AUDIO:

POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; REGISTER TO VOTE; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; Missouri City rejects 150-unit apartment complex citing overcrowding on Knights Court; ‘Death Star’ bill in Texas House would strip power from local officials, critics say; Long accused of Indigenous misappropriation, Boy Scouts ask if it’s time to change; Krakow’s 10-day Jewish Culture Festival is the biggest Jewish festival in Europe”, ‘Indigenous peoples are experiencing a new era unfolding worldwide’ Interior Secretary Deb Haaland Declares at U.N. Permanent Forum; China readies supersonic spy drone unit, leaked document says; Apple’s high security mode blocked NSO spyware, researchers say; About iPhone Lockdown Mode — Learn how Lockdown Mode helps protect devices against extremely rare and highly sophisticated cyber attacks; AI is more than ChatGPT — is the sci-fi cliché about to turn real?; How AI Will Revolutionize Warfare; Russia’s UN council presidency is most contentious in memory; More.

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFT FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Station. You can also hear the show:

1. Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
2. Podcast on your phone’s Podcast App
3. Visiting Archive.KPFT.ORG

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. My co-host and show editor is Andrew Ferguson.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EwrSlzZC31w

1. Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter Information
   1. It’s time to snail-mail (no emails or faxes) in your application for mail-ballots, IF you qualify TEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   2. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   3. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2022
   4. Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
   5. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
   6. Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX)
   7. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
   8. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
   9. Waller County (TX) Elections
   10. Chambers County (TX) Elections
   11. For personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information, Consider visiting Vote.ORG.   Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
   12. If you are denied your right to vote any place at any time at any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
   13. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers, HARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
       1. Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
       2. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
       3. Current utility bill
       4. Bank statement
       5. Government check
       6. Paycheck
       7. A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
       8. You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
          1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
          2. Sick or disabled;
          3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
          4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
          5. Make sure you are registered:
          6. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
          7. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
          8. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
          9. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
2. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL NEW MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2023.
   1. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   2. FYI: The next elections according to HarrisVotes.com are May 9^th. Last day to register is the end of April 6^th. There may or not be an election in your particular election precinct, so you may have to go to your local elections clerk or go to http://www.VOTETEXAS.GOV
   3. Just be registered and apply for your mail-in ballot if you may qualify.
   4. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
3. Missouri City rejects 150-unit apartment complex citing overcrowding on Knights Court; By Jack Dowling | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 8:50 PM Apr 17, 2023 CDT, Updated 5:47 PM Apr 18, 2023 CDT
   1. A proposed 150-unit apartment complex was rejected in a 7-0 vote following residents’ objections at an April 17 City Council meeting. …
   2. The complex would have been built south of the Colony Lakes subdivision and would be bordered … by Knights Court … State Highway 6. … The primary concern by residents was current overcrowding along Knights Court …
   3. … Public Works Director Shashi Kumar explained that Knights Court is slated for future development including the addition of medians to ensure left turns.
   4. However, City Planner Stori Nuri also pointed out that the proposed development would reach as high as 50 feet—5 feet above what city ordinances allow for planned developments like the one presented …
   5. City Council voted unanimously to reject the rezoning request necessary to establish the development …
   6. MIKE: I think this was partly a case of neighborhood NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) and partly legitimate concerns about congestion and infrastructure. The developer will likely redesign the project and repropose it, but the economics will probably change substantially for the developer.
   7. ANDREW: I agree. I hope more affordable housing is built in Missouri City and across the Houston area, but from the records it sounds like there’s also already overcrowding at the nearby high school. This just doesn’t seem like the best place for the apartment complex. I hope it gets built somewhere else in the city and that rent is kept affordable.
4. ‘Death Star’ bill in Texas House would strip power from local officials, critics say; The bill would prevent local governments from regulating changes in state codes such as agriculture, finance, insurance, labor, natural resources and occupations. By Ashley Brown | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | | Posted on April 18, 2023, 3:35 PM
   1. Local elected and community leaders are denouncing what they’re calling the “Death Star” bill — legislation they say would strip the city and county of its power to enforce local laws protecting its residents.
