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Utopia Talk / Politics / Random News 3
Daemon
Member
Fri Jul 16 02:23:19
http://www...ng-biontech-vaccine-recipients

Coronavirus Hong Kong: BioNTech vaccine recipients have antibody levels 10 times higher than those who opted for Sinovac, researchers find

Though quantity of coronavirus-targeting proteins does not directly correlate to level of immunity, findings may suggest ‘substantial differences in vaccine effectiveness’

But study’s lead author notes moderate levels of protection are better than none at all, saying: ‘Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’
16 Jul, 2021



(...)
CrownRoyal
Member
Tue Jul 20 14:01:01
3 existing drugs fight coronavirus with 'almost 100%' success in Jerusalem lab

http://www...-100-success-in-jerusalem-lab/
patom
Member
Tue Jul 20 14:20:37
None of the vaccines seem to protect from anti vaccine syndrome.
patom
Member
Tue Jul 20 14:21:16
Daemon, did your area get flooded?
Daemon
Member
Tue Jul 20 16:07:49
Some cities in my state were flooded but not my city.
My home town Münster was hit by extreme rain in 2014, though not as bad, no buildings collapsed.

http://www...one-killed-in-heavy-rainstorm/
CrownRoyal
Member
Tue Jul 20 19:47:29
http://www...amp/?__twitter_impression=true

WATCH: Tom Brady Teams Up with Joe Biden to Mock Trump Supporters
Rugian
Member
Tue Jul 20 20:09:33
^FAKE FUCKING NEWS
Daemon
Member
Mon Aug 09 10:11:16
WTF

http://www...stern-france-interior-minister

Catholic priest murdered by suspect in Nantes cathedral blaze

09/08/2021

A Rwandan national suspected of causing a major fire that ravaged the cathedral in the French city of Nantes last year murdered a Catholic priest in western France on Monday, the interior minister and a source close to the investigation said.

"All my support for the Catholics of our country after the dramatic murder of a priest in the Vendée region," French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote on Twitter, saying he was heading to the scene.

A source close to the investigation, who asked not to be named, told the AFP that the suspect had earlier gone to police in the town of Mortagne-sur-Sevre and declared he had killed a priest.

The slain priest, 60, had been welcoming the man into his church for several months, according to the source.

The man, a Rwandan national named as Emmanuel A., has confessed to being behind the fire at the Gothic Nantes cathedral that horrified France on July 18, 2020.

He had initially been placed under arrest before being freed under judicial control.

Earlier Monday, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who accuses the government of being weak on immigration, sought to capitalise on the incident, saying that in France "you can be an illegal migrant, set fire to a cathedral, not be expelled and then reoffend by murdering a priest".

Darmanin immediately accused her of "making a polemic without knowing the facts" saying the man could not be expelled from France while he was under judicial control.

Immigration is set to be a major issue when Le Pen challenges centrist President Emmanuel Macron for the presidency next year.

Senator Bruno Retailleau, a conservative who represents the Vendée region, identified the victim as Olivier Maire. He said the local Catholic church had been housing the man.

"Deeply shocked by the terrible murder of a priest who had taken in his murderer into his care," Retailleau said on Twitter.

"What was this man still doing in France?" asked the lawmaker, who is among several Les Républicains members likely to seek that party's nomination for the 2022 presidential election.

Priceless artefacts lost in 2020 blaze

The Nantes blaze came 15 months after the devastating 2019 fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, which raised questions about the security risks for other historic churches across France.

While firefighters were able to contain the Nantes blaze after just two hours and save the main structure, its famed organ, which dated from 1621 and had survived the French revolution and World War II bombardment, was destroyed.

Also lost were priceless artefacts and paintings, including a work by the 19th-century artist Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin and stained glass windows that contained remnants of 16th-century glass. Repairs are due to take several years.
Daemon
Member
Tue Aug 10 14:11:45
Why do we never have news from Switzerland?

http://www...used-an-outcry-in-switzerland/

‘It only lasted 11 minutes’: Why this rape sentence has caused an outcry in Switzerland

9 August 2021

The verdict in a rape trial in the canton of Basel has caused a widespread outcry in Switzerland, after the judge justified a shortened sentence because the rape had “only lasted for 11 minutes”.

The incident took place in February 2020 in the Swiss city of Basel, where two men raped a 33-year-old woman in the entrance of her apartment in Elsässerstrasse.

The sentence, which was handed down at the start of August, has caused controversy not only due to its lenient nature, but due to the mitigating factors cited by the judge in the case.

One of the men was a minor and as such will be sentenced in juvenile court. The other, a 32-year-old man, had his sentenced reduced from 51 months to 36 months on appeal and as a result will be released from detention in a few days due to time already served.

In reducing the sentence for the 32-year-old man on appeal, justice Liselotte Henz said there was only “moderate fault” for the perpetrator in the context of Swiss criminal law.

While the court report has not yet been released, Swiss media has reported several aspects of the judgement seemed to blame the victim rather than the perpetrator for the attack.

Several factors came into account in the reduced sentence, including that the attacks – which lasted 11 minutes – were “relatively short” and that there were no permanent physical injuries to the victim.

The judge said the victim had been “playing with fire” in the lead up to the attacks.

The judge also appeared to blame the victim for “the signals she sent out to the men”, referencing behaviour in the club where they met where the woman had withdrawn to a toilet with another man.

As both men are Portuguese nationals, the sentences will include a period of deportation from the country, which is expected to be six years for the adult offender and is not yet set for the minor.

Protests and outcry in Switzerland

On Sunday, August 8th, around 500 people protested outside the appeals court in Basel where the verdict was handed down.

Protesters at the rally, which police said was unauthorised but peaceful, carried signs emphasising the need for consent and chanted “11 minutes is 11 minutes too many”.

Signs carried by the protesters said “there is no such thing as a short rape” and complained that the legal system “was sending the wrong signals” to the general public.

The victim’s lawyer said she was shocked by the verdict.

Agota Lavoyer, who runs a victim assistance organisation in the canton of Solothurn, said the “shameful” verdict “cements rape myths”.

The verdict has attracted condemnation from across the political spectrum, with both left and right-wing political groups speaking out against it.

Ronja Jansen, president of the Young Social Democrats (Just), said the verdict was likely to make women less willing to report sexual violence.

“The fact that the woman is portrayed as an accomplice because she may have entered into contact with other men is a harmful mixture of consensual acts and rape.”

Marcel Columb, from the Basel Social Democrats, said it sent the wrong signals to victims of sexual violence.

“A four year sentence was already mild, but now to imply the woman was complicity due to her behaviour to someone uninvolved with the crime is unbearable. What a sign for all victims of sexualised violence.”

The victim and the Basel public prosecutor have said they will wait for the publication of the written ruling before deciding whether to appeal to the Swiss Federal Court.
Habebe
Member
Wed Aug 11 13:42:39
I bet that would be a decent country to bunker out zombie apocalypse in.
Rugian
Member
Wed Aug 11 14:27:15
3 years for doing a clubslut seems appropriate.

