Eric J. Korpela @SETIEric@social.cleverlibre.org

Project Diana pointed an SCR-271 bed-spring radar antenna at the rising moon #OTD in 1946 and broadcast a series of short signals.

Each signal echoed off the moon and returned about 2.5s later, proving that radio could penetrate the ionosphere.

This was an important result for the nascent field of satellite communications, but reports of the project ignored the contributions of a Black physicist.

Image: https://cybercoe.army.mil/SIGNALSCH/OCOS/HISTORY/history_project_diana.html

"The South Carolina ruling embraces the predominance test to conclude that the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature deliberately shunted tens of thousands of Black voters from one congressional district to another for partisan gain. Doing so, the judges said, denied those voters equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment."
https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:38b1016f-378c-317e-b7df-3448285c5e17

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/us/south-carolina-gerrymandering.html?smid=url-share

If you’re still posting on Twitter then you’re actively helping a fascist achieve his goal of controlling the information so he can bend it how he wants.

That Big Journalism continues to call the people who tried to overthrow the Brazilian government "protesters" tells you so much about how how journalism works...

Secret cat ritual...
#cats #CatsOfMastodon

So the BF just pointed out to me that NBC is referring to the folks who did a fascist coup attempt in Brazil as "protestors."

I need you folks to understand that at the end of the day, this fascist movement in the Pig Empire is being run by billionaires. So is your media.

Whatever YOU think a given news org's ideology may be, you need to remember the folks who own them are at VERY best Ayn Rand readers and more often than not, power-mad greedbag fascists.

Not on your side. Not on OUR side.

Been seeing a lot about #ChatGPT lately and got my first question at the library this week from someone who was looking for a book that the bot had recommended. They couldn't find it in our catalog. Turns out that ALL the books that ChatGPT had recommended for their topic were non-existent. Just real authors and fake titles cobbled together. And apparently this is known behavior. 😮

I was tooting about scoop this a few days before the new year, hoping maybe Experian would see the wisdom or providing an on the record response. They never did.

Today's story includes a great quote from Sen. Ron Wyden, who told me Experian never responded to him either, in respond to his questions to them about my last scoop in re Experian (where they were letting ID thieves hijack existing Experian.com accounts by simply signing up as the target consumer using a different email address).

Here's the lede:

"Identity thieves have been exploiting a glaring security weakness in the website of Experian, one of the big three consumer credit reporting bureaus. Normally, Experian requires that those seeking a copy of their credit report successfully answer several multiple choice questions about their financial history. But until the end of 2022, Experian's website allowed anyone to bypass these questions and go straight to the consumer's report. All that was needed was the person's name, address, birthday and Social Security number."

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/01/identity-thieves-bypassed-experian-security-to-view-credit-reports/

“Think about what a different cultural sense of urgency the U.S. would have if, for example, there was a push notification for every time a police officer illegally stopped, searched, and arrested someone. Or a push notification for every illegal eviction in our neighborhood. Or a push notification for every toxic spill that threatens our waterways, or for every time a local polluter exceeded emissions requirements for toxic gas?”

https://open.substack.com/pub/equalityalec/p/the-volume-of-news

#journalism #news #crime #propaganda

“Our field has continued to pretend there’s a huge difference between the skills and qualifications of tenure-track professors and adjuncts…The arguments that justify adjunct labor can be and are turned around on those who thought their positions were secure, a point adjuncts have been making for decades. Imagined meritocracies mean little to extractive institutions.” Great piece by Erin Bartram in @contingent_mag

https://contingentmagazine.org/2023/01/07/a-profession-if-you-can-keep-it/

@SETIEric

I think in the long run, especially for large instances mods should be paid.

Wild I know, but also, by building good faith, if we had a responsive system (tickets tickets tickets) raising money for mods would be possible.

This might make it possible to have a mod who isn't a dear friend-- with all the emotions and BS that comes with.

@futurebird @SETIEric I thought Slashdot's system was rather good... I remember the first time the system assigned me mod points. I could feel the weight of the responsibility on my shoulders. What if the metamods said I did a bad job? I might get banned off the Internet!

...OK I was ~13 at the time, give me some slack...

It would be nice if deposed dictators didn't feel comfortable chilling and plotting coups in Florida.