Society's Child

Major tech companies uniting in opposition to UK spyware proposal 'Ghost Protocol'

Lauren von Bernuth
Citizen Truth
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 20:29 UTC

"The 'ghost' proposal would pose serious threats to cybersecurity and thereby also threaten fundamental human rights, including privacy and free expression" - Open Letter to GCHQ

In an open letter to the U.K.'s Government Communications Headquarters, 47 signatories including Google, WhatsApp, Apple, the ACLU and more raised concern that a new British government proposal posed "serious threats to cybersecurity and fundamental human rights including privacy and free expression."

The program nicknamed "Ghost Protocol" by CNBC would give the U.K. government the ability to eavesdrop on encrypted messages.

Some messaging apps like WhatsApp, iMessage and Signal feature "end-to-end" encryption, meaning only the sender and recipient can read the message and nobody in between has access, not even WhatsApp itself. While end-to-end encryption is an attractive feature for users, it's a frustration for governments.

Israeli NGO B'Tselem launches interactive map highlighting 52-years of Zionist occupation: 'Conquer and Divide'

RT
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 20:04 UTC

To mark the 52nd anniversary of Israel's territorial encroachment into the West Bank, human rights NGO B'Tselem has unveiled a new interactive map creatively illustrating the decades-long history of the occupation.

The organization says that their new project "traces how government resolutions, military orders and state planning" came together to create an ever-expanding system of settlements and military check-points, helping Israeli authorities "promote [their] interests at the expense of Palestinians' rights." The project was created in tandem with the independent research agency Forensic Architecture, and launched on Wednesday.

Segregation is the new tolerance? Virginia Tech offers 10 ethnically-divided graduations

Helen Buyniski
RT
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 19:34 UTC

Civil rights activists who risked their lives to racially integrate American schools must be turning in their graves as Virginia Tech proudly offers 10 segregated graduation ceremonies based on race, sexuality, and... sobriety?

Virginia Tech may be the most extreme example, but it's hardly alone. The school exemplifies a relatively recent trend in US higher education in which student identity groups demand and are given their own facilities, programs and (safe) spaces. While legally-mandated racial segregation under the 'separate but equal' doctrine was struck down in the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, a National Association of Scholars survey of 173 colleges published last month revealed that fully 72 percent now offer segregated graduation ceremonies, with 43 percent boasting segregated student residences.

Dutch teen raped as a child chose to be legally euthanized due to 'unbearable' pain - Update: Teen was not actually euthanized

Natalie O'Neill
New York Post
Tue, 04 Jun 2019 14:05 UTC

Comment: As it turns out, Western media had this story wrong. Ms. Pothoven did not in fact get euthanized by a doctor. Earlier today, Politico Europe's Naomi O'Leary tweeted a thread debunking the reports.

She clarified what actually happened:

"Noa Pothoven had been severely ill with anorexia and other conditions for some time. Without telling her parents, she sought and was refused euthanasia... The family had tried many kinds of psychiatric treatment and Noa Pothoven was repeatedly hospitalised... a hospital bed was set up at home in the care of her parents. At the start of June she began refusing all fluids and food, and her parents and doctors agreed not to force feed her. A decision to move to palliative care and not to force feed at the request of the patient is not euthanasia."

A 17-year-old Dutch girl was legally allowed to kill herself using euthanasia after she was raped when younger and spent years battling depression, according to a report Tuesday.

"Love is letting go, in this case," Noa Pothoven of Arnhem wrote in an Instagram post announcing her choice to die in the living room of her home Sunday.

Pothoven - who was sexually abused at 11 and raped three years later - said she was sick of suffering "unbearable" pain.

"Maybe this comes as a surprise to some, given my posts about hospitalization, but my plan has been there for a long time and is not impulsive," she wrote.

"I will get straight to the point: within a maximum of 10 days I will die," she added. "After years of battling and fighting, I am drained. I have quit eating and drinking for a while now, and after many discussions and evaluations, it was decided to let me go because my suffering is unbearable.

Comment: See also:

No surprise: Anti-Trump protesters in London turn violent

RT
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 18:23 UTC

As President Donald Trump met with Prime Minister Theresa May, droves of demonstrators turned out to protest the American leader's state visit. Tensions were high and the protests spilled over into violence.

Footage captured by video news agency Ruptly showed London's Metropolitan Police scuffling with a group of anti-Trump protesters, some wearing the signature hoods and scarves of 'Antifa' activists.

It is unclear what that struggle broke out over, but a contingent of police wrestled at least two of the protesters to the ground.

Gosh darn! CNN, Maddow ratings in total freefall as Russiagate fairy tale collapses

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 18:06 UTC

Ratings for the anti-Trump media have taken an absolute nosedive ever since the Mueller report dispelled their multi-year narrative that President Trump is a Kremlin agent.

According to Breitbart's John Nolte, CNN's primetime ratings suffered a 16% collapse in May - luring just 761,000 members of the resistance and captive airport audiences alike. Overall, the network's total day viewers dropped to just 559,000.

