Independent Alternative-News Aggregation
Source: Unz.com
Back in my younger years I greatly enjoyed Science Fiction, and from junior high through graduate school, I probably read a thousand or more books in that genre, captivated by the enormous range of interesting ideas presented.
Continue reading “American Pravda: Laminated Mouse-Brains and the Magic of AI – Ron Unz 6/10/24”
Source: Mises.org
On May 14, Alexey Pertsev, one of the lead developers of Tornado Cash (TC), was found guilty of money laundering by a Dutch court and sentenced to sixty-four months in prison. TC is a privacy-preserving protocol developed for the Ethereum blockchain: it allows users to deposit funds in a TC pool and withdraw them to a different address, thus making it impossible for external observers to track financial activity. TC is completely noncustodial, meaning that users are in control of their own money at every step of the process. In other words, developers do not have any technical means to control how individuals interact with the TC smart contracts.
Source: ZeroHedge.com
A new report from the Financial Times reveals that OpenAI is expanding its international lobbyist Army, aiming to sway politicians and regulators who are tightening their grip on artificial intelligence.
Continue reading “OpenAI Expands Lobbying Army To Influence Regulation – ZeroHedge 6/13/24”
Source: ZeroHedge.com
In the end, Apple’s 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference proved to be a flop, with the stock sliding 1.9%, its worst WWDC performance since 2010 and the 4th worst in the iPhone era.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
Costco, which ranks among the three largest retailers in the US (and globally), is joining the club of big corporations with access to massive amounts of customer data, who are launching various schemes to monetize that data.
Continue reading “Costco’s Bid to Turn Customer Data into Profits – Didi Rankovic 6/8/24”
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
Forward Research has announced its acquisition of Odysee, a crypto-based censorship-resistant video platform. With this strategic acquisition, Forward Research aims to weave Odysee’s seven million-strong user base into the fabric of the Arweave network, a decentralized data storage solution heralded as the “permaweb.”
Arweave is a decentralized storage network that leverages blockchain technology to create a permanent and immutable data storage solution. Designed to store data permanently, it enables users and developers to pay a one-time fee for perpetual data storage, making it a revolutionary alternative to traditional cloud storage services that require ongoing payments. This innovative approach is aimed at preserving valuable information indefinitely, fostering a sustainable and censorship-resistant web infrastructure….
Source: joannenova.com.au
Proving that unpaid anonymous review is worth every cent, the 217 year old Wiley science publisher “peer reviewed” 11,300 papers that were fake, and didn’t even notice. It’s not just a scam, it’s an industry. Naked “gobbledygook sandwiches” got past peer review, and the expert reviewers didn’t so much as blink.
Source: ZeroHedge.com
Crypto-libertarian Erik Voorhees, fresh off his passionate defense of crypto in the ‘Gold vs. Bitcoin’ debate recently hosted by ZeroHedge, spoke with crypto news site Unchained’s Laura Shin and Venice’s COO Teana Baker-Taylor about the alarming honeypots of user search history data on AI chatbot platforms that could potentially be harvested.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
France has imposed a state of emergency in New Caledonia in response to protests and riots, leading to a ban on TikTok as authorities seek to stabilize the region. The French government has taken these measures to address the unrest that erupted after a contentious vote extending voting rights in the territory’s provincial elections and is the latest example of a government restricting internet access as a means to control citizens.
Source: Mises.org
On April 24, two lead developers of Samourai Wallet (SW), the most-advanced privacy-centric wallet in the bitcoin ecosystem, were arrested and charged with money laundering and money transmitters offenses by order of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). This is just the latest assault of an escalating war waged by US regulators on financial privacy and freedom.
Source: ZeroHedge.com
Since the beginning of the digital age, most of the world’s internet data has flowed through massive data centers in Northern Virginia. The area is known as “Data Center Alley” because it’s home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers. Some call the area ‘spy country’ because of the number of data centers used by the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies.
Given the exponential proliferation of smartphones, streaming services, smart devices, and now generative artificial intelligence, the power demanded by data centers in Northern Virginia will need nuclear reactors worth of power, if not much more, according to utility Dominion Energy.
Source: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
Retail giant Target illegally collected and stored customers’ biometric data, including face and fingerprint scans, according to an Illinois woman who filed a class action lawsuit against the Minnesota-based company on behalf of herself and other customers.
Arnetta Dean alleges Target violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting customers’ data without obtaining written consent or sharing data retention and destruction policies.
Source: theGrayzone.com
The notoriously intelligence-friendly social media network appears to have imposed a ban on posting a recent report by Kit Klarenberg, and is automatically restricting users who re-publish his work.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
Tim Pool, a well-known podcaster, has shed light on another prominent censorship action taken by YouTube. With retrospective effect, a couple of his most popular episodes of the Timcast IRL podcast have fallen prey to YouTube’s enforcement protocol. Podcast episodes that hosted personalities such as Joe Rogan, Michael Malice, and Alex Jones have now been eliminated from the platform, despite being on the platform for the last three years.
