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Topic: Today's Bad News (Read 116713 times)

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #425
Democrats are in a mess and I think that Trump man wil continue to be in the White House so I am glad I live somwhere less nutty!
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #426
Democrats are in a mess and I think that Trump man wil continue to be in the White House so I am glad I live somwhere less nutty!
Congratulations for getting rid of Merkel and Macron but be careful!
From now on you'll have to deal with Trump to make Britain great again. ;)

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #427
It just keeps on raining. 25 inches already this year!

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #428
This time my vacation will be sad, very sad. I was not permitted to board a flight to the USA because my ESTA (the so-called visa waiver programme) was not valid. It was valid when I booked the flight, but meanwhile I happened to get a new passport. It turns out that ESTA is attached to the passport and when you get a new passport you also need to apply (and pay) for a new ESTA.

As I have been saying, this so-called visa waver programme does not waive any visas. It is a visa programme in itself.

Lately, EU has started fully emulating these visa procedures with a programme called ETIAS that applies to visa-free countries. The programme reads as follows,
There are many countries who are not in the European Union (EU) whose citizens can enter the EU Schengen Zone without needing a visa. Specifically, there are currently 62 countries who are not in the EU, but are visa free.

[...]

To reduce procedures and wait times, as well as address the security concerns, the European Commission (EC) has come up with a solution – ETIAS.

[...]

If what you filled out on the application form is correct, and you are eligible and not risky for the ETIAS, then you will be approved. This whole procedure is expected to be completed in only a few minutes.

[...]

The ETIAS will not burden your finances a lot. It is planned to have the ETIAS cost only €7 for each application. This is only valid for adults over 18 years old, as those under 18 will not have to pay any fees. You can pay the fee by debit or credit card. Immediately after you complete the payment, the ETIAS authorization will start processing.

[...]

If approved, the ETIAS might be valid for 3 years or until the end of validity of the travel document registered during application, whichever comes first. Whether you will get the first period of validity or the second depends on the system’s evaluation of your information and risk.
So, dear visa free travellers, fill in your visa form, pay for the answer, and the answer is attached to your passport, exactly like a visa. Then you can travel visa free!

EU established these procedures to retaliate the same procedures that USA had established against EU citizens. (Because diplomacy doesn't work when it comes to USA.) I am quite sure that by now there are more countries where visa free travel means going through just another visa procedure.

Welcome to the 21st century!

Well, whatever. Even if I get no money back, flight tickets are cheap these days.



Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #429
Jeesh, contrast that to a decade ago (or more than a decade by now?) when you could just buy a ticket to the US for the next day or probably even the next few hours and jump on a plane to the US more or less on a whim. Because there was no visa…

Well, fingers crossed. :-/

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #430
What I find particularly alarming is that in this case the onboard-pass checkers of the flight operator (SAS) did all the work for US borderguards. In the normal world you would be able to board airplanes when you have the flight ticket (and there are no other reasons to deny access for you) while the visa issues would be handled by the borderguards. In my case, I had the flight ticket, but I did not get to meet the US borderguards to tell the great story of visa freedom between our great nations.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #431
I think that's "normal," at least in the sense that the US has enforced that kind of thing on airports and airlines flying to the US for a long time. (Probably not so much pre-9/11.)

De Correspondent published an article about parts of the process half a decade ago: https://decorrespondent.nl/2675/dit-gebeurt-er-allemaal-achter-de-schermen-als-je-naar-de-vs-vliegt/130264475-b9f887ba

Perhaps it's also available on The Correspondent but I don't have a subscription to check.

Basically there some guy kept being harassed by US security people because they thought he'd been in the Middle East, on the basis of his IP address. Vodafone had acquired some previously Middle Eastern IPs because they were running out or something.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #432
Dark web drug haven Empire Market has mysteriously disappeared
According to a cybersecurity expert interviewed by Bloomberg, there are typically two outcomes for marketplaces like Empire Market. Either the admins are arrested, or they steal users’ deposits.

...

At least one moderator on Empire Market fears that the administrators have made off with the funds. “I am crushed and ashamed by my admin’s apparent decision to disappear with your funds,” the moderator wrote, according to Bloomberg. “It’s hard to grasp that this is really happening. I am in shock.” Users say they can no longer access their accounts.
Of all the bad knews, why did I pick this inconsequential one? I don't know!

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #433
Have you thought more about it, ersi? Did you come up with anything?
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #434
Yes and yes. It is due to my current employment to spot financial scandals. Things like US or Russian politics are way too obvious to merit a comment.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #435
Can add in the EU along with the two regulars!
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #436
Walter Williams RIP
When he was younger. he used to fill in for Rush Limbaugh regularly. I miss his tag-line, "Walter Williams, black by popular demand!"
He will be greatly missed.
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #437



     In times of universal deceit, telling the honest truth is a revolutionary act.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #438
Easy to debunk: It's not quite sure that everything one has and gets is earned. If it were so, courts of law would not need to exist.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #439
I think the real point is that if I earn more than I need is it  a moral obligation to distribute a part I don't need with those who are suffering or not?
That's the foundation of social justice.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #440
The real point is that he pretends as if it were somebody else's job to convince him to be moral. No. He either is moral or not. In this case not. It's nobody's job to convince him to be. He is not moral and there will be consequences, occasionally, randomly, sometimes, legal or not. Live with it. Just like poor people need to live with their poverty.

Libertarians really do not have any concept of social justice. They do not acknowledge that society exists in the first place.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #441
They do not acknowledge that society exists in the first place.
I believe that in the first place exists the moral rules that should govern civilised societies.
Isn't The Lord of the Flies a classic chez vous?

Bus yes, I agree that is no one job to convince others. For that we have missionaries, teachers and politicians.That's enough boring people.
A matter of attitude.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #442
Easy to debunk: It's not quite sure that everything one has and gets is earned. If it were so, courts of law would not need to exist.
It is "not quite sure" that you exist... Indeed, there are people in the world that refuse to accept or -at least- respect your existence! (Or mine! I don't intend a personal comment but a general one.) Such people are commonly known as sociopaths. And they are disproportionately represented in the class of those deemed criminal... To such, your "stuff" (up to and including your life!) are not yours; not really.
You'd have courts of law adjudicate getting and earning? :)

You've "debunked" nothing but your own peculiarly ego-centric straw-man. (Will you go all the way back to "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"? :) )
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)




Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #446
Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: Catch the Pigeon!
A matter of attitude.

Re: ...plan to kill it

Reply #447
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 13,000-kilometer (8,000-mile) Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to find a new home in Australia. Now authorities consider the bird a quarantine risk and plan to kill it.
The plans changed. The story has been updated:

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk has received a reprieve after a U.S. bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake.

The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the U.S. state of Oregon, 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) away, two months earlier.

On that basis, Australian authorities on Thursday said they considered the bird a disease risk and planned to kill it.
So it was fake news!

Biohacking

Reply #448
Fake identifying leg bands?!
Biohacking has begun.

Re: Today's Bad News

Reply #449
Probably it's fake that the leg band was fake.
A matter of attitude.