#isis tech talk

[isissimss]

What recording software do use and what mic ?

Hello! To record my videos I use Nvidia GeForce experience

information on this recording software

"This specific recording software can only be used with certain graphics cards, but it has been one of the best recording software I have ever used. I have never had an issue with it! I used to use OBS Studio, and I didn't like it much due to a ton of starting and stopping issues. I highly recommend this one if you are looking for something reliable to record with!"

My mic I use is the HyperX quadcast S

I love this microphone! It allows you to adjust the settings as you like and also lets you minimize background noise in videos!

[blorbocedes]

"Its crazy to me that people are carrying on like normal" the fuck are we supposed to do huh?? How do we normal people stop Isreal you got any idea or you just gonna bitch that people are trying to just live

understand what you allow, accept, and "carry on like normal" happens in the periphery will come back to the 'normal' citizens in the core

the story itself is not only being reported as a huge tactical win for Israel instead of the terrorist attack it is, it's not being reported at all. there's people in my notes who didn't even know this happened at all. the largest cyber warfare attack. and yet there's 10k notes, thousands of posts about Taylor Swift's concert because cancelled bc of a terrorist attack plan. interrogate why that is, why the lost lives of the Lebanese do not spark the awareness, anger, hurt it would for the American/French/British. this is manufacturing consent.

it's an outrageous attack on sovereignty and anyone who uses a lithium battery device (which is literally anybody with a phone) should be outraged. ppl should be talking about this, should be out on the streets about this. if not for solidarity then simply self-interest, because if it happens overseas it Will come back home to you. Do you think governments wouldn't love to blow up the phones of dissenting citizens as long as they can get away with it, by saying "oh they were terrorists"?

The pagers were Motorola, which has ties to Israeli mass surveillance tech. Boycott, Divest, Sanction. Stop buying Motorola phones, demand the corporation how they can allow their supply chain to be contaminated like this. Israel should be facing the global condemnation and be treated for committing an act of terrorism the same way you would react if ISIS did this. This is when public scrutiny, esp from the people with the strongest currency in the world aka the west, matters most and you're asking me to stop bitching.

[tuzesdays]

Directors cut! What made you want to cast Riley in the role of helpful tech worker?

Riley beloved.... I was already very much needing a tech in the story, someone that Viper could have that unique, obsessive idea to not only keep danger at bay but re-direct it to be useful by becoming friends with them... only to slowly accept that knowing a tech in person makes them BE a person in their eyes. (this is an established problem with vivi, they're working on it)

But while I was writing, ShiraCheshire showed up in my comments! and then again! and again, for every chapter that was posted! So eventually I got curious if Shira wrote anything, and started on I See You, Sundrop! And loved it! And stuck with every chapter until it ended, which - you could guess if you've seen the isys chapter count - took a really long time. By the end of it, shira and I had talked so much that I'd consider us familiar (if not actual friends yet).

It just made sense to me to ask for Riley, they fill that niche so well. You can't deny the amount of personality they have within a minute of meeting them, and that is a trait that NEEDED to be felt in Dayshift (and, I would argue, in most stories simply because of how effective it is in shaking off the idea of 'the main character is the only main character').

And yknow. It gave me an excuse to bother @shirajellyfish even more than I was already, so that was a definite bonus. <3

[thoughtportal]

The U.S. Wants to Ban TikTok for the Sins of Every Social Media Company

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives will likely vote to force ByteDance to divest from TikTok, which sets the stage for a possible full ban of the platform in the United States (Update: it did). The move will come after a slow but steady drumbeat from politicians on both sides of the aisle to ban the platform for some combination of potential and real societal harms algorithmically inflicted upon American teens by a Chinese-owned company. 

The situation is an untenable mess. A TikTok ban will have the effect of further entrenching and empowering gigantic, monopolistic American social media companies that have nearly all of the same problems that TikTok does. A ban would highlight, again, that people who use mainstream social media platforms run by corporations do not actually own their followers or their audiences, and that any businesses/jobs/livelihoods created on these platforms can be stripped away at any moment by the platforms or, in this case, by the United States government. 

Bytedance and TikTok itself have been put into an essentially impossible situation that is perhaps most exemplified in a 60 Minutes clip from 2022 that went viral this weekend, in which Tristan Harris, a big tech whistleblower who has turned the attention he got from the documentary The Social Dilemma into a self-serving career as a guy who talks about how social media is bad, explains that China is exporting the “opium” version of TikTok to American children. 

In [the Chinese] version of TikTok, if you’re under 14 years old, they show you science experiments you can do at home, museum exhibits, patriotism videos, and educational videos,” Harris said. “And they also limit it to only 40 minutes per day. They don’t ship that version of TikTok to the rest of the world. So it’s almost like they recognize TikTok is influencing kids’ development, and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok, while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world.” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr quote tweeted this and said “In America, TikTok pushes videos to kids that promote self-harm, eating disorders, and suicide.” 

