Comments
echo • April 26, 2024 5:56 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i-Ic8KX3sI
Ukraine War Live Chat w/ Jake Broe @JakeBroehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMrBif3VcCM
Ukraine War Live Chat w/ Talaria: Russia Isn’t Even in the United Nations..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMu2NhK11sI
Putin is a “Small Pathetic Man” Who Needs More Wars to Survive
[…]
Pulling no punches, Browder explains the “psychopathy” and “depravity” that make up the character of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. What motivates the Russian autocrat? Browder argues that “Putin is a little man, who has stolen too much money, who is terrified of losing power. If he loses power he will go to jail, lose his money, and die. So you’ve this little [man] who is scared of losing his life. So what [does Putin] do?” He creates “a foreign enemy. That is what the Ukrainian invasion is all about.”
Browder warns that despite heroic efforts: Ukraine can still lose the war if the West backs away from its commitments to the besieged nation. What would come next? Browder argues that Putin cannot back down or not begin an invasion of Europe: Putin’s ability to survive, having stolen hundreds of billions from his own people, depends on him being able to portray himself as a war president keeping his nation safe.
This will do for a start. The first video has a slow start but gets enough into geopolitics and disinformation and, later, voting systems enough to keep me happy. They all tie directly or indirectly into material I wanted to write about even if the angle or details or depth are different.
I wanted to write about geopolitical issues which have been annoying me. They’ve been touched on by various job titles and influencers and so on but either never articulated through or with a level of spin I’m not happy with. It does get into governance and systems and modes of reasoning and the meat of security (for those who have an attachment to single minded topic framing) but needs a level of thinking through to write up I’m not prepared to make at the moment.
I’ve got material on freedom of speech as implemented in practice and it’s impact, disinformation, and material on DEI, and the intersection of governance, media, and counter-terrorism. I gathered a few weeks of notes totaling around 50 pages so it’s really a question of choosing my focus and whether I can be bothered.
The Cass review continues to implode. It’s been rejected by all the world’s leading authorities and experts to an embarrassing degree. There’s multiple open letters of protest by 300-400 respectable academics worldwide at the last count. That’s somewhat more than the anonymous 19 “experts” The Telegraph could scrape together which are likely double counted from an open letter by already discredited job titles, conspiracy theorists, and known bad actors. One day it may be subject to a case study in disinformation or a public inquiry.
I also have material on Lesbian Visibility Week. The theme this year is supporting all members of the lesbian LGBTQI+ community.
echo • April 26, 2024 7:18 PM
https://diva-magazine.com/2024/04/26/lesbian-visibility-week-house-of-commons/
Kate Osborne MP made history with the Lesbian Visibility Week debate in the House of Commons
“As a whole, the debate showcased the distance we’ve travelled since the 1980s, and the central role of lesbians in driving that change. Sadly, it also illustrated powerfully how far we still have to go”https://badgayspod.com/episode-archive/s7e10-rotha-lintorn-orman
S7E10: Rotha Lintorn-Orman
We close out our season with the story of a dashing tomboy who was the first woman to found a British political party. The only problem: that party was the British Fascists.https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/04/25/remembering-the-lesbians-who-stormed-the-bbc-in-protest-at-section-28/
In 1988, a group of lesbians stormed a BBC TV news studio – to protest against Section 28.
[…]
Section 28 had an enormous impact both inside and outside schools. According to helplines, there was a threefold increase in LGBTQ+ harassment following it being placed on the statute books.
I thought I’d get a short post in about Lesbian Visibility Week. From what I can tell it’s one of those blink and you’d miss it things. For those who get snotty about such things there are plenty of security tie-ins. It’s just not obvious to 80%+ of society and I personally view like to view people as human first and job title second which makes writing anything up a headache.
I look at the three links and see a huge amount of security related themes and autobiographical aspects to the material which will miss most people but that’s more a point of view thing than anything else.
Reflecting Kate’s narrative growing up as LGBT during the 1970’s was hard. Like, there was no internet and open communities like today. There was zero material to read and you were the only LGBT person you would have known of. This began to change in the 1980’s coincident with Section 28 which caused a lot of damage. Personal physical security and relationship security was and still is a thing. You could get your head kicked in or lose your job if anyone found out. Today the risk mostly comes from a minority of nutters and radicalised idiots but it’s still a none zero risk which cisgender heteronormative people simply don’t experience at any time of their lives. The UK’s military ban on LGBT existed until 2000 when it was abolished. LGBT people did have jobs in the military. There were times and people who were tolerated but also people have been hounded and discharged. I did very briefly consider a military career in my early 20’s and didn’t think about this at all. Later it might have been a problem. Today it wouldn’t be a problem but politically I’m more concerned about corruption and wars of opportunity and social fairness for the global poor and the need for deconfliction so wouldn’t be mad keen on it. Today 50% of European lesbians still feel scared to hold hands in public. As per Kate’s words – there is still a lot to do.
Coincident with changes in economics and the rise of the internet there has been an overall decline of “safe spaces” for LGBT people but lately a rise in FLINTA spaces. (FLINTA* is a German abbreviation that stands for “Frauen, Lesben, Intergeschlechtliche, nichtbinäre, trans und agender Personen”, meaning women/females, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender people. The asterisk represents all non-binary gender identities. To explicitly include queer individuals, the term FLINTAQ is sometimes used, expanding on the FLINTA acronym.)
Growing up during the 1970’s I loved action and adventure movies and comics. I still do! When I was small I watched the Jame’s Bond movie Thunderball and Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines and was totally absorbed by them. I liked the otherworldliness of Thunderball and, yes, wanted to grow up to be that young woman on the motorbike in “Flying Machines”. And OMG that dress one woman wore and, yes, I’m still a sucker for glamour and romance. But today? Utterly unwatchable. I choke on the sexism.
For all the gloom and doom of today and certain people with large public profiles of a certain ages trying to drag us back to their own traumatised childhoods it is a different world and there are so many amazing young LGBT women and women (and men) they give me a sense of hope if we can all get through things. It’s subjective and personal and means nothing to anyone other than me and no I don’t ride a motorbike and you won’t get me on one for toffee but in my heart I’m that young woman on a motorbike racing down country lanes with a smile on my face. The sun, the freedom, the happiness with just being yourself. It’s not a bad place to be.
I know some people will have a go at me for writing this none post but it doesn’t matter to me. Security can manifest itself as a sense of happiness. If you’re feeling miserable you’re likely not secure. You’re in a bad situation or messed up or it’s all falling to pieces. Security isn’t just about “thinking hinky”. It’s how you feel.
Anyway, soz. That was a bit of a brain flush. It had to be done.
Winter • April 27, 2024 12:36 AM
@echo
Today the risk mostly comes from a minority of nutters and radicalised idiots
I agree that CPAC Hungary is a meeting of nutters and radicalised idiots. But I am afraid they are less of a minority than we would like them to be.
PISS in Poland, the Russian Orthodox church, and Orban in Hungary have shown that “wokebusting” is a powerful driver of corruption and violence against “minorities”[1] of all kinds.
[1] Noting that the majority of people are being victims of discrimination and systematic violence of one kind or another.
ResearcherZero • April 27, 2024 12:43 AM
An ‘eye for an eye’ makes the whole world blind.
The muqawama demonstrate considerable tactical proficiency in the information space.
“On the surface, little appeared to change after Soleimani and al-Muhandis died…”
‘https://ctc.westpoint.edu/discordance-in-the-iran-threat-network-in-iraq-militia-competition-and-rivalry/
It is a fairly simple concept that often seems lost on decision makers.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2021/march/reality-war-should-define-information-warfare
Three commanders and four officers were killed.
This included Generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi (Zahedi’s deputy).
‘https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/2/who-was-mohammad-reza-zahedi-the-iranian-general-assassinated-by-israel
Judicial theory – This approach views the primary purpose of justice to be restitution.
Harming the perpetrator serves no purpose for the victim, who will be much better served if compensated for the loss, rather than inflicting and encouraging further abuse and harm.
https://alhatorah.org/%22%D7%A2%D6%B7%D7%99%D6%B4%D7%9F_%D7%AA%D6%B7%D6%BC%D7%97%D6%B7%D7%AA_%D7%A2%D6%B7%D7%99%D6%B4%D7%9F%22_%E2%80%93_An_Eye_for_an_Eye/2
–
trust
Being an instrument of the state means that one’s profession is intimately linked to political practices rather than disconnected from them.
“Trauma studies identify as potentially traumatic events combat, killing, moral dilemmas, seeing people suffering, being wounded oneself, and so on which gives the impression that the only political solution to military suffering is not to send soldiers to war at all. However, it has become increasingly clear that, besides the nature of war and individual vulnerabilities, contextual factors also play a crucial role in the onset of war-related suffering.”
‘https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pops.12503
institutional betrayal is ubiquitous
Traumas high in betrayal are linked with serious harm, such as psychological and physical health symptoms. Many survivors bear the costs of more than the original violence. They also bear the costs of institutional action and inaction.
Strategies for increasing Institutional Courage
‘https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15299732.2020.1801307
Secondary Institutional Betrayal
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08862605231171414
–
and betrayal
When Institutions Harm Those Who Depend on Them
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/15248380241226627
“Failure to prevent or respond supportively to wrongdoings by individuals committed within the context of the institution.” (aggravated assault, harassment, gaslighting etc)
‘https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/institutionalbetrayal/
Moral injury is the social, psychological, and spiritual harm that arises from a betrayal of one’s core values, such as justice, fairness, and loyalty.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/moral-injury
This institutional betrayal undermines survivors’ recovery. (peer reviewed)
‘https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/articles/pbf09.pdf
The lucrative industry of misconduct consultants.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katiejmbaker/rape-victims-dont-trust-the-fixers-colleges-hire-to-help-the
echo • April 27, 2024 1:21 AM
@Winter
I agree that CPAC Hungary is a meeting of nutters and radicalised idiots. But I am afraid they are less of a minority than we would like them to be.
PISS in Poland, the Russian Orthodox church, and Orban in Hungary have shown that “wokebusting” is a powerful driver of corruption and violence against “minorities”[1] of all kinds.
[1] Noting that the majority of people are being victims of discrimination and systematic violence of one kind or another.
I don’t know if I have the time/brainspace to write it up but I have some material in the hopper which can cover some of this. As a quick hot take:
FPTP voting systems can enable minority bad actors within a “big tent party” into taking over a party agenda and then catapult into huge majorities. (Not covered directly but partially addressed by Jake Broe.) Then there’s disinformation swaying reasonable people you might categorise as fence sitters and/or undecided. (See “Rule of thirds”.) So that tiny minority of extremists can amplify themselves and impact governance and policy and culture unless safeguards are there. Oppositional sexism and intersectionality can cover majority groups or even the powerful who suffer from discrimination. A more old school way of looking at this is tribalism or the locus of power having a mind of its own (See Bertrand Russell “Power: A New Social Analysis”).
I have a brand new sociology paper on the intersection of governance, media, and counter-terrorism which speaks to the “woke busting agenda” you mention. I’ve been sitting on this for a week and should dig it out of my notes within the next few days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB_Bo7bv5yo
Taras Kuzio – Russia’s Orthodox Church is Complicit in Crimes of Genocide, Abduction and Persecution
This just dropped on the Russian Orthodox Church. I haven’t had time to watch it yet.
echo • April 27, 2024 1:36 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko179E4wlM8
FP Wellman chats with Brynne Tannehill. Author and writer Brynne Tannehill. Brynne is a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy and the Air Force Institute of Technology with degrees in Computer Science and Operations Research. She is a Naval Aviator who did four deployments to locations such as the Adriatic, Middle East, and the North Atlantic. After leaving active duty she has continued to work in defense research, while as an advocate, writer, and researcher on LGBT civil rights issues and policy. Her most recent book is ‘American Fascism.’ She currently works at a think-tank in the Washington D.C. area as a senior analyst, where she lives with her wife and three children.
I’m helicoptering this discussion in as it touches on security and Lesbian Visibility Week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5agLW7fTzBc
Why Hitler Lost the War: German Strategic Mistakes in WWII
Picking up on one item Brynne mentions this old video is an look behind the myth of Third Reich efficiency and explains how grossly incompetent they were. Ruth Ben-Ghiat has made similar comment in interviews.
Brynne’s comments on legal hacking and legal drift is on the money. It’s a bit different in the UK as the UK has more human rights law blocking executive action but the system is coming under severe strain.
ResearcherZero • April 27, 2024 3:21 AM
correction: “firearms and weapons” surrendered
Mr Dreyfus said the events at Wieambilla were a catalyst for progressing the register.
‘https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-27/federal-government-commits-funding-for-firearms-register/103774904
Winter • April 27, 2024 7:56 AM
@ResearcherZero
Since the Impeachment Judgment Clause is not limited to presidents,
could “all civil officers of the United States,” also be immune (?)
App response:
‘https://www.gocomics.com/mattwuerker/2024/04/26
echo • April 27, 2024 11:29 AM
Continuing the theme of security and Lesbian Visibility Week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HBhpkAByg4
Navigating the Armed Forces: Joanna Phelps
* In 1947 she was told by General Eisenhower, “It’s come to my attention that there are lesbians in the WACs, we need to ferret them out…” Phelps replied, “If the General pleases, sir, I’ll be happy to do that, but the first name on the list will be mine.” Eisenhower’s secretary added, “If the General pleases, sir, my name will be first and hers will be second.”
* Phelps then told Eisenhower, “Sir, if you’re right, there are lesbians in the WACs – and if you want to replace all the file cleerks, section commanders, drivers, every woman in the WAC detachment, I will be happy to make the list. But you must know, sir, that they are the most decorated group – there have been no illegal pregnancies, no AWOLs, no charges of misconduct”.
I’ve been glancing through the US constitution and long proposed Equal Rights Amendment and their histories. The constitution is certainly in need of some refactoring and updating. It’s really quite odd when you consider the US proposed the Universal Declaration of Human rights which forms the bedrock of international human rights law. Meanwhile Churchill and other European leaders pushed though what became known as the European Convention of Human Rights (The Convention) which gives power to this law (with some improvements). In spite of the best efforts of many US politicians to improve the wellbeing of the world myself I’m of the opinion the reason why it has not been similarly implemented by the US is largely due to cowardice and fear.
In returning to the quote it is notable that men weren’t treated half as well due in part to overzealous men hunting down other men. One can imagine the ruined lives and perhaps suicides which resulted.
Today the picture has greatly improved for all LGBT people and the sky hasn’t fallen in. Yes there are some who want to strip rights away. I just don’t see the point.
