The vice-president failed to make the case that she would be different from her boss, President Joe Biden.

President Trump mocked Joe Biden Thursday evening for always calling a “lid” on campaign activities early in the morning, saying the Democratic presidential rival is “the lowest energy individual I’ve ever seen.” “Did you see [Biden] did a lid this morning again?” Trump told supporters during his campaign rally Thursday night at Cecil Airport hanger in Jacksonville, […]

The post Trump At Jacksonville Mocks Biden As ‘Lowest Energy Individual’ For Calling Campaign ‘Lid This Morning Again’ appeared first on Hispolitica.

The Trump campaign wants a third-party inspector to inspect both President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ears for electronic devices or transmitters prior to Tuesday night’s presidential debate. Trump has consented to the inspection while the Biden campaign has declined. However, according to a source told Floridian Press that the Biden campaign agreed […]

The post Biden Campaign Rejects Trump Campaign Calls For Pre-Debate Inspection For Electronic Earpieces appeared first on Hispolitica.

Trump 2020 reelection campaign announced Saturday for the final month before Election Day the launch of “Operation MAGA,” that will consist of a “full marshaling of top-level surrogates, campaign coalitions and Trump supporters to rally behind the president and carry the campaign forward” until President Trump recovers from COVID-19 and can return on the campaign […]

The post Trump Campaign Launches ‘Operation MAGA’ appeared first on Hispolitica.

In what seems like the work of a typical Democrat, Kama Harris raised one billion dollars for her campaign… and finished it $20 million in debt. Imagine what she would have done to the United States which would have started out bankrupt if Harris had entered the White House. How do you have an actual […]

The post Typical Democrat: Harris Raised One BILLION for her Campaign… Ended it $20 Million In Debt appeared first on The Lid.

For years, the Dems and their media enablers have complained about the 'divisive' nature of politics, and invariably laid blame on the 'other' party.

The post Campaign Door-Knocker Caught Going Full Racist On Camera — Guess Which Party? appeared first on Clash Daily.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that the media was bragging about Kamala's HUGE fundraising haul.

The post YIKES: Kamala’s Failed Campaign Finished DEEP In Debt — Here’s The 411 appeared first on Clash Daily.

We’ve run a private security bug bounty program since 2014. Invited testers reported numerous security vulnerabilities to us, many of them critical. We investigated and fixed the vulnerabilities they reported and thanked them with cash rewards. Before 2014, and concurrently with the private bounty program, we ran a public “Hall of Fame” program where we… keep reading

Earlier this year, we announced that Basecamp was committing to getting to carbon negative for our cumulative history and moving forward. Today, I want to share an update on that commitment. Note: I edited this post on Nov 5, 2020 to include the prices paid for all carbon offsets and explain a little more about the… keep reading

Even after her loss on Nov. 5, Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign is still hounding donors for money. Harris’ campaign has bombarded supporters with fundraising messages following her election […]

The post Kamala's Campaign Is Still Aggressively Shaking Down Supporters For Cash appeared first on The Western Journal.

It was one of the high points in the early days of the Kamala Harris campaign, the honeymoon period where the vice president — newly minted as the Democratic nominee […]

The post Watch: Oprah Pressed Over Claims That Kamala Harris' Campaign Paid Her $1M for Political Endorsement appeared first on The Western Journal.

Persuasion or manipulation? Limiting campaigning online Expert comment NCapeling 15 February 2021

To tackle online disinformation and manipulation effectively, regulators must clarify the dividing line between legitimate and illegitimate campaign practices.

Democracy is at risk, not only from disinformation but from systemic manipulation of public debate online. Evidence shows social media drives control of narratives, polarization, and division on issues of politics and identity. We are now seeing regulators turn their attention to protecting democracy from disinformation and manipulation. But how should they distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate online information practices, between persuasive and manipulative campaigning?

Unregulated, the tactics of disinformation and manipulation have spread far and wide. They are no longer the preserve merely of disaffected individuals, hostile international actors, and authoritarian regimes. Facebook’s periodic reporting on coordinated inauthentic behaviour and Twitter’s on foreign information operations reveal that militaries, governments, and political campaigners in a wide range of countries, including parts of Europe and America, have engaged in manipulative or deceptive information campaigns.

For example, in September 2019, Twitter removed 259 accounts it says were ‘falsely boosting’ public sentiment online that it found to be operated by Spain’s conservative and Christian-democratic political party Partido Popular. In October 2020, Facebook removed accounts with around 400,000 followers linked to Rally Forge, a US marketing firm which Facebook claims was working on behalf of right-wing organisations Turning Point USA and Inclusive Conservation Group. And in December 2020, Facebook took down a network of accounts with more than 6,000 followers, targeting audiences in Francophone Africa and focusing on France’s policies there, finding it linked with individuals associated with the French military.

