Tech Titans Plot Their Doomsday Escape to New Zealand Luxury Bunkers

September 5th, 2018

Via: Bloomberg:

Years of doomsday talk at Silicon Valley dinner parties has turned to action.

In recent months, two 150-ton survival bunkers journeyed by land and sea from a Texas warehouse to the shores of New Zealand, where they’re buried 11 feet underground.

Seven Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have purchased bunkers from Rising S Co. and planted them in New Zealand in the past two years, said Gary Lynch, the manufacturer’s general manager. At the first sign of an apocalypse — nuclear war, a killer germ, a French Revolution-style uprising targeting the 1 percent — the Californians plan to hop on a private jet and hunker down, he said.

“New Zealand is an enemy of no one,” Lynch said in an interview from his office in Murchison, Texas, southeast of Dallas. “It’s not a nuclear target. It’s not a target for war. It’s a place where people seek refuge.”


Emirates Jumbo Jet Quarantined at New York’s JFK with ‘Multiple’ Sick Passengers

September 5th, 2018

Via: CNBC:

Federal health authorities and local police quarantined an Emirates Airline jumbo jet Wednesday morning in New York after passengers were reported ill on the flight from Dubai.

The plane landed at 9:12 a.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport with “multiple sick passengers,” according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the airport. Passengers had “flu-like” symptoms including fevers and coughs, according to New York’s mayor’s office.

Ten sick passengers were taken to nearby Jamaica Hospital, and another eight were treated at the airport, said Eric Phillips, a spokesman for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Upon landing, the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger jet, was met by ambulances and was parked away from terminals, so medical personnel from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could provide medical assistance and assess the situation, the Port Authority said.


Australia Wants to Take Government Surveillance to the Next Level

September 4th, 2018

Via: New York Times:

A state’s capacity to spy on its citizens has grown exponentially in recent years as new technology has meant more aspects of our lives can be observed, recorded and analyzed than ever before. At the same time, much to the frustration of intelligence agencies around the world, so has the ability to keep digital information secret, thanks to encryption.

That’s why the main intelligence agencies of the Anglophone world are now hoping that Australia will lead the charge in developing ways to get decrypt information at will, and to tap into data that was previously kept secret. A proposed law, the draft of which was released last month by the cybersecurity minister, is an aggressive step in that direction.

We should all be worried, because it’s not just criminals or terrorists who use encryption, but every one of us. We use encryption to buy things online, manage our finances, and communicate personally and professionally. Hospitals, transportation systems and government agencies use encrypted data. Creating tools to weaken encrypted systems for one purpose weakens it for all purposes. If Australia succeeds in doing so, it could be your bank account or your medical records that are compromised in the end.

This particular bill has been more than a year in the making. At the June 2017 meeting in Ottawa of the Five Eyes — the intelligence alliance made up of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand — Australia made a point of the need for states to find ways to overcome encryption. A joint communiqué that came out of the meeting noted that encryption can “severely undermine public safety efforts” and committed Five Eyes members to working with technology companies to “explore shared solutions.”

The Australian government set about translating this objective into law. The release of the bill, which came just before the latest meeting of the Five Eyes in Australia last month, which confirmed the strategy. No doubt Australia’s intelligence and law enforcement establishment were thrilled with this proposal.

Australia, which has no bill of rights, is a logical place to test new strategies for collecting intelligence that can later be adopted elsewhere. Among other things, the proposed law would create a process for “designated communications providers” — defined so expansively that it covers any business hosting a website — to assist intelligence and law enforcement agencies to do almost anything to give them access to encrypted communications. For example, providers may have to build tools, install software or keep agencies up-to-date with developments. In essence, state agencies will be able to circumvent encryption, either with the cooperation of tech companies or by compulsion.

The government has been quick to claim that this is not a back door, and the bill prohibits requests to companies to create “systemic” weaknesses. But this prohibition is ambiguous, and the reporting and accountability safeguards are minimal.

The truth is that there is simply no way to create tools to undermine encryption without jeopardizing digital security and eroding individual rights and freedoms. Hackers with bad intentions will do their utmost to take advantage of any such tools that companies are forced to provide the government.


Robot Boat Sails Into History by Finishing Atlantic Crossing

September 4th, 2018

Via: ABC:

All summer, the small boat drifted steadily eastward across the churning North Atlantic until it neared the Irish coast, where it made history by becoming the first unmanned sailboat to cross the Atlantic.

The SB Met, built by Norwegian company Offshore Sensing AS, reached the finish line of the Microtransat Challenge for robotic boats on Aug. 26, two and a half months after setting off from Newfoundland, according to preliminary data.