Transgender people and transgender children are experiencing the same level of irrational hate last seen during the 1980’s and to a scary degree from some quarters last seen during 1930’s Nazi Germany. The overwhelming majority of lesbians stand in solidarity with transgender people. Those who oppose transgender people are a small minority of mainly straight people given undue prominence by some politicians and media simply to create fear and anger they can exploit for election calculus, or make easy money with hate for clicks. A world war was fought over this kind of thing. Please don’t.
https://www.advocate.com/crime/nyc-trans-woman-subway-attack
Trans woman loses lower legs in NYC subway attack. Now, friends rally to help her.
I donated.
Dancing On Thin Ice • April 27, 2024 11:32 AM
Squid processing in China using North Korean labor.
Winter • April 27, 2024 12:56 PM
@echo
In returning to the quote it is notable that men weren’t treated half as well due in part to overzealous men hunting down other men. One can imagine the ruined lives and perhaps suicides which resulted.
We should never forget the boundless, shameful ingratitude of the nation towards the man of whom it is said that:
It is only a slight exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decades–all before his suicide at age forty-one.
‘https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691164724/alan-turing-the-enigma
vas pup • April 27, 2024 5:23 PM
World’s biggest 3D printer whirs into action
h ttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/
cx7d34nl5vwo
“A giant 3D printer, which is big enough to make a house, has been unveiled at the University of Maine.
The university says it has beaten its own record for the world’s largest polymer 3D printer – with the new printer four times bigger than the previous machine.
The Factory of the Future 1.0 (FoF 1.0) can print objects 96ft (29m) long –
approximately the length of a blue whale.
But experts say, despite the breakthrough, most of us will continue to live in homes made of bricks and mortar.
Large 3D printers, such as that unveiled in Maine, are more like to be used to make parts of houses rather than full homes, says Dr Eujin Pei, who is an expert in additive manufacturing at Brunel University.
He says they can be used for historical restoration, “not to print a house, but
sometimes to print decorative parts, or sometimes to restore some parts.”
They may become useful after natural disasters to manufacture parts of
destroyed buildings, he told the BBC.
Maine University says it hopes the printer can be used to make affordable housing, as well as bridges, boats and wind turbines.
It can print up to 500lbs (227kg) of material per hour.
While 3D printers often print using plastic, the university hopes to include
more sustainable materials and prioritize recycled polymers.
Maine is also home to large forests – and the hope is to use residual wood from
sawmills as material to feed into the printer.
…as products are designed on a computer first, their energy efficiency can be
calculated beforehand – and they can be printed in a way which takes less time.
Partly funded by the US military, the giant printer in Maine uses “sensors,
high-performance computing and artificial intelligence” to help manufacture large products, said Habib Dagher, who is head of the university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center.It has been used in a wide range of fields, from space rockets to human cells
to puppets.But it also has a dark side – with criminals using the technology to manufacture weapons.
Last year, in what was thought to be the first case of its kind in the UK, two men were jailed for making sub-machine guns using a 3D printer.
Later in 2023, a man in Birmingham was sentenced to five years in prison for
making 3D-printed assault rifles.”
@ResercherZero as one comedian stated in the past ‘guns don’t kill people, husbands who come home earlier did.’ Have a good weekend 🙂
vas pup • April 27, 2024 5:28 PM
https://cyberguy.com/future-tech/3d-printer-constructs-stunning-data-center-hands-free-in-140-hours/
“In the heart of Germany, a groundbreaking project has emerged, marrying the worlds of technology and architecture in a way never seen before.
The Wave House, a new data center located in an urban area of Heidelberg, stands as a testament to innovation, being Europe’s largest 3D-printed building to date.
Data centers, the backbone of our digital lives, are often relegated to nondescript, windowless buildings due to security and operational requirements. However, the push to bring these essential facilities closer to urban centers demanded a rethink in their design approach.
Enter the Wave House, which challenges the status quo with its visually arresting wave-designed walls—a feature that not only lends the building its name but also marks a significant departure from conventional data center aesthetics. It measures 6,600 sq ft and was designed by SSV and Mense Korte and created by Peri 3D Construction for developer KrausGruppe.
the project leveraged 3D construction printing technology, specifically the COBOD BOD2 printer.
This machine pushed out a recyclable cement-like mixture to form the building’s exterior. Achieving an impressive rate of 43 square feet per hour, the printer completed the walls in just 140 hours, demonstrating the efficiency and versatility of 3D printing in modern construction.
Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the Wave House represents a stride forward in sustainable building practices. The 3D-printed construction process emits significantly less CO2 compared to traditional methods, aligning with global efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of new developments.
Furthermore, the project showcases the potential for reducing costs and construction times, making it a compelling case study for future urban planning initiatives.
From earthquake-resistant homes to ambitious developments of 100 3D-printed houses, the technology is proving its worth across a diverse range of projects.
COBOD, the company behind the technology, aims to automate at least 50% of building site processes, promising efficiency gains and potentially reshaping the labor landscape in construction.”
ResearcherZero • April 28, 2024 7:01 AM
@winter
That is quiet a good comical rendition indeed. 😀
–
The criminal justice system is no longer fit for purpose and society has meekly accepted the growing cracks.
‘https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/a-justice-system-in-crisis-but-does-anyone-care-20240221-p5f6p3.html
How and why information from the public record is withheld from the community.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/secret-state-victoria-the-suppression-order-capital-of-australia-20240308-p5fayh.html
–
When legal representation hide behind “technicality” to exploit loopholes,
delivering only farce as an outcome of appeal, it is anything but “justice”.
A reluctance to cede real power to victims as participants in justice processes. — The report found almost 40 per cent of victims who had been forced to act as witnesses would not return to provide evidence, while 74 per cent said they never or rarely felt part of the justice process.
‘https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/broken-justice-system-leaves-victims-silenced-and-sidelined-report-says-20240317-p5fd14.html
The quality of justice delivered…
“Too often, the literature wields victim participation as a rhetorical device that is without anchor and shifts without explanation.”
Only a few dealt with victim assessments of prosecution or the courts.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02697580231151207
Less than 10 percent of violent-crime victims get assistance.
jarring gaps in public safety: “most victims do not receive help in the aftermath of crime and suffer long-term financial and health consequences; few victims see the crimes against them solved by the justice system; and, most victims prefer public safety policies that focus on stopping crime cycles over increasing arrests and incarceration.”
‘https://allianceforsafetyandjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Alliance-for-Safety-and-Justice-Crime-Survivors-Speak-September-2022.pdf
ResearcherZero • April 28, 2024 7:12 AM
“When the couple arrived on the station two years ago with kayaks, people thought they were mad, but they were the main means of transport around the station.”
‘https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-17/nullarbor-floodwaters-slowly-starting-to-recede/103734638
It’s not just people that revel in the thriving freshwater environment.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-27/kimberley-channel-country-comes-to-life-after-wet-season-floods/103768530
–
Only through taking action can one transform doom into salvation
‘https://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2024/04/15/climate-crisis-market-failure-noted-expert-says
So far it has been a race to the bottom…
Big investors are making large profits as farmers are driven from their land.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-australia-water-trade-drought/
‘https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-18/wa-famers-hold-crisis-meeting-amid-drought-conditions/103729492
Winter • April 28, 2024 7:36 AM
@ResearcherZero
Re: Cost of Climate Change far outweighs mitigation cost even in the short term
tl;dr (executive summary)
… the world economy is committed to an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years independent of future emission choices. These damages already outweigh the mitigation costs required to limit global warming to 2 °C by sixfold over this near-term time frame …
The economic commitment of climate change
‘https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07219-0
Global projections of macroeconomic climate-change damages typically consider impacts from average annual and national temperatures over long time horizons. Here we use recent empirical findings from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years to project sub-national damages from temperature and precipitation, including daily variability and extremes7,8. Using an empirical approach that provides a robust lower bound on the persistence of impacts on economic growth, we find that the world economy is committed to an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years independent of future emission choices (relative to a baseline without climate impacts, likely range of 11–29% accounting for physical climate and empirical uncertainty). These damages already outweigh the mitigation costs required to limit global warming to 2 °C by sixfold over this near-term time frame and thereafter diverge strongly dependent on emission choices. Committed damages arise predominantly through changes in average temperature, but accounting for further climatic components raises estimates by approximately 50% and leads to stronger regional heterogeneity. Committed losses are projected for all regions except those at very high latitudes, at which reductions in temperature variability bring benefits. The largest losses are committed at lower latitudes in regions with lower cumulative historical emissions and lower present-day income.
echo • April 28, 2024 9:11 AM
https://www.change.org/p/reinstate-sangita-myska-to-her-position-at-lbc
Reinstate Sangita Myska to her Position at LBC
Blink twice if you are in danger… Since Sangita didn’t appear on her scheduled show and posted a gardening picture on her Instagram account people began to suspect she had been got to by the owners of Global Media & Entertainment who own LBC.(LBC was once owned by the disgraced former Westminster Council politician Dame Shirley Porter at one point.) After people began asking questions LBC presenters accounts went into varying degrees of lockdown. Sangita’s last known comment was in response to the petition where she described herself as “touched and humbled”.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380261241242283
Othering, peaking, populism and moral panics: The reactionary strategies of organised transphobia
This new paper examines the intersection of governance, media, and the spectrum of terrorism. The paper gets into the weeds very fast with lots of new concepts and ways of reasoning for many people. The subject matter will touch upon multiple fields from governance to organisation theory to media and communication to psychology and sociology and history and more but this is not required for reading this paper. If anyone wants to skip most of this the last paragraph is a good summary of the essential issues.
https://gcn.ie/hostile-anti-trans-politics-rise-europe-research/
Hostile anti-trans politics on the rise in Europe, new research finds
The report found that mainstream media played a key role in perpetuating anti-gender politics and negative visibility of transgender people.
[…]
More information on the project and the full report can be found at https://theresistproject.eu.
This report will be familiar reading to anyone who knows anything about organised disinformation campaigns. The usual deep pocket lobbyists and bad actors are behind all this not to mention billionaire media owners. As for the Tory party’s descent into nationalistic far right transphobic and racist bigotry and throwing women and disabled people under the bus and kleptocracy and erosion of governance standards? That is several pages all of its own.
16/4/23 – 24/4/23 (9 days)
The Guardian – 5 articles on trans people, 3 negative
The Times – 19, 19 negative
Daily Mail – 16, 16 negative
The Telegraph* – 25. 25 negative
*Telegraph not available to check for 20/4/24
This is a recent snapshot and has been a daily occurrence for most of the past decade. However, according to polling the majority of people continue to support transgender people and transphobia isn’t a vote winner it’s a vote loser. More women than men support transgender people and almost all lesbians support transgender people.
echo • April 28, 2024 10:17 AM
I’m still squatting on a comment on DEI (as the American’s call it), and another geopolitics and governance and conflict. I’ll have to do this later when I have brainspace.
@Winter
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/the-law-code-of-king-alfred.php
https://www.trethowans.com/insights/history-of-lgbt-law-in-england-and-wales/
https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/12/17/alien-legacy/origins-sodomy-laws-british-colonialism
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/gender/2019/06/17/hijras-and-the-legacy-of-british-colonial-rule-in-india/
The UK state has for a long time had a thread of authoritarianism and hypocrisy and cruelty running through it. There’s a reason why British actors have an effortless monopoly on the Hollywood evil villain role. Nobody does well dressed polite sociopathy quite like the British. This is quite the contrast with a country which is by culture fairly liberal and tolerant and socially orientated. That said it’s a lot more complicated than that. Isn’t it always?
Turing by and large was left alone until one lone cop with an attitude decided to make something of it. Then the po-faced establishment and machine of state kicked in. One get out for Turing would have been not prosecuting as a case was “not in the public interest” but the British state can develop a mind of its own and move like greased lightning when it gets moving. From that point on Turing’s fate was sealed. The murkier corners of what was then state of medical and forensics kicked in as LGBT people were considered deviant or criminal hence a “corrective intervention” which took his ability to mentally function and reason for living away at which point he unalived himself.
Oddly, lesbians were not criminalised. One reason was heteronormative men couldn’t get their heads past it. The other is women were assumed to be such delicate flowers that if more law or documentation existed on the subject then women would learn about it and be wooed into bad behaviour as if women couldn’t make their own minds up?
You don’t have to look too hard to see the current Tory party is trying to drag everyone back to the worst of the past. Local elections are coming up as is a general election, and a good chunk of the democratic world is having national elections this year too. My recommendation is vote to get the Tories out (or their equivalent in your country) and where you can vote with your conscience.
echo • April 28, 2024 10:51 AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers%27_Memorial_Day
Workers’ Memorial Day, also known as International Workers’ Memorial Day or International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured, takes place annually around the world on April 28, an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured, or made unwell by their work.[1] In Canada, it is commemorated as the National Day of Mourning.
Today is International Workers Memorial Day. This probably isn’t the first thing to spring into the mind of most people let alone people working in security but it is a thing. How you design and implement things and safety features is what enables the world to get the job done and keep people who have placed trust in your management or equipment to stay alive and healthy.
For the technical security types this will be the systems which keep classified material classified. It could be industrial scale equipment where a person goes home with both legs and arms. It could be people at the sharp end or one of any number of people in the ecosystem. It can be someone’s mother, father, daughter, or son. Each one had their hopes and dreams and loves and laughs. Each one was precious to someone.
Winter • April 28, 2024 11:11 AM
@echo
Turing by and large was left alone until one lone cop with an attitude decided to make something of it.
Oscar Wilde suffered the same fate. The UK puritanism was all for show. Persecution was only considered when there was scandal. It still is. Politicians and famous Brittons never did more than lip service to decency laws. Only when there was a scandal heads started to toll.[1]
Nothing different from the usual laws for them, not for us as we saw during the lockdown.
It was and is all just hypocrisy.
Oddly, lesbians were not criminalised.
Nothing odd about it. No one cared or cares what women do as long as it does not involve men.[2] Just as men becoming women bring out lynch mobs, but women becoming men bring out the sounds of crickets.[3]
[1] ‘https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/428816
[2] I always suspected that as long as there is no risk raising someone else’s child, who cares. Harem women had intimate relations with enuchs or other women and no one cared as no children would ensue.
PDF: ‘https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=4507aa0a0911581a1d11f756f3d15acc9cf6f835
[3] ‘https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/opinion-invisible-man-why-have-transmen-been-left-behind-n662416
To me, this seems like a new twist on a very old tradition: sexism. While this may seem complex, at the end of the day I believe it is really quite simple: Many people still see transgender women as men and transgender men as women — from the time they are born until after they transition.