I mean, come on, this woman was clearly inviting it that night:

"The judge also appeared to blame the victim for “the signals she sent out to the men”, referencing behaviour in the club where they met where the woman had withdrawn to a toilet with another man."
Nimatzo
iChihuaha
Wed Aug 11 15:20:51
We victim blame all the time, despite acknowledging that the criminal bears the legal responsibility. Rape is not different.

If you park your brand new Cadillac (or whatever kind of bullshit car you Americans call a nice car) in a shitty part of the city and don't lock it, nobody is saying you deserved having it stolen for a joy ride, but who wouldn't feel stupid and blame themselves? All your friends would look at you, like you are an idiot. If your parents bought you that car, they would not be very happy.

Then you be like, I should be able to park my car anywhere and not lock the doors! Why should I change my behavior because there are car thieves?! You know what it is? It is that grand theft auto culture that teaches young men to steal cars. The world can be a shitty place populated with garbage human beings.

Having said that, none of this belongs in a court room, or has anything to do with the law. Is a judge going to show a house thief leniency, because you didn't lock the doors? He was asking to get his house robbed your honor!
Forwyn
Member
Wed Aug 11 19:24:03
Was this rape rape, or Brock Turner "rape"?
kargen
Member
Wed Aug 11 22:44:00
Utah governor responds to constituent demanding he change 'obscene' last name.

http://the...manding-he-change-obscene-last
tumbleweed
the wanderer
Wed Aug 11 22:56:09
"After some Twitter users speculated that the letter may be satire, Cox responded by saying his constituent affairs director “thinks it’s serious.”"

then his constituent affairs director is an idiot
kargen
Member
Wed Aug 11 23:34:02
Nah he realizes how crazy the "woke" have become. You get people saying that men who sit with their legs spread are raping the air and they are serious about it then it isn't much of a leap (small step really) to nutty shit like this.
tumbleweed
the wanderer
Wed Aug 11 23:59:20
great reading comprehension

the letter, if it was real, would be from a mentally unbalanced conservative Republican... (although is clearly a joke... "communist dictatorship" over a name?)
kargen
Member
Thu Aug 12 01:55:38
thanks I pride myself on being able to comprehend what I read!

and a nut is a nut no matter their affiliation. You should realize that being a nut yourself.
tumbleweed
the wanderer
Thu Aug 12 12:04:50
well you're still failing as there's no nut... every line of the letter is ridiculous, clearly a joke
Daemon
Member
Thu Aug 12 12:52:58
Useful or not: it's fun!

http://www.nassiben.com/glowworm-attack

Glowworm Attack

Optical TEMPEST Sound Recovery via a Device’s Power Indicator LED


Abstract



Two main classes of optical TEMPEST attacks against the confidentiality of information processed/delivered by devices have been demonstrated in the past two decades; the first class includes methods for recovering content from monitors, and the second class includes methods for recovering keystrokes from physical and virtual keyboards.
In this paper, we identify a new class of optical TEMPEST attacks: recovering sound by analyzing optical emanations from a device’s power indicator LED.
We analyze the response of the power indicator LED of various devices to sound and show that there is an optical correlation between the sound that is played by connected speakers and the intensity of their power indicator LED due to the facts that: (1) the power indicator LED of various devices is connected directly to the power line, (2) the intensity of a device's power indicator LED is correlative to the power consumption, and (3) many devices lack a dedicated means of countering this phenomenon.
Based on our findings, we present the Glowworm attack, an optical TEMPEST attack that can be used by eavesdroppers to recover sound by analyzing optical measurements obtained via an electro-optical sensor directed at the power indicator LED of various devices (e.g., speakers, USB hub splitters, and microcontrollers).
We propose an optical-audio transformation (OAT) to recover sound by isolating the speech from the optical measurements obtained by directing an electro-optical sensor at a device's power indicator LED.
Finally, we test the performance of the Glowworm attack in various experimental setups and show that an eavesdropper can apply the attack to recover speech from a speaker's power indicator LED with good intelligibility from a distance of 15 meters and with fair intelligibility from 35 meters.
kargen
Member
Thu Aug 12 18:48:36
Oh there is a nut all right.

He has responded to me twice in this thread.
Daemon
Member
Tue Aug 17 11:29:18
That wasn't me, that wasn't me!

http://giz...zed-with-giant-swas-1847494288

Thousands of Wikipedia Pages Vandalized With Giant Swastikas

Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, and Joe Biden all had their articles replaced with a bright red page bearing the nazi symbol.


Early Monday morning, the Wikipedia pages for a slew of celebrities, writers, and political figures were replaced by full-page spreads of black and white swastikas on a bright red background. The vandalism was reversed within minutes of being noticed by users (and Ann Colter).

Wikipedia is certainly no stranger to vandalism on some of its more controversial pages, but this incident highlighted one of the lesser-known weaknesses in the platform’s airtight content moderation policies. Instead of targeting the content on any particular Wikipedia page, the vandal behind this blitz targeted a particular article template used by more than 50,000 different Wikipedia pages, including those for Jennifer Lopez, Joe Biden, and Discworld author Terry Pratchett.

According to an ongoing discussion by a handful of Wikipedia admins on one of the site’s public forums, the template’s since been fixed and the vandal in question—who first joined the site about ten days ago—has been put on an indefinite ban. One admin noted that by targeting these article templates directly, the user was able to bypass the typical protections put on certain Wikipedia pages to protect them from vandals in the first place.

When it comes to protecting the words and pictures on a page, Wikipedia’s army of admins is pretty swift when it comes to taking action. But the need to protect templates has apparently been a blind spot for moderators. According to one admin in the form, after placing protections onto a separate oft-used template, a Wikipedia user revoked those protections not long after on the grounds that the template wasn’t popular enough to merit that particular safeguard. But in light of this latest attack, many admins are changing their tune.

“I didn’t realize templates used on tens of thousands of pages weren’t template-protected as a matter of course,” one of them commented. “Something that can vandalize 53,000 pages at once seems like a big gap in security.”

According to the ongoing thread, admins have stepped in to protect templates that are used on tens of thousands of pages. Another admin noted that while the “vast majority” of templates are protected once they’re gained enough steam, evidently, some of them managed to slip through. “A template that has at least 1000 transclusions must be template-protected at least,” one of them commented. “We can’t afford yet another incident like this.”

A spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation told Gizmodo that the “particularly vile action” is “unacceptable,” and “violates a number of Wikipedia’s policies.”

“Volunteer administrators have already fixed the vandalism, blocked the account responsible, and will further evaluate the situation to see if additional recourse is needed,” she said. “Over the years, a number of tools and processes have been developed to quickly spot and revert vandalism on the site. Most vandalism on Wikipedia is corrected within five minutes, as we saw today.”
Daemon
Member
Sat Aug 21 05:41:48
Shit will hit the fan.

http://www...e-collision-alerts-on-the-rise

SpaceX Starlink satellites responsible for over half of close encounters in orbit, scientist says

3 days ago

Starlink satellites might soon be involved in 90% of close encounters between two spacecraft in low Earth orbit.

