Cross-quadrant Bulletin

"Either something is authentic or it is unauthentic, it is either false or true, make-believe or spontaneous life; yet here we are faced with a prevaricated truth and an authentic fake, hence a thing that is at once the truth and a lie." Stanislaw Lem — A Perfect Vacuum

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China Continues To Push The (Fake) Envelope

A fake bank in Nanjing bilked customers out of nearly $33 million. With trappings of a real bank, like security guards and LED screens, it fooled depositors attracted by higher interest rates.

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Optical Illusions That Fool Google-Style Image Recognition Algorithms | MIT Technology Review

Humans and software see some images differently, pointing out shortcomings of recent breakthroughs in machine learning.

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Computer says no

On relativism in banking. As in, we really can't agree how much money is there, and who has it.

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Charlie Brooker’s Wipe 2014 - Adam Curtis

One of the highlights of last nights Charlie Brooker review of 2014 was this segment put together by Adam Curtis (best known for ‘The Power of Nightmares’ and ‘All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace’).

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Meet the bots that made half the web’s traffic in 2014

Is anybody out there?

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Fake cell broadcast towers have been found in Olso, Norway near government buildings, leading some to wonder if parliamentarians are being wiretapped.

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People finding their 'waze' to once-hidden streets

Frustrated LA residents create fake traffic jams on quiet sidestreets to keep drivers using Waze from taking shortcuts through their neighborhoods.

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Real or fake gun? Officials say telling the difference isn't always easy

Police say the fake, airsoft gun 12-year-old Tamir Rice had on him looked like the real thing. It's a line that's becoming increasingly blurry. Fake guns are being made to look real and some real g...

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A paper by Maggie Simpson and Edna Krabappel was accepted by two scientific journals

It's pretty funny. But it's also a sign of a bigger problem.

Q3

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The Ethics of Sarcastic Science

Every year the British Medical Journal publishes an issue of joke science. But years later, those papers are cited as real.

Q3.

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Realtors hire ruined millionaires to pretend to live in vacant megamansions

How do you imbue an empty mansion with the indefinable "energy" that comes from daily habitation? Find distressed rich people with nice furniture and precarious jobs at McDonald's to move in.

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The Science of Unmasking Russian Forces in Ukraine

The incursion of masked gunmen into Ukraine shows that knowing who you are fighting has become critical to victory. By Patrick Tucker

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Wonga to pay £2.6m compensation for fake debt firm letters

FCA orders payday lender to compensate 45,000 customers after it sent threatening letters from non-existent companies

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Even if it’s fake, it’s real

"In the end, they spark important conversations about important topics, and those conversations don't feel lessened if and when an original story gets undermined."