Public influence on a global scale

Even more revealingly, in its 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation, the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) found that in 81 countries, government agencies and/or political parties are using ‘computational propaganda’ in social media to shape public attitudes.

These 81 countries span the world and include not only authoritarian and less democratic regimes but also developed democracies such as many EU member states. OII found that countries with the largest capacity for computational propaganda – which include the UK, US, and Australia – have permanent teams devoted to shaping the online space overseas and at home.

OII categorizes computational propaganda as four types of communication strategy – the creation of disinformation or manipulated content such as doctored images and videos; the use of personal data to target specific segments of the population with disinformation or other false narratives; trolling, doxing or online harassment of political opponents, activists or journalists; and mass-reporting of content or accounts posted or run by opponents as part of gaming the platforms’ automated flagging, demotion, and take-down systems.

Doubtless some of the governments included within OII’s statistics argue their behaviour is legitimate and appropriate, either to disseminate information important to the public interest or to wrestle control of the narrative away from hostile actors. Similarly, no doubt some political campaigners removed by the platforms for alleged engagement in ‘inauthentic behaviour’ or ‘manipulation’ would defend the legitimacy of their conduct.

The fact is that clear limits of acceptable propaganda and information influence operations online do not exist. Platforms still share little information overall about what information operations they see being conducted online. Applicable legal principles such as international human rights law have not yet crystallised into clear rules. As information operations are rarely exposed to public view – with notable exceptions such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal – there is relatively little constraint in media and public scrutiny or censure.

OII’s annual reports and the platforms’ periodic reports demonstrate a continual expansion of deceptive and manipulative practices since 2016, and increasing involvement of private commercial companies in their deployment. Given the power of political influence as a driver, this absence of clear limits may result in ever more sophisticated techniques being deployed in the search for maximal influence.

Ambiguity over reasonable limits on manipulation plays into the hands of governments which regulate ostensibly in the name of combating disinformation, but actually in the interests of maintaining their own control of the narrative and in disregard of the human right to freedom of expression. Following Singapore’s 2019 prohibition of online untruths, 17 governments ranging from Bolivia to Vietnam to Hungary passed regulations during 2020 criminalising ‘fake news’ on COVID-19 while many other governments are alleged to censor opposition arguments or criticisms of official state narratives.

Clear limits are needed. Facebook itself has been calling for societal discussion about the limits of acceptable online behaviour for some time and has issued recommendations of its own.

The European Democracy Action Plan: Aiming to protect pluralism and vigour in democracy

The European Democracy Action Plan (EDAP), which complements the European Commission’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act proposals, is a welcome step. It is ground-breaking in its efforts to protect the pluralism and vigour of European democracies by tackling all forms of online manipulation, while respecting human rights.

While the EDAP tackles disinformation, it also condemns two categories of online manipulation – information influence operations which EDAP describes as ‘coordinated efforts by either domestic or foreign actors to influence a target audience using a range of deceptive means’ and foreign interference, described as ‘coercive and deceptive efforts to disrupt the free formation and expression of individuals’ political will by a foreign state actor or its agents’. These categories include influence operations such as harnessing fake accounts or gaming algorithms, and the suppression of independent information sources through censorship or mass reporting.

But the categories are so broad they risk capturing disinformation practices not only of rogue actors, but also of governments and political campaigners both outside and within the EU. The European Commission plans to work towards refined definitions. Its discussions with member states and other stakeholders should start to determine which practices ought to be tackled as manipulative, and which ought to be tolerated as legitimate campaigning or public information practices.

The extent of the EDAP proposals on disinformation demonstrates the EU’s determination to tackle online manipulation. The EDAP calls for improved practical measures building on the Commission’s 2020 acceleration of effort in the face of COVID-19 disinformation. The Commission is considering how best to impose costs on perpetrators of disinformation, such as by disrupting financial incentives or even imposing sanctions for repeated offences.

Beyond the regulatory and risk management framework proposed by the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission says it will issue guidance for platforms and other stakeholders to strengthen their measures against disinformation, building on the existing EU Code of Practice on Disinformation and eventually leading to a strengthened Code with more robust monitoring requirements. These are elements of a broader package of measures in the EDAP to preserve democracy in Europe.

Until there are clear limits, manipulative practices will continue to develop and to spread. More actors will resort to them in order not to be outgunned by opponents. It is hoped forthcoming European discussions – involving EU member state governments, the European Parliament, civil society, academia and the online platforms – will begin to shape at least a European and maybe a global consensus on the limits of information influence, publicly condemning unacceptable practices while safeguarding freedom of expression.

Most importantly, following the example of the EDAP, the preservation of democracy and human rights – rather than the promotion of political or commercial interest – should be the lodestar for those discussions.

