What's Going on in the Americas?

Topic: What's Going on in the Americas? (Read 260355 times)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1400 – 2021-12-19, 18:02:06

Skur is in Swedish as well. In Scandinavian it is particularly applied to with an open wall like a bicycle shed:

Quote from: Frenzie on 2021-12-19, 15:05:57

It sounds plausible; I'm not sure if there's any evidence for it. (If there is, the summary in the dictionary doesn't show it.) Anyway, here's a little bike shed (fietsschuur):

or bus shed. Skjul, which also means to hide, has a similar function and according to the Swedish dictionary may indeed share a root with skur. Like with the blob of words from Etymonline these carry the idea of something covering the inside from the outside.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1401 – 2021-12-20, 03:40:49

Coming soon to a location near you!

Quote

There have been rumors that a COVID-19 passport in the form of a microchip implanted into the body would likely be developed, but that speculation was widely dismissed as a "conspiracy theory." However, the conspiracy theory now appears to be close to reality after a tech company touted a microchip that is implanted into the body that can serve as a COVID-19 vaccine passport.

For years, Swedish start-up Epicenter has specialized in implanting microchips the size of grains of rice into the body that can act as key cards to open doors, public transportation passes, or be a credit card. Metro reported, "According to digital cultures researcher Moa Petersen, around 6,000 people in the country have so far had a chip inserted in their hands."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Stockholm-based Epicenter has worked on developing an implantable microchip that can be used as a coronavirus vaccine passport.

"A start-up hub in Sweden has showcased a new use for its microchip implants: your Covid-19 vaccination passport," the South China Morning Post reported. "The company Epicenter plans to market the versatility of the technology it spent years developing. The chips use Near-field communication (NFC), which can communicate with any NFC-capable smartphone. The company says the procedure is entirely reversible."
[... video ...]
"Implants are very versatile technology that can be used for many different things, and right now it is very convenient to have COVID passport always accessible on your implant," [Hannes Sjoblad – Epicenter's "Chief Disruption Officer"-] told Ruptly last week.

"In case your phone runs out of battery, it’s always accessible to you," he continued. "So of course, that’s how we use this technology today, next year we are going to use it for something else."

There was no shortage of reactions to the report on the implantable microchip COVID-19 vaccine passport.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/microchip-implant-covid-vaccine-passport/

No shortage... I won't deny the utility. But I doubt the tech will catch on. And I wonder: Will some government, somewhere, think it a good idea to mandate its use?

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1402 – 2021-12-20, 05:26:17

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on 2021-12-20, 03:40:49

No shortage... I won't deny the utility. But I doubt the tech will catch on. And I wonder: Will some government, somewhere, think it a good idea to mandate its use?

Yes, we've been here before in the good ole D&D forum. Barcelona clubbers get chipped

Like back then, or even more so, the utility is low as long as people more than willingly are carrying the chip in their phone rather than on their shoulder.

Adding to that, one of the few techs that have done better than expected is big data face recognition. I expected neural networks to have a scaling issue going from thousands to millions or billions. But in addition to having more hardware they got more clever, and that refactoring seems to have done the trick.

And speaking of big data, as expected private enterprise, rather than governments, have been the greatest collectors of that. Now, private enterprise can be persuaded to give some of that sweet data up, or as Snowden showed, they could just break in and copy them, but it is the enterprises that have put us under constant surveillance since.

Now, ironically facemasks give (a very limited and flawed) protection against this surveillance. Several European countries put themselves in a double bind when covid-19 entered the scene. They had passed legalisation making it illegal to wear face masks in demonstrations, while the pandemic led to public ordinances requiring them in large public gatherings. Fortunately for them many of the demonstrations the last couple years have been against wearing facemasks. (The state of Denmark also got in a handshake bind, but that is a different story.)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1403 – 2021-12-20, 07:38:53

I'd missed that earlier topic...

Our Brave New World will sometimes prove interesting.
(I'll not wade into immigration here. Not even at the level of the Denmark law.)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1404 – 2021-12-20, 10:24:20

Quote from: jax on 2021-12-20, 05:26:17

Now, ironically facemasks give (a very limited and flawed) protection against this surveillance. Several European countries put themselves in a double bind when covid-19 entered the scene. They had passed legalisation making it illegal to wear face masks in demonstrations, while the pandemic led to public ordinances requiring them in large public gatherings.