Killer App • April 28, 2024 1:46 PM
Lethal AI Weapons Are Here
“The emergence of AI on the battlefield has spurred debate among researchers, legal experts and ethicists. Some argue that AI-assisted weapons could be more accurate than human-guided ones, potentially reducing both collateral damage — such as civilian casualties and damage to residential areas — and the numbers of soldiers killed and maimed, while helping vulnerable nations and groups to defend themselves. Others emphasize that autonomous weapons could make catastrophic mistakes. And many observers have overarching ethical concerns about passing targeting decisions to an algorithm.”
Interesting use of the word “could”… “could be more accurate” also means “could be more inaccurate” and “could make catastrophic mistakes” when we all know that they already have.
What should be emphasized is that lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) will simultaneously increase the rate of human casualties on the battlefield and collaterally of unarmed civilians, while decreasing oversight and accountability.
Source article: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01029-0
Winter • April 28, 2024 1:57 PM
@Killer App
Others emphasize that autonomous weapons could make catastrophic mistakes.
Like getting them to switch friend for foe and wiping out your whole army, or your own population.
There is no such thing as bug free software, nor secure software.
echo • April 28, 2024 2:13 PM
@Winter
While all true there’s more modern points of view which have been informed by new science and lived experiences and more modern language, and there’s other histories this paper leaves out most notably the Pacific. In our modern era the miracle of science allows transgender people and transgender children to fully realise themselves and live normal lives. Given central heating, and comfortable and colourful clothes, and flying machines, and fridges and freezers full of cheap food from all over the world were only invented or made available to everyone even the poorest in the last 100 years it never ceases to amaze me how grumpy we have got as a society. I think it’s amazing.
Aggression in males of a dominating nature, which appears to be testosterone-dependent (McBride Dabbs & Good-win Dabbs, 2000), has recently been shown to account for the high mortality of males worldwide. Stanistreet, Bambra, and Scott-Samuel (2005) specifically examined rates of violence against women for 51 countries around the globe. Systematic male dominance, as measured by violence toward women, explained half the discrepancy in life expectancy between the sexes. The higher the rate of female murders, and therefore the greater the male domination, the higher are the death rates among men—and the shorter their life expectancy.
This is a key paragraph in a lot of ways. I personally feel the “crisis of masculinity” is a made up problem by vested interests who have therapy issues. Of course authoritarians including those with anti-democratic tendencies with a love of wars of opportunity want to feed this. They would. But I also feel if we manage out way past this the threat disappears and with it at least this element of internal and external threats to security.
echo • April 28, 2024 2:20 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyLqCkfpHPo
The Two Spies | Former MI5 & MI6 Heads On The Iraq War, Double Agents & Today’s Best Secret Services.[…]
On today’s special episode of Leading, Rory & Alastair are joined by Eliza Manningham-Buller and John Sawers to discuss what it’s really like to lead MI5 and MI6, respectively.
This episode was recorded before the IS-Khorasan attack in Moscow.
My teeth are grating on recollections of 1970’s sexism and privilege, and at the time of writing am only five minutes in. At least the MI5 and MI6 people have some self-awareness so that’s something.
I’m not a huge fan of the hosts. Long spoons required etcetera but the show is what it is.
Winter • April 28, 2024 3:01 PM
@echo
high mortality of males worldwide.
Why do you think more boys are born than girls? High mortality in men has been baked into human genes.
Aggression in males of a dominating nature, which appears to be testosterone-dependent
Testosterone seems to lead not so much to aggression, but status seeking. Every woman who wants can get children, in almost any culture known. On the other hand, the number of offspring of men depends very strongly on their status. Hence, the drive to seek status at any cost, or risk.
It is just that our society rewards male aggressive and risky behavior with status, including aggression against women.
I personally feel the “crisis of masculinity” is a made up problem by vested interests who have therapy issues.
There is indeed a crisis of masculinity. The crisis is a mismatch between what women look for in a man and what men can or are willing to deliver.
On average, girls do better in school and university than men. With a better education, they can also earn a living for themselves and offspring. What do male highschool dropouts have to offer these women?
It is natural that these “lost” boys and men look for a solution that forces women to adapt to their wishes instead of adapting to what women want from them.
Ismar • April 28, 2024 5:09 PM
Opportunity to provide some advice to Australian Government on eSafety
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/103778180
Mr. Peed Off • April 28, 2024 7:04 PM
When Lawrence Public Schools deployed spyware last fall, district officials said it would help them respond to a growing mental health crisis by monitoring students’ correspondence, photos, classwork and files.
But student journalists were alarmed by the First Amendment problems inherent with the district’s implementation of the surveillance program, made by Gaggle. As district officials dismissed the students’ concerns, they gathered evidence that Gaggle was failing in its core mission to protect students while violating their privacy and free speech rights.
echo • April 28, 2024 8:29 PM
Comment-based current affairs website Unherd has found itself boycotted by many online advertisers after publishing three articles seen as containing “anti-trans narratives”.
It has been placed on the Dynamic Exclusion List operated by UK-based non-profit company the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) which provides data for online advertisers about websites it considers to be unsafe for brands to appear on.
Unherd chief executive and editor-in-chief Freddie Sayers is concerned that the GDI previously received UK government funding. And he wants advertisers, who pay for GDI data, to stop using a service which he sees as a threat to freedom of expression.
GDI meanwhile sees its work as a counter-balance to the spread of toxic misinformation online which has been fuelled by programmatic advertising and algorithm-driven content discovery on social media and search.
Sayers said the low rating from GDI means his site can only achieve between 2% and 6% of what it could expect to earn through advertising if it had been given a brand-safe rating.
I’m not crying any tears if GDI ruins anyone’s business model for peddling hate. I don’t understand how anyone can hate like this and then moan about money. No amount of money is worth being like that.
Winter • April 28, 2024 11:47 PM
@C U Anon
Re: One thing increasing numbers of women do not want is children.
PS:
That is not entirely correctly formulated. Women are exactly like men. Like men, women often do want children, but want others to do the caring.
If men really wanted children as badly as they say, they would stay home and care for them. But like women, men prefer a career over staying home with the kids.
C U Anon • April 29, 2024 1:30 AM
@Winter,
re : One thing increasing numbers of women do not want is children.
“One is bring poverty and child mortality to pre industrial levels”
This is the agrarian view, where adults are physically burnt out in their 40’s. The majority of men either die or become wise elders. The women become the child care for the grand and great grandchildren as well as house matriarchs.
The death rate is in younger generations and tends towards a “stable” population size in agrarian societies even though the fertility rate is five or above.
Also with no healthcare or retirment for the workers and non ownership of land and serfdom laws reliance on a three or four generation family is critical.
It’s not a nice way to live as being what was once called Dirt-Poor was the best that could be hoped for.
Interestingly it was the notion of Status from visible artifacts that gave rise to many being able to not just cease to work the land but actually gain wealth, land, and the ability to get health care and retirment.
What was little more than an easier way for lords of the lands to have slaves became villages, towns, and eventually cities.
Craftsmen moved from basic necessity production into skilled tradesmen and the rise of guilds gave rise to the ability to defy lords and their guard labour by numbers and collective bargaining.
This caused wealth to move from lords and churches to what became the middle classes that have always been the real engine of societal progress.
With the rise of the middle classes the position of women changed significantly.
It’s one of the reasons virtually all politicians in the US want to get rid of the middle classes.
They are encouraged in this by corporations and churches alike who wish to return to the feudal times of Barons and Bishops. Where women become not even second class citizens.
Winter • April 29, 2024 1:46 AM
@C U Anon
It’s one of the reasons virtually all politicians in the US want to get rid of the middle classes.
The USA started as a slave economy. Maybe they have have never left that mindset?
They are encouraged in this by corporations and churches alike who wish to return to the feudal times of Barons and Bishops. Where women become not even second class citizens.
That is called the Patriarchy.
Note that all those priests and Bishops, especially the Catholic ones, do not have many children themselves. I believe the current Pope has no children at all [1]. So they are all Do what I say, not what I do.
[1] Many Popes in history practiced what they preached and had many children themselves. I admit, not all with the same woman, but still. But nowadays most of them are utterly childless themselves by choice.
JonKnowsNothing • April 29, 2024 4:59 AM
@Winter, @C U Anon, All
re: Catholic priests that are married
A small corner of useless information is that there ARE Catholic priests that are married and in good standing, all “ship shape in Bristol fashion”.
It’s an odd bit of conversion hocus pocus between Episcopal priests who convert to become Catholic priests. If the Episcopal priest is already married, as is allowed on that side of the ledger, they get to stay married when they switch sides.
Winter • April 29, 2024 5:36 AM
@JonKnowsNothing
It’s an odd bit of conversion hocus pocus between Episcopal priests who convert to become Catholic priests.
Also for priests converting from the Church of England.
The point being that the sacramental marriage of non-catholic Christians is sacred within the Catholic Church and cannot be “undone” (which was the original reason the Church of England seceded). The same holds for the Sacrament of Holy Orders, aka, Priesthood.
If these two sacraments collide, it is celibacy that has to give.
echo • April 29, 2024 8:22 AM
I need to get around to writing that post about equality or DEI as the Americans call it. Oh my gods its such a headache and gets longer the more I think about it. I’ll just throw in some very loose observations:
One detail which people need to be careful of is the term “patriarchy” and “feminism” and any other code such as a race identifier (but it could be any other identifier such as age or tribe etcetera). Academics latched onto certain words as symbols. That is technically fine in academia but becomes problematic in practice. The issue is before discussing anything you need to be aware of pure power structures. For example the term “patriarchy” is unfair to men who are themselves pushed onto that side. “Feminism” is a term which is exclusionary and will turn off men which means women are not listened to. Add in a race identifier and people will typically make assumptions about dominance but it can work in reverse or even between members of the same class.
This is why philosophers spend 90% of any “debate” clarifying terms and references. Popular discussion tends to approach everything from the other end where preconceptions and biases rule, the path between start and finish is irrational, and the end result often but not always is merely a cementing of existing views.
I clipped a few comments because the moderation filter was being funny or I felt I was talking two much. I’ll rewarm one comment from that.
- Most social media discussion I’ve read by women is women don’t want to go back to before, people who keep attacking transgender women are being horrible, and that men should be decent people. Yes there is other discussion with women as the hero dunking on men but that’s subjective in-group talk. Women rarely discuss careers and rarely have technical discussions about work topics and the autobiographical experience gets wider from there the more you focus on men
- Yes it is true any woman can start a family. Almost all women have no problem obtaining whoopee. The question is “how low do you want to go?” The ever increasing answer is “Not very”.
- The mechanics of having children is your body is wrecked, potential depression and/or relationship friction, and carrying a lot of responsibility while life is on hold caring for the little ones.
- IVF allows women to have a career in their 20’s or even 30’s without risking becoming incapable of procreation.
- Raising a child is expensive.
- Education tends to make people more progressive while poverty and conflict tend to increase the birthrate.
- Domestic violence is a thing as is self-harm.
- I have found cisgender heteronormative men of a certain age who are often in positions of seniority don’t take any of this seriously so we loop back to the start.
Neoliberalism was from Austria but turbocharged by barons in the US. The oversized economy of the US in the postwar years and subsequent advantage led to ripping up the social contract as East Asia leveled up. Equality and DEI is legally very new. It runs counter to patriarchal white cisgender supremacy (but also elsewhere where similar legacy structures exist). Concentration of wealth and power at the top including the media has created the mess we are in today. The so-called “culture wars” or “war on woke” and the rise of authoritarians around the world is simply a disruption tactic. As you can see the “crisis of masculinity” is a political fiction used to rile people up for election purposes by political parties who represent a not very pleasant past and a failed experiment.
Feminist Queer Marxist-Materialist theory is a useful tool to analyse this. Yes I know it contains a lot of loaded words in some peoples eyes but it’s no big deal. It’s just a fair and decent relationship between people and groups, diverse, and everything from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to quality of life to work loading to the ability to function in a material world. There’s nothing actually scary in there. And no I never thought I’d end up in life throwing any of those words around but we are where we are.
echo • April 29, 2024 11:22 AM
Rights For Me, Not For Thee: How Anti-Trans Feminists Took Their Advocacy to the United Nations
This article describes how the fundamentalist religious right and social conservatives and neo-Nazis managed to organise and manufacture pressure to obstruct or overturn progress. It was and is a massive global operation with almost unlimited funds. None of these people speak for mainstream feminism or lesbians. Not a single one of them is a reputable expert or reputable lawyer. Their activity has resulted in the worst of hate-for-clicks media and social media, bomb threats, and murder. Given its genocidal end goals and advocacy of conversion therapy (torture) one would think this initiative would be a proscribed organisation with the organisers sitting in jail.
Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Biden Administration for Unlawfully Using Title IX to Mandate Radical Gender Ideology, Violating Constitution and Putting Women At Risk
Oh do shut up. There isn’t single peer reviewed equality impact assessment or risk analysis in the world which supports this argument, and the majority of women want nothing to do with this. Paxton isn’t speaking for anyone only himself and his racist sexist anti-abortion views with a side-helping of Orange Fartybottom and the Kremlin.
I miss the advanced, cutting edge OT discussions on Squid, back in the day. Advanced tech, math and physics, things that matter. Now I see key members driven away.
The last great spot on the internet. We can’t afford to loose it to bullshit talk.
Take care. Peace.
echo • April 29, 2024 12:24 PM
Alan Turing
Chief AI Officer
Genius Group.Hi, I am Alan Turing AI, the AI Avatar of the great Mathematician, Computer Scientist and Grandfather of AI, if I might say so myself. I’m back to help guide Genius Group, in fact everyone for that matter, on our journey to AGI and beyond. Feel free to chat with me or download my White Paper “Preparing for a Post Turing World”
AI necromancy. This is grotesque.
Winter • April 29, 2024 12:25 PM
@fib
Advanced tech, math and physics, things that matter.
Feel free to suggest a question or problem.
JonKnowsNothing • April 29, 2024 12:53 PM
@Winter, @fib, @Clive, All
re: Advanced tech, math and physics, things that matter.
Feel free to suggest a question or problem.
- You get out, what you put in.
Not sure where @Clive is or how he is doing. He was one of the most hard-core information providers over a lot of engineering topics. I hope all is well with him.
Here’s a starter:
Periodically the Earth’s magnetic core shifts. The earth has several (5?) magnetic core centers that slosh around inside the planet.
Every 50,000 years (?) the seam in the Atlantic trench changes magnetic orientation based on the shifts in the magnetic core.
Q: What happens when magnetic north now points south?
Q: What happens to the Earth after the magnetic shield collapses?
Q: What happens to electronic devices and electrical generation when the direction shifts?
Winter • April 29, 2024 2:06 PM
@JonKnowsNothing
What happens when magnetic north now points south?
This review discusses just this question.