As Nolte points out, "Fox News earned three times as many primetime viewers (2.34 million) and more than twice as many total day viewers (1.34 million). What's more, when compared to this same month last year, Fox lost none of its primetime viewers and only four percent of its total day viewers."

Comment: A proper comeuppance for an unhinged media personality who has done nothing but mislead her audience for the last three years. MSNBC's Maddow should hang her head in shame, as well as all of CNN's disgraceful crew, that they ever had the nerve to label themselves journalists.

Teacher mocks autistic student with 'most annoying' award

Carley Lanich
nwi.com
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 17:39 UTC

© Rick Castejon
Gary parent Rick Castejon says this award was given last month to his 11-year-old son, who has autism, at a Bailly Preparatory Academy awards lunch

A Gary father is expressing disbelief this week after his fifth-grader, who is autistic, was given a trophy dubbing him the "most annoying male" for the school year.

Rick Castejon said the award was given to his 11-year-old son at a fifth-grade awards luncheon for Bailly Preparatory Academy students last month by a special education teacher in front of students, parents and the school's principal Carlita Royal.

"We were blindsided. We just weren't expecting it," Castejon said. "As a principal or teacher, you should never let this happen to any student."

Gary Community School Corp. emergency manager Peter Morikis confirmed the incident in a statement Monday, saying he met immediately with family upon learning of the incident and that disciplinary action was taken against the personnel involved.

Scot Peterson, officer who did nothing during Parkland school shooting, arrested and charged with neglecting duty

Tonya Alanez
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Wed, 05 Jun 2019 17:22 UTC

When every second counted, as students were screaming and dying in their classrooms, school security officer Scot Peterson hid rather than respond. His inaction resulted in his arrest Tuesday on charges of neglecting his duty.

Peterson stood alone in the Broward County Main Jail's prisoner assembly room for his first court appearance Wednesday morning. He is charged with seven counts of child neglect with great bodily harm, three counts of culpable negligence and exposure to harm, and one count of perjury, records showed.

Broward Judge Jackie Powell set bonds totaling $102,000 with conditions that included surrendering his passport. His attorneys noted his passport was at his North Carolina home and argued Peterson should not be required to remain in jail while someone flies there to retrieve it. Powell denied the request.

The extraordinary case of a cop charged with failure to act could land Peterson in prison for up to 97 years - though some experts warn that the charges will be difficult to prove.

University of Michigan offers course on fake news coverage of Trump

Grace Gottschling
Campus Reform
Tue, 04 Jun 2019 18:36 UTC

The University of Michigan is offering a course during the fall 2019 semester on bias and inaccurate reporting in the news media, specifically when it comes to covering President Donald Trump.

"News Media Ethics," COMM 435, will explore what the president has labeled "fake news" reporting. In the course, students will ask: "How do journalists cover the news? Do they report it honestly and truthfully? How valid are claims by critics that news media behaved unethically in their coverage of Donald Trump?"

Elise Boddi, chief administrator in the University of Michigan Communication Studies Department, confirmed to Campus Reform on Monday that, as of that moment, the course is still being offered but noted that things could always change. She added that at this time, there are no plans to cancel the course.

Amazon's new patent means Alexa will listen to everything you say by default

Peter Dockrill
Science Alert
Tue, 28 May 2019 15:14 UTC

A newly revealed patent application filed by Amazon is raising privacy concerns over an envisaged upgrade to the company's smart speaker systems. This change would mean that, by default, the devices end up listening to and recording everything you say in their presence.

Alexa, Amazon's virtual assistant system that runs on the company's Echo series of smart speakers, works by listening out for a 'wakeword' that tells the device to turn on its extended speech recognition systems in order to respond to spoken commands.

On Amazon's devices, the wakeword is 'Alexa', but similar systems control how Apple devices work ('Hey Siri') and also Google's ('Hey Google'), not to mention products from other tech companies.

In theory, Alexa-enabled devices will only record what you say directly after the wakeword, which is then uploaded to Amazon, where remote servers use speech recognition to deduce your meaning, then relay commands back to your local speaker.

Comment: See also:

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Society's Child

Major tech companies uniting in opposition to UK spyware proposal 'Ghost Protocol'

Israeli NGO B'Tselem launches interactive map highlighting 52-years of Zionist occupation: 'Conquer and Divide'

Segregation is the new tolerance? Virginia Tech offers 10 ethnically-divided graduations

Dutch teen raped as a child chose to be legally euthanized due to 'unbearable' pain - Update: Teen was not actually euthanized

No surprise: Anti-Trump protesters in London turn violent

Gosh darn! CNN, Maddow ratings in total freefall as Russiagate fairy tale collapses

Teacher mocks autistic student with 'most annoying' award

Scot Peterson, officer who did nothing during Parkland school shooting, arrested and charged with neglecting duty

University of Michigan offers course on fake news coverage of Trump

Amazon's new patent means Alexa will listen to everything you say by default

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