UK cybersecurity group supports Amazon and Apple's denial of Chinese hacking charge

A recent Bloomberg article claimed that 17 unnamed intelligence and company sources reported that Chinese spies had placed computer chips inside equipment used by about 30 companies as well as numerous US government agencies.

The charges

The article is by Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley who quote Joe Grand a hardware hacker and founder of Grand Idea Studio Inc who said: “Having a well-done, nation-state-level hardware implant surface would be like witnessing a unicorn jumping over a rainbow. Hardware is just so far off the radar, it’s almost treated like black magic.”

Yet the two authors claim:But that’s just what U.S. investigators found: The chips had been inserted during the manufacturing process, two officials say, by operatives from a unit of the People’s Liberation Army. In Supermicro, China’s spies appear to have found a perfect conduit for what U.S. officials now describe as the most significant supply chain attack known to have been carried out against American companies. One official says investigators found that it eventually affected almost 30 companies, including a major bank, government contractors, and the world’s most valuable company, Apple Inc. Apple was an important Supermicro customer and had planned to order more than 30,000 of its servers in two years for a new global network of data centers. Three senior insiders at Apple say that in the summer of 2015, it, too, found malicious chips on Supermicro motherboards. Apple severed ties with Supermicro the following year, for what it described as unrelated reasons.Notice there is not a single identified source. All are anonymous. Yet the story is widely repeated as if it is true. The appended video by Bloomberg does not ask the journalist any critical questions about sources. Not a single source is available to confirm or deny the evidence presented.

Amazon's response

Bloomberg printed Amazon's response: "It’s untrue that AWS knew about a supply chain compromise, an issue with malicious chips, or hardware modifications when acquiring Elemental. It’s also untrue that AWS knew about servers containing malicious chips or modifications in data centers based in China, or that AWS worked with the FBI to investigate or provide data about malicious hardware." AWS is Amazon Web Services.

Bloomberg replies that the denials are countered by six current and former senior national security officers who in conversations that began in the Obama administration and continued under Trump gave details on the discovery of the chips and the government investigation. Bloomberg continued: "One of those officials and two people inside AWS provided extensive information on how the attack played out at Elemental and Amazon; the official and one of the insiders also described Amazon’s cooperation with the government investigation. .. The sources were granted anonymity because of the sensitive, and in some cases classified, nature of the information."

Note that some of the information is said to be classified. In other words someone leaked classified information to the two reporters. Why? Was it to discredit China but also to make sure that the information could not be verified? There is all sorts of detail that makes the story sound credible but of course there is no way of checking the detail to see if it is correct, No doubt the Trump administration will not talk about the talks if they exist and would likely neither confirm or deny them to suggest that they are indeed taking place without actually committing to this being so.

Apple's response

Apple's statement also printed by Bloomberg: "Over the course of the past year, Bloomberg has contacted us multiple times with claims, sometimes vague and sometimes elaborate, of an alleged security incident at Apple. Each time, we have conducted rigorous internal investigations based on their inquiries and each time we have found absolutely no evidence to support any of them. We have repeatedly and consistently offered factual responses, on the record, refuting virtually every aspect of Bloomberg’s story relating to Apple."

Bloomberg claims that three Apple insiders, four of the six US officials confirmed that Apple was a victim. In all 17 people confirmed the manipulation of Supermicro's hardware and other elements of the attack. Of course, the identities of all 17 people, including the three Bloomberg and four senior US officials are not revealed. Instead of giving any independent evidence Bloomberg simply repeats the narrative that the two companies deny.

SuperMicro

SuperMicro responded to the story: "While we would cooperate with any government investigation, we are not aware of any investigation regarding this topic nor have we been contacted by any government agency in this regard. We are not aware of any customer dropping Supermicro as a supplier for this type of issue." Again the Bloomberg response is just to rely on their story and their sources which remain anonymous. There is no independent evidence that those sources are telling the truth. Imagine if SuperMicro's defence began by citing anonymous senior officials say that there was no investigation. We cannot say who they are because the information is too sensitive or classified,

The UK National Cyber Security Centre response

The Centre said that it had no reason to doubt the assessments made by Apple Inc. and Amazon Inc. a position that challenges the Bloomberg report that both companies had systems incorporating computer chips inserted by the Chinese intelligence services.

The Centre is a unit of Britain's eavesdropping agency GCHQ. The Centre said:“We are aware of the media reports but at this stage have no reason to doubt the detailed assessments made by AWS and Apple. The NCSC engages confidentially with security researchers and urges anybody with credible intelligence about these reports to contact us.”

So even a major fellow security agency knows nothing about this investigation even though it has been going on for years.

Bloomberg has not taken back anything that it has said as evidenced in the appended video. The report has no doubt harmed Apple and Amazon as well as making serious allegations against China that have no way of being confirmed. Was the article specifically designed to ensure that US companies will avoid Chinese hardware?

Previously published in Digital Journal

Over last 6 years more than 250 people have died taking selfies

A report by researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a group of medical colleges in New Delhi, shows that over 250 people worldwide died while taking selfies just over the last six years.