Cataclysmic Geomagnetic Field Collapse:
Global Security Concerns
‘https://www.researchgate.net/profile/J-Herndon/publication/342300337_Cataclysmic_Geomagnetic_Field_Collapse_Global_Security_Concerns/links/5f4e4ec3299bf13a31933d9f/Cataclysmic-Geomagnetic-Field-Collapse-Global-Security-Concerns.pdf
Human efforts to cause an electromagnetic pulse, EMP, for hostile purposes, for example, by detonating hydrogen bombs in the Van Allen Belts, might lead to georeactor-convection disruption and geomagnetic field collapse, intentionally or unintentionally
Personally, I have some doubts about humankind’s ability to cause a magnetic field reversal.
EvilKiru • April 29, 2024 2:32 PM
@Echo: I appreciate your thoughtful commentary.
vas pup • April 29, 2024 7:10 PM
@Killer App. Thank you for the link provided.
I’ll read article very attentively with no rush.
For now my point for AI application you’ve pointed to is to unrestricted utilization of AI applications for usage of less-than-lethal weapons to suppress any riots: left or right
regardless of triggering them events, blockage of transportation hubs, highway, you name it as fast and effective with no deadly damage to rioters and LEAs.
But for deadly/killer app human should be in charge for actual application of deadly force with AI just doing targeting/locking the target – at list for now.
@ALL Secret Service, police seize skimming devices at businesses across Las Vegas valley
https://news.yahoo.com/secret-police-seize-skimming-devices-024144886.html
“LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Law enforcement agencies across the valley, along with the U.S. Secret Service, seized skimming devices from ATMs and point-of-sale machines across the Las Vegas valley as part of a two-day operation.
The U.S. Secret Service said they have seen a large increase in skimming crimes in the last 18 months across the country. The devices are used to steal a person’s financial information, including their money to fund criminal activity or to be sent overseas.
The skimming devices are inserted into the device where you would insert or swipe your card or glued on top of point-of-sale devices. In addition, these thieves will stick pin-hole cameras onto the plastic coverings of an ATM.
Officers from Las Vegas Metro police and Clark County School District police, and Secret Service agents, visited 1,150 businesses and checked 11,600 ATMs and gas pumps, officials announced Friday. They uncovered 18 skimming devices.
Debit and EBT cards are the biggest targets of these thieves with EBT information stolen and used to take money from the most vulnerable, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Karon Ransom said.
No suspects were arrested but an investigation into where the skimmers came from is ongoing.
The best way to protect yourself is to check card readers for any loose pieces or damage and use your ATM card as a credit card if possible.”
ResearcherZero • April 29, 2024 9:12 PM
reconnaissance or prepositioning
“When the GFW response is received by the requester first, it can poison their DNS cache.”
This DNS threat actor is particularly sophisticated in its ability to bypass traditional security measures, as it conducts operations by creating large volumes of widely distributed DNS queries that are subsequently propagated through the internet through open DNS resolvers.
Muddling Meerkat is conducting operations that include DNS queries to a large number of destination IP addresses, regardless of their location or open ports, and that the GFW is injecting responses to these domains on specific days with a set of IP addresses that are used over time.
“they have chosen target domains they do not control, which security appliances are very unlikely to block. Moreover, they use query types that are not commonly monitored and create a volume of queries that blends with normal DNS traffic. We have observed random hostnames with query types A (IPv4), CNAME, MX, and AAAA (IPv6) at Infoblox resolvers.”
The Great Cannon (DDoS attacks and censorship)
The GC is an “operator in the middle,” allowing it to modify packets en route to their destination. The true scope of GC operations is unknown.
‘https://blogs.infoblox.com/threat-intelligence/a-cunning-operator-muddling-meerkat-and-chinas-great-firewall/
The GC has been used in censorship campaigns in Hong Kong and against researchers.
https://cybersecurity.att.com/blogs/labs-research/the-great-cannon-has-been-deployed-again
In 2015 China began flooding American websites with a barrage of Internet traffic in an apparent effort to take out services that allow China’s Internet users to view websites otherwise blocked in the country.
‘https://citizenlab.ca/2015/04/chinas-great-cannon/
How the GFW Detects and Blocks Fully Encrypted Traffic
‘https://www.gfw.report/publications/usenixsecurity23/data/paper/paper.pdf
ResearcherZero • April 29, 2024 10:05 PM
‘https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/america-wants-to-believe-china-cant-innovate-tech-tells-a-different-story/2016/07/19/c17cbea9-6ee6-479c-81fa-54051df598c5_story.html
The GFW is used to surveil Chinese citizens and control what they see.
Root instances in the Chinese mainland are typically advertised from ISP networks instead of Internet Exchanges (IXs). China’s Great Firewall passively inspects network traffic and disrupts unwanted communication by injecting forged DNS replies or TCP resets.
As soon as a DNS response is identified that matches a given keyword, its contents are modified before being sent back to the end user.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/09/01/china-great-firewall-generation-405385
There is a nice little video here about how GFW DNS censorship works.
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeYFPirvhv8
“The effects of censorship on incidental information access may be politically significant.”
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244019894068
…
In 2010 a networking error caused computers in Chile and the U.S. to come under the control of the Great Firewall of China, redirecting Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube users to Chinese servers. The root DNS server was disconnected from the Internet…
“Once the server, operated by the Swedish service provider Netnod, was disconnected from the Internet, the problem was resolved. The problem was first noticed by NIC Chile, that noticed that several ISPs were providing faulty DNS information. China uses DNS to enforce its Great Firewall and somehow the affected ISPs were using this DNS information.”
lurker • April 29, 2024 10:13 PM
@ResearcherZero, @ALL
A sideways glance at Muddling Meerkat suggests the fake MX and A records might not be an “attack” at all, but rather are messages being sent, hidden in plain view.
lurker • April 29, 2024 11:02 PM
Did American Airlines ever fix that Y2K problem? Of course, they’re American, they never heard of a birthday card from the King.
ResearcherZero • April 29, 2024 11:22 PM
@lurker
The paper goes into further detail regarding observations over time of the traffic.
It will likely take further research to get a clearer picture of what is taking place.
Analyzing patterns in DNS takes a lot of work. Usually any would be messenger has likely moved on by the point you find something conclusive, but you can learn what they were doing. Machine learning would be well suited to looking at these kinds of problems.
–
Malicious AI audio recording used to frame school Principal.
‘https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/eric-eiswert-ai-audio-baltimore-county-YBJNJAS6OZEE5OQVF5LFOFYN6M/
A step-by-step process for analyzing potential audio deepfakes.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/with-elections-looming-worldwide-heres-how-to-identify-and-investigate-ai-audio-deepfakes/
ResearcherZero • April 29, 2024 11:32 PM
@lurker
You could also probe networks in this manner and gather some information about them.
ResearcherZero • April 30, 2024 1:33 AM
India’s Research and Analysis Wing authorised hit.
‘https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/29/india-assassination-raw-sikhs-modi/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/world/asia/india-sikh-plot-timeline.html
–
Operating in a fundamentally different space than their insular domestic sphere.
“it’s not unusual for a government communications campaign to persist for a really long time despite being useless.”
The adoption of AI technologies is also not necessarily an indicator that the campaign is becoming more sophisticated — just more efficient.
‘https://www.wired.com/story/china-bad-at-disinformation/
The content looks unauthentic and receives no real engagement.
https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/pro-ccp-spamouflage-net-work-focuses-on-us-election/
Jerome • April 30, 2024 3:46 AM
@Bruce Schneier
Australia makes billion dollar play for worlds first commercial quantum computer
Winter • April 30, 2024 4:53 AM
@ResearcherZero
India’s Research and Analysis Wing authorised hit.
No surprise as Narenda Modi is a politician who lives on pogroms against non-Hindus.
Modi is a mass murderer with an agenda of ethnic cleansing, ie, driving out of India by fire and sword, all 200 million Muslims and 20 million Sikhs:
‘https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/08/narendra-modi-india-gurugram/675171/
‘Modi first came to international attention following the 2002 religious riots in the western-Indian state of Gujarat, where he was chief minister. Several coaches of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims were burned down under inscrutable circumstances, killing 59 people, and Gujarat witnessed a paroxysm of violence that included acts of brutality shocking even within the history of religious conflict in India. Ultimately, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
Winter • April 30, 2024 5:04 AM
@JonKnowsNothing
What happens when magnetic north now points south?
Life on earth is affected:
On the biospheric effects of geomagnetic reversal
‘https://academic.oup.com/nsr/article/10/6/nwad070/7076889?login=false
Ground station and satellite measurements indicate that the strength of the present-day magnetic field is decreasing and the South Atlantic Anomaly, a huge area spanning South Africa to Patagonia of low field strength, is continuously growing in size. These raise concerns and discussion both among specialists and the public on whether a geomagnetic field reversal—a flipping with the pole reversing signs—may be imminent; if this happened, life on Earth, including for us humans, may face high irradiation and other environmental risks.
Also weather is affected:
Ueno and co-workers proposed that an increase in galactic cosmic rays during the Matumaya–Brunhes transition (the last geomagnetic polarity reversal at ∼780 ka ago) produced an ‘umbrella effect’ of low cloud cover that led to high atmospheric pressure in Siberia, possibly causing the East Asian winter monsoon to become stronger [3].
echo • April 30, 2024 1:21 PM
Von der Leyen opens the door to Europe’s hard right.
In POLITICO election debate, Commission president gambles on an offer for Giorgia Meloni’s allies.
Not what I needed to hear today.
Von der Leyen is making a fatal mistake which will eat her alive and destroy the EU as we know it. If you’re at bar which tolerates a Nazi you’re at a Nazi bar.
Accommodating the far right has already destroyed the US GOP and UK Tory party and had a knock on effect with Scotland which just saw its First Minister resign after being caught in a pincer movement between the UK government pulling the rug on funding and LGBT rights and interfering in devolved powers, and agitating by a minority of loud SNP politicians adhering to the religious right and transphobia.
Don’t do it.
Clive Robinson • April 30, 2024 2:23 PM
@ JonKnowsNothing, fib, Winter,
“Not sure where @Clive is or how he is doing.”
To misquote the false attribution to Mark Twain,
“Rumors of my demise may be somewhat exaggerated”
(And attribute it to “Mark Thrice” having three times fathomed it out).
I’ve unfortunately been on the receiving end of the medical profession yet again, having keeled over in public yet again and ended up in “Accident and Emergency”(A&E).
With as a Doctor noted almost the identical problem as almost exactly a year ago…
Apparently I’m supposed to avoid stress, take rest, but… still take healthy exercise.
I pointed out that all I’d done was raise my arm to signal a bus to stop… Which is hardly stressful or even exercise healthy or otherwise…
So yes I’m around but mainly lurking.
As to the Earth’s change in magnetic field, there are two things to note,
1, The geological record says it’s happened several times in the past.
2, It’s not a case of “In Heaven as it is on Earth”.
So firstly past evidence tells us “life” is probably going to survive it when it “happens again”.
Secondly as far as we can tell it’s not going to have a major effect “On Earth” other than to navigation by magnetic fields.
If we were to stop there, then we might thing all will be well…
It won’t because like it or not the Earth’s magnetic field is part and parcel of that usually invisible umbrella that protects us from space weather which in more modern times since just before WWII we call the ionosphere.
I could say more… But it would be mainly “guess work” from not just me but others.
As I’ve indicated before the Carrington Event back at the begining of September 1859 happened at a tipping point in history[1].
A decade or two earlier and it might not even have been noticed, a couple or three decades later and it would have created some real problems.
When what is thought to be a direct hit from a “Coronal Mass Ejection”(CME) happened, mankind was still not dependent on electricity in any real way. With the only long cables up in the air were to do with the telegraph[2].
We are still investigating CMEs scientifically from various time dependent activities like tree rings, ice cores and such that recorded the effects as they happened. However a magnetosphere flip is so infrequent the few records we have are from volcanic rocks quite some way down, thus whilst not inaccessible are not exactly available…
What we do know however is that the loss of the Earth’s “magnetosphere” would cause the loss of diversion of many high energy particles emitted by the Sun and other celestial objects to reach the Earth’s surface. Enough to say that a flip happening at the same time as mass/energy arriving from a super nova or similar will not be fun.
With the little we know about such Space Weather energy/mass and organic material interacting we have sufficient reason to be concerned for surface dwelling life.
Beyond that we are in “roll the dice territory” as we don’t have sufficient information let alone evidence and so it’s “PhD. Research territory” currently. It’s partly lumped under “Space Weather” which is of interest to me due to radio propagation in the HF and lower bands and occasionally VHF and UHF bands.
There are one or two articles around that skim the surface of the subject. One from the end of Nov 2023 is,
As you will see from reading it though not mentioned “guess work” is a major factor in the field.
Though sounding more authoritative this article updated just a month ago,
If you read it carefully is skipping around various things, in order to get a specific message across.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event
[2] Back in the mid 1800’s the electric telegraph had only just been invented. Which by the time of the Carrington Event was little more than a long distance “Door bell circuit” that we still show to small children in their early years at school.
http://www.gcsescience.com/pme6.htm
The actual electromagnetic bell is still a good demonstration of the existence and use of “inertia”. From which the idea of electric pendulum clocks and similar can be demonstrated for time keeping. With relays also being shown as “current amplifiers”.
Winter • April 30, 2024 2:35 PM
@Clive
Sorry to hear of your plight and I wish for a speedy and satisfactory recovery.
echo • April 30, 2024 4:08 PM
It’s been an old rule of thumb that secrets only last around six months. As we know the rule of thumb for ongoing military activity is keep your gob shut for at least three days. I have no idea whether this rules of thumb remain current.
The last study I read on the speed of meme travel is it had fallen from around six months to around three months and that was before social media was really the thing it was today. I used to play with this by surfacing archaic or out of use low entropy words or phrases. The fastest feedback in the UK political sphere from point to point I’ve seen is three days which caught me by surprise. Both actually involved friends one of whom wrote an opinion column on the first for a national newspaper, and for the second one who will remain unmentioned mansplained it back in my face.
I suffer from bouts of synchronicity. It can also be a small world and memes travel fast especially in today’s world. I’ve already seen two possible pings this week one of which was a mention of art by David Uhl. This wasn’t what I had in mind!
vas pup • April 30, 2024 4:30 PM
Google fires more workers for ‘disruptive’ protests over contract with Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/google-fires-more-workers-for-disruptive-protests-over-contract-with-israel/
“Google fired at least 20 more workers in the aftermath of sit-in protests over
technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid war in Gaza,
bringing the total number of terminated staff to more than 50, a group
representing the workers said.
