Money Put to Good Use at MIT
September 22, 2021
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had a brush with Mr. Epstein, who continues to haunt the “real news” due to that estimable royal, Prince Andrew. And what of the institution which found Mr. Epstein amiable and enthusiastic about education and research?
The MIT experts have published absolutely stunning data about driver-assist technology. “A Model for Naturalistic Glance Behavior around Tesla Autopilot Disengagements” is a title crafted with the skill of the MIT professionals who explained MIT’s interactions with Mr. Epstein.
What’s fascinating is one conclusion from this official research paper, which MIT will sell to a person eager to support this outstanding institution. Here’s the finding I circled:
Visual behavior patterns change before and after AP disengagement. Before disengagement, drivers looked less on road and focused more on non-driving related areas compared to after the transition to manual driving. The higher proportion of off-road glances before disengagement to manual driving were not compensated by longer glances ahead.
What’s this mean to a person in rural Kentucky? Vehicles which “sort of drive themselves” make drivers fiddle with their phones and do stuff not associated with paying attention to driving.
Who knew?
Stephen E Arnold, September 22, 2021
Elastic: Differentiation and Wagon Circling
September 22, 2021
Elastic expects two recent acquisitions to beef up its security in the cloud. Betakit reports, “Cybersecurity Startup Cmd to Be Acquired by Enterprise Search Firm Elastic.” This deal is on the heels of the company’s announcement that it snapped up authorization policy management platform build.security. Writer Josh Scott tells us:
“Cmd was founded in 2016 by CSO Jake King, former security operations lead at Hootsuite, and Milun Tesovic, general partner at Expa. The startup offers a runtime security platform for cloud workloads and Linux assets, providing infrastructure detection and response capabilities to global brands, financial institutions, and software companies. Cmd’s offering observes real-time session activity and allows Linux administrators and developers to take immediate remediation action. … Following the close of the deal, Elastic plans to work with Cmd to integrate Cmd’s cloud native data collection capabilities directly into the company’s Elastic Agent product, and Cmd’s user experience and workflows into Kibana, Elastic’s data visualization offering.”
Citing an article from TechCrunch, Scott notes that Cmd’s employees will be moving to Elastic, with King and CEO Santosh Krishnan slipping into executive roles. Elastic says current customers of both firms will benefit from the integration and specifically promises its existing clients will soon receive Cmd’s cloud security capabilities. Built around open source software, Elastic began as Elasticsearch Inc. in 2012, simplified its name in 2015, and went public in 2018. The company is based in Mountain View, California, and maintains offices around the world.
Cynthia Murrell, September 22, 2021
China and That Old Time Religion: Oil and Water?
September 22, 2021
Chairman Mao Zedong infamously said, “Religion is the opiate of the people.” Since the communist takeover in China, the country’s government has not sanctioned any religion. In short, China does not like religion at all. China does not like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, nor Islam.
Islam is a hot button issue for China, because of its extermination of Uyghurs Muslims. China has not formerly acknowledged the Uyghur genocide. China does not like the Uyghurs, because the the minor Islamic denomination are separating themselves from the main Chinese population. Under the Chinese government, all people are equal and the same. The government does not like it when people separate themselves into ethnic or religious groups. Uyghur adults are being sent to extermination camps, while Uyghur children are separated from their parents and reeducated. China’s population crisis is another issue.
China banning the Koran reader is not any different from banning the Bible, Torah, or other religious documents. China notoriously bans literature and other media that the government finds contrary to its ideals. A developer named Ameir tweeted on Twitter that he uploaded the Koran reader to the China Apple App Store and he was told:
“I got notified from Apple that the Quran Reader has been removed from sale in China because it has ‘content that is illegal in China as determined by the Cyberspace Administration of China.’It’s literally just the Quran.”
Another user replied that China does not allow the Bible online either.
Whitney Grace, September 22, 2021
Twitter: Breathe Deeply. And Again. Now Write a Check for $800 Million.
September 22, 2021
I read an interesting story called “Twitter to Pay $809.5 Million to Settle Lawsuit Alleging Jack Dorsey, Others Misled Investors.” What? a super trendy SMS company adored by those in Silicon Alley and Silicon Valley allegedly doing some Fancy Dancing with the money crowd? Who ever heard of such a thing?
The write up states without the snappy writing of yore:
The original lawsuit, filed in 2016 by a Twitter shareholder, alleged Dorsey and others including former CEO Dick Costolo and board member Evan Williams hid facts about Twitter’s slowing user growth while they sold their personal stock holdings “for hundreds of millions of dollars in insider profits.”
