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Submission + - French Court imprisons French executives for enabling terrorism (facebook.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: The company had made an agreement with the Islamic State group to allow the continued operation of their cement plant in Syria despite this providing financial support to IS. Two senior executives were taken from the court to prison following the verdict with sentences of five and six years.

One claimed not to have read a particularly damning email. '“I’m not a child of the internet,” he said. “Emails that I’m copied on, I don’t read, and emails from people I don’t know, I don’t open.”'

Submission + - Keep doing social science experiments? (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: The London Guardian reflects on the poor reproducibility of experiments in social science revealed by the latest Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (Score) finding, which has now published three studies looking at 3,900 social science papers.

Despite the low quality revealed by these studies, it suggests that things are getting better, admits: 'Some findings don’t matter much' claims 'replication studies can themselves be flawed.... These studies should strengthen the case for change and serve as a warning. Social science is a powerful tool for understanding the world – and that trust will be built by acknowledging uncertainty, not repudiating it.'

Given the degree to which 'following the science' led to some very bad decisions during the pandemic, not least because the social impact of lockdown choices were not well evaluated, it's hard to come to a clear view. And it's worth remembering the size of the industry employed in these science studies... It's encouraging that one of its spokesmen is admitting that mistakes were made in the past. Whether this is enough reason to carry on is less clear!

Comment Laws with mission creep (Score 4, Insightful) 148

by Bruce66423 (#66088556) Attached to: US Demands Reddit Unmask ICE Critic, Summons Firm To Grand Jury

The use of the Smoot-Hawley Act to get this information is, as the defendant's argument points out, a weird use of an act with a totally different purpose. As is so often the case, the executive is seeking to get its way with legislation that wasn't intended for their purpose. It's how our freedoms die; laws nibble away at them without it being deliberate. If you can find a witch to hunt with the law, even better; the present growth of live face scanning technology in the UK is being driven by examples of sex offenders being spotted with it.

It's so much easier to rule the country if the population is kept surveiled and cowed into silence.

Submission + - EU parliament fails to renew loophole allowing tech firms to report abuse (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: 'The European parliament has blocked the extension of a law that permits big tech firms to scan for child sexual exploitation on their platforms, creating a legal gap that child safety experts say will lead to crimes going undetected.

'The law, which was a carve-out of the EU Privacy Act, was put in place in 2021 as a temporary measure allowing companies to use automated detection technologies to scan messages for harms, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM), grooming and sextortion. However, it expired on 3 April, and the EU parliament decided not to vote to extend it, amid privacy concerns from some lawmakers.

'The regulatory gap has created uncertainty for big tech companies, because while scanning for harms on their platforms is now illegal, they still remain liable to remove any illegal content hosted on their platforms under a different law, the Digital Services Act. Google, Meta, Snap and Microsoft said they would continue to voluntarily scan their platforms for CSAM, in a joint statement posted on a Google blog.'

Child abuse as the excuse for avoiding privacy protections. Who would have thought it?

Comment How else do you fight rogue states? (Score 1) 126

The history of the Cold War was mostly proxy warfare. Below the knowledge of most people there was also a lot of covert actions, some of which we now know about. If the West hadn't fought in those ways, it would have lost.

The conflict with extremist Islam is presents the same problems, but has resulted in rather more direct action. Is Trump making a decent fist of the present situation? Probably not, but to suggest there is an easy, non-violent, solution is laughable.

Submission + - Comedian sued for $27m over mistranslation of 'Lion King' lyric (latimes.com) 1

Submitted by Bruce66423
Bruce66423 writes: 'Grammy-winning composer Lebo M is suing comedian Learnmore Jonasi for $27 million, claiming he falsely translated the “Lion King” opening chant as “Look, there’s a lion.”

'Jonasi was served court papers while performing onstage. He claims his podcast translation was comedy and not presented as authoritative fact.
'After a public social media dispute, Lebo M’s legal team recently signaled interest in exploring a structured settlement with the comedian.

'The Grammy-winning composer behind the signature opening chant in the song “Circle of Life” for “The Lion King” movies is taking a comedian to court for allegedly damaging his reputation by misrepresenting the song’s meaning on a viral podcast episode.'

Seriously?

Comment The purpose of cross examination (Score 4, Insightful) 66

by Bruce66423 (#66038692) Attached to: London Man Wore Smart Glasses For High Court 'Coaching'

If a witness is telling the truth, then the cross examination will not achieve anything. It will show that the truth is internally consistent and coherent. It's when the witness has something to hide that it will reveal that he's been lying. The fact that the witness in this case was depending on someone else to answer the questions strongly implies that he had something to hide.

I'm hopeful that the guy will lose the case and be charged with contempt of court and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Those should generate significant prison time. Add in a mega fine and perhaps this won't happen again.

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Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists? -- Kelvin Throop III

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