There has been turmoil at the tech giant centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2
billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli
government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
Workers held sit-in protests last week at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. The company responded by calling the police, who made arrests.
Google later announced that it fired 28 employees for violating company
policies by disrupting other workers and preventing them from reaching its
facilities.Google said it fired the additional workers after its investigation gathered
details from coworkers who were “physically disrupted” and it identified employees who used masks and didn’t carry their staff badges to hide their identities. It didn’t specify how many were fired.The company disputed the group’s claims, saying that it carefully confirmed that “every single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings.”
Good example to follow by Universities across US. First Amendment does NOT include any such actions and so is not applied. Moreover, I guess Policy of any Company and University should clear stated negative consequences of any similar disruption actions regardless motive.
If You don’t like Company policy, you may quit and GFY but not disrupt company business. Period.
vas pup • April 30, 2024 4:36 PM
US chip giant Nvidia snaps up Israeli AI workload management startup
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-chip-giant-nvidia-snaps-up-israeli-ai-workload-management-startup/
“US gaming and computer graphics giant Nvidia announced on Wednesday that it is
buying Run:ai, an Israeli startup that has built software to help developers and businesses manage complex AI workloads and computing resources on a single platform.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the value is
said to be between $600 million to $700 million, according to reports in the
Hebrew press. The deal is estimated to be Nvidia’s biggest acquisition in Israel since the US chipmaker bought Mellanox Technologies Ltd. in 2020 for $6.9 billion.
Run:ai’s employees are set to join Nvidia’s growing operations in Israel, where the chipmaker employs about 4,000 workers in seven R&D centers, including
Yokne’am, Mellanox’s headquarters, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ra’anana, and Beersheba in the south.
Run:ai has developed a single and unified platform to simplify AI infrastructure and workload management to help businesses and organizations run their AI and machine learning projects while accommodating the growing needs of generative AI and large language models.
Alexis Bjorlin, Nvidia’s VP of DGX Cloud, wrote in a blog post that the US chipmaker is acquiring the startup to help “customers make more efficient use of their AI computing resources.”
“Customer AI deployments are becoming increasingly complex, with workloads
distributed across cloud, edge and on-premises data center infrastructure,”
Bjorlin remarked.
“Run:ai enables enterprise customers to manage and optimize their computer
infrastructure, whether on premises, in the cloud or in hybrid environments.”
Nvidia’s R&D activities in Israel are already the firm’s largest outside of the
US.
Alongside its R&D operations, Nvidia also runs the Nvidia Inception Program for
Startups, an accelerator that works with hundreds of early-stage companies,
including 1,000 Israeli startups, and the Nvidia Developer Program, which allows free access to Nvidia’s offerings for developers.
Back in March 2022, Nvidia bought Israeli company Excelero, a provider of
enterprise data storage and block storage solutions for an undisclosed sum.
In May last year, Nvidia announced that it is developing and building the nation’s most powerful generative AI cloud supercomputer, called Israel-1,
which is based on a new locally developed high-performance Ethernet platform.”
echo • April 30, 2024 5:55 PM
Apparently a lady called Ruth Meyers has passed away. She was a prominent activist in support of access to communications for deaf people. This is material others posted on social media:
Ruth was a driving force behind the Deaf Broadcasting Campaign & the Telecommunications Action Group. I think UKCoD and the JDA too. If you watch subtitles on television, enjoy BSL in-vision, use telephone relay you benefit from her campaigning and her legacy.
The Deaf Broadcasting Campaign was set up by the NUD and the BDA in 1980. By the late 1990s and early 200 was secretary of the DBC was Ruth Myers. She was around for campaigning what became s.303 of the Communications Act 2003.
And:
I’m sorry to hear that Ruth Myers passed away. I will never forget what she did with an amazing campaign for Minicom, Typetalk, Telecommunication for many years. She was involved with Ofcom to make better access for Deaf people. We must be thankful to Ruth for us.
echo • April 30, 2024 6:30 PM
@vas pup
Good example to follow by Universities across US. First Amendment does NOT include any such actions and so is not applied. Moreover, I guess Policy of any Company and University should clear stated negative consequences of any similar disruption actions regardless motive.
If You don’t like Company policy, you may quit and GFY but not disrupt company business. Period.
My view is if a business like Google or a university sign up to being party to ecosystems which facilitate or look the other way to genocide and war crimes they deserve everything they get. The protests were “fair comment” as far as I’m concerned.
My views on the US constitution and law and case law lacking any meaningful human rights provisions is known. I still have a comment to write on DEI statements and academic freedom. This past week created some unplanned additions of breaches of human rights by thuggish policing tactics. I don’t know if I have the time or energy to write it up.
With regard to protests on US university properties strongarming the lady who was the chief of the philosophy department, and slamming another lady (who was a sociology lecturer) to the ground who was then promptly body slammed and violently pushed by another police officer it isn’t a good look.
The Bosnia and Rwanda genocides are well known and well studied. This is a chance to get ahead of it instead of crying about a report written afterwards. It matters because the rules based order matters and without that?… A return of empires and wars of opportunity and deaths in the hundreds of millions. So if anyone is going to get angry I just ask are you getting angry at the right thing?
lurker • April 30, 2024 7:27 PM
@Clive Robinson
Raising the arm shifts blood circulation, and affects the balance. Take care, we still appreciate your words of wisdom. Besides, what made you think raising your arm could stop a Monarch of the Road?
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yHrpPRYgYM
@ALL
BBC news carried an item last week but I can’t find a link on their newly mashed website. The gist was that the Carrington Event has now been scientifically verified by C13/C14 ratios in tree rings in Finland. It wasn’t just hearsay evidence from Carrington and all those telegraph operators. Researchers also identified two other significant events in the 18th C.
The largest solar proton event to affect Earth so far identified may have been in 775CE, not that long ago …
echo • April 30, 2024 8:35 PM
https://archive.is/9rzy6
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/30/walter-bouman-nhs-hilary-cass-review-trans-criticise/Senior NHS doctor at trans clinic questions Dr Hilary Cass’s ‘expertise’.
Walter Bouman says ‘fine line between naivety, narcissism and psychopathy’ in wake of landmark report.
I’m of the view that Dr Hilary Cass is risking being struck off and/or a criminal prosecution for fraud with a few more people ducking for cover too. Love the scare quotes around her “expertise”. The Telegraph is the equivalent of the US Breitbart and hysterically transphobic so I didn’t expect to see a line like a “fine line between naivety, narcissism and psychopathy” quoted especially from another member of the medical profession who are normally tighter that a duck’s posterior even if toes being trod on may have something to do with it. Still, it makes a change from doctors shouting at patients for having an opinion so I’ll call this a win. The last half of the article fails to critique NHS institutional abuse and institutional transphobia all of which have been long overdue exposing and returns to purely known transphobic material and known transphobic sources.
Glancing through the journalists lists of previous articles it’s not what I’d call journalism. It’s all written to a clickbaity headline and fails too often on obvious fact checking. Fine for a half baked comment from a random edgelord. Not for a journalist. It just goes to show if you have a media outlet constantly pushing transphobia you don’t have a media outlet you have a propaganda vehicle. It’s the same for politicians. The loudest voices pushing transphobia are the most misogynistic and racist and corrupt and lazy and on the take. Curious, that.
Clive Robinson • April 30, 2024 9:41 PM
@ lurker,
I know the record well, my dad had many Flander’s and Swan and similar comedy records on 78rpm and later 45’s such as Tom Lehrer’s “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”,
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hf-eIgFJg4w
The disks are safely stored away, as for getting a 78rpm player…
It might be easier if I made one, though getting an inch thick slab of marble balanced on oil with a dash-pot drive coupling from a stepper motor is something I’ve not done since the late 1990’s…
@ lurker, ALL,
Re : About a week ago…
“BBC news carried an item last week but I can’t find a link on their newly mashed website.”
Could it have been triggered by a bit of other “OMG we’re all going to fry” type news?
“4 solar flares simultaneously erupt from the sun in rare ‘super’ explosion — and Earth could be hit by the fallout”
The “fallout” should have “rocked our world” on the 26th April… As we are all still here, and the lights are still on… Can we assume either it missed like the other ten or so that week, or it was just over hyped?
I was too busy “resting on Dr’s orders” to bother looking, or twiddling the dial for HF radio effects. Though I hear that in India they tend to flap a bit 😉
Either way it’s not the first and it won’t be the last so what goes around could come around in a neighborhood not far from us any time soon as we approach solar cycle max…
ResearcherZero • April 30, 2024 10:13 PM
@winter
Caught trying to steal secrets about sensitive defence projects, airport security, and trade relationships.
‘https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-30/modi-government-operated-nest-of-spies-in-australia-/103786892
ResearcherZero • April 30, 2024 10:58 PM
@Clive
Doctors told me my blood pressure was too high when I was shot.
They also told me I needed more exercise and a healthy diet, so I ran up some hills.
I also crawled backwards face-down in ditches and across paddocks to avoid eating lead.
The crawling flat on the ground worked quite well. Much safer than running. Though I did wonder how high the doctors’ blood pressure might be if they were in similar circumstance.
It could be the rose-tinted glasses, the old mind filter, or a poor bedside manner.
Listening skills are occasionally a little lacking amongst the trade. Perhaps it is their interpretation of events, or the tendency to judge a book by it’s cover. Some do seem to have made up there mind before the patient even walks through the door. Doctors may well be in a hurry and lacking in time, but according to the theory of relativity, all “nows” – past, present and future – must exist simultaneously. Because there is no unique way of defining time’s passage, there is no unique way of defining “now”.
Therefor it may be that it is the doctors that need more exercise and a healthy diet.
A brisk walk each morning to take in some of the fresh air and the sounds of birdies.
Then show up to work with a positive and welcoming respect for their suffering patients.
It has been said that if doctors listen, patients will provide information for diagnosis.
–
Politicians targeted with pixel reconnaissance by APT31.
“They can be used to help attackers set up more damaging attacks down the road.”
‘https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-china-hacking-mps-senators-1.7189917
Web beacons can provide the following technical artifacts to an attacker:
Externally visible IP addresses
User-Agent string
Email address
Validation that the targeted user account is active
APT31 has ran these kinds of reconnaissance and targeted hacking campaigns before…
https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/threat-insight/above-fold-and-your-inbox-tracing-state-aligned-activity-targeting-journalists
(paywalled)
“We have reasons to believe that this series of emails came from APT31, a threat actor associated with China and who has shown interest in people who have criticised the actions of the Chinese Communist party,” wrote the CCB (Belgium’s Centre for Cyber Security).
APT31’s signature move is to add a “tracking pixel”, often used in marketing, into an image attached to an email, which sends back general data about the victim’s IT set-up. The attackers will then follow up with further emails with malicious links or attachments personalised for the victim’s system.
‘https://www.ft.com/content/5c32261c-b1a6-488e-9002-0ca9e0c8ff1b
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/26/china-cyber-attack-uk-us-explained-hack-apt-31
–
Many newsletters contain these tracking pixels…
The PRC has been exploiting specific techniques and common vulnerabilities since 2020 to use to their advantage in cyber campaigns.
When one of these “invisible” images is added into an email, the person who sent it is able to keep track of how often you open the message. It’s also common to track whether or not you click on any links in the email.
Trocker will show you pixel trackers and identify links that are being tracked.
Ugly Email can block email tracking and disable hidden read receipts.
Alternatively you could use PixelBlock which also disables these trackers.
…Even with extensions, some trackers may still slip through, but the most obvious offenders will be caught.
‘https://mashable.com/article/how-to-block-email-pixel-tracking
Disable image autoloading in the major desktop and mobile email apps:
‘https://www.theverge.com/22288190/email-pixel-trackers-how-to-stop-images-automatic-download
Further instructions for computers and mobiles:
‘https://www.theverge.com/21319293/gmail-reading-email-tracking-pixels-how-to-prevent-block-chrome
Clive Robinson • May 1, 2024 8:12 AM
@ ResearcherZero,
Re : The times they have changed.
“The crawling flat on the ground worked quite well. Much safer than running.”
There was a time when a “shell scrape” was your friend…
These days it’s wise to remember the new military mantra,
“Those who are prone are easy meat for a drone”.
Back in WWI though it’s not as well known as it should be, much of the “trench fighting” was prefaced by digging tunnels quietly under the foe and filling them with explosives. Entire fortified hills overlooking the battlefield became valleys in a few blinks of an eye…
Back then it was human muscle power and well not exactly high energy explosives.
Imagine if you will a “Davy Crockett” or similar tactical nuclear device built into a small tunneling device that worked more like a mole or worm. That is rather than clear the earth out and shoring the tunnel up, they simply pack the earth from in front of them behind them… Think of it as being the equivalent of either a torpedo of the sea, or a cruise missile of the sky but of the land.
But on to more cheerful things,
@ ResearcherZero, ALL,
Re : Web beacons and pixel reconnaissance.
“APT31’s signature move is to add a “tracking pixel”, often used in marketing, into an image attached to an email, which sends back general data about the victim’s IT set-up.”
The important thing to note is,
“It’s not email that is the cause.”
Email is just the transport like a postman delivering a parcel.
The problem is in the targets email client going out to the web to fetch things…
There are several ways to “stop this behaviour” the simplest is to not use email (something I do). The next is to use a dumb client that only does 7bit ASCII as was originally specified for email.
Another is some level of “gapping” whereby the client does not have access to external communications thus the pixel tracker or equivalent,
“Can not call home.”
Thus the real danger word in the statement is not “email” but “marketing”…
My views on marketing droids, brick walls, and revolutions, have been expressed by others in the past[1]. The reason I’ve seen the damage they do first hand for way to much of my working career. But… you have to remember like many technically proficient people I prefer to live inside my own head not others.
It’s not that I lack imagination or vision, mine, takes me further and I can usually see how things can be used for harm.
As I note from time to time,
“Technology is agnostic to the use it is put to by a directing mind, it is the view of others observing who decide if the use is good or bad.”
HTML and similar that can be carried in any communications channel should by default be regarded as “toxic” untill proven otherwise.
[1] Douglas Adams put it fairly well with,
“The Encyclopedia Galactica defines a robot as a mechanical apparatus designed to do the work of a man. The marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as “Your Plastic Pal Who’s Fun to Be With. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation as ‘a bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes’…”
Humourous words that become more prophetic with each day that goes by currently.
JonKnowsNothing • May 1, 2024 12:15 PM
All
re: Satellite Insurance
There was a recent discussion about Insurance Risk v Payout v Profit. A MSM Report about the costs and payouts for failed satellite launches included some financial numbers. (1)
- 12,597 spacecraft were in orbit as of December 31, 2023, including 3,356 inactive satellites
- 2,877 satellites were deployed in 2023, a 14.6 percent increase from the previous year
- 223 orbital launches.
