Source: www.schneier.com – Author: Bruce Schneier
Comments
ResearcherZero •
Journalist killings are at their highest levels in almost a decade.
‘https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/attacks-on-journalists-media-indicates-democratic-erosion-by-jodie-ginsberg-2024-05
Governments are not protecting press freedom.
At the international level, this year is notable for a clear lack of political will on the part of the international community to enforce the principles of protection of journalists, especially UN Security Council Resolution 2222. One of the world’s biggest economic powers, the United States, has fallen ten places.
The US has performed badly due to increasing attacks on journalists from political officials, including public calls to imprison reporters.
https://rsf.org/en/2024-world-press-freedom-index-journalism-under-political-pressure
With half the world’s population casting ballots, independent reporting on the candidates and the issues is essential. Yet attacks on the media are rising, even in more mature democracies. …a leading indicator of autocratization: “Aspects of freedom of expression and the media are the ones ‘wannabe dictators’ attack the most and often first.”
‘https://v-dem.net/documents/29/V-dem_democracyreport2023_lowres.pdf
ResearcherZero •
Sergiyenko’s contact in Moscow was likely an agent with the FSB, the Russian secret service agency. The scandal is already damaging for the AfD and consequences are mounting.
‘https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/afd-spionageaffaere-russland-und-china-im-fokus-neue-enthuellungen-belasten-die-partei-1714480876-a-a1c05e64-b6bc-4c6b-844e-a78a32ec4f91
China has been cultivating its links with Alternative für Deutschland since at least 2019
‘https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240426-has-germany-s-far-right-afd-become-a-gateway-for-chinese-and-russian-spies
–
Wirecard fugitive helped run Russian spy operations across Europe.
Jan Marsalek used compromised intelligence officials in Vienna to spy on European citizens and plot break-ins and assassinations by elite Russian hit squads.
Marsalek obtained a NATO government’s cutting-edge cryptography machine and smuggled stolen senior Austrian civil servants’ phones to Moscow.
‘https://apnews.com/article/austria-spying-scandal-russia-ott-marsalek-wirecard-8921f3ce95b30646ee1952bf8949a43f
A former Austrian intelligence officer and a string of suspicious deaths.
The warrant says chat messages provided by British authorities link Marsalek directly to the Russian intelligence agency FSB. He also sold the Kremlin access to Wirecard’s confidential data base containing financial information about millions of people.
‘https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/story/2024-04-08/an-espionage-scandal-rocks-austria-laying-bare-alleged-russian-spying-operations-across-europe
ResearcherZero •
“It’s a wound that our adversaries are going to try to spread salt on because they can.”
“The more we fight amongst ourselves, the easier their life is and the more they can get away with.”
‘https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/02/business/media/campus-protests-russia-china-iran-us.html
MAGAflage
“For the first time we have also found Spamouflage accounts posing convincingly as Americans.”
Now, they are interacting with predominantly genuine American users.
https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/pro-ccp-spamouflage-campaign-experiments-with-new-tactics-targeting-the-us/
–
APT28 actors had utilized compromised EdgeRouters to facilitate covert cyber operations against governments, militaries, and organizations around the world.
“Czech institutions have been the target of cyber attacks exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook from 2023. The mode of operation and the focus of these attacks matched the profile of the actor APT28. The actor APT28 has also been the subject to active measures in Czechia as part of the global operation Dying Ember.”
‘https://mzv.gov.cz/jnp/en/issues_and_press/press_releases/statement_of_the_mfa_on_the_cyberattacks.html
APT28 targeted various government authorities and companies in the spheres of logistics, armaments, the air and space industry, and IT services, as well as foundations and associations. It was directed at entities in Germany, other European countries and targets in Ukraine.
‘https://www.bundesregierung.de/resource/blob/975226/2276130/ec59e50158ff9ba014025ba5abbfe6ec/2024-05-03-attribution-of-a-russian-cyber-campaign-data.pdf
APT28 leveraged default credentials and trojanized OpenSSH server processes to gain root access to compromised Ubiquiti EdgeRouters.
APT28 actors also exploited CVE-2023-23397 to collect NTLMv2 digests from targeted Outlook accounts. This includes Python scripts to upload account credentials belonging to specifically targeted webmail users, which are collected via cross-site scripting and browser-in-the-browser (BitB) spear-phishing campaigns.