Put simply: Every social media platform pushes awful shit to users of all ages. This is not a defense of TikTok, but a simple fact that has made up a huge portion of tech reporting for the last decade. Mere weeks ago, the New York Times published an exposé on underage girls being pushed into “child influencing,” a world which is full of pedophiles. Instagram’s effects on teens has been widely documented by Meta’s own employees, and without really trying we have been able to document the sale of guns and drugs, hacking services, and counterfeit services in ads displayed on the platform. Discord is full of communities used for organizing by Neo Nazis and paramilitaries, criminal hackers, crypto scammers, deepfake peddlers, teens who kidnap each other, etc. Facebook is full of AI-generated bullshit that people think is real, was used by foreign adversaries to attempt to influence an election, was credibly accused of being abused to facilitate a genocide in Myanmar, and has had innumerable scandals over the years. Twitter is full of malware and has essentially gotten rid of all of its rules. YouTube is a place that has been used by ISIS terrorists, white supremacists, mass shooters, and child brainwashers. Telegram was founded by Russians, is now based in the United Arab Emirates, and is full of criminals, hackers, and Russian disinformation. We have reported endlessly that all of these platforms are monitored by governments, militaries, surveillance agencies, and commercial interests around the world using "social listening," "social media monitoring," and OSINT tools.

Meta, Google, and Twitter have all moved resources away from content moderation in recent years, and have laid off huge numbers of employees as Republicans have cried “social media censorship.” As Elon Musk’s Twitter has become more of a cesspool in the absence of good content moderation, Google and Meta have realized that they can keep advertisers as long as their platforms are ever so slightly less toxic than Twitter. I am unaware of any political pushes to ban Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter, and efforts to meaningfully regulate them to be less harmful seemingly have no political will. The only actual regulation of these platforms have been laws passed by conservatives in Florida and Texas which give them even less ability to moderate their platforms and which is the subject of a Supreme Court case. 

This is just to say that TikTok and the specter of China’s control of it has become a blank canvas for which anyone who has any complaint about social media to paint their argument on, and has become a punching bag receiving scrutiny we should also be applying to every other social media giant. 

When Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash and Bird ignore local laws or face the specter of bans or regulation, they use push notifications, email, and popups within their apps asking customers to complain to legislators. When these American apps do this, they are simply leveraging their popularity to “mobilize users.” When TikTok does the same, it is Chinese interference in American politics. When American TikTok users use their platform to share their progressive or leftist politics and TikTok’s algorithms allow them to go viral, that’s Chinese interference. When TikTok deletes content that violates its terms of service, that’s Chinese censorship. When Facebook and Google allow advertisers to create psychographic, biographic, and behavioral-based profiles of their users to target ads to them, that’s “personalized advertising.” When TikTok does ads, it’s Chinese spying. When TikTok users see content that promotes suicide, eating disorders, and makes people feel bad about themselves, it’s China brainwashing our children, undermining America, and threatening our existence. When Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube users see the same, it’s inconvenient and unfortunate, but can be solved with a blasé spokesperson statement that these platforms care about safety and will strive to do better.

In the clip above, Harris explains that polls show American children want to be “social media influencers” and that Chinese children want to be “astronauts,” the subtext being that it is like this because bad stuff is not allowed on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Banning TikTok is not going to change this (and Harris does not mention that China has tons of social media influencers as well). Harris says this with some derision, the subtext being that we should not want our children to grow up to be social media influencers. 

This should not need to be explained, but because Harris and 60 Minutes did not explain it: Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) is not actually a sterile place that consists only of people doing science experiments and math equations, just as TikTok and all social media in America is not only an unmitigated shithole devoid of intellectual value. But Harris has this idea of Douyin being a safe place for kids because China does not have a free internet. The internet is widely and famously censored by the Chinese government, and ByteDance is complying with Chinese law in China. It is possible to argue (though I would not), that this makes the internet “safer,” and it is possible to argue (though I would not) that a “safer” internet is “better.” If Harris wants Chinese-style censorship of the internet in the United States, then he should argue for that. But in the United States, we have the First Amendment and a host of other regulations that have fostered something resembling an open internet. That open internet allowed for the rise of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. 

This general principle of not censoring the global internet also allowed for the rise of TikTok, which has millions of users in the United States because people like using it. TikTok is not perfect—in fact, I believe lots of the things on TikTok are very bad. Despite what I have just written, I understand that Chinese interference via algorithmic warfare or spying or any other tactic is a possible threat. China has been accused of using accounts on TikTok to spread influence, in the exact same way as the U.S. government has been caught spreading pro-U.S. influence abroad on Facebook and Twitter. 

Like I mentioned, I think that this entire situation is actually very complicated, and is in fact a huge mess. I can understand why some people want to ban TikTok, but I am not sure how the government can do so without violating the free speech rights of millions of Americans and setting us on a path where a relatively open, global internet becomes one that is increasingly geographically siloed. I don’t think we should ban a platform because it competed too hard and became popular, especially when the direct beneficiaries of a ban are companies that are doing most of the same apparent algorithmic poisoning of America, just from within America’s borders. I also do not think it is constitutional, ethical, or good for the government to decide to unilaterally cut millions of Americans off from one of the largest social media platforms in the world and to effectively force its users and more importantly the people who make a living on TikTok to use a balkanized internet dominated by American megacorporations. 

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Kati Morton was a reluctant adopter of YouTube.

A therapist working toward her license in California, it was her then-boyfriend, now-husband, who first suggested that Morton explore posting videos on the platform as a way to disseminate mental health information.

The year was 2011, and Morton, like many others, thought YouTube primarily consisted of videos of cats playing the piano and make-up tutorials. But after seeing other content posted on the site, Morton decided to give it a shot.

Her audience started small, with her videos garnering a handful of views. But in the more than a decade since then, Morton's YouTube channel has grown to more than 1.2 million subscribers.

Crucial to the growth of Morton's audience is YouTube's system for recommending content to users, which the company began building in 2008. It relies on a highly complex algorithm to predict what videos will interest viewers and keep them watching. Today, half of Morton's views come from recommendations, she said.

