Author Archives: Andrea

Ultrasonic Boom

Wired: Hundreds of Apps Can Listen for Marketing ‘Beacons’ You Can’t Hear.

“Beacon technology is also showing up in more physical locations. While the researchers didn’t find any ultrasonic tones being broadcast out on a sampling of television programming from seven countries, they did find that four of the 35 retail stores they visited around Germany did have beacons installed. “It was really interesting to find beacons at the entrance of some stores in two German cities,“ says Erwin Quiring, a privacy and Android security researcher who worked on the study. “It affects all of us if there’s some kind of privacy invasive technique we don’t know about and which runs silently on phones.“ “

(My emphasis.)

Link via dangerousmeta!

“He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t do drugs. His drug is himself.” (Sam Nunberg about Trump)

The New Yorker: How Trump Could Get Fired. “The Constitution offers two main paths for removing a President from office. How feasible are they?”
By Evan Osnos.

“Hours after Donald Trump’s Inauguration, a post appeared on the official White House petitions page, demanding that he release his tax returns. In only a few days, it gathered more signatures than any previous White House petition. The success of the Women’s March had shown that themed protests could both mobilize huge numbers of people and hit a nerve with the President. On Easter weekend, roughly a hundred and twenty thousand people protested in two hundred cities, calling for him to release his tax returns and sell his businesses. On Capitol Hill, protesters chanted “Impeach Forty-five!“ In West Palm Beach, a motorcade ferrying him from the Trump International Golf Club to Mar-a-Lago had to take a circuitous route to avoid demonstrators. The White House does all it can to keep the President away from protests, but the next day Trump tweeted, “Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!“ “

Sprachlos.

The Atlantic: Donald Trump’s Conflicts of Interest: A Crib Sheet. “A semi-comprehensive list of the business concerns that may influence the president during his time in office.” By Jeremy Venook. Published Apr 24, 2017.

“As early as 2000, he was speculating that he “could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it“ by patronizing his own businesses and running the campaign out of one of his properties. During his 2016 bid, he did exactly that, establishing his political headquarters in Trump Tower (and quintupling the rent as soon as he became the Republican nominee and began drawing funds from the party rather than his personal war chest). Shortly before his victory, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s campaign had paid out the unprecedented sum of more than $14 million to his family and companies for such services as flights on his personal airplanes, rent at Trump Tower, and meals and hotel rooms at other Trump buildings.”

(Emphasis mine.)

“Besides, there’s also the odd business of bog butter.”

Smithsonian.com: Europe’s Famed Bog Bodies Are Starting to Reveal Their Secrets. “High-tech tools divulge new information about the mysterious and violent fates met by these corpses.”

“A wooden post was planted to mark the spot where two brothers, Viggo and Emil Hojgaard, along with Viggo’s wife, Grethe, all from the nearby village of Tollund, struck the body of an adult man while they cut peat with their spades on May 6, 1950. The dead man wore a belt and an odd cap made of skin, but nothing else. Oh yes, there was also a plaited leather thong wrapped tightly around his neck. This is the thing that killed him. His skin was tanned a deep chestnut, and his body appeared rubbery and deflated. Otherwise, Tollund Man, as he would be called, looked pretty much like you and me, which is astonishing considering he lived some 2,300 years ago.”

Link via MetaFilter.