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Nice of 'em: "Microsoft Allowed To Sue US Government Over Email Surveillance"
by Razer 11 Feb '17

11 Feb '17

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-09/microsoft-can-pursue-sui…

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Cmp: Handful of “highly toxic” Wikipedia editors cause 9% of abuse on the site
by Razer 11 Feb '17

11 Feb '17

Sounds familiar somehow... "We've all heard anecdotes about trolling on Wikipedia and other social platforms, but rarely has anyone been able to quantify levels and origins of online abuse. That's about to change. Researchers with Alphabet tech incubator Jigsaw worked with Wikimedia Foundation to analyze 100,000 comments left on English-language Wikipedia. They found predictable patterns behind who will launch personal attacks and when. The goal of the research team was to lay the groundwork for an automated system to "reduce toxic discussions" on Wikipedia. The team's work could one day lead to the creation of a warning system for moderators. The researchers caution that this system would require more research to implement, but they have released a paper with some fascinating early findings. To make the supervised machine-learning task simple, the Jigsaw researchers focused exclusively on ad hominem or personal attacks, which are relatively easy to identify. They defined personal attacks as directed at a commenter (i.e., "you suck"), directed at a third party ("Bill sucks"), quoting an attack ("Bill says Henri sucks"), or just "another kind of attack or harassment." They used Crowdflower to crowdsource the job of reviewing 100,000 Wikipedia comments made between 2004-2015. Ultimately, they used over 4,000 Crowdflower workers to complete the task, and each comment was annotated by 10 different people as an attack or not. Once the researchers had their dataset, they trained a logistic regression algorithm to recognize whether a comment was a personal attack or not. "With testing, we found that a fully trained model achieves better performance in predicting whether an edit is a personal attack than the combined average of three human crowd-workers," they write in a summary of their paper on Medium. Who is launching personal attacks? The researchers unleashed their algorithm on Wikipedia comments made during 2015, constantly checking results for accuracy. Almost immediately, they found that they could debunk the time-worn idea that anonymity leads to abuse. Although anonymous comments are "six times more likely to be an attack," they represent less than half of all attacks on Wikipedia. "Similarly, less than half of attacks come from users with little prior participation," the researchers write in their paper. "Perhaps surprisingly, approximately 30% of attacks come from registered users with over a 100 contributions." In other words, a third of all personal attacks come from regular Wikipedia editors who contribute several edits per month. Personal attacks seem to be baked into Wikipedia culture. The researchers also found that an outsized percentage of attacks come from a very small number of "highly toxic" Wikipedia contributors. A whopping 9% of attacks in 2015 came from just 34 users who had made 20 or more personal attacks during the year. "Significant progress could be made by moderating a relatively small number of frequent attackers," the researchers note. This finding bolsters the idea that problems in online communities often come from a small minority of highly vocal users. The algorithm was also able to identify a phenomenon often called the "pile-on." They found that attacking comments are 22 times more likely to occur close to another attacking comment. "Personal attacks cluster together in time," the researchers write. "Perhaps because one personal attack triggers another." Though this shouldn't be surprising to anyone who has ever taken a peek at Twitter, being able to quantify this behavior is a boon for machine learning. It means that an algorithm might be able to identify a pile-on before it really blows up, and moderators could come in to de-escalate before things get really ugly. Depressingly, the study also found that very few personal attacks are moderated. Only 17.9% of personal attacks lead to a warning or ban. Attackers are more likely to be moderated if they have launched a number of attacks or have been moderated before. But still, this is an abysmal rate of moderation for the most obvious and blatant form of abuse that can happen in a community. The researchers conclude their paper by calling for more research. Wikipedia has released a dump of all talk-page comments to the site between 2004-1015 via Figshare, so other researchers will have access to the same dataset that the Jigsaw team did. Understanding how attacks affect other users is urgent, say the researchers. Do repeated attacks lead to user abandonment? Are some groups attacked more often than others? The more we know, the closer we get to having good tools to aid moderators. Such tools, the researchers write, "might be used to help moderators build dashboards that better visualize the health of Wikipedia conversations or to develop systems to better triage comments for review." With linkage: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/02/one-third-of-persona…

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Politicians Crypto, and Strange Unsuccessful Leaks
by grarpamp 11 Feb '17

