Comments
Clive Robinson • April 5, 2024 9:07 PM
@ Bruce,
A “squiddy” for the “squid page”,
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=100YoFJrY7M
In short so you do not have to watch 😉
A dipole antenna can for any fixed length have it’s resonance frequency changed by adding inductance or capacitance.
What this operator has done is “add capacitance” at the ends of the dipole by using a short length of eight conductor network cable.
When cut and stripped the result might to some eyes look like a very anorexic squid, hence the “squiddy” name…
Yup I know “mad as a bag of frogs” but hey the world would be a dull place otherwise 😇
JonKnowsNothing • April 5, 2024 10:40 PM
re: A Bad Op Sec Failure
HAIL Warning
A MSM report states that due to a security failure, the head of the Israeli Unit 8200, their feared intelligence unit, had his identity leaked. Per the article, he had written a book on how AI should run Future Intelligence and Military. Some of the minutia included in the book has some easily traced links to a name, email account, social media promotion details for the author of the book.
- The embarrassing security lapse is linked to a book he published on Amazon, which left a digital trail to a private Google account created in his name, along with his unique ID and links to the account’s maps and calendar profiles
- The commander of Israel’s Unit 8200 is Yossi Sariel aka Brigadier General YS
===
HAIL Warning
ht tps:/ /w ww. the guardian.com/world/2024/apr/05/top-israeli-spy-chief-exposes-his-true-identity-in-online-security-lapse
ResearcherZero • April 6, 2024 12:28 AM
The same actor dumped data from HPE, in a breach which followed an intrusion by SVR actors.
‘https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/04/feds_data_dump/
–
“Before and after the investment, senior newsroom leaders urged Newsmax staff to soften coverage of Qatar, current and former employees said.”
Heritage was described in the January federal indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) as having “ties to the Government of Qatar.” Other investments by Heritage Advisors in recent years include a Miami-based real estate developer, a professional soccer team in Indiana, and The News Movement, a media entity founded in 2020 to target a Gen Z audience.
‘https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2024/03/qatari-royal-invested-about-50-million-in-pro-trump-network-newsmax/
While the Qatari government has deep pockets, taking money from the country carries political risks, especially for businesses that operate in conservative circles, because of its close ties with Iran and allegations that its government funds terrorism.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/08/qatar-newsmax-ruddy-al-jazeera-trump-573242
ResearcherZero • April 6, 2024 1:56 AM
“Moral turpitude” is hardly unique amongst the human species or any one nation. It has nothing to do with one’s ideology or party affiliation, it is an individual choice. No one is immune from breaking rules, acting unscrupulously, cruelty, or failing to support others.
At this very moment how many of us are feeding the hungry or sheltering the homeless?
–
Moscow had multiplied its use of subcontractors, and, in 2013, in front of the heads of major Russian universities, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu sent a very clear message: “We are beginning the great hunt for programmers.”
The army needed more high-level computer scientists. That same year, Putin ordered the creation of the National Defense Control Center, to put into practice the concept of “hybrid warfare,” combining classic military operations, cyberattacks, propaganda, and clandestine operations.
The “hybrid war” was implemented the following year during the invasion of Crimea. But in Moscow, the doctrine also had the consequence of giving a major boost to the “military-industrial complex.”
‘https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2023/03/30/vulkan-files-what-russian-company-s-internal-documents-reveal-about-kremlin-s-cyberwarfare-obsession_6021238_13.html
Notable trends from state-backed actors “that demonstrate not only doubling down on familiar targets, but also attempts to use more sophisticated influence techniques to achieve their goals.” In particular, Chinese influence actors “experimented with new media” and “continued to refine AI-generated or AI-enhanced content.”
https://time.com/6963787/china-influence-operations-artificial-intelligence-cyber-threats-microsoft/
–
(February 6, 2024)
“the data at issue appears to be related to information that was contained in a test environment.”
‘https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/hpe-could-have-been-hit-by-another-major-cyberattack
Midnight Blizzard (Cozy Bear) appeared to be specifically interested in learning what company executives know about their group and methods.
HPE first learned about the situation on December 12, 2023, but said that the attack began in May 2023. Hackers “accessed and exfiltrated data … from a small percentage of HPE mailboxes belonging to individuals in our cybersecurity, go-to-market, business segments, and other functions,”
Microsoft reported that it also discovered an intrusion of its corporate network on Jan. 12.
https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-hpe-midnight-blizzard-email-breaches/
“To begin with, it wasn’t clear what my work would be used for,” says one former employee, who has since left the country. “Later, I understood that we weren’t just collecting data. But that it was being used by the Russian secret service.” (and Russian state hacking groups such as Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear)
One of Vulkan’s most far-reaching projects was carried out with the blessing of the Kremlin’s most infamous unit of cyberwarriors, known as Sandworm.
‘https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-vulkan-files-a-look-inside-putin-s-secret-plans-for-cyber-warfare-a-4324e76f-cb20-4312-96c8-1101c5655236
“They seek to be able to encourage us to question what we believe to be true, and pit us against one another.”
echo • April 6, 2024 2:14 AM
A MSM report states that due to a security failure, the head of the Israeli Unit 8200, their feared intelligence unit, had his identity leaked. Per the article, he had written a book on how AI should run Future Intelligence and Military. Some of the minutia included in the book has some easily traced links to a name, email account, social media promotion details for the author of the book.
To be honest I don’t think it matters that much who heads up an intelligence service. They probably just want some square who will keep their trap shut and has enough interest in the job to be motivated.
What the Israel-Gaza conflict has shown is that military strategy and AI take a back seat to the design intentions of the politicians and senior staff. Proof again that a solely technical security model is deeply flawed. If you don’t have a multi-domain security definition you don’t have security. It’s also where the US and EU differ at a constitutional level.
Interestingly there are LGBT Palestinians and Israel to many people’s surprise doesn’t have any marriage equality law.
Any nation state level security expert who hasn’t boned up on Feminist Queer Marxist Materialist theory isn’t doing their job. One of the first surprises they might have is it doesn’t mean what they think it means and addresses many of the critical security issues causing a lot of people a lot of headaches. You could knock me over with a feather when I hear on MSNBC or CNN, for example, broadcasters and politicians knocking around the same talking points I’ve written about as ways of dealing with specific political threat scenarios i.e. I got ear ache for banging on about the far right. Within a two week window it was mainstream. That matters a lot because when people can identify it they can see it and talk about it and influence executive action.
Without diluting the role of security services they have to have a multi-domain security model which joins up with other government departments such as Home Office, social policy orientated departments, and Ministry of Justice.
I’m now inclined to believe the only future for Israel-Palestine is as a multi-ethnic secular democratic state. Zionism and Islamic theocracy are both dead in the water. It’s just going to take some people a while to figure this out.
The single best international and domestic security policy is the International Declaration of Human Rights. It’s extremely radical as it dissolves the notion of the nation state defining who we are and allows everyone to live together and be who they are and live together in a pluralistic society. The only people who don’t like it are dictators and nasty people which should tell you enough.
echo • April 6, 2024 3:08 AM
“Moral turpitude” is hardly unique amongst the human species or any one nation. It has nothing to do with one’s ideology or party affiliation, it is an individual choice. No one is immune from breaking rules, acting unscrupulously, cruelty, or failing to support others.
It’s a specific legal instrument unique to the US and embedded in visa policy. Legally it’s a bit of a weird thing and like you note a catch-all so a bit stupid in a lot of ways. There isn’t a single human being alive who isn’t guilty to one degree or another depending on your starting position and I’m not aware of any policy or case law which defines it well. Some US domestic cases where it has been used would wouldn’t clear any “reasonable person” test nor any human rights law. Given some of the regressive policies peddled by some hick politicians funded by dodgy donors with deep pockets lately it’s no surprise really. Like they’re saints…
At this very moment how many of us are feeding the hungry or sheltering the homeless?
The focus should be on building public policy and public services and funding it appropriately not leaving the fate of people to the whims of rich or otherwise donors.
echo • April 6, 2024 4:48 AM
https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/
‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza
I read this when it was first published. It’s a very very iffy system. The article notes the view of the Israeli military’s International Law Department. International law is a little more tricky than that. There is a positive obligation to take measures to reduce civilian harm and also a narrowing “margin of appreciation” where the means to avoid civilian harm exists. The Russians play fast and lose with this by hiding behind their lower tech in comparison to the West and quantity has its own quality dogma which isn’t actually much of a defence. I suspect the Israeli military defence is similarly problematic for the opposite reasons.
ResearcherZero • April 6, 2024 5:24 AM
@echo
Here is a tip. If something is not worth a reply, it might be advice worthy of following. For the sake of civility, it would seem rather counterproductive to ignore one’s own advice. Or if you cannot adhere to your own instruction, keep it short and civil at least.
–
AI generated subtitles have definitely improved over the last year.
What did the journalist get €600,000 for, and why did he hide payments from Putin’s circle from the public?
Seipel now claims he knew nothing about money that came by the way of shell companies, that was then transferred using loopholes via sanctioned individuals close to Putin.
Cyprian documents reveal how The Kremlin sponsored Hubert Seipel, accusations that Seipel previously denied outright. No money from Russia he claimed.
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHzNSBfNTzA
–
Cybersecurity first principles – Ivanti has committed to adopting a secure-by-design approach to security.
‘https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/04/ivanti_secure_by_design/
Winter • April 6, 2024 5:33 AM
@ResearcherZero
At this very moment how many of us are feeding the hungry or sheltering the homeless?
I know I do not do enough. It is not easy to do yourself.
I happily pay taxes to have them publicly fed, housed, and given a basic income. I vote for politicians that want increase my taxes to increase their support. We actually have a state pension that is a UBI for the old.[1] I love to pay for it. That way, none of my elder relatives has ever needed to be ashamed for having to accept money from private persons.
I could do more, personally, but there is little I can do that would make a real difference.
[1] Even our queen got it after she turned 65.
Clive Robinson • April 6, 2024 6:00 AM
@ JonKnowsNothing,
Re : The thought not the body is the directing mind.
“the head of the Israeli Unit 8200, their feared intelligence unit, had his identity leaked. Per the article, he had written a book on how AI should run Future Intelligence and Military.”
The idea is madness and you might on examining what is currently going on be forgiven for asking,
“Is it already in use?”
The answer we know already is “NO” because of what happened in 1948 and over and over since.
There is a distinct disconnect between the actual reality of current AI as seen in LLM and ML systems and what most humans would regard as “intelligence”.
As I’ve pointed out in the past and has been repeatedly confirmed by testing, AI as currently used is an arms length absolving mechanism thus excuse for not admitting the truth of the utterly immoral intent of the “directing mind”.
The use of,
“Because the computer says…”
Should never ever be used, for exactly the same reason soldiers are not allowed to follow illegal orders that come down the chain of command.
And people should think long and hard about the fate of dogs that bite or attack supposedly in defence of their “masters”. It’s the dog not it’s master that gets destroyed thus pays the price.
We’ve just seen an example of this with drones and rockets, and we are going to see more examples of it especially when soldiers are “no longer human”.
It is the “directing minds” that should be sought out and suffer the punishment, not the subordinates be they man or machine.
The fact we allow “Directing Minds” to,
“Walk away and prosper another day”
Should be abhorrent to all of us, as a little thought tells you they will not stop, just learn to put more excuses or fall guys in as cut outs.
But worse far worse are those that design and build systems that they fully know are designed to be used to act as arms length excuses or shields for such “Directing Minds”.
The amount of harm an individual directing mind can do is physically limited. Thus they use “force multipliers” to achieve a greater effect. Be they others that “follow orders” or some form of enabling technology. When the multiplication becomes sufficient the technology items become “Weapons of Mass Destruction”(WMD).
In this respect AI LLM and ML systems are no different, and those glibly hiding behind notions of “AGI” to build these systems are knowingly just as guilty as the “Directing Minds” that will use the LLM or ML systems as “cut outs” or absolvers for their true WMD intent.
ResearcherZero • April 6, 2024 6:08 AM
@Winter
I used to volunteer at the soup kitchens, hang out with all the homeless, then go spend some time with the elderly at the aged care unit and palliative care. You only get so much downtime and R&R. But that is a lame excuse I’m making because I did it when I had three jobs. I actually got lazy and then donated a whole heap of money instead to soothe me conscience. I will say in my defense that I liked the last generation a whole lot better.
My grand parents and great-grand parents did a lot of social and community work. My parents however never helped anyone but themselves, and not once engaged in community organisations or thought about anyone else but themselves. Their entire social circle is much the same.
But I’ll admit it is still cruel to leave them all to die alone.
ResearcherZero • April 6, 2024 6:12 AM
How to get the toothpaste back into the tube…
Social media is teeming with disinformation, misinformation, trash talk and lies.
“a ramping up of foreign interference operations” – O’Toole
‘https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/otoole-foreign-interference-inquiry-1.7161989
So how big a problem is mis and disinformation on the web?
Rep. Jim Jordan: “Well, I’m sure there’s some.”
“Big Tech is out to get Conservatives,” politicians Jim Jordan has claimed in response.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/scotus-grapples-with-online-first-amendment-rights-as-social-media-teems-with-misinformation-60-minutes-transcript/
–
A report says that there was a campaign to deliberately spread misinformation.
‘https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/world/americas/canada-china-2021-election.html
The US government’s ability to fight disinformation online has suffered a legal setback.
Experts say it will have a chilling effect on communications between federal agencies and social media companies.
How governments around the world are responding:
‘https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/anti-misinformation-actions/
ResearcherZero • April 6, 2024 6:40 AM
@ALL
Worth reading if you have not.
‘https://www.foxnews.com/world/new-evidence-suggests-russia-behind-serious-havana-syndrome
Unit 29155 has been around since the 1970’s, along with it’s logo.
“There are no barriers on what Moscow will do, on who they will attack, and that if we don’t face this head on, the problem is going to get worse.”
https://time.com/6962399/havana-syndrome-russia-u-s/
“Is it supposed to have blinking green lights? Should I leave it on all night?”
At the same time, FBI agent Carrie told us, the battery in her phone began to swell until it broke the case. Finally she passed out on a couch. Because of chest pain, she was checked by a cardiologist and then returned to duty. “And I remember complaining to my colleagues for months after that I felt like I had early Alzheimer’s.”
‘https://www.cbsnews.com/news/havana-syndrome-culprit-investigation-new-evidence-60-minutes-transcript/
ResearcherZero • April 6, 2024 7:07 AM
It would be very helpful if we had laws to permanently size and impound such equipment.
I do realise however that legislators and prosecutors are a massive bunch of p–sies. In such circumstances one imagines that their fears, rather than reality, get the better of them. Equipment once impounded certainly has a lot less potential to stoke those fears.
The operators could be sent home after questioning to face whatever fate has in store. The police rarely attend such incidents, but such laws would be useful in case they do attend.
Preferably it would be in everyone’s interests to charge the operators, using evidence that is held in possession. Laws on the book would greatly assist in that endeavor. Similar in manner to how other weapons are seized at the scene of a crime.
If anyone then doubts if the equipment works (or not), they could test it on themselves.
ResearcherZero • April 6, 2024 7:14 AM
It would be a wise idea. The gear seems to be more powerful now than it was 20 years ago.
echo • April 6, 2024 7:20 AM
@@ResearcherZero
Here is a tip. If something is not worth a reply, it might be advice worthy of following. For the sake of civility, it would seem rather counterproductive to ignore one’s own advice. Or if you cannot adhere to your own instruction, keep it short and civil at least.
Oooh. Hark at thee. Sometimes I like having fun and blowing people off with a big raspberry is better than anything written in formal language plus if you do some checking you’ll find the reply was factually correct in its entirety. I do ten times the emotional labour you lot do given some of the stuff I have to read compared to purely technical stuff so if I want to have a laugh I’ll grab what’s on offer. Like you say yourself there is only so much uptime and R&R and this is how I deal with it plus I’m feeling like a scamp this past few days so double-win.
@Winter
I could do more, personally, but there is little I can do that would make a real difference.
I’m not rich but I donate some money to good causes. At the moment that’s mostly the Ukraine effort focusing on humanitarian relief and the disabled, or LGBT stuff. The amount I donate is peanuts. Clive perhaps is wisely avoiding me and didn’t comment directly on the “Lavender” system but if I can steal his material as shamelessly as he steals mine the idea that many small donations to a good cause can be a “force multiplier” is a thing. And without the small donations the big donations might not happen, and the celebrities might not speak up, and politicians may not be brave enough to take a position. I’m only otherwise going to spend it on cake or cigarettes so it’s not as if I’m losing anything by donating.
Clive Robinson • April 6, 2024 7:50 AM
@ ResearcherZero, ALL,
Re : It’s all in the clouds.
“The same actor dumped data from HPE, in a breach which followed an intrusion by SVR actors.”
You failed to mention two important points,
1, It was caused by use of the cloud.
2, As normal these days Microsoft was the causal entity.
For decades now I’ve warned about using what we now call the “cloud”.
The simple fact is it matters not a jot if data outside your physical control is encrypted or not, because the KeyMat is “just more data” and “gets swept in with the rest”.
Anyone who uses the cloud to “save money” obviously follows the maxim of,
“Having more money than sense.”
And just further proves the moronic neo-con/liberal nonsense that always boils down to,
“Moronic short term thinking.”
The only advantage of such stupidity is the entertainment value when you hear the excuses.
echo • April 6, 2024 8:04 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8zxiB5Qhsc
Universal Pictures
Official Trailer
Monkey Manhttps://screenrant.com/monkey-man-movie-trans-representation-importance-dev-patel-explained/
“This Is An Anthem For The Underdogs”: Why Monkey Man’s Trans Representation Is Vital To The Film. Dev Patel explains the importance of Monkey Man’s transgender representation, with Patel calling the film “an anthem for the underdogs.”
I have a weakness for good action movies and comic books. Don’t all laugh all at once, tah.
For the pedants the security theme of Monkey Man is along the lines of governance and power and the injustices of a hierarchical system. From a glance at the trailer it speaks up against the kind of world promoted by technofeudalists and billionaires who would be kings.
It is a movie. It’s just for fun. At the same time it can make for good conversation and be a good morale boost and get ordinary none subject matter experts enthused which is always good especially for academics who are dependent on grant applications for public funds!
JonKnowsNothing • April 6, 2024 10:47 AM
@All
re: The ethics of ethnic divisions
Humans have a variety of ways of identifying with a group. When people talk about the homeless, soup kitchens, food relief, alternative housing options, it’s a way for the provider to identify a group but also the receivers to be quantified in a group.
Groups are important, and humans without a group are vulnerable. We don’t do well in solitary confinement either in prison, hospital or living in an RV. We are social animals.
How humans divide up in groups is fairly obvious from the 10k foot level. These major divisions shift and change all the time, however for group identity purposes, at the ground level, they do not change very much.
There are other, not as visible groups, which adhere to a different paradigm of community. These groups abhor interaction with larger groups and maintain their internal sense of community by remaining closed societies.
For those advocating a 10k foot level view of “cleaning up the mess”, miss the importance of these smaller communities, and an important point. Community is what glues people together. Isolation drives people to either adhere to the community in a stronger bond or to find another community that provides a similar sense of protection.
For the failings of all communities, their strength is the bond they produce within their membership. Humans without community will find one.
Sometimes we give these groups names that are demeaning, derogatory, uninformed, under appreciated. If you want to dissolve such communities you have to first find a replacement for it. Failure to build in a new community connection, leads to a collapse of that social attempt or experiment.
Community isn’t just for humans, a good number of animals also have community. Humans disrupt animal communities all the time, but they are there and all you have to do is look for it. Humans disrupt other human communities all the time too and in the same way.
We think we know about the larger aspects of such communities, but unless you are part of one or have been part of one, you really do not appreciate their strengths and weaknesses. It’s easy to be dismissive of outliers but the very essence of such communities is the cohesion it builds in their members.
There are lots of good documentaries on communities that are outside of the main stream of modern culture. It’s worth a viewing to get a different image of “other”.
Recently I checked out the difference in head gear or hats in different communities. Something referred to in a George Carlin comedy routine about hats-on and hats-off. I was surprised at how complex something as simple as a hat can be both in function and as a marker of community identity.
===
disclosure: I wear a floppy brim crushable sun hat. My friends know me by my distinctive hat. On the rare occasion I do not wear it, my friends find it hard to spot me in a group.
Clive Robinson • April 6, 2024 12:17 PM
@ JonKnowsNothing, ALL,
Re : Hats as recognition and badges.
disclosure: I wear a floppy brim crushable sun hat. My friends…
And foes know you by your distinctive hat…
Many many years ago I wore the green and ended up spending some time “off of the mainland” during the troubles.
There is many a story that could be told but many will go to the grave.
One however is the story of,
“The Provo and Mickey’s ears.”
A known “suspected terrorist” was followed by the local forces abd Police where ever they went.
Getting fed up with this the suspect acquired a hugh old coat and set of Mikey Mouse Ears in hat form from Disney Corp (the thought “birds of a feather” does arise with the Corp and terrorists).
The suspect would wear the ears, coat, old trousers and boots even in the heat of summer. And so it went on for months then years. The local forces and police did not really notice the growing beard…
It turns out that the get up was rather more than a case of waving two fingers at the followers…
The suspect was known to “duck through” a bar which lets just say was “full of unfriendlies. It was on a corner and had a door on each street. Sometimes the suspect would stop for a drink sometimes just a chat and other times just cut straight through. The problem for the local forces and police was that those in the bar were not just unfriendly, they were both verbally and physically hostile and pushing, shoving, tripping, and unkind words were normal.
So the local forces and police got into the habit of using two teams from outside to watch the doors…
So team A would see the suspect go in and report by radio to team B that would then pick up “the described individual” coming out of the second door…
It turns out there was a third “secret way” in and out of the pub.
And by now you’ve probably guessed there was at least two ear hats, two coats, old boots, etc. Yes the suspect would go in the pub in one set but somebody else would go out the second door in the second set. Whilst the suspect and the first set would disappear through the third secret way in case there was a “man inside” or “a raid” etc.
Nobody knows just how long the suspect had been doing this but with hindsight it was probably years. Some even think the suspect went “away on holiday” or at least over to the main land all with local forces and police surveillance logs showing the suspect was “alone in doors” or down the pub for a drink…
Such is the power of a silly hat and coat.
JonKnowsNothing • April 6, 2024 1:13 PM
@Clive, All
re: hat, coat, badge, uniform
Both friend and foe recognize many forms of community identity: Red Poppies, Green Shamrocks, US Lapel Flags, Red Baseball Caps.
We use all sorts of community identity markers from sports club jackets to fancy foot gear and the ad-Induced Name Brand tags on nearly everything (Apple logo v Android logo).
When considering smaller communities of all sorts and purposes, there is nearly always some identifying marker. Private groups and clubs have insignia, Military have heraldic symbols, consumer items have Official Logos. (1)
We know a lot of these markers from common encounters, we miss many because we do not recognize the iconography or the historical reference.
===
1)
ht tp s://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_headgear
cybershow • April 6, 2024 2:05 PM
Hi all,
Here’s this weeks Cybershow blog post, on supply chain attacks.
very best
echo • April 6, 2024 6:01 PM
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/private-equity-is-out-of-control-and-looting-america-this-prosecutor-says-we-can-fix-it
Private Equity is Out of Control and Looting America. This Prosecutor Says We Can Fix It.https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/private-equity-is-predatory-capitalism-with-a-long-trail-of-destruction/
Private equity is predatory capitalism with a long trail of destruction. There won’t be enough money to contain the tsunami caused by private equity collapse. Yet there is no move to shackle private equity.
Destroying the real economy just to own a bunch of numbers doesn’t strike me as sane behaviour. Post Thatcher reforms the UK has a long list of companies which went down the plughole due to financial engineering and private equity.
Steve • April 6, 2024 6:52 PM
I clean my paint brushes with moral turpentine.
The stuff stinks and gives me a headache.
Anonymous • April 6, 2024 7:05 PM
https://european-union.europa.eu/index_en
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/questions-and-answers-about-east-stratcom-task-force_enhttps://euvsdisinfo.eu/
EUvsDisinfo is a flagship project of the European Union, led by the East Stratcom Task Force. Since 2015 we identify, analyse, and raise awareness of disinformation in its various shapes and formshttps://euvsdisinfo.eu/francophobes-in-the-kremlin/
Francophobes in the Kremlin
Instead of sending love letters to the Élysée, the pro-Kremlin disinformation apparatus has taken France into its crosshairs by spreading lies and gross misogyny. Is Moscow afraid of something?
The shouty man with a combover in a suit wouldn’t survive a workshop on oppositional sexism and intersectionality to be sure.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/royals/buckingham-palace-guarded-french-troops-32524912
French troops will guard Buckingham Palace for the first time in history on Monday. Some 120 years of the Entente Cordiale will be celebrated at the royal residency with the move, which will see 32 soldiers from the Republican Guard of the National Gendarmerie parade with Scots Guards.
[…]
While the London ceremony takes place, Coldstream Guards will guard the Elysée Palace in Paris.”
During Dunkirk 16,000 French soldiers lost their lives defending the withdrawing British forces. The orders were very much along the lines of “defend at all costs” and they did.
Erdem Memisyazici • April 6, 2024 11:03 PM
After seeing what an active phased array radar can do I am convinced even more so that we need building codes with privacy in mind.
Every building needs at minimum total EM shielding (carbon nanotube materials are still a bit expensive but we should have no shortage of lead or depleted uranium) for walls as well as a vacuum pulled layer for sound proofing. If every house in the U.S. had this, not only would all home networks be more secure (wouldn’t leak outside) but all general surveillence equipment would be a bit more useless.
I shouldn’t be able to snoop on everything in my neighborhood with equipment that costs $50,000 and can simply legally stay inside my house.
Doesn’t have to be perfect but enough to prove useful against psychological attacks police can’t seem to do much about to help you (like in the case of that guy playing the n-word at this lady everytime she passed by her window etc.)
Because you need to have peace, privacy and a good night’s sleep to do well at your job and have good relationships with your family and friends and someone can easily rob you of that with materials defending from which costs a lot more but governance structures can step in here and do tax deals etc.
Take it from a person who has been dealing with a similar yet more nightmarish scenario for over 10 years. It can consume a good portion of your life and you’ll be on your own.
Google.MIL • April 6, 2024 11:50 PM
“The program relies on two different facial recognition tools, according to the New York Times: one made by the Israeli contractor Corsight, and the other built into the popular consumer image organization platform offered through Google Photos. An anonymous Israeli official told the Times that Google Photos worked better than any of the alternative facial recognition tech, helping the Israelis make a “hit list” of alleged Hamas fighters who participated in the October 7 attack.
The mass surveillance of Palestinian faces resulting from Israel’s efforts to identify Hamas members has caught up thousands of Gaza residents since the October 7 attack. Many of those arrested or imprisoned, often with little or no evidence, later said they had been brutally interrogated or tortured. In its facial recognition story, the Times pointed to Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, whose arrest and beating at the hands of the Israeli military began with its use of facial recognition. Abu Toha, later released without being charged with any crime, told the paper that Israeli soldiers told him his facial recognition-enabled arrest had been a “mistake.”
https://theintercept.com/2024/04/05/google-photos-israel-gaza-facial-recognition/
ResearcherZero • April 6, 2024 11:55 PM
Your D-Link Network Attached Storage may have a backdoor CVE-2024-3273.
‘https://github.com/netsecfish/dlink
hardcoded creds
“Account attack for the devices web management interface allowing a malicious user exploit the devices.”
There is a mention of a recent firmware update being available. The fine print says to update the firmware for devices, also EoL -and retiring devices no longer supported.
‘https://supportannouncement.us.dlink.com/security/publication.aspx?name=SAP10383
–
Phishing, MFA bombing and SIM swapping attacks target hospital IT help desks.
‘https://www.aha.org/news/headline/2024-04-03-cyber-schemers-continue-target-hospital-it-help-desks
“specifically targeted login information related to payer websites, where they then submitted a form to make ACH changes for payer accounts”
“The funds were then transferred to overseas accounts. During the malicious campaign, the threat actor also registered a domain with a single letter variation of the target organization and created an account impersonating the target organization’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO).”
‘https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/help-desk-social-engineering-sector-alert-tlpclear.pdf
To gather further information they often join incident response conference calls, and may also employ violent threats and intimidation.
Tactics & Tools:
‘https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/aa23-320a_scattered_spider_0.pdf
Using public sources, criminals can obtain a large amount of material with which to orchestrate their campaigns…
“53% of adults said they share their voice data online or in recorded notes at least once a week, and 49% do so up to ten times a week.”
–
Cyberattacks are the single “largest threat” to hospitals, deserving “immediate attention” because of the “threat to life.”
“It can happen to you – even when you think it’s impossible.” – Raising awareness and encouraging action around health care cybersecurity has been difficult, Dameff said. People in the field worry that talking about it will discourage patients from trusting healthcare institutions, for example, he said.
‘https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cyberattacks-hospitals-growing-threats-patient-safety-experts/story?id=99115898
“This is a reminder that any organization can be affected by a cyber vulnerability and having an incident response plan in place is a necessary component of resilience.”
https://therecord.media/cisa-takes-two-systems-offline-following-ivanti-compromise
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 12:27 AM
@Clive
365 is a cloud solution? I’m being sarcastic.
Many other companies also decided to ignore all the basics. Hence major platforms have all those pop-ups and other annoying messages asking people if they want to try their crappy integrated solutions every time someone opens one of their applications or tries to engage in a simple task which does not require a suite of integrated, time wasting, “solutions”.
All these added functions, options and applications introduce a whole range of vulnerabilities, massively expanding the attack surface, massively expanding the cost to the individual in both time and money, and massively expand the cost of support and maintenance. But they can sure charge everyone for the inconvenience.
Microsoft execs have long ignored security first principles, and they don’t watch anime.
Maybe they saw Ghost in The Shell in 2017 when it mas made into a movie? It was suggested to them that they read up on Cybersecurity First Principles when they first started spruiking the cloud in the early 90’s. Considering their entire office offering was, and still is, a pile of s–t, they decided to ignore that advice for a cheaper alternative.
(Spruik is an Australian archaic, slang verb meaning to speak in public, especially as a showman or salesman.)
lurker • April 7, 2024 1:46 AM
@The Real Alan Bates vs. PO
Mr Bates spoke to NZ MSM this morning. He sounds like a decent bloke, a little weary of the lies and incompetence. He had the ability and good sense to go into his Postmaster position with his eyes wide open, and a suitable backstop in place. So he has emerged relatively unscathed, but still out of pocket.
‘https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018933203/the-real-alan-bates-tells-his-story
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 1:50 AM
@Erdem Memisyazici
I imagine most can’t afford EM shielding, and occasionally have to leave the house.
Lead, glass and depleted uranium are also extremely heavy. To install glass 1 meter thick you need large frames and solid walls. Add in solutions, such as mobile base stations, as all your own broadcasts can no longer penetrate the structure of the building. Expensive.
Not ignoring the problem would be drastically cheaper and far easier to employ. A simple response to any future incidents by an appropriately resourced team would suffice.