Taking selfies can be dangerous

The group analyzed news reports of the 259 selfie-related deaths during the period October 2011 to November 2017. The results were published in the July-August edition of the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.

The leading cause of death was drowning, followed by incidents that involved transportation and included such instances as falling from heights into water and taking a selfie in front of an oncoming train. Other causes included animals, firearms, and electrocution.

Agam Bansai, the lead author of the study said:“The selfie deaths have become a major public health problem.” India had more people die taking selfies than anywhere else on the globe.

Many other countries also had deaths from taking selfies

In addition to India reports of selfie incidents resulting in death have also come from Russia the United States and Pakistan as well as many other countries. Bansal remarked that the simple act of taking a selfie is not in itself dangerous the problem is that people try to take the perfect shot in dangerous circumstances. Bansal was concerned that many of the fatal selfies involved young people with more than 85 percent of those killed being between 10 and 30 years old. Bansai also suggested that there may be many more deaths that were not reported that are not included in the survey.

In May of this year a man in India tried to take a selfie with a wounded bear which mauled him to death.

American incidents

Just last Sept. 5 ABC news reported that an 18-year old hiker died after falling off a cliff according to the National Park Service.

The teen was identified as Turner Frankfurter a Jerusalem resident according to the Israeli foreign ministry. The boy's mother said that he slipped while trying to take a selfie at the edge of Nevada Fall.

A California woman slipped and fell to her death while taking selfies at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Tu Nguyen was hiking alone on the North Country Trail and paused to take selfies near a 200-foot cliff edge that overlooked Lake Superior. She slipped and took a fatal fall into the lake.

How to prevent fatal selfies

Bansai noted that setting up "no selfie zones" could help prevent fatal selfie incidents. Areas with cliffs near bodies of water, mountain peaks, and the tops of tall buildings would be good candidates.

India, Russia, and Indonesia along with other countries have already made attempts to keep people from taking dangerous selfies.

Just three years ago, Russia had a "Safe Selfie" camp with the slogan: “Even a million ‘likes’ on social media are not worth your life and well-being."

In Mumbai India the city declared 16 "no selfie zones" after a series of selfie-related death. In Indonesia a national park announced it would create a safe spot for photos after a hiker had died while taking a selfie.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Amazon to raise wages of 250,000 minimum wage workers to $15 dollars an hour

Amazon will raise the wages of over 250,000 minimum wage employees to $15 an hour. This is more than twice the present federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The wage hike goes into effect on November 1.

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Walmart's wage hike resulted in increased sales

In February of 2016 Walmart raised its minimum wage to ten dollars an hour for more than a million employees. While this is nowhere near the jump that Amazon wages are taking, it seems to have helped boost sales.

Walmart CEO Greg Foran claimed that the raise allowed more employees to purchase more items at their stores. Since the increase, wages have been raised another dollar an hour. Foran told reporters who asked if sales were better than expected: "The simple answer is yes, we are seeing improved associate purchasing in our stores. Associates are feeling more engaged."

The Walmart raise was discussed in a recent Business Insider story.

Raise may help Amazon sales during crucial holiday season

Both Amazon and Walmart have been criticized for treatment of their employees and for poor working conditions.Senator Bernie Sanders who has been a strong critic of Amazon praised the company's move. Critics had pointed out that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had a net worth of $150 billion while paying his workers the minimum wage. The big salary boost may help sales, about half of which were in the holiday season last year.

While it is not certain if the Amazon sales will rise as a result of the wage boost, it seems likely as there will be 250,000 more employees with more money in their pocket just before Christmas.

Raise at Costco also boosted sales

Costco is another company that raised its minimum wage earlier this year, up to $14 an hour. The company has also seen an increase in sales.

Any increase in sales will likely help offset any possible decrease in profits due to the wage increases. It could be a win-win situation for both Amazon and its employees. However, poor working conditions remain a problem needing to be solved.

Previously published in Digital Journal

New "NAFTA" deal is still a big bargain for huge corporations

The new NAFTA deal is called the USMCA, the United States Mexico Canada free trade agreement. The deal contains several changes to the original NAFTA, of varying importance for the countries involved.

Plus factors in the new agreement

There are two major advantages to the new agreement according to Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians: the Chapter 11 state dispute mechanism, which allows corporations to sue states, and the energy proportionality provision which guarantees a certain amount of energy exports to the US are both absent from the new agreement.

Marlow said: "This is a major victory for the many groups and individuals who sounded the alarm on how these dangerous provisions affect our ability to protect the public interest and the environment. Our movement should be very proud. But as always, we should be vigilant about the rest of the agreement, which was hatched in order to erase rules, and help out big business."

Canadian objectives in negotiations were discussed in a pervious Digital Journal article. It was not listed as an objective to remove the proportionality provisions. It may be that since Mexico was exempted from the provisions and they are not in the new agreement with Mexico that they should not be in the Canada agreement.