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
The province of Nova Scotia has passed a bill despite concerns from doctors and politicians over a clause in the legislation that grants the government access to the private medical records of citizens.
Source: Brownstone.org
Those who involved themselves in Bitcoin markets after 2017 encountered a different operation and ideal than those who came before. Today, no one much cares about what came before, speaking of 2010-2016. They are only watching the upward price momentum and are thrilled for the increase in the asset valuation of their portfolio.
Continue reading “What Happened to Bitcoin? – Jeffrey A. Tucker 4/14/24”
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
Technology developed by a company called NEC has been utilized to introduce biometric ticketing on the opening day of the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) season. This pilot was undertaken at four designated baseball parks, including Minute Maid Park in Houston, where it was revealed that around 6,000 eager baseball fans favored convenience and used the touchless technology for entry to the stadium.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
The sweeping implementation of a facial recognition initiative is stirring controversy in the Gaza Strip, with the government of Israel reported to have utilized this technology to create a surreptitious database of Palestinian individuals. As disclosed by The Times, this utilization of biometric technology occurred without the informed consent or awareness of the Palestinian populace.
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
A lawsuit accuses General Motors of spying on a Florida man’s driving habits via his 2021 Cadillac XT6, resulting in his rejection by seven auto insurance companies.
The man, Romeo Chicco, is also suing LexisNexis, the company that shared his data with the insurance companies.
Source: Brownstone.org
On May 5, 2021, White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a mob-like warning to social-media companies and information distributors generally. They need to get with the program and start censoring critics of Covid policy. They need to amplify government propaganda. After all, it would be a shame if something would happen to these companies.
These were her exact words:
The president’s view is that the major platforms have a responsibility related to the health and safety of all Americans to stop amplifying untrustworthy content, disinformation and misinformation, especially related to Covid-19 vaccinations and elections. And we’ve seen that over the past several months. Broadly speaking, I’m not placing any blame on any individual or group. We’ve seen it from a number of sources. He also supports better privacy protections and a robust antitrust program. So, his view is that there’s more that needs to be done to ensure that this type of misinformation, disinformation, damaging, sometimes life threatening information is not going out to the American public.
Continue reading “The White House Makes Good on Its Antitrust Threats – Jeffrey A. Tucker 3/23/24”
Source: TheGrayzone.com
Following years of pressure from Israel lobbyists and British spooks, I was finally banned by Twitter/X. What does my removal say about Elon Musk, who flaunts his opposition to censorship, while promising to build an “everything app” where you could lose access to banking and messaging for violating dubious speech codes?
On February 17, I was suspended from Twitter/X without warning. The cause was mass-reporting by Zionist activists I’d offended. My removal was justified on the basis that I violated X’s “rules against violent speech.” Having endlessly condemned violence on the platform – in particular, the Gaza genocide – I’m flummoxed. Not least because a post from one of my Zionist detractors, which openly calls for me to be “battered on a weekly basis” over my political views, remains extant today.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
In response to a Texas state law mandating digital ID age verification, Pornhub, a highly trafficked adult content website, has ceased operations in the state as of Thursday.
Source: FinanceMagnates.com
With spot Bitcoin ETFs having been approved the same year that the halving is set to take place, many newcomers to the space may be wondering: what is the Bitcoin halving? This is a common question among those wanting to learn more about the Bitcoin protocol. Expected to be the most important event in Bitcoin’s history, the 2024 halving is expected to occur sometime on or around April 13.
Here we will cover the basics of how the Bitcoin halving works, what the Bitcoin halving is, why it happens, and what it may mean for markets this year and beyond….
Source: rwmalonemd.substack.com
We hear a lot about “election integrity” or lack thereof, particularly around the issues of counting the vote and the ballot box. But the truth is that elections are more likely to be stolen via search engine manipulation effects (SEME).
What is SEME?
SEME is an abbreviation for the search engine manipulation effect. In a series of randomized controlled experiments, it has been shown that more than 20% of undecided voters can be manipulated into voting one way or the other, by simply manipulating the rankings of search engine results.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
As our workplaces continue to integrate with digital technology, employee privacy might be at a higher risk than ever before. Significant American corporations, like Walmart, Delta Air Lines, T-Mobile, Chevron, and Starbucks, have reportedly enlisted the services of the Ohio-based tech startup, Aware. This firm uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze employee communications through popular apps such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. The invasion of worker privacy happening is no longer mere conjecture.
Continue reading “AI Is Inflaming Workplace Surveillance – Ken Macon 2/14/23”