#Blog tools USA

[ailifehacks]

AI Writing Tools for Beginners: How Amateur Writers Can Easily Create Stories and Blogs in 2025

AI writing tools for beginners help amateur writers easily create stories and blogs in 2025 using user-friendly AI-powered platforms. In 2025, AI writing tools for beginners are changing how amateur writers create stories, blogs, and personal content with ease.Whether you’re a hobbyist, student, or new blogger in the USA, UK, or Canada, these tools simplify creativity through automation.Many…

[data-analytics-consulting]

Data Engineering Tools for 2024 by SG Analytics Blog Post

Today, data engineering tools are the most popular and in-demand in the ever-evolving big data domain across the globe. Data engineering tools are critical to building, monitoring, and refining complex data models, enabling organizations to enhance their business outcomes by harnessing data power. The critical role of data engineering services in today's data-driven landscape outlines the key functionalities essential to business growth. 

Data Engineering - Brief Overview  

Data engineering is the backbone of every successful data-driven organization. It is the discipline accountable for transforming raw and messy data into a clean, structured, and readily available format. The impact of data engineering consulting on businesses includes:  

Informed decision-making: By making data readily available and organized, data engineering enables organizations to make data-driven decisions. This involves optimizing marketing campaigns and streamlining product development based on customer insights. 

Enhanced efficiency: Data engineering automates monotonous tasks like data collection and transformation, freeing up valuable time and resources for other activities. Streamlined workflows help increase efficiency and cost savings. 

Improved innovation: Data engineering helps unlock the potential for discovering hidden patterns and trends within data. This enables businesses to innovate by recognizing new market opportunities and developing data-driven solutions.  

Integrating the right data engineering tools is critical for organizations to maximize these benefits. The wrong data engineering tools can lead to bottlenecks and data quality issues, thereby hindering the organization's ability to extract value from its data. 

What are Data Engineering Tools?  

Data engineering tools function as the bridge between raw data and actionable insights. Today, organizations are constantly bombarded with data from customer interactions, transactions, and different social media activities. This data deluge holds immense potential to discover critical insights, optimize data operations, and make informed decisions. However, raw data stored in isolated systems has immense untapped potential.   

These tools allow data engineers to transform raw data into an accessible format ready for analysis and strategic decision-making. By streamlining data ingestion, transformation, and management, data engineering tools help organizations discover critical insights. 

https://www.sganalytics.com/blog/data-engineering-tools/

[sergeifyodorov]

not to get serious on my mostly silly blog about hockey and what if hockey was gay and look at this old hag back when he was young and beautiful and drove a fancy car but this win for team canada is and was very important for us. on a cultural level and on a political level hockey is That Serious to canadians.

the usa's victory over finland didn't get attention from the fascist coalition, but their victory over canada (their lebensraum - sorry, 51st state) did. the president called the usnt on the phone before this game. tweeted about it. guerin went on fox and friends. the making of this fake tournament for all star money into an important event wasn't an outcome that most of us saw coming, but as soon as it had that attention it was doomed to be that important. sports are a propaganda tool, especially during times of tension, and they are political. choosing to believe certain sports are important is a political choice. if team usa had won this tournament the rhetoric would have skyrocketed. our victory was an assertion that you cannot take all that belongs to us.

[psychotrenny]

Pretending like any communist country had no faults is just as bad as Europeans acting like their country has no faults, you can only battle corruption by calling it out and I have a feeling that if Israel was somehow communist you'd be defending them and somehow excusing what they're doing to the Palestinians much like how you're excusing what China is doing to the Uyghurs

Thank you for providing an example of exactly what I was talking about. Now China isn't perfect (and I never claimed it was) and if you want to criticise it's mistakes and wrongdoings there's plenty to talk about both past and present. Just off the top of my head you could talk about the reflexive anti-Sovietism leading to attacks on fellow revolutionaries (i.e. Vietnam) and support for misguided or even counter-revolutionary movements (CPK in Cambodia, UNITA in Angola) or the excessive concessions to foreign capitalists (i.e. Foxconn) in the name of economic development that allowed these firms to exploit and abuse Chinese citizens. But what you can't talk about is the "Uyghur Genocide" because it's not a fucking thing that's happening. It's completely fucking made up by reactionary dipshits as a part of the USA's strategic "pivot to Asia". Like it's not as though China has perfectly handled the issue of Islamic Fundamentalist violence in the territory (i.e. forbidding certain items of clothing is clearly an unnecessarily oppressive and likely counter-productive tactic) but their focus on countering terrorism by changing the material conditions that led to radicalisation in the first place put the Chinese above any part of "The West" in this regard. And whatever you want to say about China's policy towards Xinjiang it's sure as fuck not "genocide"

