Category Archives: Human Behavior

Freewheeling Uber faces major changes over "poor behavior" – CBS News

SAN FRANCISCO Uber grew into a huge company by operating as if there were no stop signs.

The ride-hailing service relied on corporate mantras that were used to justify "poor behavior," such as "Let Builders Build" and "Always Be Hustlin'," according to a report on the company's internal practices by attorney general Eric Holder.

Its board is cracking down, its founder and CEO is stepping away indefinitely, and the company itself is coming to grips with measures intended to reform its toxic culture and aggressive business practices.

And it all started when Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer, posted a personal essay in February that detailed the company's toleration of sexual harassment and discrimination. Had she not come forward in such a public manner, it's possible none of this would have happened.

"What she did took real courage," said Elizabeth Ames, a senior vice president at the Anita Borg Institute, a nonprofit founded to advance women in the technology business. "There are many women in companies and technical worlds (who) step up and talk about this problem. And often they are the ones that get tagged as being the problem."

Following Fowler's post, Uber hired former Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate her charges. His law firm's subsequent recommendations, released Tuesday, aim to fix Uber's dysfunctional management, which allowed the male-dominated ride-hailing company to grow huge without even the most basic procedures to prevent sexual harassment, bullying and other bad behavior.

Also on Tuesday, Uber founder and CEO Travis Kalanick accepted responsibility for the company's state and told employees that he'd be taking an indefinite leave of absence. The company declined to say if Kalanick's decision was related to the report.

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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has announced he's taking some time off, following the death of his mother two weeks ago. This comes as the company is b...

But Kalanick wasn't the only Uber official sucked into the vortex unleashed by Fowler's essay. On Monday, the company announced that Emil Michael, vice president for business and a close Kalanick ally, was also leaving. Then Uber board member and hedge fund partner David Bonderman resigned Tuesday night after making what he called an inappropriate remark about women at a company meeting.

The 13-page document from Holder's firm Covington & Burling LLP did not outline the investigation's findings about Uber. But its recommendations implicitly expose a startup-turned-goliath that permitted misconduct, had few policies to protect employees and ran with little board supervision.

The recommendations, adopted unanimously by Uber's board, show clearly that the company's next incarnation dubbed Uber 2.0 by Kalanick will have to be radically different from version 1.0, which flouted regulations, actively misled public investigators , and disrupted the taxi business to become the world's largest ride-hailing company.

In her essay, Fowler wrote that she was propositioned by her manager on her first day with an engineering team. She reported him to human resources, but was told he would get a lecture and no further punishment because he was a "high performer," she wrote.

Fowler did not respond to emailed requests for comment. But on Twitter , she called Tuesday's moves "all optics" and wrote that she has gotten nothing but "aggressive hostility" from the company.

After interviewing 200 witnesses, Holder had to make such basic recommendations as setting clear policies to protect workers from harassment, and that the human resources department get a better handle on keeping records and tracking employee complaints.

The recommendations "definitely paint a picture of a company that was out of control and pretty chaotic," said Ames, the Borg Institute executive.

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Uber's Chief Business Officer Emil Michael resigned after a series of bullying and sexual harassment allegations against the ride-hailing company...

Holder also suggested that Uber change its written cultural values to promote positive behavior, inclusion and collaboration. That means doing away with values that justified poor behavior, such as "Let Builders Build," ''Always Be Hustlin'," ''Meritocracy and Toe-Stepping" and "Principled Confrontation."

Holder also called for trimming Kalanick's job duties, shifting day-to-day functions to a yet-to-be-hired chief operating officer. During Kalanick's leave, his leadership team will run the troubled company.

Kalanick wrote that he needs time off to grieve for his mother, who died in a May boating accident. He also said he's responsible for the company's situation and needs to become a better leader.

Uber's board said it would review Kalanick's responsibilities and reassign some to others.

Ames said the recommendations were strong but indicated Uber had few policies, and the ones it had were not followed.

The board unanimously approved the recommendations on Sunday, including a suggestion that a senior executive be tasked with making sure they are implemented. Apparently because of distrust of some leaders, Holder recommended that care be taken to make sure the executive "is viewed positively by the employees."

The company released only Holder's recommendations, not his full report, citing the need to protect employees who complained.

Liane Hornsey, Uber's chief human resources officer who started in January, said implementing the recommendations "will improve our culture, promote fairness and accountability, and establish processes and systems to ensure the mistakes of the past will not be repeated."

