Author: officially ᗩᑎGEᒪIᑎᗩ
Portsmouth made the Guardian again
This time it’s not about Portsmouth having the highest number of forced prepaid meters or rejected blue badge applications for non-visible disabilities or impairments such as autism or certain neurological disorders.
It looks like the Guardian went to the high street in fairly fancy Cosham – which is on the mainland, not on Portsea Island – and asked random shoppers how they would vote. They also went to poorer Paulsgrove – also on the mainland – and spoke with candidates who aren’t Penny Mordaunt.
I’ve heard her speak at the Guildhall. I understand why people vote for her.
Did the Guardian actually manage to miss most of the constituency Portsmouth North? It starts at around New Road. That’s in the middle of Portsea Island.
Also, they should have taken a photo from the ridge (the cliffs over Cosham). That way you can get not only the Spinnaker Tower but almost all of Portsmouth in the shot, complete with its geographic location. You need good weather for it, but the weather on the south coast is almost always good.
Instead, they used a stock photo (Alamy) that’s was taken as far south as you can get in Portsmouth South.
If Portsmouth wasn’t so extremely insular, it would be a lovely place. Penny Mordaunt gets that insularity, too. Not only did she come across as seasoned* from the start, and highly capable, people there see her as “one of us”. That’s why they vote Conservative.
Her swimsuit stunt and the challenge she undertook of saying the word “cock” (dick, pecker, bell) as often as she could in a speech in Parliament, that appeals to many of the locals. It cemented her popularity.
She is local. She was in the Navy and her mother died of breast cancer when Penny was a teenager. She’s dyslexic, if I’m not mistaken.
She’s very appealing and she has matured enough for people to be able to see her as a future PM now. They would love that.
(Someone from self-declared underdog city Portsmouth as PM? Hell yes.)
(Even Boris Johnson has mentioned Portsmouth and described it as having nothing but a big drugs problem and too many Labour MPs. If anything that will have made people more determined to vote for Penny Mordaunt, won’t it?)
Go one town to the west (Fareham), and you run into Suella Braverman. Can you hear me sigh?
(*She worked on the elder Bush team in the States.)
Continue readingPeople in New York got rattled, I hear (4.8 earthquake)
Believe it or not, I’m a fully qualified geologist and I was intrigued by this, so I asked the Google Meister whether it could dig up something on USGS and faults and New York. That’s how I stumbled upon this map of historic earthquakes in this 2020 article.
This does not show the fault that runs through NYC, obviously, but it’s likely undoubtedly part of the same system.
Today’s Scientific American has the skinny, so to speak (but not really, at 18:09 BST, but they are promising to keep updating the article): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earthquake-shakes-new-jersey-new-york-state-pennsylvania-and-more/
USGS info: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/at00sbh3yv/region-info
General info at Cornell, based in Ithaca, visible in the above map as well as the one below: https://deepgeothermalheat.engineering.cornell.edu/cubo-science-intro/earthquakes-in-new-york-state/
To sum it up, it’s not as rare as most people assume, but most earthquakes in the area are a lot less noticeable.
A book for lawyers, activists and homeless teenagers
“Bringing Down Goliath: How Good Law Can Topple the Powerful”
The paperback was released on 4 April 2024. You can order it from your local independent bookshop at Bookshop.org:
Bringing Down Goliath is Jo Maugham’s first book. Initially released in 2023, it tells Jo’s story – from homelessness at 16 to first Queen’s Counsel, next King’s Counsel and then campaigning lawyer.
(I still feel that QC has a much better ring to it than KC.)
Jo’s book also provides you with the inside story of the origins and successes as well as future of the Good Law Project.
With the rule of law in England under threat like never before, “Bringing Down Goliath” struck a chord, became a Sunday Times bestseller as well as a 2023 highlight in the Guardian.
Jo Maugham has also argued before the Dutch courts. I remember him taking on a case within the Brexit context, concerning British citizens in the Netherlands.
Peacefulness and clarity
For the past four months, there’s been something really disruptive in my life that wasn’t initiated by me but that admittedly, I should have dealt with in a better way.
Yesterday, I decided not to pay any further attention to the party that’s been causing this distraction. Because the matter was draining my energy and gobbling up my attention, while the party was making quite clear that they aren’t interested in establishing a dialogue.