"If you could see the entire life of the channel, it was really, really slow and steady," Morton told CBS News. "And then through recommendations, as well as collaborations, things have grown as you're able to reach a broader audience and YouTube is better able to understand the content."

YouTube's recommendations algorithm, and those used by platforms like TikTok, Facebook and Twitter, are now at the heart of a legal dispute that will go before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, in a case that involves the powerful legal shield that helped the internet grow.

"We're talking about rewriting the legal rules that govern the fundamental architecture of the internet," Aaron Mackey, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CBS News of what's at stake in the case, known as Google v. Gonzalez.

"A BACKBONE OF ONLINE ACTIVITY"

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunizes internet companies from liability over content posted by third parties and allows platforms to remove content considered obscene or objectionable. The dispute before the Supreme Court marks the first time the court will consider the scope of the law, and the question before the justices is whether Section 230's protections for platforms extend to targeted recommendations of information.

The court fight arose after terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, when 129 people were murdered by ISIS members. Among the victims was 23-year-old Nohemi Gonzalez, an American college student studying abroad who was killed at a bistro in the city.

Gonzalez's parents and other family members filed a civil lawsuit in 2016 against Google, which owns YouTube, alleging that the tech company aided and abetted ISIS in violation of a federal anti-terrorism statute by recommending videos posted by the terror group to users.

Google moved to dismiss the complaint, claiming that they were immune from the claims under Section 230. A federal district court in California agreed and, regarding YouTube's recommendations, found that Google was protected under the law because the videos at issue were produced by ISIS.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling, and Gonzalez's family asked the Supreme Court to weigh in. The high court said in October it would take up the dispute.

The court fight has elicited input from a range of parties, many of which are backing Google in the case. Platforms like Twitter, Meta and Reddit — all of which rely on Section 230 and its protections — argue algorithmic recommendations allow them to organize the millions of pieces of third-party content that appear on their sites, enhancing the experience for users who would otherwise be forced to sift through a mammoth amount of posts, articles, photos and videos.

"Given the sheer volume of content on the internet, efforts to organize, rank, and display content in ways that are useful and attractive to users are indispensable," lawyers for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, told the court.

Even the company that operates online dating services Match and Tinder pointed to Section 230 as "vital" to its efforts to connect singles, as the law allows "its dating platforms to provide recommendations to its users for potential matches without having to fear overwhelming litigation."

But conservatives are using the case as a vehicle to rail against "Big Tech" firms and amplify claims that platforms censor content based on political ideology.

Citing lower court decisions they believe has led to a "broad grant of immunity," a group of Republican Senators and House members told the Supreme Court that platforms "have not been shy about restricting access and removing content based on the politics of the speaker, an issue that has persistently arisen as Big Tech companies censor and remove content espousing conservative political views, despite the lack of immunity for such actions in the text of" Section 230.

The case has presented the Justices with a rare opportunity to hear directly from the co-authors of the legislation at issue. Ron Wyden, now a Democratic Senator from Oregon, and Chris Cox, a former GOP congressman from California, crafted Section 230 in the House in 1996. The bipartisan pair filed a friend-of-the court brief explaining the plain meaning of their law and the policy balance they sought to strike.

"Section 230 protects targeted recommendations to the same extent that it protects other forms of content curation and presentation," they wrote. "Any other interpretation would subvert Section 230's purpose of encouraging innovation in content moderation and presentation. The real-time transmission of user-generated content that Section 230 fosters has become a backbone of online activity, relied upon by innumerable internet users and platforms alike."

Google, they argued, is entitled to liability protection under Section 230, since the platform's recommendation algorithm is merely responding to user preferences by pairing them with the types of content they seek.

"The algorithm functions in a way that is not meaningfully different from the many curatorial decisions that platforms have always made in deciding how to present third-party content," Wyden and Cox said.

The battle also highlights competing views about the internet today and how Section 230 has shaped it. For tech companies, the law has laid the groundwork for new platforms to come online, an industry of online creators to form and free expression to flourish. For Gonzalez's family and others, the algorithmic recommendations have proven deadly and harmful.

Like the Gonzalezes, Taiwanna Anderson, too, has fought to hold a social media platform responsible over content it recommends to users.

Last May, Anderson sued TikTok and its parent company, China-based ByteDance, after her 10-year-old daughter Nylah died in late 2021 after trying to perform the dangerous "Blackout Challenge," in which users are pushed to strangle themselves until they pass out and then share videos of the experience.

The challenge, which went viral on TikTok, was recommended to Nylah through her account's "For You" page, a curated feed of third-party content powered by TikTok's algorithmic recommendation system.

Anderson's lawsuit sought to hold TikTok accountable for deliberately funneling dangerous content to minors through the challenges and encouraging behavior that put their lives in danger. TikTok asked the federal district court in Pennsylvania to dismiss the suit, invoking Section 230.

U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond tossed out the case in October, writing that the law shielded TikTok from liability because it was promoting the work of others. But he acknowledged in a brief order that TikTok made the Blackout Challenge "readily available on their site" and said its algorithm "was a way to bring the challenge to the attention of those likely to be most interested in it."

"The wisdom of conferring such immunity is something properly taken up with Congress, not the courts," Diamond wrote.

Mackey, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, noted that if people disagree with the reach of Section 230 as the courts have interpreted it, the right remedy is for Congress, not the Supreme Court, to rewrite the law.