Holder also recommended adding independent directors and replacing the board chairman, co-founder Garrett Camp, with an independent person. The board currently has eight voting members, three from within the company.

Uber was also advised to make sure its workforce is more diverse. The company's diversity figures are similar to the rest of Silicon Valley, with low numbers for women and underrepresented minorities. In the U.S., less than a third of the company's workers are female.

In addition, the report says that diversity and inclusiveness should be a key value for Uber that's included in management training.

After Fowler posted her essay, Uber Technologies Inc. made changes in human resources and opened a 24-hour hotline for employees. Last week, the company fired 20 people, including some managers, at the recommendation of Perkins Coie, which separately investigated 215 employee complaints.

Under Kalanick, Uber has disrupted the taxi industry in hundreds of cities and turned the San Francisco-based company into the world's most valuable startup. As of late last year, Uber's private-market valuation had climbed to nearly $70 billion.

Besides the sexual harassment complaints, in recent months Uber has been threatened by boycotts, sued and subject to a federal investigation over its use of a fake version of its app to thwart authorities looking into whether it is breaking local laws.

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A racy rule book for Uber that includes guidelines for having sex with co-workers has surfaced. CBS San Francisco's Joe Vazquez has more.

A company can be aggressive yet have strong values, said Joseph Holt, a business ethics professor at the University of Notre Dame. He cited Starbucks as an example.

"Having a good reputation for ethics is a competitive advantage," Holt said.

A culture change at Uber may be more difficult than Holder envisions.

At an employee meeting Tuesday morning, Bonderman remarked that if a woman was added to the board that there likely would be more talking, according to a recording obtained by Yahoo.

By evening, Bonderman resigned and put out a statement saying the comment was careless and inappropriate. "I do not want my comments to create distraction as Uber works to build a culture of which we can be proud," the statement said.

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Freewheeling Uber faces major changes over "poor behavior" - CBS News

President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration Posts – The White House (blog)

President Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key positions in his Administration:

If confirmed, Jessica Rosenworcel of Connecticut will serve as a Member of the Federal Communications Commission. Jessica Rosenworcel was recently a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission from 2012 until January 2017. Previously, she was the Senior Communications Counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, working for Senator Jay Rockefeller IV from 2009 to 2011, and Senator Daniel K. Inouye from 2007 to 2008. Before joining the Committee, Ms. Rosenworcel worked at the Federal Communications Commission from 1999 to 2007, serving as Legal Advisor and then Senior Legal Advisor to Commissioner Michael J. Copps (2003-2007), Legal Counsel to the Bureau Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau (2002-2003), and as an Attorney-Advisor in the Policy Division of the Common Carrier Bureau (1999-2002). From 1997 to 1999, she was a communications associate at Drinker Biddle and Reath. Ms. Rosenworcel received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

If confirmed, Isabel Marie Keenan Patelunas ofVirginia will serve as Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of the Treasury. Ms. Patelunas is an accomplished member of the Senior Intelligence Service at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where she has served since 1989. For the last 15 years, she has been in management positions at the CIA supporting the highest levels of government, including serving on rotation to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as Director of the Presidents Daily Brief staff. Ms. Patelunas previously served as Deputy Director of CIAs Office of Middle East and North Africa Analysis, and as Director of the Advanced Analysis Training Program. She has also served in leadership positions in the National Counterproliferation Center and the Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Office. She holds an M.A. from the University of Maryland in International Relations, and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame

If confirmed, Elinore F. McCance-Katz of Rhode Island will serve as Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use at the Department of Health and Human Services. Elinore McCance-Katz is the Chief Medical Officer for the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals. She is also Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University. Previously, she served as the first Chief Medical Officer for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). She obtained her PhD from Yale University with a specialty in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She is board certified in General Psychiatry and in Addiction Psychiatry. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, and has more than 25 years of experience as a clinician, teacher, and clinical researcher.

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President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration Posts - The White House (blog)

This backflipping noodle has a lot to teach us about AI safety – The Verge

AI isnt going to be a threat to humanity because its evil or cruel, AI will be a threat to humanity because we havent properly explained what it is we want it to do. Consider the classic paperclip maximizer thought experiment, in which an all-powerful AI is told, simply, make paperclips. The AI, not constrained by any human morality or reason, does so, eventually transforming all resources on Earth into paperclips, and wiping out our species in the process. As with any relationship, when talking to our computers, communication is key.

Thats why a new piece of research published yesterday by Googles DeepMind and the Elon Musk-funded OpenAI institute is so interesting. It offers a simple way for humans to give feedback to AI systems crucially, without the instructor needing to know anything about programming or artificial intelligence.

