Government
Testing Hypotheses from the Social Approval Theory of Online Hate: An Analysis of 110 Million Messages from Parler
Markowitz, David M., Taylor, Samuel Hardman
We examined how online hate is motivated by receiving social approval via Walther's (2024) social approval theory of online hate, which argues (H1a) more signals of social approval on hate messages predicts more subsequent hate messages, and (H1b) as social approval increases, hate speech becomes more extreme. Using 110 million messages from Parler (2018-2021), we observed the number of upvotes received on a hate speech post was unassociated with hate speech in one's next post and during the next month, three-months, and six-months. The number of upvotes received on (extreme) hate speech comments, however, was positively associated with (extreme) hate speech during the next week, month, three-months, and six-months. Between-person effects revealed an average positive relationship between social approval and hate speech production at all time intervals. For comments, social approval linked more strongly to online hate than social disapproval. Social approval is a critical mechanism facilitating online hate propagation.
ISS-Geo142: A Benchmark for Geolocating Astronaut Photography from the International Space Station
Srivastava, Vedika, Singh, Hemant Kumar, Singh, Jaisal
This paper introduces ISS-Geo142, a curated benchmark for geolocating astronaut photography captured from the International Space Station (ISS). Although the ISS position at capture time is known precisely, the specific Earth locations depicted in these images are typically not directly georeferenced, making automated localization non-trivial. ISS-Geo142 consists of 142 images with associated metadata and manually determined geographic locations, spanning a range of spatial scales and scene types. On top of this benchmark, we implement and evaluate three geolocation pipelines: a neural network based approach (NN-Geo) using VGG16 features and cross-correlation over map-derived Areas of Interest (AOIs), a Scale-Invariant Feature Transform based pipeline (SIFT-Match) using sliding-window feature matching on stitched high-resolution AOIs, and TerraByte, an AI system built around a GPT-4 model with vision capabilities that jointly reasons over image content and ISS coordinates. On ISS-Geo142, NN-Geo achieves a match for 75.52\% of the images under our evaluation protocol, SIFT-Match attains high precision on structurally rich scenes at substantial computational cost, and TerraByte establishes the strongest overall baseline, correctly geolocating approximately 90\% of the images while also producing human-readable geographic descriptions. The methods and experiments were originally developed in 2023; this manuscript is a revised and extended version that situates the work relative to subsequent advances in cross-view geo-localization and remote-sensing vision--language models. Taken together, ISS-Geo142 and these three pipelines provide a concrete, historically grounded benchmark for future work on ISS image geolocation.
Rubio hails 'tremendous progress' at Ukraine peace talks
Rubio hails'tremendous progress' at Ukraine peace talks A tremendous amount of progress has been achieved in talks to finalise a US-proposed peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. But there's still some work to be done, Rubio said after meeting Ukrainian and European negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were signals that President [Donald] Trump's team is hearing us. Ukraine and its European allies had expressed concern over the leaked proposals, seen as favouring Russia and welcomed by Vladimir Putin as the basis for settlement. Zelensky had said Ukraine might face a very difficult choice: either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner.
Has Britain become an economic colony?
Has Britain become an economic colony? The UK could've been a true tech leader - but it has cheerfully submitted to US dominance in a way that may cost it dear T wo and a half centuries ago, the American colonies launched a violent protest against British rule, triggered by parliament's imposition of a monopoly on the sale of tea and the antics of a vainglorious king. Today, the tables have turned: it is Great Britain that finds itself at the mercy of major US tech firms - so huge and dominant that they constitute monopolies in their fields - as well as the whims of an erratic president. Yet, to the outside observer, Britain seems curiously at ease with this arrangement - at times even eager to subsidise its own economic dependence. Britain is hardly alone in submitting to the power of American firms, but it offers a clear case study in why nations need to develop a coordinated response to the rise of these hegemonic companies.
In Ukraine's 'kill-zone', robots are a lifeline to troops trapped on perilous eastern front
In Ukraine's'kill-zone', robots are a lifeline to troops trapped on perilous eastern front The toy is delivered, a Ukrainian soldier whispers into the radio. In the dead of night, he and his partner move quickly to roll out their cargo from a van. Speed is crucial as they are within the range of deadly Russian drones. The fifth brigade's new toy is an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), a robot that provides a lifeline for Ukrainian troops at the front in Pokrovsk and Myrnograd, a strategic hub in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces are relentlessly trying to cut off Ukraine's supply routes in the area.