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Students cite privacy concerns, ‘risk of collecting biometric information’ New biometric palm recognition scanners in a Dartmouth College dining hall have prompted privacy concerns among some students. The “biometric recognition technology” recently was installed in all but one entrance gate to the Ivy League school’s Class of 1953 Commons dining hall ahead of the winter term, The Dartmouth reports. Instead of scanning or swiping an ID, students can use the new technology to scan the unique palm of their hand to record their entry into the dining hall and purchase a meal. One remaining gate allows students “to swipe in...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester City Council has passed the Good Cause legislation with a 7-2 vote. Council Vice President LaShay Harris and Councilmember Michael Patterson voted against the measure. Those in favor included Council President Miguel Melendez and Councilmembers Mitch Gruber, Willie Lightfoot, Mary Lupien, Stanley Martin, Bridget Monroe, and Kim Smith. The legislation includes an amendment from the City-Wide Tenant Union of Rochester that lowers the property size exemption. Only landlords with one unit are exempt from the new legislation ensuring protections apply to nearly all renters. Rent increases are limited to 7.7%. The move aligns Rochester’s Good...

Negative language can perpetuate feelings of doom. Don’t be a doomer. Individuals who are regularly exposed to content about global warming or climate change have reported stronger feelings of inefficacy or the inability to contribute to a desired goal, a study found. [More at link]

In case you haven't noticed, it hasn't rained in New York in a pretty long time. As nice as that might sound like, the environment—and, in turn, New Yorkers—are feeling the repercussions of the unseasonal weather. Following a red flag warning that lasted nearly a week—a forecast issued by the National Weather Service to alert the public and land management agencies about the potential for fires and rapid spread given the lack of rain and increased wind—New York State is now under a burn ban order. The statewide burn ban will be in effect until, at least, November 30. What...

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called on Senate Republicans on Friday to act as a check on the incoming Trump administration — a response to a handful of controversial Cabinet nominations announced by the former president this week. Jeffries declined to weigh in specifically on President-elect Trump’s list of picks, which includes two of Jeffries’s former House colleagues: Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), nominated to become attorney general and director of national intelligence, respectively. But he strongly suggested they, and other Trump selections, are unfit to command the agencies they’ve been tapped to lead, and he urged...

(CNSNews.com)-- The School Nutrition Association (SNA), which represents 55,000 school nutritionists nationwide, is pointing to data published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to draw awareness to the fact that “after 30 years of steady growth in the National School Lunch Program, student participation is abruptly down in 49 states."The nutritionists attribute the drop to new nutrition standards that were instituted by USDA in 2012.Total national participation in the School Lunch Program peaked in 2010 and 2011 at 31.8 million, according to USDA. In 2012, it was 31.7 million. But in 2013, it dropped by 1 million participants, to 30.7...

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Republicans on Saturday appeared close to clinching control of the U.S. House of Representatives, a critical element for President-elect Donald Trump to advance his agenda when he returns to the White House in January. With votes still being counted from the Nov. 5 general election, Republicans had won 212 seats in the 435-member House, according to Edison Research, which projected on Friday night that Republican Jeff Hurd had enough votes to keep Republican control of Colorado's 3rd congressional district. Republicans need to win six more seats to keep control of the House and they already...

There is a small Irish pub in a small lake town by me.The crowd is diverse middle class heavy Trump supporters.They have a touch tune jukebox there and tonight the playlist was full.John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom Huey Lewis and the News - New Drug Meatloaf - Dashboard LightSmack dab in the middle was Rush 2112I was suprised to see it there and I couldn't understand why someone would play it.2112 starts playing, it is all of side one.I. "Overture" – 4:31 II. "The Temples of Syrinx" – 2:16 III. "Discovery" – 3:25 IV. "Presentation" – 3:41 V. "Oracle:...

Though Republicans seized control of the presidency and the Senate Tuesday night, Democrats have held onto the prospect of a majority in the House—but now that hope, too, is slipping. While it’s still technically possible, the Democrats’ last-ditch chance relies on flipping a significant number of GOP seats in yet-to-be-called races in western states like Arizona and California, while defending most of their own remaining vulnerable seats. Republicans are hoping to maintain, if not add to, their existing five-seat majority. This is to say it isn’t looking good for Democrats, and Axios has reported that a number of the party’s...