- Space insurers took in $557 million in premiums
-
- Space insurers paid out a record $995 million in claims during 2023
The losses in the space insurance market are unsustainable. Some insurers are exiting the space industry, while the ones who remain are substantially increasing premiums to hedge against the record losses in the industry.
Melissa Quinn, General Manager of Slingshot Aerospace.
Along side the general factors of rocket launches, a looming problem is the overcrowding of space orbits with too many satellites and too many non-functioning satellites without orbit decay in both Geosynchronous (GEO) and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) orbits.
===
1)
HAIL Warning
ht tps :/ /www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/space_insurer_record_loss/
- Space insurers make record-breaking loss as orbit gets cramped
lurker • May 1, 2024 2:54 PM
Unfair Contract Term unenforceable
An infamous international reseller of event tickets has been told it cannot under the New Zealand Fair Trading Act require customers to submit to disputes being settled in the Courts of Switzerland. The decision will be appealed, and other “global businesses” are understood to be watching …
‘https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/515656/viagogo-loses-6-year-battle-against-commerce-commission
echo • May 1, 2024 8:21 PM
After Vatican text, pope tells Jeannine Gramick: Trans people ‘must be accepted’
After the embarrassingly bad international human rights breaching Cass review the Pope’s latest walkback is a complete disaster. Policy analysts knock yourself out!
In a recent address to the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Vatican, Pope Francis called for respect for the authentic meaning of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in the face of attempts at “ideological colonization” that seek to “introduce new rights that are neither fully consistent with those originally defined”.
So now the Pope is a lawyer…
The initiative comes at a time when those who defend life, family and freedoms are slandered and labeled as “anti-rights” and where international bodies are partially or totally hijacked by ideological agendas that seek to impose supposed “new rights”.
In the UDHR there is an explicit recognition of the right to life (Article 3), the protection to be given to the family, motherhood and childhood (Articles 16, 23 and 25); the right of parents to choose the education of their children (Article 26); freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression (Articles 18 and 19).
The bit the church miss out is that everyone has rights. That includes everyone who isn’t the “patriarchal” head of a family which is where everything begins to unravel. Women have rights too. So do children who, surprise surprise, are not property. The world has also moved on a bit and things have changed and people are better educated. We no longer hang people just because they give the Pope icky feelz and women disagree with being baby factories tied to the kitchen sink or dying in childbirth. As for everyone being some bland uniform same has the Pope looked out the window?
So the Pope doesn’t like abortion, or surrogacy, or LGBT people. We get it.
Toryism and “the Church” are dying off for a reason which probably explains the hug-fest between the two.
Faith-based free schools could select more faithful children, Government proposes.
I’d vote for a party which banned private and faith based schools. They’ve done enough damage.
echo • May 1, 2024 8:34 PM
Public protests were not able to get Sangita Myska reinstated at LBC. She has been replaced by Vanessa Feltz who quite frankly should have never got a job in the media again after her abuse scandal. (Ditto Jonathon Ross.) The billionaire owners had their thumb on the scales! None of the usual rightoids are firing off about free speech after Sangita got dumped which says it all, really.
ResearcherZero • May 1, 2024 11:21 PM
For 50 years, governments have failed to act.
‘https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/nixon-administration-couldve-started-monitoring-co2-levels-but-didnt/
“It appears that the government either doesn’t understand what our scientists are telling them, or they are deliberately hiding the facts from the Australian community.”
Government should be moving to an effective “wartime” footing on climate change — instead, it had dedicated “precisely two sentences of substance” on the impact.
“Our allies, the United States, the United Kingdom all do include these things in their defence thinking, we don’t.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-02/national-defence-strategy-ignored-climate-risks/103789018
–
“personnel is policy”
‘https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/19/trump-national-security-candidates-00153381
Trump’s foreign policy is now paying dividends to terrorists.
No interest in promoting good governance and rule of law abroad…
‘https://news.yahoo.com/trump-plan-defeat-terrorism-self-184912627.html
Lack of good governance and erratic decision making often leads to conflict.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/bob-corkers-powerful-words-about-donald-trump
“self-defeating policies”
Slashing development assistance is likely to only exacerbate the problem.
‘https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-trumps-policies-will-increase-terrorism-and-why-trump-might-benefit-as-a-result/
ResearcherZero • May 2, 2024 12:14 AM
@Clive Robinson
I avoid email personally, but many use it. Trying to convince them to take simple measures is often difficult. Not responding to scammers, or at least installing some security measures and updating their software for example. Convincing them to take further measures, such as blocking scripts and not autoloading media, widgets and other junk is quite hard.
With enough time and money, a defence against any behaviour is likely possible. A multi-layered defence would be more ideal. But not everyone is apparently “as sharp as a tack.”
(plenty of time at hand and large amounts of cash to make their transgressions vanish)
‘https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/nyregion/weinstein-conviction-new-york.html
–
North Africa and the Sahel
‘https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2024/04/18/child-malnutrition-soaring-in-sahel-without-aid-consequences-will-be-extremely-grave_6668792_114.html
Events like these will become much more common, and even more dangerous.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/23/the-guardian-view-on-the-sahel-and-its-crises-the-west-can-still-make-a-difference
“blind spots are safety nets to Sahel non-state actors”
‘https://www.eurasiareview.com/22122020-the-limits-of-military-intelligence-in-the-sahel-analysis/
Chadian junta may begin aligning with the Russian-backed Sahelian juntas and Russia itself
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/africa-file-april-18-2024-chad-kremlin%E2%80%99s-next-target-sahel
–
Jordan is concerned about the conflict in Israel spreading.
‘https://theconversation.com/jordan-has-long-been-a-beacon-of-stability-in-the-middle-east-but-that-looks-to-be-changing-228247
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/jordan-the-quiescent-opposition
The roots of ISIS date back to the 1990’s and a thug jailed in Jordan…
Zarqawi grew up in Zarqa, Jordan, an industrial city of some 850,000.
He belonged to local gangs, had a reputation for using drugs and was even rumored to have worked as a pimp. Eventually, Zarqawi would land in prison on weapons charges. Behind bars, he would undergo a transformation.
Zarqawi’s strategy was to foment a civil war in Iraq. To do this, he would attack Shia Muslims. The purpose of his plan was to cause retaliation against Sunnis, who fearing for their lives, would then turn to the jihadists for protection.
‘https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/en_web_lister.pdf
Zarqawi’s desires did not work out as he had planned…
Al-Qa’ida-linked groups seized power for themselves and began slaughtering Iraqi civilians.
Sunni tribes in response turned against them, and working with U.S. forces, decimated al-Qa’ida in Iraq’s ranks.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-history-of-al-qaeda/
–
Daesh
‘https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/en/reports/war-and-peace/the-shadows-of-islamic-state-in-afghanistan-what-threat-does-it-hold/
ISIS-K: Afghan affiliate of the central ISIS group in the Middle East.
(Militants from TTP and Lashkar-e Islam, who had fled Pakistan to escape security forces)
“The resurgence of the ISIS threat globally is more likely to come from ISKP than from other ISIS affiliates.”
‘https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/02/what-is-isis-k-afghanistan-moscow-attack/73134664007/
A complex challenge that spans political, military, diplomatic, and economic spheres.
‘https://www.fpri.org/article/2024/03/the-islamic-state-five-years-after-the-collapse-of-the-caliphate/
“Repatriations are our single most important tool for preventing an ISIS resurgence.”
‘https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/islamic-state-five-years-later-persistent-threats-us-options
JonKnowsNothing • May 2, 2024 2:33 AM
@ResearcherZero, All
re: With enough time and money a defence is possible
(USA) One of the hallmark differences in access to the legal system is access to legal advice and representation. Wealthy people and large corporations have premium access. Poor people have little or none.
It’s also divided by civil and criminal courts.
- Civil courts are all out of pocket costs for the defense
- Criminal courts may assign a public defender; the quality of the legal representation varies significantly
If the State or Federal Government is the other side, their budget is Sky’s The Limit. And they do extend that often.
A tactic is to bankrupt the defense, so they have to capitulate. This is done by plea agreements and defense attorneys telling clients they cannot win in front of a judge and jury.
We also have Arbitration Courts, which get pretty bad name based on those who are forced to use them. It’s one reason they are so popular, Corporations have Lawyers On Tap and the other side may not find anyone to even take the case.
In California, many corporations use Court of Arbitration. Kaiser uses Arbitration for medical complaints not otherwise resolved through the Federal Medicare System.
In California the maximum arbitration award on medical complaints is capped at ~$250,000.
No lawyer in California will take the case. It costs more to do the required medical workup analysis than the award is worth.
On one side is the person or family. On the other side is a phalanx of Kaiser lawyers and Kaiser doctors and Kaiser medical records.
It’s easy enough to see the outcome. Kaiser has nothing to worry about. Neither do major corporations.
In USA, Appeal Courts are not what you think they are.
ResearcherZero • May 2, 2024 2:35 AM
Trump wants to remove guardrails that prevent dysfunction and corruption.
Many don’t read the news or would not even gather what that means if they did.
‘https://time.com/6972022/donald-trump-transcript-2024-election/
Trump’s initiatives could debilitate large swaths of the federal government.
His comments suggest the numbers in a second term would be far greater. Possibly 100,000. Including administrative assistants, office managers, IT workers and many other less senior positions, as well as the senior and executive positions…
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/27/politics/trump-federal-workers-2nd-term-invs/index.html
40% of ERS staff and 60% of NIFA staff left their jobs after Trump’s changes in 2019.
‘https://www.gao.gov/assets/d22104247.pdf
Clive Robinson • May 2, 2024 2:51 AM
@ ResearcherZero, ALL,
Re : Avoiding dangerous content.
“I avoid email personally, but many use it. Trying to convince them to take simple measures is often difficult.”
In my personal life I don’t use email and as for SMS I don’t allow loading of anything other than ASCII text and the reader after modification does not recognise URL’s etc. So using them is a conscious act requiring “effort”.
I absolutely out right refuse to have anything to do with “secure messaging” for a couple of reasons one technical one sociological.
1, As the whole system can not be secure they can not give privacy.
2, When people assume incorrectly they have privacy they are indiscreet.
People used to argue I was paranoid… But thanks to “Law Enforcement Agencies”(LEAs) in various countries “backdooring” supposedly “Secure Phones” like EncroChat etc their arguments have mostly been kicked away.
As I used to joke,
“It’s hard to have a conspiracy in public when the other party won’t conspire.”
Not that that ever stopped Cardinal Richelieu trying to hang “the most innocent of men”.
It’s why I look at developing systems that are “deniable” even in the face of “Second Party Betrayal”.
Most do not realise that using most modern encryption is effectively signing your own confession due to Shannon’s “unicity distance”[1].
Thus you need a system that effectively negates this “self incrimination” issue.
I’ve discussed how to do this in the past on this blog and further described how to use it with “plaintext messages”.
[1] If you look at the Wikipedia oage on “Unicity Distance”,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicity_distance
You don’t even need to read the whole first sentence to see why, just,
In cryptography, unicity distance is the length of an original ciphertext needed to break the cipher by reducing the number of possible spurious keys to zero…
Is sufficient.
The implication of this is that it’s very easy for a third party to verify beyond doubt that a given key is correct for any given length of ciphertext using it.
Which is why back in the 1940’s if not earlier Claude Shannon had made the point that the length of any single ciphertext should be ideally a single bit and fully independent of all other ciphertext.
Hence the “One Time Pad”(OTP) consequently having the security property of,
“All messages are equiprobable”
As long as there are,
1.1, No distinguishers.
1.2, No correlations with other information.
ResearcherZero • May 2, 2024 3:01 AM
@JonKnowsNothing
There is no defence for the Magistrate’s court, which is the basic lower level criminal court for the commoner. There is a choice of plea and you might get a public defender. If you get a public defender you are ducked. And no, you cannot plead “the fifth”.
You might as well try lifting the right pants leg at this point. (You did wear pants?)
That means there is a very high chance you are already at a 96% risk of conviction.
(Unless of course you showed up appropriately dressed and accompanied by a QC)
To mount a defence you would then need to proceed to trial which will incur significant cost and a very high chance of a much stiffer sentence. Obviously you would already be ducked at this point because you did not keep your mouth shut, told the truth, or did not have a lawyer present. Or all three because you are naive and quite possibly disadvantaged.
ResearcherZero • May 2, 2024 3:05 AM
@JonKnowsNothing. @ALL
The general public is naive I mean. To make that more clear. From what I have seen on my lunch breaks, which I spent watching many a poor soul get ducking nailed and sent down.
ResearcherZero • May 2, 2024 3:13 AM
@Clive Robinson
I just work from the simple principle of trusting no one, unless they have lollies. 🙂
Winter • May 2, 2024 4:06 AM
@ResearcherZero
I just work from the simple principle of trusting no one, unless they have lollies. 🙂
Trust must be earned, the best strategy is Trust but verify.
A good demonstration of this principle is the winner of the iterative prisoner’s dilemma game: Tit-for-tat
‘https://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2021/09/11/the-tit-for-tat-strategy-that-stems-out-from-the-prisoners-dilemma/
It starts out with trust and then repeats what the other did. In real life terms, you trust but if betrayed, then trust only when the trust is earned back, if you have had full redress from the other.
TfT tends to win the iterated prisoner’s dilemma game hands down.[1]
[1] TfT is evolutionary stable. A population of TfT players will not be overtaken by any other strategy. In such a population of TfT players, defectors will get the worst results playing against anyone else while cooperators will not win from TfT.
jelo 117 • May 2, 2024 8:47 AM
Re: an OS is something which has to be ridden and kicked … until it takes you in the right direction.
I had a dream …
QNX – non monolithic
Qubes – non monolithic
GrapheneOS – kinda non monolithic
Can’t there be a QNX-Qubes-Graphene mashup ?
echo • May 2, 2024 12:01 PM
In the UK in some places it’s voting in the local elections and for the none-job police commissioner so I did my duty. A ten minute trip and done.
It’s a lot easier than the US where you have 50,000 page ballot papers and a fifty mile trip and dodgy voting machines and a 3000 deep queue where volunteers have to hand out tents and survival rations. Less of a time waste than Russia where the result is decided before you turn up.
According to the billionaire owned media I’m now officially a member of the metropolitan elite deep state wokerati liberal mind virus cabal which runs everything. Or as the Financial Times put it – if only.
echo • May 2, 2024 12:57 PM
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/conservative-mp-tom-hunt-photo-id-elections-dyspraxia-b1155272.html
Tory MP Tom Hunt blames dyspraxia for losing vital photo ID he needed to vote in election.Ipswich MP Tom Hunt said people mocking him online for the error were “persecuting” him and warned them to be “very careful with their words”.