The U.S. is now much more energy self-sufficient and also the demand for fossil fuels may soon decrease so perhaps it was not thought necessary even though it could be of great benefit to the U.S.

Dairy Provisions break promises made by the Liberals

One of the priorities that was in the original list of Canadian objectives was to protect the supply management system used to produce dairy and some other products in Canada. The changes will have a considerable effect in the province of Quebec and may hurt Liberals both in provincial and federal elections.

But even Mike Southwood, general manager of Alberta Milk in the west, complained of the new provisions. He noted that dairy producers had already given up ground in the Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Having already sold out the farmers twice it was not surprising that the U.S. demanded the Canadian government do so again.

Southwood pointed out that with more access to Canadian markets for U.S. companies, processing jobs will be lost and quota on dairy farms across Canada will be reduced. Barlow claimed that under the deal Canadians would not be getting local, fresh, hormone-free milk.

Other negative features of the deal

A recent Rabble article notes: "In Article 32.10 Canada agreed not to negotiate commercial agreements with non-market countries. That would be China. Should Canada decide to sign a trade agreement with China, the non-market country, it would be booted out of USMCA. For trade expert Peter Clark this amounts to Canada being treated as a vassal state by the U.S."

Chapter 33 is entitled "Macroeconomic Policies and Exchange Rate Matters". Canada will now sit down with the US whenever they think that our dollar is too low and we will be accused of currency manipulation. There goes the independence of our Central Bank. According to Rabble, Canada's macroeconomic policy, government spending and taxation would need to be coordinated with the U.S.

Federal Crown corporations which have often been a key to Canadian economic development in some areas under Chapter 22 of the new deal become State-Owned Enterprises. Their activities are to be restricted to non-competition with private sector companies. Forget any new policies such as public auto insurance except in areas where private companies can find no profit so do not compete. Forget launching a public company to build public transit vehicles. There are even penalties spelled out for non-compliance. The neo-conservative free enterprise ideology is being enforced as a gain to global corporate domination of the economy.

The new deal also gives a two year extension on biologic drugs and this will prevent lower cost generic drugs from entering the market. This will make it difficult for Liberals to keep their promise of a national pharmacare program.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Union-busting trial of Tesla may be a challenge to Silicon Valley

While unions are generally weak in the U.S., in the auto sector there are still strong unions. Tesla is an auto maker but also a key tech firm. The tech sector and Silicon Valley firms are almost free of unions except for a few contract workers.

Car makers have unions but tech companies do not

Musk has always run Tesla as a tech company. Tesla has done a complete redesign of cars and also of the factory workflow. There have been sudden changes in the firm and lots of investment but so far no profit. The cars themselves are high tech. The company can push over the air updates to the software in the car and totally change how it works. Unfortunately, they are also hackable. But they are still basically cars and are used just as conventional fossil-fuel powered cars are,

Tech companies are anti-union

The co-founder of Intel said that remaining non-union was essential for the survival of most tech companies. Companies often paid well and provided employees with perks and benefit packages designed to keep workers happy and feeling they were perhaps better off without a union. Kevin Roose wrote in 2013 the difference between Noyes and present tech entrepreneurs is that at present tech bosses think that unions should not exist anywhere: " When it comes to supporting traditional, UAW-style unions, though, the truth is that Silicon Valley is probably beyond reach. This generation’s tech moguls have gone far beyond Noyce’s claim that the technology industry should be free of those kinds of slow-moving, collective-bargaining organizations. Frequently, they now think every industry should be."

Several prominent venture capitalists have criticized unions. Steve Jobs maintained that the problem with modern schools were teachers' unions. Tech industry space billionaire Jeff Bezos and Amazon head Elon Musk both operate large tech companies that employ large relatively unskilled labor forces. Amazon showed its workers a 45 minute anti-union video part of which said: “We do not believe unions are in the best interest of our customers, our shareholders, or most importantly, our associates. Our business model is built upon speed, innovation, and customer obsession—things that are generally not associated with union. When we lose sight of those critical focus areas we jeopardize everyone’s job security: yours, mine, and the associates’.”

Auto manufacturers have long been unionized

Car companies in the US and elsewhere have been unionized for ages as a New York Times article put it: "Prodded by its once-powerful and socially conscious union, the auto industry served as the 20th-century trailblazer in spreading prosperity to millions of workers and their families and fostering middle-class security through higher wages and company-sponsored benefits.."

The United Auto Workers was formed way back in 1935. GM has been unionized since 1937, Ford since 1941. While union strength has dwindled as foreign competitors challenged the big three and union power generally was weakened in the US with the rise of globalization, unions still prevail in the auto manufacturing area even in the US. The auto workers union has been trying for years to organize at Tesla as it is after all a company that makes cars however high tech they are.

Tesla and Elon Musk resist unionization

In 2017 Tesla factory worker Jose Moran posted on Medium that long hours of work at Tesla stressed the bodies of workers. He also pointed out that Tesla pay was lower than that of other auto manufacturers. He urged workers to unionize. He also claimed that a confidentiality policy workers were required to sign frightened people and quashed unionization. Musk answered in an email claiming that the UAW did not share the Tesla mission. He said that the true allegiance of the UAW would not be to Tesla but the giant automakers from whom the union derived much more in dues than they would ever get from Tesla workers. One wonders then why the UAW would bother trying to unionize Tesla at all.