Control of the U.S. House of Representatives could depend on the results of several congressional races in California that are still too close to call — and whose outcome could depend on the arrival of late ballots in the mail. California allows ballots to be counted if they arrive up to seven days after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day itself. That has left several races in Orange County and in the Central Valley hanging in the balance. Politico reported: Most pressure bears down squarely on the Golden State, where Democrats hoped to flip as...

Fox News just projected Deb Fisher beats Osborn in Nebraska. With Justice winning in West Virginia and Bernie Moreno winning in Ohio, this means the Republicans hold at least 51 Senate seats, giving them a majority.

The Pentagon nuclear command, control, and communications enterprise is decades old and desperate for an upgrade, says the head of U.S. Strategic Command, and artificial intelligence could help fortify nuclear C3 for its no-fail mission. STRATCOM is “exploring all possible technologies, techniques, and methods to assist with the modernization of our NC3 capabilities,” said Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton, who has led the command since December 2022. More at link.

Prop 33 asks California voters to make it easier for cities and counties to limit how much a landlord can charge a tenant for rent. The ballot measure would specifically repeal a state law that restricts the ability of cities and counties to impose rent control. Under that law known as the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, cities cannot set rent control on single-family homes or apartments built after 1995. Landlords are also able to charge however much they want when a new tenant moves into their property under current law. This will be the third attempt by renters' advocates to...

I posted the following message on my main page of Facebook, October 4, 2024. DEAR FACEBOOK FRIENDS, Most of you have not seen my recent publications on Facebook. Over three years ago Facebook began to totally block my publications if there was any of my web sites (links) included in the post. Recently I have discovered that if I include any link, even YouTube, my publications are greatly obscured and thus very few people see what I have published. (Note: When pasting this document into Free Republic, it seems that most of the special formatting is lost, such as bold,...

The FAA is reportedly struggling to modernize its aging air traffic control (ATC) systems, putting the safety and efficiency of the national airspace at risk, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). TechSpot reports that the GAO report reveals that 37 percent of the FAA’s ATC systems are unsustainable, while another 39 percent are potentially unsustainable due to factors such as lack of parts and funding shortfalls. Alarmingly, 58 of the 105 unsustainable and potentially unsustainable systems are critical to the safety and efficiency of the national airspace. Despite the urgent need for modernization, the FAA...

During Thursday’s executive gun control push, Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris shouted out “all the survivors we have lost.” She did this including her gun control push, which included calls for an “assault weapons” ban, universal background checks, red flag laws, and gun storage requirements. Harris named Natalie, a student who had survived the September 4, 2024, Apalachee High School attack, then said, “On behalf of her, on behalf of all the survivors [and] all the survivors we have lost, let us continue to fight to end the epidemic of gun violence and to keep our communities and our children...

As the energy transition continues, tapping into the reserves of critical minerals and securing their supply chains is crucial. For this graphic, Visual Capitalist partnered with Appian Capital Advisory to provide visual context to the top countries for reserves, production, and processing of minerals that are vital to the energy transition.The analysis uses data from the USGS and the IEA across four minerals: lithium, cobalt, natural graphite, and rare earths. Which Countries Hold the Most Critical Minerals Reserves?South America dominates the reserves for lithium, with nearly half of all known reserves located in Chile (34%) and Argentina (13%). Australia, with...

Food prices are climbing, but soon will soar — inflation is ensured due to recent massive spending. As Americans are pushed to consume artificial meat as a solution to the alleged environmental impact of cow farts, the government seeks to expand its techno-monitoring, in the name of “health and safety,” by requiring the RFID chipping of all livestock. The argument is that animal tracking will protect the public from an animal disease outbreak.This pretense to control all food production for health and safety is reminiscent of the argument that gain-of-function research used to create the COVID-19 virus was motivated not...

Vice President Kamala Harris’s latest ad touts her price control policy proposal, which has been widely criticized, considering price controls historically result in shortages of goods. The advertisement, titled “Focused,” hypes Harris’s plan of “cracking down” on grocery “price gouging.” “She’ll make groceries more affordable by cracking down on price gouging. And she’ll cut housing costs by taking on corporate speculators,” the ad vaguely promises.

Vice President Kamala Harris claims that she and President Joe Biden “got the COVID pandemic under control.” But a new summer coronavirus surge is sweeping the nation, especially in Harris’s home state of California. Last month, in introducing herself to campaign staff after becoming her party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Harris said: “Joe got the COVID pandemic under control. Remember those days?” — as if COVID were a thing of the past. The American Medical Association (AMA), via NBC News, reported Monday that coronavirus is surging across the country in what could be the “biggest summer COVID wave ever.” NBC added: