“the greater good”
One of the side effects of Covid-19 is reducing once sensible, decent people to merciless morons willing to defend the indefensible.
Dr Cope at 90: Australians are living longer but what does it take to reach 100 years old?
One of the side effects of Covid-19 is reducing once sensible, decent people to merciless morons willing to defend the indefensible.
Dr Cope at 90: Australians are living longer but what does it take to reach 100 years old?
Vaccine Certificates Are Making Global Travel Harder, Not Easier
Vaccine certificates were ostensibly rolled out to help facilitate cross-border travel as vaccination numbers increased. But thanks to vaccine geopolitics, the opposite is happening
In Britain people are now being warned *not* to get their second dose at 3 or 4 weeks because this offers less protection than waiting 8 weeks or longer
Vaccine certificates were ostensibly rolled out to help facilitate cross-border travel as vaccination numbers increased. But thanks to vaccine geopolitics, the opposite is happening
In Britain people are now being warned *not* to get their second dose at 3 or 4 weeks because this offers less protection than waiting 8 weeks or longer
This tool tells you if NSO’s Pegasus spyware targeted your phone
TechCrunch: “Over the weekend, an international consortium of news outlets reported that several authoritarian governments — including Mexico, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates — used spyware developed by NSO Group to hack into the phones of thousands of their most vocal critics, including journalists, activists, politicians and business executives. A leaked list of 50,000 phone numbers of potential surveillance targets was obtained by Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International and shared with the reporting consortium, including The Washington Post and The Guardian. Researchers analyzed the phones of dozens of victims to confirm they were targeted by the NSO’s Pegasus spyware, which can access all of the data on a person’s phone. The reports also confirm new details of the government customers themselves, which NSO Group closely guards. Hungary, a member of the European Union where privacy from surveillance is supposed to be a fundamental right for its 500 million residents, is named as an NSO customer. The reporting shows for the first time how many individuals are likely targets of NSO’s intrusive device-level surveillance. Previous reporting had put the number of known victims in the hundreds or more than a thousand. NSO Group sharply rejected the claims. NSO has long said that it doesn’t know who its customers target, which it reiterated in a statement to TechCrunch on Monday…”
See also multiple resources on this subject via previous posting: Forensic Methodology Report: How to catch NSO Group’s Pegasus
FBI agent in Gretchen Whitmer kidnap case arrested following domestic incident.
UPDATE: Watching the Watchmen: “An examination of the case by BuzzFeed News also reveals that some of those informants, acting under the direction of the FBI, played a far larger role than has previously been reported. Working in secret, they did more than just passively observe and report on the actions of the suspects. Instead, they had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception. The extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.”
See also multiple resources on this subject via previous posting: Forensic Methodology Report: How to catch NSO Group’s Pegasus
FBI agent in Gretchen Whitmer kidnap case arrested following domestic incident.
UPDATE: Watching the Watchmen: “An examination of the case by BuzzFeed News also reveals that some of those informants, acting under the direction of the FBI, played a far larger role than has previously been reported. Working in secret, they did more than just passively observe and report on the actions of the suspects. Instead, they had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception. The extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.”
Historian Michael Beschloss – Los Angeles Times described it as alternative to “your MySpace page”
A New Tool Shows How Google Results Vary Around the World
Wired: “Google’s claim to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” has earned it an aura of objectivity. Its dominance in search, and the disappearance of most competitors, make its lists of links appear still more canonical. An experimental new interface for Google Search aims to remove that mantle of neutrality. Search Atlas makes it easy to see how Google offers different responses to the same query on versions of its search engine offered in different parts of the world. The research project reveals how Google’s service can reflect or amplify cultural differences or government preferences—such as whether Beijing’s Tiananmen Square should be seen first as a sunny tourist attraction or the site of a lethal military crackdown on protesters…”
Wired: “Google’s claim to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” has earned it an aura of objectivity. Its dominance in search, and the disappearance of most competitors, make its lists of links appear still more canonical. An experimental new interface for Google Search aims to remove that mantle of neutrality. Search Atlas makes it easy to see how Google offers different responses to the same query on versions of its search engine offered in different parts of the world. The research project reveals how Google’s service can reflect or amplify cultural differences or government preferences—such as whether Beijing’s Tiananmen Square should be seen first as a sunny tourist attraction or the site of a lethal military crackdown on protesters…”
Google knows where you are 24/7. Here’s how to make it stop
CNET: “You turned off location history on your Google account, so now your Google apps can’t track you, right? Not exactly. While disabling that setting sounds like a one-and-done, some Google apps are still storing your location data. Merely opening the Google Maps app or using Google on any platform for a search logs your location down to the square foot with a time stamp, according to an investigation from the Associated Press. Turning off location history only removes where you’ve been from the Google Maps Timeline feature, which logs your location with certain data at a specific time. Google’s support page on the matter is confusing. It says that even when turned off, “some location data may continue to be saved in other settings,” like your web and app activity. (We reached out to Google for more information and will update this story when we hear back.) But if you take a few more steps, you can stop Google from knowing where you are 24/7…
S/he moves in mysterious ways
The mystery of Salvator Mundis, a question of attribution, provenance, and the careful shifting hundreds of millions of dollars around the world. Via The Guardian. There are estimated to be several billion dollars worth of art tucked away in these shadowy facilities. More reading: Inside the Luxembourg free port storing riches for the super-wealthy; Behind Closed Doors: A Look At Freeports; The Role of Freeports in the Global Art Market / other things. The Periodic Table of Factory Records / The Flood is a monumental artwork by John Simpkins commissioned by George R. Stroemple / a proper internet rabbit hole awaits: from the excellent 50 Years of Text Gamesnewsletter, the story of 1992’s Silverwolf, a game that encompasses and epitomises the (deliberately) blurry mythos of St. Bride’s School, a quasi-mystical strand of feminism and Victorian romanticism (the RTÉ Archivesare an absolute treasure trove, by the way) / the Monty Hall Problem / a tour of Charles Jenck’s Cosmic House, sonon to open as a museum / we missed this: Lucy Sparrow’s Bourdon Street Chemist / some music blogs: Gorilla vs Bear; We Love That; Obscure Sound.