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In Huge TroubleLeak Reveals $10 Billion Earthquake Could Be About To Cause Bitcoin And Ethereum Price Chaos - Forbes
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Likely Wont Be Forced to Testify at Trial in the First Amendment Case Brought by Prosecutor He Ousted – Law & Crime
Where is Edward Snowden? | The Sun
WHISTLEBLOWER and former US intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden, was granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin on September 26, 2022.
The news comes nine years after he revealed classified information regarding secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).
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Edward Snowden fled the US and has been granted citizenship in Russia after he exposed copious amounts of highly classified information in 2013.
He was a contractor for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and an ex-contractor for the United States Government when he leaked the information and initially fled to Hong Kong before seeking asylum in Russia.
He received permanent residency in the country in 2020, paving his way for eventual citizenship that was granted by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.
The US Department of Justice unsealed charges against Snowden on two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property on June 21, 2013, and attempted to have Snowden extradited to the US.
Snowden has maintained he is innocent of any wrongdoing and refused to remain anonymous after he leaked the documents.
I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong, he told The Guardian in 2013.
The article was the first to reveal Snowden's identity at his request.
When he released the documents, he said: My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.
He wrote a note accompanying the documents and said: I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, but I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon, and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.
He claimed to not want the spotlight to be on him and instead wanted the media to focus on the information he leaked.
He told the outlet that he was willing to give up his $200k salary, his home, and his relationship to reveal the documents from the NSA.
Im willing to sacrifice all of that because I cant in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom, and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine theyre secretly building, Snowden told The Guardian.
Federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint in May 2013 that charged Snowden with theft, "unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person," according to the complaint.
The classified information Snowden leaked revealed the NSA may keep phone records and emails of citizens and legal residents if the communication includes "significant foreign intelligence," according to classified documents The Washington Post reported.
Following the leak, then-President Barack Obama said NSA domestic activities do not involve listening to peoples phone calls, do not involve reading the e-mails of US citizens or US residents, absent further action by a federal court, that is entirely consistent with what we would do, for example, in a criminal investigation.
Obama claimed the use of this intelligence had foiled over 50 attempted terrorist plots both in the US and abroad.
Administration officials claimed the program does not target Americans if a search warrant is not obtained, however, Alex Abdo, who was a staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union said he wasn't so sure.
"These documents confirm what we have feared all along, that the NSA believes it can collect Americans international communications with little, if any, restriction, he told The Washington Post.
Its procedures allow it to target for surveillance essentially any foreigner located abroad whether or not theyre suspected of any wrongdoing, let alone terrorism.
Snowden claimed to have only leaked the information that he thought was of vital importance to the American public.
I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest, he told The Guardian.
There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didnt turn over because harming people isnt my goal. Transparency is.
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Putin granted Snowden citizenship nine years after the self-proclaimed whistleblower was granted asylum in Russia.
Putin told US director Oliver Stone he didn't consider Snowden to be "a traitor" for leaking government documents in a 2017 documentary film.
As an ex-KGB agent, you must have hated what Snowden did with every fiber of your being, Stone says in the clip.
Snowden is not a traitor, Putin replied. He did not betray the interests of his country. Nor did he transfer any information to any other country which would have been pernicious to his own country or to his own people. The only thing Snowden does, he does publicly."
Snowden publicly said he was seeking Russian citizenship in the long term, and his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherenawife, has said Snowden's wife, Lindsay Mills, is seeking citizenship as well.
Mills moved to Russia to live with Snowden in 2014 and they had a child in December 2020.
The approval comes less than a week after Putin announced a mobilization of 300k troops who would be sent to fight in Ukraine.
Putin has claimed only those with military experience would be mobilized, and although Snowden served in the US Army, Putin said he was exempt from the war efforts as he does not have experience in the Russian Army.
Snowden has not commented on his new Russian citizenship.
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Where is Edward Snowden? | The Sun
Artificial Intelligence | GE Research – General Electric
At GE, Artificial Intelligence (AI) development is primarily focused on connecting minds and industrial machines to enable intelligent and user-friendly products and services that move, cure and power the world. GE Research spearheads this charter via the invention and deployment of AI solutions that can execute on industrial devices, at the edge or in the cloud.
