#false data

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said on April 6 that it had “incomplete data” for 11,371 of the 33,091 Palestinian fatalities it claims to have documented. In a statistical report, the ministry notes that it considers an individual record to be incomplete if it is missing any of the following key data points: identity number, full name, date of birth, or date of death. The health ministry also released a report on April 3 that acknowledged the presence of incomplete data but did not define what it meant by “incomplete.” In that earlier report, the ministry acknowledged the incompleteness of 12,263 records. It is unclear why, after just three more days, the number fell to 11,371 — a decrease of more than 900 records.

Prior to its admissions of incomplete data, the health ministry asserted that the information in more than 15,000 fatality records had stemmed from “reliable media sources.” However, the ministry never identified the sources in question and Gaza has no independent media.

Expert Analysis

“The sudden shifts in the ministry’s reporting methods suggest it is scrambling to prevent exposure of its shoddy work. For months, U.S. media have taken for granted that the ministry’s top-line figure for casualties was reliable enough to include in daily updates on the war. Even President Biden has cited its numbers. Now we’re seeing that a third or more of the ministry’s data may be incomplete at best — and fictional at worst.” — David Adesnik, Senior Fellow and Director of Research

“It is important to recognize that Hamas is deeply invested in shaping the narrative that emerges from Gaza, particularly regarding the number of casualties in the war. Moreover, this control of data extends beyond the statistics provided by the Hamas-controlled health ministry, as there is also a deliberate effort to downplay the number of terrorists who have been killed by Israel in the war, potentially numbering more than 10,000.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal

[tenth-sentence]

Just to be sure that Fate did not muddle through to a victory, he arranged to have false data inserted in the Purgatory computer.

"Incarnations of Immortality: For Love of Evil" - Piers Anthony

[mthomasapple]

Why Japan and JAXA are definitely NOT the future of space exploration

Why Japan and JAXA are definitely NOT the future of space exploration

Falsified space research? No problem. The “apology bow” (sha zai, ���罪) makes it all better. There is a reason why Japan’s newest “micro” satellite spectacularly failed to do, well, anything. The Japan version of NASA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, called “JAXA” for some reason rather than “JAEA” — maybe the founder was a fan of X-Japan?) is riddled with incompetency and sycophancy. Much…

[indigorain54]

Ok so I haven't seen anyone post about this new issue yet but it needs to be talked about.

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If you have seen posts like this one DON'T CLICK THE LINK!!!! It's a phishing attack and is considered spam. They will steal your data and this is not a real job ad. Please report them when you see them and block them. If you see a post with a suspicious link don't click it.

Their blog page will usually look like this, with multiple posts of the same false ad. With the wrong tags to it.

Be safe online everyone!

Don't fall for phishing and scams!

[presdestigatto]

Which journalists are saying this ??

i wish i were making this up 🙏

to give credit where it’s due, even sainz himself isnt saying this lol

[thefact0rygirl]

My villain origin story is the 'Super Bowl increases sex trafficking' myth.

[my-timing-is-digital]

sign, sender walks into a sign and receiver sees.

After disembarking the Enterprise-D, the corresponding crew dispersed to roam Starbase 133's recently opened mall; miscellaneous traders from all across the Alpha and Beta Quadrant offered all sorts commodities, authentically prepared delicacies, and an equally fascinating assortment of merchandise that could not be compartmentalised under the former or penultimate.

While the Enterprise underwent minor repairs to its secondary hull, the majority of its complement had been given permission to rejuvenate themselves on the starbase. The senior staff had agreed to meet outside the terminal and explore the station in one another's company and visit one of the restaurants afterward.

'And? What did the Captain say? Is he still coming?' Commander Riker enquired inquisitively when Data finally attached himself to the group.

'He promised he would join us later,' the android reported professionally, as if providing his superior officer with a briefing on important technical or engineering matters.

'Oh, well. The most important thing is: you tried,' Riker muttered, slightly disillusioned — if the android had interpreted his intonation correctly, and yet, he would appreciate an elaboration on the Commander's statement.

'Sir?'

Riker grinned mysteriously at the android and slapped him amicably on the shoulder, but an explanation was not forthcoming. A confounded expression corrugated Data's light brow as he parsed the Commander's exceedingly enigmatic response, but his endeavours to fathom his words were temporarily diminished to a mere background task when Deanna disrupted the silence between them:

'Perhaps, the Captain might stay true to his word this time. Either way, I think we should go ahead and see for ourselves what the fuss regarding this new mall is all about!'

'I agree,' Dr Crusher chimed in and all six of them set their itinerary for the mall.

The first 30 minutes, they goggled at the splendour of the architecture and the melange of shops and extraterrestrial shopkeepers, visitors and merchants. And as they were sauntering down the promenade, excitedly conversing about all manner of things, Data was occupied surveying the crowd, utterly astonished by the diversity of humanoids congregating at the starbase, and the way in which they interacted. He occasionally inserted remarks or made queries about matters being discussed among his friends, but his primary objective was to observe the strangers. It was during one such observation that he witnessed someone colliding with one of the transparent displays that contained directions and an interactive map of the area. Apparently, Commander Riker had been a spectator to this incident too, and muffled a chuckle — Worf glared at his superior officer reproachfully, probably finding it dishonourable to laugh at somebody else's misfortunes.

