Russia Orders Out 60 U.S. Diplomats Over Spy Poisoning Affair
March 29th, 2018Via: Reuters:
Russia expelled 60 U.S. diplomats on Thursday and announced it would eject scores from other countries that have joined London and Washington in censuring Moscow over the poisoning of a spy.
The U.S. ambassador was also ordered to shut the consulate in St Petersburg, in Russia’s retaliation for the biggest expulsion of diplomats since the Cold War.
The White House said Moscow’s decision marked a further deterioration in the U.S.-Russia relationship.
“Russia’s response was not unanticipated and the United States will deal with it,” the White House said in a statement without elaborating.
Related: U.S. Expels 60 Russian Diplomats, Shutters Seattle Consulate
Monero Less Untraceable Than It Seems
March 29th, 2018Via: Wired:
Monero is designed to mix up any given Monero “coin” with other payments, so that anyone scouring Monero’s blockchain can’t link it to any particular identity or previous transaction from the same source. But in a recent paper, a team of researchers from a broad collection of institutions—including Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Boston University, MIT, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—point to flaws in that mixing that make it possible to nonetheless extract individual transactions.
That shouldn’t just worry anyone trying to stealthily spend Monero today. It also means evidence of earlier not-quite-untraceable payments remain carved into Monero’s blockchain for years to come, visible for any snoop that cares to look.
Emergency Room Visit for Kidney Stone Situation, Now What?
March 28th, 2018Warning: Nothing that appears on Cryptogon should be viewed as medical advice.
—
Update: Thanks to everyone who wrote in with their experiences and information!
—
At around 2am last night, I experienced a sudden onset of severe pain between my right side and lower back and down into my groin. The pain quickly grew in intensity. I knew that whatever was happening, I was in trouble. I drove myself to the hospital. (In case you’re wondering, paramedics would take 30 to 45 minutes to reach us—best case.)
Hospital staff tried to give me oral pain meds, but I puked them up within a couple of minutes. And I kept puking, shaking and wimpering for them to do something.
I thought that I was going to die.
I was passing a kidney stone.
Wikipedia describes the pain like this:
The hallmark of a stone that obstructs the ureter or renal pelvis is excruciating, intermittent pain that radiates from the flank to the groin or to the inner thigh. This pain, known as renal colic, is often described as one of the strongest pain sensations known.
Yep.
I was muttering incoherently and I remember my pleas going quieter. I think I was blacking out. There was no doctor in the hospital, only a nurse who was in phone contact with a doctor. I heard the nurse say on the phone, “His pain is 10 out of 10.”
The nurse put in an IV line and started injecting stuff into me. I lost track of time. Eventually, she asked me how I was feeling, and I think I said something like, “I’m fucked. It’s game over. Whatever you gave me isn’t working.”
Back on the phone with the doctor.
“He’s still 8 out of 10 at least.”
I can then remember her hooking me up to a bottle of clear liquid. I don’t know what that stuff was, but a half hour later, I had no pain. She asked what my pain level was and I had no pain at all.
Then I fell asleep.
Hours later, the doctor who was calling the shots on the phone was standing beside my bed. She told me about kidney stones and pretty much said that I need to drink a lot more water.
She prescribed two drugs for me to take that she said would, “Help things settle down in the days ahead.”
I was in such a terrified, zonked out state that I said, “Ok, I’ll do anything you say to do.”
The drugs were Doxazosin and Diclofenac.
The label on the Doxazosin says to stop taking it if dizziness occurs. Fair enough. Then I typed it into Google and this is my favorite potential side effect:
“Rarely, males may have a painful or prolonged erection lasting 4 or more hours. If this occurs, stop using this drug and get medical help right away, or permanent problems could occur.”
Wow. That’s just great.
Then there’s this on Diclofenac:
“This medicine may cause life-threatening heart or circulation problems such as heart attack or stroke, especially if you use it long term. Do not use diclofenac just before or after heart bypass surgery (coronary artery bypass graft, or CABG).
Get emergency medical help if you have chest pain, weakness, shortness of breath, slurred speech, or problems with vision or balance.
This medicine may also cause serious effects on the stomach or intestines, including bleeding or perforation (forming of a hole). These conditions can be fatal and can occur without warning while you are taking diclofenac, especially in older adults.”
My question to doctors and people who have gone through this kidney stone situation out there in Cryptogon-land is this:
Do the potential benefits of taking these dangerous drugs outweigh the risks???
