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Biological Collapse
by grarpamp 22 May '17

22 May '17

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/where-have-all-insects-gone Scientists have tracked alarming declines in domesticated honey bees, monarch butterflies, and lightning bugs. But few have paid attention to the moths, hover flies, beetles, and countless other insects that buzz and flitter through the warm months. "We have a pretty good track record of ignoring most noncharismatic species," which most insects are, says Joe Nocera, an ecologist at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. [...] A new set of long-term data is coming to light, this time from a dedicated group of mostly amateur entomologists who have tracked insect abundance at more than 100 nature reserves in western Europe since the 1980s. Over that time the group, the Krefeld Entomological Society, has seen the yearly insect catches fluctuate, as expected. But in 2013 they spotted something alarming. When they returned to one of their earliest trapping sites from 1989, the total mass of their catch had fallen by nearly 80%. Perhaps it was a particularly bad year, they thought, so they set up the traps again in 2014. The numbers were just as low. Through more direct comparisons, the group -- which had preserved thousands of samples over 3 decades -- found dramatic declines across more than a dozen other sites. Such losses reverberate up the food chain. "If you're an insect-eating bird living in that area, four-fifths of your food is gone in the last quarter-century, which is staggering," says Dave Goulson, an ecologist at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, who is working with the Krefeld group to analyze and publish some of the data. "One almost hopes that it's not representative -- that it's some strange artifact." https://phys.org/news/2017-05-seas-coastal.html https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-01362-7

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Torrenting The Darknets
by grarpamp 22 May '17

22 May '17

On Mon, May 15, 2017 at 10:49 AM, Razer <g2s(a)riseup.net> wrote: >> Indie films on darknets mate. > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_President's_Analyst > http://torrentking.eu/movie-1967/the-president-s-analyst-torrents/ > http://www.demonoid.click/files/details/3552579/ > http://www.demonoid.click/files/download/3552579/ > udp://inferno.demonoid.pw:3391/announce > I never had much luck uploading torrents myself. A functional darknet "torrent" system would have at least just one "tracker"... the darknet internal DHT itself. You'd publish the InfoHash to whatever darknet indexes you like. In this case, the "infohash" is 33fc6b8baa0d74e0c0c96d33a29d11dbbce9edc1 and the "index" for at least this message is the cpunks list, while someone might "seed" it on I2P.... I2PSnark, I2PRufus, I2P-Transmission... which utilize certain backend "trackers" mechanisms not necessarily all distributed yet. But there still desperately needs to be a distributed storage layer that long term automagically backs up the explicit "seeders" which tend to be volatile. At which point the original "OP seeder's" best role is then to just inserting into the storage layer and walking away. "Elective non OP seeders of specific torrent sets" such as with all torrents in Vuze / Transmission seed list, needs to transition to offering darknet storage blocks for all insertions that may happen.

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China hacks US CIA, Kills 20 Informants
by grarpamp 22 May '17

22 May '17

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spies-espionage.html Both the CIA and the FBI declined to comment on reports saying the Chinese government killed or imprisoned 18 to 20 CIA sources from 2010 to 2012 and dismantled the agency's spying operations in the country. It is described as one of the worst intelligence breaches in decades, current and former American officials told the New York Times. Investigators were uncertain whether the breach was a result of a double agent within the CIA who had betrayed the U.S. or whether the Chinese had hacked the communications system used by the agency to be in contact with foreign sources. The Times reported Saturday citing former American officials from the final weeks of 2010 till the end of 2012, the Chinese killed up to 20 CIA sources.

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Swedish Prosecutors Have Dropped The Julian Assange Rape Investigation
by Cecilia Tanaka 22 May '17

22 May '17

https://www.buzzfeed.com/franciswhittaker/sweden-has-dropped-its-case-again…

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Re: [Cryptography] Photojournalists & filmmakers want cameras, to be encrypted
by grarpamp 22 May '17