They initially wouldn’t take no for an answer. I held my ground.
I woke up to a markedly increased level of peacefulness and clarity. Serenity.
I did the right thing.
I can breathe again.
People who are immensely intent on “helping” you, certainly if you did not ask for their help in the first place, often merely want to hamper you and hold you back, even if they aren’t even aware of it.
The funny coincidence is that I had actually intended to ask these people for assistance in January. I’ve changed my mind about that. I now see the chaos that they voluntarily started adding to my life as of some time last year as a sign that it is better not to engage with them at all.
They showed their hand.
After someone noticed that logins were taking 0.8 seconds instead of the usual 0.3 seconds, he was able to stop a cyber attack in progress in Linux, but whether the plan was mass hacking or to execute a very patient and targeted attack on one single user is not clear at this time
Nope, there is no such thing as hacking, certainly not targeted hacking and not at all in Linux. Everybody knows that you can’t hack into Linux.
And yes, it was spotted by a Microsoft developer. And Kali Linux, that’s, to take a shortcut, the hackers’ version of Linux. In case you wondered. Details in The Guardian, interestingly, with link to the related Ars Technica article. Then again, it’s quite an interesting story.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2024/apr/02/techscape-linux-cyber-attack
That apparent culprit’s account JiaT75 is Jia Tan’s, now suspended in GitHub (along with Lasse Collin’s @Larhzu and I assume that he is simply the other developer on this project) for anyone who this vaguely rings a bell for.
Thank you, Petrie-Flom Center and Hastings Center
For confirming time and time again that not the entire world has lost the plot yet… (aka for helping me stay sane).
(The world’s become such a bizarre and crazy place. I have so much trouble dealing with that.)
Facebook in for a major battle? (republished)
I just learned that Facebook made the blunder of conducting a massive psychological experiment on the users of its English-language version without their explicit consent. This is extremely unethical.
This is bound to have legal consequences.
The Independent published about it today. The paper reporting the results of the experiment appeared in PNAS.
I hope to see class actions in every country that uses the English version of Facebook because this is most definitely not right. No amount of word-twisting by Facebook (or the researchers) can cover up that no users ever consented to this kind of experiment being carried out on them.
In addition, the university researchers involved in the study should be investigated and disciplined. If they were in my employ, I would sack them instantly.
They have damaged the scientific reputation of their universities and, in my view, do not belong in academia. I trust that Cornell University and the University of California will take the appropriate steps.
On the other hand, these researchers are highlighting a serious danger that lurks behind social media, but it does not appear that this was the motivation for their unforgivable conduct.
Can YOU still justify supporting Facebook? (republished)
Facebook has just added one more feat to its long history of appallingly unethical actions.
It began with the mood manipulation experiments for which the affected users had given no consent.
I thought that this would have major consequences for Facebook.
I was wrong. People just shrugged. They made fusses over Starbucks instead.
So Facebook took it further and further. It meddled in the US elections. It meddled in the UK’s Brexit referendum (the Cambridge Analytica scandal). Its boss gave governments the finger by not showing up for hearings. It paid kids to give it access to their entire digital lives.
And now this. Can you still justify using Facebook (and Instagram, and WhatsApp)?
I can’t.
The Facebook saga continues (republished)
Anyone who still uses Facebook in spite of that company’s highly unethical practices, such as meddling in the US elections and mood manipulation experiments without the users’ consent, has to look at himself or herself in the mirror and ask questions. There are other platforms that allow people to stay in touch with friends and family, if that is why he or she uses Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg’s failure to show up recently as part of an international inquiry showed contempt.
Facebook had been aware that an update to its Android app that let it collect records of users’ calls and texts would be controversial. “To mitigate any bad PR, Facebook planned to make it as hard as possible for users to know that this was one of the underlying features,” Mr Collins wrote.
This comes from this BBC article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46456695
I have said it before.
https://angelinasouren.com/2014/06/30/facebook-in-trouble/
https://angelinasouren.com/2014/06/29/facebook-in-for-a-major-battle/
https://angelinasouren.com/2014/07/05/facebook-getting-away-with-it/
There are many alternatives, such as Diaspora. Read more on Wikipedia about Diaspora.
