Interesting Links: June 14, 2019
A call for an auditable paper voting trail in US elections; Discoveries about microbes that live inside the Earth; CERN's Microsoft alternatives project; The reason why sneakers have extra holes; and drone delivery for food orders
Business, News, Science, Technology, or whatever gets my attention.
Straight from my RSS feed:
Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.
- A paper record for every voter: It’s time for Congress to act - In an op-ed, Tom Burt, CEO of voting machine manufacturer, Election Systems & Software argues for electoral reforms. First, he argues that Congress must mandate a more robust testing program; second he calls for a paper record so that every vote can be audited; and third he proposes to "build on the elements of our nation’s voting infrastructure that are working well." According to the op-ed, there are 10,000 jurisdictions with 117,000 polling locations and 560,000 voting machines. Noting that this decentralized organization is good for security, and that voting machines are already tested, he suggests that things would be even better with paper records of votes and national standard for testing. While Burt's arguments may be sincere, it's hard to miss the fact that the reforms he calls for would also erect barriers to market entry for potential competitors. h/t MIT Technology Review
- The mysterious microbes living deep inside the earth -- and how they could help humanity - In this TED talk, marine microbiologist, Karen Lloyd discusses the various microbes on Earth, pointing out that 40 billion tons of microbes live inside the Earth's crust. She points out that the microbes seem dormant in human time scales - many of the microbes have not undergone a single cell division since the time of the Egyptian pyramid construction - but there may be an evolutionary advantage to this extraordinary slowness. The talk includes a video recording of a Costa Rican volcanic eruption taking place in a lake full of volcanic acid, and she describes her discovery of chemolithoautotropes that convert carbon dioxide into carbonate material and lock it below ground.
- Microsoft Alternatives project (MAlt) - CERN began a project to reduce licensing fees by finding alternatives to Microsoft software in 2018. As part of that project, in 2019, they'll be implementing changes to email and soft teleophony infrastructure. h/t OS news
- The Reason Sneakers Have an Extra Set of Holes - To lock the heel and prevent blisters.
Here's a video:
In order to help make Steem the go to place for timely information on diverse topics, I invite you to discuss any of these links in the comments, and/or your own response post.
For example, feel free to comment on any or all of these discussion topics:
- Do you think that the emergence of blockchain technologies has any relevance to Tom Burt's argument for paper records of votes cast? If so, how?
- Do you agree that paper ballots and national testing standards are needed in order to improve American elections?
- What are your favorite products to reduce licensing fees by replacing proprietary software from Microsoft and other vendors?
- Have you received any drone food deliveries yet? How about other types of drone deliveries or consumer services?
About this series
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