illegals programme

Though not adapted for prestige television until a few years after the revelation, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s infiltration into a network of sleeper agents of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR RF, Слу́жба вне́шней разве́дки) carrying out long-term, deep-cover assignments in target countries—the US and the UK—that culminated in July of 2010 was code-named Operation Ghost Stories.
The modus operandi was to pose (some assuming stolen identities) as ordinary citizens and ingratiate themselves to academia, industry and government in order to obtain intelligence on US posture and economic strength. The spy ring of ten members was uncovered just days after of then-president Dmitri Medvedev’s visit to the White House and is blamed by some as the initial cause of the collapse in good will between Russia and the Obama administration.

pre-crime

Thanks to a FOIA request filled by a group that advocates for greater transparency in algorithmically based decision making, we are given a glimpse into how software companies are peddling predictive policing to law enforcement authorities across several jurisdictions. Whether or not the programme has any merit in preventing infractions before they are committed, the best practises and techniques outlined in the training guide make concessions to the accuracy of its precognitive abilities by encouraging intrusion and over-policing and seeking out minor offenses in order to boost metrics.

no, you’re the puppet!

Idiot Trump’s predictable, petty

antics at the NATO summit are fomenting a dangerous distraction as the real and consequential crisis in the making (despite all the tantrums and threats) is the turning of Erdoğan’s Turkey away from its Western allies and towards Russia—a re-balancing act whose execution is seemingly more and more perfectly polished. I hope that the other members aren’t fully taken in by this side-show.

portrait studio

Considering all the horrors that the USA les enfants terribles are perpetrating, it’s a real challenge to provoke any sort of relief or respite touching this regime—so we are appreciative of the clever photo-editing work of an individual called Chest Strongwell. Such a repulsive collection of people have never looked gentler (or at least candid) but none of us are being fooled by this feigned innocence.

one-armed band-width or the magic of maybe

Via Miss Cellania—realising that all this wasn’t on the consent form, here’s a lecture worth considering before one next indulging in social media—or signing up in the first place.

jinbaori

Via Present /&/ Correct we are treated to a lovely antique collection of Samurai clan banners and cloaks from the 1850s, the late Edo, Bakumatsu era, sourced from two woodblock printed manuscript books. The name for the traditional garment draped over the Samurai’s armour is a specially tailored kimono tabard (a surcoat designed to show off one’s heraldic pedigree) called a jinbaori (陣羽織). Find a whole gallery of arms and supporters and learn more at the link up top.

8x8

wild boars: all thirteen team members and coach trapped in an underwater cave in Thai are rescued

i’m in the business of vegetables, let’s take a selfie: covers of popular songs with auto-complete lyrics

the purge: Erdoğan’s government dismisses an additional eighteen thousand civil servants (previously) and cancels their passports

art-o-mat: cigarette vending machines repurposed to distribute tactile unique collectibles

moral panic: how Tom Hanks’ debut film Mazes and Monsters informed parents about the danger of role playing games, via Miss Cellania

rip: heartthrob Tab Hunter has passed away

department of child-labour: more on the Trump regime’s plot to destroy the US educational system

omnishambles: UK Foreign Minister resigns over soft-peddling BREXIT

living daylights

The European Commission is soliciting feedback on the option to end the requirement for harmonisation across the EU for daylight savings time, citing the potential for negative health consequences caused by the bi-annual change and prompted by Nordic members who’ve dutifully sprung forward and fell back despite the fact that no hour of sunshine at these higher climes is won or lost.
Railway and telegraph networks necessitated synchronisation and standardisation in the late eighteenth century and the concept of adjusting the clocks with the seasons was first proposed by an insect collector and astronomer (and frequent train passenger) named Charles Hudson in 1895 and was not implemented until the spring of 1916 with the German Sommerzeit as a way to conserve coal during the war. The current EU compact dates to 1980, in response to the energy crisis of the 1970s, and if repealed, the change wouldn’t be automatically nullified, just the participation of each member state. What do you think? Modern time-keeping devices can assuredly handle the changes and dispensing with the ritual will be certainly welcomed by many but time and tide admit politics and identity as well.