Sophos X-Ops unveils five-year investigation tracking China-based groups targeting perimeter devices

The Internet is full of cats—and in this case, malware-delivering fake cat websites used for very targeted search engine optimization.

In SAS Customer Intelligence Studio, you might notice that you cannot clear warnings for decision campaign nodes by selecting either the Clear Warnings  option or the Clear All Warnin

Phillies manager Gabe Kapler has a little advice for the players who could be impacted most if the team signs Bryce Harper or Manny Machado.

The countdown to pitchers and catchers reporting is down to single digits for all 30 MLB clubs, but as exciting as it is to see the return of Major League stars, it's also a time to dream about the next wave of baseball talent.

Spring Training is officially here for the Angels, with pitchers and catchers reporting to Tempe Diablo Stadium on Tuesday. And there's a new face at manager, with Brad Ausmus replacing longtime skipper Mike Scioscia this offseason.

Oct. 24, 2024 — The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), part of the School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences at UC San Diego, has been leading the Open Storage Network (OSN) program for years, and along […]

The post SDSC Leads Expansion of Open Storage Network to More Campus Computing Sites appeared first on HPCwire.

In the aftermath of this spring's teacher protests, more educators are running for state office—and the National Education Association is seizing on the political moment.

Guo-qiang Bi
Dec 15, 1998; 18:10464-10472
Articles

The GluN3A subunit of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) plays an established role in synapse development, but its contribution to neural circuits in the adult brain is less clear. Recent work has demonstrated that in select cell populations, GluN3A assembles with GluN1 to form GluN1/GluN3A receptors that are insensitive to glutamate and instead serve as functional excitatory glycine receptors (eGlyRs). Our understanding of these eGlyRs, and how they contribute to intrinsic excitability and synaptic communication within relevant networks of the developing and the mature brain, is only beginning to be uncovered. Here, using male and female mice, we demonstrate that GluN3A subunits are enriched in the adult ventral hippocampus (VH), where they localize to synaptic and extrasynaptic sites and can assemble as functional eGlyRs on CA1 pyramidal cells. GluN3A expression was barely detectable in the adult dorsal hippocampus (DH). We also observed a high GluN2B content in the adult VH, characterized by slow NMDAR current decay kinetics and a high sensitivity to the GluN2B-containing NMDAR antagonist ifenprodil. Interestingly, the GluN2B enrichment in the adult VH was dependent on GluN3A as GluN3A deletion accelerated NMDAR decay and reduced ifenprodil sensitivity in the VH, suggesting that GluN3A expression can regulate the balance of conventional NMDAR subunit composition at synaptic sites. Lastly, we found that GluN3A knock-out also enhanced both NMDAR-dependent calcium influx and NMDAR-dependent long-term potentiation in the VH. Together, these data reveal a novel role for GluN3A and eGlyRs in the control of ventral hippocampal circuits in the mature brain.

We used virus-mediated anterograde and retrograde tracing, optogenetic modulation, immunostaining, in situ hybridization, and patch-clamp recordings in acute brain slices to study the release mechanism and μ-opioid modulation of the dual glutamatergic/GABAergic inputs from the ventral tegmental area and supramammillary nucleus to the granule cells of the dorsal hippocampus of male and female mice. In keeping with previous reports showing that the two transmitters are released by separate active zones within the same terminals, we found that the short-term plasticity and pharmacological modulation of the glutamatergic and GABAergic currents are indistinguishable. We further found that glutamate and GABA release at these synapses are both virtually completely mediated by N- and P/Q-type calcium channels. We then investigated μ-opioid modulation of these synapses and found that activation of μ-opioid receptors (MORs) strongly inhibits the glutamate and GABA release, mostly through inhibition of presynaptic N-type channels. However, the modulation by MORs of these dual synapses is complex, as it likely includes also a disinhibition due to downmodulation of local GABAergic interneurons which make direct axo-axonic contacts with the dual glutamatergic/GABAergic terminals. We discuss how this opioid modulation may enhance LTP at the perforant path inputs, potentially contributing to reinforce memories of drug-associated contexts.

Plasticity in the subcortical motor basal ganglia–thalamo–cerebellar network plays a key role in the acquisition and control of long-term memory for new procedural skills, from the formation of population trajectories controlling trained motor skills in the striatum to the adaptation of sensorimotor maps in the cerebellum. However, recent findings demonstrate the involvement of a wider cortical and subcortical brain network in the consolidation and control of well-trained actions, including a brain region traditionally associated with declarative memory—the hippocampus. Here, we probe which role these subcortical areas play in skilled motor sequence control, from sequence feature selection during planning to their integration during sequence execution. An fMRI dataset (N = 24; 14 females) collected after participants learnt to produce four finger press sequences entirely from memory with high movement and timing accuracy over several days was examined for both changes in BOLD activity and their informational content in subcortical regions of interest. Although there was a widespread activity increase in effector-related striatal, thalamic, and cerebellar regions, in particular during sequence execution, the associated activity did not contain information on the motor sequence identity. In contrast, hippocampal activity increased during planning and predicted the order of the upcoming sequence of movements. Our findings suggest that the hippocampus preorders movements for skilled action sequences, thus contributing to the higher-order control of skilled movements that require flexible retrieval. These findings challenge the traditional taxonomy of episodic and procedural memory and carry implications for the rehabilitation of individuals with neurodegenerative disorders.