AIresearch is practiced as a multidisciplinary exercise at GE, where insights from data-driven machine learning is fused with domain-specific knowledge drawn from areas such as materials, physics, biology and design engineering, to amplify the quality as well as causal-veracity of the predictions derivedwhat we call hybrid AI. We are creating state-of-the-art perception and reasoning capabilities for our AI technology to observe and understand contextual meaning, to improve the performance and life of our assets, industrial systems and human health. We are developing continuous learning systems that teach or learn from other assets or agents and learn from real and virtual experiences to understand and improve behavior.
Some key challenges we tackle include a lack of sufficient labels needed for traditional supervised learning approaches, the need to ingest and link multiple data modalities, and the need to build AI solutions that are interpretable due to safety-related regulatory requirements.
State-of-the-art capabilities in computer vision, machine learning, knowledge representation, reasoning and human system interactions are used to robustly monitor, assess and predict the performance and health of assetsinformation that, when coupled with uncertainty quantification and assurance, provides the information needed to multi-objectively optimize customer-specific metrics.
Examples of customer outcomes enhanced by AI products include reduced downtime on assets through AI-driven proactive intervention (for e.g., airline delays and cancellation), increased throughput (for e.g., optimal control of wind turbine settings to maximize farm output), or reduced costs (for e.g., optimal power plant operation to minimize fuel costs). GE Research is developing and integrating artificial intelligence in healthcare by working to incorporate the technologyinto every aspect of the patient journey (for e.g., improved disease diagnosis, augmenting doctors and clinicians by increasing workflow efficiencies to save precious time).In addition to asset-awareness and management, active AI research areas include Computer Vision, automation, autonomy, User Experience, Augmented Reality and Robotics.
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Artificial Intelligence | GE Research - General Electric
This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Paper Proposes a Novel Differentiable Angle Coder Named Phase Shifting Coder (PSC) to Accurately Predict the…
Top cryptocurrency news on November 23: Bitcoin hits 2-year low, Bankrupt FTX has $1.2bn in cash, Binance… – Moneycontrol
Deep Learning | NVIDIA Developer
Deep Learning Demystified Webinar | Thursday, 1 December, 2022 Register Free
Deep learning is a subset of AI and machine learning that uses multi-layered artificial neural networks to deliver state-of-the-art accuracy in tasks such as object detection, speech recognition, language translation, and others.
Deep learning differs from traditional machine learning techniques in that they can automatically learn representations from data such as images, video or text, without introducing hand-coded rules or human domain knowledge. Their highly flexible architectures can learn directly from raw data and can increase their predictive accuracy when provided with more data.
Deep learning is commonly used across apps in computer vision, conversational AI and recommendation systems. Computer vision apps use deep learning to gain knowledge from digital images and videos. Conversational AI apps help computers understand and communicate through natural language. Recommendation systems use images, language, and a users interests to offer meaningful and relevant search results and services.
Deep learning has led to many recent breakthroughs in AI such as Google DeepMinds AlphaGo, self-driving cars, intelligent voice assistants and many more. With NVIDIA GPU-accelerated deep learning frameworks, researchers and data scientists can significantly speed up deep learning training, that could otherwise take days and weeks to just hours and days. When models are ready for deployment, developers can rely on GPU-accelerated inference platforms for the cloud, embedded device or self-driving cars, to deliver high-performance, low-latency inference for the most computationally-intensive deep neural networks.
Developing AI applications start with training deep neural networks with large datasets. GPU-accelerated deep learning frameworks offer flexibility to design and train custom deep neural networks and provide interfaces to commonly-used programming languages such as Python and C/C++. Every major deep learning framework such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX and others, are already GPU-accelerated, so data scientists and researchers can get productive in minutes without any GPU programming.
For AI researchers and application developers, NVIDIA Hopper and Ampere GPUs powered by tensor cores give you an immediate path to faster training and greater deep learning performance. With Tensor Cores enabled, FP32 and FP16 mixed precision matrix multiply dramatically accelerates your throughput and reduces AI training times.
For developers integrating deep neural networks into their cloud-based or embedded application, Deep Learning SDK includes high-performance libraries that implement building block APIs for implementing training and inference directly into their apps. With a single programming model for all GPU platform - from desktop to datacenter to embedded devices, developers can start development on their desktop, scale up in the cloud and deploy to their edge devices - with minimal to no code changes.
NVIDIA provides optimized software stacks to accelerate training and inference phases of the deep learning workflow. Learn more on the links below.
