The state recently passed legislation, HB410
or the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement, in response to the
decreasing water levels, “which issued a $40 million grant to the Great
Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Program for protecting and restoring
wetlands around the lake and to enhance water flows” run by local
nonprofits, EcoWatch reported.
Utah’s Great Salt Lake reaches record-low water level
Ashley Curtin
2 minutes
Image Credit: Scott Taylor
"The Great Salt Lake in Utah reached record-low water levels. While
the west is experiencing a mega-drought, the lake is at its lowest water
level since recording started in 1847.
According to Utah Department of Natural Resources, the water level
fell to an average surface water elevation of 4,190.1 feet down from
4190.3 feet in October 2021.
“This is not the type of record we like to break,” Joel Ferry,
executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said.
“Urgent action is needed to help protect and preserve this critical
resource. It’s clear the lake is in trouble.”
But scientists said “the worst is yet to come,” EcoWatch reported.
While the drought continues in the west, the lake’s water level is
expected to continue to drop without any relief until fall or winter
when precipitation is most likely.
“We recognize more action and resources are needed, and we are
actively working with the many stakeholders who value the lake,” Ferry
said. . .
While local advocates are happy with the legislation that will take effect, many said it’s long overdue."
FALL FUNDRAISER
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Google is working on ‘clear calling’ for Android phone calls
Thomas Ricker@Trixxy
2 minutes
The first beta for the Android 13 quarterly release
includes a new “clear calling” feature that “reduces background noises
during calls.” It was first spotted by Mishaal Rahman on Twitter who also tweeted directions to enable it for yourself without root, if you’re feeling bold.
The images shared by Rahman note that Clear Calling works
“on most mobile networks,” is “not available for Wi-Fi calling,” and
“content from your call is not sent to Google.”
Google has been flexing its noise-canceling muscles (and custom six-core audio chips)
for awhile. First, and most impressively, by using AI to suppress
background noises like the crackling of snack bags, keyboard clicks, and
dogs barking in Google Meet. More recently with the $199 Pixel Buds Pro — the company’s first earbuds with active noise cancellation.
My colleague Chris Welch, who knows more about noise-cancelation tech (and unannouncedSonosspeakers) than anyone I know, called the ANC on the Pixel Buds Pro, “more than competent
— even if it won’t be bumping Sony or Bose from the top of the
mountain.” Not bad for a first effort, now let’s see how Google does
with regular old phone calls.
Intro: So-called “pig butchering” is when a scammer builds up trust with their
victims before eventually pressuring them to deposit more and more of
their crypto assets into bogus digital wallets or websites controlled by
the scammer.
How One Man Lost $1 Million To A Crypto ‘Super Scam’ Called Pig Butchering
Cyrus Farivar
26 - 33 minutes
A
271,000-word WhatsApp conversation between a Bay Area man and his
scammer reveals the heartbreaking mechanics of a new breed of investment
racket. Experts believe the global losses are in the billions
✓
The message to Cy's WhatsApp came out of the blue.
“Jessica" told him she'd found his number in her phone contacts and
was reaching out because she thought they might be old colleagues. Cy, a
52-year-old man who lives in the Bay Area, didn't remember her, but she
was kind, cordial and engaging. She sent pictures of what she was
eating. They discussed their mutual love of sushi, and Cy enjoyed the
conversation enough to follow up with her the next day.
Soon, the text exchanges moved from the anodyne to the personal. Cy
told Jessica about his struggles to support his family, about his ailing
father and how the decision to send his father to hospice care weighed
on him.
That was October 2021. By December, Cy had been conned out of more
than $1 million dollars — over a quarter of it, borrowed money. His
finances were in ruins. Cy, who asked Forbes to identify him by that pseudonym, had been “pig butchered.”
Pig butchering is a relatively new long-game financial con in which
“pigs,” or targets, are “butchered” by people who convince them to
invest ever-larger sums in purported cryptocurrency-fueled trading
platforms. The fake platforms are designed to look real, and make the
victims believe that their investments are making fantastic returns —
until their scammer, and all the money they believe they’ve invested,
disappears.
Victims often lose significant sums, and the practice is so lucrative
that it’s being scaled up and carried out en masse in countries like
Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. So far, American law enforcement officials
at both the federal and local level have made little headway in recovering stolen funds or catching the perpetrators.
These scams are carried out “on a large scale, on an industrial scale — like they’re doing fraud in a factory.”
Complicating law enforcement efforts is the issue of human trafficking.