Anyway plenty of people do in fact claim that Israel is some sort of communist and on this blog I have always expressed the view that this position is complete bullshit; "Labour Zionism" is a fucking joke of an ideology that only functions as a tool for class collaborations with the Settler Bourgeoisie granting their Proletariat concessions in exchange for support in the super-exploitation of the Indigenous working class. Like you can't just say "Oh I'd bet you'd fall for this" when I very clearly haven't

My point isn't that "any communist country has no faults". My point is that Left Anti-Communists don't want a good faith discussion of these faults as is proven by their obsession with faults that aren't even fucking real. Just like you are doing right now in fact. If you want to criticise people for being too soft on communist regimes then please do so over things that are actually happening and not completely fabricated by the most rabidly reactionary US propagandists. Thanks 👍

[desigrrrl]

List of Telugu learning Resources

Writing

Script: about, history and development, impact of writing tools in its evolution

Alphabet: multibhashi, wikipedia, wikibooks, edzym

Reading

Textbook: intensive course (archive.org), ncert school books, ap scert school books, ts scert school books, hindi-telugu praimaru, grammar (written in telugu)

Prose: kids’ stories, stories, collected manuscripts, parikini, soundaryalahari, barrister parvateesam, history, translated quran,

Poetry: kinnerasani patalu, movie songs book, maha prasthanam, tyagaraja kirtanalu

Blog/Misc: chandamama kathalu magazine, kavithalu, saaranga magazine, hasam magazine, bharati magazine, swathi weekly, sakshi news

Dictionaries: andhrabharati, tel-eng by sankaranarayana, eng-tel by venkatacharyulu, tel-eng by percival, tel-sans, hin-tel.

Vocabulary

MyLanguages

MeaningInHindi

1000MostCommonWords

proverbs: sametalu (written in telugu)

Grammar

malik’s absolutely goated guide

praveen ragi

vakyam (written in telugu)

Apps

Mango

Multibhashi (android)

HelloTalk

Dasubhashitam (android)

Learn Spoken Telugu From English (android)

Websites

Languages Home

Goethe-Verlag

LearningTelugu

Learn 101

Desi Bantu

YouTube - Native

Telugu teachers: telugu vanam, teach me telugu, pr learning hub,

Beginner level/Kids content: koo koo tv, jum jum tv, paa paa tv, horror planet

General: permit room, sumakka, chai bisket, naa anveshana, my vilage show, ragadi, chitra alochana, thyview, mahathalli, vikramaditya, yevarra meerantha, aye jude, dhethadi, chari not sorry

YouTube - Learners

Mexico: Christina

USA: Kari, Isaac Richards, Manasa (Danya), Omar Crockett

Italy: Franchesca /Telugutalian

Denmark: BigAReact

Poland: Zbigsbujji Chetlur

Sweden: Karl Svanberg

Online Keyboards

lexilogos

typingbaba

branah

gate2home

[watermelllonarchive]

Updated and reorganized the resources post (pinned on my blog) but wanted to share in a separate post as well <3

Resources

To see the most up-to-date version of this post, see my pinned post.

A note on ownership: I don't own these videos. The creators of these videos want me to remove their content, contact me through DM and I'll do so. :)

1. Go Fund Me

I'm making a list of every Go Fund Me or donation link from accounts shared on this blog! If you have interacted with the posts or felt moved by the stories they shared, please consider donating to help them and their families. (Note: not all accounts shared on watermelllonarchive have GFM or other fundraising campaigns.)

Click on names to see their previous posts!

Listed alphabetically by first name

Abdallah Zaqout - GFM for evacuating his family (Link) Update: Abdallah was able to evacuate in March 2024, but his family remains in Gaza.

Abdel Kouta - GFM for Abdel (Canadian citizen) to return to his wife and kids in Canada. (Link) Update: Abdel has left Gaza. The GFM is still open to help cover living expenses.

