Author: Heather Zeiger | Page 2

Coronavirus maps disease 2019 situation update worldwide coronavirus spread,World map Coronavirus or Covid-19 Close-up countries with Covid-19, Covid 19 map confirmed cases report worldwide globally.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
November 8, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Politics

Tagged
COVID-19 lab leak hypothesis, Featured, Jeff Kao, Katherine Eban, Lab leak theory (COVID-19), Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID origin}

Lab Leak Theory: A Biohazard Was First Noted in 2019

_{The dispatches indicate a “grave and complex situation” prompting an emergency visit from the director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences} _{Heather Zeiger
November 8, 2022

10

Medicine and Health, Politics}

A US Senate interim report has recently concluded that that “the Covid-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident.” The 35-page report, prepared by the minority oversight staff of the of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), used publicly available documentation to justify the findings. However, it did not include the 236-page report submitted by language expert Toy Reid, who analyzed Chinese Communist Party dispatches between scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and their supervisors in Beijing. Katherine Eban of Vanity Fair and Jeff Kao of ProPublica were given advanced access to the Senate researchers’ documents and spent months conducting their own investigation. They interviewed Reid, talked with members Read More ›

Neural networks of the human brain. 3d illustration of abstract nerve centers. Electrical impulses in brain. Bright full color

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Heather Zeiger
Date
October 21, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Neuroscience

Tagged
Brain organoids, Featured}

Rats with Human Brains? The Real Story About Brain Organoids

_{Human brain organoids use adult stem cells from volunteer donors; they bypass the use of fetal tissue from abortions} _{Heather Zeiger
October 21, 2022

8

Ethics, Neuroscience}

In Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy (2013) , the characters in the first book navigate a dystopian near-future with few ethical boundaries. Chicken has been genetically modified to be nothing more than meat and a mouth. For entertainment, they watch either pornography or televised executions. One of the central characters, the scientist who made the genetically engineered humans, ends up unleashing a synthetic pathogen intended to rid the world of evil. The excesses are reminiscent of Earth as described in the Flood narrative in the Bible (“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.” Genesis 6:11). As in the Biblical account, a “flood” occurs when the synthetic pathogen ends up killing most of humanity. The remaining Read More ›

The zero covid text on china flag 3d rendering

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Heather Zeiger
Date
October 11, 2022

Categorized
China, Medicine and Health, Politics

Tagged
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), David Cowhig, Featured, Xi Jinping and twentieth congress, Zero-Covid policy in China}

China’s Covid Theater: It’s Not Really About the Disease

_{Not exactly. As the Twentieth National Congress looms, the Chinese Communist Party does not want any COVID in Beijing} _{Heather Zeiger
October 11, 2022

9

China, Medicine and Health, Politics}

The Chinese Communist Party’s zero-Covid policy, heralded by Xi Jinping, is killing China’s economy and sinking citizens’ morale. Zero-Covid is viewed as a litmus test for support for the Communist Party, and Xi Jinping in particular. The goal is not saving lives but ensuring that the virus does not spread to Beijing ahead of the twentieth National Congress on October 16. Some hope that restrictions will ease after the National Congress. Others are less optimistic. The CCP under Xi Jinping declared “war on the virus” two years ago but the casualties in the Party’s pathogenic war have been the Chinese people. In the lead-up to the Twentieth National Congress in which Xi Jinping will announce his third term as General Read More ›

An advanced CPU printed with a flag of USA on a neon glowing electronic circuit board. Illustration of the concept of United States made high-end micro chips.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
September 27, 2022

Categorized
Business and Finance, China, Ethics, Politics, Programming

Tagged
China, CHIPS+ Act (2022), Featured, Taiwan, Taiwan and advanced microchips, Taiwan and China, Taiwan microchips industry, Taiwan sovereignty, Tsai Ing-wen}

What Difference Has the CHIPS Act Made to the U.S. and Taiwan?