   2. House Bill 2127 [was] being debated Tuesday [the 18^th] on the House Floor and it’s getting backlash from local officials across the state and in the Houston-area. The bill was filed by Republican State Representative Dustin Burrows of Lubbock[. L]eaders are concerned that the bill limits the authority that the City of Houston and Harris County would have to enforce some laws and would give more control to the state.
   3. The bill would prevent local governments from regulating changes in state codes such as agriculture, finance, insurance, labor, natural resources and occupations.
   4. “This bill is a hostile and sweeping power grab by partisan state officials designed to decimate our basic ability to govern ourselves at the local level, to disenfranchise Houstonians, and to block the passage of policies that improve the lives of working people and are popular with Houstonians,” said Hany Khalil, Executive Director of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation.
   5. Khalil said the bill is an example of years-long efforts of Texas Republican lawmakers trying to gain control of local governments. … “HB 2127 is an unacceptable infringement on our right to have a say in how the places we live and work are governed,” he said. “And so I want to encourage each and every Houstonian to take a minute today to learn about this dangerous bill and to act to make your voice heard by calling your state representative and ask [them] to vote no on HB 2127.”
   6. State Rep. Dustin Burrows said his bill “provides the regulatory stability and certainty that enables business owners to expand their businesses to other cities within Texas with more consistency, creating more jobs and prosperity in the process.”
   7. He also added, “It actually gives local governments a hand by giving them a simple reason why they won’t, in fact, be bringing to a vote the countless issues that activists have been harassing them to pass locally.” …
   8. Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said if passed, the bill creates even more problems for the city and the county.
   9. “These state bills that have been considered would be a total power grab,” he said. “They would preempt our ability to serve people in a manner that is tailored to the local challenges that we face.” …
   10. Governor Greg Abbott is in support of the bill.
   11. Andrew: Rep. Burrows is just openly admitting that his bill is about taking power away from local governments and the people. “Local governments won’t have to listen to concerned citizens anymore, whether they want to or not!” I’m paraphrasing, of course, but that’s the message of his second quote.
   12. Andrew: I’m not even inherently against the idea of trying to make laws more consistent across Texas, but that process should happen one issue at a time, with enough opportunity each time for a full debate. This bill is an attempt to sidestep major parts of the democratic lawmaking process, and that’s why everyone regardless of political position should oppose it.
   13. MIKE: Andrew, I like your paraphrase, and I think it’s on the nose. But I think the “Death Star” analogy in the story title is misplaced. If I were to use a Star Wars analogy, it would be more like the Texas Republic becoming the Texas Empire. In my analogy, Greg Abbott would be Emperor Palpatine and Dan Patrick would be Darth Vader.
5. Long accused of Indigenous misappropriation, Boy Scouts ask if it’s time to change; Native American advocates say the Boy Scouts have misappropriated regalia and promoted racist stereotypes for more than a century. By Graham Lee Brewer | NBCNEWS.COM | April 18, 2023, 11:00 AM CDT
   1. The Boy Scouts of America recently asked members whether it’s time to change century-long traditions and practices that critics say misappropriate Native American culture.
   2. In a recent email survey taken by 35,000 current and former members, the national organization asked a broad range of questions about what changes — if any — should be made to its usage and portrayal of Native American imagery, ceremonies and rituals.
   3. Despite decades of calls for reforms from some scouts and Indigenous advocates, the organization still encourages scouts to don headdresses and imitate Indigenous dances as part of its honor society. Some chapters and camps carry made-up, Indigenous-sounding names. Indigenous advocates have decried the depictions as racist and oppressive.  
   4. The 20-question survey, circulated last month, gave a range of multiple-choice options in response to questions about programs that involve Native American culture, including its honor society, “Order of the Arrow.” The possible answers ranged from eliminating all “program elements that relate to Native American culture” to changing nothing. It also included options for continuing to update traditions in consultation with tribes. 
   5. The survey’s results are not yet available but will be released publicly when they are, a spokesman for the organization said in a statement. …
   6. The Boy Scouts’ poll comes amid growing, national backlash over the misappropriation of Indigenous culture. In recent years, professional sports teams have retired their Native American mascots. Federal and state governments have renamed parks and monuments. And both the YMCA and Camp Fire stopped using Indigenous names for campsites and chapters in youth development programs. 