Ahmed Younis - GFM to help him evacuate Gaza. (Link)

Amir Gharabawi - GFM to help evacuate his family (link) Update: Amir and a few family members have left Gaza. The GFM is still open to cover living expenses and safe passage for his siblings.

Anas Matar - GFM to help rebuild his home (link)

Ashraf and Aboud Almajaida - GFM to help them and their family (link)

Asma Al-shaikh- While Asma has evacuated, there is an ongoing GFM to help her family and fiance leave Gaza. (link)

Bashar Zaneen - GFM to help evacuate him and his mother (link) Update: Bashar evacuated Gaza in May. His family, including his mom, are still in Gaza and the GFM remains open.

Hasan Almoghani - GFM to help Hasan and his family in Northern Gaza afford food and necessities (link)

Hosam Soboh - GFM to help rebuild his home and business (link)

Kholoud Nassar - GFM to support her family in Gaza (link)

Mahmoud Alghrbawi - GFM to help evacuate his family (link)

Maram Alshurafa - GFM for evacuating her family (link)

Medo Halimy- GFM to support his and his family's evacuation. (Link)

Meera Asfour - GFM to support her family and help them evacuate (link)

Nadia Abu Shaban - GFM for evacuating her family (link) Update: Nadia and her family evacuated in May 2024.

Nisreen Shehada - GFM to evacuate her family who remains in Gaza (link) Update: Nisreen left Gaza in late March. Her family is still in Gaza and were scheduled to leave the day IOF took Rafah Crossing.

Nour Elhouda Musabeh (Nouur97) - GFM to help her and her family afford food and other essentials. (Link)

Rahaf Shamaly - GFM for her family to join her in Egypt. (link)

Sami Alsultan - GFM to help Sami and his family rebuild (link)

Shoroq Isawi- GFM to help her family evacuate. (link) Update: Shoroq evacuated March 2024. Her family is still in Gaza and the GFM remains open.

Tala Darwish - GFM to support her studies and evacuation from Gaza (link)

2. Actions

Contacting Representatives

Canada - MPs by Constituencies

CJPME tool to help call representatives

leadnow.ca script and tracker to call your representatives

Amnesty International

United States - Federal, state, and local representatives

5calls website to help call your reps

Action Network form to write to your representatives

USPCR advice and scripts for contacting congress

Jewish Voices for Peace

Need a script?

Humanti Project has some messages for emailing representatives, which you can use or take as inspiration.

Form letters and email campaigns

These links allow you to send a pre-written email. Just enter your contact information!

Jewish Voices for Peace (USA)

Congress: demand Biden reinstate UNRWA finding

President Biden: demand an immediate ceasefire now

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USA)

Email Congress: End the Gaza Genocide

Email universities: Divest now and stop repressing protests

Medial Aid for Palestinians (UK)

Email your MP: Protect Palestinians in Gaza Against Atrocities

Petitions

USCPR: Demand Biden and Congress Acknowledge the ICC’s Authority and Put a Stop to the Genocide in Gaza

Amnesty International: Demand a ceasefire by all parties to end civilian suffering

Buying eSims

Purchase internet access for someone in Gaza with eSims for Gaza

Daily Clicks

Arab.org - Watch an advertisement, and the money goes to the UNRWA. (View their quarterly donation receipts here)

3. Conflicts across the globe

While this blog focuses on Palestine, there are other conflicts that deserve our attention. Please consider donating what you can to one or more of the charities below, or share the links with friends and family.

Democratic Republic of the Congo 🇨🇩

7 million people have been displaced due to violence between armed groups and government. Millions more face disease, starvation, and continued violence.

Focus Congo - founded in 2016 by a Congolese refugee Pappy Orion who escaped the Congo during the first and second Congo Wars of the late 1990s.

Help Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo- This effort, organized and run by Women for Women International, supports Congolese women escape violence and recover through education, job training, access to doctors, and cash assistance.

Sudan 🇸🇩

Violence between opposing factions of the Sudanese security forces have resulted in over 8.5 million people being displaced and millions more struggling to access food, medicine, and safety.

CARE International Switzerland - CARE has been in Sudan before the current conflict and runs programs helping refugees.

International Rescue Committee - IRC has increased their ongoing efforts in Sudan and have launched new programs to address water and sanitation.

