SCHADENFREUDE

Iran-backed hackers breached a US federal agency that failed to patch year-old bug

Carly Page
Wed, November 16, 2022 

The U.S. government's cybersecurity agency says hackers backed by the Iranian government compromised a federal agency that failed to patch against Log4Shell, a vulnerability fixed almost a year ago.

In an alert published Thursday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that a federal civilian executive branch organization (FCEB) was breached by Iranian government hackers earlier in February.

CISA did not name the breached FCEB agency, a list that includes the likes of the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Trade Commission, and CISA spokesperson Michael Feldman declined to answer our questions when reached by TechCrunch.

CISA said it first observed the suspected activity on the unnamed federal agency's network months later in April while conducting retrospective analysis using Einstein, a government-run intrusion detection system used to protect federal civilian agency networks. The agency found that the hackers had exploited Log4Shell, a critical zero-day vulnerability in the ubiquitous open source logging software Log4j, in an unpatched VMware Horizon server to gain initial access into the organization’s network with administrator and system-level access.

VMware released security patches for Horizon servers in December. But this compromise happened even though CISA had ordered all federal civilian agencies to patch their systems affected by the Log4Shell vulnerability by December 23.

Once inside the organizations’ network, CISA observed the threat actors installed XMRig, open source crypto mining software that is commonly abused by hackers for mining virtual currency on compromised computers. The attackers also installed Mimikatz, an open source credential stealer, to harvest passwords and to create a new domain administrator account. Using this newly created account, the hackers disabled Windows Defender and implanted Ngrok reverse proxies on several hosts in order to maintain their access in the future.

The attackers also changed the password for the local administrator account on several hosts as a backup should the rogue domain administrator account get detected and terminated.

It's not clear for what reason the hackers targeted the U.S. federal agency. Broad access to an organization's network can be used for both espionage as well as launching destructive attacks.

CISA, which has not attributed the breach to a particular advanced persistent threat (APT) group, shared indicators of compromise (IOCs) to help network defenders detect and protect against similar compromises. CISA also said that organizations that haven't yet patched VMware systems against Log4Shell should assume that they've already been breached and advises them to start hunting for malicious activity within their networks.

The agency also urges organizations to keep all software up-to-date, implement and prevent users from using known compromised passwords.

Doctor slams popular, 'damaging' TikTok wellness trends: 'There's no human evidence to actually back up what they're saying'

Katie Mather

Wed, November 16, 2022 

The alarming amount of misinformation on TikTok is nothing new.

TikTok doesn’t have any guidelines for who you can identify as on the app or any requirements to include information to back up statements, so plenty of uneducated and unqualified people present misinformation as fact to millions of people on the platform. We know this. But many users take TikTokers at face value and use amateur videos to shape their education, rather than investigating the authenticity of the TikTokers in the first place.

Misinformation is particularly prevalent within the health and wellness space on TikTok — especially when it comes to food and nutrition. A study from the University of Mississippi found that college students, when presented with a series of TikTok and Instagram posts about nutrition, were mostly unable to identify which posts were false. Female students, in particular, misidentified more fake posts as factual.

A national survey found that most adults did not have a media literacy education while growing up. Media literacy, which is the process of critically analyzing information found on the internet, is crucial in helping TikTok users — particularly those who are most vulnerable — stay alert and on top of misinformation.

But to get to understand how to sift through misinformation on health and nutrition, first we need to understand why this is such a big problem in the wellness space.

Why are there so many self-identified “wellness gurus” on TikTok?

According to Dr. Idrees Mughal — more commonly known by his social handle Dr. Idz — the problem of unqualified “experts” spreading misinformation is actually unique to the wellness space.

Dr. Idz, who has a master’s degree in nutritional research in addition to his medical license, started replying to and debunking some of these wellness videos when he joined TikTok in early 2021. He currently has more than 1.5 million followers on the platform.

“This is actually only applicable to the wellness industry, and that is because you won’t find it in any other subject matter, whether it’s science, geography or whatever, you won’t find it,” he said about misinformation. “You’re not going to find someone — who isn’t an engineer — make a video about, oh, this is the best way to build a skyscraper.”

The reason, Dr. Idz argued, is simply that everyone eats, and most people have anecdotal evidence of what works and doesn’t work for them. The problem is, they’re presenting it as a universal fact.

“They think just because they partake in [eating, stress and sleeping], they then have authority in that field, which is absolutely false,” he continued. “Are you a doctor? Are you a gastroenterologist? Are you a dietitian? No, you’re not any of those things.”

There is also an abundance of quick, cheap online courses that offer “unregulated, unprofessional qualifications” in food and wellness spaces.

“You won’t find a two-week online engineering course to build your own house,” Dr. Idz pointed out, “but you will find that for nutrition, wellness and gut health.”

The wellness market is projected to be worth $7 trillion by 2025 — with the two fastest-growing subsections being personal care and beauty (worth $955 billion in 2020) and nutrition and weight loss (worth $946 billion in 2020). Wellness misinformation can be difficult to spot, especially when a lot of TikTok users are actively pursuing more information. Even though skepticism surrounding Kardashian-approved detox teas and other celebrity endorsements has increased, as more regular TikTok users, especially with larger followings, start promoting their wellness tips as facts, it becomes harder for the average user to differentiate who is qualified.

Another problem is that people are too quick to dismiss TikTok as “just a dance app” to take the lack of media literacy seriously. Abbie Richards, who studies disinformation on TikTok, corrected the notion and told the Washington Post, “We’re talking about a platform that’s shaping how a whole generation is learning to perceive the world.”

How can you, an average user, figure out what’s misinformation on wellness TikTok?

For Dr. Idz, he encourages followers to develop, what he calls “a bullshit radar.” Developing it doesn’t require a degree, a two-week crash course or even additional research — according to Dr. Idz, there are similarities across accounts spreading misinformation that the average TikTok user can look out for before taking the content at face value.

“Number one is, is the person accredited and credentialed to talk about this space?” he asked. “I don’t mean online [credits]; I mean, university graduates in the specific space.”

If the person isn’t accredited, that isn’t an automatic reason to assume they don’t know what they’re talking about. But it’s a factor to keep in mind when listening to their advice.

