News Roundup Archive

Thursday, November 17, 2011

USIP's Science, Technology & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Science, Technology and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, November 10 - 16, 2011

Table of Contents

**Click here to subscribe to USIP's Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding News Roundup,
which includes a special section on Internet and social media.**


How an iPhone Revolution Could Turn the Army Upside-down
An Army pilot program is putting smart phones in the hands of soldiers as a warfighting tool. It [is] a simple idea - allowing soldiers to use the smart phones they're familiar with to be more connected on the battlefield, whether to check maps or relay information. But the project challenges traditional Army command culture as well as the military industry.
See the full article (Christian Science Monitor, Anna Mulrine, 11/15/11)
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Iran Says it Has 'Controlled' Duqu Malware Attack
The Iranian news agency, IRNA, reported that the country's cyber defence unit was taking steps to combat the infection, which believed to have been designed to steal data to help launch further cyber attacks. Officials now describe the Duqu attack as the "third virus" to hit Iran.
See the full article (BBC, 11/14/11)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "What's Parliament Got to do With it?: Elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran" on November 18 at 2:00pm. You can also watch the live webcast!
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Defense Science Panel: Climate a National Security Threat
The National Academy of Science has concluded that climate change, largely driven by fossil fuel use releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, has led to a 1.4 degree increase in average global surface temperatures over the last century, and will likely drive a 2 to 11 degree increase in the next century. Particularly in Africa, the report warns of increasing challenges to national security caused by global warming.
See the full article (USA Today, Dan Vergano, 11/14/11)
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Smaller Powers More at Risk for Cyber War, Experts Say
Most Americans who worry about cyber warfare are concerned that it will be directed against the United States. But the truth is that cyber conflict is far more likely to involve smaller players - and the dangers associated with that possibility are just as real. That's because war is more common in small, unstable areas: it's where the most conflicts are.
See the full article (SecurityNewsDaily, Jesse Emspak, 11/14/11)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Rewiring the Diagram: Regional Conflict Management and Global Security" on December 1 at 9:00am.
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Google's Lab of Wildest Dreams
Even as Google has grown into a major corporation and tech start-ups are biting at its heels, the [Google X] lab reflects its ambition to be a place where ground-breaking research and development are happening. At Google, which uses artificial intelligence techniques and machine learning in its search algorithm, some of the outlandish projects may not be as much of a stretch as they first appear.
See the full article (New York Times, Claire Cain Miller and Nick Bilton, 11/13/11) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Future Wars May Be Fought by Synapses
As global conflicts become murkier, technologies based on infiltrating brains may soon enter countries' arsenals, neuroethicists claim in a paper published online October 31 in Synesis. Analysts with a brain chip could quickly sift through huge amounts of intelligence data, and fighter pilots merged with computer search algorithms could rapidly lock onto an enemy target, for instance.
See the full article (ScienceNews, Laura Sanders, 11/11/11)
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Sentiment Analysis Reveals How the World is Feeling
Researchers have been exploring the possibilities of sentiment analysis in areas other than national security and intelligence. The availability of large amounts of textual data online makes mood tracking of large groups easier than ever. [On the Media] host Bob [Garfield] spoke with Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing Professor Johan Bollen about the different applications for sentiment analysis.
See the full article (NPR, 11/11/11)
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U.S. Calls for NetApp Probe on Syria Spy Tech
Senators Mark Kirk and Robert Casey will send a letter today to the State and Commerce departments requesting an investigation into two U.S. companies whose technology has been used to "monitor activities of Syrian citizens." The Syrian Internet surveillance project, headed by the Italian company Area SpA, is designed to intercept and catalog virtually every e-mail that flows through the country.
See the full article (Bloomberg, Ben Elgin and Vernon Silver, 11/10/11)
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Beyond the Roomba: How iRobot's Technology is Making War Zones Safer for Soldiers
The Packbot is a military robot that has been on the front lines of the war in Afghanistan, the rocky rubble of the World Trade Center and the radioactive turf of Japan's nuclear reactors. While the Packbot can be implemented in myriad situations, it's been most useful for IED defeat; more than 4,000 Packbots have been deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
See the full article (Mashable, Lauren Drell, 11/10/11)
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Click here to subscribe to USIP's Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding News Roundup,
which includes a special section on Internet and social media.

Did we miss anything?

Please note: There will be no News Roundup distributed next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Happy Thanksgiving from USIP's Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding!

 

 


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USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, November 10 - 16, 2011

