Cli-Fi: a Companion
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Iraq's WMD Capability
BRITISH AMERICAN SECURITY INFORMATION COUNCIL BASIC SPECIAL REPORT Unravelling the Known Unknowns: Why no Weapons of Mass Destruction have been found in Iraq By David Isenberg and Ian Davis BASIC Special Report 2004.1 January 2004 1 The British American Security Information Council The British American Security Information Council (BASIC) is an independent research organization that analyzes international security issues. BASIC works to promote awareness of security issues among the public, policy makers and the media in order to foster informed debate on both sides of the Atlantic. BASIC in the U.K. is a registered charity no. 1001081 BASIC in the U.S. is a non-profit organization constituted under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Code David Isenberg, Senior Analyst David Isenberg joined BASIC's Washington office in November 2002. He has a wide background in arms control and national security issues, and brings close to 20 years of experience in this field, including three years as a member of DynMeridian's Arms Control & Threat Reduction Division, and nine years as Senior Analyst at the Center for Defense Information. Ian Davis, Director Dr. Ian Davis is Executive Director of BASIC and has a rich background in government, academia, and the non-governmental organization (NGO) sector. He received both his Ph.D. and B.A. in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford. He was formerly Program Manager at Saferworld before being appointed as the new Executive Director of BASIC in October 2001. He has published widely on British defense and foreign policy, European security, the international arms trade, arms export controls, small arms and light weapons and defense diversification. -
Weighing Evidence in an Information War
Weighing evidence in an information war Paul McKeigue Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics 23 January 2019 Fake news and disinformation Government response to the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (2018): • ‘fake news’ is a poorly-defined and misleading term that conflates a variety of false information, from genuine error through to foreign interference in democratic processes • the Government has sought to move away from ‘fake news’ and instead has sought to address ‘disinformation’ and wider online manipulation. • we have defined disinformation as the deliberate creation and sharing of false and/or manipulated information that is intended to deceive and mislead audiences, either for the purposes of causing harm, or for political, personal or financial gain. • we will consider options to improve critical thinking skills and resilience to disinformation in the context of political engagement. Disinformation, conspiracy theory or truth? – some disputed explanations Official Year Event explanation Alternative explanation 1981 Yellow rain in Laos Communist Mass defecation flights of and Cambodia mycotoxin Asian honeybees warfare 2001 WTC collapse Hijacked aircraft Planned demolition 2006 Litvinenko poisoning Russian assassins Accidental mishandling of polonium 2013- Alleged chemical Regime chemical Managed massacre of 18 attacks in Syria warfare captives 2016 Brexit referendum Revolt against Manipulation of voters by result migration policy informatics companies 2017 Noise-induced illness Communist -
Roger Ebert's
The College of Media at Illinois presents Roger19thAnnual Ebert’s Film Festival2017 April 19-23, 2017 The Virginia Theatre Chaz Ebert: Co-Founder and Producer 203 W. Park, Champaign, IL Nate Kohn: Festival Director 2017 Roger Ebert’s Film Festival The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The College of Media at Illinois Presents... Roger Ebert’s Film Festival 2017 April 19–23, 2017 Chaz Ebert, Co-Founder, Producer, and Host Nate Kohn, Festival Director Casey Ludwig, Assistant Director More information about the festival can be found at www.ebertfest.com Mission Founded by the late Roger Ebert, University of Illinois Journalism graduate and a Pulitzer Prize- winning film critic, Roger Ebert’s Film Festival takes place in Urbana-Champaign each April for a week, hosted by Chaz Ebert. The festival presents 12 films representing a cross-section of important cinematic works overlooked by audiences, critics and distributors. The films are screened in the 1,500-seat Virginia Theatre, a restored movie palace built in the 1920s. A portion of the festival’s income goes toward on-going renovations at the theatre. The festival brings together the films’ producers, writers, actors and directors to help showcase their work. A film- maker or scholar introduces each film, and each screening is followed by a substantive on-stage Q&A discussion among filmmakers, critics and the audience. In addition to the screenings, the festival hosts a number of academic panel discussions featuring filmmaker guests, scholars and students. The mission of Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is to praise films, genres and formats that have been overlooked. -
Soviet Active Measures an Update Jul 1982.P65
