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Inside Google's Internet Justice League and Its AI-Powered War on Trolls

WIRED

Around midnight one Saturday in January, Sarah Jeong was on her couch, browsing Twitter, when she spontane ously wrote what she now bitterly refers to as "the tweet that launched a thousand ships." The 28-year-old journalist and author of The Internet of Garbage, a book on spam and online harassment, had been watching Bernie Sanders boosters attacking feminists and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. In what was meant to be a hyper bolic joke, she tweeted out a list of political carica tures, one of which called the typical Sanders fan a "vitriolic crypto racist who spends 20 hours a day on the Internet yelling at women." The ill-advised late-night tweet was, Jeong admits, provocative and absurd--she even supported Sanders. But what happened next was the kind of backlash that's all too familiar to women, minorities, and anyone who has a strong opinion online. By the time Jeong went to sleep, a swarm of Sanders supporters were calling her a neoliberal shill. By sunrise, a broader, darker wave of abuse had begun. She received nude photos and links to disturbing videos. One troll promised to "rip each one of [her] hairs out" and "twist her tits clear off." The attacks continued for weeks. "I was in crisis mode," she recalls.


A mystery for police after 19-year-old Marine is shot in South L.A.: 'He's fighting for his life'

Los Angeles Times

A 19-year-old Marine from Camp Pendleton has been hospitalized in grave condition after he was shot this weekend in South Los Angeles, authorities said. The teen, identified by his family as Carlos Segovia, was found about 11:35 p.m. Friday slumped over and unconscious in a Dodge Charger in the 2100 block of 31st Street, according to Capt. Segovia left the military base near San Diego on Friday and was visiting friends and family for the weekend in South L.A., according to Claudia Perez, a family friend who said she treats him like her child. Segovia wrapped up visiting his girlfriend Friday and was about to drive to Perez's home, where he usually stays, when he was struck by gunfire, she said. "He was on his way to my house," Perez said via telephone from Segovia's room at California Hospital Medical Center.


Microsoft to shut down Skype office and sack staff

The Independent - Tech

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display


The Latest: NJ mayor: 1 of 5 devices found explodes

U.S. News

Bollwage says the Union County bomb squad's robotic device indicated the package the men left near the train trestle could be a live bomb. He says the FBI and state police will decide how to remove the device. It wasn't immediately known if the blast was part of a controlled explosion.


The Latest: NJ mayor: 1 of 5 devices found explodes

Associated Press

A New Jersey mayor says one of five devices found in a backpack near a train station has exploded while a bomb squad robot was attempting to disarm it. Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said that the device exploded shortly after 12:30 a.m. The FBI was leading the investigation and working to disarm the other four devices. There were no reports of injuries. Bollwage said to expect more detonations.


Five devices found near New Jersey train station: mayor

Al Jazeera

A New Jersey mayor said one of five devices found in a backpack near a train station has exploded while a bomb squad robot was attempting to disarm it. Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said that the device exploded shortly after 12:30 am local time on Monday. The FBI was leading the investigation and working to disarm the other four devices. There were no reports of injuries. Bollwage said to expect more detonations.


More than 160 treated for mostly heat-related issues at L.A. Rams game

Los Angeles Times

More than 160 people were treated Sunday at the Los Angeles Rams' first regular season game at the Coliseum, mostly for heat-related issues, authorities said. At least 14 people were taken to the hospital, though none were in critical condition, according to Margaret Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. LAFD firefighters responded to 48 incidents and took 11 people to the hospital, Stewart said. American Medical Response took at least three people to the hospital and responded to about 110 incidents. Temperatures near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum reached a high of 90 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.


Device near New Jersey train station explodes as FBI investigates

Los Angeles Times

A suspicious device found in a trash can near a New Jersey train station exploded early Monday as a bomb squad was attempting to disarm it with a robot, officials said. Elizabeth, N.J., Mayor Christian Bollwage said that the FBI was working to disarm one of five devices found in the same bag, which two men discovered about 8:30 p.m. Sunday in a trash can near the Elizabeth train station on the Northeast Corridor rail line. The men had reported seeing wires and a pipe coming out of the package, Bollwage said. There was no immediate report of injuries or damage. A message left with the FBI wasn't immediately returned.


Robert Durst to be moved to Indiana prison, but lawyer wants him sent to Los Angeles for murder trial

Los Angeles Times

New York real estate heir Robert Durst has been assigned to an Indiana federal prison, frustrating his defense attorney, who said Sunday that he wants Durst sent to Los Angeles to face a murder charge in the death of his friend Susan Berman. Last December, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office reached an extradition deal with Durst's attorneys. Durst, 73, was due to be transferred by Aug. 18 to a federal prison in Southern California after he agreed to plead guilty to a weapons charge in New Orleans. But Durst has remained in a Louisiana jail. His legal team learned Friday that he was to be relocated to a federal prison with a a specialized medical facility in Terre Haute, Ind. "It is contrary to everything that was agreed upon," attorney Richard DeGuerin told The Times.


Jane Jacobs's Street Smarts

The New Yorker

I got to talk to Jane Jacobs once, toward the end of her life, an interview that is mentioned, in its properly Lilliputian proportion, in Robert Kanigel's new biography, "Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs" (Knopf). She was one of three people I have met in a lifetime of meeting people who had an aura of sainthood about them, the others being Iona Opie, the British folklorist who collected children's rhymes, and I. F. Stone, the independent American journalist. What they had in common was a sort of radiant self-reliance. They could say an obvious thing--that children are citizens of another country, that all governments lie--with the conviction that comes from having really found it out. They spoke for many, because they thought for themselves. Iona Opie made hanging around schoolyards to find small variants in jumping-rope rhymes seem essential to understanding humanity, and Izzy Stone made you feel unpatriotic for not printing your own biweekly page of political commentary. The ability to radiate certainty without condescension, to be both very sure and very simple, is a potent one, and witnessing it in life explains a lot in history that might otherwise be inexplicable--for instance, how a sixteen-year-old girl could lead the French Army to victory. Jane Jacobs's aura was so powerful that it made her, precisely, the St. Joan of the small scale. Her name still summons an entire city vision--the much watched corner, the mixed-use neighborhood--and her holy tale is all the stronger for including a nemesis of equal stature: Robert Moses, the Sauron of the street corner. The New York planning dictator wanted to drive an expressway through lower Manhattan, and was defeated, the legend runs, by this ordinary mom.