"When they passed it, they set this balance and said not that they didn't believe there wouldn't be harmful content, but they believed on balance the creation of opportunities and forums for people to speak, for the growth of the internet and development of a tool that became central to our lives, commerce, political expression — that was what they valued more," Mackey said. "Congress is free to rewrite that balance."

A NEW CREATOR ECONOMY

In the 27 years since Section 230 became law, the explosive growth of the internet has fueled a multi-billion-dollar industry of independent online creators who rely on large tech platforms to reach new audiences and monetize their content.

In Morton's case, her YouTube channel has allowed her to expand beyond her office in Santa Monica, California, and reach patients around the country, including in areas where mental health resources may be scarce.

"The ability for me to get over a million views on YouTube means that I'm able to reach so many more people, and mental health information isn't held behind a paywall," she said.

Alex Su, a lawyer by training who runs the TikTok account LegalTechBro, first began sharing content on LinkedIn in 2016 as a way to drive awareness of his employer, a technology company. After building up a following of lawyers and others in the legal industry on LinkedIn, Su began experimenting with TikTok in 2020.

His TikTok videos, which touch on insider experiences of working at a law firm, resonated with other lawyers and people with ties to the profession. He said LinkedIn's recommendation system has been instrumental in helping Su reach his target audience and market his company's services.

"These algorithms let me go viral among people who can relate to my jokes," he told CBS News. "If I put this type of content in front of a general audience, they probably wouldn't find it as funny."

Internet companies and supporters of Section 230 note the law has allowed for new and emerging companies to grow into industry leaders without incurring significant litigation costs fighting frivolous claims.

Su, an early adopter of LinkedIn and TikTok for those in the legal field, noted that creators are often quick to take advantage of new platforms, where they can reach new audiences.

"I think it's no accident that there are these shifts where new entrants come in and you can take advantage of it as a content creator because then you can go viral on that platform with a new audience quickly," he said. "Without those different platforms, I would not have been able to grow in the way that I did."

FEW CLUES FROM THE COURT

The Supreme Court has given little indication of how it may approach Section 230. Only Justice Clarence Thomas has written about lower courts' interpretations of the legal shield.

"Courts have long emphasized non-textual arguments when interpreting [Section] 230, leaving questionable precedent in their wake," Thomas wrote in a 2020 statement urging the court to consider whether the law's text "aligns with the current state of immunity enjoyed by internet platforms."

The Supreme Court could issue a ruling that affirms how Section 230 has been interpreted by lower courts, or narrow the law's immunity.

But internet companies warned the court that if it limits the scope of Section 230, it could drastically change how they approach content posted to their sites. With a greater risk of costly litigation with fewer protections, companies may be more cautious about letting content appear on their sites that may be problematic, and only allow content that has been vetted and poses little legal risk.

"If you're concerned about censorship, the last thing you want is a legal regime that is going to punish platforms for keeping things online," Mackey said. "It's going to be increased censorship, more material will be taken down, a lot won't make it alone in the first place."

A decision from the Supreme Court is expected by the summer.

[harrelltut]

Shhh...

WELCOME BACK HOME IMMORTAL [HIM] U.S. MILITARY KING SOLOMON-MICHAEL HARRELL, JR.™

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KCUF your small normie talk

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© 1698-2223 QUANTUM HARRELL TECH LLC All LOST ANCIENT [L.A.] ATLANTEAN DNA [A.D.] DotCom [A.D.] + DotTech [A.D.] + Pre 1698quantumharrellgov.tech Domain Name Rights Reserved.

[thahxa]

the year is 1991. people are talking about "cyber and electronic dominance" of the battlefield after the united states invades iraq and how tech will change warfare forever.

the year is 2014. people are talking about "cyber and electronic dominance" of the battlefield after isis takes large areas of territory, in part fueled from online propaganda and a nascent drone program and how this will change warfare forever.

the year is 2024, people are talking about

[umichenginabroad]

Week 15: So long, Praha!

Dobrý den,

I have so many mixed emotions about my time here coming to an end. As busy as I was throughout the semester I truly believe I did a good job immersing myself in Czech daily life and culture and I'm proud of that. I definitely want to come back, just without the responsibilities that come with being a student 😅. 

We had our challenge project presentation panel, followed by our final ceremony signaling the end of the program. The company really liked our work and appreciated the extra time I put into compiling the document with action items for their tech team. 

Now all that’s left is cleaning up the common areas of the apartment, which I unfortunately had to do alone before Isy (a Czech peer) came and helped me. She’s an angel. 

Enjoy the views along the walk home from school and from my room for one last time with me.

Final Reflection

As I sit in the airport and reflect on my experiences, I’m overwhelmed by feelings of gratitude for the people I’ve met and all the unique experiences I had, in Prague and beyond. To better convey these thoughts, let me share with you a brief story that I feel encompasses my biggest takeaways from this semester abroad.

When I was solo traveling in Italy, I stopped in Milan for a night and decided to hang out at the bar of the hostel I was staying at before heading to dinner. A man who looked to be in his late 20s sat down next to me and we started chatting. He introduced himself as Dennis, a civil engineer from the Netherlands, who has been traveling throughout Italy chasing the recommendations of locals he'd met along the way. I sat and listened to his stories, admiring his ability to arrive in a new country without plans, developing an itinerary en route. After all, locals know best.