APT28 used the botnet to carry out “vast spearphishing and similar credential-harvesting campaigns against targets of intelligence interest to the Russian government, such as U.S. and foreign governments and military, security, and corporate organizations.”
‘https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1338646/dl
ResearcherZero •
Over the last 6 months China has run a number of campaigns to target individuals globally.
“Even though I was the intended target in this case what’s clear is the perpetrators had zero regard for the welfare of the complainant.”
After questioning Mr Phelan, police established that the email had been sent by a fake account purporting to be him.
60 Minutes also spoke to human rights activist Drew Pavlou who was arrested protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in London last year.
Mr Pavlou alleges the Chinese regime made a false bomb threat in his name, which left him potentially facing 12 years in prison. For six months after his arrest received more than 40 emails threatening to kill him and his mother also suffered a campaign to have her sacked.
‘https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12207833/Chinese-secret-police-Australian-Andrew-Phelan-grilled-cops-fake-email-threats.html
“Content has been tailored to their individual circumstances, covering their work and personal lives. This would have required extensive surveillance of targeted individuals in order to tailor these tweets and their messaging. This latest campaign, in both English and Mandarin, includes a spectrum of psychological abuse, harassment, mass trolling and threats.”
Liu says it was he, and not the maligned politicians, who was China’s main target in the campaign. Liu says he suspected the spamouflage campaign could also be intended to interfere with Canadian elections by discrediting politicians via fake videos.
‘https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/china-critic-says-he-s-the-target-of-deepfake-spamouflage-attack-by-beijing-1.6625954
The families and associates of Canadian politicians have also been targeted.
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/ccp-using-information-operations-to-harass-canadian-politicians/
echo •
With half the world’s population casting ballots, independent reporting on the candidates and the issues is essential. Yet attacks on the media are rising, even in more mature democracies. …a leading indicator of autocratization: “Aspects of freedom of expression and the media are the ones ‘wannabe dictators’ attack the most and often first.”
And:
“It’s a wound that our adversaries are going to try to spread salt on because they can.”
“The more we fight amongst ourselves, the easier their life is and the more they can get away with
I’d be more convinced if a majority of media wasn’t owned by billionaire punch down crybullies and/or run by parachuted in party symapthisers and/or they didn’t abuse weak regulation or snub regulation so readily.
As for the majority of the British media and in the US the New York Times especially why are they publishing opinion columns by known bigots peddling organised far right disinformation against 0.2% of the population? Why do senior management threaten their own staff when staff call them out for this failure of journalism? Why are right wing parties fueling a moral panic against transgender children and transgender people, or attacking immigrants, or throwing women under the bus at just the time they are moving heaven and earth to dismantle human rights frameworks and their own failed economic experiments?
Why do a majority of big media owned by right wingers never make a profit? The economist Francis Coppola explained recently how LBC has only made a profit once and that was by accident. Financial engineering means profits are offshored and they never pay any tax. Centrist/right wing thumbs on scales is being subsidised with our money!
As for campus sit-ins against universities and Google this is legitimate protest against complicity with policies of genocide and war crimes and other human rights abuses. Have you seen news right wing centrist media doesn’t publish about provocateurs? Have you questioned the disproportionate nature of the policing? Have you asked yourself why the majority of professors being arrested are historians or from the social sciences like sociology, gender studies, and Jewish studies?
Over the last 6 months China has run a number of campaigns to target individuals globally.
Oh for sure but so have the Russians and US evangelicals ran campaigns against individuals and organisations and even the Vatican is lurking in there. The two biggest US owned social media platforms are owned by a sociopath and a Nazi.
echo •
With regard to the security model which covers technical, human rights, social, and economic; and a comment on academic freedom and DEI policies which I keep footdragging:
https://www.change.org/p/urge-adrian-college-to-disinvite-riley-gaines-from-commencement-ceremony
Urge Adrian College to Disinvite Riley Gaines from Commencement Ceremony
Riley Gaines is a known far right bad actor being invited by a college hiding behind the abstract concept of academic freedom while ignoring its own DEI policy. Needless to say Riley’s position is undermined by the consensus of scientific and medical opinion, and the majority of public opinion. She has no noteworthy sports achievements and has nothing noteworthy to say academically.
https://www.adrian.edu/student-life/diversity-inclusion-and-belonging
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
The only reason Riley has been invited is a senior member of staff is a bigot. The backlash will empower Riley to play victim again. That’s not helping Riley. That’s psychological abuse of a woman who has been radicalised by a religious and political hate movement.