“Number two, do they openly engage in scientific discourse in their comments?” Dr. Idz continued. “I’m not saying that everyone needs to reference papers every single time they speak. What I’m saying is if someone asks for evidence or someone asks for a citation, if they become defensive and don’t provide it, then that will trigger a red flag for me.”

For sources, Dr. Idz is also looking for medical journals, not, say, an article from a health magazine.

“Number three, do they speak in absolutes?” he asked. “If they speak in absolutes, they are most likely talking nonsense.”

According to Dr. Idz, videos framed as “This is the best thing you can do for your health” or “This is the most inflammatory food in the world today” exclude a lot of information and nuance that could prove these definitive statements false.

“Even though I know that having a certain diet, for example, would benefit people with inflammation, I’m never going to say this is the best diet for reducing inflammation,” he explained.

What is the worst that can happen if you believe health and wellness misinformation on TikTok?

“Trends” like intermittent fasting, #whatIeatinaday videos and carnivore diets go against TikTok’s community guidelines that prohibit “content that promotes eating habits that are likely to cause adverse health outcomes.” Regardless, they still exist and rack up millions of views.

The carnivore diet, in particular, is seemingly the bane of Dr. Idz’s existence.

“I would say currently it may not be the biggest [trend], but it definitely has been one of the most influential in its negative implications,” he said.

The diet is restrictive and plant-free and, as the name suggests, encourages participants to exclusively eat animal products.

“It is probably the most damaging trend in the wellness space that we have right now,” Dr. Idz noted. “There’s no human evidence to actually back up what they’re saying, because time and time again, [vegetables] actually improve our health.”

Based on what Dr. Idz has seen on TikTok, a common misconception about the carnivore diet is that influencers are calling a nutrient found in plants and vegetables “toxic.” Dr. Idz says a small percentage of people can find short-term relief from stomach issues by temporarily removing plants, vegetables and seeds from their diets, but it doesn’t mean that’s the answer nor is that the solution for everyone. In fact, eliminating plants, vegetables and seeds lowers the stomach’s ability to grow bacteria for a healthy microbiome.

“Yes, if you want to have a diet that is strictly devoid of any vegetables, then, yes, your gut symptoms might be better,” he explained. “But actually the moment you eat something wrong, you’re going to be far worse off than if you develop the time to cultivate the bacteria [from vegetables] that we all need.”

Ultimately, to get proper and accurate health and wellness advice, it’s best to see a professional doctor.

The post Wellness TikTok is selling you a lie: Dr. Idz on why there’s so much food misinformation, how to spot it and why the carnivore diet is a hoax appeared first on In The Know.

Voices: Other people were shocked by Lauren Boebert’s close race. I wasn’t

HER DEMOCRATIC OPPONENT CONCEDED

ON NOV 17,2022

Sheila Flynn
Thu, November 17, 2022

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and her husband Jayson during a rally (Copyright - 2022 The Denver Post, MediaNews Group.)

When outsiders think of Colorado, they usually think of two things: mountains and marijuana. There’s no well-established stereotype of Coloradans – at least not that I know of, and I live here – and it’s very possible that state natives would like it to remain exactly that way forever.

Colorado is home to a diverse population — ranchers and hippies, skiers and stoners, immigrants and coastal transplants. Lauren Boebert’s Third Congressional District includes all of them. And the majority of those voters, despite their differences, tend to share an independent streak and a fierce pride in their state.

Boebert either forgot about that or seriously miscalculated. Because it became apparent to me this year, just from reporting in her constituency, that those factors would cause her huge problems.


It’s no coincidence that the largest bloc of voters in Boebert’s district registered as unaffiliated, refusing to align with either party. One business owner in Grand Junction last week, a native Coloradan, told me that his contemporaries like to think that they’re independently minded – and the still-undetermined election results proved that they’ve put their money where their mouth is (in this case, literally, with Boebert’s Democratic challenger at times outpacing her in campaign fundraising).

It’s clear that quite a few Colorado Republicans were “thinking for themselves”, unwilling to toe the party line to vote for her. Boebert may rail against “sheeple,” but it likely would have worked in her favor if there were more of them in her constituency.

Instead, many turned against Boebert for the same reasons she alienated unaffiliated voters. Her image flies in the face of the very values she purports to represent. Her constituents may love gun rights and socially conservative platforms, but there’s not much time for brash, inflammatory and self-serving rhetoric out here. Name one A-list celebrity from Colorado. It’s hard, right? Celebrity and fame are not exactly prized in this part of the world. Boebert’s apparent quest for them didn’t do her any favors.

There’s a vibe of hardy frontier self-reliance mixed with almost midwestern niceness in this district, and picking fights left, right and center – with the ostensible goal of raising one’s own profile – does not remotely fit in with that. Multiple people I interviewed brought up the State of the Union incident, when Boebert heckled President Biden, as an example of completely uncalled-for behaviour.

Not only did Coloradans dislike Boebert’s bombastic ranting, they were embarrassed by it. They were concerned about what outsiders might think of the state when they witnessed the Congresswoman’s antics. Every time I visited her constituency this year, at least one person per day would complain to me that Boebert was making the region a “laughingstock” – in those exact words. To those voters likely to walk around clad in attire decorated with the Colorado flag — a popular choice round here — that was completely unacceptable.

Boebert’s opponent, Adam Frisch, zeroed in on this. And at the same time as criticizing her behaviour and political stances, he took aim at her lack of visibility in the district. She may be everywhere on Twitter, but she’s done less than expected for the people she wanted — and expected — to vote for her. Frisch hammered away at the Congresswoman’s legislative record (she’s basically passed nothing, though that’s not necessarily unusual for a Congress freshman) and, particularly, the feeling that she put her own ambitions before the good of Colorado. In the days immediately leading up to Election Day, Frisch went on a grueling, 100-stop tour throughout the sprawling district to emphasize his own physical presence and local commitment.

Boebert’s far-right Christian views never sat well with a lot of voters. Some non-religious constituents worried she didn’t really believe in a separation of church and state. And some devout Christians were horrified by things she, as a purported Christian, said and did. “Nothing she represents represents what I believe a Christian should be,” one voter told me from Rifle, the town where Boebert once ran the now-defunct gun-themed restaurant Shooters Grill.