The method is a variation of whats known as reinforcement learning or RL. With RL systems, a computer learns by trial-and-error, repeating the same task over and over, while programmers direct its actions by setting certain reward criteria. For example, if you want a computer to learn how to play Atari games (something DeepMind has done in the past) you might make the games point system the reward criteria. Over time, the algorithm will learn to play in a way that best accrues points, often leading to super-human performance.

What DeepMind and OpenAIs researchers have done is replace this predefined reward criteria with a much simpler feedback system. Humans are shown an AI performing two versions of the same task and simply tell it which is better. This happens again and again, and eventually the systems learns what is expected of it. Think of it like getting an eye test, when youre looking through different lenses, and being asked over and over: better... or worse? Heres what that looks like when teaching a computer to play the classic Atari game Q*bert:

This method of feedback is surprisingly effective, and researchers were able to use it to train an AI to play a number of Atari video games, as well perform simulated robot tasks (like picking telling an arm to pick up a ball). This better / worse reward function could even be used to program trickier behavior, like teaching a very basic virtual robot how to backflip. Thats how we get to the GIF at the top of the page. The behavior you see has been created by watching the Hopper bot jump up and down, and telling it well done when it gets a bit closer to doing a backflip. Over time, it learns how.

Of course, no one is suggesting this method is a cure-all for teaching AI. There are a number of big downsides and limitations in using this sort of feedback. The first being that although it doesnt take much skill on behalf of the human operator, it does take time. For example, in teaching the Hopper bot to backflip, a human was asked to judge its behavior some 900 times a process that took about an hour. The bot itself had to work through 70 hours of simulated training time, which was sped up artificially.

For some simple tasks, says Oxford Robotics researcher Markus Wulfmeier (who was not involved in this research), it would be quicker for a programmer to simply define what it is they wanted. But, says Wulfmeier, its increasingly important to render human supervision more effective for AI systems, and this paper represents a small step in the right direction.

DeepMind and OpenAI say pretty much the same its a small step, but a promising one, and in the future, theyre looking to apply it to more and more complex scenarios. Speaking to The Verge over email, DeepMind researcher Jan Leike said: The setup described in [our paper] already scales from robotic simulations to more complex Atari games, which suggests that the system will scale further. Leike suggests the next step is to test it in more varied 3D environments. You can read the full paper describing the work here.

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This backflipping noodle has a lot to teach us about AI safety - The Verge

Iowa’s New Science Standards and Man-Made Climate Change – Caffeinated Thoughts

Stephen Berry of Iowa Watchpublished an op/ed that appeared in The Des Moines Register and Cedar Rapids Gazette. Berry, promoting the Iowa K-12 Climate Science Education Initiative, made the following statement that jumped out at me.

At first, people who reject predominant scientific findings that humans are the main cause of climate change may be glad that new public-school science standards dont require teachers to teach that.

But if inquiry-based teaching guides under development in the Iowa K-12 Climate Science Education Initiative are used, students may reach that determination on their own, educators say.

Berrys assertion is fascinating since the Next Generation Science Standards do promote theidea of Climate Change being caused by humans. It is disingenuous to say otherwise.

We see in the weather and climate section of the Middle School Earth and Space Science Standards:

Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century, (MS-ESS3-5).

The clarification statement included under the standard reads:

Examples of factors include human activities (such as fossil fuel combustion, cement production, and agricultural activity) and natural processes (such as changes in incoming solar radiation or volcanic activity). Examples of evidence can include tables, graphs, and maps of global and regional temperatures, atmospheric levels of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, and the rates of human activities. Emphasis is on the major role that human activities play in causing the rise in global temperatures. (Emphasis in bold is mine)

Then you look at the Disciplinary Core Ideas that support the standard, and we see:

ESS3.D: Global Climate Change Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earths mean surface temperature (global warming). Reducing the level of climate change and reducing human vulnerability to whatever climate changes do occur depend on the understanding of climate science, engineering capabilities, and other kinds of knowledge, such as understanding of human behavior and on applying that knowledge wisely in decisions and activities. (MS-ESS3-5)

Tell me again how the standards dont require teachers teach that Climate Change is predominately caused by humans?