In the UK the Woman’s Equality Party which is well established and regularly campaigns on women’s rights won its first seat in the local elections. A far right aligned pop up political party hiding behind the cloak of women’s rights won zero seats. See also campaigns run by “women’s rights” campaigners who are anti-abortion and who peddle the TradWife movement. They are anti women’s rights and do not represent the majority of women or majority of feminists.
The libertarian/far right Tory party was utterly trashed in the local elections and along with the copycat Labour party under Starmer saw massive gains for the progressive Green party and independents.
Echo of past arising •
Early to bed,
Early to rise,
Here to no surprise,
We find calumny and lies,
As a triggered nutbar tries,
To hide they are vile to the eyes.
So speaking as the nutbar has of,
“Crude disinformation/troll post.”
Attention should be directed at,
It’s full of falsehoods, misinformation, prejudice and worse.
The question with so many faults and lies where to start…
Perhaps people need to understand what it is all about,
‘https://www.cbsnews.com/news/riley-gaines-college-athletes-lawsuit-ncaa-transgender-policies/
‘https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-left-there-with-no-trophy-ncaa-female-swimmer-who-tied-for-fifth-with-trans-athlete-says-officials-put-lia-thomas-ahead-of-her
The person being vilified by the “triggered” is actually protesting past and continuing discrimination they have been on the receiving end of from a US Sports Body (NCAA). In which they are far from alone hence the “more than a dozen college athletes suing NCAA” over it in the headline.
But because the person being vilified dares to speak out about being discriminated against not only do they get still discriminated against by the US Sports Body… They have been subjected to further discrimination and have been put in fear for their life due to a bunch of “triggered” activists denying the person
- Freedom of speech.
- Right of peaceful protest.
- Freedom of movement.
- Freedom of association.
But on to what has been said here,
“She has no noteworthy sports achievements”
Realy? She (Gains) tied with the 6ft 1 inch individual who had competed as a man for a couple of years and won a few titles (Thomas). That person had also the previous day won the 500 race. So her (Gains) coming in, in the same time, being only 5ft 5inches so a head shorter than Thomas and of slighter build that Thomas as can be seen in the photos, I would say is certainly noteworthy. But I guess some have not looked just mouthed off to be seen as “with it”…
“Needless to say Riley’s position is undermined by the consensus of scientific and medical opinion, and the majority of public opinion.”
If you can not find actual facts stop making such obviously untrue claims.
There is no scientific opinion as nobody has “researched the obvious” as they won’t get grant money for it.
The evidence if you want it is in the world and other major swimming records going back more than a couple of life times.
It’s why biological male and biological female athletics are separated. Sports where bio-mechanics are not relevant are less and less separated unless there is “marketing” reasons to keep them separated.
If you go and look up the bio-mechanical advantage a biologically male body structure that is over a quarter as big again as a biologically female body structure, you will learn something.
But lets get onto this bit of nonsense,
“Riley Gaines is a known far right bad actor”
Really, by who and from when?
And don’t trot out that LBQT+ (+ for the six or more other letters) “rainbow press” nonsense.
A quick search around tends to suggest it’s a nonsense from those with a desire to create sensational headlines, designed to “trigger” those who neither think or do a little unbiased research, but just jump on the carnival float.
The result somebody get’s their life and liberties threatened for what boils down to Fake-News designed to cause harm via people like you, spreading calumny, lies, and much worse evils just for puffery of self importance.
Winter •
@Echo of past arising
If you go and look up the bio-mechanical advantage a biologically male body structure that is over a quarter as big again as a biologically female body structure, you will learn something.
Where is the evidence trans women are biologically advantages over cis women athletes?
JonKnowsNothing •
@Winter, @Echo of past arising, All
re: Where is the evidence trans women [human] have biological advantages over cis women athletes?
WADA has such data.
- WADA is responsible for the World Anti-Doping Code, adopted by more than 650 sports organisations, including international sports federations, national anti-doping organisations, the IOC, and the International Paralympic Committee.
