The tech industry has a clear history of sexism and misogyny, but a recent Newsweek report highlights another problem. The publication got its hands on a slew of emails sent to brothels and pimps between 2014 and 2016 that document the industry’s patronage of brothels and purchasing of services from trafficked sex workers. Among the emails, which were obtained through a public records request to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, were 67 sent from Microsoft employee email accounts, 63 from Amazon accounts and dozens more from companies like Boeing, T-Mobile, Oracle and local Seattle tech firms.
Some of the emails were collected during a 2015 sting operation that targeted sex worker review boards and resulted in the arrest of 18 individuals, including high-level Amazon and Microsoft directors. Two opted for a trial, which is currently set to begin in March.
Seattle’s sex industry has grown right alongside its tech industry and the city’s authorities have said that some men spend up to $50,000 per year on sex workers. Brothels are even known to advertise how close they are to tech offices. Alex Trouteaud, director of policy and research at the anti-trafficking organization Demand Abolition, told Newsweek that the tech industry is a "culture that has readily embraced trafficking."
In a statement sent to Newsweek, Microsoft said, "Microsoft has a long history of cooperating with law enforcement and other agencies on combating sex trafficking and related topics, and we have employees who volunteer their time and money specifically to combat this issue as well. The personal conduct of a tiny fraction of our 125,000 employees does not in any way represent our culture. No organization is immune to the unfortunate situation when employees act unethically or illegally. When that happens, we look into the conduct and take appropriate action. Microsoft makes it clear to our employees they have a responsibility to act with integrity and conduct themselves in a legal and ethical manner at all times. If they don’t, they risk losing their jobs."
Amazon told Newsweek it’s investigating the matter and said, "Amazon’s Owner’s Manual clearly states that, ‘It is against Amazon’s policy for any employee or Contingent Worker to engage in any sex buying activities of any kind in Amazon’s workplace or in any work-related setting outside of the workplace, such as during business trips, business meetings or business-related social events.’ When Amazon suspects that an employee has used company funds or resources to engage in criminal conduct, the company will immediately investigate and take appropriate action up to and including termination. The company may also refer the matter to law enforcement."
is actually about Super Pets. And that’s a good thing.
Comic book news this year was dominated by which major characters from DC and Marvel died, which turned evil, and which did one and then the other. Big events are a lot of fun and give us a chance to see iconic characters in new ways, but it’s also worth taking a look at the smaller-but-still-awesome stuff going on in comics. Here are some of the one-shots, the less widely promoted series, and the just-plain-weird comics that you might have missed during the last year.
Image Comics
1. Redlands
Redlands, Florida, is a small town with no shortage of darkness. Whether more of that darkness comes from the coven of witches trying to take control of the community or the conduct of the ordinary citizenry is for you to decide. This horror comic starts out with a siege on the town’s police station that leaves the reader unsure of who is more frightening but with little sympathy for either side. And things get scarier from there. The writing, by Jordie Bellaire, doesn’t give us any easy answers. The art, by Vanessa Del Rey, is reminiscent, with its muddy murk and startling colors, of 30 Days of Night. It gives us the impression that every scene is lit incompletely by flashlight and that anything could jump out of the darkness. You can pick up the floppies—issue five comes out on December 20—or make a note to get the first trade in March.
Marvel Comics
2. Punisher: The Platoon
Punisher: The Platoon is Garth Ennis’ return to the character he made famous. He did this in part by using the Marvel Max imprint to separate the Punisher from most of the rest of the DCU and add the kind of explicit content that anyone living in the Punisher’s world would come across. He also did it by giving Frank Castle a history that included more than just his family getting shot.
An enthusiastic writer of war comics, Ennis used fellow marines, other soldiers, and an author of a book about the Punisher to explore Frank Castle’s military career. In The Platoon, he introduces two new point-of-view characters. While those in his platoon slowly come to view Frank Castle as a hero, General Letrong Giap and the deeply wounded Sister Ly are Viet Cong fighters who have a very different perspective. Unlike the Punisher’s usual opponents, they, as much as the American fighters, are the protagonists. This book isn’t about ideology. It’s about how war is engaging and exhilarating and, at the same time, a wasteful slaughter of good people on both sides. The next issue is out on December 27.
