Even though I live in the same country as the famous fictional Detective Sherlock Holmes inhabited back
in the 1900's, a mystery arrived at my door late last year that I'm still in a puzzle about.

My son's girlfriend -who I will call 'Jill', lives with him in another town, but her parents live quite close to
my home. The whole estate has different styles of houses, but they all adhere to a certain modern approach.
Jill's parents own a garden where they keep Koi carp in a pond. Their home is at the end of a cul-de-sac.

The diagram below may assist.
The pond is situated near the end of their garden. A seven-foot fence divides their property from a narrow
footpath or walkway and other properties. the pond has a three-or-four-foot brick stone wall around it with
paving slabs on the top of the wall.

The grey in the diagram is an old wooden decking with outdoor seating against the high fence and a
similar high fence that separates them from another property. there is a grassed lawn between the pond
and the house and a large shed in the other corner of their garden.


.................................

Some time late in 2023, I was told that the female of the home had looked out of her window at around
10.30am and checked that all was well. She was aware that sometimes, one of the fish takes it into its head
to jump out and enjoy a flopping on the grass. Apparently, this had happened about ten times since they got
them.

Not long after, she looked out to her garden and sure enough, a flabby tail was wearliy flapping for assistance.
Approaching the land-loving carp, she saw that more than one of them had left their lily-decorated home and
were now laid quietly on the lawn. However, all the Koi were laid in the grass and many of them were dead.

Closing the distance, the woman saw many of the fishes had been ripped to pieces or at the very least, had
a lethal bite taken out of them.
.................................

Recently, otters were seen on the river that passes our area and I've seen a fox regularly patrol a footpath
near my own home. During the telling of this tale, my son suggested mink were the culprits of this unseen
slaughter. I can only say I've never heard of any neighbours -many who are daily dog-walkers along the river
side, relate any account of daring mink invading the quiet suburb of Boy In A Dress.

So I guess the question is, what animal in the north of England can haul heavy -and willing, fish from a five
-foot wide deep pool surrounded by a wall in broad-daylight and situated close to humans and then be brave
enough to consume their flesh in a place surrounded by fences?

Attached Files

Thumbnail(s)
   

Electric vehicles, wind farms, solar power, etc etc and a world where TPTB say we can not burn fossil fuel; what could possibly go wrong if this prediction comes true ?

Skip the first 4 minutes to avoid the advertisement .... The video is about dreaming and even precog dreams...

Quote:Lucid Dreams & Nightmares: Ever Dream This Man? For thousands of years, we’ve pondered the meaning of dreams. Dreams offer insight into our subconscious. Dreams help us process emotions and organize our memories. Most of us live our waking lives giving a sort of performance. Whether through dishonesty, embarrassment, or simply being polite, there are thoughts we do not share.**Dreams have intrigued us for thousands of years. They provide a peek into our subconscious. They aid in managing emotions and arranging our memories. We often perform in our awake state. We might be dishonest, embarrassed, or just polite. Thus, we keep some thoughts to ourselves.** Dreams, on the other hand, offer a platform where these suppressed thoughts can freely roam. They are the uncensored version of our minds, a place where our deepest desires, fears, and secrets can come to light without the fear of judgment or consequences. Dreams also serve as a mirror, reflecting our inner state of mind. They can hint at unresolved issues, unfulfilled desires, or even potential future scenarios. They can act as a guide, helping us navigate through the labyrinth of our thoughts and emotions. Moreover, dreams can be a source of inspiration. Many artists, writers, and scientists have reported getting brilliant ideas from their dreams. They can stimulate our creativity, encourage problem-solving, and even help us prepare for future events. In conclusion, dreams are not just random images that appear during sleep. They are a powerful tool that our mind uses to process information, manage emotions, and explore the infinite possibilities of our imagination. They are an essential part of our cognitive and emotional well-being. While you sleep, your inhibitions disappear. And you’re left with the raw, unforgiving truth. The real you. But dreams can be more than that. Some claim dreams are the realm between ours and the spirit world. Some dreams can predict the future. Studies have shown that dreams can be shared between people. Lucid dreaming is when you – not your dreaming self, your conscious self - controls the dream. You are, literally, a God. The universe is your playground. It’s exhilarating and powerful. But there is a dark side. What if: while lucid dreaming, you weren’t in control of the dream? But, someone else was? That’s no longer a dream; it’s a nightmare. And it’s no longer a playground – it’s a prison. Every night, the lights go out, you close your eyes, and he’s waiting for you.

If we weren't in the 2020s I would not believe it...

