NYPD and Security Theater in the NYC Subway

When a politician screams, "Do something!" you should hang onto your wallet. NYPD Purchases Expensive AI Metal Detectors That May or May Not Actually Work

In its latest effort to waste taxpayer funds that could be spent fixing the famously-broken Metropolitan Transit Authority subway system, the New York Police Department has decided to buy AI metal detectors made by a company that's currently under federal investigation.

That would be under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged false advertising. But hey, I'm sure they're on the up and up. Maybe.

Those AI metal detectors cost $2000 to $3000 per month, and there is 4 year contract minimum. Do the math, and it comes to quite a lot of money. Calling it $120K per detector is not out of line.

But hey, they are "Doing something!" And I'm sure the false advertising isn't about overstating the effectiveness or anything.

Hat tip Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 1 April 2024: No Shit There I Was Edition

The BBC had its own article on Evolv two years ago.

Maritime Piracy on the Rise

I should say, "on the rise, again." Aside from the drone attacks, other issues abound. From The Maritime Executive - "You Can Hear the Gunfire": The 911 Call Center for Mariners Under Attack

A Royal Navy-led emergency center has dealt with an ‘unprecedented’ rise in distress calls due to the Red Sea crisis.

The team at the UK Maritime Trade Organisation, based on Portsdown Hill overlooking Portsmouth, has dealt with two or three reports of attacks and incidents daily – compared with monthly – as a result of the wave of attacks on shipping in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November.

For a long time the problem area has been the Gulf of Aden, along the coast of Somalia, with problems stretching into the Red Sea, and the adjacent area of the Arabian Sea. Lately the range at which the Somali pirates operate has been increasing.

They’ve seen a 475 percent increase in incidents reported by seafarers in the Middle East since attacks began in the autumn, with over 2,500 emails coming into the HQ daily.

Despite the concerted efforts by international warships to protect commercial traffic in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and frequent downing of drones and missiles, including by HMS Diamond and Richmond, more than a dozen merchantmen have been hit and one, the bulk carrier Rubymar, sunk by Houthi attacks in recent months.

The result has been that a lot of cargo is bypassing the Red Sea and the Suez Canal in favor of the much longer trip around the southern tip of Africa for the Mediterranean Sea. I believe this more than doubles the time spent getting from the Indian Ocean to the ports of Europe.

“The current focus of industry and military in theatre is on a possible resurgence of Somali-based piracy at extended range – 600 nautical miles – from shore,” Lieutenant Commander Black added. “Although this could have a significant impact on ships, it’s expected that international trade will adapt by re-routing to avoid the danger areas.”

Wednesday Link Roundup - 3 April

Pirate's Cove starts things off with Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

Victory Girls Blog has Sunday morning cafe cocktails linkage.
Vlad Tepes has links.

Political Hat - News of the Week (March 31st, 2024)

Hailstorm in Texas destroys thousands of acres of solar farms
Locals are very worried about water contamination.

EBL - MAGA Law and Order 😢😠☀️

You are either for law and order or you are against it...
Biden Backs Hamas, Biden does not back civilization...
Instapundit: Biden forgets Hamas started this

Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 04.01.24

Adam Piggott: I can’t wait to go to your funeral knowing I could’ve changed that outcome
American Conservative: Diamond Dallas Page Tells America to Breathe

Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 31 March 2024: Postprismatic Stress Edition

Meanwhile AT&T is resetting customer passcodes after millions of customers' account details were leaked... In 2019. (Tech Crunch)
Or possibly earlier. AT&T doesn't know or isn't saying.

Bacon Time!!!! - Sunday Linkage

Watts Up With That? - Hawaii’s Energy Transition: Solar-for-Coal, One-third Rate Jump
Freedom Is Just Another Word… - The Quotes of Steven Wright:

Vlad Tepes - Excellent interview with Regina Watteel, Bill Mahar mocks his previous positions on Covid regs and the Vaxx and more: Links 1 for April 2, 2024

1. Poland joins the COMINTERN by preparing to criminalize “hate-speech” with three years in jail for speech offensive to LGBTQ. And remember, the Q stands for coraaling the LGBT into a weapon of communism.

Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 04.02.24

Transterrestrial Musings: That 1938 Feeling, also, China And The Moon
Victory Girls: MAGA Republicans Against Rebuilding Baltimore Bridge?

A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Trump Pays, Judge Rejects Hunter's Tax Plea

Spencer Brown at TownHall, 'Didn't Do That': Biden Denies He Proclaimed Easter Sunday 'Transgender Day of Visibility' (He Did). Nick Arama at RedState thinks Biden Raises More Questions by Appearing to Deny He Proclaimed Easter 'Transgender Day of Visibility'

Gates of Vienna - News Feed 4/1/2024

European Prosecutors Take Over Belgian Probe Into Pfizergate
Top European prosecutors are investigating allegations of criminal wrongdoing in connection with vaccine negotiations between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and ...

Small Dead Animals - Easter Sunday On Turtle Island

Blackie’s Canada: Everyone knows Trudeau is a dictator. The Easter weekend in Toronto.
Woke Britain: The invasion continues. And a fake Christian gets a Muslim burial.

Don Surber - Highlights of the week

ITEM 5: Pirate Wires reported, “California’s Architect of Equity-Based Algebra Accused of Academic Fraud.”
The world can get along fine without algebra — in our grass huts along mud roads

Cafe Hayek - Some Links

In a new paper published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, GMU Econ alum Erik Matson identifies what Adam Smith and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers can teach behavioral economists.

Maggie's Farm - Monday morning links

'Equity-Based Algebra' Is as Bad as You Imagine It to Be
Heather Mac Donald: Disparate Impact Thinking Is Destroying Our Civilization
‘Gender-affirming therapy’ is not beneficial, pediatrics group concludes

Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Democrat clients of daughter of judge in Trump trial raised $90M off case

• The Democrat War To Destroy Christianity - BattleSwarm
• Biden Administration Promote Transgenderism Over Easter - CTH

J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 4/2/24

"The Washington Post is a broken record in their editorial about how to end the Israel/Hamas war."
WaPo and the Hamas War

I leave you with Saturday Memes … from MaddMedic, Sunday Funnies from Flopping Aces, Sunday (Monday) Funnies For 04-01-24 from Stately McDaniel Manor, MONDAY MEMES from Granite Grok, and Tuesday's gifs from Wirecutter.

Another Failure of the Victim-Selection Process

Criminals don't take Easter Sunday off. McPherson police: Man shoots home intruder

How would you respond to someone breaking into your home at 3:30 in the morning?

Police say the man heard someone trying to get into his home. When the suspect attempted to enter, the homeowner fired once, hitting the suspect in the stomach.

McPherson, Kansas is about an hour's drive north of Wichita, or a 190 mile drive west of Kansas City.

The guy who got shot is expected to survive. No word on what charges he will face.

Free Speech Is Dead at Harvard

What's the opposite of Diversity? University. Harvard is named worst school for free speech — scoring zero out of possible 100

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released its annual college free speech rankings on Wednesday, which dubbed the state of free speech at the Ivy League school “abysmal.”

“I’m not totally surprised,” Sean Stevens, director of polling and analytics at FIRE, told The Post. “We’ve done these rankings for years now, and Harvard is consistently near the bottom.”

Fire was generous with the zero rating because Harvard's actual score on there survey was -10.69.

The score is calculated based on factors including how strong the school’s policies in favor of free speech are and how many professors, students and campus speakers have been targeted by authorities for their speech.

It was made worse by the number of professors that Harvard sanctioned over issues of free speech.

You are not allowed to say things that are not approved. You are not allowed to think thoughts that are not approved.

This is pretty much the opposite of what colleges were about back in the Dark Ages, when I went to college.