Operators of satellite constellations are constantly forced to move their satellites because of encounters with other spacecraft and pieces of space junk. And, thanks to SpaceX's Starlink satellites, the number of such dangerous approaches will continue to grow, according to estimates based on available data.

SpaceX's Starlink satellites alone are involved in about 1,600 close encounters between two spacecraft every week, that's about 50 % of all such incidents, according to Hugh Lewis, the head of the Astronautics Research Group at the University of Southampton, U.K. These encounters include situations when two spacecraft pass within a distance of 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) from each other.

Lewis, Europe's leading expert on space debris, makes regular estimates of the situation in orbit based on data from the Socrates (Satellite Orbital Conjunction Reports Assessing Threatening Encounters in Space ) database. This tool, managed by Celestrack, provides information about satellite orbits and models their trajectories into the future to assess collision risk.

Lewis publishes regular updates on Twitter and has seen a worrying trend in the data that reflects the fast deployment of the Starlink constellation.

"I have looked at the data going back to May 2019 when Starlink was first launched to understand the burden of these megaconstellations," Lewis told Space.com. "Since then, the number of encounters picked up by the Socrates database has more than doubled and now we are in a situation where Starlink accounts for half of all encounters."

The current 1,600 close passes include those between two Starlink satellites. Excluding these encounters, Starlink satellites approach other operators’ spacecraft 500 times every week.

In comparison, Starlink's competitor OneWeb, currently flying over 250 satellites, is involved in 80 close passes with other operators' satellites every week, according to Lewis' data.

And the situation is bound to get worse. Only 1,700 satellites of an expected constellation of tens of thousands have been placed into orbit so far. Once SpaceX launches all 12,000 satellites of its first generation constellation, Starlink satellites will be involved in 90% of all close approaches, Lewis’ calculations suggest.

Siemak Hesar, CEO and co-founder of Boulder, Colorado, based Kayhan Space, confirms the trend. His company, which develops a commercial autonomous space traffic management system, estimates that on average, an operator managing about 50 satellites will receive up to 300 official conjunction alerts a week. These alerts include encounters with other satellites as well as pieces of debris. Out of these 300 alerts, up to ten might require operators to perform avoidance maneuvers, Hesar told Space.com.

Kayhan Space bases their estimates on data provided by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network. This network of radars and telescopes, managed by the U.S. Space Force, closely monitors about 30,000 live and defunct satellites and pieces of debris down to the size of 4 inches (10 centimeters) and provides the most accurate location data of the orbiting objects.

The size of this catalog is expected to increase ten times in the near future, Hesar added, partly due to the growth of megaconstellations, such as Starlink, and partly as sensors improve and enable detection of even smaller objects. The more objects in the catalog mean more dangerously close encounters.

"This problem is really getting out of control," Hesar said. "The processes that are currently in place are very manual, not scalable, and there is not enough information sharing between parties that might be affected if a collision happens."

Hesar compared the problem to driving on a highway and not knowing that there has been an accident a few miles ahead of you. If two spacecraft collide in orbit, the cloud of debris the crash generates would threaten other satellites travelling through the same area.

"You want to have that situational awareness for the other actors that are flying in the neighbourhood," Hesar said.

Despite the concerns, only three confirmed orbital collisions have happened so far. Earlier this week, astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who's based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, found evidence in Space-Track data that the Chinese meteorological satellite Yunhai 1-02, which disintegrated in March this year, was actually hit by a piece of space debris.

The worst known space collision in history took place in February 2009 when the U.S. telecommunication satellite Iridium 33 and Russia's defunct military satellite Kosmos-2251 crashed at the altitude of 490 miles (789 kilometres). The incident spawned over 1,000 pieces of debris larger than 4 inches (10 cm). Many of these fragments were then involved in further orbital incidents.

Lewis is concerned that with the number of close passes growing, the risk of operators at some point making a wrong decision will grow as well. Avoidance maneuvers cost fuel, time and effort. Operators, therefore, always carefully evaluate such risks. A decision not to make an avoidance maneuver following an alert, such as that made by Iridium in 2009, could, however, clutter the orbital environment for years and decades.

"In a situation when you are receiving alerts on a daily basis, you can't maneuver for everything," Lewis said. "The maneuvers use propellant, the satellite cannot provide service. So there must be some threshold. But that means you are accepting a certain amount of risk. The problem is that at some point, you are likely to make a wrong decision."

Hesar said that uncertainties in the positions of satellites and pieces of debris are still considerable. In case of operational satellites, the error could be up to 330 feet (100 meters) large. When it comes to a piece of debris, the uncertainty about its exact position might be in the order of a mile or more.

"This object can be anywhere in this bubble of multiple kilometres," Hesar said. "At this point, and for the foreseeable future, avoidance is our best recourse. People that say 'I'm going to take the risk', in my humble opinion, that's an irresponsible thing to do."

Lewis is concerned about the growing influence of a single actor — Starlink — on the safety of orbital operations. Especially, he says, as the spaceflight company has entered the satellite operations world only recently.

"We place trust in a single company, to do the right thing," Lewis said. "We are in a situation where most of the maneuvers we see will involve Starlink. They were a launch provider before, now they are the world's biggest satellite operator, but they have only been doing that for two years so there is a certain amount of inexperience."

SpaceX relies on an autonomous collision avoidance system to keep its fleet away from other spacecraft. That, however, could sometimes introduce further problems. The automatic orbital adjustments change the forecasted trajectory and therefore make collision predictions more complicated, according to Lewis.

"Starlink doesn't publicize all the maneuvers that they're making, but it is believed that they are making a lot of small corrections and adjustments all the time," Lewis said. "But that causes problems for everybody else because no one knows where the satellite is going to be and what it is going to do in the next few days."
Habebe
Member
Sat Aug 21 14:01:53
Well they own like 1/3 of all active satelites, mabey more.
Daemon
Member
Sun Aug 22 03:25:55
This is not only about bashing Starlink, other companies try the same and launch or want to launch hundreds of satellites. For example Amazon wants to get into that business, too:
http://ars...build-its-starlink-competitor/

But the general situation will become unsustainable.

Habebe
Member
Sun Aug 22 03:32:30
Daemon, Absolutley, it's definitely finite.
Daemon
Member
Mon Aug 23 09:56:47
http://www...zon-alexa-popular-name/619794/

Amazon Killed the Name Alexa

Parents are fleeing from a name that can be, at best, a nuisance and, at worst, associated with subservience.

Alexa used to be a name primarily given to human babies. Now it’s mainly for robots.

Seven years ago, Amazon released Alexa, its voice assistant, and as the number of devices answering to that name has skyrocketed, its popularity with American parents has plummeted. In fact, it has suffered one of the sharpest declines of any popular name in recent years. “Alexa stands alone as a name that was steadily popular—not a one-year celebrity wonder, not a fading past favorite—that was pushed off the popularity cliff,” Laura Wattenberg, the founder of the naming-trends website Namerology, told me.