There is strong evidence of Musk's anti-union stance in some of his tweets. In May he tweeted: “Why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?” The UAW complained to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) the next day.

Tesla is accused of breaking federal law to restrict organizing, as well as retaliating against pro-union workers. The trial started in June but ran only a few days before a gap, The trial was based upon an August 2017 complaint by the NLRB that Tesla was involved in illegal union busting. NLRB lawyers contend that one worker was fired and another warned after union involvement,

At the trial in Oakland California Moran testified that Musk told both him and a co-worker that representation from the UAW would mean that they would not really have a voice that only the UAW not the workers would have a voice. The next day there was testimony to the effect that the head of Tesla's human resources, Gaby Toledano was sent emails that discussed promoting Moran and a second union supporter so they could not continue working to unionize staff. Toledano has since left Tesla. The following day Tesla manager Josh Hedges testified that the company would not hire people who would not sign a confidentiality agreement as the company feared leaks. The NLRB claims that this illegally restricts workers' rights. Hedges is also leaving the company as of October 5. If found guilty no doubt Tesla will appeal.

Tech workers have expressed anger at how their products are used

Some tech workers have complained not so much as to their everyday working conditions but about their lack of control over how what they produce is used. 3,000 workers at Google signed a letter protesting the company's involvement in processing drone imagery for the Pentagon. Another 1,400 Googlers protested a possible censored search engine for China. More than 100 Microsoft employees signed a letter protesting the company's work with the US Immigration and Customs enforcement.

There are several groups attempting to organize engineers so that they can advocate for change. The change they want is some control over what they make and who it is used by. While at present the anti-union forces may be in some disarray there seems a divergence of interests between those such as the engineers whose basic working conditions are well enough looked after and those less-skilled on assembly line type jobs whose pay is low and working conditions are poor.

A recent article concludes: "If Tesla’s tactics are found to be illegal, and the company is punished, the burgeoning union movement in tech will be strengthened; if the company’s tactics are okayed, that’s a blow to unionization elsewhere. Tesla might be a car company, but it’s also a tech company — and if its workers can unionize, tech workers elsewhere are bound to start getting ideas. Likely, the pro-union Whole Foods workers are watching the Tesla trial closely." Whole Foods is owned by Amazon.

What could help unionization in the tech area is if skilled relatively well off workers showed solidarity with the demands of unskilled workers whom tech companies have yet to treat as valuable assets to be given reasonable salaries and improved working conditions as are the engineers.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Electric cars and floods

After Hurricane Florence dumped more than two feet of rain in parts of North Carolina people may be wondering what happens to electric cars (EV) in floods and afterwards. This is of particular concern to EV owners.

Flood damage to an electric car depends upon conditions

Different people gave different answers.

You Tube user Rich Rebuilds, rebuilt a Tesla Model S he bought for $14,000 that had been flooded by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey back in 2012. The entire battery, motor, and all the drive electronics had been sitting in salt water in the bottom 14 inches of the car. The model S was a total insurance loss.

Rich has a multi-part series of his trials and tribulations rebuilding the car. He found he could not buy parts from Tesla and he also discovered that the car was in salt water that would cause much more damage than fresh water. Below I have appended the first part of his series.

When dismantling the car Rich found that after sitting in the salt water, the battery pack was waterlogged. 12 of 16 modules in the pack were OK. However, one of the four that were not, was so corroded that it began exploding as Rich took it apart.

Rich did manage to finally rebuild the Tesla. A bear for punishment, he undertook to repair another one but this one from fresh water and he had less trouble as shown on the appended video. He made sure the fuse was removed so that he would not be exposed to high voltage. Rich has a warning on his videos not to try this at home but leave it to the experts. Do as he says not as he does!

Jeff Wandell, the EV spokesperson for Nissan said that in their EV's the high-voltage components such as the battery, traction motor, and inverter are all waterproof claiming :"So no need to rebuild or replace the battery pack."

One expert said that lithium is highly flammable. When it does catch fire it produces great heat when exposed to water. However, battery cells are usually sealed and water tight. However, it is larger packs and wiring that can become waterlogged and damaged in some cars. Wiring harnesses and electronic circuit boards can be corroded. Even if they work at first, their lifespan can be significantly shortened. Beyond this, electric cars suffer the same sorts of damages from a flood and water than any other car.

How to tell if a car is water damaged

If there has been water in the carpets, seats, seat belts, or other soft parts, mold can develop. This can become a breathing hazard. Damage to cars that have been in salt water is often much greater than in fresh water but both are damaging.

When buying an EV that may have been subject to flood damage check the seat tracks, also the head of hidden screws under the dash to see if there is corrosion. Look under the carpets, and behind taillights for muddy residue which are sure signs that the car has been submerged.