The number one school for free speech was Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan. The school earned 78.01 out of 100 possible points.

“I’m not necessarily surprised that a technological school has a better speech climate, primarily for the reason that they don’t really talk as much about controversial topics,” Stevens said. “They’re there to make things work as engineers.”

There is more at the link, including the others near the top and bottom of the list.

Division World

Sometime back during the dark times of the Lockdowns, I stopped reading the music press. Even before that a couple of sites had become less than useful. But recently I stumbled over a couple of outlets concentrating on Progressive Rock, which has lead to a couple of Progressive bands. Today we have one such band. (I'm not sure I recommend them... time will tell.)

Jane Getter Premonition is led by vocalist and guitarist Jane Getter. The band also includes Adam Holzman on keyboards, guitarist Alex Skolnick, bassist and singer Paul Frazier and drummer Gene Lake. As I type this, I have only heard a few of their songs, but I like what I've heard.

I've only heard a few songs by Jane Getter Premonition, and as usual I like some of it, and I don't like some of it. We shall have to see how they stack up overall.

This song is "Division World" by Jane Getter Premonition from their February 2023 album. It is the title song to that album.

Did You Think Your Facebook Messages Were Private?

Why would you think such a thing, you sweet summer child? Facebook let Netflix see user DMs to help them tailor content as part of a close collaboration between the two tech giants, new court documents claims | Daily Mail Online

If you use F*c*book, you don't pay for that service. That is because YOU, or more precisely your activities online, are the product being sold.

Lawyers alleged that 'within a month' of [Netflix's co-founder Reed] Hastings joining Facebook's board of directors, the two companies signed an 'Inbox API' (Application Programming Interface) agreement that 'allowed Netflix programmatic access to Facebook's user's private message inboxes.'

There is more about Cambridge Analytica, fines levied by Ireland and other political entities.

If I'm not using Signal, I assume that my messages are not private, and even Signal is subject to issues if my phone is hacked. But protests to the contrary, if you're not using Signal, I wouldn't count on your messages staying private.

March In Chicago

HeyJackass! brings us the March Wrap-up.

A warmer-than-average first half of the month had us pacing towards 60 homicides, but a late beat down from Officer Winter on the back half tempered what would have been a recent era record run.

March 2024: 50 killed, 162 wounded

That isn't even CLOSE to being a March record, which is sad.

Click thru for the April prediction, all the stats breakdown, and a take on April 1st.

The stats include things like #ShotInTheAss, Selfies, and the breakdown by race.

Tuesday Links - 2 April

Diogenes Middle Finger kicks things off with MSNBC is Straight Up a Cult

As one of the 99.9% of Americans who never or rarely ever watch MSNBC, my viewing habits were unaffected by the reports of the hissy fits triggered by the hiring and then firing of a failed RNC chairwoman. The pull of bias at MSNBC has so completely collapsed into itself like a cognitive black hole that there is not even room for a token punching bag RINO on staff.

IMAO - Conspiracy Theory!

But the alternate credit card froze their machine. Just when I finally offered to pay cash — after about two minutes — the terminal came back online and the charge was accepted.

SiGraybeard - A Commercial Space Story I Haven't Been Covering

I've been remiss in providing details on the Varda orbital experiments that recently concluded with a successful recovery of their payload that - much like OSIRIS-REx's samples - parachuted into the Utah desert in February. It's an important milestone and mission.

Second City Cop - This is a Good Idea

It's such a good idea, we don't expect it to be used here:

Rick Moran at PJ Media - 'Equity-Based Algebra' Is as Bad as You Imagine It to Be

The state Board of Education adopted CMF in 2022 and it's now a large part of the math curriculum in California schools. But there were so many complaints and lawsuits from parents about their children being unable to learn algebra in the name of "equity" that the algebra course has now been added back to the curriculum by the San Francisco school district.

The Other McCain - Trans. Sec. Buttigieg Announces $500M Pronoun Retooling Effort

We cannot even begin to rebuild this crucial infrastructure until we have outgrown this medieval mindset, even if takes a new bridge past a decade to complete.

