Category Archive: Internet

The ACLU and College Professors are Encouraging Book Burnings

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.


ACLU and Professor Team Up to Encourage Book Burnings


Abigail Shrier has committed the ultimate sin: she has a different opinion than the woke mob. And that is an unforgivable transgression.

Shrier’s new book is called Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, and she discusses some very strong views, such as that children shouldn’t be coaxed into taking life-altering hormones.

This is a controversial topic for many people, and they can choose to support or argue against Shrier’s opinions.

But that’s not how the woke mob works. They don’t use logic and debate to engage in intellectual discourse.

Instead, they simply rage– what Isaac Asimov described as “the last resource of fools.”

So naturally Twitter is jumping all over this book and trying to cancel it.

Target– the mega retail chain with stores all over the Land of the Free, already buckled, and decided to pull the book because apparently it’s full of hate speech.

(Never mind that Target continues to sell White Fragility, which is also full of hate speech that accuses roughly half the country of being White Supremacists…)

But more surprising is that Chase Strangio, a deputy director with the ACLU, is one of the Twitter mobsters.

Strangio recently Tweeted, “We have to fight these ideas… Stopping the circulation of this book and these ideas is 100% a hill I will die on.”

Remember, Strangio is with the ACLU, where the ‘C’ and ‘L’ stand for ‘Civil Liberties’. And last time I checked, civil liberties include freedom of speech. How quaint.

Also joining the mob is a Professor of English from the University of California’s Berkely campus, who encourages people to steal and burn the book.

That’s right, our cultural overseers are now advocating literal book burnings in the Land of the Free.

Click here to read the full story.


State Universities of New York Threaten to Hold Students Hostage Over COVID


The system of New York State Universities announced a policy that all students on all campuses must test negative for COVID-19 before LEAVING campus to go home for the holidays.

If students test positive, they will be FORCED to quarantine on campus for 14 days, at the responsibility of the University.

And since campuses close just prior to Thanksgiving, that means students who test positive could be held hostage in isolation on the holiday, prevented from going home to see their families.

One question: HOW IS THIS NOT KIDNAPPING????

Click here to read the full story.


Great idea #593,291: Let’s Tax the Wind


Argentina’s government has been an endless supply of terrible ideas, from wealth taxes to full-blow asset confiscation. Their latest idea? Taxing the air– more specifically the wind.

Companies which sell wind power will have to pay 4.5% REVENUE (not profit) tax to the municipality for the privilege of using the air.

Remember when governments were talking about fossil fuel taxes to encourage energy companies to stop drilling and start investing in renewable energy?

Gee I wonder what’s going to happen with this one…

Click here to read the full story.


“Defund Police” politician calls police over dispute with Lyft driver


The City Commissioner in Portland, Oregon, Comrade Jo Ann Hardesty, has strongly voiced her support for defunding the police.

So you’d think she’d be the last person to ever call the cops.

But Hardesty was recently in a Lyft and got into an argument with her driver over some petty issue over the windows being up or down.

Apparently the argument escalated, and the driver pulled into a gas station and asked Hardesty to exit the vehicle.

Now, instead of resolving the matter like a grown adult, Hardesty– an elected official– decided to call 911 (i.e. a number reserved for EMERGENCIES).

The 911 dispatcher explained to Hardesty that no crime had been committed; if the Lyft driver wanted to cancel the ride, that was his right.

But Hardesty insisted that the dispatcher send the police, i.e. the very people she wants to defund… because apparently this petty dispute constituted an emergency.

Of course there is room for police reform. But Hardesty is absurdly hypocritical to call the police for such a trivial reason… and then demand that they be defunded.

Click here to read the full story.


Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.


via:  SovereignMan


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Digital Nomads will want to know about these two countries

British Petroleum announced this week that ALL 6,500 employees in its London office will be working from home within the next two years.

BP is even going to shut down the office entirely and sell the building. They’re not the only ones.

Right now, in fact, only 13% of London office workers are back at the office. And as we’ve been saying, many likely won’t return.

When you never have to go to the office anymore, why stay in expensive London? Or New York, or San Francisco for that matter?

A lot of people are already moving.

I’ve been driving across the northern United States for the past few days– Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. ‘Rural’ doesn’t even begin to capture the scene here. It’s gorgeous.

And it’s been remarkable to see how many people are moving to these areas from big cities (especially from California).

Even more, as we’ve been suggesting, a lot of folks will pick up and go farther afield, leaving their home countries altogether.

That’s one of the silver linings of COVID: the work-from-home revolution allows a lot of people to go anywhere, for any reason– perhaps to dodge the chaos, for better weather, a different lifestyle, tax savings, or all of the above.

Two places to consider are Spain and Portugal; both have very straightforward options for people who might want to live there (even just temporarily) to obtain legal residency.

In short, you’ll need to demonstrate that you have sufficient cash, liquid assets and/or monthly income so that you won’t become a burden to local welfare programs.

Portugal’s “D7” visa requirements, for example, are based on the current minimum wage.

So if you have an income or cash savings of at least €7,620 (the annual minimum wage in Portugal, roughly USD $9,000), you can receive a temporary residency permit that’s valid for 1 year.

If you bring your spouse, you’d need an additional 50% of that amount, plus 30% for each child.

So a family of four would need about $18,000.

(This is the bare minimum, and of course it’s always best to show more if possible when you submit your application.)

And to be clear, this is YOUR money. It’s not like you have to pay it to the government as a fee or anything. You keep it in your bank account, and spend it as you see fit. The Portuguese government just needs to know that you have (or earn) enough to support yourself.