Then the Hollywood “real” news publication notes:
Twitter, in an 8-K filing Monday, noted that the final settlement agreement will not “include or constitute an admission, concession, or finding of any fault, liability, or wrongdoing by the Company or any defendant.”
Of course not. This is an allegation.
Quick question: Did the parties to the litigation tweet the news? I know everyone downloads and reads the outstandingly compelling prose in SEC documents, but social media is now the source for real news. A recent Pew study does not include the SEC in its list of sources. This is an obvious oversight.
Stephen E Arnold, September 22, 2021
Is Pew Defining News Too Narrowly?
September 21, 2021
I read what looks like another “close enough for horse shoes survey.” The data originate from the Pew Research Center, which has adopted the role of the outfit which says, “This is what’s shaking the digital world.”
The article “News Consumption across Social Media in 2021” reports that ”about half of Americans get news on social media at least sometimes, down slightly form 2020.”
But what’s news? I don’t want to dive into the definitional quandary, but news? What’s truth? Ethical behavior? Honor?
There is a factoid tucked into the write up which is interesting because it seems that hot social media properties like Reddit, TikTok, LinkedIn (Microsoft), Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Twitch are not where Americans go for news.
What?
Let’s zoom into Reddit. The majority of the content is news related; that is, the information calls attention to an action or instrumentality. One easy example is the discussion threads related to problems with computers. Isn’t this information news?
What about WhatsApp (Facebook)? With encrypted messaging services becoming the new Dark Web, much of the information on special interest groups focused on possible illegal activities is, according to my DarkCyber research team, is news: Who, what, where, when, etc.
Another issue is that anyone with an interest in an event (for instance, a law enforcement professional) may find quite “newsy” items on Facebook and YouTube pages. And the sampling used for the Pew study? Maybe not representative?
Net net: Interesting study just a slight shading of “news.” The world has changed and as cartoon characters once said, “Phew, phew.”
Stephen E Arnold, September 21, 2021
Enlightened Newspaper Deletes Info
September 21, 2021
News media outlets usually post a retraction or correction if they delete something. The Daily Dot tattles on a popular British nets outlet when it deleted content: “ ‘This Is Astonishing’: The Guardian Removed A TERF-Critical Passage From An Article.” What is even more upsetting is that the Guardian removed the passage a few hours after it was posted.
The article in question was an interview with gender theorist Judith Butler, who also wrote the book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity that includes information about a partnership between fascists and trans exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) or anti-trans feminists. The Guardian did post an editorial note saying the piece was changed on September 7, 2021. The deleted portion was mistakenly associated with an incident at Wi Spa in Los Angeles, where a purported trans-woman was in the women’s only nude section. The exposed trans-women was charged with indecent exposure in front of women and children the past.
Jules Gleeson, the article’s author, asked a question that referenced the Wi Spa incident, but Butler’s response was a general answer and did not mention the spa. Gleeson offered to rewrite the article, but The Guardian declined. The entire interview has fallen victim to the Streisand effect, it has become popular because the Guardian tried to cover it up:
“In an email to the Daily Dot, Gleeson confirmed that she offered to revise the question. ‘Unfortunately, the Guardian editors decided to go ahead with their decision to censor Judith Butler,’ she said. ‘I can only hope that the overall point Judith Butler was making can receive some wider circulation, in light of this controversy,’ she continued. ‘The Heritage Foundation and Proud Boys (and those who collaborate with them) are threats to us that deserve more than online intrigue and editorial backpedalling.’”
The British media leans towards an anti-trans opinion, so the deleted passage upset readers. Gleeson’s note is correct, it does draw more attention to trans-people’s struggles and approaching the trans-rights discussion with intellectual curiosity.
Whitney Grace, September 21, 2021
War Intrudes. Big Tech Is There
September 21, 2021
War is complicated. It has never been black and white, except when the cause is undeniably evil. One of the worst days in modern history was September 11, 2001. After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, the United States under President George W. Bush declared war on terrorism. The US already had tenuous relationships with Middle Eastern countries, but they became worse when US troops were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
It has been twenty years since Osama bin Laden ordered the terrorist attack on the US . President Joe Biden removed American forces in Afghanistan, but that does not mean an end is in sight.
