Chicago: Looters Exchange Gunfire with Police
August 10th, 2020Via: Chicago Tribune:
Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said.
More than 100 people were arrested as of 9 a.m., according to Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown. Thirteen officers were injured during the unrest, including a sergeant who was hit by a bottle. A civilian and private security guard were shot and wounded.
“What occurred in our downtown and surrounding communities was abject criminal behavior, pure and simple,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. “And there cannot be any excuse for it. Period.”
It took police officers roughly four hours to get the downtown back under control, leading to finger pointing across the political spectrum and calls for the Illinois National Guard to once again help quell unrest in the country’s third-largest city.
Australia Fast-Tracks Plan to Send Solar Power to Singapore
August 10th, 2020Via: Bloomberg:
Australia granted “major project status” to an ambitious A$22 billion ($16 billion) plan to export power from a giant solar farm in the country’s north to Southeast Asia via undersea cable.
The status recognizes the “strategic significance” of the project, which is expected to inject billions of dollars into the economy and create thousands of jobs, Angus Taylor, minister for energy and emissions reduction, said in a statement Wednesday.
The Australia-ASEAN Power Link envisions connecting the world’s largest solar farm and battery system in Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore and Indonesia via a 3,700 kilometer (2,300 mile) undersea cable. Similar proposals for long-haul, transnational power shipments have been pursued in other regions, including from North Africa to Europe or from Mongolia to Japan and South Korea.
Investigators Bewildered by Death, Mutilation of Oregon Cow
August 10th, 2020Linda Moulton Howe has been researching anomalous animal mutilations for over four decades. I first learned about her work on this way back in the Art Bell days of the 1990s.
I don’t know what’s behind the animal mutilation phenomenon, but I’m close to certain that it’s not, “Satanic cults,” or, “Predatory animal attacks,” or any other conventional explanation.
Via: Capital Press:
The black Angus cow, a breeding animal worth about $1,000, was found July 23 dead and mutilated — tongue, genitals and reproductive organs cut out. Her carcass was found upright, front legs tucked underneath, a position investigators say they haven’t seen before.
The cause of death is unknown, and authorities told the Capital Press the case is ongoing.
“She died in a position she couldn’t have gotten into by herself. I don’t have any kind of logical explanation for it,” said David Hunt, owner of Hunt Ranch and a partner-producer for Painted Hills Natural Beef Inc.
“There was definitely foul play involved in this animal’s death,” said Deputy Jeremiah Holmes of the Wheeler County Sheriff’s Office.
Sweden, Which Never Had Lockdown, Sees COVID-19 Cases Plummet as Rest of Europe Suffers Spike
August 10th, 2020Via: Newsweek:
Amid fears over a potential second wave of the novel coronavirus across Europe, new infections in Sweden, where full lockdown measures were not implemented, have mostly declined since late June.
The number of new cases per 100,000 people in Sweden reported over the last 14 days since July 29 dropped by 54 percent from the figure reported over 14 days prior to then, according to the latest report Wednesday from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Federal Reserve: 24x7x365 Interbank Settlement Service with Clearing Functionality to Support Instant Payments in the United States
August 10th, 2020Via: Federal Reserve:
The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced details of the FedNow? Service, a new 24x7x365 interbank settlement service with clearing functionality to support instant payments in the United States.
…
Based on ongoing stakeholder engagement, additional features and service enhancements will be introduced over time. The target launch date for the service remains 2023 or 2024, with a more specific time frame to be announced after additional work is completed.
China: Hong Kong Tycoon Jimmy Lai Arrested Under New National Security Law
August 9th, 2020Via: Reuters:
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai became the highest-profile arrest under a new national security law on Monday, detained over suspected collusion with foreign forces as scores of police searched the offices of his Apple Daily newspaper.
Snapdragon Chip Flaws Put Over a Billion Android Phones at Risk
August 9th, 2020Via: Ars Technica:
A billion or more Android devices are vulnerable to hacks that can turn them into spying tools by exploiting more than 400 vulnerabilities in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip, researchers reported this week.
The vulnerabilities can be exploited when a target downloads a video or other content that’s rendered by the chip. Targets can also be attacked by installing malicious apps that require no permissions at all.
From there, attackers can monitor locations and listen to nearby audio in real time and exfiltrate photos and videos. Exploits also make it possible to render the phone completely unresponsive. Infections can be hidden from the operating system in a way that makes disinfecting difficult.
Similar: Hacker Finds Hidden ‘God Mode’ on Old x86 CPUs; ‘These Backdoors Probably Exist Elsewhere’
Don’t Do Your Own Research
August 9th, 2020Via: Corbett Report:
Homeschooling Hits the Mainstream
August 9th, 2020Via: Reason:
DIY approaches to education—including homeschooling, learning pods, and microschools—are gaining popularity as public schools fold under pressure.
Google Speakers Are Listening to More Than Just Voice Commands
August 8th, 2020Via: Protocol:
Last week, Reddit user Brazedowl received a curious notification on his phone: Google was telling him that a smoke detector in his home had gone off. Brazedowl, a teacher from North Carolina who goes by Drew in real life, knew about the smoke alarm — he was at home himself and had just fried some sausages in his kitchen. But up until that moment, he had no idea that his smart speaker was able to detect such events. “Google just made my dumb smoke detectors smart,” he wrote on Reddit. “Pretty rad.”
A Google spokesperson told Protocol that the feature was accidentally enabled for some users through a recent software update and has since been rolled back. But in light of Monday’s news that Google invested $450 million — acquiring a 6.6% stake — in home security provider ADT, it may be a sign of things to come for Google, as it hints at the company’s secret home security superpower: millions of smart speakers already in people’s homes.
Once the deal closes, ADT’s more than 20,000 installers will also sell Google-made smart displays, security cameras and other hardware, and ADT will more closely integrate Google technology into its own home security offerings. “The goal is to give customers fewer false alarms, more ways to receive alarm events, and better detection of potential incidents inside and around the home,” Google Nest VP and GM Rishi Chandra said in a blog post.