In order to respond adequately, such a team would need required authorizations and cooperation of the Department of Justice, Prosecutors, and the Police. This team would of course need to be supported by all levels of government, it’s departments, and the public.
Anyone with limited imagination could be used as a control group for human testing, by simply presenting themselves to their nearest Russian embassy with their pants down?
–
Here is just one example of the kinds of hurdles that intelligence can face…
Investigations into the suspected Russian covert operations.
‘https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/us/politics/russian-bounty-trump.html
“unverified” claimed the White House
“Instead, administration officials have turned their ire toward leaks”.
There is plenty of information that is verified -and has been extremely well vetted. As vetted information makes it’s way to the top, it’s veracity is repeatedly scrutinized.
Intelligence analysts and the agencies that oversee them are taught to not politicize threat assessments.
Such information is often backed by a range of sources and methods, also heavily vetted. Pertinent information is checked to standards far beyond the ordinary that most would accept. It is also tested against many other sources, similar incidents and known facts.
To ignore such information may result in very serious consequences and needless death.
https://time.com/5518947/donald-trump-intelligence-briefings-national-security/
The PDB. How does it work?
“The PDB is one of the most highly restricted products produced by U.S. intelligence analysts. A select group of intelligence officials is involved in preparing these briefings. A small number of senior officials, often including the Director of Central Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence or the heads of other agencies depending on the topic, usually deliver it.”
echo • April 7, 2024 2:08 AM
Uganda’s most prominent LGBTQ activist says newly upheld anti-gay law will prompt violence. Frank Mugisha said he is bracing for violence in the East African nation after its constitutional court upheld an anti-gay law that includes the death penalty.
Uganda actually defined this law as law to protect “national security”. Well yes human rights are a national security issue but this is another one of those decisions which make me ask “security but for whom?” It seems to be more about protecting the egos and feelz of a handful of politicians that the national good.
This is so sad and so so utterly pointless.
echo • April 7, 2024 2:45 AM
Intelligence analysts and the agencies that oversee them are taught to not politicize threat assessments.
That depends what is meant by “politcise”. If “political” is something which merely differs from the approved management worldview or institutional defaults and dogma and biases then they have a problem and are missing something. If the kneejerk response is to punish staff who disagree or go after leakers there’s a problem with management. There’s also likely a problem with their methods and source selection. Needless to say something may also have gone very very wrong at the governance and political level. Odds on your best people start quitting.
Well, that’s one way to destroy an agency and turn it into an ineffective laughing stock…
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 3:10 AM
Most have adequate access to a dictionary and can understand a definition.
Usually found on a shelf within even the offices of the Young Socialists Club, sock-puppet factories, or on the internet – which can easily be accessed by opening a new tab.
–
A greater intrusion than other non-lethal methods of force…
CEDs are built to cause “excruciating pain”; the CED is a “per se dangerous weapon at common law”; it inflicts “a painful and frightening blow”; it causes “severe pain”; and “the physiological effects, the high levels of pain, and foreseeable risk of physical injury.
CEDs have been a magnet for controversy, given the extreme if momentary pain and loss of muscle control they impart, the sometimes indistinct line between justified and improper uses of the device, and the rare but real possibility of death after CED exposure.
“Policy issues emerged on a plethora of concerns ranging from placement [of CEDs] on the force continuum to activation parameters on at-risk populations such as children, the elderly, persons under the influence of drugs, and pregnant women.”
‘https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/conducted-energy-devices-policies-use-evolve-reflect-research-and-field-deployment
“Anyone who’s talked with them would be appalled to learn that these public servants, who in many cases are serving in difficult or dangerous environments, were having a hard time getting care after they’ve been attacked by this weapon by an unknown adversary.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/07/senate-passes-bill-for-directed-energy-victims-492068
Russia has been conducting DE weapons research since the 1960s, with a particular emphasis on HELs and HPMs. Russia’s deputy defense minister Alexei Krivoruchko has stated that efforts are underway to increase Peresvet’s power level.
‘https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11882/9
–
short and limited exposures
“caution is urged in using multiple applications.” (caution is in the dictionary)
Injury rates ranging from 17% to 64% for citizens.
‘https://journalistsresource.org/criminal-justice/u-s-department-of-justice-police-use-of-force-tasers-and-other-less-lethal-weapons/
“Participants also self-reported significant difficulties with concentration, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed.”
Impairment in cognitive functioning: statistically meaningful declines in measures of verbal learning and memory.
Examining Cognitive Functioning Following CED Exposure
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.3128
Study of Deaths Following Electro Muscular Disruption: Interim Report
Studies examining the effects of extended exposure in humans to CED are very limited.
“The purported safety margins of CED deployment on normal healthy adults may not be applicable in small children, those with diseased hearts, the elderly, those who are pregnant and other at‐risk individuals. The effects of CED exposure in these populations are not clearly understood and more data are needed. The use of a CED against these populations (when recognized) should be avoided”
‘https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/222981.pdf
An ECW should not be used:
- on individuals who passively resist and are not reasonably perceived as an immediate threat or flight risk;
The 4th Circuit held in Meyers that “it is an excessive and unreasonable use of force for a police officer repeatedly to administer electrical shocks with a [Taser] on an individual.”
https://dlglearningcenter.com/emmett-v-armstrong-973-f-3d-1127-10th-cir-2020-a-refresher-on-tasers/
Erdem Memisyazici • April 7, 2024 3:14 AM
I really don’t think solution here is more privacy invasion. I think we can bring a baseline here that previously existed in the 70s for free for the average citizen since access to technology was very limited.
The fact that it costs $100,000 to defend against $10,000 of equipment is just indicative of a supply and demand issue. Unfortunately the market is currently (since 2010 really) mostly about selling cheap tools to see into your neighbor’s bedroom, buying vulnerabilities, and making vulnerabilities out of the factory for nearly all devices.
It seems to be good business to sell “cyber weapons” but who is offering baseline defenses? I don’t mean a team of hackers working for you. I mean simple shielding like a secured government building would have who indeed endured what the general public is experiencing in 2010s 30 years before.
Only since the beginning of 2024 research is coming out that supports the idea that this manufactured threats model is not sustainable in the long term. We have equipment for sale that can track a basketball sized object from the east coast in the west coast.
The best idea to me seems to be that now that this is a persistent problem simple building code improvements can rectify the issue.
echo • April 7, 2024 4:31 AM
‘Extreme’ US anti-abortion group ramps up lobbying in Westminster
The UK branch of the Alliance Defending Freedom has increased its spending and is forging ties with key MPs
The ADF hate women. If they’re not attacking abortion rights they attack transgender women or peddling the TradWife movement.
Business and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch was caught having secret meetings with known hate organisations and extremists swimming in this pond. Needless to say Chair of the Women and Equalities Parliamentary Committee Caroline Noakes positively loathes Badenoch.
The proposal on decriminalisation from backbench Labour MP Diana Johnson has cross-party support and is expected to pass. However some in the Labour party fear it could be counterproductive and further embolden anti-abortion campaigning on related issues, such as the remote access to abortion that was introduced during the pandemic.
A government spokesperson said abortion was an “extremely sensitive issue” with “strongly held views on all sides of the discussion”, and that MPs would have a free vote on the proposed law change. “By longstanding convention, any change to the law in this area would be a matter of conscience for individual MPs rather than the government,” a spokesperson said.
Stop bending to the far right. It’s that simple.
echo • April 7, 2024 5:35 AM
https://openletter.earth/ukcps-recent-withdrawal-from-the-mou2-on-conversion-therapy-08bbfbd8
UKCP’s recent withdrawal from the MoU2 on conversion therapy
A unilateral decision by the board has provoked a petition to challenge the unconstitutional decision and remove the board.
If anyone remembers how Stallman put his foot in it with the EFF it’s something like that only ten times worse. “Exploratory therapy” is rebadged “conversion therapy” (previously known as “reparative therapy” and debunked into the ground decades ago) which is a recognised form of torture. The damage it can cause to children especially can have a destructive impact on their life most people cannot comprehend and the mental scars can last for the rest of their life.
Things like this make me a little twitchy when people mention “professional standards” and “safeguarding”. What were the board thinking? The whole lot of them should resign in disgrace and be banned from working with LGBT+ children for the rest of their lives.
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 5:53 AM
@Erdem Memisyazici
No one’s privacy need be invaded. Simply a response would be adequate when someone makes a report. For instance, when someone is shot by a bullet or stabbed, there is normally a response. If someone incessantly stalks individuals there is normally a response. We have existing laws to deal with assaults, but laws governing new kinds of weapons are limited.
Such legislation would cover military grade electronic weapons, not assault rifles. You would still be free to carry out mass shootings every time someone gets under your skin.
It’s best to probably think first before shooting. Don’t shoot the local warden who is tracking down possums fitted with GPS trackers, on account of his large antenna. Don’t shoot the neighbours either for erecting a mast for their HAM radio or a new WiFi antenna.
Legislation would also have to be carefully calibrated not to disturb the excessive use of Tasers. We would not want to stop anyone having fun with the homeless, the elderly, or young. Especially the police. They have a very hard time discerning passiveness based on appearance. If everyone drove a Mercedes and was accompanied by at team of high profile lawyers, and was also immaculately dressed, it would make law enforcement so much easier.
Russian intelligence often drive ordinary vans and utes, which are regular looking. They also avoid donning official insignia’s and military swag. Well trained to speak in the local dialect without an accent, they don’t drop hints of their origin. The crap load of electronic equipment within their vehicles tends to stick out like dog’s balls however.
–
It’s often considered to be unwise to assess the abilities of others based on your own limited capabilities and resources. (careful behaviour)
Discretion is the quality of having or showing discernment or good judgment, without drawing attention to yourself or giving away personal or private information.
(The ability to perceive and understand. To not confine assessment of an object or individual merely to it’s environment.)
From the Medieval Latin discretionem
Belligerent – aggressive and unfriendly, acid, abrasive, above yourself, hostile…
It’s a good idea to avoid hardcore hockey (or baseball) fans after their team loses — they tend to be belligerent.
From the Latin belligerantem
‘https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/04/how-to-hack-the-jacksonville-jaguars-jumbotron-and-end-up-in-jail-for-220-years/
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 6:00 AM
@Erdem Memisyazici
We already have tons of evidence that has been sitting around for years, with clearly identified individuals who are responsible for directed energy attacks, along with all the details of their unit, assignment, history and various aliases, and where they live.
We have all the victims statements, witness statements, medical reports following the incidents (accessed with the victims permission), police reports and physical evidence.
There are alternative solutions, but liquidation tends to be a little cruel and excessive.
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 6:25 AM
@Erdem Memisyazici
The previous regime at the Kremlin understood the implications of placing their agents in the path of excessive danger. They believed such incidents were both immoral and cowardly.
There was an agreement that no further incidents would take place, previous events would then be conveniently forgotten as a gesture of goodwill, to ensure no misunderstandings.
Clive Robinson • April 7, 2024 6:35 AM
@ Erdem Memisyazici, ALL,
Re : EmSec is the hardest technology dark art of all.
“The best idea to me seems to be that now that this is a persistent problem simple building code improvements can rectify the issue.”
Sorry no, they can not.
What you are saying is demonstrably untrue even by a simple high school science lesson.
What you are asking for is a “sensitive compartmented information facility”(SCIF)[1] used as a small part of the broader knowledge domain called “Emmission Security”(EmSec) or earlier “TEMPEST”. In the US it’s still regarded as “classified” and the closest civilian technology in use is “Electro-Magnetic Compatibility”(EMC) and it, at best, covers only a tiny fraction of what is needed.
Back in the 1950’s through 60’s the term “air gap” was coined as a way of talking about “physically segregating” information processing equipment. As a term it is not just imprecise it has been proven deficient and I nolonger use it. I and increasingly others talk more accurately of “Energy Gapping”.
EmSec in both passive and active forms is actually very hard to do, very resources intensive and the fundamental laws of nature do their utmost to defeat them both.
You are effectively fighting against what some consider the most fundamental law of the physical universe that we live in.
By a process we now call the “scientific method” observation gave rise to investigation, deliberation, and testing of hypotheses. From which Brownian motion and later statistical thermo dynamics gave rise to what is effectively a one way process we now call entropy and one of the mechanisms behind it is sometimes called “times arrow”.
Over the years on this blog I’ve posted several times about the issues of entropy and the protection of information and thus privacy. I’ve described what needs to be done as well as debunk certain misconceptions that are unfortunately common from bad journalism and the like.
[1] A “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility” is a US term based around the SCI classification handeling. As a physical entity there are several sub-classifications. For historic and other reasons they have also been called a “Secure Room” or similar and some claim “cone of silence” was –improbably– also used. Interestingly you can get hold of the technical documents behind them,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_compartmented_information_facility
You will also find people “selling the idea” of them,
https://silentguardiansecurity.com/corporate-security/scif-rooms/
But they can not sell you an actual SCIF.
Oh and also consider their physical design precludes them from being considered “fire safe” thus there is all sorts of inconvenient legislation….
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 6:40 AM
Even black holes emit information and energy. Entry is thought to be uncomfortable.
–
a thin red line
“When agents of the Russian state publish such images, they essentially do the same.”
‘https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/04/05/russia-is-descending-into-the-dark-ages-through-normalizing-violence-a84717
“The rapid and widespread sharing of these videos appears to be no accident but rather some kind of appalling boast by the Putin government of its brazen disregard for basic rights, fundamental humanity, and the rule of law.”
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/29/russia-shameful-pride-torture-terrorism-suspects
In one video, suspect Saidakrami Rachabalizoda lies on the ground in the woods while a man hacks at Rachabalizoda’s ear with a knife, before stuffing what looks like part of the ear into Rachabalizoda’s own mouth.
‘https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/moscow-attack-suspects-beaten-charged-russian-court-torture-putin-rcna144871
echo • April 7, 2024 6:57 AM
Anonymous users are dominating right-wing discussions online. They also spread false information.
There’s nothing new in here and it’s not the best written article but it’s a thing.
COUNCILLORS in Aberdeen have proposed new rules which would prohibit buskers in the city from singing songs containing “hate speech”.
The rules were proposed by Aberdeen City Council following concerns raised about buskers by city centre residents, who complained about noise levels and the length of time some buskers were spending on the street.
The new guide drawn up by councillors would introduce a “code of practice” for street musicians with the aim of creating a “harmonious and respectful busking environment for all”.
It includes creating designated “busking zones” in Aberdeen city centre as well as placing volume and duration limits on performances.
Interesting. What might a real “town square” teach us?
echo • April 7, 2024 7:01 AM
The crap load of electronic equipment within their vehicles tends to stick out like dog’s balls however.
Men are such poets. Could you not. Tah.
echo • April 7, 2024 10:48 AM
https://archive.ph/A8uhw
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24236303.public-messaging-around-hate-crime-centring-perpetrators/The public messaging around hate crime is centring the perpetrators
The reality in Scotland is that the conditions that feed the THate Monster” aren’t just created in the queue for a battered sausage but by the wealthy and powerful. If our discourse fails to recognise this, minority groups will remain unprotected from rising violence.
Driving hate and disinformation is certainly a rich persons hobby.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/six-teenagers-stabbed-woman-14-32521467
Six teenagers ‘stabbed woman 14 times in transphobic attempted murder attack’.The six teenagers, aged between 16 and 19, allegedly carried out a relentless knife attack on an 18-year-old transgender woman while shouting transphobic slurs at Harrow Leisure Centre in February.
And sometimes those guilty of normalising hate profit from it as they shed crocodile tears while the billionaire who bought the gun and bullets ten cut-outs deep is free as a bird.
