32
your movie suggests Russians do in fact possess consciousness. Due to your Russian background, I must ask, is this a trick? Are you a spy?
123
Russian-Canadian documentarian attempts to humanize RU soldiers, offends western film fest audiences composed of liberal banderites
(www.theglobeandmail.com)
Was there any official permission obtained, or any dialogue with the Russian state?
There was none, because they’d never allow me to go. Even the state-funded media that the government trusts, very few go to the front and when they do it’s very managed. I had been working at the CBC, and then they got kicked out of Russia in the summer of 2022. So I didn’t have a press card. I was self-employed. I couldn’t have even applied for official accreditation..
Before the CBC, you worked for the Russian state-controlled media company RT, which is banned in Canada. Naturally, this has cast a propagandistic shadow over your new film.
I worked for RT Documentary, not RT News. RTD is a sister channel of RT. When I worked there from 2014 through 2020, my focus was on the Middle East. I had an obsession on all topics concerning ISIS. Originally, I put forth two conditions on my employment: I’ll never have any narration in my films, and there will never be any correspondents. I would never have someone saying, “We’re on the border of Iran and Syria and this feels like this,” because that’s where you can add narrative that you haven’t filmed yourself. I offered them cinema verite, for television, and they agreed. And then the relatively liberal atmosphere in which we were working started to change, so I quit to start working with the CBC.
In this film, we don’t see any of the devastation caused by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. There are no Ukrainian voices. Why limit the perspective?
Because I had no access to the Ukrainian side. There are few journalists able to work in both countries. For me to go to Ukraine as a Russian, I would be branded a spy or attacked. The fact that I used to work for RTD doesn’t help. I wouldn’t have been able to cover both sides of the front.
The Russian soldiers onscreen start off mostly convinced that they’re on the right side of history, with one repeating the Putin lie about how they’re there to fight Nazism. And yet there’s never any pushback from you. Why not provide context?
I had no idea I would be able to film this world. It was nothing short of a miracle, because I was missing this human portrait from the war on the Russian side. Anything they said, I was there to listen, not to preach about what I know about the war. They were completely shrouded from the rest of the world. The Nazism, we hear a lot about that in Russian media. But it’s their reality. When making documentaries, we want to show the reality of people and their motivations – what they believe. But you see, I ask him again later in the film why he’s still fighting, and he says he doesn’t even know.
There is a lot of conjecture online about whether or not the film received Russian approval or funding.
One-hundred per cent, no. I’m trying to be calm, but I want to ask how the hell does anyone think the state would pay me to go to places where Russian state media is not even allowed? There’s a lot of criticism online because I worked for RT. We also have to understand that Russia is the world’s biggest country and RT is Russia’s biggest broadcaster. If you can make the stories that you’re not ashamed of, then you go for it.
Other reporting
https://myrotvorets.news/na-venetsiiskomu-kinofestyvali-huma/ 👀
18
Rawdog Simulator for pc
(www.creativebloq.com)
But the most striking aspect is that the use of the webcam. With your device's front-facing camera, the game tracks your eye and head movements to make sure you're staring straight ahead at that screen.
39
Zuck commissions life size statue of wife Priscilla Chan
(sfstandard.com)
“Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife,” Zuckerberg announced to his 14.5 million followers.
+ wife guy + 
The sculpture is by Daniel Arsham, a New York-based sculptor who makes everything from giant Pokemon cards to NFTs of Porsches. His work has been featured at some of the most acclaimed museums and galleries in the world. (Last month, he was also accused of violating federal law for firing an employee who supported a workers union, according to a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board. But that’s another story.)
https://apnews.com/article/russia-chechnya-kadyrov-cybertruck-musk-33b123d4bd7fe0036e80952026a54a74
Chechen warlord invites Musk to Russia after he’s filmed driving machine-gun mounted Cybertruck
described the vehicle as “undoubtedly one of the best cars in the world. I literally fell in love.”