Spain has a type of visa that is very similar to Portugal’s D7. It’s called “residencia no lucrativa” or “non-lucrative residency.”

Spain is more demanding when it comes to showing savings or income, but their requirements are not outrageous.

This required amount increases slightly each year, depending on the Spanish minimum wage.

As of 2020, they want to see that the primary applicant has €25,560, and an additional €6,390 for each additional family member.

So, a family of four would need to show a minimum €44,730 of savings to qualify for residency in Spain (or almost $50,000).

Spain and Portugal are just two drops in an ocean of options. Both are really nice (in fact, our own Sovereign Woman is currently in Portugal meeting with lawyers and real estate agents.)

Digital Nomads in particular may be drawn to Spain and Portugal– especially Lisbon and Barcelona. Those cities have vibrant entrepreneur communities, high quality local workers, excellent nonstop flight networks, great weather, and cheap living costs.

There are undoubtedly millions of people around the world who are thinking about their next steps right now.

Everyone’s life has changed. And a lot of people are starting to realize that they have much more control over their own lives– including the freedom to choose where to live– for the first time ever.

This ought to be a deliberate decision. There are countless places around the world to choose from. And you can decide for yourself what’s important… what matters to you… and start crafting exactly the life you want to live.


via: SovereignMan.com


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Under this new law, cryptocurrency could become illegal

In early 1775, Benjamin Franklin and his European colleague, Charles Dumas, developed a secret method of communicating with each other.

Dumas had spent years gathering intelligence in Europe to assist the Americans in their revolt against Britain. But the two needed a secure way to pass information across the Atlantic.

So they developed a special cipher– a crude form of encryption where letters and words were substituted for numerals.

The decryption key changed with every letter; so, for example, in a letter from Franklin dated March 2, 1781, the word “MERCHANT” was written as “23. 3. 4. 13. 6. 14. 24. 18.”

At the same time, the physician James Jay (brother to the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay) developed an invisible ink so that revolutionary leaders could communicate in secret.

These encrypted communications became critical to the Revolution. And it’s safe to say there would probably not be a United States if they hadn’t developed a secure way to send information.

Ironically, politicians are trying to destroy modern methods of encryption.

Over the past few months while everyone has been in mandatory isolation, cowering in fear in their homes… and over the past few weeks while the Land of the Free has been consumed with rage. . .

. . . a few US Senators have once again proven that chilling political adage– ‘never let a good crisis go to waste.’

Exhibit A: Senate Bill 4051, the “Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act”, which was quietly introduced last week when everyone’s attention was consumed elsewhere.

First thing’s first, like all freedom-killing bills, this one has a catchy name.

The Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act is LEAD for short, as in “Move over China! The Land of the Free will LEAD the way in destroying the last remaining freedoms of its citizens.”

(In that way it seems more like ‘lead’, the highly toxic metal that poisons the brain and creates severe intellectual disability.)

At its core, the LEAD Act is an encryption killer. It aims to require technology companies to build ‘back doors’ into their products to ensure that the government can remotely access your data, your device, and your life.

This is nothing short of earth shattering.

Apple, for example, currently provides device encryption on its iPhones and iPads. And once you encrypt your device, only YOU can decrypt it. Apple can’t. Hackers can’t. And the government can’t.

So if your device is ever stolen (or confiscated), your data cannot be compromised.

Under the LEAD Act, this practice would become illegal. Apple would no longer be able to offer device encryption, and they’d have to provide a way for the federal government to remotely access your device, and all of its contents.

The same goes for your favorite chat applications.

WhatsApp, for example, is one of the most popular texting apps in the world. A few years ago, Facebook (which owns WhatsApp) began implementing end-to-end encryption for all WhatsApp data.

This means that any message you send someone via WhatsApp is immediately encrypted the moment it leaves your phone.

That messages arrives to the WhatsApp servers fully encrypted. So any hacker (or Facebook engineer) who intercepts the data will see nothing but a garbled mess.

And the message isn’t decrypted until it arrives to the intended recipient’s device. So the only people who can see the message in “clear text” are the two people participating in the conversation.

No one else can eavesdrop, or download the data.

But again, under the LEAD Act, this too would become illegal… and Facebook will be obligated to build in a ‘back door’ for the government to remotely access your conversations.

LEAD also requires developers of operating systems, like Microsoft Windows and Apple’s MacOS, to provide backdoor access to your computer.

It’s extraordinary to think of how far-reaching the effects of this legislation will go.

For example, do you use an online password manager like OnePassword or Lastpass?

They will also be required to give the government access to your data… which essentially would give the government access to EVERYTHING you do online.

Do you upload files and photos to iCloud? Yup. That too. Apple will be required to build a back door and give the government access to your data.

Any ‘zero knowledge’ encryption, whether it’s for storing files, sharing photos, texting friends, making video calls, sending encrypted emails, etc., will become illegal under this legislation.

And to be crystal clear about what that means, CRYPTOCURRENCY will effectively become illegal under the LEAD Act as well.

That’s right. Cryptocurrency relies on data encryption too.

Your ‘wallet’ is essentially a public key / private key combination. And in theory, only you are supposed to have access.

But that’s exactly what this legislation aims to prevent. The government wants backdoor access to everything.

Honestly this legislation would be hilarious if it weren’t actually true… because it shows how totally clueless these people really are.

