cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/twitterblueskymastodon/p/1368791/nothing-to-hide-is-how-free-countries-die
Stop saying stupid stuff like: "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."
Start saying: "A free country doesn't track innocent citizens."
Source: Mastodon.
On this day in 1979, actress Jean Seberg committed suicide after years of harassment, intimidation, and defamation by the FBI after she gave several donations to the Black Panther Party.
Jean Dorothy Seberg (1938 - 1979) was an American actress, supporter of the Black Panther Party (BPP), and target of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) "COINTELPRO" program.
In the late 1960s, Seberg provided financial support to various groups supporting civil rights, including the NAACP as well as Native American school groups such as the Meskwaki Bucks at the Tama settlement near her home town.
The FBI became aware of several gifts Seberg had made to the BPP, totaling just over $10k in contributions. The FBI operation against Seberg, directly overseen by J. Edgar Hoover, began to harass, intimidate, defame, and discredit her.
The FBI's stated goal was an unspecified "neutralization" of Seberg with a subsidiary objective to "cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the public", while taking the "usual precautions to avoid identification of the Bureau". The FBI spread a false rumor about her pregnancy, claiming she was bearing the child of a BPP member, which was repeated frequently in the press. She was also effectively blacklisted from Hollywood films at this time.
On August 30th, 1979, Seberg committed suicide, writing "Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves". Romain Gary, Seberg's husband, called a press conference shortly after Seberg's death, publicly blaming the FBI's campaign against her for her deteriorating mental health.
Stargate SG-1 S7E9 "Avenger 2.0"
https://www.gateworld.net/sg1/s7/avenger-2-0/
In this episode, Dr. Felger comes up with a virus that is able to remotely disable stargates. After it doesn't go as planned, Sam comes in to help and we see this montage that involves writing code on a whiteboard.
I thought it was sort of silly how she wasn't just brainstorming pseudocode here, which is generally the type of thing that I see coders doing with whiteboards. No, that seems to be a full verbose script, written character-for-character. But as I looked closer, it got worse. That language seems to be C#. If we take this situation as literal as possible, that must mean the SGC had come up with some .NET-like middleware framework sort of thing for interacting with the stargate. I would imagine that there were better languages that they could have used instead.
From Shomi Gupta
Brown Wood Owl (Strix leptogrammica), May 2024, Sattal (Uttrakhand).
Though currently listed as Least Concern, the Brown Wood Owl is uncommon and increasingly rare due to the continuous destruction of good forest across its range.
An adorable chocolate brown face, with two innocent, curious eyes, peeps out from the branch of a leafless tree, against a hillside backdrop adorned with dried, fallen leaves, as if to greet me. Another one from the pair flew behind.
There are about 14 recognized subspecies, with a widespread range and notable variation in plumage. They feed mainly on small mammals, especially rodents, but also prey on birds, reptiles, insects, and have even been reported to catch fish.
A bird of the heavy montane forest, usually dense and undisturbed. Yet this forest was not only scorched by the harsh summer but also parched by wildfire, perhaps due to human interference. The curious owl seems to ask me whether I can do something to save its only home.