   7. Philip Deloria, a Harvard historian and author and member of the Dakota Nation, said the imagery and themes still used by the Boy Scouts build upon exaggerated and offensive depictions of Native life. They’re fantasies that lead to distorted perceptions of Indigenous people, said Deloria, who was nominated to the Order of the Arrow when he was in middle school. 
   8. As part of the initiation, Deloria, 64, recalled camping around a bonfire as a canoe made its way across a dark lake. Several older boys dressed as Indians rowed the boat as a scoutmaster wearing a headdress and held a torch. As the canoe beached, the older scouts jumped out and wrestled the younger ones to the ground, he said.
   9. Deloria said he hoped the survey signaled that the Boy Scouts may finally stop appropriating Indigenous cultures, but that he remained skeptical. …
   10. The Boy Scouts made changes to the Order of the Arrow in 1998, calling for increased emphasis on pictures of the arrow instead of “Native American imagery,” according to the website for the honor society. 
   11. Scouts in the program are now also prohibited from painting their faces and performing certain dances that “have religious significance.”
   12. “In instances where BSA’s standards for accuracy and respect have not been met, the organization takes action to educate our youth and adults, and where necessary modify our programming,” the organization said in its statement.
   13. David Hurst Thomas helped revise the Boy Scouts “Indian Lore” merit badge in 2008 when he was a senior curator of North American archeology at the American Museum of Natural History. He said it used to be “horrible.” “You’re treating these people like they’re extinct,” Thomas, who is not Native American, recalled telling leadership back then. The changes improved it, he said, but did not go far enough in eliminating old stereotypes. …
   14. Jared Hautamaki, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of the Chippewa Indians, worked his way up to Life Scout, the second highest rank under Eagle Scout, in the 1980s. Scouting introduced him to some of his lifelong interests, including sailing and hunting, he said. But he said he wouldn’t let his children join the organization — not as long as it continues to disrespect Indigenous cultures. 
   15. “We have to be a part of that conversation. It’s our culture,” said Hautamaki, who is now a senior adviser at the Bureau of Indian Education. …
   16. MIKE: The article is somewhat longer, with more examples and specifics, and does help with understanding a Native American perspective.
   17. MIKE: Sometimes — and I’ve done it on this show — I try to illustrate and understand international situations by bringing them closer to home, geographically or culturally. As a Jew, I can try to sympathize with Native Americans’ feelings a little bit about cultural appropriation.
   18. MIKE: In pre-WW2 Poland, there were about 3.5 million Jews. Today, there are between 10,000-20,000.
   19. MIKE: Below my comments in the blogpost, I’ve excerpted a little bit of an article from 2019 by an Australian Jewish woman called, “Krakow’s 10-day Jewish Culture Festival is the biggest Jewish festival in Europe”, followed a little later by this: “Poland’s ‘Jewish Woodstock’ is the biggest Jewish festival in Europe, some say the world. That’s not bad for a country bereft of Jews.” It’s centered in an enormous old synagogue.
   20. MIKE: So, the Polish gentiles play Yiddish klezmer folk music, learn how to crochet Yarmulkes, and eat Jewish-style foods, sometimes with pork. (I guess that’s the Polish-Jewish equivalent of Tex-Mex.)
   21. MIKE: For the most part, the story is sympathetic and the festival is described mostly positively, but it’s juxtaposed with stories of how Jews were murdered in Poland during WW2. The story does not mention the frequent pre-WW2 pogroms, and the Poles who aided the Nazis in finding and killing Jews.
   22. MIKE: So, to bring my anecdote back to the story at hand, I try to understand the Native American experience through a lens I can use. Modern Poles honor Jews and their culture in their absence. How would modern Poles feel about millions of Jews in their presence?
   23. MIKE: Many Americans generally, and the Boy Scouts in particular, feel that they honor and respect American Indians by using their symbols, clothing, terminology and music. Americans honor Native Americans mostly in their absence. How would they feel and act if Native Americans were among them by the many millions?
   24. MIKE: Is it survivor’s guilt? The sympathy that victory by one side eventually permits? I don’t know, but I think about it and try to understand it.
   25. MIKE: As a sidenote, I suddenly decided to look up the population comparisons. In the US, there are currently about 7.6 million Jews. That’s about half the world’s Jews. There are about 2.7 million Native Americans, which is about half of North America’s indigenous population.
