FBI, NSA, and CIA use OFF THE SHELF ad blockers due to fear of targeted ads

Usama Jawad @@UsamaJawad96 · Sep 24, 2021

While some companies are striving to make ads more transparent so that users can make more informed decisions about whether they should click on an ad or not, there is still considerable threat from malicious advertisements that are used to harvest information or leverage your device as an attack surface to perform other undesirable activities. It turns out that federal U.S. intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) fear online advertising as much as the next guy, and use ad blockers to mitigate this potential threat.

According to a letter addressed to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), penned by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, and obtained by Motherboard, the Intelligence Community (IC) deploys ad blockers on a wide scale. For those unaware, the IC consists of multiple entities including FBI, NSA, CIA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), and more. The letter also contains a quote from the IC's Chief Information Officer as follows:

The IC has considered all recommendations from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Security Agency and has implemented enterprise-wide policy and technology controls consistent with government recommendations and industry best practices for ad-blocking. The IC has implemented network-based ad- blocking technologies and uses information from several layers, including Domain Name System information, to block unwanted and malicious advertising content.

While the information isn't entirely surprising given that we're talking about federal intelligence agencies, it's still interesting to get further confirmation of the threat of malicious advertising. Wyden has outlined how ad providers utilize online activity to serve targeted ads. The senator has explained that a recent Senate investigation also revealed that this data is exported to "high-risk" markets such as China and Russia, who can then use it for malicious purposes.

Both the NSA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have previously provided guidance encouraging the use of ad blockers. That said, federal agencies are not currently mandated to follow this guidance. Wyden is proposing that the OMB enforces the use of ad blockers across all federal intelligence agencies.

New York City passes legislation to protect food delivery workers

Usman Khan Lodhi @mylodhi · Sep 23, 2021 22:28 EDT0


The lawmakers in New York City have passed legislation which sets out to protect food delivery workers. By doing so, the city becomes one of the first in the U.S. to regulate an industry that had a boom during the coronavirus pandemic. In New York City, roughly 65,000 food delivery workers were considered essentials workers during the pandemic.

Since these workers are classified as independent contractors, they do not get access to benefits such as minimum wage or overtime. There is minimal security against injuries while working or earning shortfalls.

The measures necessitate that restaurants let couriers use their bathrooms, set minimum per-trip pay for the workers, and assurance that couriers are entitled to receive full tips. Additionally, the sweeping legislation also entailed that workers are permitted to set limits on their routes and the apps should pay them at least once a week. The payment plans for workers offered should contain one that doesn't require a bank account.

The legislation received some support from Grubhub and DoorDash, the city's leading food delivery companies. When asked to comment on the matter, Uber didn't respond.

Source: Bloomberg (paywall)

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Incredible Fossil Footprints Are The Earliest Known Trace of Humans in North America


Some of the fossil footprints discovered in White Sands National Park. 

(Reynolds et al., Science, 2021)

AYLIN WOODWARD, BUSINESS INSIDER
24 SEPTEMBER 2021

A new discovery offers definitive evidence that humans were in North America far earlier than archaeologists previously thought – a whopping 7,000 years earlier.

Fossil footprints found on the shore of an ancient lake bed in New Mexico's White Sands National Park date as far back as 23,000 years ago, making them the oldest ever found in North America.


That timing means humans occupied southern parts of the continent during the peak of the final ice age, which upends our previous understanding of when and how they moved south.

The previous idea was that the first people to occupy North America crossed a land bridge that existed between modern-day Siberia and Alaska during the last ice age, between 26,500 and 19,000 years ago.

According to that theory, they would have had to settle near the Arctic because ice sheets covering Canada made it impossible for them to go south.

Then later, once these glaciers melted between 16,000 and 13,500 years ago, the migration toward South America began.

  

One of the footprints. (Reynolds et al., Science, 2021)

This new finding, however, "definitively places humans in North America at time when the ice sheet curtains were very firmly closed," Sally Reynolds, a paleoecologist at Bournemouth University in England and co-author of the new study, told Insider.