3. Super Sons Annual #1
The title is Super Sons, but it’s actually the Super Pets. No, that’s not true. It’s actually an excuse for writer Peter Tomasi and artist Paul Pelletier to be as silly as they want to be. Pets are going missing, and it’s up to Krypto, Superboy’s dog, and Titus, Robin’s dog, to find them. That means a few pages of action and many pages of Streaky, Detective Chimp, Batcow, and doggy slobber on all of them. It’s on the shelves now. Have fun.
Valiant Comics
4. Secret Weapons
This series deals directly with a running joke. What happens to all the “gifted” superheroes with crap powers? It’s something that mainstream comics ignore (practically speaking, how useless is Wolverine?) and other media treat mostly as comedy. Secret Weapons finds the humor in these kinds of powers but takes them seriously. The series is self-contained enough to read alone, but it takes over where the previous series left off. A scientist had created a “superhero factory,” and while some of the people he created are legitimately powerful, there are a handful of kids who, for example, try to materialize a shotgun but instead make a novelty umbrella or know how to communicate with birds.
Amanda Knee is Livewire, an experienced hero who can take control of machinery, and she sees ways that these novelty acts could become useful. Eric Heisserer, who wrote the screenplay for Arrival, deserves credit for thinking these powers through, but artist Raul Allen and colorer Patricia Martin set a perfect tone. Given the subject, overly shadowed panels would make this comic about endangered teens part of the grim-n-gritty brigade, while caricatures would make it a joke. Crisp lines with vivid-but-not-cartoonish color give it just the right feel. All four issues are out.
Archie Comics
5. Betty and Veronica: Vixens
Archie Comics’ Betty and Veronica get together and form a biker gang. This means plenty of panels of them on motorcycles, hair whipping in the wind, helmets securely in place. It means crop tops and tank tops and partially unzipped tops. It means fist bumps and perfectly lined eyes and Veronica putting a choke hold on a guy stupid enough to harass a group of biker chicks. And it means, when the gang is contemplating going to war with a rival biker gang, Betty reaches into her purse for “protection†and brings out… brass knuckles. It’s a hoot. It blends female solidarity with mad-at-the-world aggression with Archie Comics’ unshakeable wholesomeness. The first issue hit comic shops November 22.
After a look at what real trouble looks like, there’s no shame in diving into pure fantasy. The adventures of Nick Fury Jr., gadget-laden superspy, will give you a sugar rush. A shameless James Bond riff, this has Nick Fury Jr., son of grizzled warhorse Nick Fury, spying it up on the French Riviera. The comic is pure joyful play. The relish that writer James Robinson and artist Alejandro Cal Oliveira bring to the character and the visuals is palpable. Story? I gave you the words “Nick Fury,†“James Bond,†and “French Riviera.†You know the story. On the shelves now.
Dynamite Entertainment
8. Centipede
Every year there’s a comic that is better than it should be. Last year it was The Flintstones. This year it’s Dynamite Entertainment’s Centipede. Yes, the one based on the Atari game. Dale Trell is the last man on Sty-Rek, his planet, and he’s going to go out and murder the monster that killed his world. The funny thing is, he didn’t much like his world. In a twist that might feel a little too on-the-nose for some, Dale liked myths and heroic stories (including Earth memorabilia) in a way that isolated him from the rest of his planet. Dale was in a civilization that would be featured in comic books, but within that civilization he was a comic-book-reading nerd, who is now in a comic-book adventure. The premise begins to loop in on itself, but the theme stays strong. Does isolating yourself by burying your head in an alternate reality or in the past cut you off from the here and now? Or does cultivating a different mindset come in handy? Dale is alive, after all. He has a plan. No one else on his planet can say the same.
First Second
9. Demon: Volume 4
Jason Shiga, the creator of the Demon series, has a degree in mathematics and has found a way to inflict his expertise on both his characters and the rest of the world. His character, Jimmy Yee, is drawn with a childlike reliance on solid colors and basic shapes, hangs himself, shoots himself, slits his wrists, and will not die. Why not? That is the question of volume one, which you can read in its entirety online. The series has just concluded with volume four, which came out in November. Its cover shows Jimmy standing on a mountain of dead bodies and is an appropriate reflection of the book’s contents. The series is a quick read, if you have the stomach to see cute little Jimmy Yee commit the most grotesque acts on both himself and others in an attempt to find the solution to his variation problems.