In the weather and climate section of Earth and Space Sciences Standards for High School, the relevant standards are:

We see these two Disciplinary Core Ideas that support the standards above. First for HS.ESS2-4:

ESS2.D: Weather and Climate The foundation for Earths global climate systems is the electromagnetic radiation from the sun, as well as its reflection, absorption, storage, and redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and land systems, and this energys re-radiation into space. (HS-ESS2-4)

Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus affect climate. (HS-ESS2-6),(HS-ESS2-4)

For HS.ESS3-5 we see:

ESS3.D: Global Climate Change Though the magnitudes of human impacts are greater than they have ever been, so too are human abilities to model, predict, and manage current and future impacts. (HS-ESS3-5)

Then all one has to do is perusethe human sustainability sectionin the NGSSs Earth and Space Sciences Standards for High School. Then look at thehuman impacts section for the Middle School Earth and Space Sciences Standards to see an emphasis on human activity for climate change, as well as, a progressive bent to environmentalism.

Berry notes that when students read the evidence, they will likely come to that conclusion themselves.

They will look at facts relevant to those questions and draw conclusions that answer their questions, Ted Neal, a University of Iowa clinical science instructor, told IowaWatch.

And what if students look at their scientific data and then conclude that humans have not been the primary causes of climate change in the past century?

That is not possible, Neal answered. Because the data is so overwhelming. Out of 920 peer-reviewed journal articles on this issue, zero found that climate change was not anthropogenic.

Oh yes, peer reviewed, theres the gold standard. 21st-century science has a peer review problem that is not acknowledged by climate change advocates.

A recent Vox article (not a conservative publication by any stretch of the imagination) pointed out that peer review is broken and that peer review bullying can occur.

Thats not to mention the problem of peer review bullying. Since the default in the process is that editors and peer reviewers know who the authors are (but authors dont know who the reviews are), biases against researchers or institutions can creep in, opening the opportunity for rude, rushed, and otherwise unhelpful comments.

Alex Csiszar writing for Nature shows that peer review was troubled from the start.

Current attempts to reimagine peer review rightly debate the psychology of bias, the problem of objectivity, and the ability to gauge reliability and importance, but they rarely consider the multilayered history of this institution. Peer review did not develop simply out of scientists need to trust one anothers research. It was also a response to political demands for public accountability. To understand that other practices of scientific judgement were once in place ought to be a part of any responsible attempt to chart a future path.

Another recent article at the New Republic saysthat science is suffering as a result of problems with peer review.

The flaws in this process are evident in the climate change debate. Those who dont toe the climate change advocate line are often ostracized and even put their careers on the line. Climate science, unfortunately, has become hopelessly biased and politicized.

Unfortunately, as a result, students will only be exposed to one side of the debate.

Shane Vander Hart is the founder and editor-in-chief of Caffeinated Thoughts. He is also the President of 4:15 Communications, LLC, a social media & communications consulting/management firm. Prior to this Shane spent 20 years in youth ministry serving in church, parachurch, and school settings. He has also served as an interim pastor and is a sought after speaker and pulpit fill-in. Shane has been married to his wife Cheryl since 1993 and they have three kids. Shane and his family reside near Des Moines, IA.

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Iowa's New Science Standards and Man-Made Climate Change - Caffeinated Thoughts

New book calls for putting more humanities into economics – Northwestern University NewsCenter

EVANSTON - In a passionately argued new book, Northwestern University literary scholar Gary Saul Morson and Northwestern President Morton Schapiro make the claim that economics is missing its humanity, and economists must look to literature to make their research work in the real world.

In their book, Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn from the Humanities, Morson, an eminent literary critic, and Schapiro, a leading economist, argue that economists often act as if their methods explain all human behavior.Professor Gary Saul Morson (left) and President Morton Schapiro

However, the authors make the case that the humanities, especially the study of literature, offer economists ways to make their models more realistic, their predictions more accurate and their policies more effective and just. The publication date is June 21 with Princeton University Press.

Morson and Schapiro trace the connection between Adam Smith's great classic,The Wealth of Nations, and his less celebrated book The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

They contend that a few decades later, Jane Austen invented her groundbreaking method of novelistic narration to give life to the empathy that Smith believed essential to humanity.

Morson and Schapiro argue that Smith's heirs include Austen, Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy as well as John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman. In so doing, they suggest that economists need a richer appreciation of behavior, ethics, culture and narrative all of which the great writers teach better than anyone.

Cents and Sensibility demonstrates the benefits of a freewheeling dialogue between economics and the humanities by addressing a wide range of problems drawn from the economics of higher education, the economics of the family and the development of poor nations. It offers new insights about everything from the manipulation of college rankings to why some countries grow faster than others. At the same time, the book shows how looking at real-world problems can revitalize the study of literature itself.

