Summer bug laid me up. I’m indulging in the audio equivalent of tea with honey, lemon, and a shot of something to scare away the bug. A little cello playing by Yo-Yo Ma never fails to make me feel better.
This sweet video is enlightening, didn’t realize Ma had an older sister who was an accomplished musician at a tender age. Worthwhile to watch this week considering the blizzard of arguments about immigrants and refugees here and abroad.
And then for good measure, a second favorite added in the mix — Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman together, performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto Fantasy.
There. I feel a little better already.
Probably better than frustrated House Democrats led by Rep. John Lewis who are engaging in a sit-in protest on House floor demanding a vote on No-Fly-No-Buy gun control. If you want to watch the action, you’ll have to check social media. It’s said House GOP leadership ensured CSPAN cameras were shut off.
Diesel do you
- Volkswagen streamlining offerings to cut costs, 40 makes on the chopping block (Bloomberg) — This is the old General Motors play that eventually killed Oldsmobile and Pontiac to reduce costs related to duplicative brands. Makes sense, especially if this hatchet job kills passenger diesels. Note the story says a fix may come later — uh-huh, like never? Because VW can’t handle the volume of required repairs OR the lack of actual clean diesel technology, OR both?
- Testimony in S Korea: VW’s upper management may have ordered regulatory cheats (The Hankyoreh) — Story is focused on emissions controls defeat and approval process, but sound controls were also an issue in South Korea. Were those likewise suppressed by order of VW’s German head office?
- Former CEO under investigation for securities fraud (Reuters) — Big investors want to know why it took a year for Winterkorn to act after the emissions controls defeat were made public by researchers. Bet there’s a link between Winterkorn’s notification of researchers’ findings and the destruction of emails.
Sigh, cyber, sigh
- Why the hell is PayPal asking a German cloud service provider to monitor its customers? (Fortune) — Seafile ditched PayPal as a payment service provider after PayPal insisted Seafile must monitor its users’ files. That’s a violation of German privacy laws. But why did PayPal ask this in the first place? The argument about illicit file sharing is a stretch.
- Google’s rolling out an easier Two-Factor Authentication tool (Google Apps Updates Blog) — Google’s enterprise users will see this first, but all Google users should expect new prompts on the desktop and new apps using this new 2FA system. This should replace the 6-digit text message codes as well as verification codes.
- Facebook’s ethical decision process for research projects still iffy (The Chronicle of Higher Education) — If you can’t release all the details of the deliberative process, it looks pretty shady. What compromises were made? What points weren’t covered or ignored? Who knows?
- Toothpic technology designed to detect photo theft (PetaPixel) — But the same well-meaning technology is based on fingerprinting a camera, identifying the user by camera. So much for privacy.
Wait, what?
Did you know Led Zeppelin is being sued over Stairway to Heaven? Allegedly a key riff in the famous 40-year-old tune was stolen, violating copyright. Forty years. ~smh~
Going back to a recumbent position. Stay braced for the outcome of the sit-in and Brexit vote tomorrow.