POLITICAL MOJO FROM MOTHER JONES 19SEP14

POLITICAL MOJO FROM DAVID CORN, KEVIN DRUM, AND THE NEWS TEAM
MOTHER JONES September 19, 2014 TOP STORY State Department Official: Hard to Fight Online ISIS Propaganda Because It Contains an "Element of Truth" By Jenna McLaughlin In its ascent, ISIS—the murderous extremist group controlling territory in Syria and Iraq that President Barack Obama has declared war on—has wielded a powerful weapon: social media. Its extensive online presence, which ranges from the posting of LOLcat-like photos to videos of violent beheadings, has extended the organization’s reach and boosted recruitment efforts that have fueled its rapid growth. The State Department has mounted an initiative to beat back the internet propaganda of the group, now calling itself the Islamic State. But a senior State Department official says that because the group's social-media messaging contains an "element of truth," it is hard to combat its online campaign. [READ MORE] MOST READ Pennsylvania Teenager Simulates Oral Sex With Jesus Statue, Faces 2 Years in Prison The New York Times Just Issued the Best Correction You'll Read All Week Tonight's PBS Special Makes the Most Powerful Argument for Vaccines Yet What the Hell Is Going On in Scotland? Let John Oliver Explain TOP IN SOCIAL MEDIA Top on Facebook: Should the NFL Lose Its Tax-Exempt Status? No. 2 on Facebook: What the Hell Is Going On in Scotland? Let John Oliver Explain Top on Twitter: Tonight's PBS Special Makes the Most Powerful Argument for Vaccines Yet No. 2 on Twitter: This Is How a Former College President Treats an Alleged Rape Victim When He Thinks No One Is Watching	IN OTHER NEWS Why Facebook, Google, and the NSA Want Computers to Learn Like Humans By Dana Liebelson In June 2012, a Google supercomputer made an artificial-intelligence breakthrough: It learned that the internet loves cats. But here's the remarkable part: It had never been told what a cat looks like. Researchers working on the Google Brain project in the company's X lab fed 10 million random, unlabeled images from YouTube into their massive network and instructed it to recognize the basic elements of a picture and how they fit together. Left to their own devices, the Brain's 16,000 central processing units noticed that a lot of the images shared similar characteristics that it eventually recognized as a "cat." While the Brain's self-taught knack for kitty spotting was nowhere as good as a human's, it was nonetheless a major advance in the exploding field of deep learning. [READ MORE] THIS WEEK'S NEWS ROUNDUP How the NRA Degrades and Objectifies Women The NRA has tried to amp up its female following, but a new article in its magazine, America's 1st Freedom, has been widely critisized as sexist. States like Alaska have taken up the battle for a higher minimum wage. Rick Scott is facing a tea party revolt in Florida, caught between his original supporters and Jeb Bush on Common Core. Rand Paul will share the stage with a former staffer whose past as a neo-Confederate radio host got him fired. The GOP hosted a public hearing on Benghazi that was actually useful, while a US group supporting the moderate Syrian rebels closed its doors due to a lack of financial support. The world debated the potential outcomes of Scotland's independence referendum, and Jon Oliver gave a helpful explanation. Al Gore says fracking won't solve our climate crisis, while proposed school textbooks in Texas deny that the climate crisis is the fault of humans. The US military is sending 3,000 soldiers to Liberia to help contain the Ebola epidemic, facing severe unrest and famine there. [READ MORE] CHART OF THE WEEK: The Walmart Heirs Give a Measly Amount to Charity [READ MORE] QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Bobby Jindal: "I'm Not an Evolutionary Biologist" [READ MORE] Become a fan of Kevin Drum on Facebook. Follow Kevin Drum on Twitter Follow David Corn on Twitter
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