The politicians are calling it ‘lawful access’, as if only the government would be able to use these back doors. Clearly these people understand nothing about cybersecurity.

There is no such thing as a ‘back door’ that only the government can access.

Once a technology company creates a way to remotely access a device, then that back door is available to ANYONE who can crack it.

It’s not like some hacker, or foreign intelligence agency, is going to probe the back door on your iPhone and say, “Oh, nevermind, this is only for the US government. I guess I’ll try to find another way in.”

If this law passes, not only will the government be able to access your devices, but hackers will have endless new treasures of data to steal… courtesy of the United States Senate.

It’s genius.


Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.


via:  SovereignMan


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Will Cars Still Run After an EMP? The Surprising Truth

Imagine every electronic device going dark in the blink of an eye. Forget about luxuries such as your smartphone or wi-fi, and imagine basic necessities like power, heat, supply chains, and infrastructure rendered completely inoperable. Imagine communications completely disabled.

This is the potential effect of an EMP, or an Electromagnetic Pulse. An EMP could alter the landscape of the entire power-grid in an instant, rendering whole cities blacked out for prolonged periods or even permanently. Food, fuel and water may very well become inaccessible when the power has failed completely.

An EMP event is quite scary, but would all cars on the roads just come rolling to a stop when an EMP strikes? We rely on vehicles for everything from getting groceries from the store to maintaining resupply chains that make our modern life possible. If they were to stop, getting out of town would no longer be an option for most people.

For this article, we’ll look at whether a strong EMP would disable all vehicles, which vehicles are most likely to be safe from an EMP, and how you can safeguard your vehicle from an EMP attack.

What is an EMP?

An Electromagnetic Pulse, or EMP, is a burst of electromagnetic energy. While energy is always in motion around us, an EMP is specifically notable for causing electronic disruptions by inducing current into electronics, sometimes severely damaging or destroying them. In extreme cases, an EMP can even knock out the power grid, or worse.

There are two main types of EMPs: natural and man-made. A bolt of lightning or a solar flare can cause an EMP, for example. The massive increase and change in electromagnetic energy as a result of a lightning bolt is a naturally occurring EMP. Solar flares causing highly charged atoms to shoot at high speeds from the sun towards the Earth is another form of a natural EMP.

Perhaps the best-known example of a man-made EMP source is from a nuclear blast. A nuclear blast shoots off multiple pulses of energy in its wake; these varied waves of energy cause significant disruptions to nearby electronics. Here is a more detailed (and scientific) explanation of EMP’s and how they damage electronic devices.

A major city after an EMP is a dangerous place to be—especially if you’re without a working car.

Many people are understandably concerned over EMP devices that are specifically designed to knock-out power, which are also known as High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulses, or HEMPs. A HEMP could either be a nuclear bomb detonated high in the atmosphere as a weapon or a device designed to knock out infrastructure and electronics without the heavy casualties of nuclear warfare. HEMPs can affect a much larger area in concentric circles from the blast. The area of effect would depend on how high in the atmosphere the device detonates. The US Congress received a detailed report on HEMP effects in 2008.

EMP attacks are not relegated to the realm of Science Fiction. A 1987 solar flare knocked out a large portion of the Canadian power grid. Lightning routinely damages electronic devices, although on a much more localized scale. British scientists, unaware of the electrical damage nuclear blasts would cause, suffered a massive instrument failure (they called it ‘radioflash‘) after their initial nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s. These events happened and they can certainly happen again. It’s a good idea to understand them and understand what EMPs are capable of.

Would an EMP Attack Disable all Vehicles?

No, an EMP attack would not disable all vehicles. According to a study conducted by the United States EMP Commission, only about 1 out of 50 vehicles are likely to be rendered inoperable. The effects of an EMP on hybrid and electric vehicles, however, have yet to be studied and is currently unknown.

Questions about the potential damage to vehicles in the aftermath of an EMP are quite common. An exhaustive study by the EMP Commission to determine the effects of an EMP on the United States (available here) were conclusive: most vehicles would survive an EMP.

U.S. EMP Commission Test Results – Key Points

  • 50 vehicles built between 1987 and 2002 were exposed to a spectrum of EMP blasts (up to 50kV/m in strength).
  • 3 out of 50 vehicles shut down while driving.
  • All 3 of these vehicles continued rolling until they safely coasted to a stop.
  • 1 of those vehicles was disabled completely and would not restart.
  • 2 of those vehicle restarted without an issue.
  • Many nuisance issues arose from the 50 exposed vehicles including radio interference, strange and erratic behavior from headlights, turn-signals or brake-lights, and one vehicle needed to have its dashboard replaced

The EMP Commission believed there was a potential for unnecessary deaths from vehicles if the vehicles were exposed to an EMP burst which exceeded 25kV/m. The potential for death and serious injury would not come as the result of an electronic failure, however, but rather due to potential accidents that vehicles slowing down suddenly could cause, especially if those vehicles had issues with their brake lights.

The EMP test indicates that roughly 15% of running vehicles may shut down if exposed to an EMP blast at or over 25kV/m over a wide range of area. In other words, short of a massive solar flare, only a nuclear explosion or purpose-built EMP would create the kind of pulse needed to cause the shutdown effect to occur.

When considering the EMP Survey by the EMP Commission, there are a few points to think about. First, this study finished in 2004. Second, the cars used in the study were older models, built in a range from 1987 until 2002. Third, we do not know which specific vehicles the Commission conducted these tests on, as the Commission never released information on car makes or models. Fourth, cars have developed far more complex and integrated electrical systems since 2002, the latest model year tested. Finally, the test does not appear to have been recreated and the results are not scientifically verified as a result.