For developers looking to build deep learning applications, NVIDIA Pretrained AI models eliminate the need of building models from scratch or experimenting with other open source models that fail to converge. These models are pretrained on high quality representative datasets to deliver state-of-the-art performance and production readiness for a variety of use cases like computer vision, speech AI, robotics, natural language processing, healthcare, cybersecurity, and many others.
Deep learning frameworks offer building blocks for designing, training and validating deep neural networks, through a high level programming interface. Every major deep learning framework such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, and JAX rely on Deep Learning SDK libraries to deliver high-performance multi-GPU accelerated training. As a framework user, its as simple as downloading a framework and instructing it to use GPUs for training. Learn more about deep learning frameworks and explore these examples to getting started quickly.
Tensor Core Optimized Model Scripts
Deep learning frameworks are optimized for every GPU platform from Titan V desktop developer GPU to data center grade Tesla GPUs. This allows researchers and data scientist teams to start small and scale out as data, number of experiments, models and team size grows. Since Deep Learning SDK libraries are API compatible across all NVIDIA GPU platforms, when a model is ready to be integrated into an application, developers can test and validate locally on the desktop, and with minimal to no code changes validate and deploy to Tesla datacenter platforms, Jetson embedded platform or DRIVE autonomous driving platform. This improves developer productivity and reduces chances of introducing bugs when going from prototype to production.
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Positively dystopian: Judge cites Orwell to block censorship law …
In an order thatbegins by quoting the famous opening line of George Orwell's dystopian novel1984, a federal judge on Thursday blocked key provisions of a Florida censorship law that aimed to restrict how state university professors teach race, gender, and U.S. history.
"'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,' and the powers in charge of Florida's public university system have declared the state has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom,'" Judge Mark Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, an Obama appointee, wrote in his scathing decision, which temporarily halts enforcement of parts of the lawchampionedby Republican Gov. Ron DeSantisa possible 2024 presidential candidate.
"To confront certain viewpoints that offend the powers that be, the state of Florida passed the so-called 'Stop WOKE Act in 2022redubbed (in line with the state's doublespeak) the 'Individual Freedom Act,'" Walker continued. "The law officially bans professors from expressing disfavored viewpoints in university classrooms while permitting unfettered expression of the opposite viewpoints. Defendants argue that, under this act, professors enjoy 'academic freedom' so long as they express only those viewpoints of which the State approves. This is positively dystopian."
The Thursday decision, which concludes that the GOP law violates the First Amendment rights of public university faculty and students, marks the second time Walker has ruled against the "Stop WOKE Act" in recent months. In August, the judgeblockedthe part of the law pertaining to private businesses.
Adriana Novoa, a University of South Florida history professor and a plaintiff in the case, said in astatementthat Walker's Thursday ruling is a win "for the institutions of this country."
"I hope that the courts will defend the existence of a public education that cannot be manipulated by politicians to push any ideology, now and in the future," Novoa added.
Part of a recent wave ofcensorship lawsadvanced by Republicans in Florida and across the U.S., the "Stop WOKE Act" wasbilled asan attempt to "give businesses, employees, children, and families tools to fight back against woke indoctrination."
But civil liberties groups and other critics of the law have argued it is both unjustifiable andexceedingly vaguein its mandates, creating achilling effecton educators as they attempt to teach their classes under the threat of state retaliation.
Emily Anderson, an assistant professor of International Relations and Intercultural Education at Florida International University,toldtheMiami Heraldin August that "these policies have really led to increased efforts to silence and surveil academic speech."
"Academic speech matters, because it's a fundamental freedom that is really how our university system is grounded," said Anderson. "When we have policies that threaten speech, in my view, it shadows threats to all other protected rights."
In his ruling, Walker points to theeight specific conceptsoutlawed that are under the measure, including the notion that "such virtues as merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race, color, national origin, or sex to oppress members of another race, color, national origin, or sex."
"Despite [Florida officials'] insistence that the professor plaintiffs' proposed viewpoints must serve as a mirror image for each prohibited viewpoint, the proposed speech needs only to arguably run afoul of the prohibition," Walker wrote.
Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)whichsuedFlorida officials over the censorship lawsaid that "faculty members are hired to offer opinions from their academic expertisenot toe the party line."
"Florida's argument that faculty members have no First Amendment rights would have imperiled faculty members across the political spectrum," said Steinbaugh.
Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a statement that Walker's ruling "is a huge victory for everyone who values academic freedom and recognizes the value of inclusive education."