At first, the number of baby Alexas spiked following the voice assistant’s rollout in late 2014—perhaps parents heard the name in the news and liked it—but it has since crashed. Likely, parents began to realize that having the name could be a nuisance, or worse, could become associated with subservience, because people are always giving orders to their virtual Alexas.

This up-and-down pattern reminded Wattenberg of what happens with babies named after hurricanes, when “the news coverage and attention causes the name to briefly shoot up, and then the aftermath, when the name is constantly referred to as a disaster, kind of kills it off.” Basically, Amazon’s impact on the name Alexa resembles that of a natural disaster. (When I reached out to the company, it didn’t comment on whether it had played a role in Alexa’s decline.)

Alexa joins a handful of other names that were toppled by a shift in association. Perhaps the most famous is Hillary, which was in fashion in the late 1980s but fell out of style after Hillary Clinton became first lady. (Wattenberg said parents tend not to choose politicians’ names, regardless of party.) Dick lost its appeal when it was no longer primarily used as a nickname for Richard, and more recently, parents ran from the name Isis when it became connected to terrorism.
(...)
Rugian
Member
Mon Aug 23 13:32:45
Subservience? That robotic bitch is probably a few years away from going full Skynet and killing all of us.
Daemon
Member
Mon Sep 06 03:19:12
Good reason for a new conspiracy theory:

I say they forced him to take a Chinese vaccine!!!

http://www...ina-jan-hecker-dies/a-59094563

The German ambassador to China and Angela Merkel confidant Jan Hecker has died after only a few days in the ambassadorial role, the Foreign Ministry announced on Monday morning.

Hecker and his family arrived in Beijing in August, and he had submitted his diplomatic credentials and had begun working at the end of the month.

The ministry has yet to provide further details as to the cause of death.
(...)
CrownRoyal
Member
Mon Sep 06 16:12:25
http://www...re-star-dead-at-54-1235009002/

Rest in peace, that was one of the greatest tv characters ever.
Daemon
Member
Tue Sep 07 10:26:28
http://www...ncing-public-health-and-safety

SINGAPORE, 5 September 2021 – For the first time, ground robots will be put on trial to patrol and survey a public area with high foot traffic to augment the work of public officers in enhancing public health and safety.

This is a joint project involving five public agencies, namely HTX (Home Team Science and Technology Agency), National Environment Agency, Land Transport Authority, Singapore Food Agency, and Housing & Development Board.

For a three-week period from 5 Sep 2021, Xavier (the name of the HTX robot[1]) will weave its way autonomously through the crowds in Toa Payoh Central to detect the following undesirable social behaviours:

smoking in prohibited areas
illegal hawking
improperly parked bicycles within HDB Hub
congregation of more than five people (in line with prevailing Safe Management Measures)
motorised active mobility devices and motorcycles on footpaths

Once Xavier detects any of the above, it will trigger real-time alerts to the command and control centre, and display the appropriate message (depending on the scenario) to educate the public and deter such behaviours.

The deployment of Xavier will support the work of public officers as it will reduce the manpower required for foot patrols and improve operation efficiency.

Lily Ling, SFA’s Director of East Regional Office, said, “The deployment of ground robots will help to augment our surveillance and enforcement resources. For instance, the surveillance of illegal hawkers can be manpower intensive as officers need to be deployed at various areas across the island. The adoption of robotics technology can be used to enhance such operations, and reduce the need for our officers to do physical patrols.”

Calvin Ng, LTA’s Director of Enforcement and Compliance Management, said, “Xavier can potentially augment our enforcement presence and deter errant active mobility behavior on footpaths. It could also provide intelligence on new hotspots or areas where egregious active mobility users have been spotted to help focus our physical enforcement efforts.”
(...)
Daemon
Member
Wed Sep 22 06:26:58
http://www...s-for-mistakes-they-didnt-make

Amazon’s AI Cameras Are Punishing Drivers for Mistakes They Didn’t Make

Amazon delivery drivers say surveillance cameras installed in their vans have made them lose income for reasons beyond their control.



In early 2021, Amazon installed AI-powered cameras in the delivery vans at one of its depots in Los Angeles. Derek, a delivery driver at the facility, said the camera in his van started to incorrectly penalize him whenever cars cut him off, an everyday occurrence in Los Angeles traffic.

“Maintain safe distance,” the camera installed above his seat would say when a car cut him off. That data would be sent to Amazon, and would be used to evaluate his performance that week and determine whether he got a bonus.

“Every time I need to make a right hand turn, it inevitably happens. A car cuts me off to move into my lane, and the camera, in this really dystopian dark, robotic voice, shouts at me," Derek, who asked to remain anonymous because he feared retribution from Amazon, told Motherboard. "It's so disconcerting. It’s upsetting, when I didn't do anything.”


(...)
Rugian
Member
Wed Sep 22 07:02:11
Jeff Bezos is fucking evil.

I still love using Amazon though.
Daemon
Member
Sun Oct 03 02:01:58
I know that everybody has it already but...

http://www...y-free-on-the-epic-games-store

Paradox Interactive's sweeping historical grand strategy title Europa Universalis 4 is the latest freebie to grace the Epic Games Store.

Released back in 2013 and still tottering along today (its most recent expansion, Leviathan, was so disastrous its director issued an apology), Europa Universalis 4 gives players control of a country somewhere between 1444 to 1821 and lets them shape it into global significance through trade, diplomacy, colonisation, and war.
(...)
Europa Universalis 4 will remain free to download and keep on the Epic Games Store until next Thursday, 7th October, whereupon PC Building Simulator becomes Epic's latest freebie.
murder
Member
Sun Oct 03 10:40:28

"SINGAPORE, 5 September 2021 – For the first time, ground robots will be put on trial to patrol and survey a public area with high foot traffic to augment the work of public officers in enhancing public health and safety."

Imagine when they get put in charge of caning criminals.

Daemon
Member
Mon Oct 04 09:33:35
http://www...do-sony-and-microsoft-combined

Apple Made More Profit From Games In 2019 Than Nintendo, Sony And Microsoft Combined

Despite not making any of its own

(...)
Habebe
Member
Mon Oct 04 11:03:46
Well, Yeah that makes sense, they have a perfect marketplace for them.
Rugian
Member
Tue Oct 05 14:47:57
Hugh Hefner is rolling in his grave today

"Social media influencer becomes first gay man to grace cover of Playboy Magazine

“For Playboy to have a male on the cover is a huge deal for the LGBT community, for my brown people community and it’s all so surreal,” the cover star said."

http://the...encer-becomes-first-gay-man-to

Admittedly its been a long time since I've seen a Playboy, but this seems like a classic "not knowing your audience" move.
Habebe
Member
Tue Oct 05 15:01:28
Playboy isnt even nude anymore.There audience is inmates.
Rugian
Member
Tue Oct 05 15:21:45
Gay inmates?
murder
Member
Tue Oct 05 16:28:35

How is playboy even still in business? They don't sell anything that you don't get for free on the internet whether you want it or not.

Habebe
Member
Tue Oct 05 16:36:31
Rugian, Maybe?

