EFDbackup: April 20

Last week I posted an evaluation of how the US and UK governments are using Twitter in their struggle against ISIS. The analysis found two main differences in these governments’’ use of twitter. First, the UK against Daesh twitter channel seems to focus on two-way engagement with followers while the Think Again Turn Away appears to focus more on one way information dissemination. Secondly, the UK channel offers a narrative according to which the international coalition is making steady progress in its fight against ISIS. Moreover, the Syrian opposition is ready and able to lead Syria in the day after ISIS. The US narrative focuses more on the global war against ISIS and the disillusionment of people with ISIS.

This week I decided to explore how these two twitter channels are alike and how they are different.

Ray Tomlinson, inventor of email, dies at 74

kottke.org by Jason Kottke

Ray Tomlinson, who implemented the first email system on the ARPANET (the Internet’s precursor) and decided on the @ symbol for use in email addresses,died on Saturday at the age of 74. From his biography at the Internet Hall of Fame:

World’s highest ranking human rights official says the FBI is ‘unlocking a Pandora’s Box’

The Next Web by Ben Woods

The very high-profile and incredibly important case between Apple and the FBI wanting access to data stored on an iPhone could have “serious global ramifications,” according to the United Nation’s High Commissioner of Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

Apple is Running BitTorrent Trackers in Cupertino

TorrentFreak by Andy

Although not absolutely essential for making BitTorrent work these days, torrent trackers are always handy things to have. A bit like a policeman directing traffic, they ensure that BitTorrent clients can find each other quickly in order to share content.

Some Strategies of Bot Poetics

by Harry Gilesharrygiles.org

On the Twitterbot as contemporary poet – this is nerdy as hell in the least annoying way.

Your guide to the Hillary Clinton email investigation

Mashable! by Emily Cahn

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Republicans are salivating and Democrats are anxious over the prospects of an election-year indictment for Hillary Clinton over her emails.

Apple vs FBI: The privacy disaster is inevitable, but we can prevent the catastrophe

Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

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My new Guardian column, Forget Apple’s fight with the FBI – our privacy catastrophe has only just begun, explains how surveillance advocates have changed their arguments: 20 years ago, they argued that the lack of commercial success for privacy tools showed that the public didn’t mind surveillance; today, they dismiss Apple’s use of cryptographic tools as a “marketing stunt” and treat the proportionality of surveillance as a settled question.

Inside the Cunning, Unprecedented Hack of Ukraine’s Power Grid

Wired Top Stories by Kim Zetter

New details show the hack on Ukraine’s power grid was a first-of-its-kind attack that sets an ominous precedent for the safety and security of power grids everywhere.

Twitter Provides Tips for Creating More Effective Tweet Content

Social Media Today by Andrew Hutchinson

With the release of an algorithm-defined timeline on Twitter – which will show users tweets based on engagement – brands may need to re-think their Twitter strategies to ensure they are actually generating engagement and don’t get overlooked. Twitter’s offered a range of tips to assist.

How tech is reshaping male masturbation

Mashable! by Yana Tallon-Hicks

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“Let me assure you, babe. I’m absolutely ambidextrous when it comes to the touchpad mouse and keyboard on my computer. Being a right-handed masturbator means I’ve gotten very good at typing with my left hand.”

Uhh Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt is joining the Pentagon’s new innovation board

The Next Web by Kirsty Styles

The former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, now executive chairman of its parent company Alphabet, is about to start helping the military improve what it does by borrowing concepts and ideas straight from Silicon Valley. Schmidt will chair the new 12-person Defense Innovation Advisory Board, which is being brought in to help the organization use tools like “rapid prototyping, iterative product development, complex data analysis… mobile and cloud applications.” “The board will not engage in discussion of military operations or strategy,” the Department of Defense statement said.

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Monday, April 20, 2015

Eurosphere agenda: “Thousands across Europe protest against TTIP…”Another refugee tragedy in the Mediterranean…

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Thousands across Europe protest against TTIP

EurActiv.com

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Europe on Saturday (18 April) to oppose what could be the world’s biggest free trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the US and European Union.

