February 2023 - cypherpunks@lists.ogf.org

City Settles Lawsuit From Protesters Who Accused NYPD Of Firing Sound Cannon At Them
by Gunnar Larson 18 Feb '23

18 Feb '23

https://gothamist.com/news/city-settles-lawsuit-protesters-who-accused-nypd… The City has agreed to pay $748,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by Black Lives Matter protesters who said the NYPD illegally targeted demonstrators with Long Range Acoustic Devices [LRAD] in 2014. Under the settlement, the NYPD will also ban the use of the LRAD’s powerful “deterrent tone” and, for the first time, generate a written policy governing the use of the devices. The suit stems from a demonstration in December of that year, when a group was marching in midtown Manhattan to protest a grand jury’s refusal to indict the officer who killed Staten Island resident Eric Garner using a banned chokehold. As part of an effort to disperse the crowd, two police officers repeatedly used the powerful tone generated by their LRAD. Some of the journalists and protesters who were in close range at the time complained afterwards of pain, ringing in their ears, and migraines that lasted for days afterwards. The LRAD was initially developed for the U.S. Navy after terrorists attacked the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, using a small boat laden with explosives. Like its successors, the original LRAD served a dual function, on the one hand serving as a public-address system capable of communicating ship-to-ship over very long distances, and on the other hand capable of creating a cone of noise so loud and painful that it could deter anyone from approaching. Police forces soon realized these dual functions could be used in policing protests, and began adding them to their arsenals. The NYPD used its first LRAD to address protesters during the 2004 Republican National Convention, though it wouldn’t begin regularly deploying LRADs to protests until 2014. Less frequently, police have also used the device’s piercing sound-weapon function against protesters. The NYPD devices are capable of producing sound as loud as 137 decibels, well over the threshold that can cause pain and lasting damage to human ears. In 2012, Captain Anthony Raganella, the commander of the NYPD’s Disorder Control Unit, requested the department replace his unit’s LRADs with new models: a truck-mounted 500X LRAD at $23,000, and two handheld 100X LRADs at $7,680 each. (The request was included in a larger proposal that included $30,000 for pepper spray and pepper-ball weapons, thousands more for rubber pellet grenades and chemical irritant grenades, and $16,000 for orange crowd-control netting.) In an internal email explaining to the NYPD grants unit the necessity of his request, Raganella cited the threat posed by the Animal Liberation Front, the Earth Liberation Front, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “The requested equipment would be used to train and ensure the readiness of the Department to respond to any civil unrest caused by these terrorist groups,” Raganella wrote. Today’s settlement brings final resolution to a landmark case first filed five years ago, but the City’s legal defeat dates back to a judge’s 2017 ruling. The de Blasio administration had argued that police couldn’t be held liable for excessive force in using an LRAD because they never actually touched anybody. “The officers' creation of a sound that plaintiffs happened to hear cannot be considered 'physical contact,’” City lawyers claimed. “the LRAD is not an instrumentality of force, but a communication device.” Judge Robert Sweet rejected the argument, ruling, “This is force, and the kind that could be used excessively.” The de Blasio administration appealed the decision, but in 2018 the 2nd Circuit affirmed it, forcefully rejecting the City’s argument that subjecting people to dangerously loud sound isn’t a use of force. “Even though sound waves are a novel method for deploying force,” the court wrote in its opinion, “the effect of an LRAD’s area denial function is familiar: pain and incapacitation.” The 2nd Circuit also reaffirmed that just because there isn’t case law governing a new technology for hurting people, that doesn’t give police a blank check to use that technology however they want. “Novel technology,” the court wrote, “does not entitle an officer to qualified immunity.” Still unwilling to concede the point, the de Blasio administration petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 to overturn the lower courts’ rulings, but the court declined to hear the request. Notwithstanding courts’ repeated findings that the deployment of LRADs could constitute use of force, current NYPD training takes pains to assert that the LRAD is not a weapon. “The LRAD is not any of these,” reads one slide from an LRAD training program for the Disorder Control Unit: “Sound Cannon; Sound Gun; Wave Gun; Sonic Weapons; Active Denial System.” “The tone does not create a sonic wave, blast or have the ability to cause physical injury like a weapon,” one training presentation reads, explaining that NYPD officers may use the tone “to help gain attention of individuals” in bursts of up to three seconds separated by at least a second. In settling the suit, the City does not concede that police officers using the LRAD broke any laws or violated anyone’s rights. But under the terms of the settlement, the NYPD commits to update its administrative guide and its officer training to ban the use of the deterrent tone altogether, and require police using LRADs to “make reasonable efforts to maintain minimum safe distances between the LRAD and all persons within its cone of sound.” Officers who fail to do so “may be subject to such further discipline as deemed appropriate.” The City will also pay the five plaintiffs in the case a total of $98,000, as well as $650,000 in fees for their lawyers, Gideon Oliver, Elena Cohen, and Michael Decker, all affiliated with the National Lawyers Guild. Annika Edrei, the lead plaintiff in the case, was a journalism student in 2014 when she found herself caught in the LRAD’s cone of sound, and suffered migraines for a week afterwards. The experience, she said, discouraged her from attending protests for years. “I actually gave up on a major part of my photography career,” she said. Speaking of the settlement, she said, “I hope that protesters in the future are more protected because of our actions.” “The City could have and should have decided to make policy change and pay our clients for their injuries much earlier,” said Oliver. “But instead of doing that, they fought tooth and nail for years in this case, and so in addition to damages and policy change, the city has to pay attorneys’ fees that are much higher than they would have been.”