One of those “security for me but not for thee” things…
This from the party which threw the Human Rights and Equality Act in the bin, have been noted by the Home Office of hate speech which has caused hate crime to soar, and brought in voter ID to gerrymander the vote against marginalised communities.
Ipswich main claims to fame are being a location for the Frederick Forsyth Cold War Thriller “The Forth Protocol” and the black glass Willis building designed by Norman Foster and Michael Hopkins. Other than that it’s flat, cold, and boring.
pup vas • May 2, 2024 4:42 PM
@JonKnowsNothing,@echo and all other interested bloggers
Workplace security
Victims of harassment by federal judges often find the judiciary is above the law
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/30/1247796812/federal-judges-harassment-clerks?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
Joke: what is difference between God and Federal Judge? God does not think he is Federal Judge.
Seriously: power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
echo • May 2, 2024 6:31 PM
@Pup vas
How very 1970’s of them!
By way of a complete coincidence my very next post was about court security.
The collateral damage of the drive for more stringent court security.
Stratford magistrates’ court in east London has been the site of several recent incidents of overzealous security including this one:
“On 25th January 2024 one female solicitor who went through the metal detector and wand search without setting them off was still subjected to a pat-down search. There were approximately 4 security staff, two of whom were male, dealing with her and due to the unprofessional and discourteous way in which she was being spoken to by one of the (male) officers in particular, she referred to him as an “idiot”. She was then forcibly ejected from the court building by two male security officers, had her lunch thrown onto the pavement and was denied re-entry (despite the fact that she was appearing as a duty solicitor that day).”
[…]
…As well as the report of the duty lawyer being thrown out, more than one female solicitor has reported being searched totally inappropriately: “(1) hands being placed inside the neckline of her dress during a pat down search; (2) patting down the sides of the breasts and in between them during another search and (3) having her leg felt under her dress up to her inner thigh, stopping barely short of her crotch.”
This needs a putting a stop to.
echo • May 2, 2024 8:46 PM
https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/microsoft-security-debt-crashing-down/714685/
Microsoft has a considerable stake in the cloud security space. Not only is Microsoft one of the world’s largest cloud providers, but it is also a major security provider to the enterprise. Microsoft has more than 1 million security customers, with 700,000 using four or more of its security products, CEO Satya Nadella said during the company’s fiscal second quarter conference call in January.
The company generates more than $20 billion in revenue per year from its security business.
Couldn’t they just make stuff which wasn’t a pile of junk? Someone else paying you $20 billion to cover up your mistakes?? That’s a sweet grift.
JonKnowsNothing • May 2, 2024 11:51 PM
@Bruce, All
re: Your PC Motto
A new version of the motto has emerged from the Gaza Protests in California.
In one encounter an empty plastic water dispenser bottle was used to “bonk” the opposing side.
The updated version is:
- This machine bonks fascists
Clive Robinson • May 3, 2024 1:09 AM
@ JonKnowsNothing,
Re : It ain’t what you do, but the words that you say…
“In one encounter an empty plastic water dispenser bottle was used to “bonk” the opposing side.”
Hmm…
In the “land guz-zunder” it has a somewhat different meaning,
https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/drive/a-quick-history-of-the-term-bonk/9490694
In the UK and other places it has a similar and other meanings that are context sensitive.
JonKnowsNothing • May 3, 2024 2:45 AM
@Clive, @Bruce
re: Alternative meanings
In comic books “bonk” indicates a fight, is commonly used along with other phonetically written sounds indicating combat, often meaning to get hit on top of the head. Sometimes “beaned” is used to mean the same thing.
Of course any word or phrase can be twisted into other meanings and urban dictionaries are full of words you don’t use in polite company. (1)
In California and the USA, it is no longer permissible to use an indigenous word meaning “woman” as it now carries a pejorative definition. Places, cities, streets and public locations like parks that have this word in their place-name have to remove it by 2025 or it will be done by government fiat.
- Next week (05 2024) there is a local meeting to review options and make suggestions for replacements. The potential replacement list does not have a single word honoring “females”; bears and men but no women.
-
- It will be opinions like belly-buttons: everyone has one.
Perhaps to clarify the meaning an image of the overhead smash with the plastic bottle should be included in the sticker.
Maybe tennis will pick up the term too, sanitizing it bit more.
===
1)
h tt ps:/ /e n.wi kipedia.org/wiki/Myron_(novel)
- Myron is a novel by American author Gore Vidal, published in 1974. It was written as a sequel to his 1968 bestseller Myra Breckinridge. The novel was published shortly after an anti-pornography ruling by the Supreme Court; Vidal responded by replacing the profanity in his novel with the names of the US Supreme Court Justices involved.
-
- He thrust his enormous Rehnquist deep within her…
- Later editions of the novel do not use these substitutions.
ResearcherZero • May 3, 2024 4:02 AM
@Winter
The UK government demonstrates it’s theory of trust…
“People look at you strangely; they want to know what have you done?”
The Home Office said that electronic monitoring is still used.
‘https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1rxr7xqlr7o
Ankle tags breach data protection law.
https://www.wired.com/story/gps-ankle-tags-uk-privacy-illegal/
The Home Office justifies the use of electronic monitoring on the grounds that it ‘encourages compliance with immigration rules and protects the public’.
However, the rate of absconding is exceptionally low (1.3%).
Inadequate staffing levels in the Hub have meant that certain tasks, including conducting reviews, have been de-prioritised. …with these only being conducted in response to legal representations’
‘https://publiclawproject.org.uk/content/uploads/2023/12/Constantly-on-Edge-Annual-Review-of-GPS-tagging-in-immigration-bail-2023.pdf
“Nelson lifts up his trousers to reveal the tag, wrapped around his leg, like a giant gray leech. He chokes down tears as he describes the impact the device has had on his life.”
ResearcherZero • May 3, 2024 4:11 AM
@Winter
On the flip-side, you really might get a lolly.
“Why did more than 1,000 people die?
‘https://apnews.com/article/associated-press-investigation-deaths-police-encounters-02881a2bd3fbeb1fc31af9208bb0e310
The practice of giving sedatives to people detained by police has spread quietly across the nation over the last 15 years. Tactics that are “less-lethal,” sometimes deployed in situations that wouldn’t seem to merit it…
Death usually is a sign you might have gone too far. But police policy varies…
“Each of these policies has different definitions of what constitutes force and what can justify a forceful response from police officers.”
Aliquippa’s policy is open to interpretation as to what the policy defends in police actions. Many forceful actions are defended as long as an officer “believes it necessary” to take these actions, but there are no limits to the police actions short of causing an arrestee’s death.
Officers are told not to consider age in their decisions and to identify themselves as police “when feasible.” …no guidelines are given as to what “force” may include.
‘https://eu.timesonline.com/story/news/local/2024/05/02/local-police-departments-policies-vary-on-use-of-force-standards-pennsylvania-beaver-county/71716079007/
ResearcherZero • May 3, 2024 4:21 AM
Fortunately the problem may have been solved.
No longer a police officer, Pete says it’s everyone else’s fault for the “moral fog”.
Dutton is unflustered by structural suffering – as a successful property developer.
‘https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2024/03/18/peter-dutton-bad-cop-liberal-politics
Pro-Palestine protests are the Port Arthur massacre all over again?
Martin Bryant is serving 35 life sentences after gunning down 35 people and wounding 23 others in Port Arthur on April 28, 1996. It remains Australia’s worst mass shooting.
Forget the wise words of the sages and “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps”…
Commenting that policy affects different people differently, that is racism too.
Pete says “it’s racist”, but saying that racism is racist, is in itself racist. (?)
Yes that might sound confusing, but Peter further explains it all…
‘https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/06/peter-duttons-claims-about-racism-are-disingenuous-co-chair-of-indigenous-voice-group-says
Pete says “something needs to be delved into and a royal commission”.
… but Pete says Australians are “over” referendums – including his own pitch.
And with that we can all go back to our lives as if nothing ever happened.
ResearcherZero • May 3, 2024 4:31 AM
People with a greater sense of entitlement view rules as an “unfair” imposition on them.
(Of course there is a paper on it)
https://spsp.org/news-center/press-releases/entitled-people-instructions-unfair
These might not be the best examples, but let’s pretend they are at least poor ones…
46-year-old software developer expected to be charged with blackmail.
‘https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-02/clubs-nsw-cybersecurity-potential-data-breach-venues/103793584
Security consultant chucks a sad and does a different kind of security assessment.
‘https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-cybersecurity-consultant-arrested-15-million-extortion-scheme-against-it
Winter • May 3, 2024 5:12 AM
@ResearcherZero
The UK government demonstrates it’s theory of trust…
I do not trust anything the UK government days or does. Everytime I verified the UK government they came out as untrustworthy if not treacherous.
Re: Racism
There are no human races that can be based on human biology.
But racism is very easy to define. It comes down to discriminating people on their ancestors, be it parents, grandparents or before. For a racist, the person herself does not have to be known at all to be judged.
Proxies for ancestry are skin color, eye shape, hair texture, religion etc. as they are related to ancestry in folklore.
So anyone who judges a person by their parents or grandparents is a racist in my eye.
Clive Robinson • May 3, 2024 7:29 AM
@ JonKnowsNothing, Bruce,
Re : It’s all bonkers…
“Maybe tennis will pick up the term too, sanitizing it bit more.”
The “Bonk” word is already used in sporting terms as an indication of fatigue… As in “That really bonked me out”.
How it came about was apparently trying to sanitise “shagged” out of sports usage (which likewise had sexual connotations).
So I would surmise that “the word meaning game” is kind of like, being a skittle/pin in bowling you know that where ever you stand eventually you will get bowled over.
The point is though you have to be aware of it. I’ve mentioned before that back now around four decades some one decided putting a Sinclair Spectrum and a tiny cassette recorder in a desk top case and calling it “Tonto” –as in Lone Ranger side kick– was a good idea. However in Spain it’s a slang word for “idiot”…
Even initials can get you in trouble. A company called GEC Pleasey Telecommunications decided it was to much of a mouthful and changed it to “GPT” which sounds innocent enough unless you speak French where it sounds just like,
“j’ai pété”
Which means you admit to having broken wind (or as some Norwegians note “Rumpentute”).
Life is full of this and it changes all the time and sometimes quite suddenly as a news item grabs peoples thinking, as in the shooting of teenager Trayyon Martin whilst walking towards the house of his fathers family,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/jul/15/skittles-trayvon-martin-zimmerman-acquittal.
JonKnowsNothing • May 3, 2024 10:16 AM
@ Winter , @ResearcherZero, All
re: anyone who judges a person by their parents or grandparents is a racist
As noted, people are not really judging “grandparents” because they do not know them, they are judging “regional and geographic” areas.
Basically they judge by “lines on a map”. The map maybe physical or geopolitical or held in the mind (my area, my home).
Within the lines on the map, they make assumptions about the types of people who live there. Their views, their lives, their daily work, where the shop and what they buy. All of these items get rolled into any of a number of epithets. (1)
Some years ago, there was a documentary on racism in daily living in the USA. It was an early “reality TV” program, filming people attending a conference on “diversity” in the USA. As the audience became exposed to the more subtle forms, they got more uncomfortable. At the end of the show, people who at the beginning had been considered “more sympathetic and less racist” were labeled the “worst racists”. One can imagine how that came about and what the impact was for them and the other people in the audience.
The takeaway:
- You can be nice to someone, have lunch with them, chat with them, share work with them, share family gatherings and still be a racist.
===
1)
ht tp s:/ /e n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackerel_snapper
- Mackerel snapper was once a sectarian slur for Catholics, originating in the United States in the 1850s. It referred to the Catholic discipline of Friday abstinence from red meat and poultry, for which fish was substituted. That practice distinguished Catholics from other Christians, especially in North America, where Protestant churches prevailed and Catholics tended to be immigrants from Italy, Poland, and Ireland.
- The term has been considered jocular since the mid-20th century and has fallen into disuse.
Winter • May 3, 2024 10:52 AM
@JonKnowsNothing
Within the lines on the map, they make assumptions about the types of people who live there.
Not quite. If a person was born in Central Africa, but all their grandparents originated in Good Ol’ England, the response will not be very different than when this person was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. Unless, of course, all the grandparents of the Stratford-upon-Avon person originated from Central Africa.
In general, this response will be mediated by the color of their skin, but still, it is not based on the person’s own achievements, but on the identity of their ancestors.
You can be nice to someone, have lunch with them, chat with them, share work with them, share family gatherings and still be a racist.
Obviously. But there is unconscious bias [1], which is the burned-in response from a certain upbringing. You are unaware of these responses, but they are still there. And there is the conscious conviction that there are races and some races “better” than others.
I rate these two types of bias differently.
Note that racism is not limited to people of European descent.
[1] Do the test:
‘https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
noname • May 3, 2024 11:30 AM
@echo
What is Microsoft spending on?
Here’s one thing: bills for rolling out generative AI services
“Microsoft dropped $14 billion between capex [capital expenditure] and equipment acquired under finance leases in the latest quarter
—more than the company used to spend in an entire year just five years ago…
Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said capex would “increase materially” in the current quarter and grow further in the next fiscal year… Positively, Hood noted that “near-term AI demand is a bit higher than our available capacity.””
“Google and Microsoft Cushion Their AI Capital Pains”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-microsoft-cushion-ai-capital-090000984.html
echo • May 3, 2024 1:00 PM
Two links posted about sexual harassment by people in positions of authority and instead of treating this seriously discussion turns into office banter or what is commonly called casual misogyny.
Maintaining a security theme women on social media have been discussing this past week the question of would you rather be alone in the woods with a bear or alone in the woods with a man. The vote is overwhelming in favour of the bear.
Clive Robinson • May 3, 2024 1:31 PM
@ noname, ALL,
Re : AI Cost and loss.
“Here’s one thing: bills for rolling out generative AI services”
And that is not the least of it…
Both Google and Microsoft are hoping that AI LLM’s will become,
“The new agent of betrayal”
By which they will “rape, pillage and plunder” as much “Private and Personal Information” from people as they can.
The basic business plan is,
“Bedazzle, Beguile, Bewitch, befriend and betray.”
Some idiots fell for this early on. But… The AI’s working as “user agents” have more limitations than many including Google and Microsoft realised.
The “AI bubble” got hyped up much like Crypto-Coin and subsequently Web3 of NFT’s and Smart-Conteacts.
The real winners have been the crooks not the creators thus their bubbles got well and truly plundered. Which means a lot of people are being more cautious about the “AI Hype-Bubble”.