Original, provocative and inspiring, Cents and Sensibility brings economics back to its place in the human conversation. The book has already received good reviews.

Publishers Weekly wrote: Insightful and compelling. . . .Morson and Schapiro succeed in finding new ways of thinking about big issues as well as new ways to read classic novels. . . . The case studies read like popular nonfiction. Theres immense joy to be found throughout this work on thinking with creativity and passion.

Robert J. Shiller, Nobel Prize-winning economist and author of Irrational Exuberance, said, In Cents and Sensibility, Morson and Schapiro argue persuasively that the vast intellectual gulf between economics and the humanities is a tragedy for all of us, since it compromises our ability to understand some of the most important trends of our times. The authors show us that this divide is not inevitable: they show steps to close it.

The authors have written a number of op-eds based on the book, as well as a Weekend Essay on LinkedIn.

In the essay, Morson and Schapiro, who have co-taught courses together at Northwestern, observed: After examining material from a wide variety of subjects economics, literature, philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, theology, evolutionary theory and urban planning it has become very clear to us that economics has much to learn from its sister fields. While we do not question the significance of economics as a discipline, neither do we question the payoff from a dialogue with other approaches.

Gary Saul Morson is the Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities and professor of Slavic languages and literatures at Northwestern University. His many books include Narrative and Freedom: the Shadows of Time, Anna Karenina in Our Time and The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture.

Morton Schapiro is the president of Northwestern University and a professor of economics. His many books include The Student Aid Game (Princeton University Press). Morson and Schapiro are also the editors of The Fabulous Future?: America and the World in 2040.

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New book calls for putting more humanities into economics - Northwestern University NewsCenter

Human nature Is crippling cyber security – ITProPortal

WannaCry, the recent devastating global ransomware attack, is now the largest of its kind in internet history. The attack has breached hundreds of thousands of computers in more than 150 countries, crippling a wide range of enterprises, from hospitals and universities to banks and warehouses.

In order to breach an enterprise, WannaCry and other forms of crypto-malware have been delivered in zip files, documents, or executables from the web, email attachments and on USB keys. Once WannaCry has infiltrated an organization, it moves laterally, holding computer networks hostage until a ransom is paid. I explained exactly how this process unfolded in a recent blog post:

The WannaCry crypto-malware variant uses the EternalBlue vector to move laterally in an organization. EternalBlue exploits a vulnerability in Microsofts implementation of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. This vulnerability is denoted by entry CVE-2017-0144. The vulnerability exists because the SMB version 1 (SMBv1) server in various versions of Windows accepts specially crafted packets from remote attackers, allowing them to execute arbitrary code on the target. To attack a target, the attacker must be able to reach it crossing the firewall. If a compromised computer has mounted shares or knows how to reach an SMB server, the attacker can use this to propagate from the compromised device to the SMB server.

While the attack is now largely in the rearview mirror, ransomware is still very much a concern among enterprises. WannaCry has created a number of lessons in its wake, and its important we take them into account in order to prevent an attack of this scale from happening again.

The first lesson is that quickly patching vulnerable systems is fundamental to stopping lateral spread in any organization. Next is that WannaCry, which was made possible by a leak of the NSAs hacking tools, served as the latest reminder that the good guys cannot keep vulnerabilities from falling into the wrong hands. But the most important takeaway is that humans will continue to cripple cyber security so long as it continues to play such a prominent role in protecting the enterprise.

Although Microsoft publicly released a patch addressing this specific vulnerability weeks before, the thousands of personal computers displaying the now-infamous red ransom script illustrated few had implemented it as instructed. (Of course, its not just humans that are to blame its the security paradigm. Windows XP users did not have this option since XP has been unsupported for three years.)

As I said in my commentary on the attack, As long as the industry continues to play this neverending cat and mouse game of patchwork systems, sophisticated attackers will easily find ways to exploit the public in increasingly large scale attacks such as this.

At Bromium, we released an industry study just a week before the WannaCry attack that underscored the point that humans continue to be the biggest threat to cyber security. We surveyed security professionals at the premier cyber security event, RSA Conference, as well as sec pros from the U.K. and U.S., and were shocked to find its not just unsuspecting end users we need to worry about, but those tasked to oversee the security operation.

