The United States is having something of a national referendum on mass surveillance as of late. Embodied most infamously by video surveillance company Flock Safety, Americans from all walks of life are waging war against the proliferation of the company’s automatic license plate readers (ALPR), which the ACLU warns now number in the tens of thousands.

Plenty of communities are organizing campaigns to out-muscle municipal leaders or their cheerleaders on the local police force, and by-and-large, they’re working. Whether in rural towns or sprawling cities, activists who can mobilize citizens to flood council meetings and hold picket signs are finding success. Perhaps most prominently, the Los Angeles Police Department recently allowed its three-year contract with Flock to expire, citing democratic pushback as a significant pressure point.

There’s also another, less-legal side to the anti-Flock sentiment: a rising tide of vandalism. Not content to wait for local officials to strike down ALPR contracts, concerned citizens are taking matters into their own hands by disabling or cutting down Flock camera towers wherever they’re found. But what started as a collection of separate individuals is now rising to the level of a viral phenomenon, as privacy-minded Redditors take to the web to celebrate those who are fighting back with an outpouring of ironic memes and hype reels.

Ground zero for this community appears to be the subreddit r/FlockSurveillance. The forum hosts some 422,000 “activists,” who flood the channel with over 11,000 contributions per week.

Some of the top posts on the subreddit are memes celebrating Flock vandalism: there are crude Photoshop jobs re-imagining covers of the Berenstain Bears as anti-Flock activists, hand-drawn signs encouraging copper thieves to cash in on Flock innards, and an ALPR-themed redesign of the Gadsden flag, to name a few.

Those who’ve been caught and charged with vandalizing ALPRs become digital folk heroes on the subreddit. When news broke that US Air Force engineer Jeffrey Sovern had been charged in connection to the destruction of 13 Flock devices, redditors flooded the post with praise, sharing links to his legal defense fund and encouraging others to donate. (Sovern’s GoFundMe now stands at over $40,000, compared to around $15,440 in early July.)

“I donated to him because those charges are bulls***,” one redditor replied.

In addition to memes, the subreddit has become a destination for serious discussion around ALPRs and surveillance in general. One developer used the forum as a launch pad for their app FlockHopper, a navigation app that helps travelers avoid ALRPs. Others use it to share important developments relevant to the anti-Flock crowd, to get advice on Freedom of Information Act requests, and to dispel misinformation.

“As entertaining a trend as it is, will a few Redditors knocking a few poles over really make a difference?” one redditor asked the group.

“Even a single grain of rice can tip the scales,” a user replied.

More on Flock: Man Trapped in Dystopian Nightmare Thanks to AI Surveillance Cameras Flagging His Every Move

The post Redditors Are Celebrating the Cutting Down of Flock Surveillance Towers With Based Memes appeared first on Futurism.

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A foldable, self-propelled pontoon barge has played a key role in rescuing more than 6,000 stranded students and staff from a flood-hit region in southern China.

The rapid-deployment vessel was used during evacuation efforts in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region after flooding due to Typhoon Maysak inundated communities, according to Chinese media reports. The modular barge can be assembled in just over 10 minutes, carry more than 500 people per trip, and transport loads exceeding 66.1 US tons. 

According to its manufacturer, the platform is engineered to operate reliably in harsh environments, including high-altitude regions up to 10,800 feet (3,300 meters) above sea level and areas with extreme cold.

Pontoon powers rescue

The self-propelled pontoon barge helped to evacuate more students and staff trapped after floodwaters nearly five meters deep cut off the campus.

The modular vessel, described by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning as “China’s real-life transformer,” played a central role in a large-scale evacuation at Guangxi Logistics Vocational and Technical College in Guigang, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, reported the South China Morning Post (SCMP). 

The rescue operation took place after torrential rains left the college campus submerged under nearly five meters (16.4 feet) of floodwater, cutting off thousands of people from surrounding areas. According to China’s state news agency Xinhua, conventional rescue methods initially struggled to cope with the scale of the emergency.

Emergency teams first relied on inflatable rescue boats and assault boats to reach those stranded. While effective for small-scale operations, these vessels could transport only a limited number of passengers at a time, making the evacuation process slow and difficult.

To accelerate the rescue effort, the state-owned China Anneng Construction Group, China’s emergency rescue force, deployed three heavy-duty self-propelled pontoon barges to the flooded area between Wednesday night and Thursday. The arrival of the modular barges dramatically increased evacuation capacity, allowing rescuers to move hundreds of people during each trip. By midday Thursday, every student and staff member had been safely evacuated, according to Guangxi Television.

Heavy-duty lifeline

The pontoon barge used in the operation measures approximately 60 meters in length and eight meters in width. It is capable of carrying more than 500 passengers in a single journey while supporting a total payload exceeding 66.1 US tons. Unlike conventional floating bridges or barges that require external towing, the vessel is equipped with its own propulsion system, enabling it to travel at speeds of up to 6.7 mph (10.8 km/h) even when fully loaded.

One of its biggest advantages is its rapid deployment capability. China Anneng said the modular system can be transported to a disaster site, assembled, and placed into operation in just over 10 minutes. Its foldable design allows emergency responders to quickly establish a large-capacity transport platform without relying on permanent infrastructure.

The rescue barge is regarded as one of China’s most advanced modular heavy-duty water rescue systems. It was specifically developed to address one of the biggest challenges during major floods—transporting large groups of people, emergency responders, vehicles, and heavy equipment across inundated areas or rivers made impassable by rising water, according to the SCMP.

The vessel is manufactured by China Harzone Industry Corporation, a subsidiary of the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). The company says the platform is designed to operate reliably in demanding environments, including high-altitude regions up to 10,800 feet (3,300 meters) above sea level and areas experiencing extremely cold temperatures.

CSSC noted that the high-tech rescue platform has been widely deployed in domestic emergency response operations since 2020. Its successful use during the Guangxi floods demonstrates how rapidly deployable modular engineering systems are becoming an increasingly important tool for large-scale disaster response, enabling emergency teams to evacuate thousands of people far more quickly than traditional rescue boats alone. thousands of people far more quickly than traditional rescue boats alone.

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Thalha Jubair, 20, and Owen Flowers, 19, sentenced to five and a half years each for cyber-attack that cost Transport for London £39m

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Over four days in 2024 a pair of teenage hackers had London’s transport network at their mercy. Thalha Jubair and Owen Flowers had burrowed into the heart of Transport for London’s IT systems and held the “keys to the kingdom”.

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© Photograph: William Barton/Alamy

© Photograph: William Barton/Alamy

© Photograph: William Barton/Alamy

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Whistleblower suggests internal security services deployed spyware from 2017 against key domestic and foreign targets

A former member of Morocco’s domestic intelligence service has helped to provide an unprecedented insight into how the north African state used hacking software – including Pegasus spyware – to target journalists, human rights defenders, French politicians and Spanish cabinet ministers and police officers.

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© Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters

© Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters

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