Facebook's trending news section, which was accused of censoring conservative news, was managed by a staff full of liberal employees.
The social media company has fired the 15-18 employees who worked on trending news, in an attempt to replace any possibility of bias with an algorithm. Gizmodo reported in May that Facebook "news curators" buried conservative stories. This caused Republican South Dakota Sen. John Thune to send a letter to Facebook inquiring about its trending news section. "Any attempt by a neutral and inclusive social media platform to censor or manipulate political discussion is an abuse of trust and inconsistent with the values of an open Internet," Thune wrote.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
About that culture war... Facebook!
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Things you don't want to see.
This is what it is supposed to look like.
The pilots got SW-3472 down on the runway at Pensecola Florida in one piece, no injuries. 'Nuff said.
The actual cost of the Obama immigration plan.
![]() |
Big fan of the Obama Plan. |
The bodies of as many as 850 illegal alien men, women and children who died trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border unlawfully now lie frozen and unidentified in a morgue in Tucson, Ariz., according to an Arizona medical examiner.
CBP explained in a press release published this week:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a testimonial video of [Dr. Gregory Hess Pima], a forensic expert in charge of identifying hundreds of anonymous migrant's human remains found in the Arizona desert near the United States/Mexico border.Many of the bodies found in the Arizona desert were people who were abandoned by their human smugglers and became lost, eventually dying of dehydration or heat stroke, Pima said.
"Our focus at the Medical Examiner's Office is identifying remains of people that we have found. We still have about 800 to 850 that are unidentified," says the doctor who analyzes bodies and remains in varying stages of decomposition.
In the refrigerated facility the remains are stacked on industrial shelves inside plastic body bags with John or Jane Doe written on white tags.
"Most of the remains that we call undetermined are likely people that have died from exposure…who may not have water available to use," says Dr. Hess. "So if something goes wrong, with whatever plan he may have had… then the problems may result on their death. It's risky… most people think it is not going to happen to them."
So really, I think I'll just be a damn racist about it, and y'all can cram it.
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
SAS legend let out of jail early. Wait, what?
SAS hero Albert 'Pat' Patterson was jailed for 15 months in April over his Falklands war trophy pistol.
The Argentine weapon — along with 177 rounds of ammo, four Enfield pistols and a rifle component — had been kept safely in the basement of Pat's Hereford home for over 30 years until discovered in 2014.
The tough sentence sparked outrage and within days The Sun had launched a Change.org online petition demanding his release.
Former top brass, fellow ex-SAS heroes and Sun readers joined the fight.
Our petition was signed by more than 161,000 people by the end of April and delivered to 10 Downing Street by Pat's daughter Cheri, 25.
Top barrister Peter Glenser and solicitor Issy Hogg put in hours of their own time and took Pat's case to the Court of Appeal, but it was rejected, despite the court admitting he had "no criminal purpose".
The pressure paid off and he has been released at the earliest opportunity after just four months – three months before his expected parole date.
Robot criminals! Run away!
Robots set to become CRIMINALS and cops will be powerless to stop them
Robots will quickly learn to break the law and humans won't be able to stop their slide towards the dark side, experts have warned.
Researchers said machines equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) would inevitably discover that honesty doesn't always pay, based on the knowledge they pick up throughout their life.
In the future, robots will be able to learn from their experiences, potentially leaving them vulnerable to breaking the law.
If they do decide to become criminals, it will nigh on impossible to decide who to charge for the crimes they commit.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
More progressive pants-wetting: replica guns at conventions.
Why the Hell Was There a Gun Seller at a Wizard World?
Yeah, you heard right. There was a freaking gun retailer at a comic convention. But, it didn't last long.DS Arms, a gun manufacturer with a Chicago-area factory showroom, had its gun replica booth shut down at Wizard World Chicago on Thursday, less than two hours after setting up. According to the Chicago Tribune, people were complaining that it was wrong for a real gun maker to have a booth—even if it was only selling fake guns.
While, yes, the guns were replicas and DS Arms says it makes props for Hollywood, this booth didn't appear to be just about giving Commander Shepard cosplayers suitable weaponry. According to the Tribune, the booth was also promoting gun and safety classes, and DS Arms owner Dave Selvaggio himself said it was also about giving attendees information about real guns.
Update! A face and a name to the previously unknown "people were complaining" horse shit.
![]() |
Matt Santori-Griffith., the editor of Comicosity and "feminist beardo". |
I'd agree with that, Matt. But you forgot a word at the end. That should read: " proud queer, Jewish, anti-gun, feminist, anti-racist, social justice warrior, asshole."