_{We need to first look at the broader picture of what the CHIPS Act is intended to do} _{Heather Zeiger
September 27, 2022

8

Business and Finance, China, Ethics, Politics, Programming}

In a previous article, I discussed the semiconductor industry and Taiwan’s supremacy in manufacturing microchips, the foundry portion of the semiconductor supply chain. Now let’s look at the U.S. perspective on the semiconductor industry and its relationship to Taiwan. In order to do that, we have to talk about the CHIPS+ Act Congress passed a bipartisan bill, the CHIPS and Science Act in July, after a year of negotiations in committee. President Biden signed the act into law on August 9 and the CHIPS Act Implementation Strategy was launched on September 6 through an executive order. CHIPS, or “Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors,” is a $250B initiative that incentivizes businesses to bring semiconductor manufacturing, research and innovation back to Read More ›

China Taiwan and USA flag print screen to microchip on electronic board for symbol of military conflict war and economic business partnership concept.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
September 6, 2022

Categorized
China, Economics, Global Technology, Politics

Tagged
Featured, Mark Liu, Semiconductor industry and Taiwan, Taiwan and advanced microchips, Taiwan microchips industry, Taiwan sovereignty, Tsai Ing-wen}

Taiwan Has Bet Its Uncertain Future on Advanced Microchips

_{An increasingly belligerent China has long claimed to own Taiwan, which manufactures 90% of the world’s *advanced* microchips} _{Heather Zeiger
September 6, 2022

8

China, Economics, Global Technology, Politics}

Taiwan is the world’s largest manufacturer of microchips*, and not just by a small margin. Taiwan manufactures 65% of the microchips used in everything from smartphones to missiles. This compares to the U.S. at 10% and China at 5%. South Korea and Japan produce the rest. More important, Taiwan manufactures 90% of the world’s advanced microchips. In other words, without Taiwan, the world’s supply of microchips would come to a standstill, something that has been keenly felt since 2021 when chip shortages affected the auto industry. So far, the world’s dependence on Taiwan’s chips has protected the self-governing island nation from a potential invasion or ruinous trade sanctions from China. Earlier, we looked at U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
August 29, 2022

Categorized
China, Economics, Politics

Tagged
CHIPS+ Act (2022), Featured, Mark Liu, Semiconductor industry and Taiwan, Taiwan, Taiwan and China}

Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan Matters to China. And to Your Computer

_{China staged an impressive display of military firepower at U.S, lawmaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit Taiwan — prominent in the globally crucial semiconductor “chips” industry} _{Heather Zeiger
August 29, 2022

5

China, Economics, Politics}

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan at the beginning of August included a meeting with Mark Liu, head of the Taiwan Manufacturing Semiconductor Corporation (TMSC), which is the world’s largest producer of computer microchips — and makes most of the world’s advanced ones. Plans for Pelosi’s visit were first reported in Financial Times, after the trip was rescheduled due to COVID. China responded to the announcement with a global propaganda to present the visit as an act of defiance against the U.S. One China Policy. The U.S. One-China Policy recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China but it does not necessarily agree with the PRC on Taiwan being a part of China. Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
July 24, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, China, Science Fiction, Surveillance

Tagged
Featured, Paul Mozur}

How China’s Pre-Crime Algorithms Work — and Their Fatal Flaw

_{The algorithms target, for example, those who complain about or draw attention to social injustices and abuses} _{Heather Zeiger
July 24, 2022

7

Artificial Intelligence, China, Science Fiction, Surveillance}

In a previous article, we looked at the way George Orwell ’s dystopian 1984 is looking less and less like fiction as the Chinese Communist Party exploits the capabilities of AI and Big Data to surveil its entire population. But beyond surveilling citizens’ movements in real time, the CCP also hopes to predict crimes and protests before they happen. In a follow-up story in the New York Times, Paul Mozur, Muyi Xiao, and John Lui look at how the CCP is also bringing the dystopian world of Philip K. Dick ’s Minority Report (2002) to real life, with one difference: Rather than human “precogs” who can predict the future, the CCP relies on algorithms that can interrogate large swaths of Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
July 13, 2022

Categorized
Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy, Surveillance

Tagged
China, Featured}

Largest Data Grab Ever Stole Shanghai’s Mass State Surveillance

_{The police, dutiful in monitoring everyone, flunked data security. Now it’s all for sale on the Dark Web} _{Heather Zeiger
July 13, 2022

