Politically Strange & Frivolous

[Albany Rifles]

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The movie Gravity come to life.

[JRT]

Debris from Russian anti-satellite test 'threatens interests of all nations', says US

15 November 2021

Russia has blown up one of its own satellites, sending thousands of pieces of debris into space. The seven astronauts on the International Space Station were forced to take shelter in a transport capsule. 'Thanks for a crazy but well-coordinated day, we really appreciated all the situational awareness you gave us', Nasa astronaut Mark Vande Hei told Nasa headquarters. ‘Russia's dangerous and irresponsible behaviour jeopardises the long-term sustainability of outer space’, said US state department spokesman Ned Price.

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[tbm3fan]

I think Dr. David Brophy may feel that the best course Australia could take is to kiss China's ass as much as is needed and that way China will see the light concerning taking Taiwan when we ask her not to. Has a little Neville in him it seems.

[JRT]

[JRT]

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Iran says U.S. has agreed to lift oil sanctions

Reuters
Published on Jun 23, 2021

The Iranian government said on Wednesday Washington has agreed to lift all sanctions on Iran's oil and shipping industries, just days after talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal adjourned in Vienna.

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Whatever downward pressure this might apply to crude oil pricing won't help US shale oil producers at all.

[JRT]

BBC journalist reports from British warship as Russia “fires warning shots”

BBC News
Published on 23 June 2021

Tensions have escalated sharply between Russia and the United Kingdom, on the seas off the coast of Crimea.

More than 20 Russian aircraft and two coastguard ships were shadowing a British warship, HMS Defender, when the Russians claim they've fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of the British ship, accusing it of violating Russian territorial waters. The British deny that account.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and claims the peninsula and its waters are Russian territory. However the UK says HMS Defender was passing through Ukrainian waters, in an internationally recognised route.

The only broadcast journalist on board HMS Defender was from the BBC.

Huw Edwards presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Jonathan Beale, who describes the hostile warnings from Russia and HMS Defender’s response the confrontation.

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[tbm3fan]

"People live in harmony regardless of their ethnic backgrounds and enjoy a stable and peaceful life with no restriction to personal freedom."

This sounds like Xanadu. Too bad there is no place in the entire world where this exists much less China of all places.

[Albany Rifles]

More war crimes by these bastards...

[JRT]

AI emotion-detection software tested on Uyghurs
by Jane Wakefield - BBC Technology reporter
26 May 2021

A software engineer claimed to have installed such systems in police stations in the province.

A human rights advocate who was shown the evidence described it as shocking.

The Chinese embassy in London has not responded directly to the claims but says political and social rights in all ethnic groups are guaranteed.

Xinjiang is home to 12 million ethnic minority Uyghurs, most of whom are Muslim.

Citizens in the province are under daily surveillance. The area is also home to highly controversial "re-education centres", called high security detention camps by human rights groups, where it is estimated that more than a million people have been held.

Beijing has always argued that surveillance is necessary in the region because it says separatists who want to set up their own state have killed hundreds of people in terror attacks.

Xinjiang is believed to be one of the most surveilled areas in the world

The software engineer agreed to talk to the BBC's Panorama programme under condition of anonymity, because he fears for his safety. The company he worked for is also not being revealed.

But he showed Panorama five photographs of Uyghur detainees who he claimed had had the emotion recognition system tested on them.

Data from the system purports to indicate a person's state of mind, with red suggesting a negative or anxious state of mind

"The Chinese government use Uyghurs as test subjects for various experiments just like rats are used in laboratories," he said.

And he outlined his role in installing the cameras in police stations in the province: "We placed the emotion detection camera 3m from the subject. It is similar to a lie detector but far more advanced technology."

He said officers used "restraint chairs" which are widely installed in police stations across China.

"Your wrists are locked in place by metal restraints, and [the] same applies to your ankles."

He provided evidence of how the AI system is trained to detect and analyse even minute changes in facial expressions and skin pores.

According to his claims, the software creates a pie chart, with the red segment representing a negative or anxious state of mind.

He claimed the software was intended for "pre-judgement without any credible evidence".

The Chinese embassy in London did not respond to questions about the use of emotional recognition software in the province but said: "The political, economic, and social rights and freedom of religious belief in all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are fully guaranteed.

"People live in harmony regardless of their ethnic backgrounds and enjoy a stable and peaceful life with no restriction to personal freedom."

The evidence was shown to Sophie Richardson, China director of Human Rights Watch.

"It is shocking material. It's not just that people are being reduced to a pie chart, it's people who are in highly coercive circumstances, under enormous pressure, being understandably nervous and that's taken as an indication of guilt, and I think, that's deeply problematic."

Suspicious behaviour

According to Darren Byler, from the University of Colorado, Uyghurs routinely have to provide DNA samples to local officials, undergo digital scans and most have to download a government phone app, which gathers data including contact lists and text messages.

"Uyghur life is now about generating data," he said.

"Everyone knows that the smartphone is something you have to carry with you, and if you don't carry it you can be detained, they know that you're being tracked by it. And they feel like there's no escape," he said.

Most of the data is fed into a computer system called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform, which Human Rights Watch claims flags up supposedly suspicious behaviour.