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Anarchists have no country
by professor rat 18 Feb '23

18 Feb '23

" . . . I am in the states. This will help me define what being an anarchist is. I used to fit somewhere in this, but definitely don't meet this criteria at this point. . . " Sometimes I feel like I don't fit in any anarchist community, scene, milieu, space, ecology, or whatever since their more-catholic-than-the-Pope anticapitalism bores the crap out of me or the cynical nihilism of the ecofash fringe physically revolts me. In these periods I'm happy to describe myself as small 'L' leftist treading water and hoping for a ' Proudhonian turn '. And I return to this well-thumbed tome Politics and Opinion in the Nineteenth Century (1954) Includes chapter " Proudhon's attack on the state ".

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Utopian dream of federated anarchy
by professor rat 18 Feb '23

18 Feb '23

" . . . utopian dream of federated anarchy, a future in which small self-governed collectives flourish by setting up interconnected networks-of-networks (this vision has found new expression in the more progressive parts of the crypto world . . ." https://brettscott.substack.com/p/cbdc-analysis Feel the power - live the dream That ‘dream’ has been a continuous reality since at least 2000 and is only vague to the willfully ignorant - its called cryptoanarchy. Every year since 2009 its called for USG surrender - surrender to be marked by release of all Drug War prisoners and return of PAM FutureMaps to handle defeat-in-detail. Welcome to the quarter-century old global revolution.

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Anarchists have no country
by professor rat 18 Feb '23

18 Feb '23

the Gov and Pol rulers over him > that he pays to do so and worships every single day, > not to mention the Political Military and Police forces that > he accepted without protest to forcibly lock and mask > and vax his entire country down for Corona... When Corona started I suggested the broad left look for offsets since quarantine was bound to impinge on human-rights and civil-liberties. One obvious offset being stop the War of Drugs for the duration. If some Au politico's were overly harsh then I'm actually grateful since I haven't caught the damn thing yet. Where dead bodies are seen and there's no vaccine you must quarantine. Then, those who refuse proven vaccines need to just fuck off from the rest of us quite frankly. Anti-vax = Dangerous nutcase. Don't let the door hit yr butt, Gramps. > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_III Threw an egg at him in Elizabeth st Melb once. Escaped through arcades. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hurley Was radicalized in 1975 by awful discovery au democracy was a governor-generalate / dictatorship. Both parties agree nothing bad was done and it won't happen again. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Albanese Only voted " Alternative Liberal Party " once - in 1977. The Electoral Office are nagging me to register again as we speak. Almost half a century later. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Australia Look, I'm on record for threatening a police commissioner and famous Au political hacks - like Julian Rand Paul Assmange - but there are limits on what I can do with limited resources. Of course, if anyone wants to load me up with bags of crypto-coins I might try harder. Frankly there are not a lot of kudo's being a successful anarchist revolutionist these days either. " No good deed goes unpunished " in this milieu and they never seem to have heard the military maxim of ' reinforce success '. On top of all this I just qualified for the old-age pension. Cut me some slack here! While I've done things like targeting the POTUS every year since 2000, my performance might be starting to slip. Time to step back a little - and stand by as the strong AI gets on with things. Yes? > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Australia National-anarchism is oxymoronic - plus I spent years in the states and am subjected to its noisy culture like everyone else. I did try to agitate on Indymedia in the early noughties - But then I called for a revolution to get my girlfriend out of jail and got a race-riot instead. You have to calibrate your shtick sometimes. I found better traction in the US dominated netspace. Bottom line you can't get too far ahead of the crowd where-ever you're physically located. Its true in some respects the US is ahead of us in being a republic - but then ' national borders are not even road humps on the information superhighway "- amirite? > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and_territories_of_Australia Was part of a collective called ' Treason ' in the eighties. and have officially only ever worked a few months in the last forty years. So I can still compare well with most anarchists pretty much anywhere, yeah? I pay minimal taxes - refuse to vote and while some say I never assaulted three large policemen inside their police-station in 2003 I still have my convictions. What has Gramps done for anyone lately? After years of posting here he is still seriously confused about basic anarchism. We're not Ancaps - or voluntaryists - or agorists or antivax morons - we're anarchists! Oh and put up or shut up if you have a better activist record G - I think you're TSTBAALAA Too stupid to be an activist let alone anarchist.