Human rights advocates say many of the scammers are victims themselves,
people lured to countries across southeast Asia by the prospect of a
better-paying job and then forced to run pig butchering scams, sometimes
at the threat of violence. Often, their passports and cellphones are
seized upon arrival.
These scams are carried out “on a large scale, on an industrial scale
— like they’re doing fraud in a factory,” Jan Santiago, the deputy
director of advocacy group Global Anti-Scam Organization, told Forbes. He estimates that the global losses are in the billions.
Cy lost more than $1 million dollars to such a scam. The manipulation
played out via a months-long, heartbreaking WhatsApp conversation that
runs more 271,000 words — 480 single-spaced pages..."
UPDATE: Statistics of people who fell for the Pig-Butchering Scam (ShaZhuPan)
cannabiccino
2 minutes
Even
this is likely to be an undercount, because we know of many who were
victimized in 2020 and 2021 that did not know how or were too
embarrassed/traumatized to report their losses. These individuals were
typically recent Chinese immigrants who did not speak English well.
This
matches the reported statistics in China, where 69% of Pig-Butchering
scam victims were women, with ages concentrated between 25 and 40 years
old. http://www.xinghuozhiku.com/59618.html
Why
otherwise highly educated, working professionals are either the most
targeted or fall victim the most will be subject of a future post.
In addition to the above updates, here are new insights into the psychological aspects of the scam:
Anecdotally,
we know of a couple of victims outside of China who did follow through,
but whose stories we cannot share, since their families have asked for
privacy. There have been dozens of reported suicides from ShaZhuPan
victims in China.
If you fell for this scam and have not filled this survey, please answer here https://forms.gle/XQQv2F8sSvKdVzeHA and help us understand what's going on!
Intro: Many of the geographic features renamed in Arizona included
reservoirs and summits. Some of the name changes used the local
Indigenous language to describe the area, but many were derived from
nearby geographic features...In Arizona, 66 of the 67 geographic locations were renamed. The
one site retained its name because it is listed as a historical site by
the Board on Geographic Names.
✓ Note: effective immediately
✓✓ The Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force received more than
1,000 recommendations for name changes during the public comment period,
according to the Department of Interior. The task force worked with
nearly 70 tribal governments in nation-to-nation consultations, which
resulted in several hundred more recommendations.
After the public comment and tribal consultation periods closed
on April 25, the task force reviewed all the information and developed a
list of final recommendations, and submitted it to the Board on
Geographic Names on July 22.
The board then approved the names during a meeting on Sept. 8.
Once the names were decided upon by the board, they are immediately
official for federal use, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A derogatory word has been removed from the names of places on federal lands, including 66 sites in AZ
By: Shondiin Silversmith - September 8, 2022 2:53 pm
5 - 6 minutes
Nearly all federal
geographic features using the derogatory word sq*** have formally been
renamed, after the U.S. Department of the Interior on Thursday released
new names for 643 locations across the United States, including 66 in
Arizona.
“I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our
public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming,” Haaland said.
“That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced
federal locations for far too long.”
. . .
Two Democratic state lawmakers, Rep. Jennifer Jermaine and Sen. Victoria Steele, introduced a similar measure during this year’s legislative session, but their bill never received a hearing.
“Changing the names is important to our Native community,” Jermaine wrote in a text message to the Mirror.
“It is important to all women to ensure geographic sites do not include
defamatory terms meant to degrade and harm women in their names.”
Jermaine praised the work that Haaland has been able to do in
renaming the geographic sites on federal land, and she believes that
states should be working to do the same thing.
The name changes come after a lengthy process carried out by
the Board on Geographic Names and the Derogatory Geographic Names Task
Force, which was established via secretarial order and included tribal
and federal representatives.
“I am grateful to the members of the Derogatory Geographic
Names Task Force and the Board on Geographic Names for their efforts to
prioritize this important work,” Haaland said. “Together, we are showing
why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive
America.”
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior today
announced the Board on Geographic Names (BGN) has voted on the final
replacement names for nearly 650 geographic features featuring the word
sq___. The final vote completes the last step in the historic efforts
to remove a term from federal use that has historically been used as an
offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous
women.
“I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our
public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with
removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations
for far too long,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “I am
grateful to the members of the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force
and the Board on Geographic Names for their efforts to prioritize this
important work. Together, we are showing why representation matters and
charting a path for an inclusive America.”
The final vote reflects a months-long effort by the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force established by Secretary’s Order 3404,
which included representatives from the Department’s Bureau of Indian
Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement, National Park Service, Office of Diversity, Inclusion and
Civil Rights, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and
the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S.
