Facebook Will Block Any Researcher that Attempts to Research It

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

Facebook is obstructing our work on disinformation. Other researchers could be next | Laura Edelson and Damon McCoy

From www.theguardian.com
2021-08-14 10:00:00

Excerpt:

Last week, Facebook disabled our personal accounts, obstructing the research we lead at New York University to study the spread of disinformation on the company’s platform. The move has already compromised our work – forcing us to suspend our investigations into Facebook’s role in amplifying vaccine misinformation, sowing distrust in our elections and fomenting the violent riots at the US Capitol on 6 January.

But even more important than the effect on our work is what Facebook’s hostility toward outside scrutiny means for the many other researchers and journalists trying to study Facebook’s effects on society. We’ve already heard from other researchers planning similar projects who are now pulling back. If Facebook has its way, there will be no independent research of its platform.

Our dispute with Facebook centers on a research tool called Ad Observer. Ad Observer is a web browser extension that Facebook users can choose to install to share with us limited and anonymous…

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Too White Jesus Removed by New Seattle Church

Seattle Church Covers Up “Too White Jesus” with Primitive Tree Painting

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

A Seattle Church prepared to take over an old church by covering up the stained glass image of Jesus that was popularly called Manifest Destiny Jesus because he was “too white.” They painted over the stained glass window with a transparent foam painting of a crudely blotched tree against an amorphous rainbow-like blob that allows the light to still shine through.

This Seattle church’s stained-glass Jesus was far too White

From www.christiancentury.org
2021-08-16 05:12:55

Excerpt:

Church of Hope’s new artwork—painted onto lightweight packing foam by artist and designer Naomi Cooper (left)—allows light from the original window (right) to shine through. (Images courtesy of Naomi Cooper)

Darla DeFrance noticed the White man in the window the first time she walked into the church building. A friend who joined her on a tour of the space called him Manifest Destiny Jesus. He even points west.

The building was going to be the new home of Church of Hope, the Seattle congregation where DeFrance is pastor. But she “didn’t understand or relate to that image of Jesus,” she says. She was trying to build a community representative of the diverse neighborhood, and having one dominant image of God in the church “felt exclusive,” DeFrance says.

At the beginning of each service at Church of Hope, DeFrance asks where people saw God show up…

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Biden Meets With People Off the Books from Delaware Home

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

Joe Biden is not letting anyone know who visits him when he goes home to Delaware, which he often does. He also often gets visitors, but these vistors appear to be off the books, and the Biden team intends on keeping it that way.

Biden REFUSES to disclose who’s visited him in Delaware since becoming president

From www.dailymail.co.uk
2021-08-12 03:12:16

Excerpt:

Biden has boasted of their efforts to ‘restore transparency and trust in government’

Joe Biden will not disclose who has visited him at his Delaware residences in the 17 trips he has taken home since becoming president – despite promising to ‘restore transparency and trust’ to the White House.

President Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki made the announcement at a press conference Wednesday.

She told reporters: ‘I can confirm we are not going to be providing information about the comings and goings of the president’s grandchildren or people visiting him in Delaware,’ Psaki told the New York Post on Biden’s stance on releasing visitor logs.

The publication also flagged visitors who could trigger potential conflicts of interests – including Biden’s former drug abuser son Hunter, who is now on the cusp of becoming a successful artist. He plans to sell some of his works to anonymous buyers for up to $500,000, sparking fears people could buy the works to try and lobby…

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Myanmar Junta Sitting on a Ticking Time Bomb, The Youth

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

The Junta of Myanmar may enjoy power today, but their actions, and the brutality with which they executed them, have created a whole generation busy training in preparation from retaking the country from the cabalists.

How Myanmar’s youth are preparing for civil war

From www.telegraph.co.uk
2021-08-13 05:00:00

Excerpt:

Tens of thousands of Myanmar citizens have also fled across its borders to Thailand and India to escape fighting between militias and the Tatmadaw.

“We have seen a proliferation on two fronts, both the number of people under arms and the number of Myanmar citizens, including those from the Bamar and the cities, heading to the frontier regions to get training,” explains Gregory Poling, Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The opposition to the Tatmadaw has been far more sustained than most expected and there are daily reports of bomb blasts and ambushes of Tatmadaw figures in major cities. The country is absolutely in a civil war, which is just intensifying.”

