Category: Communities of Practice

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Stephen E. Arnold: From Journalism to Churnalism

Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Media
Stephen E. Arnold
Stephen E. Arnold

From Journalism to Churnalism

May 7, 2013

The Sunlight Foundation and Media Standards Trust have collaborated on a joint project to address plagiarism in the media. Their creation? A web tool and browser extension, Churnalism US. We took a look at The Sunlight Foundation’s recent article on it: “Churnalism: Discover When News Copies from Other Sources.”

The browser extension will be available for Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox (full approval pending). The process works by enabling Churnalism to extract article text from a whitelist of common news sites. When it finds a match, it lets you know when the text you are reading might have been copied from another source. The capabilities of this extension are driven by open-source text analysis technology.

Curious about how this would look? We were too, but the luckily this article dove into those details:

“For some anecdotal evidence from my experience using Churnalism, I’ve found a number of instances of articles about science topics relying heavily on press releases and study summaries. For example, take this piece on the BBC website about epilepsy and migraines. Churnalism found a significant portion of the text came from this press release in EurekaAlert! and let me know with a ribbon notification on the top of the page. By tapping the Show Me button on the notification, Churnalism overlays a side-by-side display of the article and the possible match with copied text highlighted for easy comparison.”

With the need for information to be delivered in real-time and the proliferation of sources available to an ever expanding and niche-oriented audience, it is no wonder that there are enough “churnalists” to warrant this browser extension. Since we curate, we must be churnalists too.

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: From Journalism to Churnalism”

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Eagle: CIA, Militant Islam, the Chechen Connection — Proxy War on Russia, Trade-Off for Syria?

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement
300 Million Talons...
300 Million Talons…

Global Research  will be publishing a series of articles and reports with a view to promoting “Boston Truth”.  The underlying objective is  to confront and challenge the official version of events concerning the Boston bombings as well as the twisted and convoluted interpretations of the mainstream media.

We invite our readers to endorse “Boston Truth” and spread the word on social media, independent media and blog sites.

Nine thousand heavily armed police including SWAT teams were deployed in a manhunt to capture a 19 year old student at U-Mass, after his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Marathon terror mastermind was shot dead by police allegedly  after a car chase and shoot out with police.

Continue reading “Eagle: CIA, Militant Islam, the Chechen Connection — Proxy War on Russia, Trade-Off for Syria?”

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Eagle: Hagel To Meet Free Syrian Army – Israel/AIPAC Hosting Free Syrian Army in Washington DC on 9 May — New War for USA?

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military
300 Million Talons...
300 Million Talons…

We are facing the prospect of an even more horrendous war in Syria and the region. Pressure is mounting on Obama to openly supply the rebel militias with more lethal weapons, and/or to impose a no-fly zone. The White House is “doubting” yesterday's U.N. investigation finding that points to the Syrian rebels using of sarin gas, (and not the regime).

This Thursday, Tzipi Livni, the “Free Syrian Army” and Chuck Hagel will confer here at the Ritz-Carlton. What are they planning? As an activist for Peace and Non-violence, are you comfortable with their secret negotiations?
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Why would the AIPAC funded and staffed, WINEP, at their upcoming 2013 Soref Symposium, scheduled for May 9, host members of the Free Syrian Army…?
Schedule:
— Noon: Israeli Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni delivers remarks on “Israel’s New Government and the Challenge of Peacemaking with the Palestinians”
— 2:30 p.m.: Anwar Esmat El Sadat, founder and chairman of the El Sadat Association for Social Development and Welfare; and Dennis Ross, former senior Middle East adviser to four presidents and counselor at WINEP, participate in a discussion on “Egypt’s Revolution, Two Years On: Transition in Distress?”
— 4 p.m.: Col. Abdul Hamid Zakaria, commander and spokesman for the Free Syrian Army; and Col. Abdul Jabbar Akidi, Free Syrian Army commander and head of the Revolutionary Military Council in Aleppo, participate in a breakout discussion on “Inside Syria: The Battle Against Assad’s Regime.” (The session is off the record)
— 7 p.m.: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel deliver remarks on “U.S. Defense Policy in the Middle East”
LOCATION: Ritz-Carlton Hotel, 1150 22nd Street NW, Washington, D.C.CONTACT: Brittany Parker,  202-452-0650  ext. 244; press@washingtoninstitute.org [Note: Speeches by Tzipi Livni, Anwwar El Sadat and Chuck Hagel will be available via live-stream at https://www.washingtoninstitute.org. RSVP to Brittany Parker at press@washingtoninstitute.org for media credentials]
(This schedue is no longer available on the WINEP website. I copied it from a blog, which also has Col.Wilkerson interview on Young Turks.)
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David Wood: Obama Drone War ‘Kill Chain’ Imposes Heavy Burden At Home