[zoesblogsposts]

o 625 words to know in your target language o

There is a really interesting blog called "Fluent Forever" that aids foreign language learners in tricks, tips and techniques to guide them to achieving fluency "quickly" and efficiently. One of the tricks is to learn these 625 vocab words in your target language, that way you have a basis to start delving into grammar with ease as you can understand a lot of vocab right off the bat. Plus this list of words are common across the world and will aid you in whatever language you are learning. Here is the list in thematic order

• Animal: dog, cat, fish, bird, cow, pig, mouse, horse, wing, animal

• Transportation: train, plane, car, truck, bicycle, bus, boat, ship, tire, gasoline, engine, (train) ticket, transportation

• Location: city, house, apartment, street/road, airport, train station, bridge hotel, restaurant, farm, court, school, office, room, town, university, club, bar, park, camp, store/shop, theater, library, hospital, church, market, country (USA,

France, etc.), building, ground, space (outer space), bank, location

• Clothing: hat, dress, suit, skirt, shirt, T-shirt, pants, shoes, pocket, coat, stain, clothing

• Color: red, green, blue (light/dark), yellow, brown, pink, orange, black, white, gray, color

• People: son, daughter, mother, father, parent (= mother/father), baby, man, woman, brother, sister, family, grandfather, grandmother, husband, wife, king, queen, president, neighbor, boy, girl, child (= boy/girl), adult (= man/woman), human (# animal), friend (Add a friend's name), victim, player, fan, crowd, person

• Job: Teacher, student, lawyer, doctor, patient, waiter, secretary, priest, police, army, soldier, artist, author, manager, reporter, actor, job

• Society: religion, heaven, hell, death, medicine, money, dollar, bill, marriage, wedding, team, race (ethnicity), sex (the act), sex (gender), murder, prison, technology, energy, war, peace, attack, election, magazine, newspaper, poison, gun, sport, race (sport), exercise, ball, game, price, contract, drug, sign, science, God

• Art. band, song, instrument (musical), music, movie, art

• Beverages: coffee, tea, wine, beer, juice, water, milk, beverage

• Food: egg, cheese, bread, soup, cake, chicken, pork, beef, apple, banana orange, lemon, corn, rice, oil, seed, knife, spoon, fork, plate, cup, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sugar, salt, bottle, food

• Home: table, chair, bed, dream, window, door, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, pencil, pen, photograph, soap, book, page, key, paint, letter, note, wall, paper, floor, ceiling, roof, pool, lock, telephone, garden, yard, needle, bag, box, gift, card, ring, tool

• Electronics: clock, lamp, fan, cell phone, network, computer, program (computer), laptop, screen, camera, television, radio

• Body: head, neck, face, beard, hair, eye, mouth, lip, nose, tooth, ear, tear (drop), tongue, back, toe, finger, foot, hand, leg, arm, shoulder, heart, blood, brain, knee, sweat, disease, bone, voice, skin, body

• Nature: sea, ocean, river, mountain, rain, snow, tree, sun, moon, world, Earth, forest, sky, plant, wind, soil/earth, flower, valley, root, lake, star, grass, leaf, air, sand, beach, wave, fire, ice, island, hill, heat, nature

• Materials: glass, metal, plastic, wood, stone, diamond, clay, dust, gold, copper, silver, material

• Math/Measurements: meter, centimeter, kilogram, inch, foot, pound, half, circle, square, temperature, date, weight, edge, corner

• Misc Nouns: map, dot, consonant, vowel, light, sound, yes, no, piece, pain, injury, hole, image, pattern, noun, verb, adjective

• Directions: top, bottom, side, front, back, outside, inside, up, down, left, right, straight, north, south, east, west, direction

• Seasons: Summer, Spring, Winter, Fall, season

• Numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 21, 22, 30, 31, 32, 40, 41, 42, 50, 51, 52, 60, 61, 62, 70, 71, 72, 80, 81, 82, 90, 91, 92, 100, 101, 102, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 10000, 100000, million, billion, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, number

• Months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

• Days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

• Time: year, month, week, day, hour, minute, second, morning, afternoon, evening, night, time

