Blog/August 2019/Aug 9th
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After the hullabaloo last week, Sarah managed to get moved-in, and is starting to get accustomed to the new place. I managed to come down with a cold, somehow, and have been battling it all week. Esther’s been working, bless her heart!
In response to the mass-shootings in America this past week, Trump is calling for social-media companies to develop algorithms to ‘detect mass shooters’ before they strike. “Minority Report”, as it were. This is a terrible idea for several reasons.
First, delegating the responsibility for finding potential criminals to companies like Facebook or Google is a derogation of the government’s authority, and is very likely to result in widespread abuses of privacy.
Second, the likelihood of “false positives” is very high. That is, completely innocent people are likely to be entrapped by this system, causing injury to their reputations, and financial damages at the least.
Finally, the FBI is the correct address for this; they have a mandate to protect the citizens of the USA. Facebook has no responsibility towards citizens, and no motivation to keep from abusing their power.
Around the bend:
- The “Democratic Socialists of America” had a convention. I don’t think this ragged band of soy-boys has the huevos to “overthrow the system”.
- The technical side of the Capital One / AWS breach.
- With Facebook openly declaring they’ll subvert the security of WhatsApp, here are 5 apps which do a better job of safeguarding your privacy.
- Opting out of facial recognition at the airport.
- Israeli Arabs seek “Israeliness”.
Since I’ve been hacking and coughing and sneezing all week, I really haven’t accomplished much. I’ll try to do better next week!
Sunday’s the fast of the 9th of ʼav — though shabbat is actually the 9th, so the fast is delayed a day. I’m looking forward to the day when mashiaḥ comes and the “fast of the 9th” becomes a day of rejoicing. May it be soon!
The three of us look forward to a quiet shabbat. In lieu of fasting, we’ll have:
homemade ḥalla,
baked salmon,
pastel de papas,
various salatim,
and “generous portions cake”.
Until next time,
shabbat shalom!
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