The Gateway Pundit - Biden-Mart: Super PAC Launches Website to Compare Grocery Bills Now to What They Were Under Trump

The “Biden-Mart” website features an interactive checklist where users can “check off the items…to compile your weekly grocery list and see how much more expensive your bill has become under Joe Biden.”

Wombat-socho has a link to Song of the Day (SOTD). FMJRA 2.0: Gloom, Despair, Etc. There is also a fantasy baseball report, and more.

Power Line - Americans Don’t Like DEI

Woke capitalism is one of the strange phenomena of our era. I understand why government agencies might go in for DEI (Didn’t Earn It), since government at all levels is mostly in the hands of liberals and government employees, by their nature, are inclined to social engineering. But why corporations should sign up en masse for this left-wing nonsense is beyond me.

Again from Wombat-socho - Rule 5 Sunday: Paige For Purdue!

I had no idea that noted golf influencer Paige Spiranac was a Purdue fan, but apparently so.

How Would You React to a Bear in Your House?

The bear was shot but not killed. Homeowner Shoots Black Bear Who Entered Residence In Hudson Valley | Port Chester Daily Voice

Leaving the bear injured is both unsafe and inhumane.

According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), a department police officer responded to the residence after a homeowner called 911 to report a black bear broke into an enclosed front porch.

The homeowner reported shooting the black bear once with a handgun and the bear ran off into the woods, DEC officials said.

They searched, but could not find the bear.

DEC said wildlife experts provided technical advice to the homeowner to make the area less accessible to bears, such as locking windows, installing a solid door, and removing bear attractants like pet food, trash, and bird feeders to help reduce the potential for negative interactions.

There is more. Click thru. And yes, this is a fail on so many fronts. A fail of thinking. Bird feeders and pet food in bear country? A fail of caliber. Shooting a bear with a handgun better be at least a .44 Magnum. At least.

Google Censorship Reaches New Lows

Google hates the Truth. Google Warns Freedom Center to Censor Mentions of Islamic Terror

I always thought that Google reminded me of Big Brother, but now it seems like they are actually trying to implement the Ministry of Truth.

When Front Page Magazine applied to join Google’s AdSense advertising program, we were turned down. Since Google, like other Big Tech monopolies, has censored and deplatformed us in the past, we weren’t too shocked. But this time, Google told us why we had been banned.

That's unusual. Google never telegraphs its reasons for banning someone. Not that it is hard to see what their reasons are. (They are not as devious as they believe themselves to be.)

One article that Google called out is the “Remember The San Bernardino Fourteen” by Lloyd Billingsley, about a terrorist attack that took place in December of 2015. I include the link, because Google will not produce that if you search. I also obfuscated it a bit. Not sure if that is needed or not. (Better safe...)

What’s dangerous, unreliable and harmful about “Remember The San Bernardino Fourteen”?

Published on Dec 3, 2021, around the anniversary of the Islamic terrorist attack, it contains fairly little editorial commentary and a great deal of uncomfortable facts.

Lloyd Billingsley starts by documenting how “Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik drove up to the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, and began firing automatic rifles.” He names the victims, describes the bombs and quotes Kamala Harris, then attorney general, defending Islam and excusing Islamic terrorism, as she would go on to do after the Islamic terrorist attacks of Oct 7, while promoting CAIR and other Islamist terror friendly groups.

And so an article that casts Democrats in a bad light, and also documents Islamic terrorism, must be expunged from existence if a site wants to join Google's advertising ecosystem. Of the two, by guess is that they object more strenuously to the casting of aspersions on Democrats. Google is comprised of Democrats, after all.