   26. ANDREW: As a former Boy Scout, I absolutely agree that the BSA is appropriative of Native cultures. I remember parts of my own crossover ceremony, when a Cub Scout becomes a Boy Scout, which for me would have been held around 2010 or so. The memory isn’t perfect, but I recall very clearly that the Order of the Arrow member leading it wore a headdress. I didn’t think much of it when I was a little kid, but I know better now. I think BSA executives have always known better, too, but rarely chose to act better.
   27. ANDREW: I personally would agree with Mr. Hautamaki that I would ask my (hypothetical) kids not to join the BSA, both for this reason and the requirement for members to hold religious beliefs. The BSA has broadened its definition of “reverence”, but some kind of belief in a higher power is still required. To remedy both of these issues, I would instead consider non-aligned Scouting organizations with inclusivity as a core value, like Navigators USA. There’s a link to their website on the blog at thinkwingradio dot com.
   28. MIKE: It just came to my attention that the Washington Post recently had a story entitled, Bud Light chief says he ‘never intended’ boycott over trans star Dylan Mulvaney (By Thomas Floyd and Avi Selk | WASHINGTONPOST.COM/ARTS-ENTERTAINMENT | April 15, 2023 at 1:16 p.m. EDT). I’ve read some discussion about the word “chief” being a cultural appropriation. I don’t think so, but I’m not up on the etymology of the word. Or that’s what I wrote before realizing, “Hey! I can look up the etymology!” It apparently goes back to Latin. I’ve linked to the article, so I won’t bore you.
   29. REFERENCE: Krakow’s 10-day Jewish Culture Festival is the biggest Jewish festival in Europe; By Karen Pakula | smh.com.au (The Sydney Morning Herald) | Updated November 25, 2019 — 10.48am, first published at 12.15am
       1. … Poland’s “Jewish Woodstock” is the biggest Jewish festival in Europe, some say the world. That’s not bad for a country bereft of Jews. … In Poland there is phantom pain. More than three million Jews lived here before World War II. In Warsaw, Jews were one-third of the population; in Krakow, one-quarter. Ninety per cent were murdered. Then came Communism, and many of those who remained went underground or were expelled. Estimates of the Jewish population today range from 10,000 to 30,000. …
       2. Established in 1988 by non-Jews, it is run by non-Jews and attended by mostly non-Jews. “Jewish culture is Polish culture,” says the festival’s director and founder Janusz Makuch. “For 1000 years we lived together. We can’t treat them as separate.” …
       3. “We are in the shadow of Auschwitz,” says Makuch, the festival’s impresario. The concentration camp is an hour’s drive away and he is at pains to balance the city’s tangible sadness with uplifting events. “This is a cemetery,” he says, meaning Poland. “Commemoration? That’s OK, but when I started the festival, I understood that I should focus on contemporary living Jewish culture. It’s all about life, life, life!” …
   30. REFERENCE: In Poland, a Jewish Revival Thrives—Minus Jews — COM | 2007-07-12
6. ‘Indigenous peoples are experiencing a new era unfolding worldwide’ Interior Secretary Deb Haaland Declares at U.N. Permanent Forum; By Jenna Kunze | NATIVENEWSONLINE.NET | April 18, 2023
   1. Colorful Indigenous regalia replaced suits and ties in the United Nations General Assembly hall earlier today, as Native leaders from around the globe sat side by side for the opening ceremony of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
   2. The Permanent Forum is a U.N. advisory body that is mandated to deal with Indigenous Peoples’ issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, and health and human rights. The Permanent Forum has convened annually at the U.N. headquarters in New York City since 2002, excluding pandemic years when the forum met mostly virtually.
   3. Each forum also centers on a specific theme. This year’s forum is built around the theme of “Indigenous Peoples, human health, planetary and territorial health and climate change: a rights-based approach.”
   4. This year also marks the first time the forum resumed its fully in-person session since the pandemic began, and it showed. The General Assembly hall was nearly full—with more than 2,000 registered participants.
   5. “There’s a lot more people from the United States compared to last year,” Shawnee Tribal Chief Ben Barnes told Native News Online. Chief Barnes said he could tell by the reaction of the room when Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) took the stage to loud whistles and cheering from those in attendance.  