Facebook in trouble? (republished)
Facebook appears to know it is in trouble over the experiment it conducted (see previous post). On CNN, I read this morning that a spokesperson said it was research “to improve our services”.
It looks like Facebook is trying to jump through hoops. But Facebook doesn’t fit through the hoops.
When users consented to their data being used to improve Facebook’s services, most users will have assumed that this referred to services provided to the users, not services Facebook provides to advertisers. (When you’re happy, you are more optimistic, hence more likely to click on advertisements. Pessimists have a more realistic view of the world than optimists, but optimists likely see themselves as more successful than pessimists.)
And when Facebook users consented to their data being used to improve the services, they sure as hell did not consent to psychological experiments being conducted on them.
They may have expected Facebook to analyse the data and make use of the results of those analyses, yes, but they were likely thinking in terms of technology or something along those lines. Upgrading server x that delivers Facebook to country y. They may also have expected to see baby products being advertised to those who clicked on such ads and posted baby pictures, and office products being shown to people who stated that they are self-employed.
Facebook tweaking the streams of users to bring them the items it thought users wanted to see, that is one thing. I can be annoyed about Facebook not showing my friends’ posts in my timeline, no matter how many boxes I tick to try and get them to show and I can be annoyed about commercial posts I get shown no matter how many boxes I tick in an attempt to get rid of posts about products I cannot even buy because I am many miles away on the other side of the world, but that is an entirely different ballpark compared with Facebook deliberately tweaking the streams of users to make them feel happy or make them feel miserable, or even attempting to see whether it can or not.
Facebook – and the two university researchers along with it – has crossed a line, again. This time, Facebook has made an unforgivable mistake.
It is true that other media manipulate us all the time. But we expect that. We know that the BBC only reports what it wants to report and does not present an objective overview of society. We know that commercials feed us bullshit, that buying that car or buying that dress or perfume won’t make glamorous models suddenly find us irresistible. And I know that when CNN – CNN Money, that is – writes that “it does not appear that Facebook faces any legal implications”, CNN is trying to manipulate its audience too.
That does not apply when it comes to messages from our friends. It may still be true that we have one or two friends – or children – who may consciously or subconsciously try to manipulate us, but when it comes to messages our friends post combined, we do not expect those messages to be manipulated by a third party in such a way that we become happier. And we certainly don’t expect our Facebook streams to be manipulated to make us miserable.
Facebook could have conducted this experiment equally well after explaining what it wanted to do and allowing users informed consent. It chose not to.
The US Army provided some of the funding for this experiment. That does not help.
I have meanwhile realised how Facebook may be able to get away with this in a court of law. Facebook could claim that it was carrying out this experiment because it was concerned about the number of suicides and other problems precipitated by bullying on Facebook. It could say that it was trying to figure out how it could tweak the streams of its users to prevent such problems for its users. Unless some whistleblower provides evidence to refute this, that might very well work.
Facebook getting away with it? (republished)
I haven’t heard of huge numbers of users quitting Facebook over its recent experiments and I haven’t heard of any court cases on behalf of one or more users yet.
That could mean that from now on, Facebook will be free to do exactly as it pleases. If that ticks off or disadvantages its users, those users take responsibility from now on as their continued use of Facebook in spite of all the publicity about what Facebook has been up to can surely be seen as informed consent.
Understandably, the scientific community appears to be appalled.
Meanwhile, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic) in the US has filed an official complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission about the Facebook experiment.
On this side of the big pond, a UK regulator is launching a probe into the experiment.
The Dutch fining people for sleeping in the open air
- Rotterdam, last year: 716 fines.
- The city of Almelo just made it illegal to sleep outdoors.
- The Hague, last year until December: 643 fines.
The malicious stigmatization of poverty and homelessness is becoming just as bad in the Netherlands as it is in Tory England.
Here’s a difference: If such cases end up in court, Dutch judges almost always dismiss them.
Lawyer Ineke van den Brûle: Some people are fined multiple times within a mere few minutes.
Homeless people in the Netherlands are also being fined for not having ID on them or for hanging around.
What this reminds me of is John Stuart Mill’s assertion that the sight of some people is so aesthetically unpleasing to better-off and able-bodied others that the latter must be protected from that.
That concerns Dickensian or Victorian England, in case you didn’t know that and John Stuart Mill was an immensely privileged Englishman as was Jeremy Bentham, the co-founder of the English way of thinking called “utilitarianism”. France briefly experienced a similar development but managed to nip it in the bud.