We found that on average, 10 percent of security professionals admitted to paying a ransom or hiding a breach without alerting their team. This means that for every 10 individuals on your team, its likely that one of them has committed this act of subterfuge. (Someone might have even done it for WannaCry.) Keep in mind, these are only respondents who were willing to be forthcoming about their behavior if every security professional came forth about their behavior, I would expect this to be an even more alarming statistic.

There are several reasons why these undisclosed dealings are taking place on such a considerable scale. One is that ransoms typically arent that expensive. While paying $300 takes a cut of your checkbook, it is a small price to pay to maintain your professional reputation.

This leads into the main reason why professionals are hiding breaches: Getting owned is embarrassing. No one wants to face ridicule from co-workers or be reprimanded by their boss. But keeping these secrets from employers puts the enterprise at tremendous risk. Not only have you let someone into the network, but youve left a backdoor for the next breach, which is likely to be more complex. This finding not only speaks to the growing sophistication of cyber attacks, which are fooling those being paid handsomely to prevent them, but also to how we continue to underestimate the role humans play in cyber security.

he study also uncovered another deeply troubling finding: On average, 35 percent of security professionals admitted to bypassing their corporate security settings. No one is surprised when employees avoid security settings (at this point, its a given), but it is disturbing to see irresponsible decisions being made within the security department. When you cant trust whats happening on the front lines, it means the model is broken.

If there is one thing we should take away from the fallout of WannaCry, its that we are overdue for a reset in this industry. There is greater urgency than ever to map trustworthiness into technology, not humans. Cyber security solutions should eliminate human error, not enable it.

Enterprises need to embrace security that takes the burden off the end-user and ensures IT and security teams protect their business assets and data. Of course the positive corollary to doing that is end users go back to getting their work done without constraints placed on them by the security team.

While the potential losses from WannaCry are staggering, my hope is it will be a net positive for the industry that inspires sweeping changes across the board. Human nature is a variable that cannot be controlled, and as this episode demonstrated, it will continue to wreak havoc left unfettered. This attack should serve as a watershed moment that resets the security paradigm and actually embraces human behavior rather than try to change it.

Simon Crosby, co-founder and CTO of Bromium

Image Credit: WK1003Mike / Shutterstock

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Human nature Is crippling cyber security - ITProPortal

The case of the wandering stars – Republican & Herald

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Last month in Starwatch, I told you about the zodiac band that runs through the night sky. Because the Earth and the planets all orbit the sun in nearly the same plane, all of our fellow planets are located within it.

Back in the day, folks didnt know about any of this and saw the planets as wandering stars. In fact, they really didnt know what stars were, period. Most cultures saw them as being of a divine or godly nature. They saw patterns or pictures in the stars we call constellations, and observed them majestically slide from east to west night after night. Their predictable seasonal cycles through hundreds of years acted as clocks and calendars that helped them plan their lives. They were, and still are, infallibly reliable!

But then, as now, there were five stars that were mavericks or wild cards. Without a lot of rhyme or reason, they showed up every night in slightly different positions among the fixed stars. They would also switch directions and get brighter and fainter. Some of them even sported variations in color. They would also disappear from the skies for weeks at a time. Many cultures, including First Nation and Native Americans, saw them as greater gods and their motions and behaviors were signs of pleasure or displeasure with the mere mortals on the ground. Human behavior was controlled by these wandering stars! Drastic actions, including sacrifice took place, even human sacrifice in some cases!

Ancient Greeks referred to these independently minded wandering stars as asteres planets which is where we get the term planets. The Greeks, as well as the neighboring Romans, didnt see these planets as gods themselves, but named them after major gods in their mythology out of respect for their deity. It never hurt to kiss up! The Roman names of the planets have carried on to our present day.

The planet Mercury is named after the messenger of the gods because of its speed among the stars, just as the god Mercury was considered the first speedy delivery service. It only takes Mercury 88 days to circle the sun, flying along at more than 100,000 mph! Earth plows along at just 67,000 mph.

Venus is named after the Roman goddess of beauty and love because of its great brilliance in the sky. Little did they know what a hellhole it is. Because of a thick poisonous atmosphere complete with acid rain, the runaway greenhouse leaves the surface temperature hot enough to melt lead! Its not only not a beautiful place, its extremely hostile!

Mars is named after the Roman god of war because of its reddish tint. War meant bloodshed. Mars travels from its closest point to Earth to its farthest point from Earth in a two-year cycle. When Mars is far away its more of a pale gold in color, and when its closest to the Earth it turns bright red, symbolizing blood. Whenever Mars was bright red in the sky it was considered a warning sign of war and death. Mars was feared!