8

Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy, Surveillance}

Beijing wants to create a centralized database with personal information on everyone living in China. To do that, the government saves massive amounts of data acquired through surveillance technologies such facial and voice recognition and cell phone monitoring. In a previous article, we saw that the Chinese government’s surveillance network is much more extensive than once thought. However, while the Chinese government has prioritized collecting massive amounts of data, it has not prioritized protecting it. Thus, a hacker has acquired police data files on 1 billion Chinese residents (approximately 23 terabytes of data) from the Shanghai National Police database. The files include name, national ID number, cell phone number, birthdate, birthplace, ethnicity, education level, marital status, and delivery records. They Read More ›

Surveillance cameras at Tiananmen square in Beijing, China

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Heather Zeiger
Date
July 1, 2022

Categorized
China, Data Privacy, Surveillance

Tagged
Featured, Xi Jinping and twentieth congress, Xinjiang as demo project for all-China surveillance}

China Is Quite Serious About Total Surveillance of Every Citizen

_{Local governments are buying enough surveillance equipment to constantly watch 1.6 billion people, documents show} _{Heather Zeiger
July 1, 2022

8

China, Data Privacy, Surveillance}

The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously… There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment… It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinised. – George Orwell, 1984 The New York Times in partnership with ChinaFile has come out with a new report on the extent of China’s surveillance state. It is nothing short of an attempt to achieve total surveillance of its 1.4 billion people: Read More ›

Chinese flags on barbed wire wall in Kashgar (Kashi), Xinjiang, China.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
June 8, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, China

Tagged
Featured, Uyghurs in "re-education" camps}

Digital Data Leaks Reveal Extent of Uyghur Oppression in China

_{Only in the last decade or so has true technological oppression of an entire people group was even possible. But at least it is a two-edged sword} _{Heather Zeiger
June 8, 2022

9

Censorship, China}

Hawagul Tewekkul’s tear-filled eyes are the first thing you see at the BBC’s interactive article, “The Faces from China’s Uyghur Detention Camps.” Her photo is one of 5,000 photos of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities found in one of the largest data leaks on the Chinese Communist Party’s widespread oppression, internment, and cultural annihilation of the minorities living in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. Hawagul Tewekkul was fifty years old in October 2017 when she was “detained for re-education.” Her offense was not stated. Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities have been sent to prison, often on unreasonable charges, or t “vocational re-education centers” as a part of Xi Jinping’s anti-terrorism campaign. Sometimes the training centers have been converted to Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
February 16, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Global Technology, Sports

Tagged
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Beijing, Cai Xia, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Kai Strittmatter, Uyghurs, Xi Jinping, Xinjiang}

2022 Beijing Olympics: Politicizing the Olympic Games

_{One columnist wrote that unlike the 2008 games, the 2022 games “carries a distinct sense of foreboding.”} _{Heather Zeiger
February 16, 2022

10

Censorship, Global Technology, Sports}

Despite admonitions to not “politicalize the games,” Beijing’s opening ceremonies for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games conveyed a political message to the world. Politics has always been part of the Olympic Games. The impetus behind the modern Olympic Games, as conceived by William Penny Brookes and Pierre baron de Coubertin, was to use sports for promoting peace among nations, an inherently political agenda. Decisions on whether dignitaries will attend or who lights the torch are intentional on the part of the visiting and hosting countries, particularly since the first televised Games in 1960. Therefore, when the Chinese Olympic Committee chose first-time Olympic athlete Dinigeer Yilamujiang, also spelled Dilnigar Ilhamjan,* a twenty-year-old cross-country skier of Uyghur heritage, the country was Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
February 3, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Global Technology, Sports, Surveillance

Tagged
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, censorship, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Citizen Lab, MY2022 App, Peng Shuai, Uyghurs}

Surveillance and Silence at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

_{Why are countries instructing their Olympic athletes to use burner phones?} _{Heather Zeiger
February 3, 2022

8

Censorship, Global Technology, Sports, Surveillance}

In a previous article, I looked at the security issues with the MY2022 app, the official app for the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, and the app that everyone who attends must download. The app has two key vulnerabilities that leave user data exposed when sending information over WiFi.* Aside from these vulnerabilities, the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab found a list of censored keywords in the app’s code, as well as the capability to report someone who has sent politically contentious content over the messaging service. The keyword feature does not seem to be active, but as Jeffrey Knockel, author of the Citizen Lab report, told the New York Times, they could censor content with “the flip of a switch.” This is one Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
January 28, 2022

