Unfortunately, there’s a need for an App for
that.
The Bashar al-Assad
regime’s indiscriminate air strikes have terrorized civilians for
years. Now a small band of activist-entrepreneurs is building a
sensor network that listens for warplanes and warns people when and
where the bombs will fall.
… The warning that came over al-Nour’s phone
was created by three men—two Americans, one a hacker turned
government technologist, the other an entrepreneur, and a Syrian
coder. The three knew they couldn’t stop the bombings. But they
felt sure they could use technology
to give people like al-Nour a better chance of survival. They’re
now building what you might call a Shazam for air strikes, using
sound to predict when and where the bombs will rain down next. And
thus opening a crucial window of time between life and death.
… During World War II, British farmers and pub
owners in rural areas along the flight paths of German warplanes
would phone ahead to big cities, warning them when the Luftwaffe was
on the way.
… Jaeger thought that with the right
technology it should be possible to design a better system. People
were already watching for planes. If Hala could capture that
information and connect it with reports of where those planes dropped
their bombs, it would have the foundation of a prediction system.
That data could be plugged into a formula that could calculate where
the warplanes were most likely headed, taking into account the type
of plane, trajectory, previous flight patterns, and other factors.
Good luck, Facebook.
Inside
Facebook’s plan to protect the U.S. midterm elections
Two weeks ago, on a hastily
scheduled conference call with journalists, Facebook executives
announced what many felt was inevitable: Someone, perhaps Russia, was
once again trying to use the social network to “sow division”
among U.S. voters, this time before November’s midterm elections.
… There was one big
difference, though, between the disinformation campaign Facebook
announced in July and the Russian campaign from 2016. This time,
Facebook caught the bad guys — at least some of them — before
the election.
… “When over
half of Americans get their news from Facebook, [Fake
news? Bob] it’s pretty damn important,” said Senator
Mark Warner, D-Va., who has been one of the country’s most
outspoken critics of Facebook’s role in elections. “We’re
starting to see the enormous success of the Trump campaign in using
social media. I think it’s changing the paradigm.”
(Related) Fake news about fake news?
'We won't
let that happen:' Trump alleges social media censorship of
conservatives
President Donald Trump on Saturday took to Twitter
to allege social media companies are discriminating against prominent
conservatives, saying “we won’t let that happen.”
… If you are weeding out Fake News, there is
nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their
sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of
salt, or don’t watch at all.”
… In October 2017, the president suggested he
would challenge NBC’s broadcast license, although the Federal
Communications Commission doesn’t directly license networks.
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