• Verbs: work, play, walk, run, drive, fly, swim, go, stop, follow, think, speak/say, eat, drink, kill, die, smile, laugh, cry, buy, pay, sell, shoot(a gun), learn, jump, smell, hear (a sound), listen (music), taste, touch, see (a bird), watch (TV), kiss, burn, melt, dig, explode, sit, stand, love, pass by, cut, fight, lie down, dance, sleep, wake up, sing, count, marry, pray, win, lose, mix/stir, bend, wash, cook, open, close, write, call, turn, build, teach, grow, draw, feed, catch, throw, clean, find, fall, push, pull, carry, break, wear, hang, shake, sign, beat, lift

• Adjectives: long, short (long), tall, short (vs tall), wide, narrow, big/large, small/little, slow, fast, hot, cold, warm, cool, new, old (new), young, old (young), weak, dead, alive, heavy, light (heavy), dark, light (dark), nuclear, famous

[mysticstronomy]

HOW OLD IS PHOENIX A* BLACK HOLE??

Blog#380

Saturday, March 2nd, 2024.

Welcome back,

Black holes are the most massive objects that we know of in the Universe. Not stellar mass black holes, not supermassive black holes (SMBHs,) but ultra-massive black holes (UMBHs.) UMBHs sit in the center of galaxies like SMBHs, but they have more than five billion solar masses, an astonishingly large amount of mass. The largest black hole we know of is Phoenix A, a UMBH with up to 100 billion solar masses.

How can something grow so massive?

UMBHs are rare and elusive, and their origins are unclear. A team of astrophysicists working on the question used a simulation to help uncover the formation of these massive objects. They traced UMBH’s origins back to the Universe’s ‘Cosmic Noon‘ around 10 to 11 billion years ago.

Their paper is “Ultramassive Black Holes Formed by Triple Quasar Mergers at z = 2,” and it’s published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The lead author is Yueying Ni, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics/Harvard & Smithsonian.

“We found that one possible formation channel for ultra-massive black holes is from the extreme merger of massive galaxies that are most likely to happen in the epoch of the ‘cosmic noon,'” said Ni.

UMBHs are extremely rare. Creating them in scientific simulations requires a massive, complex simulation. This is where Astrid comes in. It’s a large-scale cosmological hydrodynamical simulator that runs on the Frontera supercomputer at the University of Texas, Austin. Astrid’s large-scale simulations can track things like dark matter, temperature, metallicity, and neutral hydrogen.

Simulations like Astrid are ranked by the number of particles their simulations contain, and Astrid is at the top of that list.

“The science goal of Astrid is to study galaxy formation, the coalescence of supermassive black holes, and re-ionization over the cosmic history,” said lead author Ni in a press release. (Ni is a co-developer of Astrid.) A powerful tool like Astrid needs a powerful supercomputer. Luckily, UT Austin has the most powerful academic supercomputer in the USA.

“Frontera is the only system that we performed Astrid from day one. It’s a pure Frontera-based simulation,” she explained.

Astronomers know that galaxies grow large through mergers, and it’s likely that SMBHs grow more massive at the same time. But UMBHs are even more massive and much rarer. How do they form?

The team’s work with Astrid delivered an answer.

“What we found are three ultra-massive black holes that assembled their mass during the cosmic noon, the time 11 billion years ago when star formation, active galactic nuclei (AGN), and supermassive black holes, in general, reach their peak activity,” Ni said.

Originally published on www.universetoday.com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, March 6th, 2024)

"A GALAXY THAT HAS NO STARS??"

[nullnvoid911]

Happy new year!

As 2024 draws to a close, I thought it'd be fun to show some fun statistics about the thousands of posts I've made this year!

Here are the final totals:

Posts cited: 2436/5187 (46.9%)

Total followers: 524 (Thank you!)

#needs-attribution: 265 | #needs-more-info: 48

Posts still queued: 967 (how do I do this to myself...?)

Keep reading for more fun details!

Who's shown up on this blog?

Every cited post has been assigned tags based on their contents, using an auto-tagging system I built a while back. It's helpful if you want to see other posts of the same country, agency, etc. - but it's also great at finding stats like...

Countries

This blog has been quite the world tour! I've mentioned a staggering 58 countries in my posts. But by country, who have I posted about the most?

The top 5: Germany (491), Russia (369), France (321), USA (197), and Ukraine (131).

But enough about me - what did you all think of my posts? This next map is per capita, meaning the average number of notes each country's post got. (Countries with less than 5 posts are set to 0, and my reblogs are excluded.)

