The Digital Dollar Will Not Be Anonymous, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell Says
September 28th, 2022I’m sure you’re shocked to learn this.
Via: Reclaim the Net:
Despite privacy being one of the main concerns citizens have about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), the heads of the United States (US) Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) have confirmed that their respective CBDCs will not be anonymous.
During an appearance at a Banque de France (Bank of France) event, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said if the US were to pursue a central bank digital currency (CBDC), it would be “identity verified” and “not anonymous.”
“We would be looking to balance privacy protection with identity verification, which…has to be done, of course, in today’s traditional banking system as well,” Powell added.
U.S. Intelligence Wants to Unmask Anonymous Writers Using AI
September 28th, 2022Cryptogon 2013: Linguistics Identifies Anonymous Users:
Up to 80 percent of certain anonymous underground forum users can be identified using linguistics, researchers say.
The techniques compare user posts to track them across forums and could even unveil authors of thesis papers or blogs who had taken to underground networks.
“If our dataset contains 100 users we can at least identify 80 of them,” researcher Sadia Afroz told an audience at the 29C3 Chaos Communication Congress in Germany.
“Function words are very specific to the writer. Even if you are writing a thesis, you’ll probably use the same function words in chat messages.
“Even if your text is not clean, your writing style can give you away.”
Via: Register:
The US intelligence community has launched a program to develop artificial intelligence that can determine authorship of anonymous writing while also disguising an author’s identity by subtly altering their words.
The Human Interpretable Attribution of Text Using Underlying Structure (HIATUS) program from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) aims to build software that can perform “linguistic fingerprinting,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said.
“Humans and machines produce vast amounts of text content every day. Text contains linguistic features that can reveal author identity,” IARPA said [PDF].
With the right model, IARPA believes it can identify consistencies in a writer’s style across different samples, modify those linguistic patterns to anonymize writing and do it all in a manner that is explainable to novice users, ODNI said. HIATUS AIs would also have to be language agnostic.
“We have a strong chance of meeting our goals, delivering much-needed capabilities to the Intelligence Community, and substantially expanding our understanding of variation in human language using the latest advances in computational linguistics and deep learning,” said HIATUS program manager Dr Timothy McKinnon.
Live: Hurricane Ian Coverage With Multiple Storm Chasers
September 28th, 2022Via: Ryan Hall, Y’all:
Beijing Bus Drivers to Have Their Emotions, Blood Pressure, Exercise and Sleep Tracked by “Smart Wristbands”
September 27th, 2022
Via: Daily Star:
Transport authorities in Beijing have begun tracking the emotions and health of long-distance bus drivers in an attempt to ‘improve safety’.
According to the Beijing Public Transport Consortium, drivers have been issued with electronic bracelets that can monitor everything from their blood pressure and sleep patterns to their feelings.
Local newspaper ‘Baijing Daily’ reports that the agency delivered 1800 bracelets to drivers. It’s not clear what brand the smart wristbands are but they reportedly measure biometrics in ‘real time’ to detect anxiety, sickness, and overall fitness.
In a statement on Chinese social network Weibo, the company said: “The distribution of bracelets is a technological means to strengthen the physical and mental health of drivers.”
Blasts Detected Near Nord Stream As Images Reveal “Huge Leak”
September 27th, 2022Update: Deliberate Damage, Not Accident
Via: ZeroHedge:
Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen told reporters Nord Stream pipeline system damage to NS1 and NS2 “are deliberate actions, not an accident.”
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Flashback, February: Biden “I Promise You, We Will Be Able to Do It.”
This was an interesting ramble… Coincidence?
Via: ABC News:
Pres. Biden: "If Russia invades…then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it."
Reporter: "But how will you do that, exactly, since…the project is in Germany's control?"
Biden: "I promise you, we will be able to do that." https://t.co/uruQ4F4zM9 pic.twitter.com/4ksDaaU0YC
— ABC News (@ABC) February 7, 2022
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Update: Swedish Defense Force’s Chief of Operations: Incident Is A Military Matter
Via: ZeroHedge:
Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbaldet quoted the Swedish Defense Force’s chief of operations, Michael Claesson, who said it’s not ruled out that there’s a connection to the gas leaks and Russia’s mobilization last week.
Claesson then told the paper that the incident was a “military matter.”
—
Via: AFP:
The two Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia and Europe have been hit by unexplained leaks, Scandinavian authorities said Tuesday, raising suspicions of sabotage.
The pipelines have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions in recent months as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
While the pipelines, which are operated by a consortium majority-owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom, are not currently in operation, they both still contain gas but the environmental impact appeared limited so far.
One of the leaks on Nord Stream 1 occurred in the Danish economic zone and the other in the Swedish economic zone, while the Nord Stream 2 leak was in the Danish economic zone.