'Are you all right?' Data had detached himself from the group and approached the stranger. 'Do you require medical attention?'

[tauforged]

the downside of working a full time job is i’m almost never online anymore. which is fucked. but alas i can’t exactly be blogging when i’ve got alkalinity titrations to run . such is life i suppose

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

This is getting ridiculous!

September 25, 2023

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

          Geez! This is getting ridiculous! Trump calls for the execution of the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and the Washington Post performs a botched poll that is so bad the Post acknowledges it is “an outlier.” Guess which one leads the news on Sunday? Hint: It is not the story that calls for the killing of a perceived political opponent by the leading candidate for the GOP 2024 nomination.

          Let’s get the WaPo/ABC poll out of the way, first. The results were simply implausible. They were so bad that Post included this disclaimer:

[A]lthough the sizable margin of Trump’s lead in this survey is significantly at odds with other public polls that show the general election contest a virtual dead heat. The difference between this poll and others, as well as the unusual makeup of Trump’s and Biden’s coalitions in this survey, suggest it is probably an outlier.

          If you were alarmed by the headlines about the WaPo/ABC poll, the most important thing you can do is read Simon Rosenberg’s post in Hopium Chronicles, The WaPo-ABC Poll Is A Clear Outlier. Dems Are Having A Very Good 2023. As Simon explains, the results are so wacky (my word, not his), the Post should have tossed the poll. But the Post spent the money on the poll, so it published a poll it did not believe. That makes perfect sense because . . . .?

          It doesn’t make sense. If there is anything good to come out of the WaPo/ABC poll, it seals the case that presidential “horse-race” polling is irretrievably broken, counterproductive, and misleading. And yet in the dozen articles I read about the poll on Sunday, all of them treated the poll as a legitimate exercise in polling. It is not. Indeed, the notion that multiple news organizations are conducting presidential horse-race polls more than a year before the election is a sign that they view politics as entertainment—just like sports scores, the daily horoscope, and advice columns. Pathetic.

          Folks, they are trying to mess with our heads. Don’t let them. Reject their infotaintmentization of politics. Ignore the polls. If you can’t ignore the polls, tell irresponsible media outlets what you think by posting comments on offending articles, write letters to the editor, and send emails to the journalists. Ignoring the polls is a reasonable approach to preserving your sanity. But ignoring the polls may give outlets a “free pass” on their irresponsible journalism. The Post’s poll is going to be added to Five-Thirty-Eight.com’s aggregation of polls and will affect the narrative of Biden’s prospects for winning. That is why it is irresponsible and dangerous for news outlets to conduct meaningless and misleading polls.

          The 2024 presidential election features two candidates who are surrogates for different visions of America: Democracy versus autocracy; liberty versus tyranny; dignity versus bigotry; science versus disinformation; personal autonomy versus subservience to Christian nationalism; sustainability versus ecological disaster; safety versus gun violence; global stability versus confrontational isolationism. All of that—and much more—is on the ballot in 2024. The WaPo/ABC “horse-race” poll captures none of that.

          Turning to the real story that should be the only thing any media outlet is discussing is Trump's not-so-veiled threat to execute General Mark Milley. As usual, Trump made the threat on his vanity social media platform and used oblique references to provide deniability that he made the threat. Trump's use of Mafia-style threats is so common that the comparison is becoming stale, but it is the equivalent of mobsters telling a small business owner, “Nice place you got here; it would be a shame if it burned down.”

          In the waning days of the Trump administration, the US intercepted intelligence indicating that the Chinese government believed the US might attack China. In military-to-military talks that are commonplace to avoid accidental conflicts, General Milley assured his counterpart in the Chinese military that the US was not planning to attack China.

Per the book Peril by Bob Woodward and Bob Costa, Milley said the following during the call with his counterpart:

General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable, and everything is going to be okay. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise . . . If there was a war or some kind of kinetic action between the United States and China, there’s going to be a buildup, just like there has been always in history.

          That call was approved in advance by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Trump now claims that effort at “deconfliction amounted to treason. Trump wrote:

This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!

See The Independent, Trump suggests Mark Milley should be executed in possible breach of pre-trial release conditions.

          There are two problems with Trump's statement: It is a veiled threat on the life of General Milley and it violates his pretrial release in the two felony prosecutions in DC and Florida.

          For those who believe I am engaging in hyperbole regarding Trump's threat against the life of General Milley, recall what happened in response to this Tweet:

Big protest in D.C. on January 6th!  Be there, will be wild!

          Trump has a feral instinct for urging his followers to action without directly telling them to do so. As his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified to Congress,

[H]e doesn’t give you orders. He speaks in a code.