I was also surprised by his ability to take so much time off of work for travel. In the Netherlands, like many other countries in the EU, it's customary to have 6-7 weeks of paid vacation time each year. I was shocked. In America, there is no federal requirement for paid time off. In fact, many Americans don’t even use all their PTO, in fear that in taking time off they’ll fall behind on their work or hinder their career growth. We fell into this conversation in class a few weeks ago, and it enlightened me about all the workplace perceptions and expectations that don’t apply outside of the US. While the US is incredibly progressive in terms of fostering diversity in technical roles and schooling, the hustle culture is exhausting and counteractive to quality of life, balance, and even productivity. Not to mention the extreme costs associated with healthcare and having children, and the lack of maternity leave or protection. I feel privileged to have obtained this knowledge while studying abroad that I wouldn't have considered, or even fathomed, when thinking about working abroad post-college.

After an hour had passed, another woman in her early 20s joined our conversation. Polina’s a linguist, originally from Belarus, but has been living in Warsaw for the past decade. We bonded over staple TV shows of our childhoods, including ICarly, Victorious, and Drake & Josh, which fostered remarkably shared experiences despite growing up on opposite sides of the world. Soon after, we were joined by two more men, also engineers, in their 30s: an Italian named Marco and a German named Tim. We sat and talked in our group of five until the early morning hours. I learned more about cross-cultural communication and international living than I ever imagined I would in my time abroad.

On the next round of drinks, I’d been craving a coffee and put in an order for a cappuccino. I received unexpectedly strong opposition instead… It turns out ordering coffee after 11am is completely taboo in Italy. The bartender, with a mixture of amusement and adherence to custom, refused my request but compromised by serving me a shot of espresso: a subtle push to respect local customs and embrace cultural peculiarities.

When chatting a bit deeper with my new friends, it dawned on me how much power language held. There I was, a two-language speaker surrounded by people who spoke 4, if not 5, or more languages. Polina, the linguist of the group, educated us about languages and their roots, including Italic, Slavic, and Germanic. As solo travelers, we all shared an understanding of the power of communication when traveling; without English as a universal language, none of us would’ve been able to connect.

We got to talking about the aspects of our homelands we were proud of. Polina, with her roots in Belarus and Poland, praised the genuine, no-BS attitude of her people. Tim, with a more somber pride, mentioned Germany’s dedication to a conscious and cultured society after a dark historical chapter. Dennis talked up the networking and opportunity in the Netherlands, and recounted the legacy of the Dutch being the only Europeans to be allowed to trade with China and Japan in earlier days. I mentioned the diversity of the US, and how I’ve had the opportunity to grow up with friends from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds. And finally, Marco spoke about the Italian way of celebrating daily life and finding beauty in every situation. I knew this to be true, as just this afternoon I ran into a mall during a downpour of rain to discover tens of pairs dancing around a small speaker. I witnessed two teens, one teaching the other how to dance, then turned my gaze to a young woman joining an older gentleman dancing solo. Soon enough, everyone joined in on the camaraderie. 

Reflecting on these experiences, I recognize the profundity in this seemingly small conversation and the depth each of us brought to it through shared laughter, memories, and time. That's the essence of my journey abroad, embracing authenticity and connection.

Czeching out,

Reese Liebman

Computer Science and Engineering

Institute for Study Abroad (IFSA) CS Tech Career Accelerator in Prague, Czechia

[thedatagroupnewsservice]

ICYMI: NetApp and Evercore ISI Institutional Equities to Host a Tech Talk on NetApp’s AI Strategy and Direction http://dlvr.it/T9NJSF

[silvermuffins]

Gonna just get through some cutscenes and then call it.

Calling dibs on sushi... I've had sea urchin sushi. I don't think I'd order it again, but I'm glad I tried it. It's been several years, I remember it tasting...vaguely grassy? And it was very texture for not being very texture.

Mitsuru just. Exasperated but cannot argue. Girl has Money and much love for her team.

Anyway. We did it! Saved the world. Oh, Pharos showed up during the day. Wasn't I rank 8 with him??? But this is goodbye.

Even miracles don't last forever...

Apparently I was rank 9 or I gained two at once. Another max on my list!

Oh do we get our afternoon?

No we do not, we just get to talk to people in the classroom.

Almost....done.... They're having a sushi party and all the hunger I have not felt today is hitting at once.

Yukari. Tourists do not have a monopoly on photography. Taking photos to commemorate special events is normal!

THE PHOTO IS SO PRECIOUS

Yaaaay rank 7 Fool. Give Koromaru treats! He's a good boy!

Oops the Dark Hour isn't gone 🤭 there's a bell and we Go

B E T R A Y A L

Ikutsuki is NOT our friend. When he was joking about our final meal.....

The end of the world looks. Death is coming. The Dark Hour is a case of gone horribly right. Salvation in ruin. Prophecies and princes. Yukari's father's message was doctored and we fell for it all. Aigis has been reprogrammed and turned on us.

Human sacrifice is now on the menu!

Oh they made that creepier. The crosses don't look at tall, though, shame. Buuuuut apparently THIS is that observatory the one guy kept talking about....

Ohhhhh they made that cutscene SO MUCH BETTERWORSE by which I mean holy fuck they amplified how fucked up it is. It's perfect. Holy shit. Ten out of ten, no notes. Ikutsuki is crazier, Mitsuru's scream is heartrending, Aigis's perspective is more detailed and clear, and that finale....hng.

Oh God. Mitsuru's voice actress is going to make me cry.

And we still have to just. Go to school. Oh, shit, was that confirmation Mitsuru's mother is dead...?