The precise regulation of Ca²⁺ signals plays a crucial role in the physiological functions of neurons. Here, we investigated the rapid effect of glucocorticoids on Ca²⁺ signals in cultured hippocampal neurons from both female and male rats. In cultured hippocampal neurons, glucocorticoids inhibited the spontaneous somatic Ca²⁺ spikes generated by Kv2.1-organized Ca²⁺ microdomains. Furthermore, glucocorticoids rapidly reduced the cell surface expressions of Kv2.1 and Ca_V1.2 channels in hippocampal neurons. In HEK293 cells transfected with Kv2.1 alone, glucocorticoids significantly reduced the surface expression of Kv2.1 with little effect on K⁺ currents. In HEK293 cells transfected with Ca_V1.2 alone, glucocorticoids inhibited Ca_V1.2 currents but had no effect on the cell surface expression of Ca_V1.2. Notably, in the presence of wild-type Kv2.1, glucocorticoids caused a decrease in the surface expression of Ca_V1.2 channels in HEK293 cells. However, this effect was not observed in the presence of nonclustering Kv2.1S586A mutant channels. Live-cell imaging showed that glucocorticoids rapidly decreased Kv2.1 clusters on the plasma membrane. Correspondingly, Western blot results indicated a significant increase in the cytoplasmic level of Kv2.1, suggesting the endocytosis of Kv2.1 clusters. Glucocorticoids rapidly decreased the intracellular cAMP concentration and the phosphorylation level of PKA in hippocampal neurons. The PKA inhibitor H89 mimicked the effect of glucocorticoids on Kv2.1, while the PKA agonist forskolin abrogated the effect. In conclusion, glucocorticoids rapidly suppress Ca_V1.2-mediated Ca²⁺ signals in hippocampal neurons by promoting the endocytosis of Kv2.1 channel clusters through reducing PKA activity.

The curators at the American History museum delve into the archives to show artifacts from the 1960 election.

Monday marks the first Remembrance Day ceremony at the National War Memorial in St. John's to include the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We're proud to present again two documentaries that tell a remarkable story.

Elections Nova Scotia is investigating PC candidate Susan Corkum-Greek's campaign to determine whether it broke the law by handing out gift cards on Saturday outside a Tim Hortons in Lunenburg, N.S. 

Inflation, an increase to the debt limit, and a series of mega-projects have been focuses of the municipal election in Regina.

The Town of Kensington, P.E.I., has committed to implementing a new campaign to end gender-based violence.

City will wait for legal advice, staff report before voting early next year to avoid potential rights violations. While some people in the community argue Hamilton doesn't have enough shelter beds to justifiably remove encampments, others say they feel unsafe in their homes and unable to access parks.

Canada head coach Jesse Marsch has summoned 19 players, including York United FC teenager Shola Jimoh, to a camp in Toronto ahead of the full men's team gathering for the two-legged CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal later this month against Suriname.

Bring Back the Maples is a volunteer effort to increase the forest canopy along Woolwich Townships' rural roads.

After playing her first season with the WNBA's Washington Mystics and representing Team Canada at the Olympics, forward Aaliyah Edwards held her second annual "You Got Knext" camp in her hometown over the weekend.

Hired in July by the Seattle Kraken as an assistant coach after two seasons with their AHL affiliate, Jessica Campbell is starting to get to know the team, schedule demands and managing "the vigorous push through it all." It's also about managing the attention as a trailblazer.

Penn State Mont Alto recently hosted its 19th annual MedCamp, a weeklong day camp providing rising ninth and 10th graders with opportunities to learn about careers in health care and medical fields. Twenty area highschoolers from across Franklin, Adams, Cumberland and York counties were accepted into MedCamp 2024.

Evidence suggests that the earlier Chinese Salt Typhoon breach of American telecoms may have led to the potential hacking of two presidential campaign officials' iPhones.

OM Hungary team members put on a special Christmas programme a local refugee camp.

Teenagers give their lives to the Lord and a participant’s father is healed during a recent sports camp held by OM Pakistan.

OM Ukraine's sports team equips and trains churches in using non-traditional sports in their summer camps.