Forest Service.
During the public comment period, the Task Force received more than
1,000 recommendations for name changes. Nearly 70 Tribal governments
participated in nation-to-nation consultation, which yielded another
several hundred recommendations. While the new names are immediately
effective for federal use, the public may continue to propose name
changes for any features — including those announced today — through the
regular BGN process.
The renaming effort included several complexities: evaluation of
multiple public or Tribal recommendations for the same feature; features
that cross Tribal, federal and state jurisdictions; inconsistent
spelling of certain Native language names; and reconciling diverse
opinions from various proponents. In all cases, the Task Force carefully
evaluated every comment and proposal.
In July, the Department announced an additional review by the BGN for
seven locations that are considered unincorporated populated places.
Noting that there are unique concerns with renaming these sites, the BGN
will seek out additional review from the local communities and
stakeholders before making a final determination.
Jul 22, 2022 · The task force, dubbed the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force, reviewed over 660 place names of towns, lakes, rivers and creeks with the ...
Jul 22, 2022 · On Friday, July 22, the Department of Interior announced that its Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force has finalized its review of more ...
Feb 23, 2022 · The task force, dubbed the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force, also moved to replace the word with "sq_ _ _" in official communications. " ...
Jay Powell did little to dispel expectations on Thursday that the
Federal Reserve will deliver a third consecutive 0.75 percentage point
rate rise, saying the US central bank needed to act “forthrightly” to
ensure elevated inflation did not become entrenched.
In his last public remarks before the bank’s policy meeting later this month, the Fed chair doubled down on the hawkish message
he delivered at the recent Jackson Hole conference in Wyoming,
reiterating that the central bank “has and accepts responsibility for
price stability”.
“We need to act now, forthrightly, strongly, as
we have been doing and we need to keep at it until the job is done,” he
said during a moderated discussion at a conference hosted by the Cato
Institute.
His comments come just days before the scheduled
“blackout” period ahead of the next gathering of the Federal Open Market
Committee, which is set to be held on September 20 and 21, during which
public communications are limited.
The blackout begins before
the next consumer price index report is released early next week, which
economists broadly expect to show an annual inflation rate of 8.1 per
cent, down from 8.5 per cent in July.
While no official —
including Powell on Thursday — has officially endorsed another
supersized rate rise, they have in recent weeks emphasised the momentum propelling the economy and resilience of the labour market, which added 315,000 new positions in August alone.
Lael
Brainard, the vice-chair, cautioned on Wednesday that at some point the
Fed will need to consider the risks of overtightening monetary policy,
and emphasised it will take time for the effects of the central bank’s
actions to filter through to the economy. But she also stressed the Fed
must “maintain a risk-management posture” to ensure inflation does not
get further out of hand.
Taken together, the recent comments
from policymakers have reinforced expectations that the Fed will yet
again raise rates by 0.75 percentage points, rather than downshift to a
half-point rate rise, in a move that would push the federal funds rate
to a new target range of 3 per cent to 3.25 per cent. According to the
CME Group, the odds of such move now hover around 86 per cent.
Speaking
with reporters also on Thursday, Charles Evans, president of the
Chicago Fed and a voting member on the Federal Open Market Committee,
said he’ll be monitoring wages and whether the “breadth of inflationary
pressures” throughout the CPI report is expanding, which would tip the
balance towards a 0.75 percentage point rate rise.
He supports the benchmark policy rate rising to at least 3.5 per cent in the coming months.
Top
of mind for Powell and other Fed officials is the cost associated with a
situation in which the expectations that households, businesses and
market participants have about future price pressures escalate to an
extent that they further feed inflationary fears.
This dynamic
plagued the Fed in the 1970s, forcing then-chair Paul Volcker to
aggressively jack up interest rates and crush the economy more than
otherwise would have been necessary in order to restore price stability.
“The clock is ticking,” Powell said on Thursday. “The longer
that inflation remains well above target, the greater the concern that
the public will start to just naturally incorporate higher inflation
into its economic decision-making and our job is to make sure that
doesn’t happen.”
Powell reiterated that as the Fed acted to root
out high inflation, the labour market was likely to accrue losses as
growth slowed. He also called into question whether the pandemic and the
war in Ukraine have prompted structural shifts that may mean price shocks going forward are more frequent.
When
asked about the variety of spending bills either signed into law or
championed by the Biden administration, Powell demurred from commenting
specifically on any legislation, but warned “our federal fiscal policy
is not on a sustainable path, and it really hasn’t been for some time”.