And let’s remove from the equation the native Coloradan voters. The state, like so many more rural, picturesque parts of America, has seen an influx of residents in recent years thanks to remote work – and, in Colorado’s case, legal weed. In one day of reporting alone, I spoke to registered voters who had originally hailed from Maine, New York and even the Netherlands. (I’m not one of Boebert’s constituents, but I, too, am a transplant.) The Congresswoman’s brand is completely alien and off-putting to many of these new residents, including the ones who don’t necessarily skew liberal. I spoke to one woman who’d previously lived in California and actually voted for Boebert the first time around – only to regret it when she saw just how the MAGA acolyte comported herself.

Here’s another aside: No one I spoke with who knew Boebert personally actually liked her, and they said that was based on her personality, long before she entered politics.

After all of that, I watched as the nation reacted with shock when Frisch nipped at Boebert’s heels in a surprisingly close (and currently ongoing) race. I was a little surprised; I’d expected Frisch to do much better than anticipated, but not by such numbers. I wasn’t, however, as shocked as everyone else. I’d been on the ground for a while, and I knew what people really thought.

Whatever happens, it’s apparent that Boebert needs to rethink her brand. Whether she wins or loses now, this wafer-thin election means that the proud Coloradans she represents aren’t buying it.

How an Ontario flour mill saved an iconic Canadian hot cereal loved by northerners

Story by Luke Carroll • 9h ago


Allicia Kelly had just finished up her "Hail Mary box" of Red River Cereal in October when she decided to turn to Facebook in a desperate act to see if she could find more.

The cereal had been pulled from the shelves, but she was able to get this last box from her parents' basement and wondered if, maybe, other people had some available that they didn't want — the nutty, grainy cereal is reviled as much as it is loved.

But it was from that Facebook post that she discovered Red River Cereal, the nearly 100-year-old Canadian culinary classic, was available for purchase after an approximate two-year absence thanks to an Ontario flour mill.

Off the shelves 'due to low support'

This came as a relief to many in the North who rely on the cereal out in the bush, including Marc Winkler, host of CBC's the Weekender.

Winkler said his heart sank in 2021 when he learned that Red River Cereal was no longer being produced.

It started when he was unable to find the product at the stores, so Winkler used his reporting skills to find out why.

He discovered that Smuckers, an American company that owned Red River Cereal at the time, discontinued the product "due to low support." They'd already stopped selling it in Canada in 2020.

Winkler said he reached out to Smuckers to inform the company there would be support if they brought the cereal back, believing he alone could keep their profits soaring. He wasn't the only northerner with this thought.


Marc Winker, left, and Loren McGinnis photographed with Red River Cereal. Winkler went on a deep dive to find out why the cereal was no longer being sold at grocery stores, but on this journey he discovered his beloved cereal was now available thanks to an Ontario flour mill.© Loren McGinnis/CBC

Yellowknife resident Rosanna Strong said Red River Cereal was a staple for her and her family.

Strong said she would occasionally use the cereal for baking bread or pancakes, but it was a crucial component for long trips on the land.

She still remembers a year ago when she was looking for some to bring on a long canoe trip.

Strong checked each store in town, including her "go-to" Weaver and Devore, where she was informed the tragic news — Red River Cereal was no longer being produced.

"And that's when I was brought to my knees in tears," she said with a laugh.

This is a far cry from how she felt about the cereal when she first tried it as a pre-teen.

"It was disgusting, why would anyone eat that?" she said of her first bite of the grain-filled breakfast.

"As I grew older, I grew to appreciate the nuttiness, the chewiness, the texture in it."

However, Garth Wallbridge, a Yellowknife-based lawyer, said he always loved the breakfast cereal.

"We had it fairly regularly around the breakfast table when I was a kid," he said.

Wallbridge is Métis and from Manitoba, where Red River Cereal was first made, giving it a hint of nostalgia to go along with its seedy texture.

Wallbridge said when he found out it was no longer being sold, he loaded up on a few bags — although he wished he had bought more at the time.

But now he's placed an order and is excitingly awaiting to have what he describes as the perfect hot meal to start one's day before going, or working, on the land in the cold winter months.

Arva Flour Mill

The Arva Flour Mill in Ontario, North America's oldest continuously-operating commercial water-powered flour mill, purchased the Red River Cereal this past June.

Mark Rinker is the owner of the Arva Flour Mill, located about nine kilometres northwest of London.

Rinker purchased the mill just over a year ago, and it was around this time that he first heard of Red River Cereal.

He said he spent time in the mill store while the purchase was going through and he heard multiple customers ask if they sold the classic cereal. Curious, he began researching the cereal and discovered its history.

In 1924, a woman named Gertrude Edna Skilling came up with the recipe in her kitchen in Winnipeg. Her husband was the president of the Red River Grain Co. and started manufacturing it. It was then purchased by Maple Leaf Milling Co. in 1928 and then Smuckers in 1995.

Rinker said he realized how disappointed customers were when they learned the cereal was no longer being produced.

"The discord was pretty similar when the mill went up for sale last August," Rinker said, adding there was fear the iconic mill would be closed and sold to a developer.

He said people were relieved when the mill stayed in operation and he figured many would be equally pleased at the return of the iconic cereal.

Rinker then began discussing the purchase with Smuckers over the course of the year and it was finalized in June 2022.

A press release said the original recipe was slightly altered in 2011 to include steel cut wheat and rye, but that Arva would be reverting it back to the original recipe and including cracked wheat and rye.

The release said the mill is in the process of acquiring a hammer mill to crack the grain.

"Cracking the grain will result in a more creamy texture and restore the cereal to its original way," according to the release.

For Allicia Kelly, who made the original post looking for the cereal, Red River Cereal is a part of the northern fabric — her parents and grandparents spent a lot of time at bush camps where a hot cereal to start the day was daily routine.

"Being out a field camp, or a bush camp or a cabin, that's where it belongs to me," she said.

And she's happy a staple of life in the bush is returning.

By destroying Twitter, Elon Musk reveals contempt for democracy | Opinion

Opinion by AlterNet • 
By John Stoehr

Image via Creative Commons.© provided by AlterNet

Helaine Olen’s column last Friday came a week early.