Not forgetting the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was caught on camera laughing and making jokes about transgender women and refused to apologise to the parents of Brianna Ghey for his transphobic dogwhistle in parliament. How lovely.
lurker • April 7, 2024 1:32 PM
@ResearcherZero
“Most have access to a dictionary”
but those who are aware that they need to use said dictionary are a much smaller number.
Erdem Memisyazici • April 7, 2024 2:53 PM
@Clive Robinson
I don’t think anyone can stop you from building one. People that I know who have retired from military and C.I.A. careers build similar measures into their homes as a first thing to install.
Have a privacy advocate drugged and interrogated against their will locked in a house for 8 hours until mentally broken and call their doctor on the phone to put them on an implant based PTSD program which removes all privacy to erase the damage you caused (unsuccessfully) and all of a sudden, “no privacy” seems like a bad idea where the medical industry is used for evil.
But doctors can surely do no wrong with seeing everything right? It’s for your health and healing the sick. That’s the game the wealthy play today unfortunately. Think of the soldiers is the new think of the children excuse to see into your house.
Last I checked people still cannot legally say, “you can’t have privacy in your home” in the U.S. so you sound like you sort of gave up without trying. This is a problem, it will only get worse.
There is a reason tech millionaires hire their own military doctors now, first thing.
Clive Robinson • April 7, 2024 5:38 PM
@ Erdem Memisyazici, ALL,
“I don’t think anyone can stop you from building one.”
Actually the most likely person to stop you is yourself.
Whilst simple physics is the theory the practicalities are far from simple and things get complicated very quickly. Few can get it right, including professional engineers even when they have the correct information, materials and test kit.
Then as I said there is the issues to do with “building codes” whilst most appear to be a load of blather, there are usually historical reasons behind them. Worse you are required to report such modifications to not just the local authorities but the insurance companies as well.
As for,
“Last I checked people still cannot legally say, “you can’t have privacy in your home” in the U.S. so you sound like you sort of gave up without trying. “
Firstly I do not live in the US and frankly would not wish to. As for who can say “you can’t have privacy” there are lots of people. They do not say it directly but the result is you can not take “privacy measures” often for what are toured as “Health and Safety” issues. Look up “operator listen in” on phone lines for one. Then there is the size and placement of doors and windows to “ensure sufficient natural light” and “safe egress in emergency”. Your HOA etc preventing you planting hedges etc and other privacy screens like fences, some will not even let you park a vehicle at the front of the property or sometimes the sides and only allow “cars” not even SUV’s. As for ensuring you do not leak privacy via your utilities the rules, regulations, and legislation very much stop you protecting your privacy. Smart power meters for instance can tell by power signature analysis supposedly for “power factor” adjustment can determine what TV station or Movie etc you are watching, likewise what commercial radio station you are tuned into or what CD/MP3 you are listening to.
This happens because those “high efficiency” “switch mode power supplies” pass the “power signature” of the Video or Audio directly back down the house wiring to the Smart Meter that can do the required signals instrumentation and digitisation. Then in “real time” send it back through the equivalent of the “back haul” to just about any where in the world such are the joys of the Mobile Phone link in the Smart Meter, they just “dial in”.
They can then build up a fairly detailed profile of your everyday usage, and get near instant notification when you “break habit” etc. They can even find out what sort of “Dirty Movies” you like and don’t have to go anywhere near your Internet connection.
They can correlate with other “Smart Utilities” to know when you shower, flush the toilet, “do the dishes” and how, when you make tea or coffee or use a heater etc. Also what you have likely been cooking if you use gas.
Don’t forget the real idea behind “Smart grids” is only in part how to control your “environmental” systems like AC… Mostly it’s going to be about second by second billing for “phase load” and fast change micro tarrifs. To do that and this is the utility companies “wet dream” much as the Entertainment Industry and DRM which started back in the late 90’s they have to be able to invade your privacy in ways you can not immediately realise. But first they need the legislation to make it illegal to protect yourself from their prying. As some will tell you “going off grid” is illegal where they live, as for going green by wind or solar the power companies tried getting legislation against it in many places.
The thing is for their “rent seeking” plans to work, you have to be denied any form of privacy protection, with legislators almost continuously on the take in the US, all that’s needed is a “Think of the children” faux reason that usually means the excuse of “Health and Safety”…
Clive Robinson • April 7, 2024 6:02 PM
@ lurker, ResearcherZero,
Re : Need to use a dictionary.
“but those who are aware that they need to use said dictionary are a much smaller number.”
There is a perfect example starting at,
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/04/declassified-nsa-newsletters.html/#comment-434853
The person is a “pop-up right wing” type hiding behind the keyboard, to spout invective in frankly a rote way.
Thus they probably have not used a dictionary since before they left high school…
As for their other failings, they would rather blame others than actually address their… lets just call it “short coming” you would associate with “small hands” and right handed maga-fication.
Clive Robinson • April 7, 2024 7:46 PM
@ ALL,
Boeing in another flap
On Sunday a Boeing 737-800 aircraft lost part of an engine cowling during take off
The Boeing aircraft operated by Southwest Airlines, had departed from Denver International Airport as flight 3695 with six crew and one hundred and thirty five passengers on board. The pilot successfully performed an emergency landing
The cowling, which normally covers the engine, was seen wildly flapping above the wing by passengers after being caught in the starboard flaps before it finally sheared off.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/04/07/southwest-flight-emergency-landing-denver-boeing-737/
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 9:57 PM
Australia proposes mandatory code of conduct for supermarkets, millions in fines.
“Whether or not such fears of retribution are justified in every case, the review has heard compelling evidence that these fears are real for most suppliers,” he said.
‘https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/emerson-rejects-populist-supermarket-break-up-call-20240407-p5fhxo
Compensation for suppliers affected by breaches of the code by one of the major supermarket chains would be capped at $5 million. Emerson also advocated for an anonymous complaints process to be established. Rather than leaving the enforcement process to potentially years-long court cases, an independent arbitration system would be used.
The grower gets around $1/kg, while the chooky chunks sells for $14.
‘https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-04/chicken-farmers-call-for-industry-code-of-conduct-processors/103588764
Many growers have not received an increase in payment for their produce in 15 years.
“The average age of every grower is getting way too old because the next generation simply do not see a future in going into the agricultural sector.”
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 10:13 PM
@Erdem Memisyazici
That is a chicken coup mate, not EM shielding. You have been watching too many movies.
@Clive
This research regarding cognitive function and decision making is illuminating.
“The higher the self-reported criminal behavior, the more activation we saw in the reasoning areas of the brain when they were making these decisions.”
Ordinary risk-taking that did not break the law was associated with emotional reactivity (amygdala) and reward motivation (striatal) areas.
Criminal behavior was associated with greater activation in temporal and parietal cortices, their junction and insula – brain areas involved in cognitive analysis and reasoning.
As predicted, risk-taking was correlated with a behavioral pattern of risk preferences called “reverse framing” (preferring sure losses over a risky option and a risky option over sure gains, the opposite of typical framing biases) that has been linked to risky behavior in adolescents and is rarely observed in nondisordered adults.
‘https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/09/criminal-behavior-linked-thinking-about-risk-study-finds
“At 16, Huwe Burton confessed to killing his mother. He was still in shock from discovering her body when New York City police began to interrogate him. After hours of being threatened and cajoled, he told the police what they wanted to hear. Police had caught a neighbor with a history of violence driving the dead mother’s stolen car, but they did not consider him a suspect because Burton had confessed. Burton was convicted of second-degree murder in 1991 and received a sentence of 15 years to life.”
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 10:51 PM
If anyone ever manages to stumble across an ‘all-seeing eye’ I’m willing to fork out very large quantities of cash. Very large. So when you find one, please let me know.
Seriously. The only way ‘total surveillance’ would work, is if we all sat in front of a mirror and never went to sleep. It’s a ridiculous and paranoid delusion. There are no secret brain implants, rotating adaptive-shielding, warp cores, or photon torpedoes.
Back in the real world, as people move normally throughout the day they leave behind a record of their movements and interactions. Yet much of what people do goes unrecorded and unobserved by others. There are no magical machines looking into people’s houses and watching them. It takes an incredibly about of time and effort just to gather data on a single individual. None of that happens without somebody reporting a crime.
In order for a murder to be investigated for example, it has to be seen, or a corpse has to turn up. Without a corpse and a murder weapon it’s incredibly difficult and impractical to convict, let alone find the culprit. Around 40% of homicides therefor remain unsolved.
Yet overall, killings dropped from 2022 to 2023. So why are you all murdering each other less is the question? Maybe because you are all watching TV and playing Internets?
Too busy working, jerking, whining, moaning and complaining? It’s a possibility.
77% of Americans think that crime rose in the last year. Murder declined, and declined significantly, possibly the largest one-year decline ever.
‘https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/as-concerns-grow-around-surging-violent-crime-the-numbers-tell-a-different-story
Both the FBI and BJS data show dramatic declines in U.S. violent and property crime rates since the early 1990s. There are many theories, but no clear picture why.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/11/20/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/
Police could do better if they put more resources toward solving crimes.
‘https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/rappaport/files/braga_homicideclearance%20v7.pdf
echo • April 7, 2024 10:57 PM
The problem with the UK and US is they both have 18th Century constitutions and a right wing which went quietly mental when it discovered Chicago school economics and have both turned into front companies for crooks. Broadly speaking there isn’t a single improvement which hasn’t been thought of and a study written for I strongly suspect. At the governance level both countries have lost the positive energy and can do attitude and a sense of society. I don’t think it’s alarmist to say that if you vote right wing at the next election democracy is signing it’s own death warrant and the country you knew or thought you knew will be gone forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeZG2EcbLcI
‘A strike at the heart of democracy’: Why billionaires are flocking back to [the orange degenerate]
The media as a whole aren’t too bright. A sense of objective truth or standards or benchmarks have been lost behind a wall of santising and horserace and both siding. In this video a penny is beginning to drop.
ResearcherZero • April 7, 2024 11:24 PM
PTSD is caused by trauma. Trauma from violent and extreme events. Shootings, bombings, witnessing terrible accidents, especially on multiple occasions. PTSD is more likely to occur when there there is a lack of effective treatment and without a support environment.
Training and experience can assist to a degree, but everyone eventually reaches their limit. Loud, violent explosions and extreme noise can exert a toll. Constant and repeated activation of the Fight or Flight response systems. Being present in a conflict zone, or attending or witnessing accident scenes, exerts a toll on the human endocrine system.
This is a physical effect on human physiology. Just as disease and injury harm the body.
Each person has a different limit of how many violent and extreme events they can stand.
There is no one defining factor to what this limit is. Muscles are as effective in preventing trauma, as they are at holding back floodwaters. Not very effective at all.
Physical exercise can however aid physical recovery, and will also assist mental recovery.
ResearcherZero • April 8, 2024 12:17 AM
highly effective treatment
“psychological interventions for PTSD were highly effective for both single-event-related PTSD and multiple-event-related PTSD”
‘https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/topics/anxiety/ptsd-trauma-and-stressor-related/ptsd-multiple-traumatic-events/
Historically, research has focused on PTSD following exposure to single traumatic events, creating a gap in our understanding of how these treatments apply to individuals with a history of exposure to multiple traumatic events. Trauma-focused psychological treatment—notably trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing—are considered first-line treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
‘https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(23)00432-7/abstract
“NET grants the patient the freedom to reflect on their entire life, cultivating a feeling of personal identity. Going over the biography helps to highlight understanding of experiences and contextualize interrelated emotional responses, which facilitates integration and comprehension of behavioral patterns and schemas that emerged during development.”
https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/treatments/narrative-exposure-therapy
Clinical research suggests that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients exposed to multiple traumatic events (TEs) rather than a single TE have increased morbidity and dysfunction. PTSD cases associated with four or more TEs may merit specific and targeted intervention strategies.
‘https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23983056/
echo • April 8, 2024 12:57 AM
I know there is a lot of nonsense about which is all very depressing but my mind can’t function with that level of depression. I kind of wanted to discussion oppositional sexism and intersectionality and could have forced myself to write it up in a formal security context but in all honesty that would break my brain so I gave it a pass. Instead, I think, a geopolitical and social handwave will do. I’ll leave it up to the tech-heads to ponder the industrial and work environment and practice issues. It’s not about anything technical per se but more mood and attitude as it’s emotions and points of view which drive change and for me that’s the key sticking point for any technical industry including security. Okay, this is embarrassing but I’m hitting “submit” anyway. You can chew my face off later.
When I was growing up stories of leaders were always about men. It was only really during the 1980’s when women begin to emerge within professions and later began to take leadership roles. Unfortunately as women take on leadership roles and equality in general we take on the good and bad which the founders of feminism acknowledged in their writing in the early 20th Century. In turn modern feminists argue, persuasively in my mind, that legacy systems design by men punish men as badly as they punish women which is where leadership by women or changing and adapting systems to accommodate women can also benefit men. This is something you will never hear from the hard right or the toxic manosphere who are welded to traditional roles and poisoning the minds of young men.
https://www.advocate.com/news/dawn-staley-transgender-athletes-ok
“Coach Dawn Staley is the best in the business—she is a visionary who knows women’s collegiate basketball better than anyone and has elevated the level of play,” Ellis told The Advocate. “Staley using her platform on the biggest weekend of the season to unequivocally support trans women athletes is a beacon of light and true leadership.”
Adding to the chorus of support, Hudson Taylor, founder and executive director of Athlete Ally, remarked on the significance of Staley’s advocacy in a statement to The Advocate.
“To have one of the best basketball coaches, of one of the greatest teams, on the eve of one of the biggest sporting events, speak out in support of the .0007% of college athletes who have been the most socially and politically targeted, is what leadership is all about. Staley’s comments show that those who most fight for and believe in the growth of women’s sports, are also those who fight for and believe in a future for sports filled with inclusion, love, and acceptance for transgender athletes,” Taylor said.
The hard right like to police the boundaries of men and women which is why transgender men and transgender women confound them. It’s a really involved topic. Speaking for myself I agree that all women should support all women. I’ve read numerous stories of parents who on learning their child was transgender accepted their new daughter or new son lovingly, and grandparents and brothers and sisters too. I simply cannot understand how one would not do so.
I have felt for a long time that transgender girls especially need the support and advocacy of their mothers in what is still a very transphobic system and, lately, felt that transgender women needed the support of cisgender women. Over the past 2-3 years this has slowly emerged as the dominant theme. When all women stand together nobody can oppose them.
There is much to do. Freedom for women in Iran and Saudi. Freedom from poverty for all women around the world. Bodily autonomy for all women. The list goes on. I think we can do it. Perhaps when the historians look back this will be seen as the century of women. I have no idea what the future holds but I don’t think it is a future men need to be scared of and it is not a reason for the hard right to hold men and women back or return us all to darker times. In that respect I’m optimistic.
Looking back to when I was growing up in the 1970s there was no such thing as sex and relationships and gender teaching. Sexual abuse was rife in society. The one gay boy in school who was beaten up. I had a lesbian teacher and was kind of half aware of another girl who was a lesbian but I was a bit dim about these kinds of things back then and didn’t have a clue. Today children grow up with better safeguarding and have the knowledge they need to be their true selves. It really is a different world. One day those children will grow up and be the professionals and scientists and teachers and leaders maybe even Prime Ministers and Presidents of tomorrow. For now they are children and learning and playing and today need our protection. I want them to grow up safe and live in a world many of us never had the chance to live in.