   6. “Indigenous peoples are experiencing a new era unfolding worldwide,” Haaland said during the opening ceremony. “It’s being reaffirmed as institutions like the Vatican are rejecting and rescinding the very doctrine used to falsely justify missteps and destruction of our lands, people, and identities for hundreds of years.”
   7. Her speech focused largely on the empowerment of Indigenous women and girls, a theme that persisted throughout day one of the forum. …
   8. In 1979, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It became an international treaty and human rights legislation for women two years later, after 20 countries ratified the treaty, making its laws binding. Today, 189 of 194 countries have ratified the treaty; the United States is not one of them. …
   9. A body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of human rights legislation, CEDAW provided a 25-page report of guidance to countries on legislation they can enact to ensure the rights of Indigenous women and girls.
   10. Speakers from Greenland, Canada, the United States, Canada, Norway, Australia, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) supported the recommendation, called General Recommendation No. 39 on Indigenous Women and Girls.
   11. ANDREW: There’s a lot of good symbolic news in this article. I hope it can pave the way for more material changes.
   12. ANDREW: For example, I think it would be a great idea for nations like the US, that were founded by settlers from other nations with little to no input from Indigenous peoples in the area, to create formal and legally influential bodies in government representing solely Indigenous peoples’ interests in the governance process. A House of Native Representatives in Congress, for example, which laws would also have to be approved by.
   13. ANDREW: There’s precedent for this: Finland, Sweden, and Norway all have parliaments for the Sami indigenous people in those nations, and those Sami Parliaments all have some legal responsibilities and powers in government. These bodies wouldn’t be immune to the influences that all political bodies must face, of course, but I think establishing them would give Indigenous peoples in settler-colonial nations around the world a louder voice, which would help reconciliation.
   14. MIKE: I think we covered a story a few weeks ago about some moves for a Tribal representative to be placed in the US House pursuant to an unfulfilled 19^th century treaty obligation. Some officially recognized tribes have enough members that it might be appropriate to at least give them House representatives with observer status, like the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa.
7. China readies supersonic spy drone unit, leaked document says; THE DISCORD LEAKS | China’s cutting-edge drone could give it a surveillance advantage during a possible military confrontation over Taiwan. By Christian Shepherd, Vic Chiang, Pei-Lin Wu and Ellen Nakashima | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | April 18, 2023 at 7:06 p.m. EDT
   1. The Chinese military could soon deploy a high-altitude spy drone that travels at least three times the speed of sound, according to a leaked U.S. military assessment, a development that would dramatically strengthen China’s ability to conduct surveillance operations.
   2. A secret document from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which has not previously been reported, shows the Chinese military is making technological advances that could help it target American warships around Taiwan and military bases in the region.
   3. … The drones are a cutting-edge surveillance system that could help China gather real-time mapping data to inform strategy or carry out missile strikes in a future conflict. ..
   4. The Washington Post obtained the assessment of the WZ-8 program from a trove of images of classified files posted on Discord, a group chat service popular with gamers …
   5. Other documents in the trove detail a number of disclosures about Chinese spying and military modernization, including intelligence that revealed the existence of additional Chinese spy balloons and an assessment that Taiwan is ill-prepared to prevent early Chinese air superiority during an invasion. …
   6. The drone’s primary use won’t be against Taiwan but against the United States and its military bases in the Pacific, said Chi Li-pin, director of the aeronautical systems research division at the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Taiwan’s military-run weapons developer. “It’s a weapon for anti-access and area denial,” he said.
   7. Chi added that the aircraft does not currently appear to be designed to launch attacks, but he noted modifications could allow it to conduct strikes in future. “It is difficult to detect and intercept. The existing U.S. air-to-air weapons aren’t good enough,” he said.
   8. Dean Cheng, a nonresident senior fellow with the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, said the disclosure shows China is developing a capability to monitor the entire Indo-Pacific region. “This is not just aimed at the United States or South Korea,” said Cheng, who had not seen the documents. “Japan has to worry about it. India has to worry about it. All Southeast Asia has to worry about it.”