Word got out last night that Twitter could shut down imminently on account of owner Elon Musk telling workers to love it or leave it (ie, to go “extremely hardcore” with no change in pay or go). Turns out some are leaving – “some,” as in thousands. It’s enough to make you wonder about the whole billionaire worship thing, Helaine wrote.

“I’m not denying that some billionaires are brilliant entrepreneurs,” Helaine wrote in the Post. “But they are way less special than they are frequently told. (Some are just heirs, or lucky Powerball winners.)"

READ MORE: Twitter in the edge of collapse as workers revolt against 'notorious union-buster' Elon Musk

She continued:

As our men of business become more prominent and wealthier, they enter a feedback loop. Sycophants flatter instead of challenging them. This impacts their ability to hear criticism. And that leaves them more likely to cling to toadies who feed their now inflated self-image. All too often, the end result is ever larger mistakes and more ethically dubious behavior.

Of course, Helaine is right. Billionaires are human. To err is human. To err spectacularly, and destructively, is billionaire-level human.

That’s why there’s more at stake than a “peculiarly American form of worship,” as Helaine calls it. There’s more at stake than even the collapse of America’s premier public forum. We’re witnessing a democratic abomination injure democratic politics, because democratic politics is the only thing that can keep him in check.

Musk deserves ridicule, true, but he deserves more democratic contempt. Why? Because of his contempt for democratic politics.

READ MORE: Former Twitter VP urges companies pull advertising from platform — citing Elon Musk’s 'toxic takeover'

Destroying Twitter proves it.

Musk was born into wealth in his native South Africa. The dead granted him power and privilege that he neither earned nor deserved. The day he accepted his inheritance was, moreover, the day he participated in the deprivation of other people’s political equality, which they are entitled to for the fact of being born.

Musk became a billionaire in these United States. To become a billionaire is to commit political crimes that would be otherwise impossible without a federal government of, by and for the people permitting them to happen or at least looking away while they do.

Musk then harnessed that power and privilege to shape and mold the very same federal government that initially allowed the political crimes that animate his power and privilege. To be the world’s richest man – to exist as such alone – is to profane not only political equality but the republican principle of equal treatment under law.

Related video: Hundreds of Twitter employees quit after Musk ultimatum

Duration 5:20 View on Watch

He is, therefore, a democratic abomination.

But that’s not all.

For all its flaws, which are many, Twitter remains the premiere public forum in America. That’s because its nature is democratic. It puts downward pressure on the orders of (white, patriarchal) power established long before Elon Musk was born but from which he still benefits. Twitter is, in other words, democratic politics in action.

As such, Twitter has played a huge role in democratizing virtually every part of society that previously had been shielded and defended by those with the most to lose from democratic politics. These parts included politics, journalism, sports, religion, business, you name it. Elites who otherwise would not have faced accountability did in part because Twitter is a public forum where the people can be heard.

Sure, Twitter can be chaotic. It can really feel like it’s everything everywhere all at once. But ultimately, Twitter gave voice to people who rarely have a voice – look up “Black Twitter” – and it flattened the (white, patriarchal) orders of power that have shaped, influenced and dominated every human society since humans stood upright.

Twitter can be democratic politics at worst – for instance, an angry mob in search of victims. But it can be democratic politics at its best – freedom of speech for the weak and powerless, accountability for the rich and powerful, and a valuable indicator of the public mood.

Good or bad, Twitter is politics from the ground up.

That’s why Musk hates it.

There are many theories as to why Elon Musk bought Twitter for billions more than it’s worth. The simplest answer is that he really believes Twitter is used as a weapon to silence unpopular points of view – and that someone (a hero!) had to do something about it.

In other words, Musk appears captive to the accusation, popular among elite white men, that these days you can’t say boo without offending someone, and that this fact is a violation of free speech.

While there are many exceptions to the rule, the rule is still pretty clear to an honest reader of the First Amendment. Twitter is not a weapon to silence people. It is, however, a source of counterspeech. It’s a place in which people who never before had a say have a say.

Pre-Twitter, elite white men could say boo while safe in the knowledge that anyone who had a platform high enough to criticize them looked just like them. Post-Twitter, not so much. Then suddenly anyone off the street could read them the riot act.

For Elon Musk and his ilk, it’s not the silencing that’s the problem. The problem is a matter of who’s doing the silencing. Pre-Twitter, elite white men could say virtually anything. They could shut up points of view they didn’t like. Democratic politics was a nuisance but it didn’t threaten their rank, nor did it call on them to answer to it.

Post-Twitter, they’re being held responsible – and they’re being held responsible by people – Black, LGBT-plus and women, for God’s sake – who have no right to hold them responsible. Worse of all, they can’t do anything to shut them up. For the powerful to be made powerless is a grievous injury. It’s enough to make you want to buy Twitter.

Then kill it.

It may be too soon to say Twitter has gone to ground. But whatever form it takes, it will likely be, in Musk’s view, a restoration of the “natural order of things” by which political elites can do and say whatever they want and the rest of us just have to put up with it.

That’s why rethinking the myth of billionaire greatness – that “peculiarly American form of worship” – isn’t enough. Musk is making choices, which are informed by politics, the kind of politics that not only has contempt for democracy but wants the people to shut up.

It’s not enough to say stop worshiping them.

We need to hold them in contempt, too.


READ MORE: 

Critics trash 'Twitter troll' Ted Cruz after he blames John Kerry for litter along the southern border

Related Articles:

・Why Elon Musk’s 'chaotic' management of Twitter has a 'distinct echo' of Trump’s presidency: journalist

・'My very diplomatic reply': Ukraine ambassador leaves Twitter users reeling after colorful response to Elon Musk

・Elon Musk’s $44 million Twitter deal may be subject to national 'security reviews': Biden Administration

Elon Musk, disaster artist

Darrell Etherington
Wed, November 16, 2022 

We're at the point in the Elon Musk/Twitter debacle where the fact that it's a shit show is our new normal, and anything that resembles a normal functioning tech company or leadership is more newsworthy than the inverse. But even as we take for granted that Musk's rule will continue to tend toward chaos, it's worth stepping back to look at the billionaire executive's history of inciting catastrophe as a preferred method of doing business.