Oh these cutscenes are just Going okay. Short, simple, empty statements.... No one can figure out what to do, so it's just...going for the easy, surface things. Like "I hope she'll be okay" and "this is all so hard to believe"...

And who could blame them? There are no answers. It's not okay and nothing can make it okay. At least for once Akihiko's way of thinking is handy. Nobody knows what to do or who to fight - but SEES can still punch Shadows.

Fuuka, tech wizard that she is, has a CD (remember those?) for Yukari. Oh and she's watching the video, gotta get through this too.

Oh, anime cutscene....oh they really amped that up. Ow. God. Yukari now gets to reconcile with what her father did and what happened to him. Which meeeeaaaaaans... Persona Upgrade! Hello Isis! New theurgy! Ohhh it's a support skill - the magic to Koromaru's physical.

It is now evening on the 5th and I need to go to bed two hours ago. Good night!

Okay, let's get to it. This game won't play itself. It's not nier. Which I will get back to at some point, but for now, Reload.

Leaving Tartarus!

Edogawa-sensei you cannot suddenly mention theurgy without setting off a mgs alert noise. So traditionally that's focused on "summoning guiding spirits called demons"...

Let's see, who will be my friend today? Leeeet's do Kazushi. We're close to knocking his link out! First let's find that samurai helmet though. And make sure everyone is geared up for the big fight.

Okay! I think I'm geared up pretty well now. Kazushi.

[bighermie]

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Michael Hayden, Advisor to ‘Misinformation’ Watchdog NewsGuard, Says GOP More Dangerous than Al Qaeda, ISIS https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/08/18/michael-hayden-advisor-to-misinformation-watchdog-newsguard-says-gop-more-dangerous-than-al-qaeda-isis/

[nogunsjustrosess]

Israel 'defending itself' is a laughable phrase when they have all the military power and technology and respond to whatever attacks Palestinians initiate with homemade rockets and rocks tenfold with more civilian deaths. they wouldn't have to defend themselves if they weren't occupying palestinian land and brutally suppressing its people. the fixation on Hamas which was created YEARS into the conflict, long after Israel had already been perpetrating war crimes, is just a way to deflect from the reality that Israel is a colonial project that is killing Palestinian babies in the name of self defense. consider why you want to justify IDF soldiers shooting at people who are running away from them, surrendering. these people live in a prison. they have no clean air or water. Israel controls everything - their electricity, their sewage systems, controls where they come and go. they have no freedoms. it is not even a remotely comparable situation. Israel has ALL the power, Palestine has NONE.

I will answer you thoroughly because I want you to take the time and read this response, there are MANY incorrections and misconceptions here that I hope are the results of being simply misinformed and not something way worse.

not gonna flood your feed so I’m putting everything under the tag. 

“Israel 'defending itself' is a laughable phrase when they have all the military power and technology and respond to whatever attacks Palestinians initiate with homemade rockets and rocks tenfold with more civilian deaths.”

 The asymmetry you’re talking about - tech and military wise - being your justification as to why Israel just has to endure ‘homemade rockets and rocks’  is fucked up. First of all, these are NOT just homemade rockets. 

Hamas has multiple types of rockets - and let me tell you - they are NOT homemade. Hamas is the third wealthiest terror organisation according to forbes. They receive money from Qatar and Jordan, as well as many other countries that think they fund help for the Palestinian. They don’t, Hamas uses all that money to launch thousands of top notch rockets and missiles to Israel, instead of helping the people of Gaza. Do you think homemade rockets look like this? do you think they can do this? maybe this? 

this?

or that? 

I wrote about the rocks Palestinians throw at soldiers and civilians here,  last week, an Israeli Jewish man was beaten to death and murdered by rocks in Lod by radical Israeli Arabs who identify as Palestinians. This is only the most recent occurrence - but it happens all the time and poses a serious life threat since the rocks thrown aren’t cute little beach stone, they’re big chunks of rock meant to kill, and using them as weapons is illegal in multiple countries around the world because of how dangerous it is. 

Gaza has more civilian deaths, that’s for sure. Again asymmetry that raises the brutal question - why there aren’t more Israeli people dying? Now, Israel does have a better system and way better protective measures against missiles and rockets. Do you want to know why? Israel invests millions in shelters, protective spaces and most of all - the Iron Dome. Hamas invests the same amounts of money in arming itself with missiles they launch at Israeli civilians (Jewish, Arab and Christians). Also, Hamas launches missiles and rockets from civilian areas so when they malfunction they also blow up around the same areas. 

“they wouldn't have to defend themselves if they weren't occupying palestinian land and brutally suppressing its people.”

Do you realize that they wouldn’t have to ‘defend themselves’ if they weren’t shooting at Israel in the first place? They are NOT defending themselves, Hamas has been continually sending missiles to Israel with no regard to human lives - not Israel’s nor theirs. Also, Israel has withdrawn all its settlements in 2005 with the exception of some parts in the Gaza strip, so not so much for your occupation, unless you believe the entire land of Israel is an occupation, and in that case - you’re historically incorrect. 

“the fixation on Hamas which was created YEARS into the conflict, long after Israel had already been perpetrating war crimes”

The ‘fixation’ on Hamas is the direct result of the pure fact they are actively trying to MURDER Israeli civilians every single day. You are correct by saying the conflict is way older than Hamas and way more complicated than them (you see, that’s why you DON’T get your info from infographics folks) but before Hamas there was the terror organisation Hezbollah from Lebanon (that very recently decided to join the party and fire missiles from the northern border to Israel as well), the Muslim Brotherhood and of course, ISIS. They are the terror organisations that continuously try to wipe Israel and everybody in it for good, committing endless war crimes. You all shout war crimes when Israel is the only country trying to minimise and prevent the harm done to Palestinians, often on its own expanse - like here, yesterday Israel tried to ship some resources to Gaza but the shipments were attacked by Palestinians. 