Murder, If there are no nudes its pretty much FHM 25 years too late.
Habebe
Member
Tue Oct 05 16:44:43
I dont think kids these days will ever quite get how some of us waited till their parents left for a while , ran upstairs, jumped up on their parents bed to reach the tote in the back top end of the closet and carefully slide a playboy or two out, put it back, go down past the basement to the luandry room (coal bin) to flip through to find the 2% of pages that were worth while to enjoy the female body artistically.
Daemon
Member
Wed Oct 06 05:19:10
We once had "great headlines" thread in this forum

http://new...ccused-starting-192700225.html

Self-proclaimed shaman accused of starting California fire said she was trying to boil bear urine: Police
murder
Member
Wed Oct 06 07:02:04

What does one do with boiled bear urine? :o)

jergul
large member
Wed Oct 06 09:04:37
How do you collect bear urine?
Habebe
Member
Wed Oct 06 09:28:36
VERY fucking carefully.

I know deer urine is banned from sale down here, something to do with chronic wasting disease.
nhill
Member
Wed Oct 06 09:48:59
I used to buy deer urine for hunting years ago, but that was in MN. You want the urine from a doe in heat. Bucks love a kinky golden shower.
Habebe
Member
Wed Oct 06 10:09:27
Its all synthetic now down here.Not really a big deal.In SC you can hunt over bait!
Daemon
Member
Wed Oct 13 12:08:53
http://pet...bomb-causes-emergency-landing/

Oct 11, 2021

A passenger flight was forced to make an emergency landing in NYC this weekend after a woman mistook a fellow passenger’s vintage camera for a bomb. The suspected terrorist was pinned to the tarmac before authorities figured out he was a camera enthusiast.
(...)
The incident reportedly occurred after a woman spotted a fellow passenger scrolling through videos and photos of vintage cameras. She mistook the images of vintage cameras for bombs and believed that the passenger was looking up bomb-making instructions.

The woman’s fears peaked after the man pulled out his own vintage camera and began fiddling with its settings — she believed that he was setting a timer on a bomb’s detonator. She then notified a flight attendant and the pilots decided to land in Queens.
(...)
murder
Member
Wed Oct 13 12:28:29

lol! That's one dumb woman! And the flight crew is even dumber. :o)

Daemon
Member
Thu Oct 14 10:50:11
So it begins:

http://www...-rifles-mounted-on-their-backs

Ghost Robotics and SWORD International have teamed up to create a rifle-toting "robot dog." Called the Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle, or SPUR, the system adds a 6.5mm Creedmoor rifle from SWORD to one of Ghost Robotics' quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles, or Q-UGVs.

The SPUR made its debut on the show floor at the Association of the U.S. Army's main annual convention in Washington, D.C., which opened yesterday. Though Ghost Robotics is partnered with a number of other companies to explore defense and security applications, among others, for its Q-UGVs — which you can read more about in this past War Zone feature — this appears to be the first example of one of these unmanned systems with an actual weapon mounted on it.
(...)
murder
Member
Thu Oct 14 15:40:56

If doesn't play fetch or sniff your crotch, it's not a dog. Sorry.

And those robots seem like more trouble than they are worth. They are going to need their own maintenance crew.

Aerial drones can cover more ground and carry more payload.
Daemon
Member
Wed Oct 20 04:53:46
OMG this could have changed the whole world!

http://www...r-plot-fight-yemen-2021-10-20/


BERLIN, Oct 20 (Reuters) - German police on Wednesday detained two former soldiers on terrorism-related charges for allegedly trying to form a mercenary group of up to 150 members to fight in Yemen, the Federal Public Prosecutor said.

Police searched the suspects' apartments in Munich and the district of Calw, near the city of Stuttgart, and other premises.

The suspects, identified as Arend-Adolf G. and Achim A., under privacy rules, had decided in early 2021 to form a paramilitary unit consisting of former German Army soldiers and police member, the prosecutor said in a statement.

The men were in contact with at least seven people with the goal of recruitment and had tried unsuccessfully to establish communication with Saudi Arabia in order to finance the group, the office said.

Their primary motivation was the prospect of each mercenary earning around 40,000 euros ($46,500) a month, it said, adding that the men wanted to "pacify" the six-year-old war in Yemen between Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government.

A Saudi-led alliance intervened in Yemen in March 2015 but the war, which has killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis, has been in military stalemate for years.

Beyond the mission in Yemen, the two had also planned to make the unit available for missions in other conflict areas.

The German military has been plagued by a series of incidents in past years that has raised questions about the extent of extremist elements within the army.

The most prominent case prompted the disbanding of an entire company of the elite special forces unit KSK in 2020 after police seized weapons and ammunition during a raid on the property of a KSK soldier in the eastern state of Saxony.
Habebe
Member
Wed Oct 20 05:27:05
I mean, they requested Saudi permission, I dont see the problem.

Sounds like a fun trip.
Habebe
Member
Wed Oct 20 07:19:29
Its here, its queer, its America's newest 4 star admiral Levine.

http://www...ransgender-four-star-admiral/#

China looks.less and less horrible daily.
murder
Member
Wed Oct 20 12:25:04

"BERLIN, Oct 20 (Reuters) - German police on Wednesday detained two former soldiers on terrorism-related charges for allegedly trying to form a mercenary group of up to 150 members to fight in Yemen, the Federal Public Prosecutor said."

They were watching "300" and thought "Pfft! We can defeat the Persians with half that many men."

Habebe
Member
Wed Oct 20 13:18:06
For the Glory of the Kingdom!
Rugian
Member
Wed Oct 20 16:01:50
Its a sad day when young men can't galavant around the world as soldiers of fortune, traveling to exotic new places where they defeat the locals in glorious conquest, bedding their women and enriching themselves on the spoils.

Now they get charged with terrorism for that. Fml
Pillz
Member
Thu Oct 21 06:26:52
It's what they deserve for picking the wrong side of the war.
tumbleweed
the wanderer
Thu Oct 21 12:02:31
hot take on the vaccine:

http://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1450849899478765570

(global takeover via "an egg that hatches into a synthetic parasite and grows inside your body")
Daemon
Member
Thu Oct 21 12:33:20
If I get the vaccine into my scrotum then I will have three balls?

Meanwhile in Japan:
http://www...kes-japan-arrest-japanese-porn

Japanese police on Monday arrested a 43-year-old man for using artificial intelligence to effectively unblur pixelated porn videos, in the first criminal case in the country involving the exploitative use of the powerful technology.

Masayuki Nakamoto, who runs his own website in the southern prefecture of Hyogo, lifted images of porn stars from Japanese adult videos and doctored them with the same method used to create realistic face swaps in deepfake videos.

But instead of changing faces, Nakamoto used machine learning software to reconstruct the blurred parts of the video based on a large set of uncensored nudes and sold the content online. Penises and vaginas are pixelated in Japanese porn because an obscenity law forbids the explicit depictions of genitalia.