MAIN FOCUS: Another refugee tragedy in the Mediterranean | 20/04/2015

euro|topics

What is possibly the worst refugee tragedy in recent times occurred off the Libyan coast on Saturday night. According to eyewitnesses, more than 900 people may have drowned. Only stabilising war-torn Syria and Libya will prevent people from fleeing, some commentators write. Others call on Fortress Europe to open its doors wide.

Can we afford to ignore what Katie Hopkins says about migrants drowning in the Med?

open Democracy News Analysis – by Des Freedman

The Sun columnist’s violent words about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean are indefensible. They should be condemned as hate speech.

Europe’s war on migrants

open Democracy News Analysis – by Heaven Crawley

The unending series of mass drownings in the Mediterranean of migrants and refugees are not unfortunate tragedies: they are the dread outworking of the occluding of humanitarian concern by the rhetoric of border control.

The latest refugee deaths in the Mediterranean—up to 700 people drowned when the overcrowded fishing vessel in which they were travelling from north Africa capsized of the coast of Libya—follows a similar tragedy last week in which 400 people perished.

Millionaire businessman wins Finland vote, eurosceptics take second place

EurActiv.com

A millionaire former telecoms executive, touted as a technocrat capable of rescuing Finland from its economic slump, won Sunday’s parliamentary election, but he will likely need coalition support from a second-placed eurosceptic party critical of any more Greek bailouts.

Europe’s far right goes mainstream

AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (IN DEPTH)

Many far right parties across the continent are shifting their agendas.

VIDEO: Greece turning to commune life

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

As Greece’s talks with the EU drag on, communes are springing up across the country as people take matters into their own hands.

Not in front of the MPs: Why can’t Parliament have a frank discussion about the EU?

Centre for European Reform

Britain’s Parliament does a poor job of examining EU business. Some simple reforms would improve the way that it scrutinises European legislation.The British prime minister, David Cameron, wants to make the EU more democratic. National parliamentarians, in his view, understand citizens’ concerns better than MEPs who deliberate in far-away Brussels and Strasbourg; national parliaments should therefore play a greater role in EU decision-making. However, Cameron’s argument would carry more weight if UK parliamentary scrutiny were improved.

ECB chief hit by confetti protest

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

A confetti-throwing protester disrupts the European Central Bank’s news conference, jumping on stage and screaming “end ECB dictatorship”.

Protester crashes ECB growth update

BBC News | Europe | World Edition

A protester crashes a press briefing as the European Central Bank explains how its 1.1 trn euro bond buying plan is reviving the eurozone economy.

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For AKP leadership, peace is something lost on the way to printers… #TurkeyElections

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Turkey’s Kurdish peace bid ‘lost on way to printers’

Turkish PM Davutoğlu said two pages about the Kurdish peace bid were accidentally lost while his party’s electoral manifesto was being sent to the printing press, stirring fresh controversy with the HDP, which is focused on the Kurdish problem

President Erdoğan chairs cabinet, with Ağrı incident and electorate security on agenda

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan chaired a cabinet meeting April 20 for the third time since he was elected president, with the Ağrı incident and electorate security at the top of the agenda

Main opposition CHP confident in its economic plan, calls on finance minister to join their team

CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has called Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek’s bluff shortly after the latter said he would vote for the CHP if it could prove its ability to find the financial sources

CHP leader vows to resolve Kurdish issue transparently

Turkey’s main opposition social democrat leader sounded convinced that his party would resolve the decades-old Kurdish issue through transparency, as he said the existing government-led resolution process has been run “behind closed doors.”

President Erdoğan ‘strongly’ condemns attack against HDP headquarters

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has “strongly” condemned an April 18 armed attack on the Ankara headquarters of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)

Turkey’s Roma singer praises ‘itsy-bitsy chirpy’ PM for reform promises

Well-known Turkish Roma singer Kibariye has praised the Turkish prime minister for being an “itsy-bitsy chirpy prime minister, just like me,” after a meeting with Ahmet Davutoğlu over the rights and demands of Roma people in Turkey.