Testing a Modern Vehicle in a Lightning Strike

This video from the British car show Top Gear actually explains this concept quite well. Volkswagen has a purpose-built facility to test their cars against potential lightning strikes with charges of up to 800,000 volts. After the bolt hits, the car starts right up. Modern cars can survive a multitude of electrical issues without failing.

Resilience of Modern Vehicles

By design, modern automobiles can survive extreme temperatures and other harsh conditions. Modern cars have many fail-safe systems in case of electrical or mechanical failure. As a result, most cars will continue to run without major issue even in the face of extreme electrical disruption.

Many commentators on this subject believe the EMP study is out of date. Specifically, there’s a theory that older vehicles lacked the integrated computing systems and complex electrical engineering that modern cars have. While this is true, cars have had computers since Volkswagen introduced one to operate their electronic fuel injection (EFI) system in 1968. Engine Control Units (ECUs) have been widespread since the 1970s. It is safe to assume every vehicle in the EMP Commission Study had an ECU in one form or another.

In one sense, it’s understandable that people worry about modern vehicles being more electronically sensitive to EMP damage. However, modern vehicles have more protective shielding, grounds and plastics to replace metals now than they’ve ever have in the past. In almost all cases, modern cars should be more capable of withstanding electrical interference than they have been in the past. Except of course, if you are talking about vehicles manufactured before ECU’s and were largely mechanical based in their functions.

So, in summary, EMP’s will not disable most vehicles. Many modern vehicles which would seem unlikely to survive the EMP probably will survive the EMP, but we don’t currently have sufficient testing to verify that.

The Strongest Possible EMP Attack

Let us consider the ‘doomsday’ scenario for a moment. An EMP hits and the power goes out. For the sake of argument, let us assume that the EMP completely knocks out the entire power-grid of the United States and that no other country is willing or able to divert power to the country. Manufacturing crumbles, international trade evaporates and the America is transported back to the 1800s.

Realistically, only a nuclear explosion at a specific altitude or a strong solar flare could cause that sort of disruption. Anything with long wires leading to it will be especially vulnerable to this (such as the power grid—or anything connected to it). That’s because the long power lines will act like a giant antenna and gather massive amounts of energy flowing through the atmosphere, channeling it into whatever they’re connected to.

Modern motor vehicles do have a lot of wiring in them, but this wiring doesn’t travel out from the vehicle and are, generally speaking, coiled tightly inside the metal box that is your car’s shell. A HEMP designed to knock out power will probably fail to generate more than 25kV/m outside of the immediate blast area, meaning most cars will survive without any issues at all, as the testing done by the U.S. EMP Commission showed.

Generally speaking, your vehicle will be the least of your concerns in this type of situation.The electrical system of modern cars feature much better shielding. The electrical shielding your car has will not prevent the inevitable part failures all cars experience. The lack of spare parts or able mechanics will likely ultimately sink your vehicle, not the EMP itself.

What Type of Car is Most Likely to Survive?

In a doomsday EMP scenario, the vehicle most likely to be viable is an older model diesel vehicle that lacks electronics. Since the roads will not have maintenance you will probably want a 4×4 vehicle that can go off-road when necessary.

Most modern diesel vehicles are just as technologically advanced and electronically complex as their gasoline counterparts. The big difference between diesel and gasoline is in finding fuels in case the power goes out. A gasoline engine requires highly refined and specifically processed fuel. Diesel engines can run on almost any type of fuel, including bio-diesels like algae and vegetable oil. Yes, vegetable oil.

While both carburator based and fuel injection vehicles are likely to survive the EMP, vehicles utilizing carburetors are far less reliant on modern electronics as fuel injected vehicles are. If you worry about the lights going off and never coming back on, you should avoid fuel injection vehicles.

“If you’re serious about having a vehicle that will survive massive EMP damage, then you’re looking for a naturally aspirated diesel engine from before about 1990. A 4×4 is probably a safer bet than a front or rear wheel drive.”

How does the Military Protect Against EMPs?

The military is an interesting case study in EMP defense. The military not only faces the potential for natural phenomenon, like a lightning strike or solar flare, they also face the possibility of fighting against a foreign power that uses weapons to disrupt communications, navigation, aviation, and other critical aspects of warfare.

The military primarily uses a simple Faraday Cage to protect their equipment against the potential damages of an EMP attack. A Faraday Cage is a simple construction of grounded metal surrounding sensitive electronic wiring and equipment. During a surge of electromagnetic energy, such as the most severe EMPs, military equipment is protected from damage by this simple Faraday Cage.

Advanced equipment, such as jet-fighter planes, are mostly protected by the same concept. In both the case of a car and a fighter plane, military equipment is further designed and developed to operate independently of its electrical systems. Even if the electronics fail, there are a number of active fail-safes in place to operate both vehicles and airplanes by hydraulics and manual control, if necessary, to prevent a critical error and eventual crisis.

It should be pointed out that similar fail-safe systems are in place in civilian aircraft, civilian electronics,and yes, civilian automobiles.

Preparing Your Car for an EMP

Most vehicles will survive the doomsday scenario without missing a beat, and there really isn’t much you need to do. The real threat to a vehicle after some kind of apocalyptic event is a lack of fuel and spare parts, not an electrical failure.