Media and Journalism

Internet and Social Media

What's New from PeaceMedia

**Click here to subscribe to USIP's Science, Technology and Peacebuilding News Roundup.**


Media and Journalism

EU Suppresses its Own Film on Afghan Women Prisons
One woman is doing 12 years in prison for being the victim of a rape. The second is in jail for running from an abusive husband. Both say they want to tell their stories, and yet a film about their plight has been scrapped, sparking controversy about how committed the international community is to fighting for women's rights in Afghanistan. The documentary, "In-Justice: The Story of Afghan Women in Jail," was commissioned by the European Union, which has now decided not to release it.
See the full article (AP, Heidi Vogt, 11/16/11)
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Indian, Pakistani Journalists to Avoid Injudicious Words
As a delegation of 22 journalists from Mumbai were welcomed at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, a declaration of cooperation was signed under which journalists agreed to use acceptable language while reporting events in both countries and to eliminate words which propagate hate speech. In a historic move, the presidents of the Karachi and Mumbai press clubs, Tahir Hasan Khan and Prakash Akolkar, respectively, decided that measures to improve cooperation between journalists from both countries should be taken.
See the full article (News International, Sidrah Roghay, 11/16/11)
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Pakistani Journalist Given U.S. Asylum Tells of Threats, Disappearances in Baluchistan
On Aug. 19, [Siraj Ahmed Malik, an ambitious young Pakistani journalist] applied for political asylum in the United States. In his petition, he said that his work as a journalist and ethnic activist in Baluchistan, where he had exposed military abuses, made him likely to be arrested, tortured, abducted and "ultimately killed by the government" if he returned.
See the full article (Washington Post, Pamela Constable, 11/14/11)
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Bahrain TV Station Struggles as Signal Blocked
Aimed at people in Bahrain, [Lualua TV] carries news and talk shows about the country. But since its inception, it has only managed to reach to televisions in the Gulf kingdom for four hours - before the signal was blocked. While not officially blaming the country's government, station management say it is hard to see who else would intervene.
See the full article (BBC, Simon Atkinson, 11/14/11)
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Reporting Libya: Freelance Coverage, Full-time Dangers
According to some estimates, at one point some 400 journalists and photographers were based in Benghazi as freelancers, many of them covering their first conflict. That has prompted an intense debate about both the responsibilities of news organisations using freelances and the individual responsibility of freelances themselves.
See the full article (Guardian, Peter Beaumont, 11/13/11)
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Al-Jazeera Launches Balkans Broadcast
Officials of al-Jazeera Balkans say they are starting on Friday evening and plan to provide "objective" and "professional" news to people in countries of the former Yugoslavia in their own languages. The operation is expected to reconnect people divided by the wars in the former Yugoslavia and offer them new perspectives of each other.
See the full article (AP, 11/11/11)
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Documentary 'Under Fire' Shows That War is Hell for Journalists
"Only two journalists were killed covering World War I. Almost 900 have been killed in the past two decades." This staggering statistic is highlighted in Under Fire: Journalists in Combat, a provocative new documentary that explores the increasing dangers and psychological costs of covering war.
See the full article (Atlantic, Sean Coons, 11/10/11)
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Internet and Social Media

Senators Urge Probe into US Firm Aid for Syria
US senators called in a letter released Monday for an investigation into whether US companies have provided Internet monitoring and censorship technology to Syria, aiding its crackdown on dissent. US firms should not "provide tools of repression to murderous regimes," they said, citing news reports that Syria has been using technology from from California-based NetApp, Inc. and Blue Coat Systems to track regime foes.
See the full article (AFP, 11/15/11)
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Twitter vs. the KGB
Can social media save a journalist in trouble in a place like Kyrgyzstan? [Last week], the words "American photographer Nic Tanner being harassed and physically assaulted in #Osh, #Kyrgyzstan. Please help!" went out to 738 Twitter followers in English and Russian. The responses poured in immediately, mostly from young former and current Kyrgyz officials.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Natalia Yefimova-Trilling, 11/11/11)
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Twitter Must Give User Info in WikiLeaks Probe
A federal judge upheld a ruling that the website Twitter must turn over certain account information to prosecutors. Lawyers for the Twitter users, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, say the government can use those IP addresses as a sort of virtual tracking device to pin down the specific computer used by an account holder and with it the user's physical location.
See the full article (AP, Matthew Barakat, 11/11/11)
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Sentiment Analysis Reveals How the World is Feeling
Researchers have been exploring the possibilities of sentiment analysis in areas other than national security and intelligence. The availability of large amounts of textual data online makes mood tracking of large groups easier than ever. [On the Media] host Bob [Garfield] spoke with Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing Professor Johan Bollen about the different applications for sentiment analysis.
See the full article (NPR, 11/11/11)
[Return to top]

U.S. Calls for NetApp Probe on Syria Spy Tech
Senators Mark Kirk and Robert Casey will send a letter today to the State and Commerce departments requesting an investigation into two U.S. companies whose technology has been used to "monitor activities of Syrian citizens." The Syrian Internet surveillance project, headed by the Italian company Area SpA, is designed to intercept and catalog virtually every e-mail that flows through the country.
See the full article (Bloomberg, Ben Elgin and Vernon Silver, 11/10/11)
[Return to top]

Open Source Meets Mobile in Ashoka's Citizen Media Competition
Mobile was a major theme running through many of the finalists in the "Citizen Media: A Global Innovation Competition"-- most likely because in developing nations, mobile phone use is often more widespread than Internet connectivity, so many people depend on their cell phones as a way to receive crucial information.
See the full article (PBS, Desiree Everts, 11/10/11)
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Mexico's Brutal Zetas Drug Cartel Launches Violent Campaign to Censor Social Media Sites
The cartel has already attacked rivals, journalists and other perceived enemies. Now, the target is an online chat room, Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, that allows users to comment on the activities of the Zetas and others in the city on the border with Texas. Despite heightened security awareness among the site's users Thursday, they remain tremendously vulnerable.
See the full article (AP, 11/10/11)
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What's New from PeaceMedia

One Thousand Women and a Dream
The documentary film 1000 Women and a Dream tells the story of the project 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 from its first steps through to the selection and nomination of the peacewomen to the Nobel Committee. The film introduces six of these very tenacious and courageous peacewomen.
See the full video
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Click here to subscribe to USIP's Science, Technology and Peacebuilding News Roundup.

Did we miss anything?

Please note: There will be no News Roundup distributed next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Happy Thanksgiving from USIP's Center of Innovation for Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding!

 

 


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