Head customs border protection slams irresponsible google employees petition

UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Thursday that negotiators would finalize a deal for his country’s exit from the European Union by the end of this month. He said he was "confident" that the two sides could reach a deal "within next three weeks," adding that reports of getting it done within seven days were "pushing it," according to The Guardian. Hunt, who was in Paris, stressed that the agreement was in the final stage and that working it out was in everyone’s interest. Meanwhile, May wrote to the leaders of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the small Northern Irish political party she relies on for her majority in parliament, saying that the EU is still pushing for a so-called "backstop to the backstop" which would keep the province in regulatory alignment with the Republic of Ireland to avoid a hard border, Reuters reported. © AFP 2019 / BEN STANSALLUK … [Read more...] about EU to Pursue Customs Border in Irish Sea If No Deal On Brexit Reached – Reports

James Damore. Photo: Business Insider It’s hard to believe that it’s only been two weeks since news broke of an anti-diversity memo going internally viral over at Google. Since then, the memo’s author, James Damore, has been unmasked, fired by Google CEO Sundar Pichai for violating the company’s Code of Conduct, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, and done a few interviews. (His decision to sit down with alt-right YouTuber Stefan Molyneux as his first public interview is, uh, telling.) This week, Damore spoke with Business Insider to give another interview about his memo and the fallout since. And, folks, it went about as well as you’d expect. Or as well as you’d expect if you expected him to argue that being conservative at Google is a feeling similar to being a closeted homosexual back in the day. Which, given Damore’s history of bogus claims, we all probably should have expected. From BI: Obviously, no one should … [Read more...] about Fired Engineer Says Being Conservative at Google Is ‘Like Being Gay in the 1950s’

Following Thursday's game between the Dallas Mavericks and Detroit Pistons, NBA on TNT analyst Charles Barkley joked that the U.S. should build a wall at the border so that the Pistons couldn't come back."I talked to a couple of my friends in Detroit, they were saying please hurry up and get that wall so they can't come back," Barkley said after the Pistons lost to the Mavericks 122-111. "Get that wall up so they don't come back," he added. The two teams played the game in Mexico City, marking the fourth consecutive season that the NBA has played games in Mexico as a way to continue to expand the league to a worldwide scale.This season, the Pistons have struggled, losing 15 of their last 25 games. Currently, the Detroit-based team is ranked in the 10th spot in the NBA's eastern conference.Though the Pistons only lost by a 10-point margin to the Mavericks, the team had no answer for Dallas' star point guard Luka Doncic. Doncic finished the game with 41 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists … [Read more...] about Charles Barkley Jokingly Says U.S. Should Build Border Wall So Pistons ‘Don’t Come Back’ From Playing Game in Mexico

Google has introduced a spam protection feature in its Messages app for Android users who will now get a warning about spam texts. "With Spam protection for Messages, we warn you of suspected spam and unsafe websites we've detected. If you see a suspected spam warning in Messages you can help us improve our spam models by letting us know if it's spam or not," Google said in a statement late Thursday. Along with reporting spam texts, Google said, you'll also be able to block the entire conversation too. "With real-time spam detection, Messages makes chatting easier and safer. This feature works with your message data while keeping your messages private. And it's optionala"so you're in control," said Google. Messages tries to detect suspected spam and lets you block and report spammers. If you see a suspected spam warning in Messages, you can let Google know if it's spam or not by tapping "Report spam" or "Report not spam". "When Spam protection is on, Google temporarily stores the … [Read more...] about Google adds spam protection in Messages app for Android users

Each morning, workers at Google get an internal newsletter called the "Daily Insider." Kent Walker, Google's top lawyer, set off a firestorm when he argued in the Nov. 14 edition that the 21-year old company had outgrown its policy of allowing workers to access nearly any internal document. "When we were smaller, we all worked as one team, on one product, and everyone understood how business decisions were made," Walker wrote. "It's harder to give a company of over 100,000 people the full context on everything." Many large companies have policies restricting access to sensitive information to a "need-to-know" basis. But in some segments of Google's workforce, the reaction to Walker's argument was immediate and harsh. On an internal messaging forum, one employee described the data policy as "a total collapse of Google culture." An engineering manager posted a lengthy attack on Walker's note, which he called "arrogant and infantilizing." The need-to-know policy "denies us a form of trust … [Read more...] about Google culture war escalates as era of transparency wanes