22 May '17

On Thu, Dec 22, 2016 at 6:40 PM, John Gilmore <gnu(a)toad.com> wrote: > Here's an example. Some thugs with a rented box truck broke into a > cannabis dispensary storefront in a residential neighborhood near > mine, some years ago. These thugs appeared to be hired or imported by > the DEA. Their typical pattern had been to break all the glass, smash > I brought an ordinary pocket camera (pre-cellphone). > my camera failed me by taking very blurred images. People need to consider lenses when buying cameras. Other things equal, going with the fastest f-stop you can budget will get you less blur, 2.8, down to even 1.x for dim light. Image Stabilization gizmos will never beat a fast shutter. And for a lot of street use, fixed wide lenses with decent pixel count backs more 'dont have to think' useful than crazy range fidgety zooms. > Since these thugs had no legal leg to stand on, I would've welcomed > intervention by local police > When the thugs are violating their own laws, which seems to be a > very common occurrence Some Sheriff's don't take kindly to external forces doing improper things. In that case even a trouble call to them will hold up the thugs for a while. >> 2 and 3 are solved with remote storage, to a "safe" place, of the stills or >> video. Take it off the camera, fast. Don't forget, open firmwares for some cameras do exist... http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK Don't know if that includes encryption or sigs or authentication in UI yet but it is an example that the camera maker isn't always right. Don't forget to transparent overlay your embedded serial numbers with noise.

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"All fossil-fuel vehicles will vanish in 8 years..."
by John Newman 21 May '17

21 May '17

Kinda off-topic, but interesting. https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/05/16/1942252/all-fossil-fuel-vehicl… http://business.financialpost.com/news/transportation/fossil-fuel-vehicles-… Stanford University economist Tony Seba forecasts in his new report that petrol or diesel cars, buses, or trucks will no longer be sold anywhere in the world within the next eight years. As a result, the transportation market will transition and switch entirely to electrification, "leading to a collapse of oil prices and the demise of the petroleum industry as we have known it for a century," reports Financial Post. From the report: Seba's premise is that people will stop driving altogether. They will switch en masse to self-drive electric vehicles (EVs) that are ten times cheaper to run than fossil-based cars, with a near-zero marginal cost of fuel and an expected lifespan of 1 million miles. Only nostalgics will cling to the old habit of car ownership. The rest will adapt to vehicles on demand. It will become harder to find a petrol station, spares, or anybody to fix the 2,000 moving parts that bedevil the internal combustion engine. Dealers will disappear by 2024. Cities will ban human drivers once the data confirms how dangerous they can be behind a wheel. This will spread to suburbs, and then beyond. There will be a "mass stranding of existing vehicles." The value of second-hard cars will plunge. You will have to pay to dispose of your old vehicle. It is a twin "death spiral" for big oil and big autos, with ugly implications for some big companies on the London Stock Exchange unless they adapt in time. The long-term price of crude will fall to $25 a barrel. Most forms of shale and deep-water drilling will no longer be viable. Assets will be stranded. Scotland will forfeit any North Sea bonanza. Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Venezuela will be in trouble. -- John

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Hacking and Making the Body for Humanity
by grarpamp 21 May '17

21 May '17

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/mar/12/sxsw-neuroscientists-home-h… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Rm-U9havE https://www.neuralink.com/

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Re: [Webinar] Decrypting the WannaCry ransomware: Why is it happening and (how) is it going to end?
by Cecilia Tanaka 21 May '17

21 May '17

On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 8:10 PM, Nancy Quiros <quiros(a)isoc.org> wrote: > > Hi , > > The webinar tends to make an analysis of the main technological, geopolitical, legal, and economic > aspects of the ransomware. Experts from different fields will discuss > why ransomware has become a major issue: Can such attacks be prevented > by technological measures alone? Is there a need for a legal response, > such as Microsoft’s proposal for the Digital Geneva Convention? Is > raising more awareness among users the ultimate solution? > > The webinar will discuss whether it is possible to put a stop to > malicious software, or whether they should be considered the price we > have to pay for the many advantages of the Internet. Choices on policy > will have to be made sooner rather than later. The aim of the > discussion is to explore and help make informed policy choices. > > ----- > Nancy Quiros > Development Manager LAC Chapters Thank you for the clarification, Nancy! Very much appreciated! <3 Ceci :)

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I watched the FKN Newz today Oh-boy!
by Razer 21 May '17

21 May '17

Global Moroning & Climate Change Denial edition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLcX4yUHxug Also... "When to kill your rulers" "Is it just me or does anybody else want to overthrow their government? I'm not saying we should just to be clear. No... I'm just wondering what kind of oppression do we have to endure before we slaughter the lying murdering scum who rule over us..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXv40mWpJsU (So what are you waiting for?) Rr

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Airlines Giving You Facials Too
by grarpamp 21 May '17

21 May '17

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/15/technology/delta-facial-recognition-luggage/ http://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/your-airline-will-see-you-now/

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