11 Feb '17

https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/02/09/2247240/republicans-are-reportedly-u… Trump administration members and other Republicans are using the encrypted, self-destructing messaging app Confide to keep conversations private in the wake of hacks and leaks, according to Jonathan Swan and David McCabe at Axios. Axios writes that "numerous senior GOP operatives and several members of the Trump administration" have downloaded Confide, which automatically wipes messages after they're read. One operative told Axios that the app "provides some cover" for people in the party. He ties it to last year's hack of the Democratic National Committee, which led to huge and damaging information dumps of DNC emails leading up to the 2016 election. But besides outright hacks, the source also said he liked the fact that Confide makes it difficult to screenshot messages, because only a few words are shown at a time. That suggests that it's useful not just for reducing paper trails, but for stopping insiders from preserving individual messages -- especially given the steady flow of leaks that have come out since Trump took office. As Axios notes, official White House business is subject to preservation rules, although we don't know much about who's allegedly using Confide and what they're doing with it, so it's not clear whether this might run afoul of those laws. It's also difficult to say how much this is a specifically Republican phenomenon, and how much is a general move toward encryption. https://politics.slashdot.org/story/17/02/09/1446219/nsa-contractor-indicte… A former National Security Agency contractor was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges he willfully retained national defense information, in what U.S. officials have said may have been the largest heist of classified government information in history. The indictment alleges that Harold Thomas Martin, 52, spent up to 20 years stealing highly sensitive government material from the U.S. intelligence community related to national defense, collecting a trove of secrets he hoarded at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland. The government has not said what, if anything, Martin did with the stolen data. Martin faces 20 criminal counts, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison, the Justice Department said. "For as long as two decades, Harold Martin flagrantly abused the trust placed in him by the government," said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.

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NSA Spanked?, Snowden Pawned?
by grarpamp 11 Feb '17

11 Feb '17

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/02/10/2048243/former-cia-analyst-sues-def… Thomas Drake.. Pat Eddington... sue NSA over ThinThread vs Trailblazer http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russia-eyes-sending-snowden-u-s-gift-tr… U.S. official who has analyzed a series of highly sensitive intelligence reports detailing Russian deliberations and who says a Snowden handover is one of various ploys to "curry favor" with Trump.

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Re: [grarpamp@gmail.com: Police 3D Print Dead Man's Fingers To Unlock Phone]
by grarpamp 11 Feb '17

11 Feb '17

On 7/21/2016 2:18 PM, David I. Emery wrote: On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 5:49 PM, Tim <polohat(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I hope this "grarpamp" asshole has a friend or relative murdered soon, the > police > ask specialists at a nearby university (gee, a taxpayer-funded > institution?!) for > help analyzing the victim's phone to possibly help find & convict the > murderer, > and the professors just laugh and say "Naw, it might violate the dead > person's privacy!" > > That'd be a laughable out loud moment. Then they're dead, nothing will bring them back, and their cat videos will remain safe. If you want to go commit another murder (puritanical vengeance abrogated to and proxied via the state), that's on you. As the survivor of the dead is likely executor of the phone, a little extortion back to the clan (instead of further enriching the state) in exchange for keeping killer safe from your kind, or absent you, plain old indentured servitude, or a great big forgiveness hug... all a bit more interesting and equitable than simple murder. It was simply an article and perhaps evidence of yet another growth in warrantless search. Be careful what intrusions you wish for, lest someday they be abused upon you.

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US New Hampshire: Has Libertarian State Rep, First in 20 Years
by grarpamp 10 Feb '17

10 Feb '17

http://freekeene.com/2017/02/09/breaking-nh-state-representative-joins-libe… https://youtu.be/ERypNDbPM4g It's a big day for libertarian history in New Hampshire and nationwide. For the first time in two decades, the Libertarian Party of NH (LPNH) has a sitting state representative in the legislature who is just beginning his first term in office. Caleb Dyer, state representative for Hudson and Pelham, announced today at a press conference in Concord's Legislative Office Building that he has switched his voter registration from republican to libertarian and has also joined the state party as a dues-paying member. Dyer is a New Hampshire native who knocked on 2,000 doors in his district, Hillsborough 37, to win his election in November of 2016.

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Re: change.org "declare antifa illegal/terrorist" petition
by Razer 10 Feb '17

10 Feb '17

That's right. I'm insulting your intellect. Don't contact me offlist again schmuck. I'm too busy for you nonsesne On 02/10/2017 10:07 AM, Joshua Case wrote: > > >> >> So are the people who run world governments that commit Genocide and >> the officers of corporations poisoning the planet (and our minds, >> with advertising of the products causing the physical poisoning). >> >> You aren't making your case spewball. >> >> "Rational" is relative. >> >> Rr >> >>> I don’t agree with Jim on all points, hardly any maybe, but i’fe >>> heard his stuff, listened to him talk. he’s rational, it seems. >>> >>> >> > > That’s all you’ve got? An obvious and blatant strawman fallacy and > some intellect insult? And no, rational is not relative - it’s not > everywhere, but it’s not relative. It has a precise definition, and > there is a mathematical proof for it. > > You might spend more time reading, less time writing for a while. > > Unless you’re just a paid troll to keep this list off topic, > undermining productive countercultural projects and coordination. In > which case, great work. Keep hitting send! >

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[TriggerWarning: Ball-Busting POC Women With Guns]
by Razer 10 Feb '17

