Links - 24th December 2019 (3)

Attacker Used Eye Reflections in Pop Star's Photos to Locate Her Home

Rent-a-troll: Researchers pit disinformation farmers against each other - "With the fictional company now having a positive social media presence, Sannikov's team engaged Dr. Zhivago to tear it down, assaulting the company by questioning its business practices. He told the researchers the full effect of the campaign would take about a month or two to kick in because "a successful disinformation operation happens in phases by gradually introducing an intentionally false narrative in an organic manner," the researchers wrote.The first stage focused on placing articles on news websites. The pricelist for targeted sites was divided into "low profile," "medium profile," and "top level" sites—with Reuters.com, Newsmax, and Mashable listed in the "top level" available resources. Once articles were posted, "aged" accounts—older social media profiles less likely to be flagged as fraudulent—would repost the stories, and then other accounts would comment and repost.The total price tag for the negative campaign was $4,200—still well within the budget of individuals or businesses looking to smear a competitor. Both disinformation operators offered to go even harder at targets. Dr. Zhivago offered to file a complaint with law enforcement claiming that the targeted (fake) company was involved in human trafficking. Raskolnikov was quick to offer negative services as well, including "takedown" operations to ruin the reputation of a competitor or "sink an opponent in an election," among other things."

I went undercover to expose Iraq’s secret sex trade, and what I discovered shocked me to my core - "“What happens if I hurt her?” I ask, wanting to see how he responds to the idea that a grown man like myself could cause physical and psychological harm to a young girl. My secret camera is cupped in my hand, pointed directly at his face. I lean back in my chair feigning nonchalance. “Don’t take her virginity, but [penetrating her] from behind is fine,” he responds. “If she gets hurt, that is between you and her if she can take the pain or not.” After the sheikh gives me some more advice – whatever you do, don’t meet her family. Don’t let them know where you live. In fact, a girl without family is better, you’ll have fewer problems that way... If anyone finds out what I’m doing, I thought, I’m a dead man."

Petition calls for BBC to delete documentary on Iraqi Muslim clerics - "More than 17,000 people have demanded the BBC take down a documentary about young Iraqi girls being sold for sex - calling it 'disrespectful' to law-abiding Shia Muslims.The corporation broadcast 'Undercover With The Clerics - Iraq's Secret Sex Trade' on October 3 - an investigation into sexual exploitation of children and young women by clerics in Iraq.Journalists caught clerics offering 'pleasure marriages' to girls as young as nine - where men banned from sex outside marriage can pay a dowry for an interim wife.The practice is banned in Iraq but eight out of 10 Shia clerics who were approached were willing to carry it out, the BBC World investigation found... The petition to the change.org petition - set up by 'Mo K' - accused the corporation of 'cherry-picking' [...] 'misguided men who do not represent Shia Islam in any way'... The petition said the programme was made to 'tarnish the image of Iraq and Shias worldwide'. It claimed the women and girls in the show 'did not know that it was being used to belittle Shia Islam' and their words 'would be used against their faith'. The petition reads: 'To the BBC. When we asked for representation, we weren't expecting this mockery... BBC Arabic's Nawal Al-Maghafi explored claims since 2003, Iraqi women have been trapped into prostitution and pimped out by the religious elite.One young widow alleged that a cleric sold her to his friends in a prostitution ring, while secret filming revealed another cleric conducting a 'pleasure marriage' with a girl, 13.In Karbala, Iraq's most important religious city, the undercover reporter is introduced to a cleric who claims pleasure marriage with a child is halal: 'Nine years old plus, there's no problem.'... Two of the three clerics secretly filmed by BBC Arabic describe themselves as followers of Ayatollah Sistani, one of the most senior figures in Shia Islam."
Interestingly, this parallels the Chinese (and postmodern) view of truth as only having instrumental value
How come the documentary makers didn't get sent to diversity training?