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Websites reportedly owned by the user, as they are on a peer-to-peer network
by professor rat 18 Feb '23

18 Feb '23

Thank you K I rely on technically more proficient c-punks as ' together we are slightly less dumb than we are individually " - or something. If you ration your spam I may even suspend your deadpool. Its so peaceful and productive here without that Argentine-located nutcase! And Gramps may soon join him - his Garofalo-grade bitterness and defeat is palpable. So looking forward to a bullish new year with slightly smaller blocks but more downstream, value-adding for our wider plebian audience. Yrs in global cryptoanarchist revolution - pr

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Websites reportedly owned by the user, as they are on a peer-to-peer network
by professor rat 17 Feb '23

17 Feb '23

Opera and Unstoppable Domains Offer Digital Identity? https://nftevening.com/opera-and-unstoppable-domains-give-millions-digital-… Could be PR cruft so caveat emptor

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[ot][log][journal?] koboldai use progression
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 17 Feb '23

17 Feb '23

depressing unfortunately this has journal content it would be good to think about separating out i helped somebody make code for a free AI service and network, but they stopped working after i helped them. I am u/baffo32 . https://www.reddit.com/r/KoboldAI/comments/10penqx/i_am_trying_to_learn_how… I am trying to learn how to use the KoboldAI Horde REST API with Python. Can you please help me to understand how can I generate text with it? So far I checked out the "REST API Full Documentation" from https://koboldai.net/api/ and managed do some simple things with it, but I fail to understand how can I generate text with it. I can do this to get a list of the available models in the horde: json2html.convert(requests.get("https://koboldai.net/api/v2/status/models").json()) This code gets the list of models in json format then coverts it into a simple html table. Then I can do this to get a list of the available workers in the horde: json2html.convert(requests.get("https://koboldai.net/api/v2/workers").json()) This code gets the detailed list of workers in json format then coverts it into a simple html table. So: I know that the model I want to use is available. (And of course I know the exact name of it.) I also know every ID and name (and all details) of every worker who is currently online in the horde and can generate stuff (text or image?) with that model. I know that the anonymous API key is "0000000000" and I am willing to wait long. The question: Knowing all this, how can I generate text by using the API? Sorry for being clueless, I just can't figure it out from reading the documentation. Please anyone help me. Thank you very much. :) ================================================= Update: Million thanks, for u/baffo32 for the info! I will read it through. >From the comment of u/baffo32: "This appears to be how it's done in the client: https://github.com/KoboldAI/KoboldAI-Client/blob/661bd5c99e7a03c94bfea436ad… Here's how the web client does it: submit, poll, and output endpoints: https://github.com/kaihordewebui/kaihordewebui.github.io/blob/04ffbe9d3c45e… payload and submit: https://github.com/kaihordewebui/kaihordewebui.github.io/blob/main/index.ht… poll and output: https://github.com/kaihordewebui/kaihordewebui.github.io/blob/04ffbe9d3c45e… Here are all the server apis: https://github.com/db0/AI-Horde/tree/main/horde/apis" I will update my post again if I succeed with my creation. Thanks people! :) ================================================= Update: Thanks for the help of u/baffo32 for solving this problem! baffo32: "You are polling the url containing “/check/“ and then looking for generations in the output. An API url is called an endpoint (it can mean other things too). In the horde API, the generations are not available at the “/check/“ url. Instead, once done = True, you can perform a further request (also called a fetch or a get) to the url containing “/status/“ to get the generation result." I updated my code, and indeed the problem was that I was looking for the generated text at the "/check/" url, and I should have used instead the "/status/" url. Now it runs okay, and I even managed to compile it to a native binary for Linux. Later I will clean up the code, and complete/fix the documentation. Million thanks to u/baffo32! ================================================= Update: I left the PygmalionAI community, and cancelled my original project related to PygmalionAI. I will delete my old repo on codeberg, and start a new one, only related to KoboldAI. Source code won't be lost. I will update / edit the links in this post to make them point to my new repo tomorrow, when I will have time to do it. I will continue with building and improving my Kobold programs, but that won't be related to PygmalionAI. ================================================= Last Update: I am too tired to do anything today. I don't enjoy coding anymore. I don't enjoy doing anything anymore. I am back to depression. Doing everything feels like a burden, just an extra task to do after work. I feel like quitting now, and giving up on all of my plans. Maybe it's better this way.