(I discussed these two gentlemen and their ideas in my book “We need to talk about this”.)
Dutch banga rankings (incel culture, Facebook, misogyny)
The Dutch city of Utrecht is being plagued by what I see as typical incel thinking, but I shouldn’t forget that this is also how Facebook once began.
For anyone interested, there’s a film about how Facebook got started. “The social network”
Banga rankings. (bangalijsten) Rankings of female students, dividing them into Stacys and Beckys, that’s typical incel thinking, isn’t it?
Banga = urban slang for “slut”
https://www.politie.nl/informatie/wat-is-een-bangalijst.html
Dutch police is asking women to contact them if they find that they’ve been included in such “banga” rankings. They’re asking women not to try to have any material removed as this material can serve as evidence.
Continue readingSee the world the way it is
Badger cull consultation
Poor enough for the algorithm? Exploring Jordan’s “poverty targeting” system
About the level of animosity in society
I’m reminded of this article in the Dutch FT.
I’m also reminded of this:
Cultural differences
Many things seem to have changed a great deal in the past decades. The Dutch, for example, are now much more formal than the English and than Americans. They now also seem to use a strange mix of informal and formal, however.
The art of the symphony
See also her three websites:
https://live-art-foundation.com/
Are you kidding me?
7:11 drilling and hammering.
(There’s also been hammering starting at
Meanwhile, police in California killed Ryan Gainer (on 9 March) because that’s what they do when an idiot calls the police about something that has nothing to do with policing.
Ryan was a 15-year non-speaking autistic kid. He had been throwing things.
Now they say that it concerned a murder attempt on an officer, apparently. Yeah, right. Sure. Whatever you say. But not really.
Also, argh
When is the public ever going to get rid of the idea that scientists do nothing but look down microscopes all day, everyday?
Speaking of which, I was once asked “Do you only do research or do you also do scientific work?”
Von Der Leyen doesn’t get green
Ambulatory wheelchair use, what it is
Go
For many many years, people colored me ugly after I moved to England. And this got worse and worse and worse (and still hasn’t stopped).
When you do this to a person for a very long time, the person will eventually start losing beauty and may need a lot of healing to recover. There’s little to no healing behind bars inside other people’s cages.
If you color a person beautiful, that person will become more beautiful.
We are currently in a world in which we are often coloring other people ugly.
Let people be who they are. Let people free. Let them out of your mental cage.
Animal cruelty WhatsApp groups in England
The only mail in my main inbox this morning (time-stamped 22:17 last night) is 100% fake – doctored – and refers to a close relative (creepy)
Originally posted at 6:10 am and updated later.
For the record, I also saw an item in Dutch news today that detailed why most people don’t report digital crimes, that many police officers have no idea what to do with them anyway and that the Dutch police forces are totally not equipped to deal with them. Same as in England.
Continue readingAnother (targeted) comment left by 4chan or whatever? Or just a weird one?
That red cross against white, it’s Saint George’s cross, the flag of England.
(Also, I’ve been referred to as “mum” and “wife” as part of the strange nonsense that began on 9 June 2008.)
For anyone still living in La La Land
Watch this:
yep… still targeted
There’s been quite a bit of hacking interference again. It’s so so so abusive. And so disabling.
For those who don’t realize that, I am of course still using the same phones for my internet access etc etc that already got hacked in Portsmouth (including bypassing SIM).
(Not that this makes a huge difference to any truly persistent hackers. Certainly in such tightly regulated countries like the Netherlands, such people can always find you again.)
What it took, or resulted in? Two Belgian Duvel beers to release the anger that I am always forced to clamp down on because it has nowhere to go, a great deal of moping and feeling like crying and never stopping, and then deciding to pretend for a while. The idea of not being able to do a damn thing again for a while was driving me to despair.
In Portsmouth, nobody understood why being forced to do nothing at all was such agony for me. People assumed that I was pining for a man. That was the best they could come up with as explanation for my misery and powerlessness.
I am well educated and have a wonderful brain and for my brain to be forced to watch me sit in a chair or sleep and do nothing all day, that’s agony. Most people in Portsmouth never understood that. (They don’t want anything for themselves either.)