Special Report No. 101 Soviet Active Measures: An Update July 1982 United States Department of State Bureau of Public Affairs Washington, D.C. This report describes Soviet active Forgeries After an initial mailing to Spanish measures which have come to light since journalists failed to obtain publication, the the publication of Special Report No. 88, Forgeries are a frequently used active forgery was circulated on November 11 to Soviet Active Measures: Forgery, measures technique. Several have come to all delegations (except the U.S and Spanish) Disinformation, Political Operations, in light in recent months. Their appearance has to the Conference of Security and Coopera- October 1981. been timed to influence Western opinion on tion in Europe (CSCE), then meeting in current sensitive issues. As far as we are Madrid. This time several Madrid newspa- The Soviet Union uses the term active aware, only one of these recent forgeries pers ran stories that exposed the letter as a measures (aktivnyye meropriyatiya) to achieved uncritical publication. fabrication probably of Soviet origin. cover a broad range of activities designed to Forgeries are usually sent through the promote Soviet foreign policy goals, mail to journalists, officials, or other persons The Clark-Stearns Letter. In January including undercutting opponents of the who might make them available to the 1982, a forged letter and an accompanying U.S.S.R. Active measures include media. Forgeries normally do not carry a research analysis dated September 23, 1981, disinformation, manipulating the media in return address, nor is the sender identified in from Judge William Clark, then Deputy foreign countries, the use of Communist a way that can be checked. -
Basic Special Report
BRITISH AMERICAN SECURITY INFORMATION COUNCIL BASIC SPECIAL REPORT Unravelling the Known Unknowns: Why no Weapons of Mass Destruction have been found in Iraq By David Isenberg and Ian Davis BASIC Special Report 2004.1 January 2004 1 The British American Security Information Council The British American Security Information Council (BASIC) is an independent research organization that analyzes international security issues. BASIC works to promote awareness of security issues among the public, policy makers and the media in order to foster informed debate on both sides of the Atlantic. BASIC in the U.K. is a registered charity no. 1001081 BASIC in the U.S. is a non-profit organization constituted under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Code David Isenberg, Senior Analyst David Isenberg joined BASIC's Washington office in November 2002. He has a wide background in arms control and national security issues, and brings close to 20 years of experience in this field, including three years as a member of DynMeridian's Arms Control & Threat Reduction Division, and nine years as Senior Analyst at the Center for Defense Information. Ian Davis, Director Dr. Ian Davis is Executive Director of BASIC and has a rich background in government, academia, and the non-governmental organization (NGO) sector. He received both his Ph.D. and B.A. in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford. He was formerly Program Manager at Saferworld before being appointed as the new Executive Director of BASIC in October 2001. He has published widely on British defense and foreign policy, European security, the international arms trade, arms export controls, small arms and light weapons and defense diversification. -
Security and Society in the Information Age Vol. 3
SECURITY Katarzyna MANISZEWSKA, Paulina PIASECKA Editors AND SOCIETY IIt is our pleasure to present a third scholarly volume bringing together a unique series of research papers by talented students – participants in the Security and Society in the Information Age program held at Collegium Civitas University in AGE IN THE INFORMATION Warsaw, Poland. In 2020, due to the pandemic, the program was held for first time online and included a component on the security-related implications of Covid-19. The students took part in a fully-fledged online course followed by an online research internship at the Terrorism Research Center. This book presents the results of their SECUR TY work – research papers devoted to contemporary security threats. The contributors not only analyzed the issues but also looked for solutions and these papers include recommendations for policy makers. We hope you will find this book interesting and valuable and we cordially invite you to learn more about the Security and Society in the Information Age program at: www. AND securityandsociety.org Volume 3 SOCIETY IN THE INFORMATION AGE Volume 3 ISBN 978-83-66386-15-0 9 788366 386150 Volume 3 COLLEGIUM CIVITAS „Security and Society in the Information Age. Volume 3” publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License under the following terms – you must keep this information and credit Collegium Civitas as the holder of the copyrights to this publication. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Reviews: Daniel Boćkowski, PhD, University of Bialystok Marek Jeznach, PhD, an independent security researcher Editors: Katarzyna Maniszewska, PhD ( https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8021-8135) and Paulina Piasecka, PhD ( https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3133-8154) Proofreader: Vanessa Tinker, PhD e-ISBN: 978-83-66386-15-0 ISBN-print: 978-83-66386-16-7 DOI 10.6084/m9.figshare.13614143 Publisher: Collegium Civitas Press Palace of Culture and Science, XI floor 00-901 Warsaw, 1 Defilad Square tel. -