It’s easy as you get older to law down the law or get shouty about work practices and finger wag but we were all young once. We all need that person to look up to. We all need that role model and mentor. We all need to find ourselves and grow confidence and learn and change. We all need to try new things and make mistakes. And we all need to gently guide and support and give space for the younger ones who follow in our footsteps. Young women and young men, today, are living in a more gender equal and diverse world than we ever did. They have challenges we never had to face. I just think that’s important to remember especially for an industry which was dominated by and is still dominated by men and legacy attitudes. Sometimes, like Ann Caracristi, we have to admit we’re dinosaurs and give way to the next generation. Men will lecture but women share our history from one generation to the next. Either way the future no longer belongs to us. Let them have their time in the sun.
Clive Robinson • April 8, 2024 5:14 AM
@ ResearcherZero,
Re : Is PTSD a TBI of a different tone?
The general questions of what harms the brain, how you diagnose it, and in ways that allows meaningful measurement are very open ones.
Which is why,
“PTSD is caused by trauma. Trauma from violent and extreme events. Shootings, bombings, witnessing terrible accidents, especially on multiple occasions. PTSD is more likely to occur when there there is a lack of effective treatment and without a support environment.”
Is partially incorrect.
Yes PTSD is being investigated in several ways and the word “trauma” is one that like “insult”, “abuse”, “stressor” have different meanings to different knowledge domains. Which as you can appreciate puts another layer of mud on the issues.
Likewise “violent” and “extreme” lack quantitative measure and are all to often historic and self reported.
A little over two decades ago the professional “view” was changing from “hysterical” to “overload” and now tends to ask the “ratchet question” and if there is an actual decay / healing process or if it is an accumulative normalisation.
If we look at PTSD as an actual physical mechanism in the brain that does not reverse but a person adapts to then at the base we end up with the same model at “physical insult” “Traumatic Brain Injury”(TBI) that gives rise to “Chronic traumatic encephalopathy”(CTE) in those who have done “contact sports” and where the expression “punch drunk” came from.
Having looked into both PTSD and TBI / CTE over many years, my analytical side says there is commonality involved.
It may also account for why PTSD often appears to have “childhood” stressors as a key indicator be they physical, emotional, mental, or social. That is they occur when the brain is most likely to be harmed and thus last in functional development.
It’s a complicated subject and one that is evolving fairly rapidly at the current time as diagnostic measures independent of self reporting are becoming increasingly available.
But I make a cautious note, if PTSD and TBI of the form seen in Havana Syndrome do have a common base as I suspect, then we will see a lot of “mud stirring” continue as those who should have been protecting are seen to have failed.
ResearcherZero • April 8, 2024 8:27 AM
Overexposure to social media platforms combined with academic stress, performance anxiety and fear of failure.
The rise of social media has intensified the need to present a perfect image of success.
‘https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-young-people-poor-mental-health.html
Dissatisfaction with their support system; their living situation; waning confidence in the government and a sense that they have less freedom to make life choices.
–
Between 2030 and 2060, half of today’s work tasks could be automated.
Personal discipline, polite, clear and concise communication, with the ability to respectfully hold a meaningful conversation with a wide variety of individuals from diverse backgrounds and diverging beliefs, will not only be valuable but very likely essential.
Success will depend on the right skillet and ingenuity to create your own employment.
‘https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/The-economic-potential-of-generative-AI-The-next-productivity-frontier
8 to 15 million jobs may be lost in a relatively short period of time.
‘https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2023.pdf
ResearcherZero • April 8, 2024 8:30 AM
“cumulative trauma exposure”
The rate of suicide amongst front line police has doubled.
‘https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-07/mental-health-support-to-prevent-police-suicide/103666516
A new model for non-police response to mental health crisis. Cities are trying to learn from each other’s successes and mistakes as they build and adjust their programs.
“Research also shows the quality of the treatment of distressed or traumatised individuals by an organisation strongly mediates the impact of trauma and the likelihood of suicide. In essence, negative treatment of a traumatised individual by an organisation compounds the effects of trauma – making suicide more likely.”
‘https://theconversation.com/police-officer-suicide-its-not-just-about-workplace-stress-but-culture-too-76710
Would you call 911 hoping that the person who responds has been trained in de-escalation?
https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/March-2022/How-Advocates-Can-Push-for-A-Crises-Standard-of-Care
echo • April 8, 2024 9:34 AM
Humanists UK has raised alarms over the growing influence of ‘dark money’ and other funding from American sources in UK politics, particularly influencing debates on abortion, LGBT rights, assisted dying, and faith schools.
I can’t say I’m happy about my freedom being compromised by shady billionaires (and the Kremlin).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYDQvvkXJ1I
Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate – 2023 – Netflix Documentary Trailer (English Subtitles)
A moment in time before the storms gathered. A useful watch alongside “Rise of the Nazis”.
Documentary contains live reconstruction and historical footage and testimony.
echo • April 8, 2024 9:55 AM
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24238057.scots-want-hate-crime-act-scrapped-new-poll-finds/
Most Scots want Hate Crime Act scrapped, new poll finds
From the get go the new hate crime law was on the receiving end of a massive well funded and coordinated disinformation/misinformation campaign with full support from more than a few notable far right aligned actors. It’s no different from law in England and Wales, France, and most of Europe. The only people who would dislike this law are people who want to be free to abuse and incite hate with no consequences.
The attacks on First Minister Humza Yousaf have been disgusting.
Now this…
Well done. Give yourself a clap.
echo • April 8, 2024 11:25 AM
An 11-year-old author from Croydon has published her fourth book – and pledged to give all the proceeds to charity. Sarah Kittoe released her latest book, Ama and the Lost Key, at Croydon Library in Katharine Street, South Croydon on Saturday. The schoolgirl raised £800 from the sales which she said will go towards Centrepoint and the Wednesday Club at the West Croydon Methodist Church, both of which support homeless people in Croydon.
And:
Beneath the dry, orange, dusty sands of Ghana, a glowing key is found lost in the shadows. When Ama, a young, adventurous girl with love and fire in her heart, clutches the key, it whispers promises of unimaginable wealth.
Will Ama unlock the secrets this mysterious key holds?
This is an exciting and captivating adventure that captures the great value of the power of unity in the land of gold.
Oooh I love a good adventure. Travels to far away places. Mysteries. Hidden treasure! Obviously not protected by a Masterlock then?
soundproof • April 8, 2024 1:34 PM
@echo
what does the book you plugged have to do with security? why are you treating these comments like your own blog? please stop.
lurker • April 8, 2024 1:47 PM
@ReasearcherZero
“The grower gets around $1/kg, …”
I’ve often wondered how much the truckies get, and the guys who hire the plastic crates, and the teenagers who dump the stuff on display shelves.
JonKnowsNothing • April 8, 2024 4:20 PM
@ lurker, @ReasearcherZero, All
re: commodity pricing v grower pricing v shelf pricing
The food supply chain is pretty complex. Commodities come from all parts of the globe so the grower might be in Afrika or South America or Russia.
Food is generally purchased by commodity trade brokers and stored in silos or warehouses. This is where the UKR harvest is located atm and causing problems in supply overload in Europe.
Large Agri Business may contract directly with the grower or buy from commodity brokers. It depends on their view of “out sourcing and off shoring”. Canada wheat is sent to Italy to be made into spaghetti and then shipped to the USA in Made In Italy packages.
Everyone along the chain gets something for their efforts but they do not always get enough to break-even on the costs.
- truckers may pick up from many farms on a single run. Each run is calculated on the distance to the processing plant. (1)
- the plastic crates for tomatoes and garlic are called gondolas and they can be purchased and reused. Often the harvesting company, which may be different than the grower, will provide these and they are picked up by the trucker using mini-cranes, fork lifts, or roll-on roll off systems
- Stocking display shelves in some places has a minimum wage. In California, this just flipped to $20USD per hour. Stockers from big companies may stock entire rows of items, like soda pop rows. The location, height, placement, distance from the end caps, the end caps all factor into which product goes where and experienced Stockers may get a premium.
The grower generally gets the lowest amount in the pyramid. They stay afloat by having a lot to sell. Hundred, Thousands or Millions of pounds, tons, bushels, liters. For many farm laborers they have a steady year round job (2) but come harvest, the temporary workers are needed to bring it in before it rots. (3)
Old Joke
The three scourges of Russian agriculture
1, The terrible winters
2, The scorching summers
3, The bountiful harvests
===
1) Exact exchange rates vary by produce type, distance, and other factors.
2) Farm labor in USA and California is less than the minimum wage for a barista. ~$15/hour
3)
ht tps://w ww.thegua rdian.com/environment/2024/apr/04/schools-close-and-crops-wither-as-historic-heatwave-hits-south-east-asia
‘historic’ heatwave hits south-east Asia / 44C
- The intense heat has also caused havoc in agriculture.
- In Indonesia, which experienced prolonged dry weather last year,
President Joko Widodo resorted to ordering the military to help
farmers plant rice when rains finally arrived in December. The cost
of rice, a staple food for the country’s 270 million people, rose more
than 16% in February compared with last year, according to a
Reuters report. Queues for government-subsidised rice have
stretched for hours. - In Vietnam, water levels were so low in canals earlier this year that
farmers in some areas reportedly struggled to transport their crops. - In Thailand, a fall in crop yields will cause farmers’ debt to increase
by 8% this year, according to economic analysis …
vas pup • April 8, 2024 5:45 PM
@ALL
Why it’s so hard for some people to accept compliments
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240403-why-its-so-hard-for-some-people-to-accept-compliments
This is extract:
“In essence praise is an evaluation,” says Brummelman. Even when it’s positive, “people don’t always enjoy being evaluated…it takes you out of the moment. It makes you more concerned about what other people think of you.”
In addition to suddenly triggering an unwelcome awareness that you are being judged, praise can abruptly make you more aware of a power difference. After all, Brummelman says, “it’s very common for teachers to praise students, but it’s not very common for students to praise teachers. I think you see that in the workplace as well.”
The whole article is very interesting for job security in US in particular when you could be burnt for compliment which will flatter woman in almost all Western countries France in particular.
@Moderator – at least read for yourself the article before sanitizing the post. Thanks.
vas pup • April 8, 2024 6:13 PM
Why we have co-evolved with technology +++
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240404-why-we-have-co-evolved-with-technology-tom-chatfield-wise-animals
“when asked to name a world-changing technology, many people might reach for
something recent like AI, smartphones or the internet. What comes less readily to mind are the older ones, such as stone tools.
A large part of your mental or cognitive capacities are bound up with the human-made world, and the ethics of these things and the values embedded in them are very important. For example, I could theoretically outsource a lot of child-raising to automated systems. I could set up surveillance cameras with climate control and AI. My children could be monitored in their rooms with facial recognition, and when they’re sad, it could produce voices that cheer them up or it could them the story when they’re ready for bed. Fairly obviously, that is a horrific scenario, because, by outsourcing these things, I completely withdraw from a mutually caring, loving relationship with my children.
The model for me is that we need a knowing and informed negotiation with the
technologies around us – a conversation about what we want from the human-made
world, why we want it, and which of its offerings might not be aligned with human thriving. These are incredibly important conversations. We mustn’t be afraid to use the language of values and sentiment and morality when it comes to technology.
As a prosaic personal example, I’m happy to offload navigational skills to my phone, but I hate it when my phone starts auto-suggesting answers to people’s
messages. I don’t really want to offload my social cognition to a computer – I’d rather engage in real communication from my mind to another person’s.
Precisely. The question is, what tasks are so dangerous, dull, demeaning or
repetitive that we’re delighted to outsource them, and what do we feel are
important to be done ourselves or by other humans? If I was going to be judged in a trial, I don’t necessarily want an algorithm to pass a verdict on me, even if the algorithm is demonstrably very fair, because there’s something about the human solidarity of people in society standing in judgment of other people. At work, I might prefer to have a relationship with human colleagues – to talk to and explain myself to other people – rather than just getting the work done more efficiently.
There’s a double danger to anthropomorphism. The first is that we treat machines like people, and project personalities, intentions and thoughts onto artificial intelligences. Although these systems are extraordinarily
sophisticated, they don’t possess anything like the human sense. And it’s very
dangerous to act as though they do. For a start, they don’t have a consistent worldview; they are miraculously brilliant forms of autocomplete, working on
pattern recognition, working on prediction. This is very powerful, but they tend to hallucinate and make up details that don’t exist, and they will often contain various forms of bias or exclusion based upon a particular training
set.
But an AI can respond fast and plausibly to anything, and as human beings, we are very predisposed to equate speed and plausibility with truth. And that’s a very dangerous thing.
Similarly, we might overlook the very large corporations that lie behind these
entities, who have their own agendas, their own modes of profit, their own
issues around privacy, and so on.
So anthropomorphism gets in the way of something really important, which is the well-informed, critically engaged process of debating what these systems are, what they can do for us, what their risks are, and how we should deploy and regulate them.
The other danger of anthropomorphizing technology is that it can lead us to think of and treat ourselves like we’re machines. But we are nothing like large
language models: we are emotional creatures with minds and bodies who are
deeply influenced by our physical environment, by our bodily health and well-
being.
Perhaps most importantly, we shouldn’t see [a machine’s] efficiency as a model for human thriving. We don’t want to optimize ourselves with perfectible components, within some vast consequentialist system.
The idea that humans can have dignity and autonomy and potential is very ill-served by the desire to optimize, maximize and perfect ourselves.”
echo • April 8, 2024 10:01 PM
@vas pup
In addition to suddenly triggering an unwelcome awareness that you are being judged, praise can abruptly make you more aware of a power difference. After all, Brummelman says, “it’s very common for teachers to praise students, but it’s not very common for students to praise teachers. I think you see that in the workplace as well.”
The whole article is very interesting for job security in US in particular when you could be burnt for compliment which will flatter woman in almost all Western countries France in particular.
With regard to your article:
It’s late at night and I just skimmed it but, yes, this is worth reading. There’s way too much in there to unpack so I won’t do that. While the content is technically true and worth reading I find as a whole the article itself is a bad read and unhelpful. There are better treatments elsewhere which focus much better on the individual subject matters in the article.
I know I keep going on about it but I would read up on oppositional sexism and intersectionality. It is pertinent to the current geopolitical and national security picture. Ditto my links to Helena Kennedy and Judith Butler. Most people don’t get it due to default normalised models they’ve got comfortable with but it is security if you apply the multi-domain security model (and flows through to the technical security model if you’re paying attention. So far nobody has bitten but that’s where we are.
Where to begin on flattery? Big topic. Before discussing this someone needs to do a comparative study of the multi-domain security model of the US and Europe. The US is slowly beginning to wake up to its lacking constitutional and institutional and regulatory safeguards like Europe. The institutional and regulatory topics regularly become a topic directly or indirectly on this blog. I have looked into US culture as experienced at a personal level to a point. It’s a topic of its own, really. Okay, so with those broad brushstrokes out of the way…
On the question of job security:
Leaning on UK case law unless it’s egregious most behaviours especially if a one off can be resolved. In the US Management can overreact although in other cases away from the headlines genuine abuse can continue. Not all but I think some women can be very fierce on the issue of rights. I don’t disagree with them but a legacy of abuses can create a bit of a warlike atmosphere. The right wing have made a thing of “identity politics”. Now there are problems with terms academics use to define things which mean when academic discussion enters the mainstream people can easily get tripped up. Then there is the problem with confusing the general and specific which I agree can be annoying as you don’t have to insert [special case label] in every discussion. If those two specific points are addressed the right ring gripe evaporates as the nonsense it is.