   9. China, he noted, is creating a range of high-tech systems for military use — from hypersonic weapons that can use drone reconnaissance for anti-ship purposes to antisatellite weapons that they could use to try to blind the United States. “Individually, none of these things are game-changers,” he said. “Taken together, we’re looking at a PLA that is developing a reconnaissance strike complex: Find the enemy, hit the enemy, kill the enemy.” …
   10. MIKE: The US has been working on both hypersonics and laser weapons for years, if not decades.
   11. MIKE: The US had the SR-71 Blackbird, which had a speed of Mach 3+ and an operational ceiling of about 85,000 feet. It was retired in 1999, but there has been some chatter that there may be an SR-72 or equivalent. In any case, it wasn’t designed with combat or weaponry in mind, as far as I know.
   12. MIKE: In public, the US acknowledges being behind in hypersonic cruise missiles and drones, but it seems to be doing fairly well in laser weapons research, and even some deployment. Lasers have the benefit of attacking at the speed of light, which is still faster than Mach 3 by a good bit. To rework an old saying, sometimes a good defense beats a good offense.
   13. ANDREW: I want to point out that these are reports from the US military, who might exaggerate about foreign military capability to justify budget increases, influence public opinion, and support US influence expansion in Southeast Asia. However, if this isn’t an exaggeration, I’m not upset with China. There is as of yet no evidence that the purported drones would be able to launch attacks, just as the Blackbird that Mike mentioned was never used for attacks.
   14. ANDREW: I see this as an attempt at balancing the US’s own weapons development, and I think that’s just as legitimate when other nations do it as it is when the US does it. I don’t like arms races, or nations spying on each other, but the only realistic way to stop or even reverse those things is to create an atmosphere of trust geopolitically. The first step towards that is not being suspicious of a nation for trying to be prepared for the future … so long as they don’t infringe on anyone else while doing it.
8. Apple’s high security mode blocked NSO spyware, researchers say; By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai @lorenzofb | TECHCRUNCH.COM | 6:11 AM CDT•April 18, 2023
   1. Last year, Apple launched a new feature for iPhone users who are worried about getting targeted with sophisticated spyware, such as journalists or human rights defenders. Now, researchers say they have found evidence that the feature — called Lockdown Mode — helped block an attack by hackers using spyware made by the infamous mercenary hacking provider NSO Group.
   2. On Tuesday, the cybersecurity and human rights research group Citizen Lab released a report analyzing three new zero-day exploits in iOS 15 and iOS 16 — meaning Apple was unaware of the vulnerabilities at the time they were used to target at least two Mexican human rights defenders.
   3. One of those exploits was blocked by Lockdown Mode, the researchers found. Lockdown Mode was specifically designed to reduce the iPhone’s attack surface — cybersecurity lingo referring to parts of the code or features of a system prone to attacks by hackers. This is the first documented case where Lockdown Mode has successfully protected someone from a targeted attack.
   4. In the recent cases, Citizen Lab researchers said that the targets’ iPhones blocked the hacking attempts and showed a notification saying Lockdown Mode prevented someone from accessing the phone’s Home app. The researchers, however, note that it’s possible that at some point NSO’s exploit developers “may have figured out a way to correct the notification issue, such as by fingerprinting Lockdown Mode.”
   5. As other researchers have pointed out in the past, it’s easy to fingerprint users to determine who has Lockdown Mode turned on, but that’s not to say its protections are not meaningful. As this case found by Citizen Lab shows, Lockdown Mode can be effective. …
   6. Citizen Lab’s report identified three different exploits — all “zero-click,” meaning they did not require any interaction by the target — by analyzing several phones that were suspected to have been hacked with NSO’s spyware, also known as
   7. Pegasus, which NSO sells exclusively to government customers, can remotely obtain a phone’s location, messages, photos and virtually anything the phone’s legitimate owner can access. For years, researchers at Citizen Lab, Amnesty International and other organizations have documented several cases where NSO customers used the company’s spyware to target journalists, human rights defenders and opposition politicians. …
   8. About Lockdown Mode — Learn how Lockdown Mode helps protect devices against extremely rare and highly sophisticated cyber attacks. — https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212650
      1. What is Lockdown Mode? — Lockdown Mode is an optional, extreme protection that’s designed for the very few individuals who, because of who they are or what they do, might be personally targeted by some of the most sophisticated digital threats. Most people are never targeted by attacks of this nature.  When Lockdown Mode is enabled, your device won’t function like it typically does. To reduce the attack surface that potentially could be exploited by highly targeted mercenary spyware, certain apps, websites, and features are strictly limited for security and some experiences might not be available at all.
