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TikTok Has a Startling Amount of Sexual Content

TikTok Has a Startling Amount of Sexual Content

Sonja Petrovic The University of Melbourne Milovan Savic Swinburne University of Technology Explicit content has long been a feature of the internet and social media, and young people’s exposure to it has been a persistent concern. This issue has taken centre stage again with the meteoric rise of TikTok.

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An Xtra Headache for the BFD

* I am republishing this article because Xtra’s actions are costing us memberships Readers of the BFD who have signed up for our FREE newsletter with an Xtra e-mail address have been contacting us for months now because Xtra keeps blocking and bouncing our e-mails to them. We have tried

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AI Is Already Being Melded with Robotics

AI Is Already Being Melded with Robotics

Mark Tsagas University of East London theconversation.com Interest in the incorporation of robots into security, policing and military operations has been steadily increasing over the last few years. It’s an avenue already being explored in both North America and Europe. Robot integration into these areas could be seen

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Do You Feel Secure?

David Thunder David Thunder is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Navarra’s Institute for Culture and Society in Pamplona, Spain, and a recipient of the prestigious Ramón y Cajal research grant (2017-2021, extended through 2023), awarded by the Spanish government to support outstanding research activities. brownstone.org

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Some Practical Tips to Beat the Scammers
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Some Practical Tips to Beat the Scammers

Decades ago, notorious Kiwi-Australian journalist Derryn Hinch observed that con-men tend to make money off people who are just stupid and greedy. That was true enough in the pre-digital ’80s and ’90s, when the stock-in-trade of con-artists was get-rich-quick schemes. Today, though, that’s all changed. Scammers make money because

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man in blue denim jacket facing turned on monitor
NZ

An Xtra Headache for the BFD

* I am republishing this article because Xtra’s actions are costing us memberships Readers of the BFD who have signed up for our FREE newsletter with an Xtra e-mail address have been contacting us for months now because Xtra keeps blocking and bouncing our e-mails to them. We have tried

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Major Telco Goes Down for a Day

Major Telco Goes Down for a Day

As more and more people are finding out, as the reality of ‘Net Zero’ bites hard, you don’t realise how much you depend on modern technology until it’s gone. Even 100 years ago, H G Wells remarked that everyone who pined for the ‘good old days’ of the

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Search Engine Tampers With the USA Election

Search Engine Tampers With the USA Election

Gabriela Pariseau Gabriela is an Assistant Editor in the Media Research Center’s Free Speech America division. She is a graduate of Christendom College where she earned a B.A. in History. Gabriela has also contributed to The Catholic Register, Arlington Catholic Herald, Students For Life of America and Iowa

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What Is a ‘Deep Network’ Outage?

What Is a ‘Deep Network’ Outage?

Paul Haskell-Dowland Mohiuddin Ahmed Edith Cowan University Mark A Gregory RMIT University theconversation.com Optus customers woke up Wednesday morning to find they were unable to get their social media fix, and they weren’t happy. Around 4am AEDT, customers started to report an inability to access both mobile and

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AI-Generated Faces Look Just Like Real Ones

AI-Generated Faces Look Just Like Real Ones

Robin Kramer University of Lincoln theconversation.com For a while, limitations in technology meant that animators and researchers were only capable of creating human-like faces which seemed a little “off”. Films like 2004’s The Polar Express made some viewers uneasy because the characters’ faces looked almost human but not

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How AI Helped Create a New Song by the Beatles

Adam Behr Newcastle University theconversation.com In 2023, to still be working on Beatles music … to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing. Not surprisingly, Paul McCartney was positive about the appearance this week of what has been trailed as the

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man in blue denim jacket facing turned on monitor
NZ

An Xtra Headache for the BFD

* I am republishing this article because Xtra’s actions are costing us memberships Readers of the BFD who have signed up for our FREE newsletter with an Xtra e-mail address have been contacting us for months now because Xtra keeps blocking and bouncing our e-mails to them. We have tried

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What Happens When You Replace Frontline Workers With AI?

What Happens When You Replace Frontline Workers With AI?

Mark Tsagas University of East London theconversation.com AI chatbots are already widely used by businesses to greet customers and answer their questions – either over the phone or on websites. Some companies have found that they can, to some extent, replace humans with machines in call centre roles. However, the

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Anyone Know Where the 10mm Socket Is?

Anyone Know Where the 10mm Socket Is?

We’ve all experienced the frustration of trying to find that damned 10mm socket, but imagine working in one of the most secure labs on Earth… and realising that you’ve got the wrong toolkit entirely. A cornucopia of scientific revelation lies before you – and you can’t open it.

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Tech Talk: Choice Is King for Linux
NZ

Tech Talk: Choice Is King for Linux

This series is designed to help people to understand modern technology, and become more confident in using computing devices. It is not designed to educate experts. The author is involved in tutoring older students at SeniorNet, a New Zealand wide organisation. SeniorNet hopes that students will feel more confident in

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Tech Talk: Easy Update
NZ

Tech Talk: Easy Update

This series is designed to help people to understand modern technology, and become more confident in using computing devices. It is not designed to educate experts. The author is involved in tutoring older students at SeniorNet, a New Zealand wide organisation. SeniorNet hopes that students will feel more confident in

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