So most likely, Reynolds said, humans migrated south in multiple waves, and one of those was before the last ice age. Those early people may have even sailed down the Pacific coast.

"Then more came down after the ice receded," Reynolds said.

The finding was published Thursday in the journal Science, and the study also describes nearby tracks found from mammoths, dire wolves, and giant ground sloths – prey for ancient humans.
The oldest known footprints in the Americas

Reynolds' team found 60 human footprints between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. The researchers estimated the tracks' age by dating microscopic seeds from an aquatic plant found in layers of lake sediment that sandwiched the prints.

"It's unequivocal evidence," Reynolds said. "The layers go seeds, footprints, seeds."

The footprints are now the oldest in the Americas, taking over from a 15,600-year-old footprint found in Chile a decade ago.

Most of the tracks belonged to teenagers and children, the team found, possibly indicating the youngsters played in the area while adults hunted and gathered.

Reynolds said that before this finding, the earliest estimate as to when humans started occupying North America was 16,000 years ago.

The only clue that people might have arrived earlier is a set of stone tools and artifacts found in remote Mexican cave. Archaeologists estimated that sediment ensconcing those artifacts was 32,000 years old, but that's not a trustworthy measure, Reynolds said. Artifacts can migrate up and down through sediment layers over time.

"Footprints, by contrast, are fixed on the landscape," Reynolds said.


Some of the fossil footprints discovered in White Sands National Park. (Reynolds et al., Science, 2021)

Humans could have traveled south by boat

Reynolds said it's not yet clear how, exactly, humans traveled to the White Sands site – though there are several leading theories.

One suggests they traveled down the west coast via an ice-free corridor of land. Another proposes that they came by boat, possibly sailing from modern-day Russia or Japan and then expanding south by hugging the Pacific Coast.


Reynolds said she also thinks it's possible our ancestors might have crossed the continent then sailed down the Atlantic coast, before trekking to New Mexico.

"There's this hovering question mark over the role of their seafaring skills," she said.
Ancient humans in North America hunted giant sloths

This isn't the first remarkable discovery to come from the White Sands site.

"Its value goes far, far beyond the date of these new footprints," Reynolds said.

Three years ago, her team uncovered a different set of human and animal tracks at the site dating back to about 15,500 years ago. Those footprints revealed an epic battle between predator and prey: A human was stalking a giant sloth.

"The human was walking right behind it," Reynolds said, adding, "and the sloth is absolutely not liking it."

Giant ground sloths went extinct some 12,000 years ago. Around the same time, up to 90 percent of all large-bodied animals in the world, including mastodons, prehistoric horses, and ancient giant armadillos, also went extinct.

Many archaeologists think that early humans in the Americas played an outsized role in that mass extinction there, given that it happened within a few millennia of their arrival.

"Humans show up and megafauna start dying," Reynolds said. "It seems like an obvious cause and effect relationship."

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

New Mexico footprints show humans walked in North America some 23,000 years ago

Scientists manage to date seeds discovered in fossilized prints, giving a more definitive time frame to question of when people first arrived in Americas

By AGENCIEST


This undated photo made available by the National Park Service in September 2021 shows fossilized human footprints at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

 (NPS via AP)

Fossilized footprints discovered in New Mexico indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago, researchers reported Thursday.

The first footprints were found in a dry lake bed in White Sands National Park in 2009. Scientists at the US Geological Survey recently analyzed seeds stuck in the footprints to determine their approximate age, ranging from around 22,800 and 21,130 years ago.

The findings may shed light on a mystery that has long intrigued scientists: When did people first arrive in the Americas, after dispersing from Africa and Asia?

Most scientists believe ancient migration came by way of a now-submerged land bridge that connected Asia to Alaska. Based on various evidence — including stone tools, fossil bones and genetic analysis — other researchers have offered a range of possible dates for human arrival in the Americas, from 13,000 to 26,000 years ago or more.

The current study provides a more solid baseline for when humans definitely were in North America, although they could have arrived even earlier, the authors say. Fossil footprints are more indisputable and direct evidence than “cultural artifacts, modified bones, or other more conventional fossils,” they wrote in the journal Science, which published the study Thursday.