   9. ANDREW: This is good information, though I hope that instead of relying on Lockdown Mode which strips back features of the device for more security, Apple instead looks for ways to make the features themselves more secure.
   10. ANDREW: I looked for a similar feature on Android phones, but couldn’t find one (the Lockdown Mode I did find on Android only affects how you can unlock your phone, so it’s not the same thing). I do believe that most of the things Lockdown Mode does on iPhones can be enabled as settings for the respective apps in Android, though. Apple’s Lockdown Mode just seems to be a convenient way to turn them all on at once.
   11. ANDREW: I did find an article with links to various security and privacy-focused versions of Android you can install over the version that comes from the factory, though. It’s linked on the blog at thinkwingradio dot com. Only consider that if you fully understand what each step in the process does to your phone, though, and how what your phone can do will change at the end. Most folks don’t need to worry about it.
   12. MIKE: When I first learned about the Pegasus software a couple of years ago, I found it terrifying. I’m afraid that it’s only a matter of time before this technology trickles down to more mundane uses like stealing financial data or turning on your camera and microphone without you clicking anything wrong.
   13. MIKE: I agree, Andrew, that Apple needs to find a better way to secure their phones against these kinds of intrusions without disabling so many functions, but it’s a start. I hope Android is doing the same.
9. AI is more than ChatGPT — is the sci-fi cliché about to turn real?; [Opinion] By Daniel McCarthy | NYPOST.COM | April 10, 2023, 7:07pm
   1. How worried should we be about artificial intelligence?
   2. Popular culture is rife with terrifying tales of insane or malevolent AI, from HAL 9000 in “2001” to Skynet in the “Terminator” films and the machines that turn human beings into living batteries in the “Matrix” movies.
   3. Rogue AI is a sci-fi cliché. But is it close to becoming a reality?
   4. Some 1,800 tech entrepreneurs, computer scientists and other experts have put their names to a petition calling for a moratorium on AI development.
   5. Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak are among the signatories.
   6. The latest large language models — “LLMs,” such as GPT-4 — [MIKE: BTW, GPT= generative pre-trained transformers] can write computer code, and mischievous hackers have prompted them to try writing code to implant themselves onto mobile devices.
   7. If an AI could propagate itself through phones, tablets, Internet servers and orbital satellites, the human race could find its communications infrastructure crippled, even if the viral intelligence had no aim beyond its own replication. …
   8. If the AI were better at coding than human beings are, our only countermeasure would be to build an even more powerful intelligence. …
   9. ChatGPT does not write infallible code, just as it doesn’t give infallible answers to questions about history or literature.
   10. Virally replicating and extending an AI is a feat that hasn’t been pulled off yet.
   11. Yet there are risks in the potential for AI to develop new technology more quickly than we can understand and control it.
   12. The journal Nature Machine Intelligence published a paper last year that reported commercial AI systems meant to design better medicines could be repurposed to concoct deadlier toxins instead. …
   13. What should trouble us as much as AI itself, however, is the horizon beyond merely “artificial” intelligence.
   14. There are many things organisms do that neither software nor hardware can replace, just as there are many things computers and machines can do that organisms cannot.
   15. But what happens when the line dividing living and mechanical vanishes?
   16. In February, New Scientist ran the ghoulish headline, “Stuffed dead birds made into drones could spy on animals or humans.” …
   17. Scientists at Rice University coined the term “necrobotics” last year to describe their success in hydraulically reanimating a dead spider’s limbs, which could then grip objects delicately like a living arachnid.
   18. The world will not be taken over by zombie spider-cyborgs any time soon.
   19. But as with the taxidermied bird drones, this is a hint of where the use of animal bodies for machines is going. …
   20. Mini-brain “organoids” are living networks of neural tissue grown from stem cells. In March, New Scientist reported researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign built a “living computer” out of 80,000 mouse brain cells.
