Inclues this tidbit: And in their biggest, most shamefully ignored scoop, on December 9, 1931, the paper found and published a Nazi party document planning a “final solution” for Munich’s Jews — the first Hitlerite use of the word “endlösung” in such a context. Was it a euphemism for extermination? Hitler dissembled, so many could ignore the grim possibility.
]]>Science of the day: Theory of cortical function (David J. Heeger) (2017/02/06) (Not yet digested (work intrudes), but looks fun.) Includes a newish creativity hypothesis (bold mine): Neural responses evolve dynamically over time in my networks, in part because of noise-driven exploration, while implicitly encoding a posterior probability distribution. I hypothesize that this noise-driven process of exploration is the essence of creativity. (PNAS also has an author profile today: Profile of David Heeger)
]]>What he said. I really need to read up on my ancestral history—both sides. I hadn't put it together that Hadrian had an impact on each.
And, just added the Himmelfarb book to my wishlist, it's apparently already available.
]]>John Kelly, the new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, testified that foreign travelers coming to the United States could be required to give up social media passwords to border officials as a condition of entry. "We want to say, for instance, which websites do you visit, and give us your passwords, so we can see what they do on the internet," he said at a Feb. 7 House Homeland Security hearing, his first congressional hearing since his Senate confirmation. "If they don't want to give us that information, they don't come in."
Also, GitHub?
Original at this probably-broken link: https://fcw.com/articles/2017/02/07/kelly--dhs-social-media-border.aspx?m=1
]]>They're not asking for passwords (at least not on the ESTA online travel application for visa-free entry that was asking for social media details ten months ago when I re-upped mine).
(They might be asking for passwords on seized devices if you come to their attention on the way in, but the sheer volume of travelers suggests that's unlikely to be universal.)
My guess is they're experimenting with data mining a la Cambridge Analytica to look for signs of radicalization among visa applicants. Which suggests any real bad actors with an IQ above room temperature in Celsius will simply establish "clean" twitter and facebook accounts, follow a bunch of anodyne public entertainers, and "like" the correct tweets/posts in order to look boring.
Meanwhile the NSA already has that intel capability covered.
My working assumption is that the Five Eyes are capable of having rooted all my electronics at the factory gate. The only mitigating aspect of this is that the first rule of an intelligence operation is that raw information goes in, but it must never be disclosed (to do so could compromise the operation). Only carefully sanitised, digested reports can be made available to vetted clients.
My worry about ICE and CBP and DHS is that they're basically amateur rentacops in comparison with NSA, and some dipshit might very well use access to a database of phone passwords to go hog-wild with the travellers' credit cards that will also have been hoovered up along the way. Or to sell social media credentials and passwords to spammers or fraudsters for personal gain. Because data is easily copied and easily retained, and even NSA has problems preventing its analysts from engaging in LOVEINT and other protocol violations.
]]>Not that I EVER intend to go to the USSA, now, it could be amusing as I don't have any social media accounts other than Twitter, which works on this computer, but seems to be broken on my phone.
DHS agent: "Phone passwords for social media?" GT: "Erm, err - here you are ( hands over phone) -see if you can make it go, it's been borked for over a year now & I can't get it to work"
]]>Good news! At least one of those sets of rentacops now much expanded access to the raw take.
]]>--No, though the cat sleeping on my lap as I type this still resents the Horrible Shots she had to have earlier this week.
Glad you enjoyed the phrase, feel free to use it as required.
]]>However, do note the hidden dark irony / bitterness.
The 'unmentioned' part of the first revolt is that part of the reason that an entire caste was wiped out harks back to Herod (and his purges of dissidents when Big-J was allegedly born) and the rather distasteful bit where a lot of the deaths were internecine. i.e. a mini-civil war kicked off during the Roman siege of Jerusalem. The 'zealots' (this term is very laden) and Sadducee's were killing each other while Rome watched: at one point someone even destroyed the grain stores, and it wasn't a Roman spy. Which in a siege is somewhat suicidal.
Compare / Contrast with the third revolt, where it's much more a case of "us versus the Romans" in a Braveheart friendly film script.
Just think a little about what that comes down to: American Christians LARPing Messianic love for a revolution that was, in many ways, a societal suicide (and not the noble one at the "last stand"). Which, if one were being truly cynical, is why Masada (AD74) gets the attention rather than the rather more impactful razing of Jerusalem (AD70-1).
That's also why Sadducee's being replaced by Pharisee is an important break: rise of the rule of synagogue / Rabbis, rather than Temple Caste.
~
But, of course, this isn't the Agreed Upon Narrative[tm] to preserve a Nation / People, so I expect some would see my words as hate.
They're not, but so it goes.
]]>One might also be tempted to imagine that was the meaning all along. Be wery careful of Messianic Modal Thought Patterns.
Who knows?
No Romans anymore, or so it's said, but the Royal Gallery is watching. (The Stellar one, well: broken hearts can get mended).
~
Subtle?
Well, depends on your Eyes: from this vantage that was a very slow knife indeed.
]]>