However, in this shyte storm of a topic, it depends on the age and state of transition.
There are Blood Doping (1) levels of hormones or lack of hormones that are required depending on the competition and the rules of that sports federation. These rules vary by country and by sport but filter up into the international standards used.
There are anecdotal reports, which cause the biggest issues, of elite or near elite born males that transition to female and rising in the female ranks. (women’s swimming, women’s weightlifting).
- Caster Semenya is born female but naturally has high levels of male hormones (2)
- Renée Richards played professionally from 1977 to 1981 when she retired at age 47. She was ranked as high as 20th overall (in February 1979), and her highest ranking at the end of a year was 22nd (in 1977). Her first professional event as a female was the 1977 U.S. Open. (3)
Governments use the 3 Dopes to enhance their prestige. The outcomes of such doping schemes vary with the level of “clever use” to get the same outcome without crossing a specific testing threshold. (4).
It’s a shyte storm of a topic, so expect stuff to fly from the fan.
===
1) Accepted athletic checks: The 3 Dopes
- Blood Doping, Tech Doping, Money Doping
2)
htt ps://e n.wiki pedia.org/wiki/Caster_Semenya
- Mokgadi Caster Semenya OIB (born 7 January 1991) is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals[4] and three World Championships in the women’s 800 metres. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 and went on to win at the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she also won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres. After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.
-
Following Semenya’s victory at the 2009 World Championships, she was made to undergo sex testing, and cleared to return to competition the following year. The decision to perform sex testing sparked controversy in the sporting world and in Semenya’s home country of South Africa. Later reports disclosed that Semenya has the intersex condition 5α-Reductase 2 deficiency and natural testosterone levels in the typical male range.
3)
h ttps:/ /en .w ikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9e_Richards
- Renée Richards (born August 19, 1934) is an American ophthalmologist and former tennis player who competed on the professional circuit in the 1970s, and became widely known following male-to-female sex reassignment surgery, when she fought to compete as a woman in the 1976 US Open.
4)
h ttps:/ /en.w ikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_in_East_Germany
- The government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) conducted a decades-long program of coercive administration and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs, initially testosterone, later mainly anabolic drugs, to its elite athletes.
- The East German doping system ended in the 1990s with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Multiple athletes and individuals came forward with information on the doping system, and a series of trials were held for the principle figures involved. Approximately 1,000 people were invited to testify in the trials, and 300 did so.
Echo of past arising •
@Winter
@JonKnowsNothing
@ALL
“Where is the evidence trans women are biologically advantages over cis women athletes?”
You will find it in most books that cover bio-mechanics, forensics or similar, even Art books and Gray’s Anatomy have some indirect information.
If you start with the tables for calculating biological gender and age from the various bones in the skeleton you will find that “born as” or biological males have longer and larger bones in the limbs and torso they are also slimer of hip and broader of shoulder and the pelvis is likewise different in various ways. Further they generally have larger thus stronger muscle attachment points.
As with any lever system increased length and strength allow for greater mechanical energy transfer from the muscles through the bones as levers to the hands and feet. Further longer bones impart greater reach.
The way most human (ribbed) muscle works, the greater the length the greater the potential for cross sectional development and “male hormones” encourage such growth.
This gives considerably greater volume potential to long bone muscles and males tend to have twice the volume for the same adult development. This gives a coresponding increase not just in raw energy output but faster times to peek output.
Now if you want to sit down with a calculator and do the very basic maths you will realise that for many sports biological men have a distinct advantage over biological women.
Now the LBTQ+ press and similar do not like you saying such basic things so they get angry and say things that are either not true or misrepresented.
An example of which is the,
“Needless to say Riley’s position is undermined by the consensus of scientific and medical opinion, and the majority of public opinion.”
The truth of the matter is as I noted nobody is going to fund research into what is already well established knowledge.
Because currently nobody can see a reason to do so.
As for the “majority of public opinion” that is complete numpty nonsense shoveled out by certain types who want to “trigger” other numpties into idiot behaviour such denying people the four rights I pointed out above.