A surprising twist - Bulgaria takes top spot with 19.4 notes per capita! While their limited number of posts reveals a flaw in this measurement, the posts that are there really hit it off with the masked men lovers:

If you're curious, the runners up are Finland (14.3), Kosovo (14.1), Serbia (13.4), and France (13.0).

As an aside, I'd like to give a special shout out to the Czech Republic for stumping me the most when trying to cite posts from them. Where do you post your police photos?!?

Agencies

Okay, but which specific units have shown up the most this year?

Just pretend CBRN and K9 are units :)

I guess it's not surprising, but I forgot how much I posted about Germany's SEK! Then, Russian (ОМОН) and French (GIGN, RAID) agencies aren't too far behind.

And what did you think?

French agencies drift to the top. I know some of you reading this really like GIGN, so it makes a ton of sense! PI2G simply ranks first because of their limited number of posts:

But GIGN (and GIPN, FIPN, RAID, CDI, whatever...) also did respectably in the rankings:

GSG-9 also beats the more regional SEK in terms of notes per capita. They might be cooler, but way too many posts claim photos of SEK officers to be GSG-9!!

Dates

Every cited post comes with a date. But when did things happen the most on my blog? (Approximate dates, e.g. "<2014", are excluded.)

My earliest post is from July 20, 2001, during the G8 summit protests in Genoa:

And my latest post was December 26, 2024 - just a few days ago! A Swedish police officer searches for parachuters:

Some hotspots also arise in the graph. My most posted dates are:

January 31, 2021 (22 posts) and January 23, 2021 (19 posts) - Riot police during Alexei Navalny protests around Russia.

March 30, 2023 (19 posts) - German riot police exercise in Uelzen and Esterholz.

November 18, 2015 (17 posts) - French national police apartment raid in Saint Denis aimed at capturing Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

February 18, 2022 (14 posts) - Canadian riot police during COVID-19 protests in Ottawa.

Closing thoughts

To end off, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's followed this blog since I started it in May. I never thought I would sink this much time into collecting and sourcing images, building citation tools from scratch, finding VPNs, uncovering lost media... but here we are.

I read every note, so your comments, reposts, and deranged tags make the process all worth it :)

Whoever you are, wherever you come from, and whatever reason you follow my blog, thank you for sticking around. I hope you had a great 2024, and here's to a properly cited 2025!

-null

[bdan94432]

allreddit

I am bobdan working for allreddit as PR consultant. With more than 6 year’s experience in PR and Digital Industry, helping teams to achieve goals by streamlining the process

[aeridanus]

Found these two in a sketchbook from 2019 when my best friend and I were on vacation, and I think I never shared them :D We invented two legendary Pokémon for the German federal states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. We wanted to complete the trio with Hesse, but never got to it again. These make more sense in German, but it's obvious that the Bavarian one spits beer and shits sausages with mustard, while the Swabian one spits wine and has pretzel rolls on its tail. Their paw prints resemble the states' coat of arms (of course stolen from Dialga's and Palkia's footprint lore).

I came across those pages when looking though old sketchbooks and I realized - there was another high point between 2018 and 2020 where I was intensely inspired and filling up sketchbooks like a mad(wo)man. That was the time when my colleage and I went to the Anatomy Tools courses in the USA, when I went to the gym every lunch break and was super lean and pretty muscular for a gal. And then, Covid came and I didn't even have a sketchbook again until 2022, and that one took one hand a half years to fill. It's also the exact fucking phase I was absent from this blog. What the fuck man - even with the giga perk of having eternal homeoffice since then, the Covid time left a sad mark even on my introverted self. I lost my drive at the same time I stopped regular and heavy exercise. Concidende? No. Then put everything else from the last posts on top, with a sprinkle of midlife crisis, and there we go.

It's good to think through all of this...

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Object permanence

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in NYC on WEDNESDAY (26 Feb) with JOHN HODGMAN and at PENN STATE on THURSDAY (Feb 27). More tour dates here. Mail-order signed copies from LA's Diesel Books.