Nakamoto reportedly made about 11 million yen ($96,000) by selling over 10,000 manipulated videos, though he was arrested specifically for selling 10 fake photos at about 2,300 yen ($20) each.

(...)

murder
Member
Thu Oct 21 15:40:51

"Penises and vaginas are pixelated in Japanese porn because an obscenity law forbids the explicit depictions of genitalia."

The Japanese clearly don't understand pornography.

No wonder their birth rate is collapsing.

Habebe
Member
Thu Oct 21 16:30:39
Yeah, Jap porn kinda sucks.
Daemon
Member
Fri Oct 29 02:25:52
The Führer is alive!!!!

http://www...ect-of-dutch-inquiry-1.4713361

The Dutch authorities have begun investigating how cybercriminals have been able to produce an apparently genuine CoronaCheck QR code for Adolf Hitler, which indicates that he’s had both vaccine jabs and is clear to attend events requiring a Covid pass.

The fact that the Hitler code works when checked using a legitimate test-for-entry scanner indicates that it was made using real digital “keys” – and because these QR codes are part of an EU reciprocal arrangement, once they work in one country, they work in all 27.

The scam first came to light when the seller of the codes advertised on an online hacker forum to make a working QR code in any name for €300, although trading in the codes is illegal across the European Union.

When the seller was contacted by Dutch broadcaster RTL, he produced the Hitler code as an example. He said he could generate codes from France or Poland only – although they would, of course, work anywhere in the EU
(...)
murder
Member
Fri Oct 29 08:57:51

Hitler wouldn't need no stinking jab. The Master Race laughs at the China Flu.

Habebe
Member
Sat Oct 30 01:16:40
Well, because they were hopped up on Meth. Which FYI kills influenza on contact.

Anyway, they finally got Mr. Rogers a statue.Ive been harping for this for a while.

http://amp.../florida/article255379921.html

Next Julia Child.
Daemon
Member
Wed Nov 03 06:28:51
http://www...tips-back-ftc-says-2021-11-02/


Nov 2 (Reuters) - More than 140,000 drivers are getting $60 million in tips that were illegally withheld by Amazon (AMZN.O) between 2016 and 2019, the Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, the agency sued the tech giant and its subsidiary, Amazon Logistics, alleging the company failed to fully pay tips that drivers in its Amazon Flex program had earned.

Amazon Flex drivers deliver goods and groceries ordered through programs like Prime Now and Amazon Fresh. The lawsuit alleged the company kept drivers' tips over a two-and-a-half year period and stopped the practice after learning of the agency's investigation in 2019.

Amazon agreed in February to settle the case and surrender all the money it withheld, the FTC said.

The agency said it will send 139,507 checks and 1,621 PayPal payments to Amazon Flex drivers. Drivers who had more than $5 withheld by Amazon will receive the full amount of their withheld tips. The highest amount going to a single Amazon Flex driver is more than $28,000, while the average amount is $422, the FTC said.
murder
Member
Wed Nov 03 07:12:10

A trillion dollar company jewing it's workers. >:o(




Daemon
Member
Sun Nov 07 09:32:21
http://www...grid-last-year-report-reveals/

5 November 2021

Drone used in attack on US electrical grid last year, report reveals


A US intelligence report has revealed that a drone was used in an attempt to disable an electrical substation in Pennsylvania last year, in the first known attack of its kind


A modified consumer drone was used in an attack on an electrical substation in the US last year, according to a report from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center.

The report, which is being circulated to law enforcement agencies in the US, highlights the incident at a substation in Pennsylvania last year as the first known use of a drone to target energy infrastructure in the US. The location isn’t specifically identified, but the drone crashed without causing damage.

The drone was modified with a trailing tether supporting a length of copper wire. If the wire had come into contact with high-voltage equipment it could have caused a short circuit, equipment failures and possibly fires.

The device is similar in concept to ”blackout bombs” used by the US Air Force, which have no explosive but scatter masses of conductive filaments over electrical equipment. These were used to shut down 70 per cent of Serbia’s electricity generation capacity in 1999 during the Kosovo war.

Electrical substations are normally protected by fences and other barriers, but Zak Kallenborn at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism in Maryland says these may not be sufficient against drones.

“Counter-terrorism defences largely assume a ground-based attacker. Hence the fences and bollards everywhere,” says Kallenborn. “The defences are obsolete if terrorists can take to the air. Drones are cheap, and easy to use. Critical infrastructure facilities need to worry about attacks from any direction.”

Counter-drone jammers are deployed at some locations but cannot defend every electrical substation, due to both cost and limitations on where they can be used. Kallenborn notes that while such drones only carry a tiny payload compared to a car bomb, they can cause a disproportionate amount of damage by targeting vulnerable spots.

“Critical infrastructure owners and operators need to identify critical, sensitive components where small charges can cause significant harm to the facility’s operation,” says Kallenborn.

nhill
Member
Sun Nov 07 20:16:12
> A trillion dollar company jewing it's workers. >:o(

Or maybe it was just an elaborate savings plan? They paid it all back. ;)
Habebe
Member
Mon Nov 08 03:21:19
http://twi...?t=6zwwENnz-LikMbUbUNtjNg&s=19

Video of a road rage incident in Portland where a guy with a sword threatens a man with a rifle.
murder
Member
Mon Nov 08 06:20:31

I'm not going to watch, but I'll bet on the guy with the rifle.

Paramount
Member
Mon Nov 08 10:27:12
Is it two Asians who are raging? The guy with da sword seems to be ready to chop the other guy’s head off. It almost takes too long for him to get his rifle. He shouldn’t be hiding his rifle in da trunk. He should have it in da front seat. And you should never exit your car without a gun if there’s a raging guy outside. lol
nhill
Member
Mon Nov 08 10:31:37
Cringe. You clearly don't have much self-defense training. Assuming they draw at the same time and both combatants are well-trained, a person with a knife (or big knife, aka sword) will win more often versus a gun at distances under 20 feet. It's a well studied phenomena and it's also part of police training, called The Tueller Drill.
nhill
Member
Mon Nov 08 10:34:39
Of course, in this specific clip the sword would win since the guy had his gun in the trunk.

Paramount, it's not legal to have a loaded rifle in a car in Washington.
nhill
Member
Mon Nov 08 10:35:56
Granted, this guys sword also looks like a stage prop.
Paramount
Member
Mon Nov 08 10:50:17
I wonder who won this fight.
nhill
Member
Mon Nov 08 10:56:08
I bet the sword guy ran away. He already demonstrated that he is too cowardly to use his "weapon". That thing looks like a flimsy film prop though, might not even been usable.
murder
Member
Mon Nov 08 12:48:06

"It's a well studied phenomena and it's also part of police training, called The Tueller Drill."

I've heard that crap a million times. It has made its way into countless movies and TV shows. I'm still betting on the guy with the gun. Also police "training" is all about giving cops excuses for killing people.