Special arrangements for EV's during hurricane Florence

The mass evacuations caused by Florence create special difficulties for those with EVs, especially older models that have a relatively short range. These may require several charges before they are out of danger of the huge hurricane. Chargers on the way out of the area may become crowded and the hurricane force winds and rains may make some of them inoperable.

Lanny Hartmann a Baltimore Maryland EV enthusiast devoted part of his EV website, PluginSites.org to helping evacuees with EVs while the storm lasted. His site included storm advisories, news reports, and reports of places where evacuees could stay, as well as special information to help EV owners evacuating.

One such piece of information was a notice from Tesla that said: "We are temporarily enabling your car to access additional battery capacity, as well as free Supercharging, in preparation for Hurricane Florence. We hope that this gives you the peace of mind to get to a safe location, and will notify you before returning your car to its original configuration in mid-October. Badging on your display may adjust during this period. Safe travels!"

Previously published in Digital Journal

Firefox Monitor will alert users if any of their accounts have been hacked

Mozilla, the creator of Firefox, announced earlier this year the Firefox Monitor. This service tells users if their online accounts were hacked.

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The Firefox Monitor

All the user need do is provide the Monitor with your email address. The Monitor uses the Have I Been Pwned database to show you if you need to worry and what data has been compromised if any has. Today Mozilla went further by letting you sign up to have alerts when your accounts appear in any known breaches. When it was initially launched the Firefox Monitor was considered an experimental service but now it is being recognized as an official service.

Even if none of your accounts have yet to be hacked you still will find the alert feature of the Monitor useful since the chances are that sooner or later your email address will show up in the database of breaches. When Mozilla first asked what they wanted in Monitor notifications about future breaches was of high importance on most users" lists.

The Monitor alert service is just one of several new data and privacy features that the organization plans to add over the next few months. Mozilla came up with a much revamped and revised Firefox 57 version last November as discussed in a Digital Journal article at the time.

The new version is faster than its rival Chrome.

Firefox announces that it will soon by default block any attempts at cross-site tracking

The move was announced in August and there are three parts to the strategy. First, in version 63 which is in the testing phase Firefox will block all slow-loading trackers. Ads are the biggest offender in this category. These are trackers that take more than five seconds to load.

When Firefox 65 rolls out the browser will strip out all cookies and block all storage access from third party trackers. Mozilla is also working on blocking cryptomining scrips and trackers that fingerprint users. The timing of these changes will depend upon how tests work out.

Nick Nguyen of Mozilla writes: “In the physical world, users wouldn’t expect hundreds of vendors to follow them from store to store, spying on the products they look at or purchase. Users have the same expectations of privacy on the web, and yet in reality, they are tracked wherever they go. Most web browsers fail to help users get the level of privacy they expect and deserve.”

You can try the new features by downloading and installing the unstable Firefox Nightly release. In the privacy settings you can find the new tracker blocking feature under the "Content Blocking". The browser explains how it all works. Safari users may find all this fuss about the new privacy features a bit boring since Apple already announced similar features for the browser last year.

Nguyen writes: “Blocking pop-up ads in the original Firefox release was the right move in 2004, because it didn’t just make Firefox users happier, it gave the advertising platforms of the time a reason to care about their users’ experience. In 2018, we hope that our efforts to empower our users will have the same effect."

Chrome still by far the leading browser

According to statcounter the recent market share of browsers puts Chrome far ahead with 59.67 percent while Safari the Apple browser has 14.5 percent. Third is UC with 6.28 and then FIrefox with 4.93. Opera has 3.5 and obsolete Internet Explorer still has 3.03 percent. Over the last year Chrome has been gaining over other browsers. The new Firefox so far does not seem to have gained many new users. With the privacy complaints about the most recent release of Chrome perhaps Firefox will do better.

Previously published in  Digital Journal

Twitter to ban dehumanizing speech

Twitter executives Del Harvey and Vijaya Gadde call the new proposed rules part of a continuing effort to promote healthy conversations on Twitter and limit harms caused by talk on the platform.

Dehumanizing speech

The executive post reads: “Language that makes someone less than human can have repercussions off the service, including normalizing serious violence." Once the new rules come into effect the Twitter Rules will have an added sentence: “You may not dehumanize anyone based on membership in an identifiable group, as this speech can lead to offline harm.”

The post then defines its terms:Dehumanization: Language that treats others as less than human. Dehumanization can occur when others are denied of human qualities (animalistic dehumanization) or when others are denied of human nature (mechanistic dehumanization). Examples can include comparing groups to animals and viruses (animalistic), or reducing groups to their genitalia (mechanistic).

Identifiable group: Any group of people that can be distinguished by their shared characteristics such as their race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, serious disease, occupation, political beliefs, location, or social practices.

Rules overlap with common provision against hate speech and racism

Twitter has had complaints in the past that their rules applied only to race in isolation and certain protected classes. However, the new rules will apply to all groups. The old rules created loopholes that allowed hate speech against black children but not white men. The new rules will also be able to address situations where social networks have fueled racial violence.

