calling on, in transit

Having closed down operations once the countries were admitted into the European Union, Radio Free Europe is restarting programming in Romania and Bulgaria due to a sharp increase in the incidence of false reporting in efforts to combat the spread of disinformation.
During the Hungarian Revolt of 1956, Radio Free Europe was accused of stoking revolution by promising that American help was imminent, which was counter to US foreign policy at the time and no intervention was forthcoming—resulting in a major overhaul on how the organisation was administered, geared to protect journalists’ independence and not to promote an agenda. When the country was a Soviet satellite, Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu regarded the station a serious threat and provocateur and waged a campaign of counter-programming with Operation Ether, which included discrediting and assassinating reporters. Though activities have been significantly curtailed since the end of the Cold War, the Prague-based broadcaster maintains some seventeen local bureaus and is present in over twenty-five countries, including Russia (Radio Liberty was the name of the station dedicated to broadcasting to the USSR until the stations merged in 1976), in jurisdictions which the organisation assesses are not fully matured in regards to the unfettered flow of information.

safr

Rather than lobby for better laws governing access and ownership of fire arms, invasive and error-prone facial recognition software is being offered to US school districts, at no cost, to monitor students and staff and ostensibly improve school security.
It’s such a tragedy and disgrace that young children are already inculcated to holding drills in case there’s an intruder with a gun, they deserve far, far better and should not also be inured into a surveillance state where their identity and whereabouts can be telegraphed (and preserved for later) to health insurance providers, debt-collectors or immigration officials.

8x8

constructive-destructive axis: insightful career advice from Steve Jobs

empathy does not equal endorsement: an anthology of presentations on hatred and seeing others as multidimensional beings

life in plastic, it’s fantastic: Barbie presents some sophisticated, inspiring vignettes

badekultur: German photographer Stephan Zirwes showcases public pools from above to reinforce the value of facilities open to all

we are not amused: the Queen telegraphs her feelings through her choice of jewellery (previously)

pure salvage: the 1905 shipwreck of a lost Russian cruiser has been located, purportedly with a cargo of hundreds of tonnes in gold—via Slashdot

hunky dunky: a Spanish digital illustration studio’s refreshing summer diary

garbage in/gorgeous out: aspire to be value-added in all you do 

a fine-tuned machine

Pressed for an answer by his ministry of propaganda, the piece of filth Trump reaffirmed his lack of commitment to the North Atlantic Treat Organisation—despite taking credit for “fixing” the institution after last week’s summit by expressing doubts in the pact’s provision of collective defence—that an attack on one member is an attack on all members, offering up Montenegro as the first concession to Russia. “Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. They are an aggressive people,” Trump said, having shoved the prime minister of the south eastern European republic, formerly part of Yugoslavia, Duško Marković aside to get the best spot for a group photograph at a conference. “They may get aggressive and congratulations, you are in World War III.” Jesus wept.

sophisti-pop

I picked up on the term for a musical sub-genre that resonated with me encountered on a podcast, applied to second wave 80s songs from the UK that integrate soul and jazz elements, often performed with synthesisers and saxophone interludes. Artist classified as sophisti-pop include Swing Out Sister, Sade, Simply Red, Level 42 and the Blow Monkeys.