Drones & UAVs, Government, Military
David Wood
David Wood

Obama Drone War ‘Kill Chain' Imposes Heavy Burden At Home

Huffington Post, 5 May 2013

EXTRACT:

In Afghanistan, the military struck at targets 494 times last year with armed drones, according to data that has since been removed from the Air Forces Central Command website. Information on the number of Afghan civilians killed in these strikes is anecdotal, but powerful.

These attacks are often portrayed as a highly technical, robotic form of warfare. But behind every strike are hours, days and even weeks of surveillance and analysis by the airmen who work inside this Air Force Distributed Common Ground Station. It is the largest of five globally networked facilities that receive and analyze the data flowing back from drones and manned spy planes like the venerable U-2, and then package the intelligence for operations.

Senior Air Force officers acknowledge that in this vast, darkened room where hundreds of analysts struggle to keep up with the deluge of data, the potential for error — the possibility of taking innocent life — is ever-present, just as it is in ground combat operations.

“Burn-out is obviously a big concern for us,” said Air Force Col. Mike Shortsleeve, a veteran intelligence officer who commands the 497th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group that mans and operates the center here.

Air Force researchers and others who have studied the airmen here know that the stress and tension that build during weeks and months of staring at monitors can lead to loss of concentration. What is not clear is whether fatigue plays a role in the tragic errors that occur in wartime, as happened in the NATO air strike in Aghanistan earlier this month that reportedly killed 11 children.

Read full article.

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Theophillis Goodyear: Bring a Stupid Teen-Ager is Now a Felony

Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement
Theophillis Goodyear
Theophillis Goodyear

It may be idiocy but it is also fascism — zero tolerance means the state defines all speech as subject to state definition — both a tautalogical redundancy and a clear and present overturning of the Constitutional right to free speech.

Teenagers, social media, and terrorism: a threat level hard to assess

Authorities are leaning more toward zero tolerance of teenagers who fling around online threats about acts of violence or terrorism. As a result, what might have once merited a slap on the wrist may today result in criminal charges.

The case of teenager Cameron Dambrosio might serve as an object lesson to young people everywhere about minding what you say online unless you are prepared to be arrested for terrorism.

The Methuen, Mass., high school student was arrested last week after posting online videos that show him rapping an original song that police say contained “disturbing verbiage” and reportedly mentioned the White House and the Boston Marathon bombing. He is charged with communicating terrorist threats, a state felony, and faces a potential 20 years in prison. Bail is set at $1 million.

Whether the arrest proves to be a victory in America‘s fight against domestic terrorism or whether Cameron made an unfortunate artistic choice in the aftermath of the Boston bombing will become clear as the wheels of justice advance. What is apparent now, however, is that law enforcement agencies are tightening their focus on the social media behavior of US teenagers – not just because young people often fit the profile of those who are vulnerable to radicalization, but also because the public appears to be more accepting of monitoring and surveillance aimed at preventing attacks, even at the risk of government overreach.

Read full article.

 See Also (Exact Words in Rap):

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Berto Jongman: Decapitation Does Not Work – Makes Religious Groups MORE Violent

Government, Ineptitude, Military
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

PDF 10 pages

The Journal of International Policy Solutions

Spring 2008 | Volume 9  40 

Testing The Snake Head Strategy: Does Killing or Capturing its Leaders Reduce a Terrorist Group’s Activity?

EXTRACT:

The result that consistently stood out from this researchwas the propensity of decapitation strikes to cause religious organizations to become substantially more deadly

Read full article (lots of mathematics).

noble gold