Turkish "defence" minister posts map of Turkey that includes pieces of Syria, Iraq, Greece, and all of Cyprus - "Turkish Minister of defense Hulusi Akar posted on his own page a map and a message in Turkish and Arabic, basically saying that Turkey is not looking to take over other peoples’ lands, but will take what is their right... the message which is accompanied by a map which includes within Turkey half of Syria, northern Greece and the Greek islands of the Aegean, and all of Cyprus. It also includes all of northern Iraq including Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, and Kirkuk"
They have learnt much from China

Norwegian Islamist Mullah Krekar arrested for Charlie Hebdo comments - "A RADICAL Islamic preacher has been arrested in Norway after praising last month’s deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly in Paris.The Iraqi Kurd preacher known as Mullah Krekar said in a television interview broadcast on Wednesday that “those who draw caricatures of Mohammed must die”.Krekar, who was only freed from prison late last month, was arrested on Thursday night on accusations of inciting crime, police said.“I am obviously happy with what happened in Paris,” the 58-year-old said in the interview with Norwegian channel NRK. Krekar also responded “yes” when asked if he believed those who carried out the attack were heroes.When a cartoonist “tramples on our dignity, our principles and our faith, he must die,” he said.“Those who do not respect 30 per cent of the Earth’s population do not deserve to live.”... Krekar, whose real name is Najmeddine Faraj Ahmad, has been living in Norway since 1991.He has been at risk of deportation since 2003 after Norwegian authorities ordered him to be expelled as a threat to national security.Krekar was released from prison at the end of January after serving a two-year, 10-month sentence for making threats against Prime Minister Erna Solberg before she came to office and three Kurds. While courts have upheld the ruling, Norwegian law bars him from being deported to Iraq, where he risks the death penalty.Krekar also founded the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, but insists he has not led it since 2002.The preacher and Ansar al-Islam figure on UN and US lists of terrorist groups or individuals"

Norway holds Muslim cleric for 4 weeks after Italy trial - "An Iraqi-born Muslim cleric has been ordered held in custody for four weeks after he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Italy for terror offenses.The Oslo District Court said Wednesday there is a risk that Mullah Krekar could flee.Norwegian broadcaster NRK said an Italian extradition request is expected soon.Krekar, who earlier refused to travel to Italy, fearing extradition to Iraq, was Monday found guilty in Bolzano of attempting to overthrow the Kurdish government in northern Iraq and create an Islamic caliphate."
From 2019

Do Ethicsts Steal More Books? -- Eric Schwitzgebel - "The present research examined the rates at which ethics books are missing from leading academic libraries, compared to other philosophy books similar in age and popularity. Study 1 found that relatively obscure, contemporary ethics books of the sort likely to be borrowed mainly by professors and advanced students of philosophy were actually about 50% more likely to be missing than non-ethics books. Study 2 found that classic (pre-1900) ethics books were about twice as likely to be missing."

The Moral Behavior of Ethicists: Peer Opinion -- Eric Schwitzgebel and Joshua Rust - "The majority of respondents expressed the view that ethicists do not, on average, behave better than non-ethicists. While ethicists tended to avoid saying that ethicists behave worse than non-ethicists, non-ethicists expressed that pessimistic view about as often as they expressed the view that ethicists behave better."

Do Ethicists and Political Philosophers Vote More Often Than Other Professors? - Eric Schwitzgebel and Joshua Rust - "If philosophical moral reflection improves moral behavior, one might expect professional ethicists to behave morally better than socially similar non-ethicists.  Under the assumption that forms of political engagement such as voting have moral worth, we looked at the rate at which a sample of professional ethicists – and political philosophers as a subgroup of ethicists – voted in eight years’ worth of elections.  We compared ethicists’ and political philosophers’ voting rates with the voting rates of three other groups: philosophers not specializing in ethics, political scientists, and a comparison group of professors specializing in neither philosophy nor political science.  All groups voted at about the same rate, except for the political scientists, who voted about 10-15% more often."