“What we present here is evidence of a firm time and location,” they said.

This undated photo made available by the National Park Service in September 2021 shows fossilized human fossilized footprints at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. According to a report published in the journal Science on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, the impressions indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago, much earlier than scientists previously thought. (NPS via AP)

The footprints were left in mud on the banks of a long-since dried up lake, which is now part of a New Mexico desert.

Sediment filled the indentations and hardened into rock, protecting evidence of our ancient relatives, and giving scientists a detailed insight into their lives.

Based on the size of the footprints, researchers believe that at least some were made by children and teenagers who lived during the last ice age.

“Many tracks appear to be those of teenagers and children; large adult footprints are less frequent,” write the authors of the study.

“One hypothesis for this is the division of labor, in which adults are involved in skilled tasks whereas ‘fetching and carrying’ are delegated to teenagers.

“Children accompany the teenagers, and collectively they leave a higher number of footprints.”

David Bustos, the park’s resource program manager, spotted the first footprints in ancient wetlands in 2009. He and others found more in the park over the years.

“We knew they were old, but we had no way to date the prints before we discovered some with (seeds) on top,” he said Thursday.

Made of fine silt and clay, the footprints are fragile, so the researchers had to work quickly to gather samples, Bustos said.

“The only way we can save them is to record them — to take a lot of photos and make 3D models,” he said.

Earlier excavations in White Sands National Park have uncovered fossilized tracks left by a saber-toothed cat, dire wolf, Columbian mammoth and other ice age animals.

 

'His advisers really are muppets!' Boris Johnson is mocked over Kermit the Frog reference in climate speech to the UN after he told delegates 'It IS easy to be green'

• Social media users mocked the PM for insisting the Muppet's character is wrong
• Mr Johnson said it was 'easy, lucrative and right' to be green during the address
• His bizarre comment came as he implored world to help to tackle climate change

By JAMES GANT FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED:  23 September 2021 

Boris Johnson has been savaged online for referencing Kermit The Frog during a speech about climate change.

Social media users mocked the Prime Minister for insisting the Muppet's character was wrong when he sang 'It's Not Easy Bein' Green'.

Mr Johnson said it was 'easy, lucrative and right' to be green during his address to the United Nations General Assembly.

His bizarre comment came as he implored the world to help tackle climate change ahead of the Cop26 summit, which he dubbed 'the turning point for humanity'.

He said Earth is not 'some indestructible toy' but conceded a rise in temperatures was inevitable as we try to 'restrain that growth'.

The address was the last stop on Mr Johnson's visit to the US which has seen discussions held on trade, the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.

Boris tells UN: 'Kermit the Frog was wrong, it IS easy being green'

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He took Muppets favourite Kermit The Frog to task, insisting that it is in fact 'easy being green'

But it was his reference to Jim Henson's Muppet that was picked up on by social media users today.

He said Kermit was wrong when he sang It's Not Easy Bein' Green, adding it was 'easy, lucrative and right' to be green.

One social media user wrote: 'Did Boris Johnson really quote Kermit the Frog in his UN speech? I mean, seriously?'

Another put: 'It's official, Boris Johnson's advisers are muppets! Could someone break it to him gently - Kermit isn't real.'

A woman posted on her Twitter: 'Boris quoting Kermit the Frog in his speech, I just can't.'

Another asked: 'Did Boris Johnson really just mention Kermit the Frog at the UN General Assembly?'

And one more shared a picture of the fictional frog looking sad, with the caption: 'Kermit when he finds out Boris used him in a speech.'

Mr Johnson was speaking to the UN General Assembly where he is trying to push forward Britain's green credentials.

He said Earth is not 'some indestructible toy' as he spoke of the upcoming Glasgow COP26 summit as 'the turning point for humanity'.

Mr Johnson addressed the UN in the early hours of Thursday in a speech in which he conceded a rise in temperatures was inevitable but hopes to 'restrain that growth'.

Mr Johnson told the Assembly it was time for 'humanity to grow up' and look to the coronavirus pandemic as an example of 'gloomy scientists being proved right'.