Cumberland County, North Carolina Emergency Operations Plan
Cumberland County, North Carolina Emergency Operations Plan July 14, 2017 Prepared By Excelliant Services, Inc. 1201 Lee Branch Lane Birmingham, Al 35242 STATEMENT OF APPROVAL The undersigned approves the Cumberland County Emergency Operations Plan and agrees to the responsibilities assigned to their organization. _______________________________________ _________________ Chairman, County Board of Commissioners Date _______________________________________ _________________ County Manager, Cumberland County Date _______________________________________ _________________ Sheriff, Cumberland County Date _______________________________________ _________________ Assistant County Manager, Cumberland County Date _______________________________________ _________________ Director, Emergency Services, Cumberland County Date _______________________________________ _________________ Director, Emergency Medical Service Date of Cape Fear Valley Health Systems _______________________________________ _________________ Director, Finance Department, Cumberland County Date _______________________________________ _________________ Director, Health Department, Cumberland County Date _______________________________________ _________________ Director, Information Services, Cumberland County Date ______________________________________ _________________ Director, Parks and Recreation Department Date _______________________________________ _________________ Director, Personnel, Cumberland County Date _______________________________________ _________________ Director, -
Is Yellow Rain Simply Bees' Natural Excreta?
--------------------NAllJRE VOL..l03 s MAY 1983 NEWS--------------------- South-East Asian toxins after it falls on vegetation, wind-borne pollen adheres to the spot. • Pollen is used in the manufacture of the toxins, either as growth medium for the Is yellow rain simply bees' fungi or - as the State Department has suggested- to provide a carrier for the toxin that could be readily inhaled. natural excreta? • Pollen was mixed into the substance Washington Nowicke, a palynologist at the Smithso sprayed in the Thailand "attack" as a THE startling suggestion that "yellow nian Institution who has looked at several diversionary tactic to confuse Western rain" may simply be the excrement of bees of the samples, the spots contain pollen investigators. was put forward at a meeting last week in from many different families of plants. The Boston discussions, while on the one Boston, Massachusetts. The discovery of "It's hard to imagine that any one bee hand adding to the long list of questions large quantities of pollen in yellow spots would collect this tremendous diversity of about yellow rain, may also have dashed found on leaves in Thailand (see Nature 17 pollen", she said. early hopes that the discovery of pollen in March, p.200) had already prompted Another puzzle, according to Dr H. the samples might help to provide some speculation that the yellow rain - said by Bruno Schiefer of the University of Saskat answers. Nowicke explained that since it is the US State Department to be evidence of chewan, is why, if it is a natural occurrence, often difficult to identify a pollen grain's Soviet use of toxin weapons - may in fact it has only been reported in the past two family, let alone its species, it is virtually be of natural origin. -
The Yellow Rain Affair Lessons from a Discredited Allegation
chapter four The Yellow Rain Affair Lessons from a Discredited Allegation matthew s. meselson and julian perry robinson U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig, in a speech in West Berlin1 in September 1981 and in a detailed report to the Congress the following March,2 charged So- viet-backed Laotian and Vietnamese forces with waging toxin warfare against Hmong resistance fighters and their villages in Laos and against Khmer Rouge soldiers and villages in Cambodia. The charges were repeated with additional details in a further report to the Congress and to the member states of the United Nations in November 1982 by Haig’s successor, Secretary of State George Shultz.3 The investigation on which the allegation was based, however, failed to em- ploy reliable methods of witness interrogation or of forensic laboratory inves- tigation; it was further marred by the dismissal and withholding of contrary evidence and a lack of independent review. When the evidence for toxin attacks or any other form of chemical/biological warfare (CBW) was subjected to more careful examination, it could not be confirmed or was discredited. In what be- came known as the “Yellow Rain” affair, these charges—that toxic substances called trichothecenes were used in CBW—were initially pressed vigorously by the U.S. government and, even when the allegations proved unsustainable, they were not withdrawn. This chapter reviews all of the evidence adduced at the time that is now The Yellow Rain Affair 73 public, including a large body of material declassified and provided to us and others starting in 1986 under the Freedom of Information Act. -