Ethicists' Courtesy at Philosophy Conferences -- Eric Schwitzgebel, Joshua Rust, Linus Huang, Alan Moore, and Justin Coates - "If philosophical moral reflection tends to promote moral behavior, one might think that professional ethicists would behave morally better than do socially comparable non-ethicists.  We examined three types of courteous and discourteous behavior at American Philosophical Association conferences: talking audibly while the speaker is talking (vs. remaining silent), allowing the door to slam shut while entering or exiting mid-session (vs. attempting to close the door quietly), and leaving behind clutter at the end of a session (vs. leaving one’s seat tidy).  By these three measures, audiences in ethics sessions did not appear, generally speaking, to behave any more courteously than did audiences in non-ethics sessions.  However, audiences in environmental ethics sessions did appear to leave behind less trash."

Ethicists' and Non-Ethicists' Responsiveness to Student Emails: Relationships among Expressed Normative Attitude, Self-Described Behavior, and Experimentally Observed Behavior -- Joshua Rust and Eric Schwitzgebel - "a large majority of professors (83% of ethicists, 83% of non-ethicist philosophers, and 85% of non-philosophers) expressed the view that “not consistently responding to student emails” is morally bad. A similarly large majority of professors claimed to respond to at least 95% of student emails. We sent these professors, and others, three emails designed to look like queries from students. Ethicists’ email response rates were within chance of the other two groups’. Expressed normative view correlated with self-estimated rate of email responsiveness, especially among the ethicists. However, empirically measured email responsiveness was at best weakly correlated with self-estimated email responsiveness; and professors’ expressed normative attitude was not significantly correlated with empirically measured email responsiveness for any of the three groups."

Are Ethicists Any More Likely to Pay Their Registration Fees at Professional Meetings? - Eric Schwitzgebel - "74% of ethicist participants and 76% of non-ethicist participants appear to have paid their meeting registration fees.  This finding of no difference survives scrutiny for several possible confounds.  Thus, professional ethicists seem no less likely to free ride in this context than do philosophers not specializing in ethics.  These data fit with other recent findings suggesting that on average professional ethicists are no morally better behaved than are professors not specializing in ethics"

How often do ethics professors call their mothers? - "Here are the measures we looked at: voting in public elections, calling one’s mother, eating the meat of mammals, donating to charity, littering, disruptive chatting and door-slamming during philosophy presentations, responding to student emails, attending conferences without paying registration fees, organ donation, blood donation, theft of library books, overall moral evaluation by one’s departmental peers based on personal impressions, honesty in responding to survey questions, and joining the Nazi party in 1930s Germany... ethicists do embrace more stringent moral norms on some issues, especially vegetarianism and charitable donation... 'Almost everyone else is eating meat. Why should I sacrifice this pleasure, wrong though it is, while others do not? Indeed, it would be unfair to hold me to higher standards just because I’m an ethicist. I am paid to teach, research and write, like every other professor. I am paid to apply my scholarly talents to evaluating intellectual arguments about the good and bad, the right and wrong. If you want me also to live as a role model, you ought to pay me extra! ‘Furthermore,’ she continues, ‘if we demand that ethicists live according to the norms they espouse, that will put major distortive pressures on the field. An ethicist who feels obligated to live as she teaches will be motivated to avoid highly self-sacrificial conclusions, such as that the wealthy should give most of their money to charity or that we should eat only a restricted subset of foods. Disconnecting professional ethicists’ academic enquiries from their personal choices allows them to consider the arguments in a more even-handed way. If no one expects us to act in accord with our scholarly opinions, we are more likely to arrive at the moral truth.’... Most of the ancient philosophers and the great moral visionaries of the religious wisdom traditions, East and West, would find the cheeseburger ethicist strange. Most of them assumed that the main purpose of studying ethics was self-improvement. Most of them also accepted that philosophers were to be judged by their actions as much as by their words"

Brittney Cooper Suggests Black Women's Obesity Is Due to Trump - "“I hate when people talk about Black women being obese,” Cooper said on the program, which airs on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network. “I hate it because it becomes a way to blame us for a set of conditions that we didn’t create.” “We are living in the Trump era. And look, those policies kill our people. You can’t get access to good health care, good insurance,” she added. According to Cooper, who cited the expertise of “public health practitioners,” racism “literally” leads to diets being less effective for black women... Geronimus is a public health researcher who also serves as a professor of Health Behavior & Health Education at the University of Michigan."
Apparently black women aren't fat till late 2016