U.S. Expels 60 Russian Diplomats, Shutters Seattle Consulate
March 26th, 201860 PNGed in one shot???
Via AP:
The Trump administration expelled 60 Russian diplomats on Monday and ordered Russia’s consulate in Seattle to close, as the United States and European nations sought to jointly punish Moscow for its alleged role in poisoning an ex-spy in Britain.
Senior Trump administration officials said all 60 Russians were spies working in the U.S. under diplomatic cover, including a dozen at Russia’s mission to the United Nations. The officials said the administration was taking the action to send a message to Russia’s leaders about the “unacceptably high” number of Russian intelligence operatives in the U.S.
The expelled Russians will have seven days to leave the U.S, said the officials. They weren’t authorized to be identified by name and requested anonymity. They added that the Seattle consulate is a counter-intelligence concern because of its proximity to a U.S. Navy base.
Musk Removes Tesla and SpaceX Facebook Pages
March 24th, 2018Via: The Verge:
During a tweetstorm, Elon Musk has removed both of his companies’ Facebook pages after being challenged to do so by a few of his followers. The pages of both SpaceX and Tesla are now inactive. Each had around 2.6 million followers.
Musk was answering a flurry of tweets this morning when he responded to one from Signal’s Brian Acton, co-founder of the Facebook-owned WhatsApp, that contained the hashtag #deletefacebook. “What’s Facebook?” Musk queried. Afterward, a follower told Musk he should delete SpaceX’s Facebook page if Musk was “the man.” Musk claimed he didn’t even know it existed and then said he would, probably in an attempt to preserve his “the man” status.
Things ballooned from there. After someone showed Musk a screengrab of the SpaceX Facebook page, he noted it was the first time he had seen it and that it would “be gone soon.” Then someone prompted him to delete Tesla’s Facebook page, with Musk responding that it “looks lame anyway.” And just for good measure, it seems that the Facebook page for Tesla-owned Solar City has disappeared as well.
U.S. Military Research Into Generating Sounds with Lasers
March 21st, 2018This one is a keeper!
Via: DefenseOne:
Within three years, the Pentagon’s non-lethal weapons lab hopes to have a direct energy weapon that can produce an effect like a haunted walkie-talkie or the biblical burning bush.
UK Court Hears of Plot To Rape, Dissolve in Acid Children For Pleasure of Unnamed ‘Top Politicians’
March 19th, 2018The source article is paywalled at Court News UK: Plot to Abuse Children for ‘Top Political People’:
A paedophile told an undercover police officer that they could make millions of pounds raping children on camera for ‘top political people,’ a court heard. Gihan Muthukumarana, 28, claimed they could sell the film for £10m if they ‘got rid’ of the young girls afterwards by dissolving them in barrels of acid, it is claimed. He was reported to the police after he told escort about his plans while regularly meeting her for sex at the Master Robert Hotel…
Via: Breitbart:
Gihan Muthukumarana told undercover police they could make £10 million raping children on video for “top political people”, a court has heard.
The 28-year-old, who appeared in court this week accused of plotting to kidnap, rape, and beat young girls, allegedly claimed that footage of the abuse could be sold for “ridiculously big” sums of money if they “got rid” of the victims by dissolving their bodies in a vat of acid afterwards, Court News UK reports.
Trump’s Election Consultants Filmed Saying They Use Bribes and Sex Workers to Entrap Politicians
March 19th, 2018Via: Channel 4:
An undercover investigation by Channel 4 News reveals how Cambridge Analytica secretly campaigns in elections across the world. Bosses were filmed talking about using bribes, ex-spies, fake IDs and sex workers.
Senior executives at Cambridge Analytica – the data company that credits itself with Donald Trump’s presidential victory – have been secretly filmed saying they could entrap politicians in compromising situations with bribes and Ukrainian sex workers.
In an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News, the company’s chief executive Alexander Nix said the British firm secretly campaigns in elections across the world. This includes operating through a web of shadowy front companies, or by using sub-contractors.
In one exchange, when asked about digging up material on political opponents, Mr Nix said they could “send some girls around to the candidate’s house”, adding that Ukrainian girls “are very beautiful, I find that works very well”.
In another he said: “We’ll offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land for instance, we’ll have the whole thing recorded, we’ll blank out the face of our guy and we post it on the Internet.”
Offering bribes to public officials is an offence under both the UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Cambridge Analytica operates in the UK and is registered in the United States.
