Wednesday, September 01, 2021

Blood, labs and fraud

 “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” 

– David Brinkley


Gladys Berejiklian hits out at Premiers refusing to open borders despite vaccination rate News.com.au 



The organiser of dozens of anti-lockdown protests is believed to have encouraged them online from overseas.

Police responded to 69 protests across the state including at NSW Parliament House, outside Sutherland, Waverley and Hills council buildings, and in COVID hotspots like Blacktown and Dubbo.

Police believe foreign agitator behind dozens of lockdown protests across NSW


NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the decision to escalate enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions was not directly based on health advice but has suggested community transmissions of the Delta variant would be 10 times the current level if not for police intervention.

Revealing police have issued about 18,000 fines over the past six weeks of enforcement of public health orders, Mr Fuller told a NSW Parliament budget estimates hearing on Wednesday that he had committed to “treating the virus like a criminal” to support the pandemic response.

Treat the virus like a criminal’: Police Commissioner defends COVID-19 enforcement



How Ghost Train Fire exposed remarkable police corruption, yet also failed ABC's high journalistic standards


Gavin Newsom Praised Chinese Foreign Agent for ‘Journalistic Integrity.’



Blood, labs and fraud: Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes is about to go on trial Washington Post, 


PROFILES OF THE FUTURE: Someone found this 1976 interview with futurist Arthur C. Clarke and his predictions about the future were so accurate it’ll blow your mind (video).

In terms of technology (as opposed the hash people online are making with it), as James Lileks once wrote, “This really is the future I wanted. Although I expected longer battery life.”



Niccolò Machiavelli taught that politics is an alien universe, unstable and inconsistent – dominated by chance – in which appearance, not reality, defines success. It does not matter who politicians really are. What matters is how people perceive them. Because public opinion is fickle, politics a gamble and the political universe unstable, successful leaders need minds that change with “fortune and changing circumstances”. And because “people are ungrateful, fickle, feigners and dissemblers”, the politician must necessarily also be a “great feigner and dissembler”. Dishonesty – and indeed any other immoral conduct – is justified, for Machiavelli, provided that it leads to dominion over a powerful state. The end justifies the means (“accusandolo il fatto, lo effetto lo scusi”). 

When the flawed succeed: Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings and the corrosion of morals Times Literary Supplement


 General Motors expands Chevrolet Bolt recall over battery fire issue
Neal E. Boudett
 Why Teslas Keep Striking Parked Firetrucks and Police Cars
Slate
 Aurora Releases Tool to Gauge Safety of Self-Driving Systems
Reuters
 Further on the Fatal Tesla Autopilot Accident report
Stephen Mason
 An Obstacle to Amtrak Expansion That Money Won’t Solve
NYTimes
 Rain falls on peak of Greenland ice cap for first time on record
The Guardian
 Why Bad Science Is Sometimes More Appealing Than Good Science
Scientific American
 Implantable AI system developed for early detection and treatment of illnesses
medicalxpress.org
 Body cams alone not enough to prevent police violence
phys.org
 The fix is in: How it can cost you more to get medical treatment with insurance than without
NYTimes
 How your employer may be tracking your remote work
WashPost
 As delta variant spreads, some companies with vaccine mandates deploy tech to verify records
WashPost
 Cortana is AWOL in the war against COVID-19 disinfo
Computerworld
 Critical flaw found in older Cisco Small Business Routers won't be fixed
The Hacker News
 Google announces commitment of $10 billion to advance cybersecurity
LW
 Cybercrime Group Asking Insiders for Help in Planting Ransomware
The Hacker News
 Wanted: Disgruntled Employees to Deploy Ransomware
Krebs on Security
 A simple software fix could limit location-data sharing
WiReD
 Princeton: We built a system like Apple's to flag child sexual abuse material—and concluded the tech was dangerous
WashPost
 Another source for Apple's anti-CSAM proposal
NYTimes
 Edward Snowden on Apple's approach to CSAM
PGN
 Apple’s Double Agent
Vice
 UK to Hang Up on Landline Phones in 2025
Jonathan Spira
 VPNs Could Be Vulnerable to Attacks That Send You to Fake Websites
New Scientist
 Folly: eBay "security" notice
Gabe Goldberg
 Info on RISKS (comp.risks)