Looking down his Twitter feed, it seems Mr. Santori-Griffith suffers from an affliction common among New Puritan SJWs. The crippling fear that someone, somewhere, is enjoying himself.
Hugo Awards: Politics wins!
Oh, and grimdark torture fic. The Fifth Season is officially "The finest in SF/F for 2015." An attack on the moral corpus of the reader, a hideous brainfuck of a book, a socialist meme attack masquerading as art, and something I would never willingly subject myself to. As usual.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
The recent terror attack in Strathroy Ontario.
No officer tried to stop him heading to the home of suspected terrorist Aaron Driver, seen on a video threatening to kill Canadians that very day, Duffield said.
For the five minutes he sat in the driveway waiting for Driver, no officer stepped out to signal him or warn him.
As Driver walked out of the house, across the front of the cab and down its passenger side to the back seat, no police officer took a shot or apparently shouted at the man to stop.
Only when he started backing out the driveway did police swoop in, Duffield said.
"As I leaned over to grab the cigarettes, Boom!, there goes the bomb," Duffield said.
"If I hadn't leaned over to grab that pack of cigarettes, I probably wouldn't be talking to you today. It was that seat and those cigarettes that saved my ass, no cop."
There's a picture of the back seat of the car, I got it at Blazing Cat Fur. I very much doubt there was any need to shoot that Aaron Driver kid.
He was lunchmeat after that device went off, but they aired him out anyway, just to be sure. Very fucking heroic, right?
A victim of a terrorism attack, Duffield said he had to find his own way from the scene.
He got a ride from his boss's son to the cab office to get his own car and drove home, Duffield said.
The guy has just been in a high-energy enclosed explosion, and no ambulance? Not even a fucking ride home in a cop car? Really?
But apparently there is somebody, somewhere in the RCMP, who has a brain:
Later that evening, two police officers came to his door and told him the bomb squad advised he go to the hospital to check for internal injuries because of the explosion.
Police took him to hospital, stayed with him and brought him back home with no apparent internal injuries.
Somebody, most likely a lawyer, realized if the cab driver bled out from a puncture that night it would look really bad for the RCMP, especially after they got the guy blown up in the first place.
Nope. Call 911 and die, people. Now shut up and get back to paying your taxes, assholes.
"Shut up!" explained Time Magazine.
But trolling has become the main tool of the alt-right, an Internet-grown reactionary movement that works for men's rights and against immigration and may have used the computer from Weird Science to fabricate Donald Trump. Not only does Trump share their attitudes, but he's got mad trolling skills: he doxxed Republican primary opponent Senator Lindsey Graham by giving out his cell-phone number on TV and indirectly got his Twitter followers to attack GOP political strategist Cheri Jacobus so severely that her lawyers sent him a cease-and-desist order.
The alt-right's favorite insult is to call men who don't hate feminism "cucks," as in "cuckold." Republicans who don't like Trump are "cuckservatives." Men who don't see how feminists are secretly controlling them haven't "taken the red pill," a reference to the truth-revealing drug in The Matrix. They derisively call their adversaries "social-justice warriors" and believe that liberal interest groups purposely exploit their weakness to gain pity, which allows them to control the levers of power. Trolling is the alt-right's version of political activism, and its ranks view any attempt to take it away as a denial of democracy.
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Finally, a name for our misery: Soros.
Who thought is would be a good idea to import millions of Muslims from war zones into uber sophisitcated, rigidly controlled, ultra liberal Germany? A place where old ladies will yell at you on the street car for putting your feet up on the seats.
Who thought it would be a good idea to basically take down the -southern- border of the USA... but not the northern one? (Admittedly, we Canadians are wacky, but still.) Seriously, how is that not racism?
Friday, August 12, 2016
Yes, your iPhone is anti-Trump.
I began looking into how strong the bias and censorship runs in these forums after I did an interview on the pro-Trump podcast, MAGA. The show's host, Mark Hammond, was disappointed Apple wouldn't run his show without an "explicit" warning. Hammond's podcast didn't contain content that would be deemed explicit under Apple's policy, and most other shows in the News & Politics category aren't labeled as such.
On June 18, Hammond talked to Sandra, a representative from Apple. She explained that, since the description of his show is pro-Trump, his show is explicit in nature—because the subject matter is Donald Trump. So, an Apple employee concluded the Republican presidential candidate is explicit.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
The most important thing in an author is...