I remember when France introduced their anti-mask law. It was directed against anarchist protesters and muslim ladies, both of whom tend to hide behind masks. For rhetorical/propaganda purposes a very effective combination of scapegoats, anarchists and muslim ladies, so that the law passed. But now we have covid and the government had to mandate the exact opposite regulations, embarrassingly for themselves. Yet in USA there are protesters saying that masks are tyranny (or that masks don't work for their assigned medical purposes, which is obviously false), completely forgetting their own privacy, even though privacy/anonymity is the number one tool against tyranny.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1405 – 2021-12-20, 11:16:02

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on 2021-12-20, 03:40:49

There have been rumors that a COVID-19 passport in the form of a microchip implanted into the body would likely be developed, but that speculation was widely dismissed as a "conspiracy theory." However, the conspiracy theory now appears to be close to reality after a tech company touted a microchip that is implanted into the body that can serve as a COVID-19 vaccine passport.

It has never been a "conspiracy theory" that chips exist. We've put them in our pets and livestock forever. A company presenting some dystopian product they (want to) sell as a solution to a non-existent problem is also hardly out there. It boggles the mind that America hasn't banned most of Big Brother Nest yet like we do. What makes something a "conspiracy theory" is not even a slippery slope argument, but the idea that chipping people has always been the end goal. Put more straightforwardly, this entire paragraph is full-on nonsense, misrepresenting every single thing it mentions.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1406 – 2021-12-20, 13:01:37

Quote from: Frenzie on 2021-12-20, 11:16:02

It boggles the mind that America hasn't banned most of Big Brother Nest yet like we do.

At this stage it boggles the mind indeed. By now, it's not like they don't have enough experience with it anymore. They had a straightforward fascist coup attempt even. It was a failed coup attempt, but had it been successful, USA would be down the path of Nazi Germany, which also came about by conspiracies and coup attempts, first unsuccessful and then successful.

Oakdale, you are not fooling anybody else, just yourself. About time to start seeing tyranny where it is, and stop seeing it where it is not. But probably far too late for you.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1407 – 2021-12-20, 14:16:48

Will hand it to the Stockholm Epicenter co-working space though, for their guerilla marketing. They have done this chipping spiel for many years now and media keeps eating it up.

And I was very marginally involved in a far better proposal to the Swedish Health Authority. Getting them to respond at all is a major achievement. The idea that they would just jump at the chance of chipping the population shows very dim understanding of the psychology of health bureaucrats.

I could accept the idea that there would be people so lazy that they won't position their phone close to the NFC reader or their phone or tag to a scanner to open a door. Anything that appeals to laziness, however how pointless, has a fair chance of success. But a chipped vaccine passport would just make every stakeholder worse off. It's a multiple non-starter.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1408 – 2021-12-20, 15:34:17

Yeah, I remember a newspiece about one such enthusiast.

Quote from: https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/6796358

Björn har tågbiljetten i ett chipp under huden

Den egentliga nyttan med chippet är kanske i dagsläget inte så överdrivet stort, berättar Björn Hagström som satte in chippet på en datamässa för ett halvår sedan.

Det handlar om en liten mottagare stor som ett riskorn som kan lagra information som han själv väljer att lägga dit.

I Björn Hagströms fall handlar det om resekortet på SJ eftersom han ofta pendlar till Stockholm.

Men det går också att lägga in information som gör det möjligt att öppna dörren till huset eller arbetsplatsen.

– Det mesta som chippet kan utföra kan jag ju lika gärna ha i min telefon men framtiden kommer nog att erbjuda fler användningsområden säger Björn Hagström.

Reported in USA as follows https://www.npr.org/2018/10/22/658808705/thousands-of-swedes-are-inserting-microchips-under-their-skin

A list of enthusiasts on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchip_implant_(human)#Notable_people

I do not see any gain or convenience in it. Occasionally I want to have just my bicycle with me and leave behind everything else, phone, laptop etc. And I do. With a chip I would not be able to. Ethical dilemmas with under-skin microchips seem to be taken seriously thus far.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1409 – 2021-12-20, 15:45:33

Quote from: ersi on 2021-12-20, 15:34:17

I do not see any gain or convenience in it.