And lastly you’re not in France or Spain for that matter. It’s different rules of the road. After mentioning a few experiences I’ve had this led to discussions with a friend of mine who lived in France and Spain for a fair few years. In Spain the men like looking at women. It’s just what they do. That shocked her a bit until a friend of hers explained it. I find some Eastern-Bloc can stare hence our discussion. I’ve found if I’m too social with Middle-Eastern men they can get very friendly! I’m not joking I was just chatting away with one man for less than two minutes and he wanted my number. I got felt up by another one. Needless to say I never went back to either place. At another shop there’s a lovely Middle-Eastern man. He really is quite gracious and I got the whole hand on heart thing off him. It’s just a sign of respect and a compliment. He cheers up and says hello when I walk past. Nothing creepy. He’s just being nice. As for France I understand French women can look after themselves hence a lot of performative shoutiness. It’s a thing. I know a woman from France. If I have the chance I might bring up the topic and see what she has to say about it all.
One useful comment from Mark Hertling (Gen Rtd) when political attacks were being aimed at the military is that the US military doesn’t do “woke”. It does by the proper meaning but I know what he means. A bit like Ben Hodges (Gen Rtd) he basically said that as senior officer he had to liaise with a lot of people in NATO from lots of different cultures and backgrounds. Understanding that and being good at it was a requirement for the job and made for a more effective force. Mark Milley (Gen Rtd) was a bit of a squarehead but he got it too. Some of his comments made me twitch but overall you could tell he had made an effort.
The US is different. It’s good in some ways. Not so good in others. It’s a macho culture and certainly among educated women their language can be more closer to formal form than the UK. There’s not a lot I can suggest but the UK has tended more towards compromise and is better at integration policy than the US. I would suggest anyone who wants to build a better workplace model have a discussion with a UK expert in industrial relations. The TUC and ACAS are starting points. It’s not a magic bullet but I think the issue does need more input from experts than organisations and media.
So make of this what you will.
echo • April 8, 2024 10:18 PM
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-64747-001
I like it because it hurts you: On the association of everyday sadism, sadistic pleasure, and victim blaming. [2024].
Interesting!
echo • April 9, 2024 12:26 AM
https://www.svt.se/special/how-pro-russian-disinformation-is-laundered/
How Pro-Russian Disinformation Is laundered.https://insightnews.media/pro-russian-websites-network-in-europe-serve-russia-information-warfare/
Pro-Russian websites network in Europe that serves Russia’s information warfare.For the Putin regime, it makes little difference whether a website or politician is far-right or far-left; the main thing for Russia is to push its narratives and disinformation to European audiences. The Kremlin considers the media and politicians from both camps to be “useful idiots.” They help spread disinformation and division in European society, as well as influence public opinion for free (some probably not). As long as they are weakening the EU and undermining Europe’s unity, it suits the Kremlin.
If you have the rule of law, and decent human rights and equality, and media centered on truth, and low corruption the Kremlin is a bit stuffed.
What is a psyop and why are right-wing conspiracy theorists obsessed with them?
Quite a reasonable pop explainer of what psyops are and what conspiracy theories are and how they propagate.
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 12:38 AM
@Clive
China is able to use big data, third party data, and more to target specific individuals with posts and disinformation threads, but right now that’s only about 10 percent of Chinese disinformation posts. LLMs could greatly improve the effectiveness.
In addition to generative AI tools, governments persisted with older tactics, like using a combination of human and bot campaigns to manipulate online discussions. China still has to use local human “collaborators” across China and elsewhere to make specific posts on social media convincing, rather than sounding like bots.
“Li is no outlier. In fact, he is the ultimate insider, with a long research career at the People’s Liberation Army’s top information warfare research institute. His vision of using AI to manipulate social media was published in one of the Chinese military’s top academic journals. He is connected to the PLA’s only known information warfare unit, Base 311. His articles, therefore, should be viewed as a harbinger of a coming AI-assisted flood of Chinese influence operations across the web.”
https://time.com/6320638/ai-disinformation-china/
Microsoft indicated that it anticipates China will leverage AI-based ploys to interfere with high-profile elections this year.
“we are likely to see Chinese cyber and influence actors, and to some extent North Korean cyber actors, work toward targeting”
Microsoft speculates that China intends to use its position and AI to brew more chaos, ultimately allowing it to benefit from the high-profile elections. While the tech giant indicates the issue isn’t severe, it warns the situation is highly likely to change.
‘https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2024/04/04/china-ai-influence-elections-mtac-cybersecurity/
Automated Fake News Checker:
‘https://en.cofacts.tw/
Jerome • April 9, 2024 12:46 AM
@Moderator
With respect.
Based on all available evidence. Including the posts you have just removed.
Can you assess the facts and consider @Echo as having committed multiple violations of the comments policy, thus incurring a ban from this site?
Thank you for your time
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 12:48 AM
Some 4G phones may not be able to make emergency calls when 3G is switched off.
‘https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-08/million-iphone-android-devices-caught-out-3g-shutdown/103673864
–
Botnet operators go after D-Link NAS devices.
‘https://www.greynoise.io/blog/cve-2024-3273-d-link-nas-rce-exploited-in-the-wild
Devices including DNS-340L, DNS-327L, DNS-325 and DNS-320L will not recieve updates to mitigate CVE-2024-3273.
These devices should not be exposed online as they are no longer maintained.
https://supportannouncement.us.dlink.com/security/publication.aspx?name=SAP10383
End of Life – End of Service
D-Link “recommends retiring these products and replacing them with products that receive firmware updates.”
‘https://legacy.us.dlink.com/
echo • April 9, 2024 12:56 AM
@moderator
About the third in a row personal attack with no other content by bad faith actor. (Initiated by two disinfo posts in a previous topic.) Fingerprint of far right actor.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/04/friday-squid-blogging-squid-bots.html/#comment-435038
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 1:00 AM
Your smartphone needs to be “VoLTE” (Voice over LTE/4G) compatible.
If your phone is a 3G phone, it cannot connect to a 4G/LTE or 5G tower.
‘https://theconversation.com/what-is-3g-and-why-is-it-being-shut-down-an-electrical-engineer-explains-176781
“We are working very hard to ensure that all areas that currently only have 3G coverage get 4G coverage before we close the 3G network on 30 June. More than 98 per cent of our mobile sites already have 4G installed.”
Apple iPhones: Models since the iPhone 6, released at the end of 2014, are VoLTE compatible.
Samsung Galaxy S: Smartphones from the S7 in 2016 are VoLTE compatible, from what we can tell. Their affordable A series range was likely VoLTE compatible slightly later so I'd be checking any device from before 2019.
Google Pixel: VoLTE compatible since the Pixel 3 in 2018.
As for other brands such as Oppo, Motorola, Nokia, TCL, the transition appears to have been complete around 2019-2020, so any devices from then or before should be checked.
‘https://www.9news.com.au/national/3g-network-shutdown-how-to-tell-if-your-phone-will-still-work/3b64956d-a0da-42cd-b50e-3f8680f6d001
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 1:50 AM
@Jerome
Banning people is a pretty slippery policy. Deleting crap posts is a good policy. Human beings can all be annoying and have their faults, though some are slower to learn. Sure it would be nice not to have constructive conversation derailed, but learning takes time.
If all the flies were banned many wildflowers would not get pollinated, the world would be be depleted of colour (and some types of edible plants). We might become the Harkonnen.
According to the chronicles of Dune, Giedi Prime is industrial and disconnected from nature. If Giedi Prime orbits a black sun, perhaps due to it’s effects on the visible colour spectrum, Harkonnen might have evolved into a species who are not very nice.
We are the product of our environment…
“the book is a study of the impact of the ecosystem on human beings, all from the nature of the ecosystem, the human developed religions, techniques, and ways of survival, all their culture,” …
“What if instead of revealing colors, the sunlight was killing them and creating a very eerie black and white world, that will give us information about how these people perceive reality, about their political system, about how that primitive brutalist culture and it was in the screenplay.”
A black sun might also cause some discomfort, along with any chemicals. Headaches perhaps.
‘https://www.moviefone.com/news/dune-part-two-exclusive-interview-denis-villeneuve/
“Unlike native species, which have co-evolved specific and sometimes intricate relationships with their pollinators, invasives attract only generalist pollinators.”
‘https://ebcnps.org/news/from-a-stinkwort-warrior-a-human-view-2024-03/
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 2:30 AM
@JohnKnowsNothing
The large supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, are paying Australian farmers $2 a chicken.
They then sell those chooks for more than 10x that price. Promotion costs (reduced prices for example) are then deducted from the growers share by the two large supermarkets.
The smaller the producer, the less they are paid per kilogram for their product. Only the largest producers can negotiate a slightly better sales price. Some growers have their entire order cancelled at the very last minute, after it was grown and packaged to order.
Many face situations where they are paid less than the cost of production of the order. Yet the markup consumers pay for produce within stores is extraordinary.
Coles turned over more than $40 billion in the last financial year.
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 2:39 AM
The profitability of supermarkets stands out.
Australia’s two big chains have boosted profit margins throughout the pandemic and inflationary period. – “The train left the station a long time ago.”
Coles and Woolworths have consistently expanded profit margins for their food businesses at the same time as counterparts in Europe report falling or mixed profitability.
“The high increase in inflation wasn’t primarily driven by competitive problems in the economy, but it’s certainly not helped by the fact that the Australian economy is highly concentrated.”
‘https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/27/australian-supermarket-profits-rise-woolworths-coles
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 3:55 AM
Buy up all the surrounding property, control competition, anchor themselves with long leases before offloading at a premium.
‘https://www.afr.com/property/commercial/how-coles-and-woolies-are-playing-the-property-game-20190620-p51zkm
“Coles engaged in unconscionable conduct”
https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/accc-takes-action-against-coles-for-alleged-unconscionable-conduct-towards-its-suppliers
Much of the competition, small family-owned and operated grocery stores, have already been wiped out. (by other means than competing on the merits of the products or services)
‘https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/08/big-business-in-australia-faces-less-competition-than-almost-anywhere-else-and-likes-it-that-way
Now producers face the same fate:
“For many years now, growers have grown produce and been paid below the cost of production.”
https://www.afr.com/companies/retail/growers-lash-out-at-coles-woolworths-for-predatory-prices-20240206-p5f2u0
Predatory pricing is any pricing strategy that involves substantial discounts that damage competitors and are intended to do so. Illegality under section 46(1) comes from the targeting of a competitor through that discounting.
A predatory business lowers prices significantly below prevailing market prices, even selling goods below cost. The business offers these very low prices in order to eliminate competitors. An industry dominant firm with sizable market power will deliberately reduce the prices of a product or service to loss-making levels and create a monopoly.
For a period of time, the prices are set unrealistically low to ensure competitors are unable to compete with the dominant firm without making a substantial loss. The aim is to force existing or potential competitors within the industry to abandon the market so that the dominant firm may establish a stronger market position and create further barriers to entry.
‘https://www.mondaq.com/australia/antitrust-eu-competition-/62526/proposed-changes-to-predatory-pricing-laws-abandon-small-business
–
Many tactics are very difficult to prove for smaller competitors, such as the pressure not to do business with another, in order to apply further pressure to others, or even acquire land. Businesses not in the same market, have been wiped out through the application of pressure to other businesses, for example those in the fertilizer, chemical or machinery sector, and through other more unscrupulous means, usually considered breaches of the law.
The law however -is known to be a very expensive endeavor to ensure that it is enforced.
Jerome • April 9, 2024 4:16 AM
@ResearcherZero
Thank you. I see your point and I acknowledge your admirably egalitarian perspective. Deleting posts for repeat-recalcitrant offenders such as @Echo would create a lot of work for @Moderator. It would also effectively equate to a ban (!)
Our freedom ends when it begins infringing on the freedom of others.
Nonetheless, my request was worded carefully as a request to consider the evidence. It is for our esteemed host to decide
It will be noted, the commenting facility on this blog is extraordinarily and unusually relaxed. And, this is a privilege. It is testament to the integrity of our host, being of the old school. I’d like to see it not taken for granted.
echo • April 9, 2024 4:33 AM
@vas pup
I spoke too soon. There are people and institutions stuck in the 1970’s.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-68714480
Women in Avon Fire and Rescue describe ‘sexist’ culture
I’ve experienced issues myself but nothing this blatant. Actually there has been the odd thing but that’s pending for various reasons.
“Deepcut” was a previous military scandal which led to a woman unaliving herself. Then there was the university market “Unilad” magazine which was so bad in the end it had to close down. So much is familiar in form if not degree. One incident which happened to me in another context is part of the “pending” thing was reported in the newspapers buried in a longer article along with other women’s complaints. Oh, yes there was another one too in a regional media article covering issues with another context. That go one line. I suspected as much so wasn’t too bothered. It’s disgraceful how some stuff can be so in your face or bubbling along as the world’s biggest open secret among women and nothing happens.
Earlier I was reading a conversation on social media and one woman in response to the loud and often complaints from some quarters (about perceived loss of status, difficulty getting a relationship, and various life problems) said it isn’t women’s job to solve men’s problems first. She has a point. I can soft peddle things by linking to Helena Kennedy or Judith Butler but it’s not a question of you help us and we’ll sort what changes out you need later pinky swear. I’ve had that pulled on me and that’s when I put my foot down hard and yes it can come with consequences but I don’t give into it and I don’t care how long it takes to deal with it hence “pending”. I’ll wait years, decades even, if that’s what it takes.
I do try to be graceful about these things but if workplace misogyny gets someone benched it’s a reminder that misogyny is not acceptable. It can be about who says it and what they say and how they say it. I can’t comment on individual cases but if something is off then it’s not something to ignore.
echo • April 9, 2024 4:34 AM
@moderator
Ongoing personal attack from bad faith actor.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/04/friday-squid-blogging-squid-bots.html/#comment-435047
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 4:49 AM
For Coles, the goal is to “optimise its workforce” by analysing “over 10 billion rows of data, comprising each store, team member, shift and allocation across all intervals in a day, every day”. [Comitting seppuku is not a valid input for this automated checkout terminal]
‘https://www.uq.edu.au/research/article/2024/02/why-coles-just-hired-us-defence-contractor-palantir
Like a fossil tree
from which we gather no flowers,
sad has been my life
fated no fruit to produce.
— Minamoto No Yorimasa (1180)
‘https://archive.ph/20130112145122/http://www.samurai-weapons.net/samurai-history/the-deadly-ritual-of-seppuku
exsanguination
“Contemporary power manifests in the algorithmic.”
‘https://meson.press/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/9783957961419_Munn_Ferocious_Logics.pdf
echo • April 9, 2024 4:54 AM
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/08/policewoman-recorded-officer-attempt-to-rape-her-jury-hears/
Policewoman recorded officer trying to rape her as he used training to pin her down, jury hears
Institutional misogyny isn’t great for operational effectiveness nor does it encourage reporting crime.
Oh the police. I was just thinking of them. I’ll just say I have a habit of recording things on a phone app and one have juicy incident recorded. After the Sarah Everard case the Met suggested lone women could request the officer put them in contact with HQ. All women I found commenting on this said it was inadequate and wouldn’t work. Precisely. Before the Sarah Everard case I specifically requested HQ intervention and the officer refused (with a look of barely disguised simmering hatred on his face) before the incident. It’s all recorded and pending.
Another article just dropped which said how FOI requests have revealed Yorkshire police failures to take misogynistic crime seriously it led to 18 unalived women.
And the Telegraph likes to attack “woke”?
fib • April 9, 2024 10:14 AM
@ All
I don’t know if this post will survive, but I feel I need to say this. What we have seen we see here is representative of an intolerant culture that interestingly has established itself from an alleged intolerance fighting posture. It is interesting to note the low level at which discussions are conducted. Classic principles of enlightened discourse, such as modesty, argumentative parsimony, the principle of caution are nonexistent.
This new stance I’ve seen elsewhere on the Internet – engendered by affinity groups on social media, and which just found a safe haven here too, according to which “I didn’t have time to read about it, but I will pontificate about it anyway”. Or, “I admit I’m not good in these mathematics and physics things, but I will use the Holistic principles of social sciences as accepted by my social group to give my version of the facts.”