101 Films for Filmmakers
101 (OR SO) FILMS FOR FILMMAKERS The purpose of this list is not to create an exhaustive list of every important film ever made or filmmaker who ever lived. That task would be impossible. The purpose is to create a succinct list of films and filmmakers that have had a major impact on filmmaking. A second purpose is to help contextualize films and filmmakers within the various film movements with which they are associated. The list is organized chronologically, with important film movements (e.g. Italian Neorealism, The French New Wave) inserted at the appropriate time. AFI (American Film Institute) Top 100 films are in blue (green if they were on the original 1998 list but were removed for the 10th anniversary list). Guidelines: 1. The majority of filmmakers will be represented by a single film (or two), often their first or first significant one. This does not mean that they made no other worthy films; rather the films listed tend to be monumental films that helped define a genre or period. For example, Arthur Penn made numerous notable films, but his 1967 Bonnie and Clyde ushered in the New Hollywood and changed filmmaking for the next two decades (or more). 2. Some filmmakers do have multiple films listed, but this tends to be reserved for filmmakers who are truly masters of the craft (e.g. Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick) or filmmakers whose careers have had a long span (e.g. Luis Buñuel, 1928-1977). A few filmmakers who re-invented themselves later in their careers (e.g. David Cronenberg–his early body horror and later psychological dramas) will have multiple films listed, representing each period of their careers. -
Can an Attribution Assessment Be Made for Yellow Rain? Systematic Reanalysis in a Chemical-And-Biological-Weapons Use Investigation
Can an attribution assessment be made for Yellow Rain? Systematic reanalysis in a chemical-and-biological-weapons use investigation Rebecca Katz, Ph.D.* Department of Health Policy George Washington University 2021 K Street, NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20006 [email protected] * Corresponding author. Burton Singer, Ph.D. Office of Population Research 245 Wallace Hall Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 [email protected] ABSTRACT. In intelligence investigations, such as those into reports of chemical- or biological-weapons (CBW) use, evidence may be difficult to assemble and, once assembled, to weigh. We propose a methodology for such investigations and then apply it to a large body of recently declassified evidence to determine the extent to which an attribution can now be made in the Yellow Rain case. Our analysis strongly supports the hypothesis that CBW were used in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan in the late 1970s and early 1980s, although a definitive judgment cannot be made. The proposed methodology, while resource-intensive, allows evidence to be assembled and analyzed in a transparent manner so that assumptions and rationale for decisions can be challenged by external critics. We conclude with a discussion of future research directions, emphasizing the use of evolving information-extraction (IE) technologies, a sub-field of artificial intelligence (AI). here is a science to the collection of evidence in ences from single, novel events. Standards of evidence an intelligence investigation. Experienced ana- and inference are ill-defined -
VOL. LXXXVII, NO. 24 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 REVIEWS from the Editor’S Desk
Featuring 324 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children'sand YA books KIRKUSVOL. LXXXVII, NO. 24 | 15 DECEMBER 2019 REVIEWS from the editor’s desk: Our 2020 Wish List Chairman HERBERT SIMON President & Publisher BY TOM BEER MARC WINKELMAN # Chief Executive Officer MEG LABORDE KUEHN [email protected] John Paraskevas Editor-in-Chief Over the past few weeks, the staff of Kirkus Reviews has been enveloped TOM BEER in a golden nimbus of book love, as we presented our Best of 2019 lists in [email protected] Vice President of Marketing fiction, picture books, middle-grade books, nonfiction, and young adult SARAH KALINA books. In this issue we highlight 100 of the best Indie titles published this [email protected] Managing/Nonfiction Editor year. Books are wonderful, we feel worthy, and all is right with the world. ERIC LIEBETRAU Lots of heart emojis. [email protected] Fiction Editor But hang on just a moment. LAURIE MUCHNICK Kirkus sees thousands of books every year, and there’s plenty that we [email protected] Children’s Editor like. For every outstanding work of literature brought forth by the VICKY SMITH don’t [email protected] publishing industry, there are dozens of others that are forgettable, half- Tom Beer Young Adult Editor baked, or, occasionally, downright objectionable. We get it—this is a tough LAURA SIMEON [email protected] business without a surefire model for success, and publishers have to try a lot of different things Editor at Large to see what works. MEGAN LABRISE [email protected] But we’re critics first and foremost, and our job is to evaluate books honestly and fairly, good Vice President of Kirkus Indie and bad alike.