Because the planet Jupiter was so bright and stayed in one place among the stars for a lot longer than Venus, it was named in honor of the king of the Roman gods. They were right in naming Jupiter after their head god Jupiter, because its by far the largest planet in the solar system at 88,000 miles in diameter. The Romans didnt know that at the time, of course.

The planet Saturn was named after the Roman god of agriculture for reasons that arent all that clear. However, Saturn was also considered the goddess of time because it takes so long for Saturn to make a complete circuit among the stars. Saturn takes more than 29 years to make that journey, the longest of all the planets.

(Lynch, an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist, can be reached at mikewlynch@comcast.net)

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The case of the wandering stars - Republican & Herald

Human Behavior Creates Predictable Chart Patterns – Investing.com

It was an interesting week in the stock market, with plenty of fear and greed to go around. Same as it ever was, right? As we analyze emotions and behavior they seem to parallel the price action in markets. Excessive greed pushes prices ever higher, We saw new highs this week in names like Amazon (NASDAQ:) and Google (NASDAQ:), while all of the most prominent indices at some point hit record highs during the week.

As prices continue to rise volatility shrinks and the perception about market action becomes more 'predictable', and that could be troublesome. Anyone who tries to predict market action and behavior has certainly seen his share of losses - especially if it was down. Oh, we have seen downside over the years, but the longer term trend has been higher as the moves lower have been steep, sharp and quick.

As we analyze price patterns we see behavior show up in recognizable patterns. Let's study the chart of recent high flyer NVIDIA (NASDAQ:). This stock was the top mover in the last year, up a stunning 300%. Many believed those days were behind it and most likely the stock was going to head sideways for an extended period. The stock hit new all time highs last week and pushed much higher than anyone would have expected. But as we can see from the daily chart, at least in 2017 there have been a few interruptions, and we have just seen another if the previous pattern plays out again.

Earlier this year, NVIDIA encountered two nasty selling days on heavy volume, and as we would expect there was followthrough to the downside. These followed sharp moves to the upside. Those trying to catch a falling knife were bloodied and beaten up by not waiting for the selling to subside. Prices did eventually rise however, and this last move from the 102 area in May up to 167 was just stunning.

But look at the poor action June 9 and we can see the setup for more downside first before the stock may head back up. Clearly the fear was evident by the extreme selling and massive turnover. Higher price levels were rejected and when that happened the floodgates opened and sellers hit the bid very easily. This follows the pattern of behavior of sellers in previous price breaks, the odds and probabilities favor more downside here.

While the exact pattern the stock may follow is a guess, we can discern from the chart where support lies, at the recent breakout level, around the 130 price zone. This was a place buyers were aggressive. This would be about 15% lower than the close last Friday, and would be an area of interest IF price stops its decline.

Bottom line, follow the patterns of charts to key in on areas of interest, as these patterns are indicative of human behavior, fear and greed.

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Human Behavior Creates Predictable Chart Patterns - Investing.com

This Turkish Bioartist Creates Beautiful Maps out of Fungi – Labiotech.eu (blog)

Selin Balci uses fungi as a medium tocreate living maps that explore the complexity of microscopic life and its similarity with human behavior.

SelinBalci got a degree in microbiology from Istanbul Universityand worked in researchfor 5 years before turning to art. Her work combines her experience culturing fungi and moldwith creative experimentation to obtain colorful pieces that reflect the complex behavior of these microorganisms. The micro-world, largely hidden from sight, is alluring, frightening and beautiful, she writes.

Balci creates her living paintings by seeding colorful microorganismson agar coating on top of the canvas. This method lets her control the overall shape, but the final colors and sizes of each colony depend on the interactions among the different species as they grow. After observing the complex patterns they follow for years, she argues that their behavior is not much unlike our own.

Simple living organisms demonstrate all of the hallmarks of a complex and coordinated social life, Balci says. The diminutive life forms harmonize to create a colorful array of actions, counter-actions and conflicts where they mimic the human conditions of social, political, economic, and environmental concerns that have an effect on us.

With every piece, she experiments with the fungis behavior.I create competition for resources, territorial wars, and struggle for power and control among living organisms in an artificially created environment where all vital resources are restricted, she writeson herwebsite.Sometimes they eat each other; they grow on top of each other. They get angry. Other times, they keep to themselves, delineating a strict border between colonies. I find their behavior very similar to us, to humans.