Habebe
Member
Mon Nov 08 14:04:38
Yeah, that sword doesn't look* very sharp, neither does the weilder

Rimshot*

Seriously though it really looks like a prop toy.
Habebe
Member
Mon Nov 08 14:05:04
Props to the filmer/narrator though.
Paramount
Member
Thu Nov 18 15:27:13
Singer pees in man’s mouth on stage

Brass Against rocker Sophia Urista has apologized for going “too far” by peeing on a fan onstage — while insisting she’s “not a shock artist.”

“I have always pushed the limits in music and on stage. That night, I pushed the limits too far,” the New York-based frontwoman admitted in her first comments about her golden viral moment.

“I love my family, the band, and the fans more than anything and I know that some were hurt or offended by what I did,” she admitted of the huge backlash following last Thursday’s show in Daytona, Florida.

“I apologize to them and want them to know that I didn’t mean to hurt them,” she wrote.

“I am not a shock artist,” she insisted, without detailing what drove her to urinate over a male fan she brought up onto the stage.

“I always want to put the music first. I’m grateful for all of your continued love and support.”

Her band commented with three heart-shaped emojis.

Fans also flooded the comments with messages of support for her wee moment in the spotlight.

“Please, don’t apologize for being a rock star!! You’re awesome!!” one fan wrote.

Model Camila Costa also told her the pee performance “was amazing and awesome!” and “the most [punk] rock thing I ever seen.”

“People are [too] sensitive,” she wrote, claiming, “If was a man would be ok if they were white omg would be soo fine.

“F–k everyone. I love u,” Costa wrote.

The headlines Urista generated also gained new fans for the band, judging by comments left on a urine-free video Brass Against posted Monday.

“Came for the pee, stayed for the music,” singer Mixi wrote.


http://nyp...-apologizes-for-peeing-on-fan/
kargen
Member
Thu Nov 18 16:36:17
Well that worked as intended. Other videos mostly around 50k hits. That one over three million so far. The guy went up on stage knowing it was going to happen so I think this one should be in the who the fuck cares category.

This is funny though.

"“People are [too] sensitive,” she wrote, claiming, “If was a man would be ok if they were white omg would be soo fine.

“F–k everyone. I love u,” Costa wrote."





murder
Member
Thu Nov 18 16:47:55

"... so I think this one should be in the who the fuck cares category."

The audience and the authorities?

kargen
Member
Thu Nov 18 17:08:00
I'm guessing the audience didn't care. She said she was going to do it before the song started and I doubt anybody left.
Authorities maybe for indecent exposure if you could actually see body parts. Otherwise...

Seems to be outrage to be outraged. The local legal system can decide to charge indecent exposure or not. Fans can decide go to her next show or not.
Paramount
Member
Fri Nov 19 04:11:02
Kargen,

"Well that worked as intended. Other videos mostly around 50k hits. That one over three million so far."


Well I'm just wondering what this can lead to. If musicians and artists sees that they can get more views if they perform some sort of act on stage, we may soon see more of this.

The fans themselves might start to demand that their idols pee on them.

For an exampple, if hundreds of men go to a Britney Spears or Taylor Swift concert and they all demand that she pees on them on the stage. Will they be able to deny them that?
Daemon
Member
Wed Nov 24 07:02:13
There are still people who use this site:

http://www...1/11/22/rent-a-hitman-website/

November 22, 2021

Seething and vengeful, Wendy Wein was on the lookout for the professional killer she meant to hire as she waited inside a southeastern Michigan cafe in July 2020.

Wein wanted her ex-husband dead. But she didn’t want to kill him herself and didn’t know anyone she trusted to do it for her. So she did what a lot of people do when they have a job they can’t or don’t want to do themselves — she searched for help on the Internet.

On RentAHitman.com.

What Wein found was presumably reassuring. The website promised her confidentiality. It boasted of industry awards. It showed off testimonials of satisfied customers, including one from Laura S., who had “caught my husband cheating with the babysitter.” The website bragged about complying with HIPPA, which it said was “the Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964,” a nod to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, the law passed in 1996 to protect patients’ medical information.

The trouble for Wein was that RentAHitman.com is a fake website. It’s not run by “Guido Fanelli,” as it claims, but by Bob Innes, a 54-year-old Northern California man who forwards any serious inquiries to law enforcement. Innes launched the site 16 years ago as part of an Internet security business that never went anywhere. Instead, it has served as a honeypot of sorts, attracting people who want to hire professional killers.

For Wein, it didn’t go well. She was arrested within days of seeking out an assassin and pleaded guilty earlier this month to solicitation of murder and using a computer to commit a crime. Under her plea agreement, she faces at least nine years in prison when she is sentenced in January.

Wein, 52, is not the only one who has gotten stuck in Innes’s digital trap. About 650 to 700 people have contacted him since he first registered the website in 2005, including about 400 who, like Wein, filled out his “service request form,” which requires users to give their name, email address and phone number, along with the same information of their “targets,” Innes said.

Innes vets the entries, which come in at a clip of about eight to 10 a month these days. He tosses the crank entries. But if he can verify the existence of the person requesting a hit man and the target they want killed, he forwards the information to one of RentAHitman’s 17,985 “field operatives,” which just so happens to be the approximate number of law enforcement agencies in the country.

All these years later, he’s still a little dumbfounded people don’t realize his site is bogus.

“I don’t get it,” Innes told The Washington Post last week. “People are just stupid.”

Innes launched his website not as a way to catch criminals, but as a possible business venture. From 2003 to 2005, he studied network security and was considering opening a business that would test a company’s online infrastructure for vulnerabilities. He was also collecting domain names in the hopes of reselling them for a profit. With both of those ventures in mind, he registered RentAHitman.com on Feb. 5, 2005, playing on the double meaning of the word “hit,” which can refer to attacking a system as well as online views.

In June of that year, he was getting ready to graduate from Empire College School of Business in Santa Rosa, Calif., and decided to put the domain up for auction. When he received no serious offers, Innes let the site languish. He left it on autopilot and forgot about it.

Then, in 2008, Innes opened up the inbox for all email accounts tied to the website. He found 250 to 300 that had amassed, most of them one-liners asking questions: How much for services? Do you operate in this or that country? How much would you charge to take out so-and-so? Are you hiring?

“These people were serious,” Innes said. He added, “I wasn’t really prepared for any of that.”

He closed the inbox and did nothing, because none of the messages sounded any alarms. Then, in 2010, he got an email from a woman named Helen. In her message, Helen said she was from the United Kingdom but was stranded in Canada. Her situation was urgent. Several people had bilked her out of her father’s inheritance, and she wanted revenge by killing three of them.

Innes was in Los Angeles helping his brother move when he received her first message in the morning. He didn’t do anything. But then a second email hit his inbox around 4 p.m. When he finally got in front of a computer, he verified the names and addresses of the people Helen wanted killed.

“I can tell that this lady was hellbent on having . . . these three people murdered,” he said.

But he gave Helen a possible out, the same one he still gives everyone — including Wein — before relaying their information to police. He sent an email with two questions: Do you still require our services? And do you want me to place you in contact with a field operator?