Twitter asking for comments on the new rules until October 9th

Twitter is not just relying upon experts in setting forth the new rules but is asking for input from users perhaps in imitation of the US federal rule-making process. Users are asked to submit concerns or "examples of speech that contribute to a healthy conversation but may violate this policy".

The entire statement plus a form for feedback can be found here. On the feedback questions you are limited to 280 characters to reply to questions. After all, this is a Twitter feedback.

Some comments

Should Twitter be trying to encourage healthy conversations or should it just be serving as a platform to encourage conversations, sharing of views, and of links? It may be that in order to avoid lawsuits etc. where there are hate speech laws that Twitter may feel compelled to ban some accounts after warning them first. However, even here if Twitter were more concerned about free speech it would not act until there was some threat from law enforcement authorities to act. It could get legal opinions on a specific issue, not just react to criticism.

Censorship of Twitter

Twitter has to abide by the laws of the countries where it operates. Four countries consider Twitter conversation so unhealthy that they ban Twitter altogether. Twitter is banned in North Korea, China, Iran, and Turkmenistan. Other countries have had occasional bans or blocked specific sites asdiscussed in Wikipedia. After a successful complaint by a government official, companies, or others about an illegal tweet Twitter notifies users in the country that they cannot see it or sometimes the authorities themselves block it. Even where Twitter is banned users find ways to circumvent the ban.

Wikipedia suggests that Twitter also censors itself: "According to the Terms of Service agreed upon by users of Twitter, the web site may suspend accounts, temporarily or permanently, from their social networking service. One such example is on 18 December 2017 where it banned the accounts belonging to Paul Golding, Jayda Fransen, Britain First, Traditionalist Worker Party...In 2018, Twitter rolled out a Quality Filter, nicknamed QFD. It hides content and users deemed "low quality" from search results, and limits their visibility, leading to accusations of "shadow banning". After conservatives claimed it censors users from the political right, Alex Thomson, a VICE writer, confirmed that many prominent Republican politicians had been "shadow banned" by the Quality Filter.[3] He later reported that Twitter announced that they would issue a "fix" in the near future.[4]" Leftist groups and individuals have also complained of being shadow banned.

A problematic example

After a recent terrorist attack in London representative Clay Higgins a Louisiana Republican called for the slaughter of radicalized Muslims: “Hunt them, identify them, and kill them,” declared U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican. “Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.” This outburst passed through Facebook''s workers who were deleting offensive speech, However, a post by poet Didi Delgado of Black Lives Matter drew a punishment of her account being disabled for a week and the removal of her post that said: "All white people are racist. Start from this reference point, or you’ve already failed.” While this was Facebook the same discrimination could happen on Twitter. No doubt Twitter would claim that there are no "protected categories" under the new rules but in practice this could be different. Theoretically it would ban both tweets.

The solution to the problem in my view would have been not to ban either post. If users do not like them they can ignore them, answer them, or block the offending tweet user. Twitter should give preference to causing the least harm to free speech. It should leave the authorities to consider ways of negating any negative effects the use of the platform has on the general society.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Amazon has problems with new book critical of 9/11 official narrative

A new book critical of the official version of the events on the 11th of September 2001 by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth was to be released on September 11 this year.

Amazon's troubles

An article by Edward Curtin who wrote a review of "9/11 Unmasked: An International Review Panel Investigation" by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth provided a link to the Amazon page of the book. This page indicated the book would be available on September 11.

Readers responded to the review and no doubt others in great numbers but the Amazon site was reporting the book was "out of print" after it had just been published. The "out of print" notice lasted until the evening of September 13 when the notice was changed to saying it would be in stock on September 30. However the following morning the notice said that it would be in stock by September 21 only to be changed again to September 24. As of noon on Saturday the 15th it was still listed as available this date.

I checked as I was writing this and the date has changed again to being available of October 6. I just checked back and it now says that it is temporarily out of stock. This is all very strange. Amazon already sells another book on 9/11 by Griffin.

Curtin notes:" It is unheard of for a book that has an official release date and that is available straight from the publisher to be listed as “out of print.” Amazon Canada continues to report that the book “has not yet been released.” And obviously, all the date changes that push the book’s availability back by weeks suggest a clear-cut effort by Amazon to make sure readers cannot obtain the book quickly and in a timely manner from the most popular source, if ever."

This explanation might seem plausible were it not for the fact that Amazon handles oodles of books by David Griffin including two earlier works on 9/11. The book publisher Interlink Publishing is selling the book now and claims Amazon has the books. The author does not mention that he has contacted Amazon to find out their explanation to what is happening. It can't be that the book is not released yet as Curtin claims Amazon Canada says.

Curtin is certainly correct that something very weird is happening and Amazon needs to correct it immediately.

About the book

The book is described together with many reviews at the InterLink books website.

Reviews

Piers Robinson, Chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism writes: “9/11 ushered in a generation of war and destruction. And yet, despite its importance, much of the event remains poorly understood. 9/11 Unmasked provides an authoritative and carefully argued exposition of key problems with the official narrative. Nearly 20 years on, it is high time mainstream journalists and academics addressed these issues.”