Categorized
Global Technology, Sports

Tagged
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Beijing, China, Citizen Lab, COVID-19, MY2022 App, Peng Shuai, Uyghurs, Xi Jinping}

2022 Winter Olympics: Security Vulnerabilities in the MY2022 App

_{All Olympics attendees are required to download the MY2022 app to track their health and other personal data, despite security concerns} _{Heather Zeiger
January 28, 2022

7

Global Technology, Sports}

This February should be a time of celebration in China. The opening ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games is the day after the beginning of Lunar New Year. The Olympic Games commence two days later on February 4th. However, the Chinese government has put a damper on celebrations by continuing to pursue its “zero-Covid” strategy even though every other country has eased restrictions and begun transitioning from a “pandemic” to “endemic” mentality. People in Beijing along with surrounding regions have become exasperated over the daily testing protocols and harsh measures that are in place to ensure the Chinese Communist Party can save face over its prior claims of having defeated the virus. Among many of the issues plaguing the Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
January 20, 2022

Categorized
Global Technology

Tagged
2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Beijing, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), COVID-19}

Xi’an Lockdown: Beijing Continues to Pursue “Zero-Covid”

_{With the Winter Olympics quickly approaching, China faces great internal stress for its strict COVID response} _{Heather Zeiger
January 20, 2022

8

Global Technology}

First, I hoped to escape lockdownLater, I hoped to get out to buy foodNow, I only hope I’m not hauled off a poem widely shared on Weibo about Xi’an; translated and reported by China Digital Times Rather than shifting gears, as much of the world has, Beijing continues to chase its zero-covid agenda. But the Chinese government’s heavy-handed measures to control the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and its messaging to the public to justify those measures, may have backfired. China is beholden to its “zero-Covid” strategy as the February 2nd opening ceremonies for the Beijing Winter Olympics nears and the Omicron variant spreads across the world. The Chinese Communist Party constructed a narrative early in the pandemic claiming that China Read More ›

China from space on realistic model of planet Earth with network. Concept of digital technology, connectivity and travel.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
January 10, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Global Technology, Social Media

Tagged
China, Denise Ho, Hannah Arendt, Jack Ma, Peng Shuai}

China’s Internet: The Biggest Influencer Is the State

_{How China uses social metrics to guide its censorship strategy} _{Heather Zeiger
January 10, 2022

7

Censorship, Global Technology, Social Media}

The Chinese Communist Party’s response to champion doubles tennis player Peng Shuai was about more than just dismissing an accusation and protecting a high-ranking Party member. It was about silencing influencers and suppressing social mobilization. In a previous article, we looked at how Beijing’s propaganda machine used fake Twitter accounts to amplify messaging around tennis champion Peng Shuai after she disappeared from the public and was censored on the Chinese internet. Wilson Center scholar Rui Zhong writes in Wired magazine, “This is not about topics. This censorship is fundamentally about the dismantling of social resources.” Rui Zhong’s article is helpful in contextualizing the Chinese Communist Party’s targets for online censorship. She says that most analyses of Chinese internet censorship focus on specific words, phrases, or topics, rather Read More ›

Tennis ball in net on flag China background.

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Heather Zeiger
Date
December 23, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Global Technology, Sports

Tagged
#WhereIsPengShuai, China, Peng Shuai, Steve Simon, Weibo}

Peng Shuai Backtracks Her Accusations

_{This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows how China's propaganda works} _{Heather Zeiger
December 23, 2021

9

Censorship, Global Technology, Sports}

On December 19, Peng Shuai was stopped by a journalist with Singaporean Chinese-language state-owned newspaper Lianhe Zaobao while she was in Shanghai for the International Ski Federation’s Cross-Country Skiing China City Tour. The Wall Street Journal reports that journalist Chen Qingqing, of the Chinese state media mouthpiece Global Times, posted a short video on Twitter of Peng with former NBA and CBA basketball player and current chairman of the China Basketball Association, Yao Ming hours before the Lianhe Zaobao interview was posted. In the interview Peng said that she never said or wrote about anyone sexually assaulting her. The Wall Street Journal reports: “There’s been a lot of misunderstanding,” Ms. Peng said in an interview, describing the situation as touching on “my personal privacy.” “There shouldn’t be any distorted interpretations,” she Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
December 18, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Education

Tagged
Kai-Fu Lee}

What If Your Schooling Meant an AI Telling You What To Do?

