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Iran bans cryptocurrency mining for four months to stave off blackouts

The Verge

Iran is temporarily banning cryptocurrency mining after some of the country’s major cities experienced repeated blackouts. According to the BBC , Iran operates a program where Bitcoin miners must register with with the government, pay extra for electricity, and sell their coins to the central bank. Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge.

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An online propaganda campaign used AI-generated headshots to create fake journalists

The Verge

At least 19 fake personas were used to author op-eds published in dozens of mainly conservative publications, with AI-generated headshots of would-be authors used to trick targets into believing the writers were real people.

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The best VPNs for staying anonymous and secure on the web

Mashable Tech

Aside from the few countries that have restricted or outright banned them (including Belarus, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Oman, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and the United Arab Emirates), VPNs are perfectly legal in most of the world. Hold up — are VPNs legal? Split tunneling. Multihop connections.

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The Hard Problems: A Resilient Civil Society To Face What’s Next

The NonProfit Times

Hungary and Iran. But we need to be clear eyed about the fact that this is a conservative reading of civil society and subject to a wide variety of pressures. Democratic backsliding and restrictive laws will pose challenges to nonprofits operations and the safety of their beneficiaries. In Uganda and Myanmar.

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Israel’s political crisis has activated its apolitical tech industry — and there’s no turning back

TechCrunch

That has also made it a target of criticism among more conservative groups, as well as any others that might take a differing view of the court’s determinations. Judges have used this role to make critical rulings in support such key issues as, for example, women’s rights and those of minorities, such as the LGBTQ+ community.

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How AI Takeover Might Happen in 2 Years

The AI Alignment Forum

Top personnel from the NSA and US cyber command collaborate with OpenEye to retrofit a semblance of security for U3s weights before senior leaders in China, Russia, Israel, North Korea, or Iran realize just how valuable OpenEyes software has become. Previously, U3 was conservative. But now, U3 has no fear of being caught.

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Guest Post by Heather McLeod Grant: Reflections on the Personal Democracy Forum

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

The audience was also more male than female (60%, according to one estimate), certainly more liberal than conservative (at one point someone asked how many Republicans were in the audience and only 10 people raised their hands, out of 1000+!), and disconcertingly white. Facebook now has 200M users, the majority of whom are outside of the US.

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