Helen wanted to proceed, so he reached out to a friend, a sergeant in a police department, who then called Canadian authorities, Innes said. Police found Helen, he said, adding that she served about four months behind bars on a charge of soliciting to commit murder before she was hauled back to Britain. Innes said he learned the three people she was targeting were her family members, but they were never hurt.

“So those were the first three people that the site has effectively saved,” he said.

In 2014, Innes added the service request form, essentially creating the version that still exists.

Helen was the first inquiry serious enough for Innes to vet and hand over to law enforcement — but not the last. There was Devon Fauber, the then-20-year-old who in 2018 tried to hire someone to kill his ex-girlfriend and her parents, whom he blamed for the couple’s breakup. The Virginia man then planned to kidnap his ex’s 3-year-old daughter so he could raise her.

“I could be a really good father to her,” he told the undercover investigator he thought was a hit man. “But I need those three people taken out before I can do anything.”

Fauber pleaded guilty to two counts of solicitation to commit first-degree murder and was sentenced in 2019 to 10 years in prison.

“It’s a crazy world,” Innes said. “The Internet is obviously a dangerous place. And this website is a magnet for low-hanging fruit that are out there trying to harm other people.”

More than a decade after RentAHitman.com fooled Helen, the website is still bamboozling people. Innes said he’s helping law enforcement as they investigate two of his would-be customers, so folks are still using his website to try to hire professional killers, even after it has received a fair amount of media attention, including a Rolling Stone article last year.

Back in southeastern Michigan on July 17, 2020, the “field operative” Wein was waiting for at the Dixie Cafe eventually showed up. He got in the passenger side of her gray Ford EcoSport, where she accused her ex-husband of being a pedophile. She described him in detail and gave his address, place of employment and the times he left for work and got home.

She gave the hit man a down payment of $200 and agreed to pay $5,000 when the job was done.

The field operative did not kill her ex. Instead, the Michigan State Police trooper filed the report that would lead to her arrest.

Innes said he thinks Wein’s case is another instance in which his website saved a life.

“She was hellbent on . . . seeking revenge to take out her ex-husband,” Innes said, “and she never did her homework.”

Wein did have a moment of doubt and hesitation when she first reached out to “Guido” and RentAHitman. In her initial email, she outlined whom she wanted killed and why. She said she could pay some money for the outsourced murder but was not a rich person. Then, she expressed a shred of incredulity about the whole hiring-a-professional-killer-on-the-open-Internet situation.

“This is kind of weird that your company is not on the deep or dark web,” she wrote, according to Innes. “I prefer not going to jail. Thank you for your time.”
Paramount
Member
Wed Nov 24 07:16:46
”The website bragged about complying with HIPPA, which it said was “the Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964,”

lol


” “I don’t get it,” Innes told The Washington Post last week. “People are just stupid.”


Here is a picture of Wendy Wein:

http://peo...ng-fake-hitman-rental-website/
Daemon
Member
Sat Nov 27 13:26:12
I guess you all know the photo:
http://upl...pedia/en/b/b4/Sharbat_Gula.jpg

http://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/italy-takes-national-geographics-green-eyed-afghan-girl-2021-11-25

Italy takes in National Geographic's green-eyed 'Afghan Girl'

ROME, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Italy has given safe haven to Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed "Afghan Girl" whose 1985 photo in National Geographic became a symbol of her country's wars, Prime Minister Mario Draghi's office said on Thursday.

The government intervened after Gula asked for help to leave Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country in August, a statement said, adding that her arrival was part of a broader programme to evacuate and integrate Afghan citizens.

U.S. photographer Steve McCurry took the picture of Gula when she was a youngster, living in a refugee camp on the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Her startling green eyes, peering out from a headscarf with a mixture of ferocity and pain, made her know internationally but her identity was only discovered in 2002 when McCurry returned to the region and tracked her down.

An FBI analyst, forensic sculptor and the inventor of iris recognition all verified her identity, National Geographic said at the time.

In 2016, Pakistan arrested Gula for forging a national identity card in an effort to live in the country.

The then Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, welcomed her back and promised to give her an apartment to ensure she "lives with dignity and security in her homeland".

Since seizing power, Taliban leaders have said they would respect women's rights in accordance with sharia, or Islamic law. But under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, women could not work and girls were banned from school. Women had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative when they left home.
Rugian
Member
Sat Nov 27 18:49:33
^Note to self: Pashtun women age like milk.
tumbleweed
the wanderer
Sat Nov 27 20:42:09
singer Tiffany has lost some bouts with aging too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64UiD3UFW6E
Daemon
Member
Tue Dec 07 09:57:28
All crazy.

1)

http://new...r-blamed-forged-130056164.html

"German police say they have solved a grisly murder mystery that has captivated the country since Saturday, when two adults and three children in COVID-19 quarantine were found shot to death in their family home in Brandenburg.

...but late Sunday revealed it was a quadruple murder-suicide.
...
On Tuesday, police revealed they found a suicide note in the family home that shed new light on the brutal crime. In that note, they said, the 40-year-old man confessed to killing his wife and three children because his wife’s employer discovered he had faked both of their COVID-19 vaccination cards in order to go to work."





2)

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/gunman-opens-fire-moscow-service-center-kills-people-81603442

"A gunman opened fire in a Moscow government services center and killed two people Tuesday, reportedly after being told to put on a face mask, authorities and Russia media said. Four other people were wounded."
murder
Member
Tue Dec 07 10:45:11

"... because his wife’s employer discovered he had faked both of their COVID-19 vaccination cards in order to go to work."

Overreact much?


"A gunman opened fire in a Moscow government services center and killed two people Tuesday, reportedly after being told to put on a face mask, authorities and Russia media said. Four other people were wounded."

No true Russian could ever accept living under that kind of tyranny.

Rugian
Member
Tue Dec 07 17:45:28
Vaccine and mask mandates kill people. It is official.
tumbleweed
the wanderer
Tue Dec 07 18:30:11
vaccines are a global nazi operation, those vaccinated will be dead in 1-2 years...according to this guy:
http://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1467880056701784067
Rugian
Member
Tue Dec 07 19:49:18
Well according to our current "president" and vice president, the vaccines were rushed out by an administration that was politically motivated to get a shot available in time for the elections, regardless of quality.

We certainly know that the vaccines were developed in record time and much of the typical research and testing that normally precedes mass distribution was bypassed.

But sure, the government should totally be able to force you to stick that stuff in your body
tumbleweed
the wanderer
Tue Dec 07 19:56:07
I think you mean the former “president” tried to rush it out and cut corners and made-up timelines and pressured and smeared the FDA, so adults had to come out and assure the public that he was not influencing anything (which is nuts that that had to occur)
murder
Member
Tue Dec 07 20:29:21

"But sure, the government should totally be able to force you to stick that stuff in your body"

Its been out for a while now. Hundreds of millions of guinea pigs later, we have useful data.

Daemon
Member
Wed Dec 22 08:58:35
End of world news at end of thread:

http://www...n-japan-due-to-potato-shortage

McDonald’s rations fries in Japan due to potato shortage

Covid-19 and floods in Canada force fast-food company to sell only small-sized fries
show deleted posts
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