“We will need to get back to a sustainable path sooner or later . . . sooner is better than later,” he added."
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As we’ve been noting for years now, the global internet is at risk. China walled off its part of the internet early on, and other authoritarian regimes followed suit, with Russia and Iran
taking the lead. But, at the same time, we’ve seen other regimes start
to layer on their own regulatory regimes that effectively cut off other
parts of the world, including the EU,
which seems to believe its writing rules for the global internet, but
may only be hastening the further fragmentation of the internet.
And yet, some of us still would like to believe that the concept of a
truly global internet is one worth saving. Recently, the Council on
Foreign Relations put out a report that basically calls that belief
naïve, saying that we need to “confront reality in cyberspace,” with that apparently “reality” being that a global internet is impossible.
The United States has heavily influenced every step of the internet’s
development. The technologies that undergird the internet were
born out of U.S. federal research projects, while U.S. companies
and technical experts made significant contributions. Similarly, the
internet’s governance structures reflected American values, with a
reliance on the private sector and technical community, light regulatory
oversight, and the protection of speech and the promotion of the free
flow of information.
For many years, this global internet served U.S. interests, and U.S.
leaders often called for countries to embrace an open internet or risk
being left behind. But this utopian vision became just that: a vision,
not the reality. Instead, over time the internet became less free, more
fragmented, and less secure. Authoritarian regimes have managed to
limit its use by those who might weaken their hold and have learned
how to use it to further repress would-be or actual opponents.
The lack of regulation around something so integral to modern
economies, societies, political systems, and militaries has also become
dangerous. This openness presents a tempting target for both states
and nonstate actors seeking to undermine democracy, promote
terrorism, steal intellectual property, and cause extraordinary
disruption. Even more dangerous is the vulnerability of critical
infrastructure to cyberattacks. Making the circumstances all the more
difficult, figuring out who is behind a given attack remains challenging,
allowing states and nonstate actors to carry out cyberattacks with
a high degree of deniability and avoid significant consequences. In
addition, because most cyberattacks occur well below the threshold
of the use of force, the threat of retaliation is less credible.
Frankly, U.S. policy toward cyberspace and the internet has failed
to keep up. The United States desperately needs a new foreign
policy that confronts head on the consequences of a fragmented and
dangerous internet.
I guess it’s not that surprising that a group like CFR would strike
such a stance. Reading it feels very much like the stance of political
bureaucrats with a philosophical bent, and a belief in politics, rather
than those who understand the underlying nature and promise of the
internet.
It’s good to see the report getting some serious pushback. Jason Pielemeier and Chris Riley have a strong piece in response, In Defense of the Global, Open Internet.
Cyber warfare and information warfare are undoubtedly in our midst.
However, embracing the CFR report’s narrative and changing the course
of U.S. policy in response to the continued trajectory of attacks not
only would undermine human rights, democracy, and the internet itself
but also would empower governments like China and Russia that benefit
most from the “every country for itself” approach to the digital world.
Instead, the United States should recommit to its vision for internet
freedom by articulating and demonstrating how democratic states can
address complex cybersecurity threats and digital harms through
innovative, collaborative, and democratic means.
As the response notes, by giving up on the belief in a global, open,
and interconnected internet, we’re actually aiding authoritarians
tremendously:
If the United States, in particular, portrays the future of the
internet as inevitably isolationist, it is as likely to push governments
toward authoritarian models as it is to incentivize
governments away from them. This could result in a potentially
disastrous fait accompli that will likely imperil innovation, equity,
economic growth, and human rights in the decades ahead.
But I think the most important part of this response is that it
points out that CFR’s underlying assumptions are not just wrong… but
fundamentally weird.
In sum, the CFR report seems to equate a free and global internet
with anarchy at worst and naive insecurity at best. That is simply not
true. Internet freedom posits a rights-centered and rules-based approach
to internet governance. Necessary efforts that restrict rights are
allowed under international human rights law, when they are clearly
articulated, serve legitimate purposes, are proportionately tailored,
and are accompanied by relevant accountability and transparency
measures. These are the yardsticks against which future actions will
continue to be measured, regardless of how the United States frames its
cyber policy. They also happen to be the clearest principles
policymakers and analysts can use to draw distinctions between
authoritarian approaches and democratic ones.
They also highlight something that is true across a wide scope of
discussions about internet policy. Everyone focuses solely on the
negative aspects they see as being caused by the internet, rather than
even acknowledging the massive positive benefits that have accrued as
well.