"The First Amendment broadly protects our right to share information and ideas, and this includes educators' and students' right to learn, discuss, and debate systemic racism and sexism," Sykes added.
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11/11/22 Branko Marcetic on the DHSs Role in Online Censorship
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Scott is joined by Branko Marcetic of Jacobin to discuss the recent revelations that the Department of Homeland Security has been guiding tech platforms on what they should censor. They observe some specific cases where platforms like Facebook and Google changed rules and suppressed stories to help prop up the U.S. governments narratives, even when they proved false. Scott and Marcetic also talk about the potential for cross-idealogical coalitions to fight back against these blatant and dangerous government interventions in the information space.
Discussed on the show:
Branko Marcetic is a writer for Jacobin Magazine, a fellow at In These Times, and host of the 1/200 podcast. He is the author of Yesterdays Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. Follow him on Twitter @BMarchetich.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and Thc Hemp Spot.
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11/11/22 Branko Marcetic on the DHSs Role in Online Censorship
Bitcoin, Julian Assange Fight For Freedom – Bitcoin Magazine – Bitcoin …
Disclaimer: Bitcoin Magazine is owned and operated by BTC Inc, the organizer of Bitcoin Amsterdam.
Stella Assange, wife of Julian Assange, the founder of classified document publisher WikiLeaks who has been confined to a London prison since 2019, took the stage at the Bitcoin Amsterdam event today in a keynote presentation titled Free Assange. She described the parallels between Bitcoin as a permissionless form of value transaction and WikiLeaks mission to disseminate vital information to the public, outlining that Julians battle for freedom is one that should resonate with adopters of Bitcoin.
I was thinking about how to talk about freeing Julian here, and Julian told me, he explained Bitcoin to me back in 2011, Stella Assange began, adding that Julian had been moved to solitary confinement last weekend after testing positive for COVID-19. He explained the technology behind it, but he also gave me a big picture understanding of the significance of Bitcoin I think (that explanation) is also a pathway to understanding the kind of parallel tracks of WikiLeaks and Bitcoin, and the future of Bitcoin and how thats tied to whats being done to Julian.
Stella went on to recount the most infamous publications from WikiLeaks, including the Spy Files and files related to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay from 2011. She outlined the role that Julian and the publishing platform played in spurring the Occupy Wall Street movement, and said that Julian called Bitcoin the real Occupy Wall Street. In 2013, WikiLeaks helped former NSA contractor Edward Snowden release mass surveillance disclosures, with Snowden himself going on to advocate for Bitcoin as a freedom tool.
She underscored the groundbreaking changes that WikiLeaks brought to the field of journalism in the age of the internet through its ability to protect anonymous sources online and its decisions to publish large amounts of information quickly and freely.
In that sense, Bitcoin and Bitcoin technology are trying to fight censorship in a very similar way to how WikiLeaks has fought censorship using cryptography, she explained. (Julian) was an incredible pioneer and changed the way journalism is done. And he did that because Julian of course was a Cypherpunk, hes a cryptographer and he understood that the major newsrooms had no idea how to protect their sources when they were operating on the internet.
Stella also outlined the role that Bitcoin played in supporting WikiLeaks as centralized financial institutions attempted to silence it following its major document releases in 2011.
Overnight practically, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, they just shut off WikiLeaks from 97% of its revenue which came through (donations via the platforms), she recalled. And how was it done? It was done completely extralegally. It was a phone call from a few senators in the U.S. to these companies, and they just shut it off.
She added that, by enabling freedom of information, Bitcoin is one of the emerging tools that can safeguard against eroding freedom of information in the digital age.
Bitcoin breaks Orwells dictome, He who controls the present, controls the past. And he who controls the past, controls the future, she said.
Finally, in an appeal for support in Julians ongoing legal fight, Stella argued that the U.S. is relying on vague and outdated language from the Espionage Act of 1917 to pursue a 175-year sentence were he extradited there. She suggested that those who similarly challenge authority with a permissionless monetary system like Bitcoin could one day face similar fates.
Whats being done to Julian is not a legitimate use of the legal system, she said. It is bending the rules, it is corrupting the rules in order to keep him there and, in so doing, it is corrupting the whole system Anyone that challenges the hegemonic order with innovation is up against that level.
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Bitcoin, Julian Assange Fight For Freedom - Bitcoin Magazine - Bitcoin ...