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Oxford University a 'school for stupid people', says Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte
The Philippines’ fiery President Rodrigo Duterte has lashed out at Oxford University as a “school for stupid people” after it published a study claiming he had paid for a cyber army to increase his popularity on social media. The study, “Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation”, looked at the strategies used by political parties and candidates in 28 different countries to spread their party messaging and inflate social media engagement numbers. It claims that Duterte’s camp paid $200,000 in 2016, the year he was elected, for a social media campaign that used citizens and groups to promote and defend him online. Graduates pose for a photograph outside the Sheldonian Theatre after a graduation ceremony at Oxford University Credit: Reuters Duterte has admitted to paying people to defend him on social media but said this only happened during the campaign season, strongly denying it continued after he was elected. “Now I do not need it. I do not need to defend myself against attacks. I stated my piece during my inauguration and my campaign,” he said, according to local news outlet, Rappler. “Oxford University? That’s a school for stupid people.” Duterte, a former mayor from the southern city of Davao, won the 2016 election with a populist message that targeted drug trafficking. In quotes | Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines His subsequent support of extra-judicial killings of suspected drug dealers and users has since been strongly criticised by human rights groups. The report documents how cyber troops have been used to silence political dissent online and on how trolling can lead to real-life threats and reputational damage. In the Philippines it asserts that “many of the so-called “keyboard trolls” hired to spread propaganda for presidential candidate Duterte during the election continue to spread and amplify messages in support of his policies now he’s in power."
Small plane misses cars but kills 4 aboard in highway crash
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A small plane crashed on a Utah highway Wednesday, killing two couples heading for a vacation but narrowly missing cars when it barreled across the lanes through a gap in traffic.
First prototype of NASA’s deep space habitat will be made of recycled Space Shuttle parts
Sending astronauts to Mars and beyond is something that's definitely on the minds of both NASA and other space agencies around the world, but before any scientific group can line up their budgets and make a real case for manned missions into deep space they need a feasible way to keep those travelers alive and well during their journey. In a newly-awarded contract with Lockheed Martin, NASA's very first deep space habitat will finally enter the prototyping stage, but not everything about the craft will be made from scratch.
Looking back in time to the Space Shuttle era, Lockheed Martin plans to repurpose a cargo container that was designed to be used to deliver cargo to the International Space Station to provide the platform within which to build the new living space.
The unit, which will be a full-scale prototype, and will be constructed at the Kennedy Space Center in partnership with a "next-generation deep space avionics lab." The hardware being refurbished — called the Donatello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module — will provide much of its rigid structure, but the interior will obviously be quite a bit different from how it was originally designed. It is being designed to be fully autonomous when the astronauts are not on board, allowing it to operate during extended stints in space without any passengers.
In manufacturing the habitat, Lockheed Martin plans to use both virtual reality and augmented reality to rapidly prototype and iterate on its design while reducing costs and speeding up construction. The total build time is expected to be just 18 months.
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