A Container Ship Hit a Bridge, and No One (in America) Noticed

Can we PLEASE stop with the conspiracy theories? Container ship hits bridge in south China, killing 5 and knocking section of roadway into the water | AP News

Unless you are living under a rock, you have heard about MV Dali and the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. If you are tuned into social media at all you might have heard about the barge colliding with the bridge in Oklahoma. Because OMG!!! A boat hit something! We must be under attack!

It couldn't possibly be that boats hit things, and that occasionally bridges fall down.

Five people died after a large container ship hit support pillars for a bridge over a river in southern China early on Thursday, sending a section of the roadway and five vehicles crashing down.

Three small trucks, a bus and a scooter fell off the bridge south of the city of Guangzhou, authorities said. The bus, the scooter and one of the trucks landed inside the empty ship, and the other two trucks fell into the water.

That happened in February.

Boats hit things. Bridges fall down. Dams fail. That is life. If you want the world to be absolutely safe, you might try holding your breath, because that has about as much chance of working as anything else does.

A Cup Of Liber-Tea

This complete anti-woke game, almost makes me want to get into computer gaming, if only because how annoyed the Left is over it.

This is Helldivers 2 Main Theme - "A Cup Of Liber-Tea"

NightSky

Kamelot is still one of my favorite bands. Crisp clear vocals from Tommy Karevik backed by Thomas Youngblood's screaming guitars, and Oliver Palotai's keyboards, with Sean Tibbetts on bass, and Alex Landenburg on drums. The music wouldn't quite have been at home on 1980s Rock radio, but it isn't far off.

Most reviewers have panned this album, and the songs are not among my favorites. It is the 13th studio album by Kamelot, and that may be a part of it. Bands either repeat what came before, or transform until they are unrecognizable. (Both Yes and Genesis went from Progressive to Pop, for example, and Rush had so many phases I can't keep them all straight in my head.)

Still, the music Kamelot produces on a bad day is better than anything labeled "Pop" being produced in the 21st Century. Real singing, backed by real instruments played well enough for actual live concerts, and not elaborate lip-synced shows that have little life.

The just recently released an official lyric video for this song, but I don't think it is hard to understand Tommy Karevik's singing. I believe they released a new video to draw attention to their upcoming tour. They will be in many US cities starting in April. For a list of dates check out the description of this video on YT. They will be everywhere from the the Northeast, to the Southwest, the Midwest, the Mountains, and even one Canada date caught my eye. They have some dates in the UK listed in November, so I'm guessing they will tour Europe as well. Despite being originally from the Tampa Bay Area, they are really more popular in Europe than in the US.

This song is "NightSky" by Kamelot from their 2023 album Awakening.

Quote of the Day

From Samizdata: Samizdata quote of the day – resistance is rarely futile

The debate over censorship is maturing quickly. And the manner in which it is happening sends a clear message: the censors are losing the debate.

I hope that is true.

Self Defense and Felony Murder in California

I'm a bit shocked that felony murder is a thing in California. Oakland homeowner shot and killed burglar during attempted home invasion, police say

A homeowner was confronted by two home invaders. Gunfire was exchanged. The homeowner was shot in the foot. One of the two bad guys was killed. The other bad guy is charged with murder. That situation goes by different names in different jurisdictions, but most of us non-lawyers call it Felony Murder.

The March 15 killing of 39-year-old Charles Calloway has now been deemed by police and prosecutors a justifiable homicide, according to court records. But Calloway’s 38-year-old alleged accomplice, David Washington, has been charged with murder under the legal theory that he provoked the homeowner who killed Calloway into using lawful self-defense.

See what I mean about being shocked. The journalist has to call the idea that you are held responsible for the completely foreseeable consequences of your actions a legal theory. What it actually is, is the law in a lot of places, including Deep Blue California.

The homeowner's foot was treated. The one bad guy died at the scene. The other alleged bad guy was identified with "digital evidence" and security camera footage from the time of the shooting.

Is Self Defense is becoming a common thing in California? It seems so to me. Self Defense is a Human Right.