A leak was first reported on Nord Stream 2 on Monday.
“Authorities have now been informed that there have been another two leaks on Nord Stream 1, which likewise is not in operation but contains gas,” Danish climate and energy minister Dan Jorgensen told AFP in a statement on Tuesday.
“It is too early to say anything about the causes of the incidents,” the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities said in a statement.
Canada to End COVID-19 Entry Requirements
September 26th, 2022Never forget.
Never forgive.
Never again.
Via: USA Today:
Travelers heading to Canada will have an easier time entering the country as it drops its COVID entry requirements starting Saturday.
Travelers will no longer have to show proof of vaccination, take a test before or on arrival or follow quarantine rules, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a news release Monday. Canada will also no longer require the use of ArriveCAN, which travelers can use to submit information like vaccination proof and travel details, among other changes.
Update on Men Fleeing Russia
September 26th, 2022Via: Niki Proshin:
Suspend All COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Until Side-Effects are Fully Investigated, Says Leading Doctor Who Promoted Them on TV
September 26th, 2022No shit, Sherlock.
Also…
Via: The Daily Skeptic:
Leading doctors have joined a call to suspend all COVID-19 mRNA vaccines until serious side-effects are fully investigated and the raw trial data from Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trial are released for independent analysis to help determine the true benefits and potential harms for different age groups.
Writing in the peer-reviewed Journal of Insulin Resistance, one of the U.K.’s most eminent Consultant Cardiologists Dr. Aseem Malhotra, who was one of the first to take two doses of the vaccine and promote it on Good Morning Britain on TV, says that since the rollout of the vaccine the evidence of its effectiveness and true rates of adverse events has changed.
In a two-part research paper entitled “Curing the pandemic of misinformation on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine”, real-world data reveal that in the non-elderly population the number needed to vaccinate to prevent one death from COVID-19 runs into thousands and that re-analysis of randomised controlled trial data (that first led to approval of the vaccines for Pfizer and Moderna) suggests a greater risk of suffering a serious adverse event from the vaccine than being hospitalised with COVID-19.
Dr. Malhotra writes: “Pharmacovigilance systems and real-world safety data, coupled with plausible mechanisms of harm, are deeply concerning, especially in relation to cardiovascular safety.”
Mirroring a potential signal from the Pfizer Phase 3 clinical trial, a significant rise in cardiac arrest calls to ambulances in England was seen in 2021 (an extra 14,000 compared to 2020) with similar data emerging from Israel in the 16-39 year old age group where there was a 25% increase in heart attacks or cardiac arrests associated with the Pfizer vaccine administration but not associated with COVID-19.
FBI Robs Beverly Hills Safe Deposit Boxes
September 26th, 2022Via: ZeroHedge:
The FBI ‘drilled and pried’ their way into 1,400 safe-deposit boxes at a private vault company in Beverly Hills after misleading a judge about their plan to permanently confiscate everything inside every box containing at least $5,000 in cash or goods, a senior FBI agent recently testified.
…
The FBI and US attorney’s office in Los Angeles justified the 5-day dragnet forfeiture at the US Private Vaults store by assuming that hundreds of anonymous box holders were storing assets somehow tied to unknown crimes.
At the end of the operation, agents had recovered more than $86 million in cash, and a ‘bonanza’ of gold, silver, rare coins, jewelry and other items of value.
Now, around 700 box holders who aren’t implicated in any crimes liken the raid to police barging into a building’s 700 apartments and taking every tenant’s possessions when the only evidence of wrongdoing is against the landlord.
New Zealand Prime Minister Calls for a Global Censorship System
September 26th, 2022Via: Jonathan Turley:
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is the latest liberal leader to call for an international alliance to censor speech. Unsatisfied with the unprecedented corporate censorship of social media companies, leaders like Hillary Clinton have turned from private censorship to good old-fashioned state censorship. Speech regulation has become an article of faith on the left. Ardern used her speech this week to the United Nations General Assembly to call for censorship on a global scale.
Ardern lashed out at “disinformation” and called for a global coalition to control speech. After nodding toward free speech, she proceeded to lay out a plan for its demise through government regulation:
But what if that lie, told repeatedly, and across many platforms, prompts, inspires, or motivates others to take up arms. To threaten the security of others. To turn a blind eye to atrocities, or worse, to become complicit in them. What then?
This is no longer a hypothetical. The weapons of war have changed, they are upon us and require the same level of action and activity that we put into the weapons of old.
We recognized the threats that the old weapons created. We came together as communities to minimize these threats. We created international rules, norms and expectations. We never saw that as a threat to our individual liberties – rather, it was a preservation of them. The same must apply now as we take on these new challenges.
Related: Yesterday COVID, Today Climate Change