Crises lead to an acute need for solutions

Musk has always positioned his businesses as being intended to serve the long-term interests of humanity as a whole, and to his credit, he has always seemed to genuinely believe that to be true, a trait he shares with Superman — but also with Lex Luthor. In doing so, Musk is tapping into something often used as a unifying motivator behind great effort in disaster and alien invasion films: Namely, that if we face an existential threat, we're more likely to face it as a unified force capable of superhuman feats.

Starting with Tesla, Musk's businesses have all been positioned as solutions to monumental problems that ultimately threaten the long-term survival of the human race. X.com, which would become PayPal, is probably the exception to that rule, but the fact that it's an exception in more ways than one is probably much more prescriptive about everything that comes after than anything else.

Tesla was intended to help humanity avoid the existential threat of climate decay — particularly at the hands of carbon emissions, by becoming the first company to effectively build electric vehicles at mass-market scale.

SpaceX is a different approach to the same problem — a means to "make humanity an interplanetary species" that imagines a future state in which Tesla and related climate change mitigation efforts have, at best, bought us extra time to get off this festering dirt ball and to another (even less hospitable though?) celestial body like Mars.

Musk has also founded not one, but two organizations for the purposes of combating a threat many would consider even more far-fetched, but no less existentially challenging should the worst-case scenario come to pass: namely, artificial intelligence. Aiming to take an approach to artificial general intelligence that worked more on influencing the direction of its development, Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 alongside former YC President Sam Altman and others.

While he no longer seems directly involved in that organization's day-to-day operations (he left the board in 2018), Musk also later founded Neuralink, a startup focused on the more "practical" (insofar as the word has any meaning in this context) application of creating an implantable brain computer to help people augment their intelligence in a bid to keep pace with AI's eventual presumed supergenius powers.

Messes as macro- and micro-motivators

As much as Musk uses looming global threats as consistent base notes that hum threateningly in the background of all his businesses, he also employs specific, immediate crises to "motivate" his employees for fast (and often reckless) change. To be fair to Musk, it looks like often these crises arose from the same kind of brash hard-charging that you could say allowed him to break his way into businesses like the automotive and aerospace industries, where entrenched interests and high costs have typically meant newcomers didn't last long.

Musk has specific intelligence and talents that have contributed to his success, but preparedness and planning aren't among them, based on my longtime observation of his career. Some leaders, as they proceed in their career, seek to shore up their shortcomings through training and self-improvement: Musk, I think, saw the power that chaos creates and chose to go in a different direction, frequently architecting the disasters that prompt abrupt transformations and fire-drill urgency in his own teams — and that further his business interests when it comes to public policy, too.

Author and tech industry critic Paris Marx famously pointed out that much of Musk's hyping of his proposed hyperloop technology was actually about defraying support for the high-speed rail project in California, framing much of his work in transportation as amounting to attempts to "stifle alternatives" to individual car ownership, and by extension, Tesla.

Perhaps the most insidious (but also arguably effective) way that Musk wields disaster as a motivator is in moving his employees to action. The Tesla Model 3 production process is a prime example: Musk himself described it as "production hell" in the early days, and was frequently found sleeping on factory floors while trying to rally his workforce around the challenges they faced. But much of the challenge was down to a decision on Musk's part to eschew a traditional auto assembly line approach in favor of ultra-dense and ultimately unworkable automated robotic assembly units.

On its surface, that was a big bet that didn't quite pay off, despite Musk's best efforts. A more critical observer might argue, though, that Musk chose a much riskier path to the detriment of his workforce because he knew he'd be able to recoup a lot more sweat equity once they were in crunch mode regardless of the outcome of the automated play.

Twitter: Elon's calamity masterpiece

Elon's pièce de rèsistance so far has to be Twitter, however, when it comes to causing massive problems and then putting added responsibility on people under his supervision. From the start, when he cleared house by laying off half the workforce (with predictable ripples in terms of knock-on infrastructure effects, not unlike when Thanos disappeared half the Marvel cinematic universe) he's being sowing chaos.

For the past couple of weeks since then, it's seemed like he's been introducing new disasters almost daily, including sprint product introductions (and rollbacks), sudden reversals in the company's work-from-home policies, and, just today, an ultimatum essentially promising those who remain significant overwork.

Musk clearly thrives in a chaotic milieu, and Twitter is the best example yet of him architecting the landscape exactly to his preferred habitat. In the process, he's also revealed much more about his particular brand of humanist "heroism" — which ends up resembling that of Mr. Glass from "Unbreakable" or Ozymandias from "The Watchmen" more than it does any straightforward protagonist.

Families speak out after explosion at oil and gas site claims two lives

Story by Mrinali Anchan • 

Two families say they are still in shock after losing loved ones from an explosion at an oil and gas site on Nov. 12.


The relatives of Greg Podulsky, left, and Darcy Schwindt, right, say they are looking for answers and peace.© Submitted by Charlene Nahamko and Dallas Schwindt

Greg Podulsky, 29, and Darcy Schwindt, 47, were killed after a blast at the Marten Hills site, northeast of Slave Lake, about 250 kilometres north of Edmonton. The site is operated by the Calgary-based company Tamarack Valley Energy.

RCMP and emergency crews attended the scene and the deaths are being investigated by Alberta Occupational Health and Safety.

For Charlene Nahamko, time has stood still since she first heard the news from her brother saying that her son had died.

"I can't stress enough the change, the emptiness of how it changes your whole world," Nahamko said in an interview about how losing Podulsky has impacted the family.

"It's been tough for everybody and I always say every day is Groundhog Day."

When remembering her son, Nahamko said he had a tremendous talent for art which included drawing, painting, playing the electric guitar and welding.

Podulsky was raised in Whitecourt, Alta. and was inspired to pursue welding professionally after an uncle in Slave Lake, Alta. took Podulsky under his wing after he finished studying at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton.

Throughout his life, Nahamko said her son was a free spirit who took his work seriously as a journeyman welder.

"We used to always tell him that he should have been born in the '70s Woodstock era," she said as she recalled how he was a big fan of tie-dyed clothing and how she now wore them in his honour.