To prepare for the potential EMP disaster, you could stock up on parts that could commonly fail or might be required for routine maintenance. These include:

  • Spare fuel—treated with Stabil fuel stabilizer to extend its shelf life
  • Various required filters (air filter, oil filter, and fuel filter)
  • Oil change supplies
  • Battery
  • Alternator
  • ECU
  • Sensors
  • Any other on-board computers

Keeping regular maintenance items on hand, such as those required to complete an oil change, is a great idea. The other spare parts on this list might be a bit more expensive. You can find the spare parts you need by plugging your VIN into one of the many car-parts websites and looking up replacement parts that fit your vehicle.

However, my favorite source for spare parts to have on hand in case of an EMP is a wrecking yard. Find a vehicle as close as possible to yours at your local wrecking yard and remove all the sensors you can find along alternator and ECU. It’ll be far cheaper than buying all brand new parts.

For a more in-depth discussion on how an EMP may affect batteries, see How Would an EMP Effect Batteries.

You may consider putting spare electronic engine components into a Faraday bag for further protection—that’s what I do. If you’ve gone to all this trouble to be prepared by buying a second set of vulnerable parts, you might as well go a little further by putting them in an EMP-proof Faraday bag such as these.

 

Another great video to check out:

Protect Generators and Cars from EMP

 

Describes using conductive cloth to protect cars and generators from a high-altitude nuclear EMP attack. Cloth can be found at https://disasterpreparer.com/?product=emp-cloth.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

via:  superprepper


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Inside the dystopian nightmare of an internet shutdown

Government internet shutdowns around the world are insidious, isolating and on the rise.

On Oct. 1, the Iraqi government pulled the plug on the country’s internet. With no warning, out it went like a light. Ever since, the internet, messaging services and social networks have flickered on and off like faulty bulbs.

This is far from the first internet shutdown Iraq has suffered. But according to Hayder Hamzoz, CEO and founder of the Iraqi Network for Social Media, not since 2003 and the regime of Saddam Hussein has internet censorship been so severe.

In this age of reliance on internet connectivity, the idea of suddenly flicking connectivity off like a switch sounds dystopian. But for many people around the world, it’s increasingly becoming a reality. They might not even realize it’s happening until too late.

First the signal disappears from your phone, so you restart it, take the SIM card out and put it back in again. No joy, so you try the Wi-Fi, but that doesn’t work either. Maybe it’s a power outage, you think, but your other appliances are working so that can’t be right. You read a news story in the paper about a political protest that’s taking place, and it suddenly becomes apparent that it’s not just you. The government, worried about the protest, has decided to turn off the internet.

This is exactly what happened to Berhan Taye the first time she experienced an internet shutdown, while visiting family in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2016. Since then, she says, it has become “definitely something that I’ve experienced one too many times.”

Taye leads the nonprofit Access Now’s Keep It On campaign, advocating against internet shutdowns around the world. Around 200 partner organizations work with the campaign to prevent intentional shutdowns of the internet by governments around the globe, a form of repression that the United Nations unequivocally condemned in 2016 as a violation of human rights.

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Iraq has seen mass civilian protests over the past year, leading to internet shutdowns.

Picture Alliance/Getty

Authoritarian governments have long sought control over their subject populations, and internet shutdowns can be seen as a digital extension of traditional censorship and repression, notes Taye.

This is very much the case in Iraq, where anti-corruption protests that sparked the shutdown are also being combatted with curfews and violence from security forces. Over WhatsApp, Hamzoz described the violence he had witnessed in Iraq during blackouts — tear gas, hot-water cannons, live bullets and snipers.

“It sounds terrifying,” I said. “Very terrifying,” he agreed.

India: Disconnected

In 2018 there were 196 documented internet shutdowns across 25 countries, primarily in Asia and Africa, according to a report released by the Keep It On coalition. Since the Arab Spring of 2011, when censorship ran rife across North Africa and the Middle East, internet shutdowns have been widely associated with authoritarian regimes.

But the country leading the way isn’t authoritarian, or even semi-authoritarian. In fact, it’s the world’s largest democracy. Of those 196 shutdowns that happened last year, 134 took place in India. The primary target is the state of Jammu and Kashmir, a politically unstable region on the border with Pakistan.

In August, the Indian government approved changes revoking the autonomy of the Muslim-majority region, stripping it of its constitution and imposing “security measures” that prevent freedom of movement, public assembly and protest. The region will be split into two territories governed by individual leaders who will report to the Hindu-led government in New Delhi, it was announced Wednesday.

Kashmir has been without internet since the constitutional changes in August, with phone signals also dropping out intermittently.

“This blackout has pushed the entire [8 million] population of Kashmir into a black hole, where the world is unable to know what is happening inside a cage and vice-versa,” said Aakash Hassan, Kashmir correspondent at CNN-News18.

imagegettyimages-1178978738

The contested region of Kashmir has been on lockdown since early August. Internet has been shut down for much of that time.

Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Getty

The situation for journalists “couldn’t be worse,” Hassan told me. Everything from sourcing to fact-checking to filing stories often grinds to a halt. He knows of reporters trying to operate in these conditions who have been questioned, injured or detained by the authorities, while also being prevented from speaking out about what’s happening to them.

But Hassan also knows first hand of the toll internet shutdowns can take on people’s personal lives and relationships. During the recent shutdown his grandmother passed away. It took him 14 hours to learn of her ill health, by which point he had missed his chance to say goodbye.

“I was just one hour away from my home,” he said. “But due to the communication blackout, I couldn’t see her face for the last time.”