10 Feb '17

Site check, not a Cloudflare Honeypot: http://whois.domaintools.com/blackwomensdefenseleague.com Article with links: https://blavity.com/the-black-womens-defense-league-stands-its-ground-at-th… "In recent weeks we have witnessed a broad reincarnation of the women’s movement as women of all races and nationalities have taken up the mantle of feminism for a new generation while staging protests all over the world. While this rebirth of feminism is important and necessary, it isn’t always intersectional. In addition to sexism, women of color and black women in particular, carry the added burden of racism, misogyny and deep-rooted toxic masculinity within our own culture. It is in that spirit that activist, Niecee X formed the Black Women’s Defense League as a coalition of women of color from all walks of life on the path to total liberation. Black women, especially within the “woke” community, sometimes face the unique challenge of having to defend our men while also defending ourselves from them. What happens when our allies in the fight for racial equality also harbor dangerous, sexist ideals? The internal conflict is real. When confronted with this tension, Niecee broke off from the black advocacy groups that she had been a part of to form a new organization focused specifically on the obstacles faced by women of color. In an interview with Vice, the activist described the impetus that inspired her to start the organization. "There were issues with an individual that I had been dealing with romantically," she said of a man she met within Dallas's black activist community, "and there was some violence that occurred between him and me." The alleged abuse resulted in the miscarriage of a pregnancy. When she brought these allegations to the attention of the organization’s leadership, she was accused of fabricating the story, publicly disparaged on social media and ultimately kicked out of the group. For black women who are caught in the crossfire between racism from outside of the community and patriarchy from within, the Black Women's Defense League encourages women to stand their ground and defend themselves. According to the group’s Facebook Page, “BWDL focus’ on self-defense through martial arts and other hand-to-hand combat techniques armed training with various types of artillery including knife fighting, marksmanship, and weapons of opportunity. BWDL also engages in emergency preparedness, urban survival training, ...and battered women’s rescue.” The self-described womanist organization’s mission extends beyond black feminism. “We believe in protecting our families and communities alongside our brothers and all oppressed people worldwide. In our communities, black men and women must function as two vital parts of the same body. BWDL seeks to refine, train and prepare women for a symbiotic relationship that will truly enrich our children, our lives and make a positive impact on our collective realities.” It is clear that for black women, the movement for liberation must be fought on two fronts. The Black Women's Defense League stands for both."

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RaHoWa boi poisons self with Ricin, Turns himself in
by Razer 10 Feb '17

10 Feb '17

If he was a shade or two darker, or a Muslim, So-Called "President" Trump would be tweeting about it and saying US courts are endangering Americans. Americans ARE their OWN worst Enemies. Greed does that. "A Georgia man who has shown support for white supremacist groups is being investigated by the FBI after authorities say he drove himself to a hospital for exposure to ricin, a deadly toxin. William Christopher Gibbs, of Morganton, was jailed on reckless conduct and probation violation charges since taking himself to the hospital last Thursday and saying he had ricin on his hands. A search of his car tested positive for the substance, according to the Fannin County Sheriff's Office. "I think it was all contained inside his vehicle, just a small amount of something I think he had been experimenting with," Sheriff Dane Kirby told Fox5Atlanta. "It was inside his vehicle and somehow he claimed he had exposed himself to what he made, got scared, and went to the hospital." Thousands of first responders exposed to deadly ricin in training About 100 officers later swarmed Gibbs' home, with officials in HAZMAT suits inspecting the area as baffled neighbors looked on. Ricin is a naturally occurring toxin found in the seeds of castor oil plants, which can be lethal even in the smallest doses if it is refined and purified. Terrorists and terror groups have been known to use it, and letters containing ricin have been mailed to politicians including former President Barack Obama and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The poison was also a plot point on the TV drug drama "Breaking Bad." It remains unclear why Gibbs, 27, was toting the toxin or how he obtained it. There was no evidence the ricin had used or that the public was at risk, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia John Horn said. William Christopher Gibbs. (Fannin County Sheriff's Office) (See the article for a pic of this wussy little fascist mama's boy) http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ga-man-apparent-white-supremacy-ti… A Facebook page that matches Gibbs' appearance and description has dozens of posts supporting the Georgia Church Of Creativity — part of the Creativity Movement, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a white supremacist group. The movement champions what it considers the superior "creativity" of the white race. Many photos on the Facebook page show Gibbs wearing a patch with the local chapter's logo and the slogan, "Mobilize Nature's Finest." He is also seen standing in front of a flag for the group. Another photo shows a drawing of a tree with the Creativity logo on it. Gibbs wrote in a caption, "100 years from now when someone finds one of these trees thay (sic) will know that there was once a White Race." The page also includes memes supporting the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Brotherhood, and mocking Jews and blacks. The biography includes the phrase "RaHoWa," a white supremacist term for "racial holy war." The Facebook page lists Gibbs' employment as a machine operator at Pilgrim's Pride, a Brazilian-owned food company. A woman who answered the phone at a number for Gibbs and identified as his grandmother declined to comment..."

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Re: An Examination of Zerodium's Price Chart
by Ryan Carboni 10 Feb '17

10 Feb '17

> > I am not sure you depict the situation correctly. > The colourful image with these prices writes *UP TO $X* and clearly > there is great difference between $X and "up to $X". > Appears to me marketoid trick like the spam advertisements on > non-internet media: "product/service X prevents your from Y *UP TO 100%*". > > And Data Encryption Standard has up to 56-bits of security, depending on luck.

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