"The system is gathering information about dozens of different kinds of perfectly legal behaviours including things like whether people were going out the back door instead of the front door, whether they were putting gas in a car that didn't belong to them," said Ms Richardson.

"Authorities now place QR codes outside the doors of people's homes so that they can easily know who's supposed to be there and who's not."

Orwellian?
There has long been debate about how closely tied Chinese technology firms are to the state. US-based research group IPVM claims to have uncovered evidence in patents filed by such companies that suggest facial recognition products were specifically designed to identify Uyghur people.

A patent filed in July 2018 by Huawei and the China Academy of Sciences describes a face recognition product that is capable of identifying people on the basis of their ethnicity.

Huawei said in response that it did "not condone the use of technology to discriminate or oppress members of any community" and that it was "independent of government" wherever it operated.

The group has also found a document which appears to suggest the firm was developing technology for a so-called One Person, One File system.

"For each person the government would store their personal information, their political activities, relationships... anything that might give you insight into how that person would behave and what kind of a threat they might pose," said IPVM's Conor Healy.

Hikvision makes a range of products including cameras

"It makes any kind of dissidence potentially impossible and creates true predictability for the government in the behaviour of their citizens. I don't think that [George] Orwell would ever have imagined that a government could be capable of this kind of analysis."

Huawei did not specifically address questions about its involvement in developing technology for the One Person, One File system but repeated that it was independent of government wherever it operated.

The Chinese embassy in London said it had "no knowledge" of these programmes.

IPVM also claimed to have found marketing material from Chinese firm Hikvision advertising a Uyghur-detecting AI camera, and a patent for software developed by Dahua, another tech giant, which could also identify Uyghurs.

Dahua said its patent referred to all 56 recognised ethnicities in China and did not deliberately target any one of them.

It added that it provided "products and services that aim to help keep people safe" and complied "with the laws and regulations of every market" in which it operates, including the UK.

Hikvision said the details on its website were incorrect and "uploaded online without appropriate review", adding that it did not sell or have in its product range "a minority recognition function or analytics technology".

Dr Lan Xue, chairman of China's National committee on AI governance, said he was not aware of the patents.

"Outside China there are a lot of those sorts of charges. Many are not accurate and not true," he told the BBC.

"I think that the Xinjiang local government had the responsibility to really protect the Xinjiang people... if technology is used in those contexts, that's quite understandable," he said.

The UK's Chinese embassy had a more robust defence, telling the BBC: "There is no so-called facial recognition technology featuring Uyghur analytics whatsoever."

Daily surveillance

Hu Liu feels his life is under constant surveillance. China is estimated to be home to half of the world's almost 800 million surveillance cameras.

It also has a large number of smart cities, such as Chongqing, where AI is built into the foundations of the urban environment.

Chongqing-based investigative journalist Hu Liu told Panorama of his own experience: "Once you leave home and step into the lift, you are captured by a camera. There are cameras everywhere."

"When I leave home to go somewhere, I call a taxi, the taxi company uploads the data to the government. I may then go to a cafe to meet a few friends and the authorities know my location through the camera in the cafe.

"There have been occasions when I have met some friends and soon after someone from the government contacts me. They warned me, 'Don't see that person, don't do this and that.'

"With artificial intelligence we have nowhere to hide," he said.

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[JRT]

Belarus Forces Down Commercial Flight,
Detains Reporter Critical of Lukashenko
Bloomberg Politics
Published on 23 May 2021

Belarus ordered a Ryanair Holdings Plc flight transiting its airspace to land and arrested a journalist on board. The journalist covered protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, whose election to a sixth term last year was internationally disputed. The forced landing drew sharp and unified condemnation from across the European Union.

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[DOR]

March 5th, in China, is “Learn From Lei Feng” Day.

[JRT]

UK PM announces ban on sale of new petrol and diesel fueled automobiles by 2030

Published on Nov 18, 2020

[kato]

Germany: No Preparations Made in Case of Alien Landing

By The Associated Press
Aug. 18, 2018

BERLIN — The German government says it has made no preparations for the possibility that aliens might land in the European country.

In a response to questions from opposition Green Party lawmaker Dieter Janecek, the government said "there are no protocols or plans for a possible first contact with alien life."

Justifying that stance, the government added it believes "a first contact on German territory is extremely unlikely, based on today's scientific knowledge." Janecek linked the government's responses to a media article Saturday.

... which is of course all a fabrication of the Springer publishing house, as usual. But it's started making the rounds across the globe, so you might stumble on it.

What is true about it is that Dieter Janecek - along with other Greens - posed a catalogue of questions to the government two weeks ago that it answered this week. In total 39 questions regarding the planned national space law and commercialization of space. None of which has to do with aliens.

The questions that Springer connects to it there were actually posed in 2009 by another Green, Peter Hettlich; three questions, namely "how high does the government estimate the probability of intelligent extraterrestrial life and how high does it estimate the chance of such extraterritorials landing in Germany?" (along with two questions regarding whether there are any prepared plans for such). The answer was: "The government does not have any information reliably allowing to estimate such probabilities. The chances of aliens landing on German soil are considered to be zero based on current scientific knowledge."