"To Greg, everybody was his best friend and he treated them all like that," Nahamko said. "It didn't matter what time of day it was, it didn't matter where you were, who you were ... if you needed him in any way, he was there for you."

A wonderful uncle

That sentiment is also held by Ivan Schwindt, when he remembers his youngest brother, Darcy.

"Darcy has been a wonderful brother to me and just a great human being," Schwindt said. "Anytime he walks into a room, he's got just a great sense of humour that he brings out in everybody."

Dallas Schwindt, Ivan's wife, said they are still reeling from the news.

"My husband and I were just watching hockey and just kind of going about a Saturday and he got the call that there had been an accident and that [Darcy] had been killed." Schwindt said. "My husband's jaw just dropped and I just froze. I just couldn't believe it."

But she said, the hardest part was telling her two daughters that their uncle had died.

"Where Darcy really shined was as an uncle ... that's maybe been the hardest part is just seeing my girls just hurt and and miss someone just so much."

From this tragedy, the two families said they want answers as to what happened to their loved ones and to ensure no other family experiences loss of this nature.

"As people in Alberta, in the workforce, and in our world today, we just we need to do better," Nahamko said.

In honouring her son publicly, Nahamko also wants to put an end to online speculation as to how the incident occurred and to make sure her son's memory is respected.

"He was young, but he knew his job. He knew his work. He knew his responsibilities." Nahamko said.

"It's so easy to point blame and it's so easy to get angry ... but that wasn't Greg, and we're not going to do that."

"I think our prayer is just that, from this tragedy, it can be prevented in the future and that no other family will ever have to go through this kind of hurt and pain, and that we can make sure that this doesn't happen again," Dallas Schwindt said.

Work remains halted at the site where the incident took place.

In a statement released last week, Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd. CEO Brian Schmidt said he doesn't know when the company will restart operations.

Schmidt stated he is personally devastated by the deaths of the two contract employees, which are the first workplace deaths in Tamarack's history.

The families said funeral arrangements are underway for both men.

Nigerian teens create fashion from trash to fight pollution

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Teenage climate activists in Nigeria's largest city are recycling trash into runway outfits for a “Trashion Show.”



Chinedu Mogbo, founder of Greenfingers Wildlife Initiative, a conservation group working with the activists, said the show was designed to raise awareness about environmental pollution.

Lagos, one of Africa’s most populous cities with more than 15 million people, generates at least 12,000 metric tons of waste daily, authorities say. And implementation of environmental laws is poor: The World Bank estimates that pollution kills at least 30,000 people in this city every year.

This year’s show came just as world leaders wrapped up two weeks of U.N. climate talks in Egypt.

In collaboration with young activists and models, the Greenfingers Wildlife Initiative says it's out to recycle as many plastics as possible, one community at a time.

It organizes regular trash clean-ups across communities, at drainage ditches and beaches. The plastic litter is then used to create fabrics for the fashion show.

Draped in red plastic spoons and fabric, 16-year-old Nethaniel Edegwa said she joined this year’s edition as a model “to make a change."

"We can see that we are all being affected by the climate change, so I really want to make a difference,” Edegwa said.

___

Asadu contributed from Abuja, Nigeria.

___

Jehovah's Witnesses, Sikhs, Muslims: New Religious Groups Race to Arctic

Story by Julia Duin • 11h ago - NEWSEWEEK


From Nunavut to Norilsk to Nome: They're coming.

What was once a slow advance of religious groups into the far north has turned into a gallop to the high latitudes, starting around the 60th parallel, a circle around the Earth just shy of the Arctic Circle and encompassing cities such as Fairbanks, Alaska, and Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories.

Although Lutherans, Anglicans, Catholics and Russian Orthodox believers have been in the far North for centuries, the newcomers - ranging from independent Baptists to Baha'is - are drawn by growing populations, in part the result of climate change. As the North can be a lonely place, houses of worship can provide instant community.


Explorer Ole Jorgen Hammeken leads a dog sled team on the sea ice of Uummannaq Bay in northwest Greenland, the same region of the country where he says he once encountered a shaman. Galya Morrell© Galya Morrell

Last month, a group of Jehovah's Witnesses in Iqaluit opened their first worship center in Canada's vast Nunavut province. This sub-Arctic city on eastern Canada's Baffin Island made headlines earlier this year when Pope Francis dropped by for a few hours to apologize for past abuses of indigenous youth in Catholic residential schools.

One day before the July 29 papal visit, enormous tractor-loaders were hauling 12 sea containers and three huge shipping crates into downtown Iqaluit from the tidal flats of Frobisher Bay. Inside were the makings for a two-story, 3,296-square-foot building covered with brown and silver insulated panels.

This was the Jehovah Witnesses' new CA$1.24 million (or $880,370 US) kingdom hall, shipped up from Becancour, Quebec. There being no construction materials available in this treeless area nor any roads from the mainland, everything has to be built, then shipped or flown in.

Believers, who had been meeting in a local gym, were jubilant.

"It's really opened doors to our meetings," said Jason McGregor, the project coordinator.

"Knowing there's a permanent place of worship for us in Iqaluit gives people a chance to learn good news from the Bible, which is a huge blessing. And the building says the Witnesses are here to stay. We're not going anywhere."

Other religions are making inroads as well. In Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories province, a 7,500-square-foot mosque is being built for an estimated 300 Muslims - the fifth such in Canada's far north.

In the western province of the Yukon, the most famous personality on social media (21,000 followers on YouTube, 209,000 on Twitter) is Gurdeep Pandher, a Sikh famed for his Punjabi dance videos in -45-degree weather and his emphasis on inclusion, diversity and joi de vivre. In July, his fellow believers in nearby Whitehorse completed the restoration of a new Sikh gurdwara (prayer hall).

There have been pioneering efforts to the east, such as the establishment of Greenland's first Baptist church in the tourist capital of Ilulissat and, to the west, a tiny group of Seventh-Day Adventists hangs on in Gambell, a village on Alaska's St. Lawrence Island a mere 35 miles across the Bering Sea from Russia.

Mia Bennett, a University of Washington geography professor with a specialty in Arctic studies, said houses of worship are one of the few gathering spots available in these remote locales.