The admissions were filmed at a series of meetings at London hotels over four months, between November 2017 and January 2018. An undercover reporter for Channel 4 News posed as a fixer for a wealthy client hoping to get candidates elected in Sri Lanka.
Mr Nix told our reporter: “…we’re used to operating through different vehicles, in the shadows, and I look forward to building a very long-term and secretive relationship with you.”
Self-Driving Uber Car Kills Arizona Woman Crossing Street
March 19th, 2018Update: Police Release Video
The LIDAR system should have easily been able to detect that a pedestrian was in the road. Additionally, despite the difficult lighting situation, an alert human driver probably wouldn’t have hit the woman. A professional driver, trained in defensive driving techniques, almost certainly wouldn’t have hit the woman. The ride-along driver in this case was obviously distracted.
I find it very strange that the AI made no attempt to swerve to avoid the person or slow the vehicle. This could have been a case that showed how autonomous systems can shine in difficult situations…
To me, this looks like both the human driver and Uber’s self-drive system are to blame for this death.
I drove for FedEx for five years. All couriers have to be internally certified for the road by a FedEx defensive driving specialist. Decades later, I still drive the way I was taught at FedEx and have avoided many serious accidents using the techniques (especially in NZ, which has the worst drivers I’ve ever encountered anywhere in the world). If this accident had happened with a FedEx driver behind the wheel, FedEx would have assigned blame to the driver. No doubt about it. Show the video of what happened to any FedEx driver or ground ops manager and ask them if the company would call this “Preventable” or “Not Preventable”? Definitely, 100% preventable.
Via: Engadget:
The Tempe Police department has released video (warning: this video may be disturbing to some) taken by the interior and exterior cameras of the Uber SUV that struck and killed a woman, Elaine Herzberg, on Sunday night. The video shows the immediate moments before the crash, and the police said that the Vehicular Crimes Unit is actively investigating.
Based on the video, it appears that the victim had already walked across one lane on that side of the street with her bike, but was in the shadows until the car reached her. Inside, the human safety driver looks down toward her lap, and looks up just before the crash, appearing to be surprised. It’s difficult to tell in the grainy black and white view exactly how much any driver would be able to see and when. Still, it seems like a self-driving car’s LIDAR sensors should have been able to pick up the presence and motion of a pedestrian even if she went into the street away from a crosswalk.
—
Update: Tempe Police Chief Says Early Probe Shows No Fault by Uber
Via: San Francisco Chronicle:
Pushing a bicycle laden with plastic shopping bags, a woman abruptly walked from a center median into a lane of traffic and was struck by a self-driving Uber operating in autonomous mode.
“The driver said it was like a flash, the person walked out in front of them,” said Sylvia Moir, police chief in Tempe, Ariz., the location for the first pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car. “His first alert to the collision was the sound of the collision.”
—
Via: Reuters:
An Uber self-driving car hit and killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona, police said on Monday, marking the first fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle and a potential blow to the technology expected to transform transportation.
The ride services company said it was suspending North American tests of its self-driving vehicles, which are currently going on in Arizona, Pittsburgh and Toronto.
…
Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking outside the crosswalk on a four-lane road in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe about 10 p.m. MST Sunday (0400 GMT Monday) when she was struck by the Uber vehicle, police said. The car was in autonomous mode with an operator behind the wheel.
Herzberg later died from her injuries in a hospital, police said.
Two Weeks Before His Death, Hawking Submitted a Paper on Parallel Universes
March 19th, 2018I still miss Walter and the gang from Fringe.
Via: ScienceAlert:
Stephen Hawking submitted the final version of his last scientific paper just two weeks before he died, and it lays the theoretical groundwork for discovering a parallel universe.
Hawking, who passed away on Wednesday aged 76, was co-author to a mathematical paper which seeks proof of the “multiverse” theory, which posits the existence of many universes other than our own.
The paper, called “A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation”, had its latest revisions approved on March 4, ten days before Hawking’s death.
According to The Sunday Times newspaper, the paper is due to be published by an unnamed “leading journal” after a review is complete.
ArXiv.org, Cornell University website which tracks scientific papers before they are published, has a record of the paper including the March 2018 update.
According to The Sunday Times, the contents of the paper sets out the mathematics necessary for a deep-space probe to collect evidence which might prove that other universes exist.
The highly theoretical work posits that evidence of the multiverse should be measurable in background radiation dating to the beginning of time. This in turn could be measured by a deep-space probe with the right sensors on-board.