Quote:U.S. Internet Leaked Years of Internal, Customer Emails

February 14, 2024

The Minnesota-based Internet provider U.S. Internet Corp. has a business unit called Securence, which specializes in providing filtered, secure email services to businesses, educational institutions and government agencies worldwide. But until it was notified last week, U.S. Internet was publishing more than a decade’s worth of its internal email — and that of thousands of Securence clients — in plain text out on the Internet and just a click away for anyone with a Web browser.

Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minn., U.S. Internet is a regional ISP that provides fiber and wireless Internet service. The ISP’s Securence division bills itself “a leading provider of email filtering and management software that includes email protection and security services for small business, enterprise, educational and government institutions worldwide.”



Roughly a week ago, KrebsOnSecurity was contacted by Hold Security, a Milwaukee-based cybersecurity firm. Hold Security founder Alex Holden said his researchers had unearthed a public link to a U.S. Internet email server listing more than 6,500 domain names, each with its own clickable link.



A tiny portion of the more than 6,500 customers who trusted U.S. Internet with their email.

Drilling down into those individual domain links revealed inboxes for each employee or user of these exposed host names. Some of the emails dated back to 2008; others were as recent as the present day.

Securence counts among its customers dozens of state and local governments, including: nc.gov — the official website of North Carolina; stillwatermn.gov, the website for the city of Stillwater, Minn.; and cityoffrederickmd.gov, the website for the government of Frederick, Md.

Incredibly, included in this giant index of U.S. Internet customer emails were the internal messages for every current and former employee of U.S. Internet and its subsidiary USI Wireless. Since that index also included the messages of U.S. Internet’s CEO Travis Carter, KrebsOnSecurity forwarded one of Mr. Carter’s own recent emails to him, along with a request to understand how exactly the company managed to screw things up so spectacularly.


Individual inboxes of U.S. Wireless employees were published in clear text on the Internet.

Within minutes of that notification, U.S. Internet pulled all of the published inboxes offline. Mr. Carter responded and said his team was investigating how it happened. In the same breath, the CEO asked if KrebsOnSecurity does security consulting for hire (I do not).


[Author’s note: Perhaps Mr. Carter was frantically casting about for any expertise he could find in a tough moment. But I found the request personally offensive, because I couldn’t shake the notion that maybe the company was hoping it could buy my silence.]

Earlier this week, Mr. Carter replied with a highly technical explanation that ultimately did little to explain why or how so many internal and customer inboxes were published in plain text on the Internet.

“The feedback from my team was a issue with the Ansible playbook that controls the Nginx configuration for our IMAP servers,” Carter said, noting that this incorrect configuration was put in place by a former employee and never caught. U.S. Internet has not shared how long these messages were exposed.

“The rest of the platform and other backend services are being audited to verify the Ansible playbooks are correct,” Carter said.

Holden said he also discovered that hackers have been abusing a Securence link scrubbing and anti-spam service called Url-Shield to create links that look benign but instead redirect visitors to hacked and malicious websites.



“The bad guys modify the malicious link reporting into redirects to their own malicious sites,” Holden said. “That’s how the bad guys drive traffic to their sites and increase search engine rankings.”

For example, clicking the Securence link shown in the screenshot directly above leads one to a website that tries to trick visitors into allowing site notifications by couching the request as a CAPTCHA request designed to separate humans from bots. After approving the deceptive CAPTCHA/notification request, the link forwards the visitor to a Russian internationalized domain name (рпроаг[.]рф).


The link to this malicious and deceptive website was created using Securence’s link-scrubbing service. Notification pop-ups were blocked when this site tried to disguise a prompt for accepting notifications as a form of CAPTCHA.

U.S. Internet has not responded to questions about how long it has been exposing all of its internal and customer emails, or when the errant configuration changes were made. The company also still has not disclosed the incident on its website. The last press release on the site dates back to March 2020.

KrebsOnSecurity has been writing about data breaches for nearly two decades, but this one easily takes the cake in terms of the level of incompetence needed to make such a huge mistake unnoticed. I’m not sure what the proper response from authorities or regulators should be to this incident, but it’s clear that U.S. Internet should not be allowed to manage anyone’s email unless and until it can demonstrate more transparency, and prove that it has radically revamped its security.

Fun science video. You've probably seen/heard of a few. The graphene-Aerogel is very cool!





Black alchemy? Vantablack is the world's darkest commercial material made of carbon nanotubes that absorbs 99.965% of the visible spectrum.

It looks interesting when in the sky.

More info at Surrey NanoSystems

H. Moser & Cie of very rare watches uses Vantablack on several of their models.

No problems here, none at all.


George Soros scoops up 220 U.S. radio stations ahead of 2024 election

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/202...-ahead-20/

Quote:A Republican insider “close to the situation” told the Post that Mr. Soros could be making the election-year purchase in a bid to influence public opinion.