It is a classical example of the same idiocy we saw in the recent past with the “tea baggers” and their “Atlas Shrugged” posters they got their children to carry (payed for by criminal idiots behind the GOP). The children would certainly not have read the book, and it turns out that when members of the more mainstream press interviewed the parents it would appear they had not read the book either… But hey they had purchased copies at an over inflated price to carry around as though it was some religious missal.
Ask any SciFi aficionado who made the mistake of trying to read Atlas Shrugged, you basically have to be a raving nut-bar to try and get through the mindless twaddle that is the fifty page or there abouts manifesto embedded in a basically turgid and poorly written book with an unrealistic plot line, presumably thought up to justify the fifty pages of nonsense.
Echo of past arising •
@Moderator
I must protest @echo’s calumny, lies and faux claims.
If you read @echo’s post you will find it is full of nonsense and supports those who have taken actions that are actually very right wing behaviours that are close to terroristic.
But denying an individual their rights and freedoms of,
- Freedom of speech.
- Right of peaceful protest.
- Freedom of movement.
- Freedom of association.
I have simply pointed out @echo’s calumny, lies and faux claims.
They appear to believe they can post such nonsense without challenge.
And as @echo admits with,
“Follows on from a number of pop up personal attacks from new names.”
You will find on checking that yes several people have complained about @echo in various ways but “in response” to @echo’s nonsense posts.
If @echo finds these comments from different people “upsetting” then the remedy lies in @echo’s hands.
If at @echo stops posting not just nonsense but calumny, lies and faux claims, then no one would have cause to respond.
@echo claims to be from Great Britain, I suspect you might be aware of a common saying there that goes back quite some time,
“You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.”
For those who are not familiar with it,
https://english-grammar-lessons.com/you-made-your-bed-now-lie-in-it-meaning/
I’m sure from the number of adverse comments @echo has received that there will be some “head nodding in agreement”.
Perhaps you should link to @echo’s post and follow on from the
“Blog Posting Guidelines”,
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/03/commenting_poli.html
As noted above by another poster @echo has started a,
“shyte storm of a topic, so expect stuff to fly from the fan.”
What @echo posted has just about nothing to do with the nature of this blog and others who have been here for quite a number of years have complained about it.
As has been said to @echo by others there are other more relevant places they can post such things.
But it’s clear from @echo’s other many posts they hold nearly all the readers and poster on this blog in quite some contempt with an array of comments similar to,
“discussion turns into office banter or what is commonly called casual misogyny.”
Posted shortly after,
“The loudest voices pushing transphobia are the most misogynistic and racist and corrupt and lazy and on the take. Curious, that.”
The implication of which is @echo thinks everyone here is,
- Misogynistic.
- Racist.
- Corrupt.
- Lazy.
- On the take.
- Transphobic
All entirely without any real evidence to that effect except in @echo’s view (which has been pointed out on a number of occasions as narcissistic or worse by different people).
It appears that @echo either does not care about the damage they are doing to this blog (the fall in the numbers that post has been noted by others). Or @echo has some other more destructive agenda in which defaming people is just a part of @echo “throwing their weight around”.
The thing is that more people are noticing how phoney @echo comes across and is basically behaving in a less refined way than one of Donald Trump’s 400lb home squatters sitting on the bed bashing it out as a troll or worse doing nasties to politicians etc,
https://mashable.com/article/trump-400-lb-guy-dnc-hack
What ever @echo’s intent is, the behaviour is very certainly harmful.
echo •
If anything exposing transphobia is a good exercise in parsing data, identifying bad actors, tracking disinformation, and exposing political corruption and media bias, and exposing far right bad actors. Spot a transphobe spot somebody up to no good. It works every time!
I’m not going to get too deep into the science or the law but there is no advantage for transgender women in sports. Note nobody is mentioning transgender men who continue to exist some of whom would give many cisgender men a run for their money. Transgender men experience a different profile of transphobia.
I do note that nobody has quoted any of the latest authoritative sources I’ve provided in the past. The sources @JonKnowsNothing are not relevant and out of date and in one case there remain questions about racism and misogyny by the people who targeted her. The rule changes brought in to attack transgender women not only caught up Semenya but other black women too. As a population they are more likely to have the genetic conditions which cause physical variance. Also the reason why DNA testing is no longer used in sports is because quite a lot of cisgender women were getting unpleasant surprises, and DNA is simply irrelevant. As for Soviet doping programmes there is a person who to the rest of the world is a man living in London who was actually a cisgender woman forced to participate in testosterone doping programmes.