"When I go to do field work in the Arctic, I typically try to visit a church to meet people, as they are strong community centers," she said. "In Inuvik (a western Canadian city north of the Arctic Circle), there's two churches and a mosque. Not only do they offer religious services, they also often host coffees and caribou barbecues, where it's easy to meet people."

Recalling a visit to Tuktoyaktuk, a Canadian hamlet of 900 people on the Beaufort Sea: "There was a community center to hang out in and a nun was there. She wanted to make sure people were welcome and connected. Worship centers play a meaningful role in smaller-scale places... often there is nothing else to do other than go to church."



Building materials for a new Jehovah's Witnesses kingdom hall were loaded into 12 sea containers and 3 oversized shipping crates, and transported to a port near Montreal, Quebec. From there, they traveled through the St. Lawrence seaway out to the Atlantic and finally to Frobisher Bay near Iqaluit. As there is no port to accommodate large vessels, the containers were transferred to barges. Tugboats pulled the barges to shallow waters, and when the tide went out, loaders retrieved the containers and brought them ashore. Jehovah's Witnesses© Jehovah's Witnesses

This is especially true in off-road communities such as Iqaluit (pronounced ee-cow-loo-it), which is only ice-free from the end of July to mid-September. The new kingdom hall, which opened Oct. 16, gives added fuel for the Jehovah Witnesses' proselytizing around town.

"There is door-to-door in Iqaluit," McGregor said. "We definitely dress for it."

The Jehovah's Witnesses weren't the first to transport an expensive building to Baffin Island. In 2016, the 60-85 Muslims living in that frigid locale completed their own 3,900-square-foot mosque for $800,000 Canadian.

"It was 56 below for the dedication ceremony," said Hussain Guisti, a Winnipeg doctor who helped found the Iqaluit Masjid. "It was crazy."

As oil and extraction industries have migrated north, so has a religiously diverse workforce. When Guisti moved to the isolated mining town of Thompson, Manitoba, in 2006, there were no mosques. Instead, Muslims met in the basement of a Mennonite church. Guisti founded the Zubaidah Tallab Foundation, a charity through which he could raise money for a 1,564-square-foot building for 80-100 people. The resulting building is called the Zubaidah Tallab Masjid.

"For us Muslims, especially those in these remote outposts, a mosque is the epicenter of our life," he said. "We pray five times a day there. It's where the sisters meet for classes, the kids attend Islamic school, where we have monthly potlucks. If you do not have a mosque, you do not have a thriving permanent community. You just have immigrants who will leave."

He turned down all foreign offers of financial aid. "All the help I got was Canadian."

Buoyed by this success, he began looking for other communities that needed mosques and has since founded four more. In 2010, his foundation built a second mosque in Inuvik in Canada's far northwestern quadrant on the Mackenzie River not far from the Alaskan border. Inuvik also had about 100 Muslims out of a total population of 3,200 people.

A 1,554-square-foot mosque was built in Winnipeg, then trucked 1,500 miles to Hay River, the northernmost town on the national road system. It was then put on a barge for the remaining 1,000 miles. Called the Midnight Sun Mosque, it's the world's second most northerly mosque after one in the Siberian city of Norilsk.


Local contractors work on the two-story, 3,296-square-foot Jehovah;s Witnesses kingdom hall, located at 1018 Iglulik Drive in Iqaluit, Canada. The church opened Oct. 16. Jehovah's Witnesses© Jehovah's Witnesses

Even though the mosque cost CA$146,000 to build and CA$113,000 to transport, Guisti said it was a bargain deal.

"Up in the Arctic, the going rate for construction is $600/per square foot," he said "Labor is $90 an hour. In Winnipeg at the time, it was $130 per square foot and labor was $15 per hour."

Guisti also had a hand in raising CA$638,000 for a mosque in the provincial capital of Whitehorse in Canada's far west. A former trucking warehouse, the Whitehorse Islamic Center, completed in 2018, serves about 300 Muslims.

Muslims have flooded into the Russian Arctic in recent decades as well, according to "Polar Islam: Muslim Communities in Russia's Arctic Cities," a 2020 academic paper by Marlene Laruelle of George Washington University and Sophie Hohmann of the Paris-based National Institute for Oriental Languages and Cultures. Many seek jobs in Russia's oil and natural gas-producing centers in Siberia.

"Arctic cities continue to attract a relatively young and mobile population that moves to the Far North to accumulate financial and social capital and acquire unique work experience," they wrote, adding that the latest wave of newcomers have been migrants from the North Caucasus, Azerbaijan, and central Asian countries.

In 10 major Arctic cities and their environs, the researchers found 59 mosques, prayer houses and prayer rooms, all new since the turn of the century. Mosques weren't allowed in the Arctic during the Soviet Union era, Laruelle said.

As these newer religions have moved farther north, they encounter faiths that have been there for at least a century, including the Russian Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Pentecostals and shamanism. Ole Jørgen Hammeken, a Greenlandic explorer and actor, has observed that Greenlandic youth are drawn to shamanism because it feels closer to their cultural roots.

One problem is the lack of genuine shamans. Traditionally, training took 15-20 years and involved feats of herculean endurance.

"It was a solitary training with enforced hunger, nakedness," Hammeken said. "Suffering was the biggest thing in becoming a shaman. That is how you met the darkness. Shamans need to have vision during the dark times of the year."

He believes he met the last true Greenlandic shaman in 1995 while on a five-week dogsled trip near the shores of Melville Bay along the northwest coast.

"I went to shake his hand, but my courage slipped, and I didn't do it," Hammeken said. Nevertheless, the shaman noticed him and merely said, "The ravens are happy."

A few days later, Hammeken's dog team was blocked by high snow drifts. Suddenly, a raven appeared, and the dogs began leaping through the snow in pursuit, creating a path. Hammeken believes the shaman sent the bird.

"Later," Hammeken remembered, "we learned he committed suicide."

Suicide is the hidden scourge of Arctic living. As a country, Greenland has the world's highest suicide rate at 85 per 100,000 people; in terms of portions of a country, the Nunavut province tops Greenland at 116.7 per 100,000 people.

