Hot Topics

“Rushing” Toward The U.S. Border

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AP reports, “Caravan migrants break Guatemala border fence, rush Mexico.”  ‘Rushing Mexico‘?  Well, I suppose.  However, that choice of a word typically has more of a “sporting flavor” rather than the out and out assault or invasion that it actually is. One can always count on the AP for PC-Politically Correct reporting.  Like Mike Rowe says, “It’s a Dirty Job, that someone has to do.”  And do it,  the AP does.  No sense in using a WORD like attack, charge, invade, assail, storm, or maybe assault when little old rush would do.

Migrants traveling in a mass caravan burst through a Guatemalan border fence and streamed by the thousands toward Mexican territory on Friday, defying Mexican authorities’ entreaties for an orderly crossing and U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of retaliation.

On the Mexican side of a border bridge, they were met by a phalanx of police with riot shields. About 50 managed to push their way through before officers unleashed pepper spray and the rest retreated.

The gates were closed again, and police used a loudspeaker to address the masses, saying, “We need you to stop the aggression.”

Going, Going, Disappeared – Facebook Justice, Saudi Style

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The Wall Street Journal reports, “Saudis Weigh Saying Journalist Was Killed by Mistake.”

Riyadh is considering issuing a statement saying that rogue operatives killed Khashoggi by mistake during an interrogation gone wrong

On Monday, Saudi officials were considering whether to say rogue operatives killed Jamal Khashoggi during an interrogation gone wrong, people familiar with the matter said, a move that could help the royal family distance itself from responsibility.

We don’t think Zuckerberg has retained an on-call “bone sawing” expert, yet. At least, not that we know of.

Getting Ready To Fight Big Data

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This is your ghillie suit for taking the fight to the Masters of the Universe.

From the Business Insider, “This photo shows that even Mark Zuckerberg is paranoid about his privacy.”

But the photo has taken new meaning after Zuckerberg apologized on Wednesday for a scandal in which British data company Cambridge Analytica, which has ties to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, illicitly obtained information from as many as 50 million Facebook profiles by abusing Facebook’s data-sharing features.

From the Instagram photo, it’s clear that Zuckerberg takes his own personal privacy very seriously.

Google After “Don’t Be Evil”

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If you are a conservative wondering what happened to your web traffic and search engine ranking, this probably doesn’t come as a surprise.  From ZDNet, “Google erases ‘Don’t be evil’ from code of conduct after 18 years“.

As spotted by Gizmodo, the phrase was dropped from the preface of Google’s code of conduct in late April or early May.

Until then, ‘Don’t be evil’ were the first words of the opening and closing sentences of Google’s code of conduct and have been part of it since 2000.

“The Google Code of Conduct is one of the ways we put ‘Don’t be evil’ into practice. It’s built around the recognition that everything we do in connection with our work at Google will be, and should be, measured against the highest possible standards of ethical business conduct.”

Poof! Google disappeared the concept of not being evil.  Now they just have “[a high bar] for practical as well as aspirational reasons.”  I’m not so sure that is very reassuring.

Do Be Like The Hummingbird and Leave Your Smartphone Behind

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From Vice, “Your Phone Is Listening and it’s Not Paranoia.”

It seemed like just a spooky coincidence, but then everyone seems to have a story about their smartphone listening to them. So is this just paranoia, or are our smartphones actually listening?

According to Dr. Peter Henway—The senior security consultant for cybersecurity firm Asterix, and former lecturer and researcher at Edith Cowan University—the short answer is yes, but perhaps in a way that’s not as diabolical as it sounds.

Seals and Crofts – “Hummingbird”