The latest peer reviewed science published in authoritative journals is there is no advantage to transgender women in sports after two years of HRT. (If anyone wants to do a deep dive after ten years cells are indistinguishable at the cellular level.) If there was a provable advantage there are plenty of aggressive bad actors out there with deep pockets who would have found it by now and earned themselves a Nobel prize. They haven’t which should be as big a clue as any.
The Law in the UK is really quite good. Inclusion is the default and any exclusion must have a provable reason and exclusion may only happen when an unfairness is proven not just icky feelz. This bit is the bit which everyone misses: where there is an unfairness (for which no science yet exists) the rules must continue to be inclusive and be revised to mitigate this unfairness. Only when all this is done can exclusion occur. A loose equivalent example I use is F1 racing which changes its rules all the time for just such reasons. No the unlawful none statutory guidance being pushed by the Tories doesn’t court and following it will land you in court.
For none competitive sports including school sports there’s either no advantages or it computes out because it’s a social and health activity not a competition. Exclusion of transgender children from healthcare systems and school sports isn’t just pointless it’s cruel. They deserve to grow up as who they are and live a happy life as much as any other child and that doesn’t even count the bullying and suicides because of transphobic healthcare systems and media.
Show me a single competitive sports trans woman who is in the medals or creates a record which isn’t beaten a week later.
People are also forgetting that cisgender women come in all shapes and sizes. Some have naturally occurring advantages. (The transphobic Sharon Davies is one.) Some have better training. Some start training at a younger age and are better supported. Note also that women’s sports as a whole faces discrimination. Prizes are lower. It receives less favourable media coverage. The support and sponsorship isn’t there as it is with the men’s game. In some cases artificial gender separation is maintained because men are scared of being beaten by women. When was the last time you heard of a transphobe who campaigned on women’s rights? Like, never.
Anything else is underinformed or political and often the disinformation is coming from known transphobic bad actors whose “science” falls apart in five minutes (or was soundly debunked decades ago, or transphobic media which has an axe to grind and is all unproven anecdote or provably false. And of course that media picks out the most optically lurid cases and/or fails to follow up the next week to the same level of prominence when it turns out they were wrong.
For what it’s worth the surgeon who saved Andy Murray’s career is a transgender woman. Without her help his mother, the now radicalised and very transphobic Jenny Murray, would be a nobody.
“A shyte form of topic”? I can assure you there are plenty of transgender people who wish that politicians and media would keep their sticky beaks out and stop producing 100-200 news articles a week (on one day this month the Telegraph which is the equivalent of the US Breitbart produced seven) on 0.2% of the population who are just trying to get on with their lives.
JonKnowsNothing •
@Echo of past arising, @Winter, All
re: the shyte storm of Gender based Sports or Other
There are many sports where gender is of no importance. There are sports that historically did not allow female competition (chess, golf). There are sports that were off-limits to males (aquatic synchronized teams). There are sports that had difficulties with mix-ed couples or odd-number teams (2 v 1+1).
The problem is less the sport itself, it’s in the way we set the category.
Sports are highly regulated and a lot of people do not understand how it flows from the top to bottom and back up.
There are always the 3 Dopes: Blood, Tech, Money
Each country and their local regions define the rules for every sport. Those rules carry up and down within that boundary. If there are no rules about Money Doping, it is not a problem. If there are limited rules about Tech Doping, that’s hardly a problem either. People focus on Blood Doping as that is often the most visible aspect of an effect.
Between sports the rules are not the same.
- In Olympic Track and Field there is a M and F division.
- In Olympic Equestrian Sports there is no division between riders M or F.
There are differences by age. Younger competitors (human) do better than older competitors. It’s the natural aspect of aging and any person having to chase a toddler knows they can outrun the average adult M or F.
For humans there is a difference between M and F in strength, speed, stamina. The creation of separate categories was intented to
- Spread more medals around (prestige)
-
Give a “same chance” opportunity to both groups (best of the best)
Now we know much more and the differences in very fine details makes the difference between a medal (prestige) and a nice vacation experience.
- It’s not the Best of the Best.
-
- It’s the Most Elite of the Most Elite.