It’s a milestone that shows the technology for unmanned boats is robust enough to carry out extended missions that can dramatically cut costs for ocean research, border security, and surveillance in rough or remote waters. They’re part of wider efforts to develop autonomous marine vessels such as robotic ferries and cargo and container ships that could be operating by the end of the decade, outpacing attempts to commercialize self-driving cars.


Global Debt Soars, Along with Fears of Crisis Ahead

September 4th, 2018

Via: Savannah Morning News:

Ten years after the worst financial panic since the 1930s, growing debt burdens in key developing economies are fueling fears of a new crisis that could spread far beyond the disruption sweeping Turkey.

The loss of investor confidence in the Turkish lira, which has surrendered more than 40 percent of its value this year, is only a preview of debt problems that could engulf countries such as Brazil, South Africa, Russia and Indonesia, some economists say.

“Turkey is not the last one,” said Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, an economics professor at the University of Maryland. “Turkey is the beginning.”

For now, few experts think that a broader crisis is imminent, though Argentina this week asked the International Monetary Fund to accelerate a planned $50 billion rescue as the peso crashed to a historic low. But the danger of a financial contagion that could hit Americans by crushing U.S. exports and sending the stock market plunging should be taken more seriously in light of a massive increase in global debt since the 2008 downturn, the economists said.

Total debt is a whopping $169 trillion, up from $97 trillion on the eve of the Great Recession, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.


Google and Mastercard Cut a Secret Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales in Stores

September 3rd, 2018

Via: Bloomberg:

For the past year, select Google advertisers have had access to a potent new tool to track whether the ads they ran online led to a sale at a physical store in the U.S. That insight came thanks in part to a stockpile of Mastercard transactions that Google paid for.

But most of the two billion Mastercard holders aren’t aware of this behind-the-scenes tracking. That’s because the companies never told the public about the arrangement.


‘Strange Disappearance’ of WikiLeaks Consultant in Norway

September 3rd, 2018

Via: Deutsche Welle:

WikiLeaks has raised concern after Arjen Kamphuis, an associate of founder Julian Assange, went missing in Norway. The cybersecurity expert was last seen in northern Norway on August 20.


Eating in 10-Hour Window Can Override Disease-Causing Genetic Defects, Nurture Health

August 31st, 2018

Via: Salk Institute:

Scientists at the Salk Institute found that mice lacking the biological clocks thought to be necessary for a healthy metabolism could still be protected against obesity and metabolic diseases by having their daily access to food restricted to a 10-hour window.

The work, which appeared in the journal Cell Metabolism on August 30, 2018, suggests that the health problems associated with disruptions to animals’ 24-hour rhythms of activity and rest—which in humans is linked to eating for most of the day or doing shift work—can be corrected by eating all calories within a 10-hour window.

“For many of us, the day begins with a cup of coffee first thing in the morning and ends with a bedtime snack 14 or 15 hours later,” says Satchidananda Panda, a professor in Salk’s Regulatory Biology Laboratory and the senior author of the new paper. “But restricting food intake to 10 hours a day, and fasting the rest, can lead to better health, regardless of our biological clock.”


TRUMP THREATENS TO PULL U.S. OUT OF WTO

August 31st, 2018

Via: Bloomberg:

President Donald Trump said he would pull out of the World Trade Organization if it doesn’t treat the U.S. better, targeting a cornerstone of the international trading system.

“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump said Thursday in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. Trump said the agreement establishing the body “was the single worst trade deal ever made.”

A U.S. withdrawal from the WTO potentially would be far more significant for the global economy than even Trump’s growing trade war with China, undermining the post-World War II system that the U.S. helped build.

Trump said last month that the U.S. is at a big disadvantage from being treated “very badly” by the WTO for many years and that the Geneva-based body needs to “change their ways.”


Argentina’s Central Bank Hikes Rates to 60% as Currency Collapses

August 30th, 2018

Via: CNBC:

Argentina is struggling to cope with yet another financial crisis.

Investors are increasingly concerned Latin America’s third-largest economy could soon default as it struggles to repay heavy government borrowing. This comes after Argentina’s government unexpectedly asked for the early release of a $50 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday.

The Argentine peso crashed to record lows on the news. It saw steep losses in the previous session and collapsed another 15 percent to hit 39 pesos against the U.S. dollar on Thursday morning.

The peso is down more than 45 percent against the greenback this year, exacerbating pre-existing fears over the country’s weakening economy while inflation is running at 25.4 percent this year.


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