“a way to deflect from the reality that Israel is a colonial project that is killing Palestinian babies in the name of self defense.”

You guys love that argument - Israel killing Palestinian babies. Well here and here you can see well planned attacks on Hamas HQ and offices that were called off last minute because it was revealed civilians and children were present. This is something the army tries to avoid at all cost, even if it means losing millions, as well as months and sometimes years of intelligence gathering. That’s because Israel values human lives more than anything! Every possible effort to eliminate the threat to innocent lives WILL be made on the expense of anything. Except, Hamas doesn’t play by those rules, they have been known to deliberately hide Intelligence HQ, offices, and even high level terrorist amongst civilians, as well as schools, hospitals - and our newest example - news buildings. Putting human lives in danger because they use Israel’s refusal to kill civilians as an advantage. Unfortunately, that also means many time Israel doesn’t know about the presence of civilians there and horrible deaths happen. That’s very much on Hamas. 

“is just consider why you want to justify IDF soldiers shooting at people who are running away from them, surrendering. these people live in a prison.”

Listen, IDF soldiers are rarely allowed to shoot anyone - most of them don’t even carry any weapons but pepper spray. But the ones who do suffer very severe consequences if they misuse their weapons and they need to justify themselves in a court marshall . For example a couple of years ago a 19 years old soldier shot a terrorist that tried to stab his friend, he went through multiple court marshalls and even a civil trial, as well as months in prison. Believe me, this is not something any soldier would want to go trough unless their life was in grave danger and they had to shoot. (maybe America could learn a thing or too).

“they have no clean air or water. Israel controls everything - their electricity, their sewage systems, controls where they come and go. they have no freedoms. it is not even a remotely comparable situation. Israel has ALL the power, Palestine has NONE.”

Lastly, please do your research. First of all, Gaza is currently controlled by Hamas. And has been since its election almost 15 years ago. They control the resources Palestinians get or don’t get, and again - they choose to spend the billions they get in funds by buying missiles and weapons. The only thing Israel truly controls is the border with Israel, and like any other border it’s monitored and controlled, especially since it’s a favoured place for terrorist to execute attacks. Don’t forget there’s a border with Egypt as well. 

We’re not talking about Israel vs Palestinians. We’re talking about Israel vs Hamas - a blood thirsty, antisemitic terror organisation that has no value for human lives whatsoever. And still, Israel is the one who gets blamed and condemned.  

(and i have to thank @mysteryspotillusions because she did such a great job and I link to her posts several times!) 

[kendrixtermina]

Now leaving aside that that looks a lot like a canned talking point& therefore a bad faith argument, even if we accept your premise, Hamas has nothing to do with it.

They are deliberately killing civilians, systematically crushing all the vital infrastructure like hospitals & mills.

They have a higher rate of civilian casualties than ANY comparable conflict in human history. Already they killed twice as many children in two months as the Afghanistan war did in 20 years. (despite the USA's tendency to casually blow up civilians with drones, making kids fear the blue sky)

Speaking of Afghanistan: Notice how bombing did nothing at all to get rid of the Taliban? They got Bin Laden with spy drones and a swat team, not bombing. Bombing did jack against the Viet Cong. (except cause disabilities to vietnamese children with chemical warfare) Bombing created ISIS.

If want me to believe that a super modern army with all the best spy tech in the world is killing all these kids "accidentally", you are really insulting my intelligence, and proving you have no self-respect

What does a Christmas tree have with Israel/Palestine conflict? 🤔

[187days]

Day One Hundred Fifty-Seven

So 90% of the teachers at my school couldn’t get on the Internet today, including me, and I don’t know exactly why (one of the tech guys came and fixed it about forty minutes before the afternoon bell, but I didn’t ask questions, just said thank you). Luckily, my students didn’t have that problem, so I didn’t have to make major adjustments to my lessons. 

I started World by having them watch 4.1 Miles, which is about refugees fleeing from Turkey to Greece in 2015 (mostly to escape ISIS, which they learned about last class). I couldn’t load it on my laptop and project it like I’d originally planned on doing, but I’d posted the link in Classroom, so I had students throw on some headphones and watch it on their own screens, which worked just as well. We talked about what they’d seen, and then about the varying reactions in European countries to the influx of refugees. We zeroed in on Poland, and on the anti-immigration politics that were ascendant there following that crisis, which gave students some clues as to why the border guards responded the way they did in 2021. Dots are gradually being connected...

Most of my APUSGOV students also take AP Calc, so they had their exam today. Since I knew I’d only have a handful of kids in class, I planned lightly: two articles about state and local politics, very basic, highlighting some unique aspects of New Hampshire’s government and the issues of greatest concern to its voters. Students read them, I raided the main office for cookies (leftover from a meeting or something), we took a walk through the front fields and discussed summer jobs and college plans... Ahhh, post-exam life.

It’s a gorgeous day, so the walk was lovely, as was going to track practice. It’s the first time all season that I’ve worn shorts! And I definitely got a bit sunburned, but it’s all good. My sprinters did 150m repeats, blocks, relay passes, and called it a day. I’m thinking it might be time for some capture the flag later in the week if the weather continues to be nice!