10. Calexit
If you look at comics this year, you’ll see themes: rage, ridicule, and dystopia. For the most part, the stories enacting these themes have been allegorical. Calexit, from Black Mask Studios, is explicit. Writer Matteo Pizzolo imagines a world in which California secedes from the United States, and the United States goes to war with California. The point-of-view characters are Zora, an immigrant-turned-fugitive-turned-resistance-leader, and Jamil, a smuggler who looks to his own advantage, given that he’s convinced that no one else will. Artist Amancay Nahuelpan makes the world by turns dark, grubby, and garish.
Black Mask Studios
The variations in the art will probably reflect the way in which people see the comic. Some readers will see it as a satire. Others might see it as inspiration. Others as horror. A few will see it as a comedy, albeit an unintentional one. There’s a reason people in theaters break into laughter during horrific action or tragic death scenes. If you don’t share the characters’ perspective, high drama is ridiculous. Depending on your political viewpoint, Calexit might give you goosebumps or a good laugh. The first issue hit the stands in July of 2017. The second will come out in January 2018. Whatever your political affiliation, this is one of the few comics that may end up as a historical document. You might want to check it out.
If you’ve just introduced one of Amazon’s Echo devices into your home and feel a little lost, you’re not alone. The promises made by Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa are vast, and it’s difficult to know where to start when you want Alexa to do something more than set a cooking timer or tell you tomorrow’s weather forecast.
Aside from Alexa’s basic features programmed by Amazon, there are thousands of Alexa skills to choose from; skills are features made by third-party developers that help Alexa do more than just the Amazon-sanctioned basics, and many of them integrate with other services, apps, and products. Each skill has to be enabled in the Alexa mobile app (or from your account on Amazon.com) before Alexa can use it.
Enabling a skill is almost like installing an app on a mobile device—simply enable a skill you want and Alexa will be able to use that skill until you disable it. There are more than 25,000 Alexa skills now, and while Amazon has improved the interface through which you can search for and discover skills, it’s still not the easiest to work with. Here, we’ve outlined Alexa’s main features and the best third-party Alexa Skills that you can enable now to use with Amazon’s virtual assistant.
Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.
Basic Alexa features
General
Alexa is built to tell you even the most mundane information about your day and anything else you want to know about. You can use voice commands to have Alexa tell you the time and date as well as anything that might be on your calendar, provided that you’ve linked a calendar in the Alexa mobile app.
Even if something isn’t listed on your calendar, you can ask Alexa to set reminders and alarms at any time. For example, saying “Alexa, remind me to register for swim classes at 8pm” will have Alexa tell you “register for swim classes” at 8pm that day. Alarms work similarly and come in handy, particularly when you’re cooking and don’t have a hand free to set an egg timer or a timer on your oven. Your Echo device will jingle when the alarm goes off, and you can tell Alexa to “stop” to end the alarm tone.
Alexa can add things to your to-do list as well, which you can review either in the Alexa app or by asking it “what’s on my to-do list?” We’ll talk about shopping lists in another section, but Alexa’s to-do list feature is useful for the busiest of us who rarely have a pen and paper handy. Using your voice to ask Alexa to add things to your to-do list ensures you won’t forget even the most random tasks that come to mind.
All of the previously detailed features are like the utility section of an app store—they’re often overlooked, but you’ll need them at some point throughout your day. But Alexa can also provide more specific information and from different sources. Alexa can deliver weather forecasts, recent news headlines, and general information about sports, movies, and music. For example, asking “Alexa, what’s my Flash Briefing?” will prompt the assistant to read off all the news from your selected sources in your Flash Briefing. You can choose the news sources you prefer in the Alexa app and rearrange the order that Alexa plays them (NPR, Bloomberg, AP, and more are options). Rather than watching the news in the morning, you can listen to it as Alexa plays each segment from each of your news sources.