Bishop David Parsons of the Anglican Diocese of the Arctic, which oversees Nunavut, knows this all too well. His is the oldest Christian tradition in eastern Canada. He oversees 49 church communities spread out over 1.5 million square miles across the northern half of the country and has made suicide prevention a top priority.



St. Jude's Anglican Cathedral in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, is the seat of the Diocese of The Arctic, which covers all of northern Canada except for the Yukon province. David Parsons© David Parsons

He guesses that 35 of these outposts attract 10 percent or more of the local population into church on a given Sunday, a far higher percentage than the rest of Canada.

"Proportionally compared to the south, we have large amounts of people attending church," he said. However, "the day after I was made bishop in 2012, someone from the government asked me what I was going to do about all the suicides."

After much prayer, the answer he came up with was youth helping out their own peers.

"We need to train teenagers to help teenagers," he said. "This is no quick fix and it's going to take years...and everyone needs a loving person to talk to."

Which is why Guisti is so intent on providing mosques to give residents an alternative to the hopelessness, boredom, alcohol and drug abuse, broken families and peer and gang affiliation up in the Arctic. Not only do they provide an alcohol-free meeting place, but he insists the culture itself supports intact, two-parent families that discourage children from joining gangs.

"I've been in Canada for 20 years," Guisti said, "and have yet to hear of a suicide amongst a Muslim child."

Waves of workers are 'quick quitting' as the clock runs down on the Great Resignation
Story by insider@insider.com (Madison Hoff) • 

Studio4/Getty Image© Studio4/Getty Image
Some people part of the Great Resignation may be "quick quitting" and leaving jobs that they've been at for less than a year.
LinkedIn data shows the year-over-year change in the short tenure rate cooled recently before ticking up again.
Recession fears may impact those thinking about quick quitting.

The Great Resignation in the US has been running strong, with companies struggling to hold onto employees who are ready to quit and seek out new opportunities in a tight labor market.

But there's a new twist: "quick quitting," which LinkedIn defines as leaving a position that they had for less than a year, according to its data.

People who are now thinking about quickly leaving behind positions, however, may be less interested in saying goodbye to their job given a potential recession next year.

"Quick quitting rising very much at the beginning of this year was reflective of a really hot labor market where workers had a lot of options, lots of bargaining power," Guy Berger, LinkedIn principal economist, told Insider. "The slowdown in the growth of quick quitting reflects the pendulum swing a little bit the other way and it could continue to swing if we tip into a recession."

The following chart shows the year-over-year change in the short tenure rate, or the share of positions that are held for less than a year, over time from LinkedIn. It's important to note that this data doesn't just include quits as it includes both voluntary and involuntary separations.

As seen in the chart, the year-over-year change of the short tenure rate on LinkedIn has cooled from March 2022 before rising again recently in September and October.

Although we're not in a recession yet, Berger said he expects the number of quick quitters to start falling, since workers who "aren't at an immediate risk of losing their job will have less opportunities out there in the coming months." He added that "they might also be a little more cautious and a little more nervous."

"And that's almost a story not so much about right now, even though we see in the overall growth in quick quitting moderate, but more of a story about maybe six months from now when things do slow down further," Berger said.

Those in white-collar positions may be concerned about what a likely mild recession means next year. William Lee, chief economist at the Milken Institute, previously told MarketWatch, that the recession would "be mostly a white-collar recession."

But for now, LinkedIn's analysis of short tenure rates using its own data show white-collar workers are among the workers quick quitting.

"Workers are also spending less time at each job in industries that are considered to be more traditionally white-collar, like tech, financial services and professional services, which mostly consists of accounting and consulting firms," a LinkedIn newsletter about quick quitting stated. "Skills for workers in these typically well-paid industries are in-demand, so there's a sense of leverage for those seeking out a new role."

Burnout and toxic workplaces could be two reasons workers decide to quit a job they haven't been at too long

Although Vicki Salemi, career expert for Monster, told Insider that "we don't know the specifics behind why individuals are quickly quitting," Salemi said people may quickly leave a job because of a toxic work environment. People may also be quitting because of burnout.

"If you're in your new job and you are already reaching burnout or if you haven't reached it yet you know it's imminent, that's an issue. That's a red flag," Salemi said. "And then the question is how can you address it?" One way to address it — besides leaving — is seeing if your company can "alleviate the workload."

Salemi said she's "cautious" though about people quickly quitting though because "it shouldn't necessarily be spontaneous." She said people need to make sure they have their "finances in order" as well as be professional and "have a game plan." Salemi also said if you do quickly leave, it's best not to make it a habit.

Whatever the reason may be that someone decided to resign from a job that they have only been at for under a year, the rate had cooled after March. Berger said the reason the growth rate may have dropped recently was because of a slightly cooler labor market and a slight increase in "economic uncertainty." It could also be because they aren't seeing as many new opportunities, according to Berger.

LinkedIn's "workforce confidence survey shows that even though it's been stable in the last few months, since the beginning of the year people are feeling a little less certain about their ability to find or hold on to a job," Berger added.

Berger said that "the same things that led you to think, 'you know what? who cares if I've only been here a few months, I should just quit and start the next job' might be leading some people to be a little more cautious" and not as quickly leave.

Have you recently quit a job you were in for less than a year? Share your story by emailing this reporter at mhoff@insider.com.

Métis delegates call for withdrawal of The Saskatchewan First Act

SASKATOON — Delegates attending the legislative assembly of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan unanimously supported their leadership's rejection of The Saskatchewan First Act.

The legislation looks to unilaterally amend the Constitution to reassert the province's jurisdiction over its natural resources, but has already been opposed by the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations who say it ignores treaty rights.

The executive of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan issued a statement earlier this month claiming the act ignores the inherent rights of Métis citizens to be consulted on constitutional change that impacts their communities, and that stand was endorsed by delegates in Saskatoon this weekend.

They directed the executive to call for "the immediate withdrawal of the proposed legislation," according to a news release from the organization.

Similar legislation is being proposed by Premier Danielle Smith, who told the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Friday that her Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act would give the province the power to opt out of federal legislation it deems harmful to its interests.

All of Alberta's treaty chiefs have spoken out strongly against the proposed act, arguing their treaties are with the Crown, not the provinces, and that it's not up to Alberta to recast the terms of the deal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 20, 2022.

The Canadian Press