Remember when the Internet meant freedom?

The simulation, presented at an industry fair in China, offered a rare look at a system that now peers into nearly every corner of Xinjiang, the troubled region where Kashgar is located.

This is the vision of high-tech surveillance — precise, all-seeing, infallible — that China’s leaders are investing billions of dollars in every year, making Xinjiang an incubator for increasingly intrusive policing systems that could spread across the country and beyond. …

The system taps into networks of neighborhood informants; tracks individuals and analyzes their behavior; tries to anticipate potential crime, protest or violence; and then recommends which security forces to deploy, the company said.
On the screen during the demonstration was a slogan: “If someone exists, there will be traces, and if there are connections, there will be information.”

New York Times

Remember when universities were about academic freedom? How is this different in principle, from the hate speech filters being developed with the help of data fusion? Or is it just a matter of degree, a question of how far you twist the dial?

One of the most interesting features of the Chinese system is it allows authorities to create “virtual cages”. In an IOT world you credit card, phone, car etc can automatically stop working or flag you should you stray from the authorized zone.

Perhaps if we don’t have coarse-grained walls enclosing nations we will wind up with fine grained walls built around individuals. We will live in a world “without borders” but the drone will flag you if you try to enter any locality without the right digital token.

Escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing are wiping billions from the net worth of China’s richest surveillance tycoons.

The billionaires behind Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co. have watched their combined fortunes sink by more than $8 billion since March 2018 as shares of both companies sank on speculation of potential U.S. sanctions. The losses deepened on Wednesday after reports that Donald Trump’s administration is considering blacklisting the surveillance giants, in part because of their alleged role in human rights violations

Bloomberg

Power? No, Thanks, I’m Good

Most people are happy to live their own lives, content in the miraculous experience of being alive. But a significant minority are happy only if they are leading other people’s lives. They feel nothing but what is underfoot.

The wish to have power over others is altogether alien to me; I just don’t get it, any more than I get why anyone wants to have kids or play Settlers of Catan. Even sexual fantasies based on power dynamics don’t particularly appeal to me. Why would I want to boss other people around? What would I make them do? My taxes, maybe? It just sounds awkward, and like a huge hassle. I don’t even like being waited on by people I’d rather have a beer with; I’m uncomfortable holding the meager (and mostly illusory) power of grades over my students.

NYT

True facts

Everyone presumably pays for accurate polling even if it shows them losing because how else can they adjust strategy unless they are in possession of the true facts. Now 3 failed polling predictions in 3 major Anglo democracies raise the question of how they could be so wrong?

David Cameron called the Brexit referendum confident Remain would win. The Hillary Clinton victory fireworks were already laid out. The Australian bookies had already paid those who had bet on Labor to win. Then the unthinkable happened. The sure thing didn’t happen.

Just as historians will forever wonder why the Titanic’s lookouts didn’t see the iceberg so also will political scientists wonder at how pollsters, presumably in honest search of the true facts, with vast sampling resources at their disposal, got it so totally wrong.

The screws tighten

LONDON (Reuters) – Iranian crude oil exports have fallen in May to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) or lower, tanker data showed and industry sources said, after the United States tightened the screws on Tehran’s main source of income, deepening global supply losses.

Reuters

Meanwhile …

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran said on Friday it could “easily” hit U.S. warships in the Gulf, the latest in days of saber rattling between Washington and Tehran, while its top diplomat worked to counter U.S. sanctions and salvage a nuclear deal denounced by President Donald Trump.

Reuters

Insurer says Iran’s Guards likely to have organized tanker attacks

A confidential assessment issued this week by the Norwegian Shipowners’ Mutual War Risks Insurance Association (DNK) concluded that the attack was likely to have been carried out by a surface vessel operating close by that despatched underwater drones carrying 30-50 kg (65-110 lb) of high-grade explosives to detonate on impact.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-oil-tankers-exclusive-idUSKCN1SN1P7

Now-dead Ohio State doctor accused of abusing at least 177

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A now-dead Ohio State team doctor sexually abused at least 177 male students over nearly two decades, and university officials knew what he was doing and did little to stop him, according to an investigative report released by the school Friday.

Dr. Richard Strauss committed the abuse from 1979 to 1997 — nearly his entire time at Ohio State — in episodes involving students from at least 16 sports, plus his work at the student health center and his off-campus clinic, the report said.

AP