Peter Phillips, Professor of Political Sociology, Sonoma State University says: “9/11 Unmasked by David Ray Griffin and Elizabeth Woodworth is a solid factual review of the veracity of the US Government’s 9/11 Commission report. Griffin and Woodworth expose the many errors and omissions of the official story leaving no doubt that a cover-up of massive proportions was likely undertaken after 9/11/2001. This is a highly recommended source for those questioning what is happening to America today."

The authors

According to Interlink: "David Ray Griffin is professor emeritus at Claremont Graduate University and Claremont School of Theology and also a director of the Center for Process Studies. He has published 40-some books, including Unprecedented: Can Civilization Survive the CO2 Crisis? And, most recently Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World. Elizabeth Woodworth is a professional sciences librarian who has written books and articles in the fields of nuclear disarmament, climate change, and the events of 9/11."

Griffin is featured in the appended video. Woodworth can be heard in a talk on 9/11 here.

Previosly published in Digital Journal

Texas firm processing government payments leaks millions of records

The Texas firm Government Payment Services Inc. is used by thousands of local governments to receive online payments for all sorts of things such as court-ordered fines to licencing fees.

The firm's security breach

The breach is reported by Brian Krebs who has a daily blog on security issues. Krebs reports that the firm compromised the accounts of more than 14 million customer records dating back as long ago as 2012. The report claims that the information leaked includes names, addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of credit card numbers.

Krebs alerted the company to the the security problems on September 14th this year. Krebs found that it was possible to view millions of customer records simply by tweaking the digits in the web address that was displayed on each receipt.

Two days after being informed of the situation Government Payment Services said that it had addressed a "potential issue". It said there was no information that any improperly accessed information had been used to harm any customer but that it had updated its system so the issue could not happen again. The entire Krebs report can be found here.

Government Payment Services Inc. and Securus Technologies

Government Payment Services Inc. was bought by Securus Technologies at the start of this year. Securus Technology is described by Wikipedia as follows: "Securus Technologies is a United States-based prison technology company... It was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas with regional offices located in Carrollton, Texas, Allen, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. The company employs approximately 1,000 people and is reported to have contracts with 2,600 correctional facilities in the United States. Securus announced in July 2016 that it had invested more than $600 million in technologies, patents and acquisitions in three years." Since its inception the company has acquired 20 government services, software-based businesses, technologies, patents and exclusive agreements.

Securus Technologies provides telecommunications services to prisons, among its other work. It has come under fire already already several times just this year for data breaches. Just last May it was found that Securus was abusing its cell phone-tracking abilities. Then just weeks later hackers breached the system and stole the online credentials of numerous law enforcement officials. The incident is reported here.

Krebs notes that it is relatively easy to fix these information disclosure leaks. He finds it remarkable that many organizations encounter these basic vulnerabilities. Companies with names such as Securus Technologies should live up to their names and be on top of their game.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Hydrogen fuel cell powered train to start service in Germany

French railway manufacturer Alstom has placed the first hydrogen fuel cell powered train into commercial service in Lower Saxony Germany. The cells are already in use in cars, trucks, and even airplanes.

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The Coradia iLint

There are two models of Alstom's train called the Coradia iLint which will begin service in Lower Saxony, Germany. The trains run on electricity produced by the hydrogen fuel cells that turn hydrogen and oxygen into electricity. The trains have a top speed of 140 kilometers an hour. The trains are fueled by a mobile hydrogen filling station.

The two trains will travel on around 100 kilometers or 62 miles of rail line between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervorde and Buxtehude.

Alstom's CEO's announcement:

Henri Poupart-Lafarge chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Alstom said: "The world's first hydrogen fuel cell train is entering passenger service and is ready for serial production. The Coradia iLint heralds a new era in emission-free rail transport. It is an innovation that results from French-German teamwork and exemplifies successful cross-border cooperation."

Hydrogen as fuel has a great future

The European Commission claims that hydrogen has great potential for clean efficient power in stationaary, portable, and transport application.

Hydrogen fuel cells are already being used in vehicles around the world. A fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses are already in operation in Aberdeen Scotland. Toyota is heavily investing in the technology and hopes to develop a car for the mass market as discussed in a Digital Journal article.

The Lower Saxony minister of Economy and Transport, Bernd Althusmann claimed that the Coradia iLint's emission free technology would provide a good environment-friendly alternative to the present diesel trains on non-electrified rail lines. The trains will be much quieter than dirty diesel trains. Only steam and water and not carbon dioxide are the byproduct emitted by the trains.

Advantage of the new trains

Alstom project manager Stefan Schrank said: “Sure, buying a hydrogen train is somewhat more expensive than a diesel train, but it is cheaper to run.” The new trains can travel 1,000 km on one tank full of hydrogen. It only takes about 15 minutes to refuel the train. By 2021 Alston hopes to have another 14 trains ready to roll.