Colonel Solomon, 57, is a CNF leader in Camp Victoria. He has fought against the Tatmadaw for 30 years but says ongoing recruitment is unprecedented, with 30 people arriving in the camp daily.

“It’s not just the youth, it’s not just from across Chin state, it is…

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Creating New Concepts of IP with NFTs

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

Are NFTs a new shift in our understanding of intellectual property? Nonfungible tokens enable artists to create digital one-offs, among other things, that allow them to sell a unique image, video, etc. that itself can become the source of multiple non-original, non-unique digital copoies. But could NFTs also be used to create temporary, unique, customized copyright licenses tor artists?

A new paradigm for intellectual property assets?

From cointelegraph.com
2021-08-14 07:12:00
Cointelegraph By Greg Gerstenzang
Excerpt:

Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are digital records of the ownership of assets. The asset types most commonly associated with NFTs are digital assets, such as artwork like memes, GIFs, or gaming characters or properties. Assets represented by NFTs, however, may be digital, physical, tangible or intangible. Examples of asset types that have been transferred or that have had their ownership recorded utilizing NFTs include sports memorabilia, copyrights in music, artwork and real estate. Intellectual property assets and, specifically, the ownership and transfer of ownership of patents may also be recorded and transferred as NFTs.

Related: Nonfungible tokens from a legal perspective

The ownership of real estate may be recorded in a registry of deeds, the ownership of patents may be recorded in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the ownership of written works or music may be recorded in the Library of Congress through the copyright system. Because similar systems for…

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Grizzly Bear DNA is the Langauge of the People that Live with Him

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

The Grizzly Bears and the Indiginous humans that have shared the same geographic space along the coast of British Columbia are integrally tied to one another beyond anything that anyone could imagine. Researcheers from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, with other working groups working in collaboration with them, began looking for Bear DNA with no idea that it would lead them to discover that the DNA of these Grizzly Bears map right on to the structure of the language these indigionous people have been using.

‘Mind blowing’: Grizzly bear DNA maps onto Indigenous language families | Science

From www.sciencemag.org
2021-08-13 05:25:00

Excerpt:

\

By Rachel Fritts

Aug. 13, 2021 , 1:25 PM

The bears and Indigenous humans of coastal British Columbia have more in common than meets the eye. The two have lived side by side for millennia in this densely forested region on the west coast of Canada. But it’s the DNA that really stands out: A new analysis has found that the grizzlies here form three distinct genetic groups, and these groups align closely with the region’s three Indigenous language families.

It’s a “mind-blowing” finding that shows how cultural and biological diversity in the region are intertwined, says Jesse Popp, an Indigenous environmental scientist at the University of Guelph who was not involved with the work.

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Snopes CEO and Facebook Fact Checker Exposed for Plagarizm

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

It appears that one of Facebook’s fact checkers is themselves guilty of fact deception of the highest order in journalism, plagarizm. But this fact checker is none ofther then the CEO and co-founder of the legendary go-to fact-check source for Facebook, Snopes. That man is David Mikkelson, who under a pen name, wrote and published over 50 articles that were peppered with material allegededly plagarized by others.

Facebook fact-checker caught plagiarizing 54 articles

From winteryknight.com
2021-08-16 14:00:52
Wintery Knight
Excerpt:

Facebook uses fact-checkers to censor speech they disagree with. These fact-checkers (Lead Stories, Snopes, Politifact, Factcheck.org, Science Feedback) are often biased and unprofessional people. Many of them are just losers who dropped math in grade 9, and partied their way through journalism “school” while half drunk.

The Post Millenial explains:

On Friday, it was revealed that the co-founder and CEO of the popular fact-checking site Snopes David Mikkelson has been writing articles using plagiarized content under a pseudonym for years.

A Buzzfeed News investigation found that Mikkelson wrote and published over 50 articles containing plagiarized material between 2015 and 2019.