_{Lee and Chen are techno-optimists. They recognize the benefits of innovative technologies while acknowledging its inherent limitations and societal costs} _{Heather Zeiger
December 18, 2021

9

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Education}

Author, CEO of Sinovation Ventures, and former head of Google China, Kai-Fu Lee, shared with COSM 2021 his predictions for the future of AI. His presentation drew from his book AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, co-authored with prominent science fiction writer Chen Quifan. AI 2041 offers seven short stories that explore the ethical and societal implications of machine-learning technologies on various industries, such as manufacturing, art, and education. The last three chapters address potential societal and geopolitical issues raised by artificial intelligence. Each short story includes an “analysis” section, authored by Lee, which delves into the issues raised by the story and its characters. Lee and Chen are techno-optimists. They recognize the benefits of innovative technologies while acknowledging Read More ›

Pre-adolescent teen girl texting on a smartphone lying in bed at home. Candid indoor photo withFocus on the foreground and copy space

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Heather Zeiger
Date
December 7, 2021

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
Facebook, Facebook Files, Frances Haugen, Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, Wall Street Journal (on Facebook/Meta)}

Facebook’s…Er, Meta’s Instagram Problem

_{Despite employee-recommended solutions, Facebook has largely turned a blind eye to the harms their own algorithms have caused in teenage girls using Instagram} _{Heather Zeiger
December 7, 2021

10

Social Media}

The Wall Street Journal’s series of articles based on leaked internal documents from Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) gave us a peek inside the company’s business model, including what the company knew about Instagram’s harmful mental health effects on teen girls.* Facebook employee, Frances Haugen, provided thousands of pages of internal documents and Slack conversations to the Wall Street Journal’s Jeff Horwitz, and has since made the documents available to other media outlets. Gizmodo is working with a group of experts to make the documents public, which can be viewed here. On October 5th, Haugen testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Facebook’s lack of transparency regarding the harms of its platforms. The full testimony can be seen in the video below. Haugen Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
December 1, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Censorship, Global Technology

Tagged
#WhereIsPengShuai, 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Peng Shuai, Steve Simon, Weibo}

#WhereIsPengShuai: China’s Star Tennis Player Went Missing

_{Peng re-appeared after two weeks, but her disappearance sparked a global outcry against human rights violations under the Chinese Communist Party} _{Heather Zeiger
December 1, 2021

9

Arts & Culture, Censorship, Global Technology}

On November 2, two-time tennis doubles champion, singles semifinalist, and three-time Olympian Peng Shuai posted on her Weibo account an essay accusing the former vice premier of China, Zhang Gaoli, of rape and coercion. They had an on-and-off relationship that began ten years ago and, reportedly, had a fight several days before her post. (A partial translation of her post can be found here.) In 2014 Peng was the number one tennis doubles champion, having won two Grand Slams, and has toured with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). She has also appeared in three Olympics for China. Zhang is a retired vice premier of the highest governing body in China, the Politburo Standing Committee, and unlike other government officials who have Read More ›

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Heather Zeiger
Date
November 17, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Education, Global Technology, Programming

Tagged
COSM 2021, Featured, Natural Language Learning, Phil Parker}

Search Engines: Closing the Gap for Minority Languages

_{Thousands of the world’s languages are spoken by fewer than 100,000 people. At COSM 2021, Phil Parker outlined a plan for giving them access to information} _{Heather Zeiger
November 17, 2021

3

Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Education, Global Technology, Programming}

We’ve all consulted “Dr. Google” for a health ailment or to find a recipe or learn how to fix something perhaps. Sometimes helpful, sometimes not. But what if you asked Google something — and it didn’t even recognize your language? Phil Parker, speaking at COSM 2021, told the story of a woman in Ethiopia searching for “lump in breast,” using one of the over 80 languages or dialects spoken in the region. Her language was one of thousands spoken by only a comparatively small population. The search engine did not recognize her input and returned no hits. She tried her query in Swahili, but there was nothing she found informative about “breast lumps” in Swahili. She finally tried her search Read More ›