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Binance Considers Pulling Back From US Partners as Crypto Crackdown Escalates
by Gunnar Larson 17 Feb '23

17 Feb '23

Binance Considers Pulling Back From US Partners as Crypto Crackdown Escalates https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-17/binance-holdings-explore… Wonder what this means for BNB out of New York?

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Fwd: BREAKING: Ill. Justices Say BIPA Claims Accrue With Each Scan
by Gunnar Larson 17 Feb '23

17 Feb '23

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Cybersecurity & Privacy Law360 <news-alt(a)law360.com> Date: Fri, Feb 17, 2023, 10:20 AM Subject: BREAKING: Ill. Justices Say BIPA Claims Accrue With Each Scan To: <g(a)xny.io> The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Friday that Biometric Information Privacy Act claims accrue each time data is unlawfully collected and disclosed rather than simply the first time, a ruling that will almost certainly add to Illinois' already heavy privacy docket and that the defense bar has warned could lead to astronomical damages. [image: Law360 US] <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy?nl_pk=b7e32574-5b34-4755-b747-…> BREAKING NEWS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2023 [image: Law360 iOS App] <https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/law360-legal-news-analysis/id934560389> [image: Law360 Android App] <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.law360_native> [image: Follow Law360 on Facebook] <https://facebook.com/Law360> [image: Follow Law360 on LinkedIn] <https://www.linkedin.com/company/law360> [image: Follow Law360 on Twitter] <https://twitter.com/PrivacyLaw360> ------------------------------ <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734439&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734440&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734442&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> BREAKING: Ill. Justices Say BIPA Claims Accrue With Each Scan <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1531953?nl_pk=b7e3257…> By Celeste Bott and Lauraann Wood The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Friday that Biometric Information Privacy Act claims accrue each time data is unlawfully collected and disclosed rather than simply the first time, a ruling that will almost certainly add to Illinois' already heavy privacy docket and that the defense bar has warned could lead to astronomical damages. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1531953?nl_pk=b7e3257…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734447&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734448&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734450&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734459&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734460&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734462&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> ------------------------------ <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734455&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734456&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> <https://sli.law360news.com/click?s=734458&li=127&m=9f998b7695d367427670a564…> Not sure if your firm subscribes? Ask your librarian. We hope you found this message to be useful. However, if you'd rather not receive future emails of this sort, you may unsubscribe here <https://www.law360.com/unsubscribe?k=b7e32574-5b34-4755-b747-04edca0198ed>. Please DO NOT reply to this email. For customer support inquiries, please call +1-646-783-7100 or visit our Contact Us <https://www.law360.com/about/contact> page. Privacy Policy <https://www.law360.com/privacy_policy> | Cookie Policy <https://www.law360.com/cookie_policy> Law360 | Portfolio Media, Inc, 111 West 19th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011

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Innocent Aussie publisher-journalist under attack from elitist political machine!
by professor rat 17 Feb '23

17 Feb '23

How can the same thing happen to the same type guy twice? https://stiffs.com/celebrity/rupertmurdoch

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