All images via Selin Balci

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This Turkish Bioartist Creates Beautiful Maps out of Fungi - Labiotech.eu (blog)

Experts ponder moral vs. legal arguments with duty to rescue laws – The Advocate

New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski

New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski

Zucco

Zucco

Experts ponder moral vs. legal arguments with duty to rescue laws

Consider three scenarios:

Dozens of Facebook users watch a live stream of a girl being raped. A teenage boy lies unconscious on the floor surrounded by people at a house party. Bystanders walk by two men dragging an intoxicated woman down the street.

The common thread in the events besides all being true is that each had at least two witnesses. But the bystanders reacted differently in each incident.

In the last example, the people who witnessed a woman being led by two men down a Stamford street immediately called the police. The case, from 2014, led to the arrest of both men after police said they caught the pair raping the unconscious woman in a downtown apartment.

The partygoers who saw a 17-year-old boy lie unconscious in the second incident waited about 30 minutes before calling 911, according to police. The March 25 event happened in New Canaan, where police said the victim fell down a flight of stairs and hit his head, suffering a fractured skull and a concussion.

And more than 40 people watched the Facebook live rape - which occurred in Chicago - but not one alerted the police, who have charged at least two suspects in the March incident.

Although the inaction by the Facebook users and the partygoers raises ethical questions, bystanders of crimes or emergencies in almost any U.S. state have no obligation to report them under the law.

The general rule is that if a witness did not create or increase risk of harm to another, there is no legal duty to rescue.

Often we assume that theres a pretty good overlap between what the law requires and what most people think is the moral thing to do, said University of Connecticut law professor Sachin Pandya. This is one of the handful of areas of American court law where that is not the case.

In the New Canaan case, homeowner Douglas Knight was charged with interfering with an emergency call after authorities said he acted to prevent others at the party from calling 911.

The mans son, Andrew Knight, was charged with providing alcohol to minors and permitting minors to possess alcohol, but that case is closed and no one faces charges for failing to dial 911 when it was clear the boy was unconscious.

Ethically it would be ideal if everyone called and reported an emergency, New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said. Its not smart to allow someones condition to deteriorate merely because your own self-interest is in jeopardy.

The chief, who also has a law degree, said its hard to tell whether criminalizing bystanders inaction would be the best solution.

If you contribute toward the injuries, if you caused the accident, you could be charged, he said. But if you just happened to be a bystander, theres no obligation to call or intervene.

There are exceptions in some states like Connecticut, including for a class of professionals who are legally required to help; those with a close connection to the victim; and cases where a bystander voluntarily begins helping the victim and then stops or doesnt succeed, Pandya said.

If youre passing someone who is drowning and you think you can easily save them, the right thing to do is to save them, Pandya said. But for various reasons, the law has been, for decades, extremely reluctant to hold someone legally responsible for not doing what we would all think is the moral thing to do.

Only a handful of states Massachusetts, Vermont, California and Hawaii penalize witnesses who fail to be Good Samaritans.

Massachusetts statutes, for instance, would punish witnesses to rape, murder, armed robbery or hazing incidents who were able to report the crimes without danger to themselves or others. Violators face a fines of between $500 and $2,500.

Even if Connecticut enacted such laws, its unclear whether prosecutors here would bring charges under those statutes or if witness behavior would change.

Its hard to know if its mostly a symbolic act or whether prosecutors would take it seriously, Pandya said. It might be appropriate to hold bystanders accountable for not doing more when they can.

But its hard for me to imagine that a bystander who is not already motivated by what they think is the moral thing to do will act differently just because the law is different.

Krolikowski doubts Connecticut will enact a duty to rescue statute anytime soon, especially because most people do the right thing. And he noted that every town has methods for reporting incidents anonymously.

More often than not, people do call 911, he said. Its a rarity that people dont do it.

Ivonne Zucco, executive director of the Stamford-based Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling and Education, said victims are often among friends just moments before being raped.

There are other cases, she said, where someone is spotted slipping drugs into anothers drink at a party or a bar, but people in groups are less inclined to follow their instincts to get involved something known as the bystander effect.

Its a behavior highlighted by social scientists John Darley and Bibb Latan, whose work is still referenced by psychologists today. Their study showed that 10 percent of people in a group setting would report an emergency, compared with two-thirds when they were the lone witness.

Weve come to a point where everything is about rules and laws to manage human behavior, Zucco added. But the old values, when people seemed to think about one another, seem to be gone. As humans, these are things that we should be doing naturally.

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Experts ponder moral vs. legal arguments with duty to rescue laws - The Advocate