He also said he would donate the vehicle to Russian forces fighting in the invasion of Ukraine. “It’s not for nothing that they call this a cyberbeast,” he said. “I’m sure that this beast will bring plenty of benefits to our troops.”
said he received the truck from Musk, although this was not independently confirmed. Messages left with Tesla seeking comment were not immediately returned
Kadyrov also took advantage of the video clip to invite Musk to Chechnya.
“I don’t think the Russian Foreign Ministry would mind such a trip,” he said. “And, of course, we’re waiting for your new developments that will help us finish our special military operation (in Ukraine).”
Lol
181
Redditors revolt against Zionist mods of R/aquariums
(hexbear.net)
incited by mods' removal of this post
More pics here https://xcancel.com/BARFJAMiN/status/1822010191078195236
59
Meet the 21-year-old Harvard dropout behind Friend, the creepy new AI necklace
(www.businessinsider.com)
Yes I'm posting more business insider click bait slop 
introduced in a glossy, A24-style promotional video in which fresh-faced Zoomers speak to an AI pendant that provides emotional support, commentary, and playful jabs in the form of canned text messages. "This show is completely underrated," it texts a woman while she's watching a show and eating falafel on her lunch break. Then it texts, "How's the falafel?" The woman is seemingly heartened by this. "It's dank," she tells her necklace, "I could eat one of these every day."
dank
online commentary grew only more heated when Friend's founder, a 21-year-old Harvard dropout named Avi Schiffmann, revealed that he spent $1.8 million of Friend's $2.5 million funding to buy the website domain "Friend.com."
"People think it's outrageous that I would buy a domain like that, but this is the point of VC money," Schiffmann told me in an interview.
Schiffmann admitted that the online reaction to Friend is not what he expected. "I honestly think it's because the video was too good,"
Schiffmann's original vision for an AI hardware device was a pendant that would act as a more standard-fare AI assistant called Tab — he once described it as a "wearable mom." But after spending a lonely night in Tokyo, he began considering a more intimate version
venture-funded AI-friendship necklace is something of a hard pivot for Schiffmann. In 2020, when he was 17, he built one of the first COVID-tracking websites. Anthony Fauci presented him with a Webby Person of the Year award. He went on to build a tool that tracked Black Lives Matter protesters and a website that helped refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine find people offering spare rooms and couches around the world
HOLD UP "a tool that tracked Black Lives Matter protesters" ???
"These are all really just big art projects to me," he said. "I haven't been able to come up with a stronger intrinsic [reason] why it's worth doing anything like this at all. It's just something to do and I'm bored. But maybe I've just read too much Camus."
Of the many AI hardware devices that launched in recent months, such as Humane's AI pin, Meta's smart glasses, and Rabbit's AI-powered R1, Friend is the most personal contender. Not only does it aspire to be a close confidant, it's also privy to all its users' conversations. As in, it never stops listening. The incessant eavesdropping that people fear when it comes to devices like Siri and Alexa is a selling point to allay Friend users who fear being alone. Friend needs to have access to every aspect of your life in order to work, Schiffmann said
Based on the public's initial reaction to it, Friend appears to be a long way from product-market fit, in that people do not want this product. Schiffmann disagrees. "People underlyingly want this," he told me
When it comes to creating Friend, "every decision I made was guided by personal vibes."
32
Hirohiko Araki discusses his first public art piece at Osaka Station, The Fountain Boy, drawn alongside JoJo Stands ranked by their power.
https://jojo-news.com/2024/07/29/hirohiko-arakis-first-public-art-piece-the-fountain-boy-unveiled/
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/europe/ukraine-prison-soldier-recruitment-intl-cmd/index.html
From prison to the trenches: Inside Ukraine’s attempt to turn inmates into soldiers
The push to recruit inmates into the military appears at first glance to parallel a campaign of prison recruitment by Russia’s mercenary company Wagner early in the war, and continued by the Ministry of Defense since last year. The lives of thousands of Russian convicts have been expended in so-called “meat grinder” assaults, particularly in the fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
But Ukraine’s Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska, speaking to CNN in Kyiv, rejected the comparison.