Throughout the Sad and Rabid Puppies saga, in which some readers protested progressive themes in sci-fi, Jemisin has been an outspoken voice advocating for diversity in science fiction. (Read her musings on "reactionary assholes" in the interview she did with the WIRED Book Club for more on that.) But too often, she has also found herself unwillingly cast in another role: the token non-white writer.
Ever since a report from magazine Fireside Fiction called out a lack of diversity in sci-fi on July 26, Jemisin has received six invitations to contribute to anthologies or magazines—and she's leery of being one of the few go-to names when panicked editors scramble to be more inclusive. And in a tweetstorm this afternoon (below), Jemisin placed the onus on the markets, not aspiring authors, to make writers of color welcome. "The front gates are still shut, see," she wrote. "You're just letting a few more exceptions in the side door." Jemisin may have broken into the world of science fiction, but for other writers to do the same, those gatekeepers need to open those doors wide.
Update: Somebody linked this on Twitter, so welcome, all you Twits! ~:)
Your Volkswagen is not locked either.
In 2013, when University of Birmingham computer scientist Flavio Garcia and a team of researchers were preparing to reveal a vulnerability that allowed them to start the ignition of millions of Volkswagen cars and drive them off without a key, they were hit with a lawsuit that delayed the publication of their research for two years. But that experience doesn't seem to have deterred Garcia and his colleagues from probing more of VW's flaws: Now, a year after that hack was finally publicized, Garcia and a new team of researchers are back with another paper that shows how Volkswagen left not only its ignition vulnerable but the keyless entry system that unlocks the vehicle's doors, too. And this time, they say, the flaw applies to practically every car Volkswagen has sold since 1995.
Sunday, August 07, 2016
Your car is not locked.
The only defense against such seemingly simple trickery is to construct something called "Faraday cage" – you know it as the proverbial tin foil hat every dime-store Hollywood director scripts into their "conspiracy theory" blockbuster – or keep your keyfob in something impervious to radio transmission like, say, the icebox in your refrigerator.I know, I know. You're thinking this is a joke. So did I when I first penned that exact same recommendation some three months ago in Top 10 ways to avoid getting your car hacked. Who could seriously recommend you start wrapping up your car keys in Reynolds Wrap or hide it under the Swanson's TV Dinner as a serious deterrent to auto theft?Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V or ADAC, the German equivalent to the AAA, that's who. In a recent public announcement, they put together a video depicting exactly the scenario described above to illustrate how easy it is to steal a modern car. Car theft never looked so easy – or so comfortable. Even more telling, however, was some actual footage showing two reprobates stealing a new BMW 3 Series Touring in less time than it takes the owner – you have to fumble in your pockets for the keyfob, after all – to get in and start his own vehicle.
Using a 'stolen database,' probably a standard set provided to dealers, the thieves read the VIN number of the Jeep (that loooong ass number you can read in the windshield? Yeah, that one.) Using the VIN, the database coughs up the codes to program a new key fob. They don't need to do that though, they just use a laptop to broadcast the appropriate code, and away they go.
Update: Welcome Small Dead Animals and flying monkeys!
Zeppelin LIVES!
Calling Capt. Bob Southunder, your aircraft is ready!
Four years after the US Army deemed it too expensive, the hybrid airship – a carbon-composite cross between a zeppelin, a helicopter and an aeroplane - was gently piloted into the open in a delicate five-minute operation.
It was towed 30 minutes to its resting point at a primary mast site, one of two specially prepared on the same airfield at Cardington, Bedfordshire, where in 1919 British engineers embarked on their own failed attempts to challenge Germany's fated Zeppelin programme.
It derives 60pc of its lift aerostatically (by being lighter-than-air), and 40pc aerodynamically (by being wing-shaped), and was helped into being by a £250,000 donation from Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson.
Tuesday, August 02, 2016
Priest, first shrive thyself.
DUBLIN: The head of Ireland's biggest Catholic diocese said Tuesday he had moved trainee priests from the country's leading seminary over allegations of homosexual activity among students and staff, including the use of the Grindr dating app.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said the "poisonous" atmosphere caused by the claims at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth – also known as the National Seminary for Ireland – had led him to transfer students to the Irish College in Rome.
An anonymous letter emerged in May, alleging homosexual activity among some students and teachers. Authorities issued a statement promising to "thoroughly deal" with such behavior.
"A culture of anonymous letters is poisonous and until that is cleared up I would be happier to send my students elsewhere," the archbishop told RTE, Ireland's national broadcaster.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
"All Lives Matter" = RAAAACIST!!!
When a 'person of color' says "All lives matter" on their private Facebook page, that means they must be PURGED!!!