It's like like these people have never heard of this technology we invented, I don't know, a million years ago, called a wristband. You could stick an NFC/RFID/whatever chip in one of those and you'd always have it with you if you wanted.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1410 – 2021-12-21, 01:41:44

That does seem like a much better solution. As hashing schemes and encryption algorithms get broken (and they all do), having the chip implanted in you would be a security/privacy nightmare and would obviously be far more difficult than simply replacing a wristband.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1411 – 2021-12-21, 04:14:35

A simple slip of paper would suffice, no? Unless the purpose was actual identification of the individual... (I've heard of fake vaccination records.) In what way would a wristband do that, convincingly to "authorities" that is?
The Enigma codes were eventually broken. But what would be the purpose for breaking the code of an implanted vaccine record?

A security/privacy nightmare? Well, a disquieting daydream... (Of course, for the cantankerous contrarian to the mildly paranoid through the spectrum to those who fear The Mark of the Beast, it might be a big deal!)

Still: We'll have to wait for some government to take the plunge... (Make us take the plunge?)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1412 – 2021-12-21, 05:55:36

The New York Times proclaims:
The N.H.L. will pause its season, postponing all games until next week due to Covid, the first North American league to do so as Omicron rises.
And so it begins! Like I said a while ago, don't just sit there, panic! What's the current death toll of the omicron variant? World-wide?

You can, of course, read about it... https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-says-omicron-spreading-phenomenal-rate-2021-12-13/
The reactions of governments is likely to be of the "hair on fire" variety.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1413 – 2021-12-21, 08:44:31

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on 2021-12-21, 05:55:36

And so it begins! Like I said a while ago, don't just sit there, panic! What's the current death toll of the omicron variant? World-wide?

Didn't you notice that 2020 Olympics were held in 2021? It is very late of you to start panicking now.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1414 – 2021-12-21, 09:10:59

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on 2021-12-21, 04:14:35

A simple slip of paper would suffice, no?

Is there any place on earth where a piece of paper doesn't suffice for whatever you're thinking of?

The kind of chip under discussion is one that I had on my key chain for a while at a previous job. It opened the office door and noted if you were inside the building for emergency purposes. Of course if your name is minister Donner then you'll say hey, we might as well track what times people are coming and going now that we have this fire safety tracking system, which is why I also think we should be very wary of expanding such systems. But anyway, I was taking the Swedish marketing at face value. Assuming you want to have the chip on you at all times (which we don't!), and also assuming that having it on your key chain or on a card is somehow insufficient (which it isn't!), the rather obvious always on you solution is a wristband^[1] or something in the same ballpark, like a necklace or a ring.

¹Protip for overly enthusiastic tech dystopians: a so-called "smart" watch is a wristband too.↵

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1415 – 2021-12-21, 09:14:17

Quote from: Frenzie on 2021-12-21, 09:10:59

Of course if your name is minister Donner then you'll say hey, we might as well track what times people are coming and going now that we have this fire safety tracking system

I should probably clarify that this specifically isn't something he did. It's just the kind of behavior I expect from him.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1416 – 2021-12-21, 09:20:13

Quote from: ersi on 2021-12-21, 00:44:31

It is very late of you to start panicking now.

The expression itself "don't just sit there, panic" is sarcastic and all-but facetious... And, to your point: It's never too late for governments to panic! Part of the nature of the omicron variant, its rapid incubation, pretty much guarantees they will.
I'm not worried, myself; let alone panicked, as my inclusion of the question of deaths should indicate...
But for governments and their planners, who've taken to focusing upon cases rather than hospitalizations and deaths, it is a problem: Their testing regimes will not be able to keep up. So they'll inflict much pain before we -and eventually, they- realize omicron's nature.
(As you've likely heard, omicron is at least as good as delta was at vaccine evasion. What I hope to see, soon, is data about natural immunity derived from omicron.)

@Frenzie & jax: The convenience angle seems more important when it's a personal choice. The "injectable" -specially if and when it becomes mandated- is qualitatively different, no?

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1417 – 2021-12-21, 09:20:45

Quote from: ersi on 2021-12-20, 15:34:17

Yeah, I remember a newspiece about one such enthusiast.

Quote from: https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/6796358
Björn har tågbiljetten i ett chipp under huden

Den egentliga nyttan med chippet är kanske i dagsläget inte så överdrivet stort, berättar Björn Hagström som satte in chippet på en datamässa för ett halvår sedan.

Det handlar om en liten mottagare stor som ett riskorn som kan lagra information som han själv väljer att lägga dit.

I Björn Hagströms fall handlar det om resekortet på SJ eftersom han ofta pendlar till Stockholm.

