The tactics police are using to prevent bystander video

Some vaccinated people are still getting covid. Here's why you shouldn't worry.

Sponsored by Darktrace The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Dodging scrutiny 04.30.21 Good morning! Today: how the police try to stop people filming them, why you shouldn't worry about the fact a tiny number of vaccinated people are still catching covid, and what science fiction can teach us about the impact of the pandemic on cities. I hope you have a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Here in the UK, we have a long one (Monday's a public holiday) so the next edition of The Download will arrive on Tuesday. Get your friends to sign up here to get the newsletter too! The tactics police are using to prevent bystander video   Filming the police has become a popular tool of accountability that is simultaneously essential and dangerous. Because of a video filmed by a bystander, we know that Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, a Black man in his 40s, by kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes.  Without the video that 17-year-old Darnella Frazier took, it’s very possible Chauvin would not have been convicted: when police first described Floyd’s death in a press statement, they claimed that it had occurred “after [a] medical incident during police interaction.”  People film the police because they know that officers hurt or kill people and lie about it; because it is generally within their First Amendment rights to do so; and because recording an encounter with the cops might make them feel a little bit safer. Police departments cannot simply be taken at their word, and independent video of possible misconduct or violence can sometimes be the only thing with the power to make a false police narrative give way to the truth.  But police officers aren’t simply letting this happen. Even though filming the police is generally legal if it doesn’t interfere with their activities, and even though officers are increasingly carrying cameras themselves, they have developed a range of tactics to prevent their actions from being documented—which activists and citizens in turn are responding to. Read the full story. —Abby Ohlheiser Some vaccinated people are still getting covid. Here’s why you shouldn’t worry. What’s happening: Tens of millions of people in the United States have now been fully vaccinated against covid-19. These people are seeing friends, eating out, and—in rare cases—getting infected. But we shouldn’t panic: these kinds of “breakthrough infections” are entirely expected with any mass vaccine rollout.  The good news: More than 87 million people had been vaccinated in the US as of April 20. Of those, 7,157—0.008%—went on to become infected with SARS-CoV-2. An even tinier fraction developed serious illness: just 331 were hospitalized for covid-19, and 77 died of the disease. What’s more, vaccinated individuals who become infected have lower viral loads than unvaccinated people—meaning they are less likely to transmit the virus. Keeping a close eye: Tracking breakthrough infections could help them spot worrisome new variants and identify when vaccines are becoming less effective. This might help determine when booster shots are needed or point to more effective vaccine designs. Read the full story. —Cassandra Willyard Politics and the pandemic have changed how we imagine cities Science fiction is full of cities imagined from the ground up, but an author who writes about a real place has to engage with real cultures and real histories. It takes a special kind of world-building skill to develop a city when its origins are already known. Three books try to meet that challenge: The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei, which imagines an underwater metropolitan Taiwan in 2100, The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin, which features superhero-like characters who act as avatars of the five boroughs of New York, and I Am Legend, the 1954 post-apocalyptic classic by Richard Matheson, is set in a Los Angeles where a pandemic has mutated its people—with the exception of one man—into shadow-dwelling vampires. Read the full story. —Joanne McNeil This story is from the latest edition of MIT Technology Review, all about cities. Check out the full magazine, and if you haven't yet, subscribe! And if you're interested to learn more about the impact of the pandemic on businesses, how it's driven the adoption of new technologies, and what's next, why not come along to EmTech Next, our three-day virtual conference in June, when you can hear from business and technology leaders on how they've coped in times of crisis. Early birds get a discount! We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + An outrageously heart-warming tale of a Dad and some ducks.    + An inventive young man made a special contraption so his granny could keep in touch with her grandchildren. (Thank you for suggesting this George!)   + Anthony Hopkins on happiness.   + These girl scouts deliver their cookies by drone (thanks Linda!)   + These finger-worn chopsticks are utterly bizarre yet I feel fairly certain I know people who would use them.   + If you like peas, this is the pasta dish for you.   + Want to be happy? Stop wasting your time doing things you hate (cough doomscrolling cough.) (The Atlantic $) Sponsor Message Defend against cyber-threats with AI Darktrace AI identifies malicious activity hiding in your digital ecosystem and acts autonomously to neutralize the threat. Find out why McLaren relies on self-learning AI to detect and disrupt cyber-attacks at machine-speed. Learn more > The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 India’s covid crisis is what happens when rich people do nothing  It’s not just Modi, it’s the failure of an entire generation. (The Atlantic $)   + The pandemic in Latin America is taking a turn for the worse. (NYT $)   + Can Cuba fight covid with its own vaccine? (Nature)   + Public health authorities need to focus on explaining the science. (The Atlantic $)  2 We’re coming to a better understanding of what long covid is And their findings have alarming implications for long-term public health. (The Economist $)   + We hit the "one billion vaccinations" mark quickly. "Two billion" will arrive even faster. (Nature)  3 Computers are getting better at writing 🤖✍️ But not so good that I can get one to do my job for me just yet. (New Yorker $)   4 The US Labor Secretary said most gig workers should be employees Cue steep dives in Uber, Lyft, Doordash and Grubhub's share prices. (Reuters)   + Uber is recruiting tens of thousands of drivers in the UK to meet post-lockdown demand. (AP)  5 We're about to be hit by a consumer electronics shortage  Right now, the chip shortage is mostly hurting the car industry. That's about to change. (NPR)   6 Amazon made more than $26 billion in profit during the pandemic That's more than the previous three years combined. Big Tech has had a good crisis. (WSJ $)   + Amazon is giving over 500,000 workers a pay rise, as it battles unionization efforts. (Engadget)   7 "Disaster girl" has sold the meme of her as a $500,000 NFT All fun and games but I just want to remind you that whoever bought it doesn't own the image, or really… anything meaningful at all. (NBC)   8 How Pixar hacks your brain with hyper-colors 🍭🧠 It's using them to elicit deep emotional responses. Soon, it'll even test the limits of human color perception. (Wired $)   9 A Dutch couple moved into Europe's first fully 3D-printed house The visual effect achieved by a huge robotic arm squirting out special cement from a nozzle is strangely pleasing. (The Guardian)   10 Is this the most Instagrammable bird? What frogmouths may lack in beauty, they make up for in FLAIR. (Popular Science) What's next for a digitally transformed workforce? Join MIT Technology Review and Harvard Business Review at EmTech Next, the signature "future of work" event. Explore innovative technologies and leadership strategies that will power a forever changed workforce. Reserve your spot today. Quote of the Day "Hearing my mom’s voice in person — it just felt like, it wasn’t a recording. It wasn’t the telephone. It wasn’t a Zoom. It was live. She got through this. I sat in my car, and I cried." —Dan Fabrizio, 59, tells the New York Times how it felt to be able to hug his 95-year-old mother Marie after more than a year. Top image credit: AP Photo | John Minchillo Please send drone-delivered cookies to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up today Leading a forever-changed workforce Join us virtually | June 8-10, 2021 Register now   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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