“After inquiries from BuzzFeed News, Snopes conducted an internal review and confirmed that under a pseudonym, the Snopes byline, and his own name, Mikkelson wrote and published 54 articles with plagiarized material,” wrote Buzzfeed.

As a result…

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China Showing World Tech What Awaits Them by How They Treat Their Own Companies

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

China has begun its crackdown on its own wanna-be corpo-statees such as have emerged in the US primarily, but in other nation-states as well, mostly in Europe. These corpo-states are the new big biz giants of current year, Big Tech, especially Social Media and eCommerce Sites. But while the big tech companies outside of China celebrate the taking down of some of theri competitors, they should pay attention to how China is treating their own companies to consider maybe potentially giving up on attempting to dance with the CCP for the promise of gaining access to that massive market.

A Chinese Warning for U.S. Tech

From www.wsj.com
2021-08-15 17:08:00

Excerpt:

Big U.S. tech companies must be watching with glee as China cracks down on its homegrown technology companies. They are thrilled not only because they are seeing potential global competitors in e-commerce, music licensing, ride sharing, food delivery and more weakened, but because they now have a powerful card to play at home.

It started last October when Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Financial, complained at the Shanghai Bund Summit that regulators were too cautious: “There is no innovation in this world without risk.” He also said Chinese banks have a pawnshop mentality, requiring collateral before they lend, unlike Ant, which was about to go public, which uses algorithms to assess creditworthiness. Mr. Ma’s criticisms were correct, but he angered the powers that be. Even though shares for Ant Financial’s initial public offering were 870 times oversubscribed, the Shanghai Stock Exchange effectively canceled the IPO in early November….

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Kabul’s Fall Marks End of Failed American 20 Year War

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

As the Taliban enter the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, it marks the end of a 20 year war, what history most likely will look back at as a singular failure and waste of resources for the United Statesn of America. Perhapss history might also observe how the war served to mostly perpetuate the boogeyman, or scapegoat back home, the Islamo-Fascist (a very real threat to any and all, but not so all-powerful and pervasive as we were sold they were back in the early years after 9/11). Perhaps history might also note how it served as a proving ground for the laatest lethal tech, with Afghanis serving as shooting pidgeons. Perhaps.

End of an era: Taliban enter Kabul and Afghan president flees country

From www.csmonitor.com
2021-08-15 17:24:28
Ahmad Seir, Rahim Faiz, Taheem Akhgar, and Jon Gambrell
Excerpt:

The Taliban fanned out across the capital, and a group of fighters entered the presidential palace in Kabul. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman and negotiator, told The Associated Press that the militants would hold talks in the coming days aimed at forming an “open, inclusive Islamic government.”

A Taliban official earlier said the group would announce the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the palace, but those plans appeared to be on hold. That was the name of the country under Taliban rule before the militants were ousted by U.S.-led forces after the 9/11 attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

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Does America Need to Take in the 1 Million Afghanees That Supprted Us?

Does America Need to Take in the 1 Million Afghanis That Supprted Us?

Freedomist Editor August 17, 2021

Calls for the US to consider rescuing those who risked their lives to dare to dream of the Afghanistan Americans promised them have only been rising, and they are coming from elements of the left and the right, though the calls themselves are still not a prevailing voice, either on the left or the right. The question is one to consider in light of our role in creating, essentially, bullseyes on significant portions of Afghanis, perhaps at least 1 million. Can we as a nation take in 1 million Afghan refugees that are now in danger of being harmed, enslaved, and killed? Or, perhaps the better question might be, should we feel morally obliged to?

After 20 Years of Destruction, US Should Let in 1 Million Afghan Refugees

From www.businessinsider.com
2021-08-16 16:23:07

Excerpt:

20 years of US war in Afghanistan has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Afghan deaths and the displacement of 5.9 million people.

The US government and US citizens have a responsibility to repair the damage caused by our war.

The US must resettle at least one million Afghan refugees in the US over the next decade and provide additional humanitarian assistance to Afghans.

David Vine is professor of anthropology at American University in Washington, DC. Vine is co-author of the Costs of War Project’s report “Creating Refugees: Displacement Caused by the United States’ Post-9/11 Wars.”

This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.

…

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