers to prevent Harris and the motorcycle from going beyond the bounds of the set. "During this incident, the operator and the motorcycle she was riding left the perimeter of the set and narrowly missed members of the public prior to crashing into Shaw Tower across the street from the filming location.'' TFC was also cited for not providing documentation to show the stunt safety inspection checklist was completed. In all, WorkSafeBC concluded the company violated five sections of British Columbia's Workers Compensation Act as well as its own health and safety regulations. Neither TFC nor 20th Century Fox could immediately be reached for comment. Twentieth Century Fox said last fall after WorkSafeBC released its investigation report that safety is its top priority, but that it disagrees with some of the agency's findings. It said Fox thoroughly reviewed its stunt safety protocols immediately after the death and had revised and implemented enhanced safety procedures as well as enforcement.WorkSafeBC has said the Ducati motorcycle used in the scene is designed to navigate on smooth surfaces and some adjustments made to the bike meant it was a "poor choice'' for use in situations where it may fly into the air. The report notes that for the remainder of the production, TCF did not use Ducati motorcycles and operators in all motorcycle-related sequences wore helmets. The BC Coroners Service has said 40-year-old Harris, of New York City, died at the scene.

Watchdogs warn COVID-19 apps come with privacy risks to Canadians - Bowen Island Undercurrent

OTTAWA — Governments that want to use smartphones to trace the movements of Canadians during the COVID-19 crisis should handle personal information with care, privacy watchdogs from across the . . .

OTTAWA Governments that want to use smartphones to trace the movements of Canadians during the COVID-19 crisis should handle personal information with care, privacy watchdogs from across the country warned Thursday in a united call for caution. Privacy commissioners have been warning of potential risks associated with government COVID-19 apps since provinces started musing about the idea a few weeks ago. The apps work by keeping a record of when one phone gets close to another, and then alerting users if they've come into contact with someone who has a confirmed or presumed case. Alberta introduced its ABTraceTogether app last week, and New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador are looking at developing their own. "The choices that our governments make today about how to achieve both public health protection and respect for our fundamental Canadian values, including the right to privacy, will shape the future of our country," the federal, provincial and territorial privacy commissioners wrote in a joint statement Thursday. Federal privacy czar Daniel Therrien said the health crisis calls for some flexibility when it comes to the application of privacy laws, but there is a way to use technology to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus without sacrificing fundamental rights to privacy. "Everything hinges on design, and appropriate design depends on respect for certain key privacy principles," Therrien said in a statement Thursday. Therrien and the other commissioners said that while app developers need to respect Canada's privacy laws, those laws aren't always effective in the digital world. They released a set of guidelines for provinces, urging them to be transparent and accountable about how their apps work and what is being done with users' personal information. The commissioners stressed participation should be voluntary and users should provide clear consent to whatever they're signing up for. The apps should also be secure to safeguard personal data, which should be destroyed once the crisis is over, they said. Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said her team is keeping an eye on the apps in development across the country to see if one could be adopted at the national level, but privacy will be the main concern. "I think if there are certain tools that are better than others, that's the kind of knowledge that you want to share," Tam said at a briefing Wednesday. "Not just whether the application works, but all of the policies that go with it, like privacy, which I think is the most paramount of some of the policy discussions." The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta is already reviewing the app deployed in Alberta, and will be issuing recommendations to the provincial government. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 7, 2020.

Kelly Khumalo opens up on ‘divorce’ from sis Zandile: It’s gone legal - Briefly.co.za

Kelly Khumalo recently opened up about the ongoing sibling rivalry she has with her sister Zandile – it’s gone legal. Sibling rivalries are never easy or nice.

- Kelly Khumalo recently sat down with Afternoon Express and opened up about a few pressing matters - She explained that the matter with her sister Zandile and ex-husband Mhlo was being handled by lawyers and that things had escalated - Another thing Kelly touched on was her apparent Covid-19 meltdown, stating it was a divine calling PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! Kelly Khumalo recently opened up about the ongoing sibling rivalry she has with her sister Zandile its gone legal. It is never nice to fight with family, especially siblings. Your siblings are meant to be lifelong friends, not enemies. Briefly.co.za knows that Kelly and Zandiles drama stems from apparent claims Kelly made about her ex-husband, Mhlo Gumede. Kelly distanced herself from Mhlo after he was involved in a scam, then Zandile took Mhlos side and kicked her sister to the curb. Sitting down with Afternoon Express, Kelly explained that the matter was being handled by lawyers and that things had escalated. Kelly has no time for those who do not choose her. Family or not, if you not going to have her back, Kelly has no time for you. READ ALSO: Mzansi Magics KwaMamkhize totally obliterates viewer ratings Honestly, I am at peace with it. I am that one person who moved on when it is time to move on, whether you are family or not. When it is time to move on, it is time to move on. Another thing Kelly touched on was her apparent Covid-19 meltdown. Kelly made it clear that she was crying for the country and its people, not herself. Being in tune with her spiritual side, Kelly said a voice told her to feel the pain of her people and pray. It was not even me. If you know me very well, you would know that I am a very spiritual person and I have a gift, in terms of spirituality. I see things. I feel things. With so much that we are going through as a nation, I felt all sorts of things. One voice that was loud to me was to ask people, plead with people, to pray and tell God exactly what we want from this situation, because he is the only person who can put an end to this. Here is the clip from the show: Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news!