#20yrsago Italy runs out of wiretaps https://edri.org/our-work/wiretapping-data-access-by-foreign-courts-why-not/

#20yrsago Online anonymity https://web.archive.org/web/20050220170713/http://www.law.com/jsp/ltn/pubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1108389943380

#20yrsago WIPO pulls out dirty tricks to kill participation from consumer groups https://web.archive.org/web/20060909232701/https://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1689

#20yrsago UK Labour MP flays govt over terror laws – incredible speech! https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2005-02-23a.365.0#20yrsago Finnish blogger faces disgraceful, bogus libel charge https://mummila.net/marginaali/2005/02/24/total-lack-of-respect-for-the-law/

#15yrsago Vice-principal denies using laptop to spy on student https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/principal-accused-in-webcamgate-im-no-spy/2138343/

#15yrsago IP Alliance says that encouraging free/open source makes you an enemy of the USA https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/feb/23/opensource-intellectual-property

#10yrsago Chicago Police Department maintains “black site” for illegal detention and torture https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site

#10yrsago HSBC boss used tax havens to keep underlings from discovering his outrageous pay https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/bill-black-hsbc-ceo-pay-outrageous-use-tax-havens-hide-peers.html

#10yrsago Huge trove of surveillance leaks coming https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/2/23/the-spy-cables-a-glimpse-into-the-world-of-espionage

#10yrsago Big Content publishes a love-letter to TPP https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/02/hollywood-lobby-groups-creepy-open-love-letter-tpp

#10yrsago Laura Poitras’s Citizenfour OPSEC https://www.wired.com/2014/10/laura-poitras-crypto-tools-made-snowden-film-possible/

#5yrsago A flat earther commits suicide by conspiracy theory https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/24/pluralist-your-daily-link-dose-24-feb-2020/#epistemological

#5yrsago 81 Fortune 100 companies demand binding arbitration https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/24/pluralist-your-daily-link-dose-24-feb-2020/#iamthelaw

#5yrsago My interview on adversarial interoperability https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/24/pluralist-your-daily-link-dose-24-feb-2020/#dragons

#5yrsago Key computer vision researcher quits https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/24/pluralist-your-daily-link-dose-24-feb-2020/#oppenheimer

#5yrsago How "Authoritarian Blindness" kept Xi from dealing with coronavirus https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/24/pluralist-your-daily-link-dose-24-feb-2020/#thatswhatxisaid

#1yrago Vice surrenders https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/24/anti-posse/#when-you-absolutely-positively-dont-give-a-solitary-single-fuck

[petruswgstblog]

Blog post #10 - Week 13

1.How might the surveillance powers granted by the USA Patriot Act affect public trust in the government?

The USA Patriot Act's surveillance powers can have a long-term effect on trust in the government. When citizens discover that the government has the ability to monitor their communications. “…the Patriot Act liberalized use of the federal government's four main tools of surveillance: wiretaps, search warrants, subpoenas, and pen/trap orders” (Parenti, 200). This might make people feel that their privacy is being violated, even if they are not suspected of a crime. This could give the public the impression that they are constantly watched, which can lead to fear and censorship. And because the act broadened the definition of "terrorist" to include anyone who acts of a peaceful protest, etc, without a permit, citizens may believe that their freedom of speech is being threatened. When a peaceful protest is labeled as a potential terrorist act, it may cause people to lose trust in a government that looks for control beyond communication. If citizens believe the government uses laws such as the USA Patriot Act to suppress resistance rather than ensure public safety, they may lose faith in democratic systems and question whether their rights are actually being protected.

2.How may identifying a peaceful protest as terrorism under the USA Patriot Act impact democratic engagement and freedom in the US?

Identifying a peaceful protest as terrorism under the USA Patriot Act can have serious consequences for political participation and freedom in the US. If people fear engaging in protests, specifically nonviolent ones, it could end up in them being scrutinized or labeled as terrorists, in which it leads people to stop expressing their opinions. For example this had happened to Patrisse Khan-Cullors, who is an anti-racist activist and was unfortunately prosecuted as a terrorist, during the Black Lives Matter movement. This distrust and fear can stop people from joining political organizations, advocating for change, or even just holding the government accountable for wanting so much power and control over their people. When peaceful protests are criminalized the difference between protecting national security and limiting legitimate political speech becomes unclear.

3.To what extent does the use of the federal anti-riot statute reflect a broader trend of criminalizing dissent?