“This is scary,” the source said.
Audacy owns more than 220 stations across the country and in almost all major markets.

Quote:The debt buyout has alarmed conservatives, who have railed against Soros' multimillion dollar payouts to progressive political causes aligned with the Democratic Party.

One conservative X/Twitter account said the Hungarian-born financier will 'use the stations to attempt to influence voters in the coming elections'

'How long do you think that guy will allow all of those conservative radio stations to stay in operation?' added Stacy Washington, a right-of-center podcaster and commentator.

It's just the latest media investment for Soros, who became a bogeyman for US conservatives after throwing millions behind liberal District Attorneys' election campaigns.

The Army has once again cancelled the light attack helicopter and will supposedly save 5 billion dollars that can be used for drones. 

The fallout from Ukraine is having a serious effect on military doctrine and the future of war fighting as it should.

On this I agree with Trump...

Quote:Rob Schmitt comments on former President Donald Trump's recent words on NATO, how Trump handled NATO countries refusal to pay their fair share into the alliance and more on NEWSMAX's "Rob Schmitt Tonight"

Quote:The first part of this two-part documentary series begins by following young men and women on their way to “earning their Wings.” In a rigorous course of instruction, they learn to lift off and land a supersonic aircraft on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean, still considered one of the most difficult and hazardous tasks. Eugene Ely first attempted the death-defying feat in 1911. Ely’s act of landing a fragile bi-plane on a make-shift wooden deck would eventually transform into a weapon of unprecedented power and influence. The episode concludes with World War II and the U.S. victory in the Pacific, when carrier aviation reigned supreme. However, Naval soon would face a threat to its existence — not from an enemy source, but from a competing technology — the nuclear bomb.

The second part of this two-part documentary series begins with the potential demise of naval aviation, as many in the military establishment promote nuclear weapons and pronounce carrier aviation obsolete. Korea, and later Vietnam, offer a startling reminder of the utility of naval aviation, and undermine the post-World War II conviction that the U.S. will fight all of its wars with nuclear weapons. As the Cold War deepens, the installation of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba brings the nation to the brink of nuclear war. Another important function of naval aviation – reconnaissance – rallies world opinion and helps diffuse the crisis. Photographs of the Soviet missiles taken by low-flying naval aviators provide incontrovertible evidence of the Soviet Union’s lying. Following the age of nuclear terror came a new low in Vietnam, where doubts about the military merged with racial animosities to undermine morale among naval aviators. The episode concludes by exploring the technological evolutions like GPS-guided weapons that continue to transform the field. Interviews and vivid archival footage from Afghanistan and Iraq highlight the new moral challenges of asymmetrical warfare today.

Cognitive Warfare: The Forgotten War with Tanguy Struye de Swielande




Good presentation without being overly detailed.

Quote:Tanguy Struye de Swielande is Professor of International Relations at UCLouvain. He specializes in geopolitics, geoeconomics and the foreign and defense policy of the major powers (USA, Russia and China), the Indo-Pacific region, decision-making analysis, foresight cognitive warfare and the impact of new technologies on world order.

The nature of warfare has evolved, with the result that we are sometimes faced with new wars that do not speak their name. Disinformation campaigns have become veritable weapons of mass disruption, undermining the smooth functioning of our democratic societies. They spread and circulate rapidly, are inexpensive and have a high impact. For Professor Giordano, the human brain has thus become the battlefield of the 21st century.

What is cognitive warfare? Is China the master of cognitive warfare? Why are democracies losing? Are resources and the 4th industrial revolution the missing link? From neuroscience to the metaverse: cognitive warfare 2.0?

00:20 Cognitive Warfare and its Implications
03:01 Social networks have shifted from bringing people together to spreading fake news and polarization.
08:15 Cognitive Warfare is the weaponization of public opinion to influence policies and destabilize institutions.
10:54 Cognitive Warfare involves external and internal forces influencing people and political processes.
16:09 Difficulty in determining ground truth
18:23 Our brain's bias influences our stance on conflicts.
22:54 Boundaries homogenize relational environment
25:14 Social media influences people more through emotions and visuals.
29:57 Chinese diplomats using aggressive tactics on social media for influence.
32:24 Cognitive Warfare aims to destabilize democratic societies.
37:09 Tik Tok is causing concentration and critical thinking problems in young people
39:33 Challenges of post-truth era and shift in authoritarian regimes
43:51 Cognitive Warfare involves complex technological investments.
46:03 Semiconductors, renewables, resources, and international norms play crucial roles in cognitive warfare.
50:34 Metaverse competition between US and China
52:50 Need for cognitive resilience to protect the brain