Reported in USA as follows https://www.npr.org/2018/10/22/658808705/thousands-of-swedes-are-inserting-microchips-under-their-skin

A list of enthusiasts on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchip_implant_(human)#Notable_people

I do not see any gain or convenience in it. Occasionally I want to have just my bicycle with me and leave behind everything else, phone, laptop etc. And I do. With a chip I would not be able to. Ethical dilemmas with under-skin microchips seem to be taken seriously thus far.

Yes, SL (Stockholm Public Transport) supported these biohackers, or chipsters as they call themselves. A case of co-marketing, you could say.

They are now concerned as SL is about to change to a new system, from "blue cards" to "green cards" by 2023. You can currently pay your fare through these cards, by the RFID in payment cards, or by phone QR connected to SL app. The latter is a no-go. I guess you could tattoo your QR code on your hand, but that is not a very forward-looking solution (someone somewhere on the planet has probably done so anyway). The banks are not letting chipsters into their payment system, and that leaves piggybacking on the travel cards.

I kind of shared their concern. The blue travel cards are very convenient. I have a card-sized wallet with ID card, payment card, a dongle with the RFID to my entrance door, and the blue card. The ID card I use once a month so I rarely need to open the wallet. So on one side I can use the payment card, on the other I can travel, and by dangling it I can get in the door. The phone doesn't offer the same convenience. If SL changed to QR code I would either have to find wallet with a transparent side, or more likely give in to using the payment card (which is not currently linked to my user). Using the phone is slow, inconvenient and error prone.

So I could sympathise with the laziness argument, but there is no convincing case. And having to dechip the blue chip to rechip a green chip whenever a system changes isn't very appealing either.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1418 – 2021-12-21, 09:30:48

Quote from: jax on 2021-12-21, 09:20:45

They are now concerned as SL is about to change to a new system, from "blue cards" to "green cards" by 2023.

Oh no, who could've ever foreseen that systems that are historically replaced every two decades or so would be replaced…

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1419 – 2021-12-21, 10:25:32

@OakdaleFTL The height of the panic was here, but you let it pass. So let those lesser and completely bogus panics pass too.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1420 – 2021-12-21, 10:26:24

Quote from: Frenzie on 2021-12-21, 09:30:48

Oh no, who could've ever foreseen that systems that are historically replaced every two decades or so would be replaced…

Yes, if the radio tech changes they are out of luck. Otherwise they might manage.

And it is distinctly low-tech. At least they made the subcutaneous RFID chip transport blippable.

Their "passport"? A stored link to a PDF copy of the certificate. In other words what IT experts call "a bookmark", only that they stored that bookmark on a chip instead of on a phone. As they have to use the phone to access the bookmark, it makes the whole exercise completely pointless, except to create dozens (or by now probably hundreds) of media entries.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1421 – 2021-12-21, 10:40:37

Biden has a plan... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/us/politics/biden-speech-omicron-covid.html

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1422 – 2021-12-21, 11:25:31

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on 2021-12-21, 09:20:13

@Frenzie & jax: The convenience angle seems more important when it's a personal choice. The "injectable" -specially if and when it becomes mandated- is qualitatively different, no?

If that really had been a concern, that would have been wonderful. This is the least efficient way of government or corporate surveillance. Back in the day of Snowden (2013) the US government was the only one with the means to pull off global mass surveillance. By now it percolates through several corporations, Russia and China towards lesser powers like Iran, NSO Group, or Vietnam.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1423 – 2021-12-21, 11:32:03

Quote from: OakdaleFTL on 2021-12-21, 09:20:13

The convenience angle seems more important when it's a personal choice. The "injectable" -specially if and when it becomes mandated- is qualitatively different, no?

If and when the dolphins invade and enslave us, life will be qualitatively different too.

But yeah, facial/physical recognition tech is far too creepy and advanced for such a thing to need mandating unless you absolutely wish to show off that you're an authoritarian, slithering reptile.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1424 – 2021-12-21, 11:42:08

@jax: My "like" shows that I appreciate your post. On this little matter, it seems most likely that the Omicron Obsession will peter out before mandated Vax Passports reach the point where a black market will lead to their injectable "solution"...

If that happens then it's not unreasonable to expect other uses to occur "convenient". (Think "cookies"!)

@Frenzie: I appreciate your skepticism, too. (I -mostly- share it.)