Using fuel cells to power trains is one of the most practical and environmentally friendly alternatives to diesel powered trains. Batteries are impractical with trains being so heavy. While electrifying tracks is a workable alternative, it is very expensive. To add just one kilometer or 0.6 miles of electrification costs about 1.2 million euros or $1.4 million dollars. Fuel cell powered trains are much cheaper.

Previously published in Digital Journal

In first half of 2018, 8.5 gigawatts of utility solar projects were procured

In the first six months of 2018, 8.5 GW of utility solar projects were procured even after President Donald Trump announced in January a 30 percent tariff on panels produced outside the The Gigawatt (GW), is a unit for measuring power, equal to 10 to the 9th power or one billon watts. The Megawatt (MW) is also a unit of power equal to one million watts.

Forecast is still 8 percent lower than before tariffs were announced

A report by Wood Mackenzie Power and Renewables and the industry trade group the Solar Energy Industries Association(SEIA) raised its utility-scale solar forecast through 2018 to 2023 by 1.9 GW. However, this prediction is still 8 percent lower than before Trump's tariffs were announced. A gigawatt of solar energy is enough to power about 164,000 homes.

Tariff was lower than many expected

Procurement rose in part because the 30 percent tariff was less than many had feared according to the report. SEIA had lobbied strongly against any tariff claiming it would cause a rise in the cost of solar energy and lower job growth in the solar sector.

The prices have fallen quicker than expected as China created a global oversupply of modules in the global market. This lower price has somewhat eroded the effects of the tariff.

Prices of modules

In the second quarter of this year, the average price of modules was 42 cents a watt. This was 2 cents higher than the same period last year but still far below the 48 cents a watt reached late last year as the industry was in a buying frenzy in anticipation of the looming tariffs.

Except for the residential sector prices are at their lowest level ever, the report claimed. Utility projects account for more than half the entire solar market.

Utilities anxious to start projects before 2020

The federal solar tax credit will begin phasing out in 2020. According to Wood Mackenzie next year will suffer the most impact from tariffs as utilities will begin projects to take advantage of the highest rate of solar tax credits before 2020. They will try to avoid buying modules until 2020 when the tariff reduces by 5 percent.

Addition of solar power the first 6 months of 2018

The US installed 4.7 GW solar power in the first half of this year. This was a third of new electrical generating capacity added. In the second quarter, residential installations were roughly flat the same as last year at 577 MW. Commercial and industrial installations actually dropped 8 percent to 453 MW.

Previously published in Digital Journal

Marshall Islands to create a cryptocurrency that will be legal tender along with US dollar

The Republic of the Marshall Islands announced back in February of this year that it was intending to issue digital currency as an alternative to the US dollar which is now the official currency.

IMF warns the Republic of risks of adopting a cryptocurrency as legal tender

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned the Marshall Islands (RMI) of the risk of adopting a cryptocoin as a second legal currency in a press release on September 10. The release said that the adoption of digital currency as one form of legal tender could pose risks to the financial integrity of the country as well as its relationships to foreign banks.

The digital currency would be adopted as a second official currency after the US dollar. This could lead the RMI to the loss of the last US dollar correspondent banking relationship through the Bank of Marshall Islands because of the rising due diligence by banks in the United States. The RMI economy is highly dependent on receiving and spending US grants and hence the loss of important banking relationships would hurt the country's economy.

The IMF also thinks that the cost of adopting a cryptocoin that would include development and enforcement of anti-money laundering(AML) techniques and also counter measures to avoid financing of terrorism(CFL) would outweigh any financial advantages. The press release said: “The potential benefits from revenue gains appear considerably smaller than the potential costs arising from economic, reputational, AML/CFT, and governance risks. In the absence of adequate measures to mitigate them, the authorities should seriously reconsider the issuance of the digital currency as legal tender.”

The announced plan for the cryptocoin the Sovereign

The Marshall Islands announced at the end of February that it would release its own cryptocurrency via an initial coin offering (ICO) and free trading. Two officials, the house speaker and senator Kenneth Kedi claimed that the parliament had endorsed the creation of the cryptocoin called the Sovereign(SOV).

The two officials, one of whom is house speaker and senator Kenneth Kedi, said that the Pacific nation’s parliament this week endorsed the creation of the currency, which will be called the Sovereign (SOV). The RMI official currency at present is only the US dollar. Once issued the Sovereign will circulate alongside the dollar.

The minister-in-assistance to the president David Paul said that the new state-issued coin should appear before the end of 2018. He said the coin should serve the long-term needs of the country. There are only 53,000 citizens in the republic. Some of the revenue from the ICO will be used to provide healthcare for citizens who were victims of past US nuclear testing on the islands.

President Hilda Heine said of the plan: “This is a historic moment for our people, finally issuing and using our own currency, alongside the USD. It is another step of manifesting our national liberty.”

The RMI has partnered with Neema an Israeli company to issue 24 million units of the Sovereign. It will cap the number issued to avoid inflation.

Previously published in Digital Journal