The possibility of groups with this disposition taking power on a planetary scale, as they intend, is one of the things that scare me these days.
Ardie • April 9, 2024 10:28 AM
@ ALL (esp webmasters and those who use the web)
I suggest [beg] testing what you feel are essential services, using a TOR enabled browser.
TOR seems to be under a sustained DDOS attack by some rather well funded agencies: likely using YOUR TAX DOLLARS. Is the western world a police state that YOU want to fund as such, or ARE THE PEOPLE ACTUALLY SOVEREIGN?
If you feel investigative journalists' communication, or contacting a lawyer or health info privately, OR private whistleblowing, OR being informed from a "broad scope" of sources should be engageable without announcing it to hostiles who observe you, and/or who purposely misinterpret that, and/or who want to prevent that, etc...
THEN I suggest, please download tor browser, or brave browser, or TAILSOS and do some testing of those websites, (and your own,) using TOR. Especially POST requests.
And whatever happened to Oblivious DOH?
‘https://tails.net/news/index.en.html – Tails 6.1 now available.
‘https://brave.com
‘https://torproject.org – Tor Browser 13.0.13 now available.
JonKnowsNothing • April 9, 2024 11:02 AM
@ResearcherZero, All
re: paying Australian farmers $2 a chicken
There are lots of forms of “share cropping” around and Big Ag knows them all.
In California and other states there are chicken brands that say “grown in California” or in a particular state. These Big Ag companies contract for raising chickens for their ventures both supermarket and private market. It is not open market any more.
- Farmers get a contract for a guaranteed sale price and crop insurance hedge against failure
There are lots of variations. One used in California is this:
BigA contracts with FarmerB to raise chickens until Xage.
XAge determines what happens to the chickens afterward. Some will go to slaughter others to egg laying farms.
BigA provides the eggs (if the farmer is a hatchery) or live chicks.
BigA provides ZAmount of feed. Enough to feed the chicks until Xage.FarmerB provides the facility and labor to care for the birds until Xage.
BigA contract provides a provision for some loss of chicks, but large losses are the responsibility of FarmerB.
If there are few losses, FarmerB picks up a check for their labor.
If there are a lot of losses (eg due to farmer negligence), FarmerB pays BigA for the loss of the crop. If FarmerB has crop loss insurance, FarmerB and Insurance pays off BigA. If FarmerB does not have crop loss insurance they repay BigA themselves.
Under this plan FarmerB gets a little profit per live bird but does not have to use much working capital or operational capital. Just the amount needed to maintain the facility, water, electricity (lights and warming stations) and the rest of the ordinary expenses like property taxes, use taxes, payroll taxes, business license taxes, inspection fees, certification fees, pest control and their personal expenses.
This Big Ag method also works for Big Box and Big Fast Food companies.
A big box store in California, sells rotisserie chicken as a loss-leader. Recently they are starting to use the above method to grow “their own chickens”.
They sell a fully cooked 3lb bird for $4.99 USD each.
They start putting out the freshly cooked birds at 11am and every 20-30min later another batch come out of the large rotisserie ovens. There is a bank of these ovens. These ovens hold a skewer of 6 birds and each oven can turn ~10-15 skewers at a time.
It is a loss leader. It’s not intended to make a profit. It’s intended to get you to walk to the back of the warehouse to collect the bird, and on the way in or out, they know you will put something else in your cart. Those other things are not loss leaders.
Pre-Austerity Collapse people would walk out with 1 or 2 carts full of items. Now during Austerity Collapse people show great restraint and walk out with a bird and a loaf of bread. (1)
===
1)
disclosure: I get 2 loaves of bread for $5 and a bird for $5. For $10 I can supplement the surprise items from the food bank. You never know what’s on offer, so you need to be flexible. The bread lasts ~2 weeks (freezer). The bird gives 6 meals and soup-stock (freezer). They are large birds so you can get more meals (8-10) depending on what I get from the food bank.
- USA In big box stores you cannot buy 1 loaf, you have to buy the 2 loaves together or a larger quantity depending on the store and item.
JonKnowsNothing • April 9, 2024 11:37 AM
@ResearcherZero, All
re: green onions and coffee beans
A few MSM articles on the effects of Austerity Collapse and Global PanFamine results.
In South Korea the cost of a bunch of green onions has ignited an election fire fight.
The cost of a bunch of green onions is hovering at 3,000-4,000 won each. A candidate for office made a “Ima working dude” trip to the market which showed a bunch of green onions on sale for 875 won (51p). He made the mistake of not knowing that
- green onions were temporarily discounted thanks to government subsidies, while the supermarket had made a further price cut [for the candidate’s visit]
The Green Onion Revolt resonates so much that
- National Election Commission banned green onions from the locations, citing concerns over “electoral interference”
Tiny plot growers in Ethiopian and other countries cannot pay for the new EUDR certification needed. (2) Ethiopian tiny plot farmers grow coffee beans and the majority of their crop is sold to Germany. Now, Germany cannot import this product. Small plot farmers are SOL and big mega farms which can afford the cost of the EUDR certificate will pick up this market share.
Deforestation is an important issue, however the intended or not intended result is the shut out of tiny plot farmers.
Austerity Collapse at work: The lowest paid, most vulnerable pay the greatest costs.
===
HAIL Warning
1)
ht tps://www .thegu ardian.com/world/2024/apr/09/south-korea-national-assembly-elections-2024-green-onions-supermarket-crisis-cost-of-living
- green onions ignite voter anger in South Korea’s elections
- In recent weeks, green onions have gone from a simple staple of Korean cooking to a powerful symbol of voter anger over rising prices in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.
2)
h ttps:/ /w ww.t heguardian.com/global-development/2024/apr/09/coffee-how-rules-made-in-europe-put-ethiopian-farmers-at-risk
- how rules made in Europe put Ethiopian farmers at risk
Small plot farmers cannot pay for the deforestation certificate required by the EU. The majority of the coffee crop is sold to Germany. Germany is not permitted to import the product without the certificate. The small plot farmers are FKd.
Small plots are variable in size ~1-hectare (2-acre) to ~8 hectares (20 acres).
[Smaller foot print farms often use other planting methods]
yvanehtnioj • April 9, 2024 8:43 PM
Cash-strapped Argentines queue for eyeball scans
Argentines eyeing a financial boost are lining up by the thousands to have their irises scanned in exchange for a few crypto tokens as part of an online biometrics project under scrutiny in several countries.
Some three million people worldwide have so far provided their iris data to Worldcoin, an initiative of OpenAI chief Sam Altman, but few have embraced the project more fervently than Argentines.
Half-a-million people in the South American nation have participated since Worldcoin launched last July, and queues for scans have grown longer in recent months of fast-shrinking disposable income.
“I did it because I don’t have any money, for no other reason,” 64-year-old martial arts teacher Juan Sosa told AFP after staring for a few seconds into a silver iris-scanning orb roughly the size of a bowling ball at one of 250 Worldcoin locations across Argentina.
The project seeks to use these iris specs — unique to each person on Earth — to develop a digital identification system, a sort of passport that will guarantee the holder is a real human being and not a bot, thus securing online transactions.
echo • April 9, 2024 9:09 PM
@fib
I’ve dealt with the issue of maths v social sciences before. Simply, your position is political trying to slide in under the guise of rational. If there was a mathematical solution to what you propose please do tell the security services and think tank analysts because they would find it very useful. Better minds than anyone here have looked into the topic and basically got nowhere. At best I see “maths and physics” used as a rhetorical tool unless it’s dealing with simple inanimate objects and they are not remotely relevant. “Maths” and “physics” and even “science!” get banded about but they way they are deployed here is mostly as a conversation stopper not as a genuine tool of inquiry where relevant and in the way they are meant to be used.
Then there was a topic only this week which if anyone drilled into the links would find a range of academic subjects which are directly relevant to security beyond “maths” and “physics” and electronics and soldering irons.
That will do. I don’t need to write ten pages on it. Anyone who disagrees is being political and not acting in good faith and boundary policing, and I suspect they know it on some level.
Given the subject matters which interest me I’m being quite mild about things. It’s not as if I don’t explain stuff and haven’t linked to formal policy documents outlining multi-domain security models but if people don’t want to hear it?… It’s a bit late for that now, really. The cat’s out of the bag.
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 10:18 PM
@echo
If you have all the answers, use that knowledge and physically solve some problems. Without all the experimentation and laboratory work it is all but blind theory and conjecture.
Math and science are how we climbed up out of the gutter, raw sewage and bacteria. How we figured out physical properties from the movements of celestial bodies, light and sound.
Math and science are how you did not die as infant, and how you will live past your thirties due to the discovery of antibiotics. How you are bashing out words via a keyboard, and how that information is being routed across the globe via ye’ modern telegraph cables.
- @JohnKnowsNothing
I do not shop in large supermarkets. Avoid ’em like the plague. Me and the wife Tubbs, do not like the new road. We prefer the local shop, for local people.
–
CVE-2024-23593 zero out boot manager and drop a UEFI shell
CVE-2024-23594 stack buffer overflow .efi
‘https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-fixes-two-windows-zero-days-exploited-in-malware-attacks/
147 new microsoft CVEs
‘https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2024/4/9/the-april-2024-security-updates-review
–
suspicious software
‘https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2024/04/09/smoke-and-screen-mirrors-a-strange-signed-backdoor/
–
pwnage
‘https://www.bitdefender.com/blog/labs/vulnerabilities-identified-in-lg-webos/
ResearcherZero • April 9, 2024 10:28 PM
In Australia there are approximately 475 native species of dung beetle. Most of them are adapted to deal with marsupial dung. Cattle dung is wet and bulky. It is very unlike marsupial dung — which is typically small, dry pellets — and so the native dung beetles largely left it alone. Large deposits of cattle dung accumulated in the landscape…
‘https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2023/09/our-war-against-dung/
Huge piles of s–t, beetles and a fungus related to Cordyceps.
The fungus was already here and didn’t come from overseas as B. australis does not occur where the new beetles originate.
https://www.csiro.au/en/news/All/Articles/2023/June/dung-beetles
Clive Robinson • April 10, 2024 1:35 AM
@ fib,
“The possibility of groups with this disposition taking power on a planetary scale, as they intend, is one of the things that scare me these days.”
It should do.
Ask yourself a question about funding etc, where does the money for their pontification come from… Because at some point it’s not what it portrays it’s self to be an informal group of like minds, but the equivalent of corporation or similar running a serious political campaign.
It strikes me as funny in a sad way that a person who started a personal “vendetta” because they falsely felt slighted… Now they have made themselves so truly unpopular with their various aberrant behaviours, is now squawking “foul play” and they feel they are being victimised as they are now on the receiving end, of much lesser, but way more valid responses. As people are complaining in “fair comment” in increasing numbers about the unwelcome behaviours the person exhibits.
The actual cause on this occasion, they were pontificating and made a mistake, and got called on it, they then tried their usual ego nonsense and failed thus is now screaming for the moderator to clean up the mess their pontificating created.
The signs that this “I’m the mutts nuts top dog” aberrant behaviour was going to happen with this individual were identified and pointed out long ago, along with some potential reasons.
A recent claim by the individual that if you use logic and reason to point out an actual “truth” rather than arm wavery pontification of a nonsense makes you “political” is yet more well… nonsense.
You can tell from the first words of,
“I’ve dealt with the issue of maths v social sciences before. Simply, your position is political trying to slide in under the guise of rational.”
Is the aberrance you see of a narcissistic personality disorder being rightfully called out.
If you remember we all had a good laugh when an Australian Prime Minister made their claims about the Laws of Australia having supremacy over the laws of maths with,
“The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia”
Well it’s exactly the same mental attitude of,
“I’m right because I say I am”
With a large side order of,
“If I berate loud enough with enough faux-conviction the idiots will genuflect or kowtow because I am an authoritarian god head”
It’s the nonsense of “absolute power corrupts absolutely” of the “King Game”.
Thus the real question is not of the bumptious puppet in the seat but who is pulling the strings from behind. That is who is using them as the “useful idiot” they surely are?
SpaceLifeForm • April 10, 2024 1:37 AM
Communications in Cryptology
Volume 1, Issue 1
Published 2024-04-09
‘https://cic.iacr.org/i/1/1
echo • April 10, 2024 4:52 AM
https://www.ilga-europe.org/report/inventory-of-relevant-sogiesc-case-law-and-pending-cases-before-the-ecthr-and-cjeu/
ILGA Europe
Inventory of relevant SOGIESC case law and pending cases before the ECtHR and CJEU
Hate crime is up across the whole of Europe. It looks like bad faith actors with deep pockets are getting their moneys worth. (Est $700 million p.a.) This impacts faith in democracy and weakens governance and undermines national and international security. Wannabe dictators and the Kremlin are emboldened.
The European Court of Human Rights (and EU’s European Court of Justice) is part and parcel of the European security framework. At least someone is doing their job.
echo • April 10, 2024 6:48 AM
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-launches-retail-crime-crackdown
Prime Minister launches retail crime crackdownAssaulting a retail worker to be made a standalone criminal offence.
This is a joke….
Police sit on their hands and let CCTV evidence storage time out even with a case of public sexual harassment which CPS guidelines stipulate must be prosecuted on the first incident. Oh, yes, and you also have to tell them about the new guidance because they haven’t read it even when it was stipulated to be a public priority as part of a crackdown to support women’s rights in law.
Assault and aggravating circumstances is already criminally prosecutable. This new offence is just political party marketing with public funds and a complete waste of parliamentary time.
No mention of the government dropping pretty much every public policy initiative for women and throwing three years worth of effort on consultations in the bin. No mention of the cost of living crisis. No mention of profiteering by the big supermarkets. No mention of supply chain problems and costs associated with Brexit.
Honestly, the state of this country…
Winter • April 10, 2024 10:33 AM
Better late than never:
EU introduces new rules on transparency and targeting of political advertising
‘https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/03/11/eu-introduces-new-rules-on-transparency-and-targeting-of-political-advertising/
Winter • April 10, 2024 10:35 AM
EU introduces new rules on transparency and targeting of political advertising
…continued
- Targeting political advertising online will be permitted only under strict conditions. The data has to be collected from the data subject and it can be used only after the data subject have given explicit and separate consent for its use for political advertising. Special categories of personal data, such as data revealing racial or ethnic origin or political opinions, cannot be used for profiling.
- To prevent foreign interference, there will be a ban on the provision of advertising services to third country sponsors three months before an election or referendum.
Yog • April 10, 2024 10:50 AM
(Long-term lurker here, first post)
@ Clive
re: “useful idiots”
Interesting essay by John Gray on the subject in New Statesman today:
https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024/04/the-wests-useful-idiots
echo • April 10, 2024 11:58 AM
The Cass report goes against the consensus of professional medical associations around the world and I don’t think it is relevant to practice in Australia,” she said.
The Cass review is politically from its inception, to governance arrangements, to junking 98% of peer reviewed evidence and more besides. Subject matter experts including PhD’s are currently making mincemeat of it.
(Used redirection link to http://www.smh.com.au as comment filter kept rejecting the URL due to a contentious word.)
emily's post • April 10, 2024 8:48 PM
Dept. of Computational Theology, Course 01010, lecturer John von Neumann
Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.
Computer scientist wins Turing Award for seminal work on randomness
While computers are fundamentally deterministic systems, researchers discovered in the 1970s that they could enrich their algorithms by letting them make random choices during computation in hopes of improving their efficiency.
…
In 1994, Wigderson co-authored a seminal paper on hardness versus randomness with Noam Nisan, demonstrating that as useful as randomness can be, it is not a necessity. Essentially, “Every probabilistic algorithm that’s efficient can be replaced by a deterministic one, so you don’t really need [randomness],” he said. “The power believed to be in probabilistic algorithms doesn’t exist.” He subsequently coauthored two more highly influential papers further extending that work on randomness, among many others.