Most of India’s internet shutdowns are ordered at the regional government level, although it’s often hard to tell where the orders come from. Legally, it’s hard to fight shutdowns, although there are often attempts to do so. For a start, governments rarely acknowledge that internet shutdowns have taken place. When they do, they often give ambiguous reasons for their actions.

For the public good?

The Keep It On campaign tries to map the justifications governments give for shutting the internet down against the actual causes. The most frequently used reason is “public safety,” but in reality this is a broad church that can mean anything from public protest to communal violence to elections.

Jan Rydzak, a research scholar at the Stanford Global Digital Policy Incubator, has been monitoring shutdowns in Kashmir for some years. If public safety is the real priority, he says, shutting down the internet is unlikely to make much difference. In February 2019, Rydzak published a paper demonstrating that shutdowns didn’t discourage or prevent violent protests from taking place.

“Public safety is always a convenient excuse,” he said, “because in the vast majority of the cases it is written into the law of a given country that in situations of public emergency or public safety concerns, the government has special powers to, for example, cut off communication.”

Public safety is indeed the excuse that has been used in this most recent shutdown in Kashmir, which Rydzak describes as a “digital siege.” This excuse is plausible in line with the levels of violence the long-contested region has witnessed, but according to Rydzak, there are ulterior motives.

“They’re looking basically for something that would extend their control over the territory to the greatest extent possible,” he said. The Indian government doesn’t know what will work, he explained, which has led to it “crudely cutting off all contact with the outside world.”

imagegettyimages-1166905415

Attempting to use the internet in Kashmir has been fruitless for much of the last three months.

SOPA

There are many reasons why they shouldn’t, starting with Rydzak’s own research in India, which shows empirically that shutting off internet access does not reduce violent protests, and sometimes even perpetuates them.

As an ascendant power, Rydzak adds, the frequency with which India is shutting down the internet is setting a bad example for other countries. Seeing shutdowns as another tool in their arsenal for tackling outbreaks of violence or protests, more and more countries are experimenting with shutting off the internet just to see how it goes, he said.

This is echoed by Keep It On’s research, which shows an escalation in the number of new countries opting to use shutdowns for the first time, according to Taye. Often they do so around the time of elections — a trend that has increased over the past year, starting with Bangladesh at the end of 2018, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Benin.

“From 2018 I can list 10 countries that did not shut down the internet, but this year they are the frequent culprits of shutdowns,” she said. “Benin is a fairly democratic country. I never would have assumed they would have shut down the internet, but they did.”

Now aware that elections might result in shutdowns, the Keep It On campaign is keeping a particularly close eye on countries where elections are imminent to monitor for disruption.

From shutdowns to slowdowns

Measuring shutdowns is important to know where the rights are being violated, but keeping track isn’t always easy. Telecoms infrastructure is poor in many countries where shutdowns take place, so a steady internet connection isn’t something that can be relied on at the best of times.

“It’s very difficult for a lot of people to figure out if it’s an intentional shutdown, or if it’s just a fiber cut, or if your internet is just having a bad day,” said Taye.

This is further confused by the fact that many governments use less obvious, more insidious tactics in hyperlocal shutdowns or slowdowns. Often they’ll target specific social media services for throttling, or slowing down the bandwidth. WhatsApp, widely used in developing countries due to its low data costs, and Facebook are regular targets.

Either governments can make the services unavailable altogether, or can make them painfully slow to use. Some of these slowdowns are designed specifically to stop people being able to send pictures and videos, which would be more likely to inflame tensions or serve as evidence.

“We are deeply concerned by the trend in some regions and countries towards shutting down, throttling, or otherwise disrupting access to the open internet,” said a spokeswoman for Facebook. The company offers training to governments and law enforcement to help them address emerging situations by maintaining their own online presence and combating the spread of misinformation with appropriate counter speech.

Another justification used by governments to shut down internet access is to stop the spread of misinformation. Following the Easter bombings that took place in Sri Lanka earlier this year, for instance, some Western media were quick to praise the government’s decision to block access to social media to prevent the spread of false information.

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The Easter bombings in Sri Lanka led to the government blocking social media for the purpose of curbing the spread of misinformation.

Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/Getty


But it did no such thing. Just as shutdowns in Kashmir didn’t stop political violence, misinformation ran rife and even ended up in the coverage of major international news outlets. A Brown University student was at one point falsely identified as the attacker.

Blocking social media doesn’t prevent the spread of false information, according to Keep It On. It simply delays it. Taye gives an example, again from Ethiopia, where in July this year the government shut down the internet for a week following a series of assassinations of important political figures.

“When they turned on the internet, all of the conspiracy theories, all of the craziness that was happening in the offline space did not stop,” she said. It was all still there, just pending, waiting for people to be reconnected so it could continue to spread.

In the meantime, the last information put out before a shutdown often becomes the dominant narrative — whether or not it’s accurate.

As for the social media blockage in Sri Lanka, it wasn’t only unsuccessful at preventing the spread of fake news, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne of the LIRNEasia think tank wrote in a Slate op-ed following the bombing. It also prevented people from getting in touch with one another to report their safety, and it hid the inability of the police to control violent protests — which were partially caused due to the spread of misinformation.

Living in the dark

As if the lack of evidence to support the effectiveness of blackouts wasn’t enough to dissuade countries from deploying them, the economic toll of shutting off the internet can also run to millions of dollars per day.

