In today's episode of "Life in the 15 Minute Smart City!" We glimpse into a small flat/pod…where everything is connected by SMART devices. pic.twitter.com/N0MhVueqD3
— The Investigative Examiners (@TruthorConseq12) February 1, 2023
Big Brother’s at it again….
Tasking a military unit with essentially spying on your nation’s citizens is not something to be scoffed at. And this from an allegedly conservative government. One can only wonder what other governments around the world were getting up to at that time.
A shadowy Army unit secretly spied on British citizens who criticised the Government’s Covid lockdown policies, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. They compiled dossiers on public figures such as ex-Minister David Davis, who questioned the modelling behind alarming death toll predictions, as well as journalists such as Peter Hitchens and Toby Young. Their dissenting views were then reported back to No 10.
The information was then used to orchestrate Government responses to criticisms of policies such as the stay-at-home order, when police were given power to issue fines and break up gatherings. It also allowed Ministers to push social media platforms to remove posts and promote Government-approved lines.
Julia Hartley-Brewer was another prominent target.
I, For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords
John Robb; (paywalled, but this much should do.)
ChatGPT and a handful of other social AIs are making a big splash. They are unreasonably good at many tasks and are already used to generate real-world work. However, these systems didn’t get this good based on the code written by the people building them. They got this good by using data strip-mined from the Web — social networking posts, images, etc. — and by employing low-paid ‘AI Turks.’ Recently, it was disclosed that ChatGPT is employing workers in Kenya, making $2 an hour, to train the system (currently valued at $29 billion and climbing fast).
Robb is a good follow.
Related: ChatGPT CAN pass US Medical Licensing Exam and the Bar…
Let That Sink In
The Twitter Files: Twitter and the FBI “Belly Button”
11.The GEC report appeared based on DHS data circulated earlier that week, and included accounts that followed “two or more” Chinese diplomatic accounts. They reportedly ended up with a list “nearly 250,000” names long, and included Canadian officials and a CNN account: pic.twitter.com/GYi4YuPdyu
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
Cleaning House
I still think Elon paid $43 billion too much for Twitter, but on balance his efforts to de-woke the platform, among other measures, are something to be applauded.
Musk added to the controversy with his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, the money-bleeding social media platform. He said he did this to protect free speech and has exposed, with independent reporters’ investigations of the Twitter Files, a large government effort to control and suppress speech on significant issues through Twitter, such as Hunter Biden’s laptop and Covid information.
The cultural acceptance of the government’s violation of the First Amendment and cajoling Twitter to shadow ban or remove tweets that don’t align the government’s version of the truth, stems from universities that indoctrinate their students into believing that they are not capable of thinking for themselves, there is no absolute truth, and that they need the government to arbitrate the truth and tell them what to think.
Chairman Cook
Ve Ave Vays
Reclaim The Net- Dutch finance minister proposes increased financial surveillance
Dutch minister of finance Sigrid Kaag is pushing for the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the Netherlands and the passing of a law requiring banks to monitor all transactions above 100 euro, GB News reported.
The European Central Bank is also pushing for a digital euro. But critics warn that CBDCs can be used to track and monitor citizens, potentially violating some civil liberties.
Imitating China
The Telegraph- The EU’s biometric power-grab is sinister and grotesque
If you’re planning to escape to a chateau next summer, brace yourself for pointless chaos and travel disruption, thanks to the EU’s latest Orwellian move to demand holiday-makers’ biometric data at its borders. Brits hopping across the Channel will first have their fingerprints and photos taken. The new mass data-gathering scheme, which will go live in May, is part of the evolution of a so-called “Smart Border”.
Ethics of Emergencies
It’s a bit late in the game for the left-wing corporate media to start noticing items like this, but perhaps it’s an indication that support for such measures is thankfully dwindling.
Since day one of the pandemic, anyone who questioned the usefulness or cost of ArriveCan was met with a blizzard of condemnation along the lines of “How dare you put a price on saving lives!”.
Canadian tech leaders who have built apps for large corporate clients have described Ottawa’s $54-million price tag for ArriveCan as outrageous, explaining that in their experience, most apps are built for less than $1-million.
They also question why the government did not turn directly to a Canadian app developer rather than 23 separate contractors and an unknown number of additional subcontractors.
We Said, No Talking
Zerohedge- VPN Usage Surges Amid Protests, Conflict, & War In 2022
In Iran, demand for VPN downloads increased by more than 3000 percent in September, according to TopVPN100.com.
Yet, other countries too have seen surges this year. For instance, Sri Lanka saw a 17,000 percent increase in VPN downloads on April 3 2022, when social media platforms Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp were banned.
The internet blackout came as the government enforced a curfew, attempting to keep protesters from hitting the streets over a disastrous economic downturn, mainly attributed to governmental mishandling, which led to major food and fuel shortages.
“China’s Chew Toy”
Globe and Mail- Why are Chinese police operating in Canada, while our own government and security services apparently look the other way?
This is an outrage. Chinese police setting up offices in Canada, then “persuading” alleged criminals to return to the motherland to face “justice” – while our own government and security services apparently choose to look the other way – represents a gross violation of Canada’s national sovereignty, international law and the norms of diplomacy. China is extending the grip of its Orwellian police state into this country, with seemingly no worry about being confronted by our own national security agencies.
ArriveCan’t
Our app is more important than your emergency. It keeps you “safe”.
Global- Feds deny Nova Scotia’s claim that ArriveCAN delayed U.S. Fiona assistance
The Nova Scotia premier’s office had told Global News earlier Sunday that power crews from Maine were delayed at the border due to the app. In a subsequent phone call following the federal government’s denial, the premier’s office stood by the allegation.