          The response of the media—thus far—has been a collective yawn. Their listless response is due in part to Trump's exhaustive, daily threats against foes (real and imagined) that normalize his incendiary rhetoric to the point of background noise. It is not—as his January 6 incitement reminds us. The political press should be talking of nothing else until Republicans condemn and disavow the first major party presidential candidate to threaten a senior military officer with death.

          Recognizing that the media would rather cover a botched poll than a death threat, another avenue of accountability is for either Judge Chutkan or Cannon to revoke Trump's pretrial release or impose a gag order on him. Yes, a gag order. Trump is already the subject of a motion by the prosecution in the January 6 prosecution to refrain from intimidating witnesses. As the government said in its brief:

“The defendant continues these attacks on individuals precisely because he knows that in doing so, he is able to roil the public and marshal and prompt his supporters.”

          Trump obviously doesn’t care; he never has. He has crossed a line—another one. It is time for federal judges charged with the responsibility of protecting witnesses and jurors to act. Before it is too late.

[loamblogging]

a cute sweat bee enjoying a thistle and false rosemary we saw yesterday : )

[petrenocka]

I hate AI with a burning passion.

And above all else I hate the fact that I hate AI.

The thing is, AI is inherently inhuman, it's literally in the name. But that doesn't mean it can't be beautiful, or that somehow it's inherently artistically inert. Mountains aren't made by intelligent design, and yet they can be beautiful, mesmerizing, stunning. Waves on a surface of liquids happen on their own. Fire burns without human involvement. Same thing with AI.

There is so much potential for AI Art to have been a kind of novelty technique. Like those people who put oily paints on water surfaces to capture the movement of waves. Or the technique where you put fat blobs of ink on a canvas, let gravity do its thing, and then elaborate the resulting abstract shape into a full peace. Or like photography, picturing the wild and odd working of the machine. It could've been great.

Hell, do you people remember how much fun it was making weird distorted memes with DALL-E? We could've had that still.

But no. The tech industry just had to be run by ghoulish peaces of shit, looking for a new grift to scam investors with, now that the Crypto bubble has bursted. So AI Art is championed by people who hate art and artists. Chatbots by people who despise talking to humans.

And worst of all, there are people trying to use AI with good intentions. There are artists who do the thing I describe above, who are genuinely inspired by the possibilities. As in genuine art artists, not scam artists. And they have to deal with the just but often misinformed negativity aimed and any and all things AI related, which they don't deserve. If anything they are our only hope for a humane AI.

Now don't get me wrong: if we hope to see legal regulations or cultural shifts for the better, or frankly any movement of that kind at all, we have to vocally and viciously despise AI as it currently exists. Dragging Midjourney created images and people like the CEO of Nvidia through mud and rusted nails at every opportunity is the right thing to do.

But it's sill sad that it is.

[vixvaporub]

Whats going on in FL?

Before I share my list of stuff, I just want to say please do your own research so that you can really formulate your own opinion. I really urge you to do your research along with the links I'm providing cause I encourage everyone to keep themselves educated and not depend on other people.

Florida Republicans Pass Bill Allowing Trans Kids to Be Removed From Their Families

Florida expands ‘Don’t Say Gay’; House OKs anti-LGBTQ bills

Collier teacher shows class "Confederate History Month" video

Florida at Center of Debate as School Book Bans Surge Nationally

Florida Senate passes 6-week abortion ban

Desantis war on ‘woke’ colleges sparks fear among professors, students

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs permitless carry gun bill into law

Florida bill would end diversity programs, ban majors, shift power at universities

What We Know About the DeSantis-Disney Dispute

Revisiting DeSantis, Martha's Vineyard, and the migrant flight controversy

Florida Republican pitches bill to eliminate the Florida Democratic Party

What is behind Ron DeSantis’s Stop-Woke Act?

Florida’s Trump-Loving Governor Just Made It OK to Hit Protesters With Your Car

Gov. DeSantis signs controversial death penalty legislation

DeSantis has nearly unchecked power for his anti-trans agenda — he built it that way

Ron DeSantis just notched a win in court. But the judge says he still violated a prosecutor’s free speech rights.

Equality Florida Issues Advisory Warning For Travel

NAACP Florida State Conference Recommends Travel Advisory on the State in Response to African American Studies Ban

Ron DeSantis backs Florida immigration crackdown ahead of 2024 launch

[advestager]

A/I STAN IN THE DASH. I REPEAT A/I STAN GOT THROUGH MY FILTERS INTO THE FUCKIN DASH THIS IS NOT A DRILL

[istherewifiinhell]

Am having fun comparing emh and data in terms mental health services received like oh you get a cat you get ur dream therapy and ur little philosophically bolstered hobbies. Hmm. And you... get chew the scenery with ur little necrosis.

[my-timing-is-digital]

‘What did the green grape say to the purple grape?’ Data asked, but did not grant them sufficient time to think about, let alone contrive an adequate response, and immediately divulged the punchline: ‘Breathe, you lunkhead!’ A pause. ‘Was that funny?’

He hoped it was...

@the27percent liked for a one-liner from [ x ]