Less than a week after Liberty University announced and enacted a temporary campus-wide quarantine amid rising infections, the school is reporting a sharp surge in positive COVID-19 cases and offering free vaccinations. The private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia last week ordered a campus-wide quarantine from Aug. 30 to Sept. 10. Prior to the fall semester beginning on Aug. 24, the school did not have a mask or vaccine mandate in place. Liberty’s COVID-19 dashboard on… Source link
Read More »Google allegedly offered Netflix a break on the usual Play Store commission
An antitrust lawsuit filed against Google and its Play Store by several state attorneys general echoed the Epic vs. Apple battle, and a new document highlights how and why Google’s app store is so similar. MLex senior correspondent Michael Acton points out the new complaint, which arrived Friday night from lawyers appointed to represent consumers (that’s us) in a potential class-action lawsuit that joins the states and Epic Games in accusing Google of abusing its monopoly power and of… Source link
Read More »Lower 15% Google Play fee offered for Wear OS, Android Auto integrations
Google is offering Android app developers a lowered Google Play commission rate if they agree to add deeper integration for Google platforms like WearOS and Android Auto in their apps. Like Apple’s App Store, Google charges a 30% commission fee for transactions in the Google Play Store. While it has already announced one program to reduce the fee for some developers, it has introduced a second that could make the change more permanent for larger apps. Called the Play Media Experience… Source link
Read More »Ja Morant’s family offered courtside seats from Jazz
Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith has offered a premium package for friends and family of Ja Morant to attend Wednesday’s Game 5 against the Memphis Grizzlies in Salt Lake City. Morant’s father, Tee Morant, and others are taking Smith up on the offer. His mother, Jamie Morant, is not. She’ll remain in Memphis to watch the game on TV. “She said her anxiety couldn’t take it,” Tee Morant told ESPN on Tuesday. Ja Morant’s family was targeted with abusive language Smith made the offer after Morant’s… Source link
Read More »Google offered a professor $60,000, but he turned it down. Here’s why
When Luke Stark sought money from Google in November he had no idea he’d be turning down $60,000 from the tech giant in March. Stark, an assistant professor at Western University in Ontario, Canada, studies the social and ethical impacts of artificial intelligence. In late November, he applied for a Google Research Scholar award, a no-strings-attached research grant of up to $60,000 to support professors who are early in their careers. He put in for the award, he said,… Source link
Read More »Google offered a professor $60,000, but he turned it down. Here’s why
He put in for the award, he said, “because of my sense at the time that Google was building a really strong, potentially industry-leading ethical AI team.” Soon after, that feeling began to dissipate. In early December, Timnit Gebru, the co-leader of Google’s ethical AI team and a prominent Black woman in a mostly White, male field, abruptly left Google. On Wednesday, December 2, she tweeted that she had been “immediately fired” for an email she sent to an internal mailing list. In the email… Source link
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