Shortly after the July 7 shooting in Dallas that killed five officers, Rohini Sethi went on Facebook and opined "Forget #BlackLivesMatter; more like AllLivesMatter." The statement was later deleted, but only after numerous UH students denounced it as incredibly offensive or even hateful.
A full removal of Sethi has significant hurdles, though. The student government constitution requires the student body president, president of the student senate and three-fourths of present student senators to approve impeachment proceedings. Sethi would then be tried by the student supreme court.
Instead of going through that arduous process, the student senate approved a measure giving SGA president Shane Smith exceptional one-time powers to punish Sethi as he saw fit. In response, Smith released a letter Friday outlining a set of five punishments for Sethi. The punishments include:
If Sethi refuses or fails any of the requirements, she will be kicked out of SGA entirely.
- A 50-day suspension from SGA starting August 1. This suspension will be unpaid (she currently receives a stipend of about $700 a month).
- A requirement to attend a three-day diversity workshop in mid-August.
- A requirement to attend three "UH cultural events" each month from September through March, excluding December.
- An order to write a "letter of reflection" about how her harmful actions have impacted SGA and the UH student body
- An order to put on a public presentation Sept. 28 detailing "the knowledge she has gained about cultural issues facing our society."
Update! The horror! The horror!!!
![]() |
http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/32579726/edwards-police-chief-adds-all-lives-matter-to-police-car-bumpers |
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Matt Damon is [gasp!] WHITE!
"Our heroes don't look like Matt Damon," [Constance] Wu explained in a lengthy note. "They look like Malala. Gandhi. Mandela. Your big sister when she stood up for you to those bullies that one time."
"If white actors are forgiven for having a box office failure once in a while, why can't a POC (person of color) sometimes have on?" she asked. "And how COOL would it be if you were the movie that took the "risk" to make a POC as your hero and you sold the s--- out of it?!"
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Stats Canada power grab in process!
Now, StatsCan is seizing its moment. It has developed a plan to amass more independence and authority than ever before, having presented to the Liberals a plan for changes to the law that would make all of its surveys, not just the long-form census, mandatory. It wants the power to be able to force companies to hand over private data, including Internet search records, and credit-card transaction records. Companies, and even other levels of government, would be compelled to hand over any information StatsCan deems important, with fines for any "unreasonable impositions" that "restrict the flow of information for statistical purposes."
In the discussion paper, which the agency shared with The Canadian Press, StatsCan seeks to free itself from government control over how it collects its data, with a whole new list of powers it wants the government to hand over to the chief statistician to free the agency from political influence. It even wants the right to have its own computer infrastructure, because being on the centralized system the rest of the federal bureaucracy uses gives government tech staff "an effective veto" on any StatsCan work, by not providing tech support for it. Statistics Canada would prefer not to answer to anyone, including the guys in IT.
Knife attacks up, shockah!
Before setting off to cause mayhem, 17-year-old Riaz Khan Ahmadzai made a quick video in an oddly empty room in which he talked about why Westerners must die and his devotion to the Islamic State.
[snippage]
While he talks, he plays with a small knife, a knife with which he pledges to behead his enemies.
Ahmadzai would later attack five people on a train near Wurzburg, wounding four, before he would be shot to death while lunging at police. [more snippage]
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article92169982.html#storylink=cpyIt's instructive to look at the knife. It's a common kitchen knife, with a cheap plastic handle and a blade that's not quite as long as Ahmadzai's fist is wide. It's the sort of knife that can be found in millions of kitchens worldwide, and a cheap version, at that.
The Islamic State has claimed credit for some of Europe's most spectacular attacks in the last year. But Ahmadzai's attack stands out for its simplicity, especially compared with the Islamic State's Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, which involved multiple attackers, hard-to-obtain weapons, numerous rental cars, cellphones and safe houses, or the March 22 mayhem in Brussels, which featured three coordinated bombers attacking nearly simultaneously at the airport and a subway station.
Ahmadzai's attack involved no expensive weapons, no explosives, no training and not likely much contact with or advice from the Islamic State.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article92169982.html#storylink=cpy
"Many of the attackers seem to have some form of mental illness, and once an idea becomes 'cool' it will attract others who have delusions of grandeur/revenge," Daniel Byman, an expert on international security at Georgetown University, said in an email.
While this leads perhaps to smaller attacks, it has a downside, he added.
"I don't think IS is really giving major logistical or operational support to the recent attacks – Paris, in contrast, was quite different," he wrote, referring to the Islamic State. "I think this sort of low-tech terrorism is exceptionally hard to stop. It also has a momentum all its own.