“In Ukraine, motivation is largely based on patriotism. Our prisoners join the army voluntarily. In Russia, it was voluntary and forced. I personally saw (Russian) prisoners who were forced to join Wagner,” he said, adding that in Russia, inmates were recruited into the notoriously brutal private military company, whereas in Ukraine, they are joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“This is a regular state military service with all the guarantees: salary, social insurance, payments in case of injury, death, and so on. This is a completely different story in terms of motives and mechanisms.”
patriotism
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68987130
Unrwa closes East Jerusalem compound after attacks
head of the UN's largest aid agency in Gaza says he is temporarily closing its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem after a number of attacks.
Philippe Lazzarini said "Israeli residents" twice set fire to the compound's perimeter on Thursday evening.
There were no casualties but the fire "caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas," he wrote on social media.
"Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk."
Our director with the help of other staff had to put out the fire themselves as it took the Israeli fire extinguishers and police a while before they turned up," he added.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli authorities.
Mr Lazzarini also posted a video of what he said was a "crowd accompanied by armed men" who were chanting "burn down the United Nations". This video has not been verified by the BBC.
He said it was the second time this week the compound has come under attack, and it would not be reopened until "proper security is restored
Canadian officials still haven't seen intelligence linking UN's Gaza aid agency with Hamas: sources
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/unrwa-hamas-gaza-canada-1.7107785
The government of Canada did not see any evidence backing up Israel's claim that staff employed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) colluded with Hamas before suspending funding to the agency, CBC News has learned.
Government sources tell CBC that Israel still has not shared evidence with Canada to substantiate its claim that 12 employees of UNRWA were involved in some capacity in the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and the affiliated group Islamic Jihad.
Britain's Channel Four News earlier this week obtained a copy of a dossier that the government of Israel shared with the U.K. government, which also cut funding to UNRWA.
Channel Four reported that the dossier was only six pages long. The news service said it rehashes long-standing Israeli government complaints about UNRWA and alleges the involvement of UNRWA staff in the Oct 7 attack, but "provides no evidence" to back up Israel's explosive allegations against the agency.
"From intelligence information, documents and identity cards seized during the course of the fighting, it is now possible to flag around 190 Hamas and PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) terrorist operatives who serve as UNRWA employees. More than 10 UNRWA staffers took apart in the events of October 7," the paper says.
The report includes photographs of 12 UNRWA employees it claims were involved, but does not provide the information or documents it mentions to substantiate those claims, Channel Four reported.
Israel has refused to provide the intelligence it says backs up its allegations, either to UNRWA or to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the UN body assigned to investigate.
"I don't think we need to give intelligence information. This would reveal sources in the operation," Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry, told France 24.
That statement appeared to contradict a tweet by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Monday which pledged that Israel "will submit all evidence highlighting UNRWA's ties to terrorism and its harmful effects on regional stability."
UNRWA moved quickly to fire 12 individual staff members on January 26, as soon as Israel made its allegations.
"To protect the Agency's ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay," said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general.
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the agency acted to fire the staff immediately because of the seriousness and timing of the allegations — not because it had credible evidence against them.
"The commissioner-general of UNRWA did this in the best interests of the agency, due to the huge risks both to the reputation of the agency and also the largest humanitarian operation in response to the Gaza war," she told Channel Four News.
She said the firings were intended to reassure donor nations and forestall drastic actions.
Canadian officials told CBC News that Canada's own decision to defund was a reaction to UNRWA's decision to dismiss the staffers, which created the impression that the agency saw Israel's allegation as credible.