Remembering humanity's triumph over a virus, 40 years on - Medical Xpress

As scientists scramble for a COVID-19 cure and vaccine, the world marks on Friday a pertinent anniversary: humanity's only true triumph over an infectious disease with its eradication of smallpox four decades ago.

As scientists scramble for a COVID-19 cure and vaccine, the world marks on Friday a pertinent anniversary: humanity's only true triumph over an infectious disease with its eradication of smallpox four decades ago. On May 8, 1980, representatives of all World Health Organization (WHO) member states gathered in Geneva and officially declared that the smallpox-causing variola virus had been relegated to the history books, two centuries after the discovery of a vaccine. Smallpox is a highly contagious disease that was transmitted via droplets during close contact with other people or contaminated objects, sparking high fever and a rash that left survivors permanently disfigured and often blind. But many did not survive. The virus killed up to 30 percent of all those infected and is estimated to have killed more than 300 million people in the 20th century alone. Smallpox is thought to have existed for thousands of years, with the earliest documented evidence of the vesicular skin lesions believed to be caused by the disease discovered on the mummy of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V. The devastating disease was also the target of the world's first vaccine, discovered by scientist and physician Edward Jenner in 1796. 'Public will' But the idea of fully eradicating smallpox only emerged nearly two centuries later, in 1958, amid a "momentary 'detente' between the Russians and Americans", US epidemiologist Larry Brilliant told AFP. At a time when smallpox remained endemic in more than 30 countries and was still killing more than two million people annually, the Soviets proposed to show what global cooperation is good for and eradicate the disease. They made the proposal during a meeting of the WHO's annual assembly. "Immediately America agreed," Brilliant said, juxtaposing the leadership and international cooperation seen back then, during the Cold War, to the "nationalism" colouring the current response to the novel coronavirus. "There was public will," he said. Four decades later, as the world reels from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, decision-makers should look to the tireless efforts to isolate those infected with smallpox and trace their contacts for inspiration, said Rosamund Lewis, in charge of the smallpox file at the WHO. Lessons for COVID-19 response "We can learn a lot from smallpox for the COVID response," she told AFP. The WHO initially did not have the funds needed to get to work seriously on rooting out smallpox, but when it finally launched the global eradication campaign in 1967, experts "went door-to-door" to find infected people, she said. She lamented that it had taken too long for many countries to realise the importance of this basic public health "weapon" against COVID-19, as it has spread worldwide, killing more than 260,000 people in a matter of months. Experts stress that contact-tracing will be of vital importance until a vaccine against the new virus is developed and availablesomething expected to take at least a year. The discovery of the smallpox vaccine nearly a quarter of a millennium ago was a "principle element of the victory" against the disease, Angela Teresa Ciuffi, a microbiology professor at Lausanne University, told AFP. Jenner came up with the idea for a vaccine after observing that milkmaids who previously caught cowpox did not catch smallpox, and used the usually fairly harmless virus to immunise against the far more deadly disease. Before the emergence of the vaccine, people engaged in inoculation to immunise against smallpox, inserting powdered smallpox scabs or fluid from a patient into superficial scratches made in the skin, in the hope it would produce a mild but protective infection. While this process did have an immunising effect, "the inconvenience was that it allowed smallpox to circulate," said Anne-Marie Moulin, head of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Improvements to the vaccine, including the abolishment of the need for refrigeration, greatly increased its access and availability and paved the way for the eradication campaigns to come. After a decade-long major push, the last known naturally occurring case of smallpox was seen in Somalia in 1977. A year later, however, a British medical photographer working near a smallpox research lab became infected and died. Bioterrorism threat? Since then, a global debate has raged over whether or not variola virus samples should be destroyed. Only two places in the world are authorised to keep samples of smallpox: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in the United States, and the State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology (VECTOR) in Novosibirsk, Russia. Washington and Moscow have long maintained the importance of retaining the samples for research purposes. But decades after its eradication, the threat of smallpox still looms large, with fears that the remaining virus samples could pose a bioterrorism threat swelling since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Compared to smallpox, "COVID-19 is just a training exercise", David Evans, a virologist at the University of Alberta in Canada, told AFP. If ever reintroduced, "smallpox could be devastating in the first weeks when entering a world of largely immunologically naive persons," warned Rosine Ehmann of the Institute of Microbiology from the German Forces. "COVID-19 has illustrated how long it can take for public health systems to activate their logistics and crisis intervention management," she told AFP. © 2020 AFP Citation: Remembering humanity's triumph over a virus, 40 years on (2020, May 8) retrieved 8 May 2020 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-humanity-triumph-virus-years.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.