The use of the federal anti-riot statute reflects a broader trend of criminalizing dissent, especially when government officials combine protest behavior with dangers to safety or national security. Although the act is meant to prevent violent riots, critics argue that its vague wording allows it to be used broadly and subjectively, potentially prosecuting people who are just organizing, engaging with, or supporting protest movements. For example, Madison and Wallschlaeger's arrest for allegedly using communication technologies to coordinate with protesters at the G20 meeting raises issues. The fact that they were charged under this statute, had their house searched, and their personal electronics seized, demonstrates how laws can be used to intimidate and discourage political activism, even if the charges were eventually dropped for them. This is in line with the argument made in Parenti's reading, which claims that laws and state power are frequently used not only for safety, but also to limit criticism and suppress it.

4.What implications does the case of Elliot Madison and Michael Wallschlaeger have for the protection of civil liberties in democratic societies?

The implications that this case of Elliot Madison and Michael Wallschlaeger have for the protection of civil liberties in democratic societies worries about how civil liberties are protected in democratic democratic institutions. Their arrest and forceful law enforcement actions, which were mostly motivated by their use of Twitter to assist protesters, demonstrate how uncertain laws and brutal policing may be used to silence dissent and criminalize free speech. It suggests that government officials might connect activism and criminal action, particularly when new technology empower these participants who are activists. This case emphasizes the danger of damaging privacy, freedom of speech, and the right to protest which are essential and needed in any democracy, putting it at risk. “Federal and grand juries are conducted in utter secrecy and have enormous power. The old joke is that they can “indict a ham sandwich,” but if they turn up nothing, they can disappear with no public disclosure. Stolar doesn’t know of anyone who has been summoned, but given the course of events, “I would say they’re looking to go after what they consider to be hardcore demonstrators,” he says. “I have very little faith in government anyway,” says Madison, “but this is something I would have expected more under the Bush regime” (Powers, 3).

Parenti, Christian. 2003. Fear as Institution: 9/11 and Surveillance Triumphant.

Powers, Matthew. 2010. How Your Twitter Account Could Land You in Jail.

[juniperpyre]

A terrorist- ‘A person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.’

Death eaters cannot be named as civilians as they were certainly part of a armed force.

However the death eaters were using violence (which was unlawful, at-least when the government was not under Voldemort’s indirect control, and even then technically so) against civilians, ordinary citizens and muggles alike.

this is in reference to this post.

we don’t use dictionary definitions as the source of truth for complex words on my blog. that being said, the definition you provide says “especially against civilians”. for your argument to work it would need to say “exclusively against civilians”

in my post tag i say "#i don't use the word terrorist i think it's always propagandizing". i, and many others with anti-authoritarian beliefs, argue that terrorist is a word to dehumanize certain groups of people through creating an emotional reaction. the word terrorist implicitly identifies the violence as unacceptable.

who decides what violence is acceptable? the state. i don’t trust the state, so their opinions on what violence is acceptable only point me in the directions of their allies and enemies.

plus we know harry, ron, hermione were essentially being treated as terrorists in DH, so we know the text itself is aware that the government uses it's authority to dictate which violence is acceptable.

terrorist is a charge. you can be convicted of terrorism, in addition to the direct crime, murder, property damage, mass murder, etc. it is an explicitly political term used to further condemn certain acts of violence.

one can say, well, [insert country] is a terrorist state. cool cool. i’m not a fan of using the language of the oppressive authorities to create a legitimate opposition. an argument that seriously uses the word terrorist is cosigning the manipulative emotional rhetoric for which the word was created. the word terrorist is a tool of silencing. it invokes evil, monstrous acts and leaves no room for inspection of the event, bc then you're trying to justify terrorism.

it’s dehumanizing, and i’m not really interested in dehumanizing anyone. plus, it’s basically the adult version of “i’m rubber, you’re glue” which is pathetic.

i’m not arguing that the order are a morally incorrect organization. as @/hsvh-hp said, they break into government buildings. they also illegally stake out government buildings. they target upstanding members of society, like the malfoys. and most importantly, they use violence in opposition to government aims. as they should. these are all acts of rebellion against the government.

also, i'd reiterate some of these points about the word civilian. civilians are also designated by the government, and while i think it's meaningful to distinguish between killing combatants and non-combatants, it's important to remember your status as a non-combatant can be removed for political purposes. the USA does this to justify killing the people adjacent to enemies, to point blank bomb random fucking people, to kill people in their beds, etc

so yeah! tl;dr the word terrorist is a tool of propaganda and i'm uninterested in using it as a serious designator of acceptable/unacceptable violence. a terrorist is someone who uses violence in a way the state doesn't like.