Focusing on negatives also risks ignoring much of the value that
the internet has created and continues to create. And the primary
remaining value that the United States must prioritize is freedom. As
one of us has argued
previously, when compared to offline spaces, the internet continues to
create significant opportunities for courageous, consequential, and
U.S.-interest-aligned activities including independent journalism,
accountability, and the protection of minority rights.
Frankly, the fact that a group like CFR is now arguing for
effectively walling up the internet should be seen as a scary turn of
events. It’s exactly what countries like China and Russia want. The
interconnectedness of the internet, and the freedom it has enabled
(especially of expression) have long been threats to them. For the US to
go back on that would be seen as a huge win for Russia and China, and
suggest that (1) their approach had been correct all along, and that (2)
the US’s commitment (as hollow as it may ring) to freedom was a
disaster.
If you don’t think that won’t be used against the US, you haven’t been paying attention.
Obviously, the US has plenty of problems right now (as it always
has), but even when it’s exaggerated, keeping our guiding star pointed
towards more freedom has always been good policy. Our failures tend to
be when we move away from that (and this isn’t the first time that CFR
has tried to point the country in that wrong direction).
Financial Times: " U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke at the fifth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a
grouping of western defence officials aimed at co-ordinating and boosting arms supplies to Ukraine..." (Scroll down farther)
✓ The State Department did not publicly disclose Mr. Blinken’s travel in advance for security reasons.
✓ In Germany, Mr. Austin said that the new package of weapons included
air-launched HARM missiles designed to seek and destroy Russian air
defense radar; guided multiple-launch rocket systems known as GMLRS;
howitzers and other artillery; armored ambulances; and small arms.
✓ The State Department said the $2 billion package, which will be drawn from pools of money already authorized by Congress
but whose specific allocation Congress must approve, would be divided
roughly in half between Ukraine and 18 other nations. They are Albania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North
Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
✓ The money will
be used “build the current and future capabilities” of Ukraine’s armed
forces and those of the other countries, including by strengthening
their cyber and hybrid warfare capabilities, specifically to counter
Russian aggression, the State Department said.
Secretary of State Blinken offers big aid package on unannounced visit to Ukraine
Ashley Westerman
Twitter
5 - 6 minutes
YIV, Ukraine — Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced
trip to Kyiv on Thursday, where he announced almost $3 billion worth of
financial aid and weapons to help Ukraine and its neighbors during the
Russia invasion.
"Ukraine's extraordinary front-line defenders
continue to courageously fight for their country's freedom," Blinken
said in a statement Thursday afternoon announcing the new tranche of
funding. "And President Biden has been clear we will support the people
of Ukraine for as long as it takes."
He said the administration
will make $2.2 billion available for long-term investments "to bolster
the security of Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors," many of which are NATO
allies that face the risk of potential future Russian aggression.
That
amount comes atop $675 million in military aid to include more High
Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), as well as more munitions and
armored vehicles, according to the State Department. This sum was also announced earlier Thursday by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is in Germany at a meeting with defense counterparts from around the world.
The combined funding announced Thursday — over $2.87 billion —
will bring the total security assistance to Ukraine since Russia
launched its full-scale ground invasion on Feb. 24 to $13.5 billion...Since the start of Russia's invasion in February, the U.S. has promised billions of dollars in military and budgetary aid to Ukraine,
including a $40 billion aid package passed by Congress in May. Millions
of aid has already been dispersed. At the six-month mark of the
conflict, polling showed that a majority of Americans believe the U.S. should continue to support Ukraine in the war."
US announces new $675mn weapons package for Ukraine
The US has announced a new $675mn weapons package for Ukraine on
top of more than $11bn provided since just before Russia launched its
invasion of the country in February.
“Ukrainian armed forces have
inspired the world with their determination to defend their
democracy . . . in Russia’s reckless and ruthless war of choice,” US
defence secretary Lloyd Austin said at a meeting of western and
Ukrainian defence chiefs in Germany’s Ramstein air base.
He spoke
at the fifth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a grouping of
western defence officials aimed at co-ordinating and boosting arms
supplies to Ukraine.
“We are here to renew our commitment and to
intensify our momentum to support the brave defenders of Ukraine for the
long term,” Austin said.
News of the additional weaponry came as
Ukraine said its forces had made significant gains in counter offensives
this week against Russian troops occupying eastern and southern
regions.
“Russian forces continue to cruelly bombard Ukrainian
cities and civilians with missiles and artillery fire, but Ukrainian
forces have begun their counter offensive,” Austin added.
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