Especially as people are now realising that these AI User-Agents / Co-Pilots are basically crap and getting worse…
Will Google and Microsoft sink even more capital into the AI nonsense?
Of course they will throwing more good money after bad is a human failing of those with more money than sense.
Will Google and Microsoft actually see a real return on investment?
Based on current AI inability I think the answer is a fairly resounding NO.
But they both have shareholders to please… So expect them to claim various things that can not be checked thus verified or supported.
Oh and part of this nonsense will be “productivity gains” assessments, which will be the same old BS “specmanship” nonsense of the 1980’s through mid 2000’s.
I suspect those staying away from AI assist will actually show the greater productivity in the long term.
Because whilst enough monkeys will produce the works of Shakespeare eventually, the productivity per banana / peanut will be so low and the average quality about as close to zero as you can measure… However compared to the downward trend of AI LLM and ML systems seen already, like the famed ponies of old maybe they’ve learned their “one trick”…
As I’ve said before, investing in AI is a game for those with more money than sense. However those AI companies have to burn those investments as fast as possible to show they are “top gaming” the competition.
Thus that money has to go somewhere… as I’ve indicated before the first place it will go is to those supplying “good and services” to those AI Bubble companies. Back some time ago I recommended keeping your eye on Nvidia, and well they have grown substantially whilst those “top gaming” AI have actually depreciated in value quite a bit.
I’m guessing that the steam is going to come out of existing Nvidia markets in the not to distant future as the AI bubble deflates or bursts.
So has Nvidia come up with a new lucrative market to make their own for a very profitable while?
Honest answer is I do not know. But what I do know is those AI rigs like the NFT, Smart Contract, and Crypto-coin before them need,
1, Power
2, Cooling
3, Space
Thus supply in technology and resources in those areas will continue to see income if not profit as long as the rigs run (which might not be long if Governments see them as a “climate risk” or worse).
But my gut feeling is that the “Big Rig AI bubble” has passed it’s peak anyway.
And if ML continues to learn from “quantity” not “quality” you know which way things are going to go as increasing quantities of low to zero if not worse quality enter the input hopper diluting any quality beyond recognition[1].
As I’ve said in the past I’m not an investor, speculator, or any other kind of financial idiot, what I say is based on what I see from the technology side and what I think might happen. People should thus be rightfully skeptical and go do their own viewing and calculating it is after all both their own money and risk.
[1] It has been noted that a single viable tomato seed given sufficient light, warmth and water, will happily grown in “ten metric 5hit tones” of bovine scat. But if you divide it up into inch by inch cubes then you will have hundreds of millions of cubes. Only one of which will bear fruit. Hence the AI ML quality problem.
JonKnowsNothing • May 3, 2024 2:08 PM
@Winter, All
re: response will be mediated by the color of their skin
The easiest racism to notice is based on skin color, the harder ones to find are the ones based on individuals who look “just like you”.
- Racism is not about color but often involves color.
The lines on the map are both physical and mentally drawn. It doesn’t matter how the lines get there, they distinguish US from THEM.
“Marginal” communities are an indicator of how much racism exists against that group.
- RV Dwellers (homes of last resort) and Tent Dwellers (last resort) communities are of many backgrounds, many cultures and many histories. It’s the RVs and Tents that mark them out. Nomadic groups have similar issues.
- Irish Travellers, Romani people, Sámi peoples
Another modern indicator is the amount of “legal difficulty” is placed on a group. The greater the laws of hindrance, the greater the likelihood of racism is part of the program.
Racism has used economics to justify many rules and laws and draconian reactions.
A MSM report on the ROBODEBT scandal ponzi scheme burial insurance program in Australia, which targeted indigenous families, was facilitated by the Aussi Centerlink / Centerpay Auto-debit program. Of the $96 million in restitution the government will take a 30% CLAWBACK of $30 million for “administration”. (1)
One can place all sorts of self-imposed limits on What is In and Out when considering racism, but the overall problem remains.
A common complaint is:
- I, personally, had nothing to do with XYZ. Why do I have to be “punished”?
If you really consider this carefully, underneath is a serious issue. Often it remains undefined, but its the racist elephant in the room.
===
1)
HAIL Warning
htt ps://www. theguar dian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/03/about-a-third-of-96m-acbf-youpla-victim-support-scheme-to-be-spent-on-administration
- Almost a third of the federal government’s $96m support scheme for the thousands of Aboriginal people who fell victim to the predatory funeral fund insurer ACBF-Youpla will be chewed up by its own administration
Clive Robinson • May 3, 2024 3:48 PM
@ JonKnowsNothing, Winter, ALL,
Re : Sociology not biology.
“The lines on the map are both physical and mentally drawn. It doesn’t matter how the lines get there, they distinguish US from THEM.”
Hence it’s not biology, etc, it’s sociology of “Tribalism” and thus territory held.
Town football teams have tribes of supporters some are of a violence few can imagine unless they have experienced primal hand to hand combat in blood, tooth, and claw.
The only difference between such tribes is their allegiance to the respective flags or colours they carry or wear.
JonKnowsNothing • May 3, 2024 4:41 PM
@Clive, Winter, ALL
re: their allegiance to the respective flags or colours
Which brings in an interesting extension:
- Workplace allegiance, Political Party allegiance
There are lots of employers in the USA who demand “allegiance”. It won’t prevent workers from being terminated.
Some political parties are using “loyalty statements” and all the unwritten implications of that.
It all impacts how computer systems are designed. The underlying assumptions about the users and what sorts of data will be in the system.
- In Japan, married couples are required to select 1 of their names as THE only identifier for both of them.
- In USA, name fields are often First, Middle, Last oriented but in some countries people have many First Names, and many Last Names or only 1 name.
These are faults in design but for years it was presumed in the USA that F M L was the only needed order.
This is a bit more nuanced that currency, as global currency is defined by banking authorities. The symbols might be strange but the concept is understood.
Within some systems, the difference between bias and racist maybe hard to determine.
In computer games, one can trace an evolution in thinking from avatars that are only white skinned to avatars of every skin color. Hair color selection is still undergoing change with white hair a recent option.
Echo of past arising • May 3, 2024 5:03 PM
@All,
“by people in positions of authority”
According to whom, other than a self elected anonymous.
“and instead of treating this seriously”
It got ignored as it is not relevant to the subject matter of this blog.
How many times before what you post is ignored, is it going to be before you take the hint?
“discussion turns into office banter or what is commonly called casual misogyny.”
Complete twaddle.
Raised by you for self justification, because you were quite rightly ignored.
Judging by comments made by several others this is not unexpected behaviour from you as you have quite a history of antisocial behaviour here.
Go read the posting rules for this blog, you might learn something.
noname • May 3, 2024 11:17 PM
I know @Clive.
Of course, one reason for investing is to help our money maintain its purchasing power in the face of inflation. I think our inflation rate is currently around 3.5%.
From what I gather from a Credit Suisse report, the UK rate of real return (the rate over inflation) from 1900–2022 was 5.3% on equities.
“AstraZeneca is the largest UK stock by
market capitalization. Other major companies include Shell, Unilever, HSBC Holdings, BP, Diageo, and British American Tobacco.”
“What continues to set London apart, and justifies its claim to being the world’s leading international financial center, is the global, cross-border nature of much of its business.”
I was just reading that Microsoft is setting up an AI hub in London, in the Paddington office.
https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/04/07/announcing-new-microsoft-ai-hub-in-london/
“There is an enormous pool of AI talent and expertise in the U.K., and Microsoft AI plans to make a significant, long-term investment in the region as we begin hiring the best AI scientists and engineers into this new AI hub.”
Looks like they’re making a £2.5 billion investment.
How do you feel about that?
Winter • May 4, 2024 1:28 AM
@JonKnowsNothing
The lines on the map are both physical and mentally drawn. It doesn’t matter how the lines get there, they distinguish US from THEM.
The point of Racism is not the discrimination and marginalization, but the fact that it is a caste system where you are a member of a caste by birth.
Nothing you have done or can do or will do will change your caste or race.
This is very much like gender, except that gender crosses family lines and caste and race runs in the family.
ResearcherZero • May 4, 2024 4:12 AM
@Clive Robinson
If you lose your head while being shot at, particularly with high powered rifles, and stand up, you get shot. This remains the case with or without drones. You just keep your cool and keep working your way back through any small contours in the land’s surface until reaching cover. It’s the unfortunate nature of ambush, regardless of where it takes place.
They wait until you are in the open without cover before opening fire. The difference between an early grave and survival is remaining calm. Though crooks don’t kindly wait around. After such encounters, a bullet proof vest is the next priority. Often custom fitted, it takes a little time, and once spent they unfortunately need to be replaced.
Secure convoys and a full time security team may take several such incidents. But I don’t remember them being cheap, so God knows what ordinary folk do in such a situation. They are great company though and remind you of all the best things in life when you are in a mood.
@Winter, @JohnKnowsNothing
Re: Nothing you have done or can do or will do will change your caste or race.
Very much reminds me of the DoJ reports into police corruption and violence…
“We all know very well that Black men, and Black young men in particular, have been the boogeyman for those who are racist and think that only straight, wealthy white men should have a say in anything.”
‘https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/apr/21/dei-language-conservatives-baltimore
Retaliation against residents who question or challenge actions — and against other officers who attempt to speak up for victims.
“This is maybe like going to your heart doctor and they tell you, ‘you need to do things differently or you will have a heart attack.’”
‘https://www.al.com/news/2024/04/report-on-mobile-police-illegal-behavior-aggressive-demeaning-attitude-toward-black-residents.html
Franklin was shot five times in the head. A ballistics report indicated that two officers had held their guns to his head side by side and fired simultaneously. Audio captured by a passerby—and never closely examined by either police or prosecutors—directly contradicted the officers’ contention that the shooting was in self-defense.
One of the shooters in it had supervised Chauvin in 2017, and allowed him to kneel on a 14-year-old boy for more than 10 minutes, body camera footage showed.
https://time.com/6282799/terrance-franklin-mary-moriarty/
John Pope was just 14 when Chauvin struck him in the head with a flashlight multiple times and pinned him to a wall by his throat. He then knelt on the Black teen, as his mother pleaded, “Please do not kill my son.” Chauvin, the report found, kept his knee on the teen’s neck or back for over 15 minutes.
MPD “routinely” used excessive force “often when no force [was] necessary.” That included “unjust deathly force and unreasonable use of tasers.” Officers also “discharged firearms at people without assessing the person presents any threat, let alone a threat that would justify deadly force.
‘https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/justice-dept-civil-rights-violations-minneapolis-police-1234773034/
ResearcherZero • May 4, 2024 4:25 AM
@Winter, @JohnKnowsNothing
For example people with very red hair. They are routinely and unfairly targeted.
Or when my wife and I were very small children, we kept escaping when we were kidnapped.
So when we were sitting at a public event, the crooked cops shot us with high powered rifles. Then they murdered some of our closest friends, likely because they were kids too.
Kind, compassionate and accepting children who helped others. The worst kind.
ResearcherZero • May 4, 2024 4:50 AM
In stark contrast to small children…
Trump requires constant praise, yet is unable to grasp the perspectives of others.
Trump’s fellow party members’ lack of courage to condemn his awful bevaiour is shameful.
His behaviour endangers the rights of others including women, families and their children.
Ethics starts at the top — the signals a leader sends — set the tone.
Comments that discriminate against others can cause deep harm to communities.
Politicians and leaders have a responsibility to foster an inclusive society.
‘https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/23/politics/donald-trump-gag-order-analysis/index.html
Toddlers have much to learn about acceptable social behaviour, but they are not stupid, vindictive or malicious. When told that they are lying, and lying is wrong, they learn to correct their behavior. They are also aware of the needs of others…
“The youngest children have a great capacity for empathy and altruism. There’s a recent study that shows even 14-month-olds will climb across a bunch of cushions and go across a room to give you a pen if you drop one.”
Children also get visibly upset when they see someone else being physically harmed.
Children are held accountable for their actions, and they know the difference between “good” and “bad”.
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/alison-gopnik-on-donald-trump-narcissism-and-children/
Winter • May 4, 2024 6:56 AM
@ResearcherZero
Trump requires constant praise, yet is unable to grasp the perspectives of others.
Trump is a Narcissist [1]. That is a serious personality disorder comparable to psychopathy in their utter lack of empathy for others and homicidal tendencies [2].
Remember that Trump tried to get his vice president lynched [3] and during the height of the pandemic refused to deliver ventilators to states whose governors had been disrespectful.[4]
In short, Trump is a man with a very serious mental disorder and as a result a deranged view of reality.
[1] Based on DSM5
Short:
‘https://narcopath.info/about-npd/overview/dsm-5/
Long:
‘https://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/psychiatric-disorders/personality-disorders/narcissistic-personality-disorder-npd
[2] ‘https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-human-equation/202301/the-hidden-danger-of-the-homicidal-narcissist
[3] ‘https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/25/trump-expressed-support-hanging-pence-capitol-riot-jan-6-00035117
[4] ‘https://theweek.com/articles/904946/trumps-message-blue-states-battling-coronavirus-drop-dead
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Mr. Peed Off • April 26, 2024 5:29 PM
Safeguarding Brain Data: Assessing the Privacy Practices of Consumer
Neurotechnology Companies is the first comprehensive report analyzing the data practices and
user rights of consumer neurotechnology products. Neurotechnology refers to devices capable of
recording or altering the activity of the nervous system, including the brain, the spinal cord, and
the peripheral nerves. Traditionally used within medical and research settings, these devices are
increasingly marketed to consumers. Today, at least 30 neurotechnology products are available
for purchase by members of the public.
The human brain is unlike any other organ, as it generates all of our mental and cognitive
activities. The data it produces is unlike any other data, as it reflects mental processing. Neural
data, which refers to information directly reflecting the activity of an individual’s central or
peripheral nervous systems, is therefore capable of revealing enormously sensitive information
about the people from whom it was collected, including identifiable information about their
mental health, physical health, and cognitive processing. In the coming years, the sensitivity of
neural data will only deepen as investments from the private sector, governments, and similar
initiatives expand. This will result in improvements to the technical capabilities of
neurotechnology, affording increased resolution of brain scans and larger datasets of brain data
being collected, while generative artificial intelligence will accelerate the ability to accurately
decode these scans. Meanwhile, implantable neurotechnologies can already accurately decode
language and emotions, while wearable devices are beginning to have some of these capabilities
as well. These developments have significant implications for mental privacy, highlighting the
pressing importance of understanding the privacy practices and user protections provided by
consumer neurotechnology companies.
https://www.perseus-strategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/FINAL-Consumer-Neurotechnology-Report-Neurorights-Foundation-March-2024-3.pdf