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bubmag

Could you build a better TikTok? TikTok

Could you build a better TikTok?

“A MAINSTREAM GIANT goes countercultural.” That is how the technology press described the decision in the early 2000s by IBM, then a paragon of corporate IT, to back Linux, an obscure operating system written by a ragtag collection of activist coders. In the event, the unnatural combination wound up being…
bubmag
September 3, 2020
Burn Scars from Elkhorn Fire in California Revealed in Devastating NOAA-NASA Satellite Images NOAA

Burn Scars from Elkhorn Fire in California Revealed in Devastating NOAA-NASA Satellite Images

A NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP VIIRS image of the Elkhorn fire and parts of the August Complex fire in Northern California on September 1, 2020 (without labels). Credit: NOAA/NASA Imagery from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA/NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite highlights the burn scars from the Elkhorn Fire in northern California on…
bubmag
September 3, 2020
China’s Xi Jinping marks WWII victory, slams those who ‘vilify Communist Party’ Xi Jinping

China’s Xi Jinping marks WWII victory, slams those who ‘vilify Communist Party’

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends Thursday morning’s ceremony near Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing. Photo: CGTNPresident attends ceremony on 75th anniversary of end of Sino-Japanese war before saying attempts to slur the party would be resisted by Chinese people He also emphasises cooperation with Russia in message to counterpart Vladimir…
bubmag
September 3, 2020
Revealed: the ‘brutal’ torture methods used by Iranian security forces Propaganda

Revealed: the ‘brutal’ torture methods used by Iranian security forces

Amnesty International has accused Iran’s security forces of torturing hundreds of prisoners in order to extract confessions in the wake of anti-government protests.Price hikes on fuel introduced in November last year became the catalyst for demonstrations across Iran, leading to “mass arrests amid a near-total internet blackout”, the Daily Mail reports.Amnesty’s…
bubmag
September 3, 2020
The Battle of Portland Propaganda

The Battle of Portland

On Day 50 of the Portland protests, in the middle of July, I caught a face full of aerosolized Mace.
 I didn’t yet appreciate the finer distinctions among Mace spray, pepper pellets, and tear gas. The pop-pop-pop sound of the pepper pellets is terrifying; but the sting in your eyes…
bubmag
September 3, 2020
The Making of the “Good CIA” Drones

The Making of the “Good CIA”

For decades, it’s been an article of faith among leftists that the CIA is fundamentally malign, and has been since its founding. Its purpose was to extend American hegemony; its method dirty tricks (not excluding murder) to undermine popular movements or governments and impose brutal right-wing authoritarian regimes in client…
bubmag
September 3, 2020