He added: 'The world - this precious blue sphere with its eggshell crust and wisp of an atmosphere - is not some indestructible toy, some bouncy plastic romper room against which we can hurl ourselves to our heart's content.

'Daily, weekly, we are doing such irreversible damage that long before a million years are up, we will have made this beautiful planet effectively uninhabitable - not just for us but for many other species.

'And that is why the Glasgow COP26 summit is the turning point for humanity.'

Boris' colourful UN speech: Grow up in order to tackle climate change

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson heads to the United Nations to give a speech on global warming

The UN summit is being held in Glasgow in November to 'accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement', a treaty aimed at keeping the rise in global temperatures to below 2C adopted in 2015.

The speech started with a look at how humanity has been around for around 200,000 years and the average mammalian species exists for about a million years before it evolves or dies out - suggesting we were, in relative terms, 'now sweet 16'.

He said: 'We have come to that fateful age when we know roughly how to drive and we know how to unlock the drinks cabinet and to engage in all sorts of activity that is not only potentially embarrassing but also terminal.

'In the words of the Oxford philosopher Toby Ord, 'we are just old enough to get ourselves into serious trouble'.'

Mr Johnson's eco focus is a far cry from his past climate-sceptic views.

He admitted on Monday 'if you were to excavate some of my articles from 20 years ago you might find comments I made, obiter dicta, about climate change that weren't entirely supportive of the current struggle, but the facts change and people change their minds and change their views and that's very important too'.

Addressing the assembly, he said he was not 'one of those environmentalists who takes a moral pleasure in excoriating humanity for its excess' or viewing the green movement as 'a pretext for a wholesale assault on capitalism'.

'My friends, the adolescence of humanity is coming to an end,' he said.

Hillary Clinton to be installed as first female chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast

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Hillary Clinton makes an address during a ceremony at Queen’s University Belfast where she is being awarded an honorary degree (PA)

FRI, 24 SEP, 2021 - 
DAVID YOUNG, PA

Hillary Clinton expressed hope she can inspire young people in Northern Ireland as she prepared to be formally installed as chancellor of Queen’s University.

The former US secretary of state, who is the first woman appointed as chancellor of the Belfast academic institution, will attend an installation ceremony in the city on Friday morning.

It marks the latest chapter in the Clinton family’s long association with Northern Ireland, with Mrs Clinton and her husband former US president Bill Clinton having been regular visitors to the region as enthusiastic supporters of the peace process.

Hillary Clinton received an honorary degree from Queen’s University in 2018 (PA)

“I am so pleased to be in Belfast to be formally installed as chancellor of Queen’s University,” the former presidential candidate said.

“Queen’s makes an enormous impact on the world around us in terms of research and innovation, and I hope to inspire and encourage the students of Queen’s to make their contribution to society to the best of their ability.

“I am proud of my longstanding connection with Northern Ireland and its people and look forward to continuing to make my contribution to the University over the next few years.”

Mrs Clinton was appointed to the role for a five-year term in early 2020 but her official installation was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Friday’s ceremony in the university’s Whitla Hall will also see honorary degrees awarded to 14 leading figures in the worlds of business, politics, sport, the arts, policing and education in Northern Ireland.

Among recipients will be Derry Girls writer and creator Lisa McGee, former Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Sir George Hamilton and Ireland’s highest-capped female athlete, international hockey player Shirley McCay.

President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton arrive in Belfast in the 1990s (PA)

President and vice-chancellor of Queen’s, Professor Ian Greer, welcomed Mrs Clinton’s installation.

“We are delighted that Secretary Clinton has been able to travel to Belfast to be formally installed as the University’s 11th chancellor,” he said.

“Secretary Clinton is an internationally recognised public servant who has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to Northern Ireland.

“She has an enormous amount to offer the university and will continue to work as a key advocate for Queen’s on the international stage.

“It is also a pleasure today to award honorary degrees to 14 world-leading, highly distinguished individuals. We warmly welcome them to the Queen’s family.”

In 2018, Mrs Clinton was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from Queen’s for exceptional public service in the US and globally, and for her contribution to peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.