Facebook Hacked Into Snapchat, Google, and Amazon

Because of course they did. Facebook Secretly Wiretapped Competitors: Documents | ZeroHedge

"Move fast and break things." That is the Silicon Valley creed, or it was. In this case what was broken appears to have been the law.

So let's start with the conclusion.

Facebook’s actions amounted to wiretapping and violated federal law.

What they did (allegedly) was set up Man-in-the-Middle attacks. These are (or were anyway) fairly common attacks. The tech is well known. If your private phone connects to your employer's WiFi, they are probably doing a Man-in-the-Middle attack to read all of your network traffic. A, because they can, and B, the courts said that they could. (It is their WiFi, after all).

In one email, Mr. Zuckerberg wrote that there was a need to receive information about Snapchat but that their traffic was encrypted. “Given how quickly they’re growing, it seems important to figure out a new way to get reliable analytics about them. Perhaps we need to do panels or write custom software. You should figure out how to do this,” he wrote.

The details of what they did, are fairly technical, and I'm not sure that ZeroHedge does the best job of explaining it. Clicking on the link would be a good place to start if you're interested in the details, but there are probably better articles. Most journalists who don't work in tech will not understand the details themselves, and won't be trying to present them anyway. And some journalists who do work in tech are still journalists, not hackers, and will be confused.

Still the legal implications are interesting enough.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who are advertisers, have asked the court handling the case, the U.S. District Court in northern California, to grant them three additional hours with Mr. Zuckerberg so they can ask him more about what happened. They also asked for sanctions against Meta, which owns Facebook, because Meta did not disclose the program when initially asked for all information and data that Facebook derived from Onavo’s work.

By the way, if you don't want your employer to read your network traffic, don't connect to their WiFi. Also don't use their phone for your business. They have the right to read that traffic as well. (It is their phone, after all.)

Hat tip goes to Did Facebook Run A Man-in-The-Middle Hack Against Competitors?

1. This is all from Snapchat’s court documents, so you have to put an “allegedly” on all this.
2. If all the allegations are true, Facebook has just broken all sorts of federal anti-hacking laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act, and probably half a dozen more I haven’t even thought of.
3. That Zuckerberg himself is (allegedly) directly implicated in deliberately breaking federal law is pretty breathtaking. He could be looking at serious jail time. Or would be, if he weren’t such a big Democratic Party Donor.

A Mass Murder That Will Not Be National News

Where does it help the narrative? There is nothing of interest here. Rockford mass stabbing: 4 killed and 7 injured, suspect in custody

Four people were killed and seven more were wounded in a mass stabbing early Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. A 22-year-old man thought to be the sole attacker was in custody.

I would joke about "knife control" and/or "assault knives," but it is all to easy to see the politicians in the People's Republic of Illinois wanting to outlaw everything.

The media won't cover this because how does it help any of their causes? (Hat tip to Irons in the Fire: Since this doesn't involve a evil 'assault weapon')

Do You Want 4 More Years of the Democratic Party in the White House?

Or do you want try to change the direction of the country? Notes on Partisanship: ‘At Some Point You Have to Join the Team That You’re On’

That is the question you want to answer. Did you like Bush The Elder, or did you think he would continue Reagan's agenda? And did you think he would keep his "Read my lips. No new taxes" pledge. Did you really like Bush the Younger, or did you want a change from Clinton? I don't think anyone like Carter; they were not voting Republican after Nixon. (Though his brother, Billy, did provide some needed comic relief.)

Professor Reynolds quotes me as having once said the above quote, and I’m sure I did, but I couldn’t find it via Google search, and that’s OK. As I recall, it was during Barack Obama’s first term in the White House, when some Republicans were reluctant to embrace the Tea Party movement while, at the same time, some members of the Tea Party movement were reluctant to embrace the GOP. Or, to speak more broadly, there was then (as now) an apparent divide between the Establishment and the grassroots of the opposition to the Democrat-controlled regime.

Click thru for the entire thing. And decided if you want four more years of Democrats working to destroy this country.