ResearcherZero • April 11, 2024 12:29 AM
They might have to speed up the old Russian anthem to fit with the new decree.
Minister of Culture Musa Dadayev announced the decision to limit all musical, vocal and choreographic compositions to a tempo ranging from 80 to 116 beats per minute (BPM) at a meeting Friday, the Russian state new agency TASS reported.
The Russian national anthem, normally 76 BPM, would be too slow for Musa Dadayev.
“I have announced the final decision, agreed with the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov, that from now on all musical, vocal and choreographic works must correspond to a tempo of 80 to 116 beats per minute,” Dadayev said, according to TASS.
–
CVE-2024-2201 cross-privilege Spectre v2 vulnerability – exploitable gadgets in the Linux kernel
‘https://kb.cert.org/vuls/id/155143
Existing mitigation techniques of disabling privileged eBPF and enabling (Fine)IBT are insufficient in stopping BHI exploitation against the kernel/hypervisor.
‘https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/software-security-guidance/technical-documentation/branch-history-injection.html#guidelines-additional-hardening
Server and desktop processors affected:
‘https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/topic-technology/software-security-guidance/processors-affected-consolidated-product-cpu-model.html
ResearcherZero • April 11, 2024 12:33 AM
Radicalisation environment becoming “more complex”.
‘https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/10/rise-in-activity-from-right-wing-extremists-who-want-to-trigger-race-war-in-australia-asio-warns
RUSI warns disaffected veterans lacking support are specifically targeted by extremists.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/far-right-groups-actively-targeting-32125114
Clive Robinson • April 11, 2024 5:22 AM
@ Bruce, Moderator,
Consider this a formal complaint against the deliberately provoking behaviour of @echo.
Further the dishonesty of the comments made by @echo
In just the past few days @echo has broken the posting guidelines multiple times and in multiple ways and has repetedly and deliberately tried to provoke people with incorrect or false claims.
Several people have objected to @echo’s behaviour quite justifiably. The response by @echo has been to claim, “being victimised” with statements like the one above in
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/04/friday-squid-blogging-squid-bots.html/#comment-435147
Of
“Unhelpful and unwanted intervention and personal attack in settled moderation issue.”
The question of @echo’s behaviour is clearly not settled as falsely claimed. Further it was by no means an “attack” as for unhelpful and unwanted that is clearly @echo’s “presented” personal opinion that they can throw behaviour worse than a delinquent tenager and not be censured for it.
As I’ve pointed out before @echo’s “presented” behaviour is of a person with certain non normal mental attributes.
But the question is are those attributes real or false?
Certainly the current displays have many hallmarks of being feigned and thus “an act” that can be selectively used in various ways.
In the past I’ve noted that @echo’s behaviour presented, as a stalker out for revenge for some imagined slight.
When that behaviour failed to “bag a scalp” the presentation changed and appeared directed at this blogs host.
When that approach failed the presented behaviour changed again and it became against this blogs readers collectively.
When that approach failed the presented behaviour changed yet again.
Thus if the current attack methodology fails as it probably will, I suspect the presentation will change yet again.
The real question is,
“What is the common element or thread to these changing in presentation?”
Unfortunately as I’ve noted before deleting the posts is actually an “enabler” to @echo’s behaviour. As it “destroys the evidence” of @echo’s past behaviours.
Something that @echo obviously wants to be done based on the current presented behaviour of
1, Deliberately provoke
2, Make threats against individuals
3, Create excessive nuisance noise
4, Make threats against the blog
5, Unsurprisingly people comment
6, Make False victimisation claims
It suggests the next steps would be to lead upto
6, Make further bad actor provocations to get posts deleted
7, Make false censorship claims.
Or similar.
What @echo’s end goal is, is not immediately clear but every so often we get the threats against individuals again. I would quote the latest example, but unfortunately of the latest example,
“the evidence has been destroyed”
by it being deleted…
Which is unfortunate as it acts more in @echo’s favour than it does in anyone elses including the host of this blog and the blog it’s self.
emily's post • April 11, 2024 5:40 AM
Further re the non-necessity of randomness from
One central theme is that computation happens everywhere, not just in computers,” Wigderson told Ars. “It is part of the processes in our brain, the way we can talk and the cells in our body, but also trees growing or weather and celestial things. In all these natural processes, there are the laws of nature, which are local, and they evolve systems. Like in a computer, there are very simple rules, and you start with a problem and discover a complex solution to it. So, the methodology is applicable to essentially any science process or study.
What does this say about the theory of evolution as a long term process driven by random inputs ? The path in biological space attributed to a random mechanism may be generated instead by a non-random dynamical process. Complex and chaotic deterministic dynamical systems may appear random.
Clive Robinson • April 11, 2024 11:28 AM
@ emily’s post, ALL,
Re : What is random anyway?
Avi Wigderson has –for some apparently quite– heretical views on randomness. He indicates that it is not just unnecessary but also that it may not exist.
For some time now I’ve talked about a spectrum from full deterministic through chaotic to random. I’ve also indicated I don’t believe in “random” just missing information as part of the argument about “data shadows”.
Whilst not the same our views are not incompatible. So I’m not one lighting a burning brand and picking up a pitchfork to go remonstrate with a heretic 😉
Science has this notion of information not being lost. So in theory the temperature path, and position of every molecule in a hot cup of tea “strong Brownian Motion producer” is known. And thus can be wound backwards back up into the pot, from there back into the kettle, and from there back through the tap and water supply via a rain drop back to a cloud and thus back to the ocean’s surface and thus deduce if a seagull was sitting there…
Whilst this might be theoretically nice… Not have access to just one source of that information and you can see it like a natural version of the One Time Pad.
What Avi Wigderson claims is in effect the same thing from the opposite direction. That is each very simple and calculable process becomes part of that additive chain that ends up with a sip of the cup.
As an observer loose track of just one process and your knowledge about the molecule becomes incomplete thus “unknown” to some degree.
The more processes that are unknown to the observer the harder it is to get past the effects of the processes by statistical or other analysis.
Curious • April 11, 2024 1:43 PM
This seems to be raising some (still low) alerts in the PQC world:
https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/555
Is it really something to be worried?
name.withheld.for.obvious.reasons • April 11, 2024 10:18 PM
Civics, Society, and the Morass of the Intellect–A Night Time Story for all Ages
Today civics must counter every lie, falsehood, and utterance not in support of any ideological or civic purpose, but against its use as a tool to dismantle the very instruments (faux news) used to bolster political and social activity or good. The U.S. Article I branch has fallen to the practical purpose and application of the congressional speech and debate clause. The purpose of the Article I Constitutional right of congresspersons and senators not to be interfered with concerning the operation of the house and senate and the function of members as a body in their respective chambers. But today it has metastasized to the whole of the body in the form of lesions and sores…
The debate clause was fine when what on a day-to-day basis in the 18th and 19th century was covered by telegraph services and regional publications such as newspapers and periodicals. Even for information carried wider then the halls of the capital in DC, corrupt political tools such as propaganda and anti-institutional messaging fell close to where the speaker or writer had made a claim or set of claims requiring fidelity to the purpose of debate and honest dialogue, but is/was not.
Now, in the 21st century, with each elected representative holding a publishing platform in their hands, the ability to carry speech outside the classic context breaks two things. One; representatives transform their behavior to feed the platforms, and Two; the platform operates in a 24/7, 365 days a year environment inducing dishonest and bad faith representatives towards falsely applying the speech and debate clause while simultaneously attaching it to all of their activity. Whether it is campaign activity, not covered in the Article I clause, or using this clause to apply to all activity or actions otherwise considered personal or unsolicited such as in written essays and speeches given to civic groups, in a general public forum, or as clicks to a compensated platform. Many times compensation to the speaker occurs where no such compensation is warranted. Thus what has arisen from with the political class is not as a constitutional act of office, but of self-service to their own political cause and agenda.
In summary, this is a direct attack on the very roll of a representative. The GOP has widely overstepped its constitution charter as represents as they now answer not to their constituents but one bombastic and mendacious serial liar and criminal. Whenever a representative of the United House of Representatives says, “I am doing what every dear leader wants.”, it is an open demonstration of contempt of office and to their district members (the voters).
It is why both Democrats and Republicans don’t hold one another accountable. Both have failed to honor their office. The insidious effects in using their positions; to actively subjugate their constituents and render citizenship relatively meaningless. The twin crisis in civics, political nihilism and public apathy (in its many forms) represent the greatest failure in the democratic republic of these United States. Unless or until a broader movement of civic engagement and education which is necessary to breath life back into the polity we think we enjoy or deserve, all will potentially suffer under the rubric of an anti-social, anti-pluralistic, anti-emancipated, anti-citizen pro-despotic degradation of the individual, and inhuman governing coalition of thugs and tyrants will fill their coffers with your misery. Don’t thinks this is the case, look at the devolution of Russian society today–it is a classic example of Putinism, aka Trumpism, and portends a future few will embrace or enjoy.
Jerome • April 11, 2024 11:18 PM
As things have been considerably derailed (more than usual) this week. I’ll take a moment to express some love and appreciation for our host Bruce Schneier.
At his own expense, our host invests no doubt considerable resources to provide this precious facility for us.
Surely a very busy man, Bruce Schneier now has to spend time liasing with his moderator (who he pays) to respond to the requests for intervention arising from @Clive Robinson, myself and others.
Thank you, Bruce Schneier.
As an extension of the above.
It must be noted. We are guests here by invitation. We have no fundamental ‘right’ to comment here. And this blog is not a playground for our own amusement.
Love from Australia
ResearcherZero • April 12, 2024 12:51 AM
Forever bugs: Silent patching left unaddressed vulnerabilities in the supply chain.
“A very outdated third-party component present in the latest version of firmware”
Intel and Lenovo PSIRTs both declined to fix or acknowledge the vulnerability report as products recently hit end of life. The software bug presides in BMCs on server boards.
‘https://www.binarly.io/blog/lighttpd-gains-new-life
–
Specific targeted attacks on iPhones in 92 nations.
‘https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/10/apple-warning-mercenary-spyware-attacks/
fib • April 12, 2024 7:19 AM
@name.withheld.for.obvious.reasons
Now, in the 21st century, with each elected representative holding a publishing platform in their hands, the ability to carry speech outside the classic context
I defend the notion that politicians acting as government officials should [by force of law] primarily communicate through official channels rather than relying heavily on social media platforms, and that their excessive presence on social media could be considered an abuse of power.
- Official Channels Ensure Transparency and Accountability: When politicians communicate through official channels such as government websites, press releases, or official statements, there’s a level of accountability and transparency. These channels often undergo scrutiny and follow specific protocols, ensuring that information is accurate, verified, and in line with governmental policies. This transparency is crucial for maintaining trust between the government and the public.
- Equal Access for All Citizens: Official channels provide equal access to information for all citizens. Not everyone has access to or uses social media platforms, and relying solely on them for communication can exclude segments of the population, particularly those from lower socio-economic backgrounds or older demographics. By utilizing official channels, politicians ensure that their messages reach a broader audience, regardless of their social media presence.
- Preservation of Institutional Integrity: Governments are built upon established institutions and protocols. Communicating through official channels respects these institutions and maintains their integrity. When politicians bypass official channels in favor of social media, they may undermine the established processes and structures, leading to confusion or even erosion of public trust in governmental institutions.
- Mitigating Disinformation and Miscommunication: Official channels often involve a team of experts who ensure that information is accurate, consistent, and devoid of misinformation. Social media platforms, on the other hand, are susceptible to the rapid spread of rumors, fake news, and misinformation. By primarily using official channels, politicians can help mitigate the spread of false information and ensure that the public receives reliable and verified information.
- Preventing Personal Agendas and Biases: Social media platforms often blur the lines between personal opinions and official statements. Politicians may use social media to promote personal agendas or biases, which can be detrimental to the democratic process. By communicating through official channels, politicians are more likely to present information in a neutral and unbiased manner, focusing on the interests of the public rather than personal or partisan interests.
While social media can be a valuable tool for communication, politicians acting as government officials should primarily rely on official channels to ensure transparency, equal access, institutional integrity, accuracy, and neutrality. Excessive reliance on social media could indeed be perceived as an abuse of power, as it may bypass established protocols and institutions, potentially leading to misinformation and undermining democratic principles.
Winter • April 12, 2024 1:39 PM
Read and Learn
Actually, the internet’s always been this bad
‘https://linksiwouldgchatyou.substack.com/p/actually-the-internets-always-been
Overall, the study found that the prevalence of both toxic speech and highly toxic users were extremely low. But the longer any conversation goes on, on virtually any platform, the more toxic it becomes. At the same time, conversations tend to involve fewer, more active participants as they stretch on.
It’s like a certain kind of Buffalo bar around last call: Most people have gone home for the night, but the stragglers are loud, uninhibited and prone to a certain level of mischief and/or aggression.
Clive Robinson • April 12, 2024 4:26 PM
@ Winter,
Re : Read and learn
And in the opposite corner,
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/23497207/chronically-online-twitter-tiktok
Indicating the Internet is way more toxic than “Real Life” and why…
“Personally I blame the toad squashers Trumpity-thumping around the Doh-gnarled”
In UK English “Gopping”[1] has meaning beyond the political usage it might find on the West of the puddle 😉
[1] Two UK insults are Gopping and Minging. Neither originates in England even though many think they are English. Broadly they mean the same which is disgusting / filthy / unpleasant in various forms. However a little usage analysis suggests that Minging is more animal with agency and Gopping more inanimate object. Thus a dog that had rolled in scat would be Minging where as a cesspit with the lid removed would be Gopping.
Clive Robinson • April 12, 2024 5:45 PM
@ Bruce, ALL,
Russian ICBM test today
Russia carried out a near unanounced ICBM test today,
https://apnews.com/article/russia-launch-missile-cd18942fdb070a645faaf6986bccc03a
The choice of launch site and path would have “lit up the middle east” which suggests that it was more “threat value” than “technical value” to the Russian Leadership.
If you call it,
1, Flag waving.
2, Drum banging.
3, Saber rattling.
Is without further info a matter of personal preference.
The question though would be,
“For Who’s attention?”
Was it ment. It could well be for Israel / America as a warning or other ME combatants.
What is not well understood is the Russian position on ME conflict. It’s known that Israeli military activity diverts money and resources away from the Ukrainian, but also the Russian political view on Israel in what Russia sees as “it’s” back waters is clearly antagonistic.
It’s been suggested that the attacks by alleged Hamas groups appear to be using techniques Wagner Group were teaching in Africa where they have been stiring up quite a bit of conflict
emily's post • April 12, 2024 10:25 PM
Re: “It’s like a certain kind of Buffalo bar … ”
Like this one
“You stop and you hold everything”
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
William • April 5, 2024 5:21 PM
Could you imagine discovering that your identity had been used to take out fraudulent loans and when you tried to resolve the issue and didn’t know the answers to the account security questions connected to the loans, but instead provided your California state ID and Social Security card you were instead arrested, charged with multiple felonies, jailed for over a year, incarcerated in a mental hospital for over a year where you were given psychotropic drugs and eventually released with a criminal record and a judge’s order that you could no longer use your real name?
As dystopian as this might sound, it actually happened. It was only after the victim learned his oppressor worked for The University of Iowa Hospital and contacted their security department was the investigation taken seriously. The investigator noticed the imposter used the wrong middle name on the driver’s license he supplied and didn’t know his father’s name which led them to conduct a DNA test ending the 35 year long run of the grifter.
Cedar Rapids Gazette