[harrelltut]

1968 Gen X Eye... Remember ANU [ERA] GOLDEN 9 Ether 2223 SKY MOTHER PLANE of ATLANTIS [PA] 5000 @ 1921 QUANTUM 2023 HARRELL 2024 TECH 2025 Apple & IBM [A.i.] LLC of ATLANTIS [L.A.] 5000

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[nitannichionne]

Superman: The Rise of Isis (Henry Cavill Superman Fanfiction), Chapter 12: Something to Tell the Class

Chapter 12: Something to Tell the Class (Aquaman POV)

AQUAMAN POV

"Let me in!" I roared at the Justice League entrance. "NOW!"

The cave door slid open and I saw the monitors going, as usual. He's the only person I know who doesn't game and has that many screens. I wonder how well he would do if he could communicate by water like me or hear like Kal-El does. He wants to know, but if he did he really wouldn't want to know.

I strode in looking around. "Bruce." I saw Kal-El. "What's up, Kal-El." I looked over and saw Cyborg in his usual spot, surrounded by tech in that usual trance when he's working. "Hey."

"Hey." He nodded, not sparing me a glance.

"We need to talk!"

"What's--" Bruce glanced at me, did a double take, and frowned.

"Arthur?" Diana came in concerned. Evidently my voice carried. "What's going on?"

"Got the footage," Cyborg called. "Sending now."

"Have there been any--new developments--you care to share?" My eyes were burning through Kal-El at this point. He straightened, no longer looking at the monitors.

Bruce sat back in his chair. "We seem to have a new player--"

"No, you have an old player," I interjected, tapping my staff on the floor and not losing eye contact with Kal-El. "An old player with Kal-El's name on her lips."

Kal-El straightened. "She called for me?"

I looked at the monitor and stared at what I didn't see earlier that day. "I think the military has her." I looked at him. "She went to the water and cried for help in not one, but two--" I held up my fingers for emphasis. "Very nearly dead languages."

"Which two?" Bruce asked.

"Does it matter--" I gave a growl of frustration. "Ancient Egyptian and Hopi, I think."

Bruce typed and clicked on one screen. "I'm starting to think the Grand Canyon Temple of Isis holds more than artifacts."

"She was taken!" I hit my staff on the floor so hard I cracked it. "And she said your name." I stared at Kal-El.

"Oh my god." Diana's eyes widened with concern.

"Oh, and by the way," I felt my jaw clench. "Any idea where the military got Kryptonite?"

"Kryptonite?" Kal-El frowned deeper and glared at Bruce.

Diana wasn't happy to hear this. "Bruce?"

"Once we-humans-knew that Kryptonite could kill monsters people started scouting for it all over the world," Bruce muttered. "There's not much of it, but the United States has secured the most."

"The spear?"

"No, I still have it." Bruce saw Kal-El and I react to that. "It's safe and sound."

"They made it into rope," I informed and it was my turn to get looks. "She was bleeding, and they reeled her in like a fish caught on a line." I saw Kal-El wince. "So, before we go hiking and spelunking, how about we do a jail break?"

"Jail break?" Kal-El repeated.

"Not your scene, man," I told him. "The rest of us need to go. If we don't do something-something soon-she will be no more than a lab rat in no time. Call the kid, he could be of help. I got some ideas."

"You can do recon from here." Bruce offered, seeing Kal-El's distress.

"Way I see it, Bruce can get us in, and the kid can speed her out."

"Well, first, we need to know where she is," Kal said.

"I think I know."

We all turned to look at Bruce and he tapped a few keys.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding!" I shook my head.

"Alcatraz?" Kal-El shook his head in disbelief. "That's a--a--"

"Tourist attraction," Bruce finished. "By day, yes, but underground at night? There's stuff going on, boats going back and forth--"

"I'm surprised you don't own it," Diana shrugged, a glint of humor in her features.

"Who says I didn't try to get it?" Bruce said with clenched teeth.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Alcatraz was going to be demolished," Cyborg began in explanation. It was clear he was telling us what he saw on his screen. "The government offered it up for sale. Bruce was outbid at the last minute and the owner offered a partnership in profits."

"By who?"

Bruce took his time before he answered, "Lex Luthor."

"Hey!" Barry sped in, and found pizza in his usual spot. He started eating. "What did I miss?" When no answer came from any of us, he looked up. "Whoa, really, what did I miss?"

"We're going to break someone out of Alcatraz." I told him.

He turned like an animal who had been spotted, still chewing but his eyes full of alarm. "What?"

"Someone has been taken, Barry," Diana explained, leaning on the back of Bruce's chair. "We need to get in and out with someone."

"Let me get this straight," Barry said after swallowing. He slurped his drink and gulped again. "We are breaking into a prison-a world class prison turned tourist attraction?"

"Secret base underground." Bruce put in.

"Oh, underground secret base on an island hardly anyone got off of, and do it with a plus one." He was quiet, taking another slice of pizza.

"We need you for this one, Barry." Kal-El put in.

"I see," Barry munched thoughtfully, then his eyes widened. "Can I take a souvenir?"

"We'll find something," Diana said with a smile.

"And can I have chicken alfredo before I go?"

"I'm sure we can do that," Bruce rolled his eyes. "Jambalaya on the way back?"

"Oh, ah, jambalaya!" Barry's eyes lit. "I was goin' anyway, but wow--" He straightened. "I'm in."

I laughed at Barry, nodding. "Alright!"