Big Tech Sells War managed by Crescendo, a project run by Little Sis, Action Center on Race and the Economy, and MPower Change. These are left-leaning organizations that fund and empower similarly aligned information sources. Big Tech Sells War explores how the US Department of Homeland Security and big tech companies, like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, have perpetuated the global war on terror for profit. Other byproducts of this partnership, are spreading xenophobia, racism against brown people, implementation of US fascism, and promoting white supremacy. Here is the first passage form their about page:
“Since 2001 the “Global War on Terror” has become a household phrase that has set the political, economic, and ideological agenda for the US and its accomplices. The GWoT has done less to keep people safe from terror as it has to grow the reach of US militarism and imperialism and terrorize people across Southwest Asia to Africa, throughout the Global South, and here in the United States. The terrorizing of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities in the US by police is another expression of this ideological war that shares the same tools and strategies of surveillance and control.”
At first glance, Big Tech Starts War lists some thought-provoking arguments worth further research, but reading between the lines yields thought patterns similar to conspiracy theorists. True, some conspiracy theories might be true, but without the proper evidence they are little more than urban legends and junk.
Big Tech Starts Wars is an insular project run by organizations who manufacture their own data. The numbers and facts Big Tech Starts War lacks citations or links directly back to a parent organization. These parent organizations spurt reactionary facts through a biased lens. The LittleSis database contains relationship data between politicians and big tech names. There are even arrows and maps pointing out how they are connected!
Big Tech Starts war does not reference information other than itself. It is like the Scientologists claiming their “technology” stops wars and cures disease, when the big media outlets never report it. The same goes here. Yes, media outlets have their own agenda, but that is why you research multiple places to get a better understanding of the bigger picture.
Big Tech Starts War has teeny tiny granules of truth, but it’s like trying to separate salt and sugar with the naked eye.
Whitney Grace, September 21, 2021
DarkCyber for September 21, 2021 Now Available
September 21, 2021
DarkCyber for September 21, 2021, reports about the Dark Web, cyber crime, and lesser known Internet services. The program is produced every two weeks. This is the 19th show of 2021. There are no sponsored stories nor advertisements. The program provides basic information about subjects which may not have been given attention in other forums. The program is available at this link.
This week’s program includes five stories.
First, we provide information about two online services which offer content related to nuclear weapons. Neither source has been updated for a number of months. If you have an interest in this subject, you may want to examine the information in the event it is disappeared.
Second, you will learn about Spyfone. DarkCyber’s approach is to raise the question, “What happens when specialized software once considered “secret” by some nation states becomes available to consumers.
Third, China has demonstrated its control of certain online companies; for example, Apple. The country can cause certain applications to be removed from online stores. The argument is that large US companies, like a French bulldog, must be trained in order stay in the Middle Kingdom.
Fourth, we offer two short items about malware delivered in interesting ways. The first technique is put malicious code in a video card’s graphics processing unit. The second summarizes how “free” games have become a vector for compromising network security.
The final story reports that a Russian manufacturer of drones is taking advantage of a relaxed policy toward weapons export. The Russian firm will produce Predator-like drones in countries which purchase the unmanned aerial vehicles. The technology includes 3D printing, specialized software, and other advanced manufacturing techniques. The program includes information about they type of kinetic weapons these drones can launch.
DarkCyber is produced by Stephen E Arnold and his DarkCyber research team. You can download the program from the Beyond Search blog or from YouTube.
Kenny Toth, September 21, 2021
Cough, Cough: A Phrase to Praise?
September 20, 2021
I read “Critics Warn of Apple, Google Chokepoint Repression.” The article contains a phrase which may become one to praise: “A convenient chokepoint.”
The write up is arriving a couple of decades too late. The chokepoints have been building, reinforcing, and lobbying for many years. Wall Street loves the Apples and Googles of the Silicon Valley money engines.
One doesn’t have to be much of a student of political science or have an MBA in nudging to figure out what’s going to happen. When threatened with financial loss, some of these outstanding American business entities will respond.
My hunch is that rolling over at the snap of fingers in China, Russia, and elsewhere will become predictable behavior. Instead of a treat, the obedient get to make money. The alternative is a kick in the digital ribs.
Stephen E Arnold, September 20, 2021
Facebook: Not Happy
September 20, 2021
“What the Wall Street Journal Got Wrong” is interesting, and you may want to read it. My synopsis is: “We’re doing good.”
I noted this passage from the firm’s top PR dog:
Facebook understands the significant responsibility that comes with operating a global platform. We take it seriously, and we don’t shy away from scrutiny and criticism. But we fundamentally reject this mischaracterization of our work and impugning of the company’s motives.
I like this statement. It’s bold. It ignores the criticism. It sidesteps tricky issues like human trafficking. Very nice.
What makes me happy is the commitment to excellence. I do wonder where the Zuck is in this brutal rejoinder to leaked company info. Is he “leaning in”? Is his leaning out? Practicing a dose doe?
Stephen E Arnold, September 20, 2021
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