Things Noticeable this week

[Devius]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

He only stopped it inadvertently,He's just vermin like those Who spread the virus..

According to a statement from the US Department of Justice:

"Marcus Hutchins... a citizen and resident of the United Kingdom, was arrested in the United States on 2 August, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada, after a grand jury in the Eastern District of Wisconsin returned a six-count indictment against Hutchins for his role in creating and distributing the Kronos banking Trojan. The charges against Hutchins, and for which he was arrested, relate to alleged conduct that occurred between in or around July 2014 and July 2015."

Kronos is malware that is designed to steal banking login and other financial data from infected computers.

[Roubignol]

They are living a very hot summer in Italy.

3 August 2017

A long and intense heat wave

In recent days, the peninsula has experienced a wave of historical heat. During the day on Wednesday, the 40°C mark was crossed in several regions, notably in Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Lazio (north and central Italy). Thus, in Guidonia, Lazio, the thermometer reached 42°C, which is an absolute record for this city. The highest temperature was recorded at Frosinone with 42.2°C. Even higher values are expected today Thursday and Friday which will probably be the most hot days when other historic records could be beaten. Even if temperatures could drop slightly thereafter, this heat wave will continue until next Sunday. After that, the temperatures will drop significantly, but they will often still exceed the standards.

Heat coming from North Africa

This wave of intense heat, the same one that also affects Switzerland, is due to a massive influx of subtropical air coming from North Africa. This torrid air is driven by a powerful backbone also based in North Africa. It is part of what is called the high pressure subtropical belt. During the boreal summer, it tends to shift to the north which ensures us periods of sunny and warm weather. However, this summer the shift of this subtropical belt towards the north is more marked, hence the heat waves repeat.

More than 36 degrees in Switzerland

The scorching heat from Africa, although somewhat less intense, also affects southern Switzerland. Thus, today, Thursday, the bar of 35°C was crossed in Geneva and Sion with respectively 36.5 and 36.9°C. At this point, it is the hottest day of the year. However, for Geneva we are still far from the absolute record of 39.7°C recorded on July 7, 2015 while Sion is a few tenths of a degree from the absolute record also measured on July 7, 2015 with 37.8°C.

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by haroldeye

During the run up to the invasion of Iraq the various anti war groups made much of the 'fact' that the US and UK had been major suppliers of Arms to Saddam. The known figures were published in a couple of newspapers and not contested by anyone as,

$9Bn sales from Russia.
$6Bn sales from France
$.9Bn sales from Germany
$.5Bn from the US
$.3Bn from the UK

Afterwards there was a scandal over the French oil company Elf breaking sanctions against Iraq and using the profits to fund the campaigns of various German politicians. Though Elf was a state run company under the control of Le President, only a couple of Directors saw the inside of a court room.

Yep, but what has your facts to do with Jacques Chirac's objective comments about "exploiting Africa"?
Chirac was not President during the "Elf Affair".

[seany65]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

He only stopped it inadvertently,He's just vermin like those Who spread the virus..

Without seeing the evidence and without trial, you know this?

[haroldeye]

Just pointing out what a hypocritical sort he was. The Elf affair was during his presidency, certainly I became aware of it in 2003 when he was French president.

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by haroldeye

Just pointing out what a hypocritical sort he was. The Elf affair was during his presidency, certainly I became aware of it in 2003 when he was French president.

The "Elf affair" came out in 1994.

Chirac became President of France for the first time in 1995.

You probably speak about Mitterand.
There were some French ministers of Mitterand or very important politicians who were in trouble in this affair like Roland Dumas or Charles Pasqua, but not Jacques Chirac.

[diamelsx]

These accusations of police planting evidence are becoming more common these days

[Devius]

While automakers focus on defending the systems in their cars against hackers, there may be other ways for the malicious to mess with self-driving cars. Security researchers at the University of Washington have shown they can get computer vision systems to misidentify road signs using nothing more than stickers made on a home printer.

UW computer-security researcher Yoshi Kohno described an attack algorithm that uses printed images stuck on road signs. These images confuse the cameras on which most self-driving vehicles rely. In one example, explained in a document uploaded to the open-source scientific-paper site arXiv last week, small stickers attached to a standard stop sign caused a vision system to misidentify it as a Speed Limit 45 sign.

The vision systems in autonomous cars typically have an object detector and a classifier: the former spots pedestrians, lights, signs, and other vehicles, and the latter decides what the object is and what the signs are saying. The attacks Kohno described assume that hackers are able to gain access to this classifier and then, using its algorithm and a photo of the target road sign, generate a customized image.

The attack relies on the vulnerability of deep neural networks that have been trained to recognize signs, stoplights, and other road users using images from cameras mounted on self-driving vehicles. These systems can be sensitive to malicious perturbations—small, precisely crafted changes to their inputs—that can cause them to misbehave in unexpected and potentially dangerous ways.

Full story:
http://blog.caranddriver.com/researc...tonomous-cars/

[haroldeye]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

The "Elf affair" came out in 1994.

Chirac became President of France for the first time in 1995.

You probably speak about Mitterand.
There were some French ministers of Mitterand or very important politicians who were in trouble in this affair like Roland Dumas or Charles Pasqua, but not Jacques Chirac.

I've checked and it was Mitterand. When the trial was ongoing Chirac was President and claimed immunity by his position. Not quite the same as not being prosecuted though.

I stand corrected.

[Devius]

A British model was drugged and kidnapped in Milan to be sold in an online auction, say Italian police.

The woman, 20, had arrived in the city to take part in a photo shoot arranged through her agent, but was abducted and held captive for six days.

Polish national Lukasz Herba, 30, who lives in the UK, has been arrested on kidnapping charges, police said.

The Foreign Office said it was providing consular support to a British woman.

The model, who has not been named, arrived in Milan on 10 July.

Details:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40838224