Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity
September 18th, 2020Via: University of Chicago:
Our smartphones enable—and encourage—constant connection to information, entertainment, and each other. They put the world at our fingertips, and rarely leave our sides. Although these devices have immense potential to improve welfare, their persistent presence may come at a cognitive cost. In this research, we test the “brain drain” hypothesis that the mere presence of one’s own smartphone may occupy limited-capacity cognitive resources, thereby leaving fewer resources available for other tasks and undercutting cognitive performance. Results from two experiments indicate that even when people are successful at maintaining sustained attention—as when avoiding the temptation to check their phones—the mere presence of these devices reduces available cognitive capacity. Moreover, these cognitive costs are highest for those highest in smartphone dependence. We conclude by discussing the practical implications of this smartphone-induced brain drain for consumer decision-making and consumer welfare.
The Japanese Military Is Now Officially Tracking UFOs
September 18th, 2020Via: Popular Mechanics:
Japan’s Defense Minister has unveiled guidelines for Japanese defense personnel that experience UFO sightings. The guidelines state that members of the Japan Self Defense Forces should record any UFOs they observe so the Defense Ministry can study the evidence. The new rules come just a month after the U.S. Department of Defense issued similar protocols.
Japan’s Defense Minister, Taro Kono, issued the instructions this week. According to NHK, the Self Defense Forces will make reports “…if anyone spots an unidentifiable object in the air that could affect the country’s defense and security.” The guidelines also urge “all-out efforts to take photos or videos of the object to carry out necessary analysis.”
Facebook Accused of Watching Instagram Users Through Cameras
September 18th, 2020Via: Bloomberg:
Facebook Inc. is again being sued for allegedly spying on Instagram users, this time through the unauthorized use of their mobile phone cameras.
The lawsuit springs from media reports in July that the photo-sharing app appeared to be accessing iPhone cameras even when they weren’t actively being used.
Facebook denied the reports and blamed a bug, which it said it was correcting, for triggering what it described as false notifications that Instagram was accessing iPhone cameras.
Google Proposes New Campus Billed as a ‘Neighborhood’ with Homes, Shops and Parks
September 17th, 2020I’m sure that this wouldn’t be creepy at all. In fact, I’m doubleplus sure.
Via: SF Gate:
Google wants to build a new corporate campus in Mountain View, California, aiming to develop a 40-acre site with a mix of office buildings, housing, shops and public spaces.
The plan, unveiled Tuesday, would expand the company’s presence in its hometown, where its sprawling Googleplex headquarters is already located, about 40 miles south of San Francisco. Google said the new site would include more than 1 million square feet of office space, 30,000 square feet of retail and active use space, and up to 1,850 residential units.
Amazon Plans to Put 1,000 Warehouses in Suburban Neighborhoods
September 17th, 2020Amazon wants landlords to pre-wire apartments with Alexa. How about if they just cut to the chase and build Amazon Burbclaves.
Via: Bloomberg:
Amazon.com Inc. plans to open 1,000 small delivery hubs in cities and suburbs all over the U.S., according to people familiar with the plans. The facilities, which will eventually number about 1,500, will bring products closer to customers, making shopping online about as fast as a quick run to the store. It will also help the world’s largest e-commerce company take on a resurgent Walmart Inc.
“You Are Not Anonymous On Tor”
September 17th, 2020Via: The Hacker Factor Blog:
Last February, my Tor onion service came under a huge Tor-based distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. I spent days analyzing the attack, developing mitigation options, and defending my server. (The Tor service that I run for the Internet Archive was down for a few hours, but I managed to keep it up and running through most of the attack.)
While trying to find creative ways to keep the service up, I consulted a group of friends who are very active in the network incident response field. Some of these are the people who warn the world about new network attacks. Others are very experienced at tracking down denial-of-service attacks and their associated command-and-control (C&C) servers. I asked them if they could help me find the source of the attack. “Sure,” they replied. They just needed my IP address.
I read off the address: “152 dot” and they repeated back “152 dot”. “19 dot” “19 dot” and then they told me the rest of the network address. (I was stunned.) Tor is supposed to be anonymous. You’re not supposed to know the IP address of a hidden service. But they knew. They had been watching the Tor-based DDoS. They had a list of the hidden service addresses that were being targeted by the attack. They just didn’t know that this specific address was mine.
As it turns out, this is an open secret among the internet service community: You are not anonymous on Tor.
Alan Jones on Resignation of Victorian Department of Finance and Treasury Economist Sanjeev Sabhlok: “This Virus Is Not a Pandemic”
September 17th, 2020Via: Sky News Australia:
Related: Victorian Government Economist Quits in Protest of Dan Andrews’ ‘Police State’
Armed Militias in Louisville
September 17th, 2020Via: ITV News:
From Blue Shirts to Brown
September 16th, 2020Via: Off-Guardian:
And here we get to the crux of the SARS-CoV-2 scam. Sure, there’s a virus out there. It’s real and it certainly kills people but we know enough about it now to know that the draconian response taken by Premier Danial Andrews is scientifically indefensible. So why is he persisting with the lockdowns?
My personal opinion is that the global program of lockdowns is a mechanism for reorganizing societies around the world along the lines of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset” agenda and all that this entails. It seems Daniel Andrews is fully on board with this agenda. But make no mistake, its coming to your state and country next.
RAND Study Uncovers Massive Income Shift to Top 1%
September 16th, 2020The median worker should be making as much as $102,000 annually—if some $2.5 trillion wasn’t being “reverse distributed” every year away from the working class.
Via: FastCompany:
Just how far has the working class been left behind by the winner-take-all economy? A new analysis by the RAND Corporation examines what rising inequality has cost Americans in lost income—and the results are stunning.
A full-time worker whose taxable income is at the median—with half the population making more and half making less—now pulls in about $50,000 a year. Yet had the fruits of the nation’s economic output been shared over the past 45 years as broadly as they were from the end of World War II until the early 1970s, that worker would instead be making $92,000 to $102,000. (The exact figures vary slightly depending on how inflation is calculated.)
The findings, which land amid a global pandemic, help to illuminate the paradoxes of an economy in which so-called essential workers are struggling to make ends meet while the rich keep getting richer.
“We were shocked by the numbers,” says Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist who came up with the idea for the research along with David Rolf, founder of Local 775 of the Service Employees International Union and president of the Fair Work Center in Seattle. “It explains almost everything. It explains why people are so pissed off. It explains why they are so economically precarious.”
