A mathematician walks into a bar (of disinformation)
Disinformation, misinformation, infotainment, algowars — if the debates over the future of media the past few decades have meant anything, they’ve at least left a pungent imprint on the English language. There’s been a lot of invective and fear.....»»
Apple walks back controversial Safari changes with iOS 15 beta 6 update
Apple is slowly walking back its controversial decision to redesign mobile Safari in iOS 15 to show the address bar at the bottom of the screen, floating atop the page’s content. The revamp, which was largely meant to make it easier to reach Sa.....»»
Pandemic of unvaccinated continues to rage as states set new COVID records
Seven states have hit new peaks for COVID hospitalizations. Enlarge / Emergency medicine specialist Dr. Davis Wein walks in a parking garage that was turned into a series of COVID-19 test tents at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Florida, on Aug.....»»
Rand Paul, Marjorie Taylor Greene suspended from social media for COVID disinfo
Platforms take action, but disinformation remains on lawmakers' social accounts. Enlarge (credit: Getty Images (Tom Williams / Drew Angerer)) Two lawmakers have received temporary account suspensions from YouTube and Twitter over their repeate.....»»
Facebook’s vaccine stance is part of a familiar pattern, says author and NYTimes journalist
Today, in a new report about “coordinated inauthentic behavior” on its platform, Facebook states that it last month removed hundreds of accounts across its Facebook and Instagram platforms that were tied to anti-vaccination disinformation.....»»
Russia May Be Spreading Vaccine Misinformation to Undermine Efforts to Immunize People
The New York Times reports on what's apparently a new Russia-aligned disinformation campaign to "undermine the effort to immunize people" — and more. (Alternate URL here) Both Russia and China have worked to promote their own vaccines through.....»»
Australian Mathematician Discovers Applied Geometry Engraved on 3,700-year-old Tablet
An Australian mathematician has discovered what may be the oldest known example of applied geometry, on a 3,700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet. Known as Si.427, the tablet bears a field plan measuring the boundaries of some land. From a report: The.....»»
Mathematician reveals world"s oldest example of applied geometry
A UNSW mathematician has revealed the origins of applied geometry on a 3700-year-old clay tablet that has been hiding in plain sight in a museum in Istanbul for over a century......»»
ActiveFence comes out of the shadows with $100M in funding and tech that detects online harm, now valued at $500M+
Online abuse, disinformation, fraud and other malicious content is growing and getting more complex to track. Today, a startup called ActiveFence, which has quietly built a tech platform to suss out threats as they are being formed and planned, to ma.....»»
ActiveFence comes out of the shadows with $100M in funding and tech that detects online harm
Online abuse, disinformation, fraud and other malicious content is growing and getting more complex to track. Today, a startup called ActiveFence, which has quietly built a tech platform to suss out threats as they are being formed and planned, to ma.....»»
Bezos says he is now willing to invest in a Moon lander—here’s why
"I think they realized it's why they lost." Enlarge / Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith (black hat) walks with Jeff Bezos after his flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard into space. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Jeff Bezos published an open letter.....»»
Bezos says he is now willing to invest in a Moon Lander—here’s why
"I think they realized it's why they lost." Enlarge / Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith (black hat) walks with Jeff Bezos after his flight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard into space. (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Jeff Bezos published an open letter.....»»
"Disinformation for Hire" is Becoming a Booming Industry
Sunday the BBC reported YouTube influencers were offered money to spread vaccine misinformation. But according to the New York Times, that's just the tip of the iceberg. "The scheme appears to be part of a secretive industry that security analysts.....»»
YouTube Stars Were Offered Money to Spread Vaccine Misinformation
"A mysterious marketing agency secretly offered to pay social media stars to spread disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines," reports the BBC. "Their plan failed when the influencers went public about the attempt to recruit them." An influencer mar.....»»
Anomalous quantum transport phenomena observed in fractal photonic lattices
Fractals are complex structures that usually exhibit self-similarity and have a non-integer dimension. The terminology "fractal" was first introduced by the famous mathematician Benoit B. Mandelbrot. He noticed that here and there, many natural objec.....»»
"Facebook Isn"t Killing People" -- Biden Walks Back Attack Over Vaccine Lies
President Joe Biden walked back some of his criticism of Facebook, saying Monday he meant to accuse a dozen users, but not the social media platform itself, of spreading deadly lies about Covid vaccines. From a report: "Facebook isn't killing people,.....»»
White House turns up heat on Big Tech"s Covid "disinformation dozen"
The White House turned up the pressure on Silicon Valley to get a handle on vaccine misinformation Thursday, specifically singling out 12 people one group dubbed the "disinformation dozen," saying they were responsible for a great deal of misinformat.....»»
Study finds legacy media boosted fake Russian Twitter accounts in 2016
Many legacy media outlets played an unwitting role in the growth of the four most successful fake Twitter accounts hosted by the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) that were created to spread disinformation during the 2016 U.S. presidential campa.....»»
Jordan"s Government Used Secretly Recorded Clubhouse Audio To Spread Disinformation
In a new report released last week by The Stanford Internet Observatory, researchers analyzed a Jordanian disinformation network that pushed pro-monarchy and pro-military narratives on Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. The campaign, which Facebook said.....»»
YouTube’s recommender AI still a horrorshow, finds major crowdsourced study
For years YouTube’s video-recommending algorithm has stood accused of fuelling a grab-bag of societal ills by feeding users an AI-amplified diet of hate speech, political extremism and/or conspiracy junk/disinformation for the profiteering moti.....»»
Tiny beetle walks on the underside of the surface of water
A pair of researchers from the University of Newcastle and the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research has documented a water scavenger beetle walking on the undersurface of a body of water. In their paper published in the journal Etholog.....»»