Counter-punch: why Turkey’s ban on PKK documentary North is a waste of time

World news: Turkey | guardian.co.uk by Laya Maheshwari

The Istanbul film festival screening of a film about the Kurdistan Workers’ party was cancelled after the Turkish ministry of culture complained – and now more people will see it than ever

4TH HEARING IN SOMA SUIT: Soma Had No Class-A Occupational Safety Specialists

Bianet :: English

Jailed defendants are being heard in the lawsuit about the workplace murder that killed 301 workers.

World Bank says uncertainties continue in Turkish economy, urges key reforms

The World Bank has said uncertainty related to the June elections continues to affect investors’ sentiments toward the Turkish economy and urged the strong need for key structural reforms in its regular economic brief on April 17

Journalist Barış İnce Fined 10,620 TL for Insulting Erdoğan

Bianet :: English

BirGün newspaper journalist İnce on trial for insulting then PM Erdoğan and son Bilal Erdoğan has been fined 10,620 TL for “offending persons’ honor, reputation and respectability”. The court did not abate the sentence because İnce was not seen to “show regret”.

All suspects deny shortcomings in Soma mine accident hearing

The suspects in Turkey’s worst-ever mine disaster denied responsibility for the 2014 accident during the fifth hearing on April 20, precipitating anger among the families of the 301 victims in the courthouse

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İstanbul News: the Armenians of Istanbul… World biggest tulip carpet made debut (!)

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World biggest tulip carpet made debut in Istanbul

Cihan News Agency

A campaign, which is targeting to make Turkish biggest city of Istanbul one of the favorite Tulip cities, had been put in place by the initiative of Istanbul

YASMIN Rostomyan and her mother Susan Rostomyan at home in Istanbul.—AFP

Discreet but proud: the Armenians of Istanbul

DAWN.com

ISTANBUL: Yasmin Rostomyan makes no big outward show of her origins but works daily to keep her Armenian heritage alive and preserve it for the

Armenian newspaper holds century of memories in Istanbul

Business Insider

Istanbul (AFP) – It’s witnessed the collapse of an empire, the horrendous massacre of its people and the birth of an entirely new state. And it keeps on

The Colorful Side of Istanbul

Amusing Planet

Photographic representation of Istanbul has always been stereotypical – towering mosques, ornate palaces, old streets, markets and seagulls over the

The Imperial Ship, İstanbul, designated for the imperial riding

Library of Congress

In album: Ships and naval personnel, Istanbul and Black Sea lifesaving stations, Ottoman Empire. – Forms part of: Abdul-Hamid II Collection (Library of

Movie-makers and critics pull out of Istanbul Film Festival amid censorship row

euronews

Nearly two dozen movie-makers and a group of international critics have pulled out of the Istanbul Film Festival, amid a censorship row.

Filmmakers pull out of Istanbul festival over censorship row – Eyewitness News

Filmmakers hold meeting for Bakur after its screening at Istanbul Film Festival canceled – Hurriyet Daily News

Istanbul film festival scraps competitions in censorship row – Saudi Gazette

LETTER FROM ISTANBUL: The Massacre Orchestra

Lost Coast Outpost

Deniz Yildiz loved European classical music, from Bach, to Beethoven to Stravinsky. But he despised so-called Turkish classical. In his eyes – or his ..

Two people killed, five injured in Istanbul overnight gunfight

Press TV

Late on Tuesday, a group of men opened fire on the Ayisigi (Moonlight) Association in Istanbul’s Kagithane district, prompting people inside the …

Armenian Weekly

Istanbul: ‘Wishing Tree’ Art Ritual to Honor Victims, Survivors of Genocide

Armenian Weekly

ISTANBUL, Turkey—As part of an outdoor commemoration of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, a public art ritual ..