Israel alleges 0.001% of UNRWA staff participated in Oct 7 -> UNRWA immediately fires alleged conspirators, due to the seriousness of allegations, despite lack of evidence, in an effort to reassure donors -> donors cut funding to UNRWA, claiming UNRWA response lent credibility to allegations
Nicaragua taking Germany, Canada, UK, Netherlands to ICJ for genocide
The Nicaraguan government started Monday proceedings to take Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Canada to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for their complicity in the genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza by providing the Israeli occupation with the weapons and means to carry out the horrendous act.
The executive authority in Nicaragua published an official statement in which it revealed that it warned the governments of said Western powers that they might be jointly complicit in the "flagrant and systemic violations" of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip.
Canada is joining the United States in suspending funding for a UN agency that supports Palestinians, in response to allegations agency staff played a role in the Hamas attack on Israel last October
Ottawa has ordered a temporary pause on "any additional funding" for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
director for the agency known as UNWRA says it has terminated staff suspected of involvement in the Hamas attack, without sharing what role they may have played.
U.S. State Department says it believes 12 staff are facing accusations of involvement.
The UN agency says 153 of its staff have died during the Israel-Hamas war, and roughly 13,000 staff are still trying to deliver aid in the Gaza Strip
0 killed by Hamas, must be because they ARE Hamas
The war began Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages on Oct. 7.
"War" "began"
In retaliation, Israel launched a military campaign in the Gaza Strip that the Hamas-run Health Ministry says has killed more than 26,000 people, including militants.
"militants"
Israel is tightly controlling entry points into Gaza and restricting supplies, making it difficult for humanitarian aid to get inside.
Last November, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly praised the agency for providing the essentials of life in Gaza, noting it's "the only organization able to concretely do this" and that Canada is "a significant donor" to the agency.
At the time, Global Affairs Canada noted that Canada's funding for UNRWA work in Gaza is not just for humanitarian relief.
The money was also aimed at helping "identify, monitor and follow up on neutrality violations" within the organization and boosting "transparency and accountability of UNRWA's approach to humanitarian principles," the department said.
Jewish groups and past Canadian governments have taken UNRWA to task over social-media statements by the agency's staff that they argue don't uphold neutrality.
mrw you are insufficiently neutral about genocide
They have also voiced concerns that UN aid could be diverted to Hamas, which Canada and others deem a terrorist organization.
"Concerns" "could"
Former prime minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government cut off Canadian funding for UNWRA in 2010, amid allegations it was too closely tied to Hamas.
Funding resumed under the federal Liberals in 2016.
Huh US Nazis declare they are over Ukraine conflict at the same time as their government, must just be a coincidence 
North Korea says its new spy satellite photographed White House, Pentagon
SEOUL, Nov 28 (Reuters) - After decades of satellite surveillance by foreign governments and analysts, North Korea has sent its first spy satellite on a global orbit with a message to the world: we can watch you too.
On Tuesday North Korean state media said leader Kim Jong Un had reviewed spy satellite photos of the White House, Pentagon and U.S. aircraft carriers at the naval base of Norfolk.
North Korea last week successfully launched its first reconnaissance satellite, which it has said was designed to monitor U.S. and South Korean military movements.
Since then state media has reported the satellite photographed cities and military bases in South Korea, Guam, and Italy, in addition to the U.S. capital.
https://nitter.net/Seamus_Malek/status/1716278455677923711
Western journalists cannot be this credulous. Israel's president holds out a supposed "chemical weapons" manual found with Hamas militants that has both the ISIS flag and just the word "al-Qaeda" emblazoned on it. They think you're morons.
Update: I found the document Herzog is holding. It is not a chemical weapons manual, it's an amateurly-published biography of WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef. It contains no instructions, only mentions of Yousef's early plans to use chemicals. It isn't classified or secret, it's a PDF.
view more: next ›
mechwarrior2
joined 1 year ago
Damn I bet on liberal banderite last time.
Tfw you were right but too early