According to a study conducted by Deloitte for Facebook in 2016, shutdowns can cost high-connectivity countries up to 1.9% of their GDP per day. Shutdowns in India are estimated to have cost the country over $3 billion since 2012, according to a report published by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations last year.

But they also have a trickle-down effect that takes a huge toll on the livelihoods of individuals who over the past 10 years have come to rely on the internet for their income. “Behind every figure like that are dozens of businesses that went out of business,” said Rydzak.

In Iraq, Hamzoz said, tech startups and local Uber rivals providing taxi-hailing services are losing out daily without steady access to the internet for themselves or their customers. Startups are going out of business. Women who rely on taxi-hailing apps for safety reasons must either stay home or risk their safety.

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government is one of many to employ internet shutdowns for the first time in the past 12 months.

Federico Scoppa/Stringer

Similarly in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, internet access has allowed the informal economy, which women and other marginalized groups rely on for an income, to thrive. When people live in remote places or don’t have access to physical premises, business is often conducted through WhatsApp or Facebook groups and relies on digital payments.

According to Ashnah Kalemera, programs officer at Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa, this extends to all manner of casual work, including the buying and selling of food, laundry and hairdressing services.

“Many women are running businesses in this informal economy set up to ensure financial security,” she said. “Let’s not forget that African women are still largely excluded from the funds afforded to their male counterparts for formal tech startups.”

If the internet goes down, income streams are abruptly interrupted. For some women this means suddenly not being able to afford to feed their families, to send their children to school and to access other basic necessities.

Enterprising people have found ways to get around shutdowns — the use of VPNs to access social media is widespread. In a total blackout, however, these are also often rendered ineffective. In Iraq, Hamzoz told me, some people use international SIM cards, but they are expensive and the signal is often weak.

As we spoke over the course of October, when protests over corruption and poor living standards in Iraq raged on, Hamzoz reported the ongoing flickering status of his country’s internet and social media outages. On Oct. 16 he said mobile internet was partially restored. Then on Oct. 25, when mass protests broke out, it went down again. At the time of publishing, Iraq has largely been without internet for almost an entire month. Hamzoz said he expected blackouts and slowdowns to continue until the political issues in the country are addressed.

For Iraq, just like Kashmir, Jammu, Ethiopia and many other places around the world, that means internet shutdowns are likely to be a fact of life for the foreseeable future.


Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

via:  cnet


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Free Homesteading, Cooking, Prepper, Survival eBooks & PDF’s for 08-15-18

Free Kindle Survival Homesteading Books

Free Homesteading, cooking, Survival, , and Prepping Kindle ebooks and PDF’s? Yes FREE Kindle ebooks and PDF’s!! Every now and then Amazon runs special offers on some of their Kindle ebooks and PDF’s, making them free for a limited time (usually just 24 hours).

I will check Amazon on regularly basis for their free Kindle ebooks in related subjects such as survival, homesteading and prepping etc. I will do all the leg-work for you so you don’t have to. You can just come back here regularly, so make sure to bookmark this blog.

These ebooks and PDF’s are only free for a limited time so if you are interested in one make sure you get it right away so you don’t lose out!

Remember you DON’T need a kindle to take advantage of these! There are FREE kindle apps for most major platforms!! iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac and Android. You can find those apps here!

Always check price before engaging, to make sure it hasn’t returned to full price.

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Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.


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Free Homesteading, Cooking, Prepper, Survival eBooks & PDF for 04-27-18

Free Kindle Survival Homesteading Books

Free Homesteading, cooking, Survival, , and Prepping Kindle ebooks and PDF’s? Yes FREE Kindle ebooks and PDF’s!! Every now and then Amazon runs special offers on some of their Kindle ebooks and PDF’s, making them free for a limited time (usually just 24 hours).

I will check Amazon on regularly basis for their free Kindle ebooks in related subjects such as survival, homesteading and prepping etc. I will do all the leg-work for you so you don’t have to. You can just come back here regularly, so make sure to bookmark this blog.

These ebooks and PDF’s are only free for a limited time so if you are interested in one make sure you get it right away so you don’t lose out!

Remember you DON’T need a kindle to take advantage of these! There are FREE kindle apps for most major platforms!! iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac and Android. You can find those apps here!

Always check price before engaging, to make sure it hasn’t returned to full price.

 

 

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Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.


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How to Successfully Still Get the Internet Even When You’re Living Off the Map: Off the Grid Internet

Living off the grid is a dream for a growing segment of Americans, especially as civilization goes to crap before our eyes. The one thing keeping most people from realizing this dream is the fear of losing the internet. Fear not! There are a few simple ways you can get the web even when you’re hundreds of miles from civilization.

Going off grid doesn’t mean you have to cut all ties to civilization. In fact, thanks to modern technology you can still live your off the grid dreams, while still staying connected to the rest of the world.
One of the questions that I receive most from people looking to go off-the-grid is how they can access the internet when living in remote areas of the country. This is especially important for those of us that rely on the internet for our jobs.
Offered Internet Options:
1) Cell phone connections

There are plenty of rural off the grid locations that still have accessible cell towers within reach of the land. If you live within range of one of these towers, you can use a data-capable cell phone to stay connected and surf the web. While these connections are usually pretty slow, they are one of the cheapest options on the market, and can be a good option for those that are not going to require a lot of bandwidth.

2) Your own hotspot

Depending on how remote you live, using a wireless provider for internet access can help keep you connected 24/7. Most Cell Phone companies and even some newer specialized companies offer wireless Internet services designed specifically for laptops and tablets.
3) Satellite Internet

For travelers and people who have decided to live in remote areas of the world, satellite internet is now a real possibility. Companies like HughesNet and WildBlue now provide fast, affordable service to almost anywhere in the country.