If you’re curious which band plays a song you heard at the gym, Alexa can probably tell you. The assistant can also tell you band members’ names and song and album titles. The same can be said for movies: Alexa can identify actors and actresses and which movies they are in and even give you movie times at local theaters. If you’re curious who won the big game the night before, Alexa can tell you scores by team and individual player stats.
General commands to try:
“Alexa, what’s on my calendar for today?”
“Alexa, remind me to pick up Jodie at 3pm.”
“Alexa, set a timer for one hour.”
“Alexa, add clean the kitchen to my to-do list.”
“Alexa, what’s my Flash Briefing?”
“Alexa, who sings ‘Bad and Bougee’?”
“Alexa, did the Broncos win last night?”
Media
The Music, Video, and Books section of the Alexa app is your gateway to all kinds of media that Alexa can control. You’re not limited to Amazon-controlled media, although Alexa will pull media from Amazon accounts by default unless you tell it differently. Linking your various accounts in the app will allow Alexa to control music, video, and audiobook playback from any Echo device.
If Spotify is your music service of choice, you can ask Alexa to play anything “from Spotify” so it’ll draw that content from there rather than Amazon Music. You can also play radio stations from iHeartRadio, TuneIn, or Pandora, as well as ask Alexa what song is currently playing. If you’re in the mood for a specific type of music, you can ask Alexa to play songs by artist, genre, or theme as well.
Amazon owns Audible, arguably the leading provider of audiobooks, and you can link an Audible account to Alexa so it can read your audiobooks to you from an Echo device. You can ask it to start reading a specific book or pick up where you left off in an audiobook you already started. You can also skip to different chapters and set a “sleep timer,” or a time for Alexa to stop reading in the future. These controls also work for Kindle books you may have purchased from Amazon that also provide access to the audiobook version.
Media commands to try:
“Alexa, play Deep House Relax playlist from Spotify.”
“Alexa, play Z100 on iHeartRadio.”
“Alexa, play the book Animal Farm.”
“Alexa, skip to chapter 10.”
“Alexa, resume my book.”
“Alexa, stop playing in 30 minutes.”
Calling and messaging
Amazon recently added calling and messaging to Alexa, allowing you to connect with anyone in your contacts or any phone number just by using your voice. After completing the setup in the Alexa app, linking your phone number, and allowing Alexa access to your contacts, you can use voice commands to make hands-free calls and messages. If someone calls you, you can also use Alexa to answer the call.
Sending messages with Alexa is just as easy. Simply say, “Alexa, message Tom,” and Alexa will grab that contact from your list. The voice assistant will then ask you to say the message you want to send. Once you do that, Alexa will send it as a text message to your contact.
Drop In is a new feature that lets you communicate with others who have Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show devices. It’s a calling feature that only works on Amazon-made Alexa devices, allowing you to “drop in” on others and chat with them. You can also drop in on other Echo devices in your household, so you can use your main Echo in the living room to talk to your children in their room if they have a compatible Echo device. It’s similar to an intercom system when used between different Echo devices in the same household. You must enable Drop In in the Alexa app before you can use it, and you must approve which contacts you want to let drop in on your Echo devices. This makes Drop In a bit more secure, but you can’t immediately decline a drop-in call.
IT took five minutes into my pilgrimage for somebody to offer me free food. Leaving my inn, a converted 19th-century mansion in the Israeli town of Nazareth, I’d turned the corner to make the initial ascent toward the Franciscan Mensa Church. The church stands on the site where Christ was said to have dined with his apostles just after his resurrection. A smiling man with a lazy eye, standing by the trail head, decided I should dine, too.
He handed me a chocolate bar, gesturing toward the orange trail markers that demarcated…
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Since 2013, the price of a 40-year-old, off-patent cancer drug in the U.S. has risen 1,400%, putting the life-extending medicine out of reach for some patients.
Introduced in 1976 to treat brain tumors and Hodgkin lymphoma, lomustine has no generic competition, giving seller NextSource Biotechnology LLC significant pricing power.
The U.S….
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Myanmar has banned Yanghee Lee, a United Nations official assigned to investigate human rights abuses in the country. NPR’s Ari Shapiro speaks with Lee about her findings on Myanmar’s treatment of it’s Rohingya minority.