A fraction of hundreds of thousands of seconds differentiate Most Elite Group. And this is where the problem lies.
- Tech Doping shoes knock not hundreds of thousands of seconds off but entire 2-5 whole seconds. It doesn’t matter M or F, the effect is the same. 2-5 seconds faster.
So within the current M and F divisions:
- M using Tech Doping Shoes will get 1-3 seconds improvement
-
F using Tech Doping Shoes will get 3-8 seconds improvement
RL anecdote TL;DR
iirc(badly)
Eons ago, a famous footrace in San Francisco CA, decided to let the Elite M and Elite F run at the same time in one group. Previously the M went first and a few minutes later the F group went. The jogger group of non-competitors goes last.There was a great deal of unhappiness and lots of epithets toss around in the news media about mixing M and F in the same group.
From the start, the Top Elite M ran to the front and stayed there crossing the finish line before anyone else.
The Top Elite F passed most of the Elite M. They finished shortly behind a small group of Top Elite M.
* One announcer declared that the Women could not catch the Top M and cannot run as fast.
* The other announcer said. True, the Top F are not going to catch the Top M. However, no Top M were able to pass them at the end of the race.
The Top Elite F passed many more Top M before they crossed the finish line.
What is evident, the current method to divide “M F” is no longer fit for purpose. The 3 Dope areas are not fit for purpose either.
vas pup •
‘Deepfakes’ of Holocaust victims beamed onto Habima for Remembrance Day
https://www.timesofisrael.com/deepfakes-of-holocaust-victims-beamed-onto-habima-for-remembrance-day/
“The outer walls of Tel Aviv’s Habima Theater were illuminated Wednesday night with giant AI-generated footage of Anne Frank and other Jewish Holocaust victims telling passersby about their lives and fates.
The projection, beamed for a single night Wednesday ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day on May 6, used so-called “deep fake” artificial intelligence technology to manipulate images and recorded voices of the six victims of various ages to make it seem like they are speaking about themselves in Hebrew.”
vas pup •
@Mr. Peed Off – check this article:
Israeli startup to pioneer hybrid app–drug combinations for tailored treatment
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-startup-to-pioneer-hybrid-app-drug-combinations-for-tailored-treatment/
“an Israeli biotech startup believes that in the future patients will be prescribed traditional drugs coupled with personally tailored software applications to optimize their effectiveness and improve medical outcomes.
Remepy is developing tailored therapeutic software for mobile applications that the startup says can unlock and trigger brain functions that modulate the immune system and are synergetic with traditional drugs.
The idea is to create a platform that connects the mind and body through cognitive-behavioral exercises, guided meditations and other practices drawn from neuroscience, such as multisensory conditioning.
The startup announced on Wednesday that it raised $10 million from a seed funding round taking its total financing to $15 million. It seeks to use the funds to pioneer and bring the “first hybrid drug [combination of digital therapeutic software with drugs] to the market.”
The startup believes that many neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases, including cancer and Parkinson’s Disease, are better treated by combining drugs with non-pharmacological digital treatments.
“We are leveraging the power of digital interactions with our brain to cause physiological changes that are synergetic with drugs,” Tsur, who serves as Remepy’s co-CEO told The Times of Israel during a phone interview. “We can trigger different processes in the brain that have to do with brain connectivity, modulating the immune system, and activating the reward system which are extremely synergetic with the influence of drugs and are intended to improve outcomes.”
“We focus on psychological behavioral and cognitive interactions that trigger the brain mechanisms that are synergetic with many types of drugs,” Tsur added.
Tsur said that the digital app has shown encouraging results in pilot studies and clinical trials run with about 200 patients such as decreasing depression, anxiety and insomnia, and improving resilience and biomarkers related to chronic stress and inflammation.
As part of the trials, the startup said it used extensive brain imaging, blood and saliva samples analysis and standardized questionnaires to show that its >patent-pending digital therapies can modulate blood biomarkers.
“These proprietary digital-drug combinations could significantly improve patient outcomes and create tangible value for patients and healthcare systems,” he added.
Tsur said the startup seeks to partner with pharma companies to integrate its digital therapeutic applications with both proprietary drugs and generic drugs.”
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
Original Post URL: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/05/friday-squid-blogging-squid-purses.html
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