From personal experience I can tell you to avoid HughesNet. Horrible service, bad support, they charge a fortune to keep it working, hidden fees. Might better avoid it unless no other option, and then there’s always Ham Radio for good basic service.
4) Internet via Ham Radio

Although not really practical for large downloads or streaming large files, it is possible to build a repeater network that allows you to access the internet through a ham radio. In fact, during emergency situations ham radios can be used quite successfully to send email, data, and documents when all other forms of communication have gone down.

Even before the internet, Ham radio operators were using an internet of their own called Packet Radio. Packet Radio allows Hams to send files, update bulletin board systems, send text messages and even control remote systems and networks via their radios. Should some catastrophic event ever occur that takes out the internet, Packet Radio technology can still be used to link remote stations and form an ad hoc network — or emergency internet of sorts.

Today, through worldwide radio messaging systems like DStar and Winlink, Ham radio operators can send email with attachments, send emergency relief communications and message relays, and even access the internet. Although the legality of using it to access certain parts of the internet is still in question, and one would not want to transmit personal data or passwords via these technologies, it is a viable option for accessing the internet during emergency situations.

Here is a good video from Amateur Radio Operator Chris Matthieu showing that it is possible to access the internet with a Ham Radio.


5) Connect Via Dial-Up Internet. Remember dial-up? Yep, it’s still available, even though it has its limits (such as not being able easily to watch videos).  More than 2 million Americans are still using dial-up, saving lots of money along the way. Dial-up would work for a while when the electricity is out because landlines would still be working. Landlines are “powered” by the phone company, allowing them to operate when, for instance, a storm knocks out electricity to your town.

For most off-the-grid homes, a favorite choice and growing segment is the option of running a mobile hotspot. Of course, there are still many places in which this option doesn’t work due to the lack of a mobile signal, but those spaces are filling in daily, and until then, satellite internet is an option.

A surprising option, if you happen to be proficient at using a Ham radio, is using a repeater to get some basic internet. It’s not much, but for those of us who want to live off-the-grid, anyways, maybe it’s just what we need.

Internet Connections of the Future

One of the many projects of our wireless companies and Internet service providers is to develop a true nationwide Wi-Fi network. There have been reports that they intend to use every wireless device in every home as a Wi-Fi hotspot, providing true coast-to-coast mobile coverage. Of course, there be will many privacy concerns with such a system.

Another experimental program is being developed by Space X, the private space flight company. They have just received government approval to install a constellation of low altitude satellites, specifically for providing worldwide Internet access.

This isn’t the first time that something like this has been proposed. Other companies have either looked at the possibility or even made some strides towards launching a satellite. But in all cases, the program has failed. Developers say the big difference this time is that the plan is being fostered by a company that sends rockets up into space regularly. Then there’s the possible health issues they are coming out on this type of service.

Don’t give up on the Internet, even if off grid or even in a crisis situation. There are ways of connecting and there will probably be service available to use. The key is to have the right sort of equipment and connections available for what you will need.

This is a really good basic look at the options for internet away from the lights of the cities.

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

Via: offthegridnews,
offgridsurvival,
diehardsurvivor


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What Would Happen When The Internet Goes Down

Try this and see what happens in your household… pull the plug on your internet router. How long will it take before there are inconveniences or upset people (especially the younger ones) …

I have been having issues with my internet service all week, and this morning it went ‘belly up’ – no internet. Having spent some time on the phone with my Internet Service Provider, they finally concluded to send someone out tomorrow (probably a hardware issue with the modem itself).

It got me to thinking about how we might fare if the internet were to go down, and it’s a scary thought…

 

During day to day ordinary life, you probably see others continuously checking their ‘smart device’. Without internet connectivity, they will actually have to look up from their devices and see and deal with the real world around them. They might even have to ‘talk’ with someone. The horror!

Could the public at large survive without their Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and all the other social media platforms that exist today? How long until they go into withdrawal symptoms without their constant social ‘connectivity’?

For me, since I use the internet to run this blog, it would cease to update. I suppose I could survive that. I also occasionally use the internet for streaming Netflix or Roku, but I could survive without that as well. Email would no longer work, but I still know how to talk and use an ordinary telephone. I would lose the convenience of occasional research using a search-engine, but I could live without it…

But more importantly, what about our infrastructure of commerce? Without the internet, most all commerce would cease. Store transactions would probably come to a screeching halt since many require networking with the corporate ‘mother ship’.

So much of our infrastructure is connected with the internet that the world as we know it would be terribly affected without it and all of the automated systems that work behind the scenes to keep the gears turning. And to think that we survived without the internet up until just a few decades ago! It’s amazing when you really think about it.

Seriously, it would be disastrous (nearly close to a power-grid down) if the internet went down.

The design of the internet itself though is generally set up for redundancy, however there are choke points of traffic (.gov NSA interceptions, etc…) along with the service providers themselves that could be potential critical junctions of cutoff or failure.

Anyway, seeing how I’m sitting here without connectivity today, I thought that I would present the general issue to think about. That is, our reliance on the internet. Can you think of other ways that we rely on internet connectivity in our daily lives – even ‘unseen’ reliance?

Now I suppose that I’ll hop in the truck and take this Word document and my laptop on over to the local McDonalds parking lot for their WiFi internet connection to upload to the site

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

Via: modernsurvivalblog


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