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Judge Marilyn Moores, who presides over the juvenile court in Marion County, Ind., says the number of children who are in need of foster care because of the opioid epidemic has more than doubled in the past three years.
Matt Sedensky/AP
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Judge Marilyn Moores, who presides over the juvenile court in Marion County, Ind., says the number of children who are in need of foster care because of the opioid epidemic has more than doubled in the past three years.
Matt Sedensky/AP
The U.S. foster care system is overwhelmed, in part because America’s opioid crisis is overwhelming. Thousands of children have had to be taken out of the care of parents or a parent who is addicted.
Indiana is among the states that have seen the largest one-year increase in the number of children who need foster care. Judge Marilyn Moores, who heads the juvenile court in Marion County, which includes Indianapolis, says the health crisis is straining resources in Indiana.
“We’ve gone from having 2,500 children in care, three years ago, to having 5,500 kids in care. It has just exploded our systems,” Moores says.
While laws in all U.S. states require that child welfare agencies make “reasonable efforts” to reunify parents with their children, Moores says that process can be especially traumatic for children whose parents often relapse.
She says that more legal consideration should be paid to the child’s rights and safety and that “right now, that balance does not tip legally in favor of the child.”
Earlier this year, President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. But that designation “didn’t come with money,” Moores says. “And that is sadly what the necessity is.” She says reform is needed, and it should focus on “how much in the way of resources should be devoted to trying to reunify children with parents who cannot conquer their addiction.”
Interview Highlights
On what kind of cases she is seeing
One of the hallmarks is we’re seeing many younger children than we had seen before. I think the average age is about three years younger than we had seen. We see lots and lots of opioid-addicted babies following their releases from NICUs [neonatal intensive care units] where they went through withdrawal from opioid addiction that they suffered in utero. We see kids — little, itty-bitty kids — that are found in car seats in the backs of cars where parents have overdosed in the front seat. And because of the age of the children, we can’t safely leave them with addicted parents. And so, it has just over-rolled our system.
On how her division has been grappling with the influx
Well, we’re scrambling. I’ve had kids that I’ve had to find a foster home for — not in Marion Country, but in Lake County, which is by Chicago. That’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive. How can I reunify parents with a child where they can’t even see their child on a regular basis?
We have kids who are sleeping in the Department of Child Services office because there are no homes for them that can be quickly found. Our public defenders, our DCS case managers, our guardians ad litem, our judicial officers are all overwhelmed. But everyone pulls together to try their very best to ensure child safety.
On whether to prioritize the reunification of child with a parent who is an addict
There’s a lot of debate about that, but the law requires that reasonable effort be made to reunify first. Sadly, in some cases, the law has determined that parents have a due process right to their children. In other words, we treat children like chattel of their parents, like possessions, and these are Supreme Court precedent. I think that many of those precedents were issued at a time when keeping kids with parents, there were extended families who were able to help support and take care of kids, but we don’t have that now. And I wonder if the law isn’t antiquated in that regard.
It’s been incredibly difficult for funding to keep pace with the need and the demand for services. Our director of Department of Child Services just resigned and issued a letter saying that the constraints that the budget was placing on her all but ensured children would die.
On whether President Trump’s designation has had any effect
It didn’t come with money. And that is sadly what the necessity is. That and, we need legal reform. We need reform that literally looks and says, “How much in the way of resources should be devoted to trying to reunify children with parents who cannot conquer their addiction?”
The recidivist rate for opioid addiction is somewhere in the 70 percent. We can’t keep parents sober long enough to reunify their children with them. And even those efforts come at great costs to the taxpayers, and they come at even greater costs for the children because being in this system is a trauma for children and these back-and-forth attempts in trying to reunify them with their parents is scarring these children.
On addicts whose only motivation to get clean is becoming a good parent
I think that we need to make reasonable efforts to try and reunify, but we have to have a better balancing of the child’s right to safety, security, a right to pursue happiness, and honor that child’s life as much as we’re honoring the parents’ right. And right now, that balance does not tip legally in favor of the child.
Tim Peterson, Martha Wexler and Sarah Handel produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Emma Bowman adapted it for the Web.
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