   21. Organoid experiments are also carried out with human cells. Sometimes the human mini-brains start growing eyes. . .
   22. Organoids will allow us to understand the brain better and repair it when it’s damaged.
   23. Scientists engaged in this research say it’s unlikely these mini-brains could be conscious. Yet they’re building more complex organoids all the time. …
   24. Artificial intelligence has great therapeutic potential for manipulating human genetics as well, when combined with technologies like the gene-editing
   25. At first, such technology will help eliminate disease. But it won’t stop there.
   26. Artificial intelligence may prove difficult enough for human beings to control.
   27. If biotechnology and AI continue to advance along their current research paths, however, the living beings that must manage the machines could be designed by them in the first place.
   28. ANDREW: The educational YouTuber Tom Scott released a video in February talking about his own experiences with ChatGPT. He explains early on that the life cycle of new technology follows a sigmoid curve: the curve starts flat, as the new technology is developed and first released, then the curve shoots upwards as people find it useful and adoption becomes wider, and finally the curve flattens out at the top when we stop finding new things it can do. One of his points is that right now, with GPTs and other building blocks of AI, we don’t know where on that curve we are. We never do until we reach the top and look back, but not knowing is usually both exciting and alarming.
   29. ANDREW: I think people tend to dream, speculate, and worry beyond the scope of what’s possible on that sigmoid curve whenever new technology is invented, and GPTs are no exception. But the nature of that curve is that nobody can predict what’s possible on it until it’s happened. Now absolutely, GPT technology is already being considered for dangerous and harmful purposes– we just talked about the militarization of GPTs. Still, I think knowing that all technology goes through this process– and that the process does end– helps keep me grounded and my concerns about new technology in check. Ultimately, we need to keep our eyes open on what’s happening with GPT, because screwing them shut out of fear is no more helpful than closing them to dream about the future. I hope that by providing information and analysis on this show, we can help keep our listeners’ eyes open.
   30. MIKE: In relation to AI, I read a lot of discussion worrying about when AI will become conscious and self-aware, how will we be able to tell, and what will this new “being” do with its consciousness?
   31. MIKE: Those are all interesting questions, but I don’t think they’re relevant to the question of whether, when and how AI can become dangerous.
   32. MIKE: An AI doesn’t have to be self-aware to be dangerous. All it needs are levers of power or influence, and — like any computer — the programming and machine learning that it thinks is telling it to do bad stuff.
   33. MIKE: Spyware, ransomware, or any malware can do bad stuff now, but it is still more or less under the control of humans. (As the old saying goes, behind every computer mistake is a human mistake.) Now imagine a computer doing that stuff because it “thinks” it’s supposed to, but no human was at the controls when it made that “decision”, and no human may realize that the machine is doing them until it may be too late.
   34. MIKE: Skynet doesn’t have to be self-aware and dangerous. It just has to be dangerous.
10. How AI Will Revolutionize Warfare; The new arms race in technology has no rules and few guardrails. By Michael Hirsh, a columnist for Fo7reign Policy | FOREIGNPOLICY.COM | April 11, 2023, 10:09 AM
    1. When it comes to advanced artificial intelligence, much of the debate has focused on whether white-collar workers are now facing the sort of extinction-level threat that the working class once did with robotics. And while it’s suddenly likely that AI will be capable of duplicating a good part of what lawyers, accountants, teachers, programmers, and — yes — journalists do, that’s not even where the most significant revolution is likely to occur.
    2. The latest AI—known as generative pre-trained transformers (GPT) —promises to utterly transform the geopolitics of war and deterrence. It will do so in ways that are not necessarily comforting, and which may even turn existential.
    3. On one hand, this technology could make war less lethal and possibly strengthen deterrence. By dramatically expanding the role of AI-directed drones in air forces, navies and armies, human lives could be spared. Already, the Pentagon is experimenting with AI bots that can fly a modified F-16 fighter jet, and Russia has been testing autonomous tank-like vehicles. China is rushing to roll out its own AI-run systems, and the effectiveness of armed drones will also take off in coming years. One of the largest, although still nascent, efforts to advance AI is a secretive U.S. Air Force program, Next Generation Air Dominance, under which some 1,000 drone “wingmen,” called collaborative combat aircraft, operate alongside 200 piloted planes.
    4. [Douglas Shaw, senior advisor at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, said, “I can easily imagine a future in which drones outnumber people in the armed forces pretty considerably.” According to retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, “That’ll be a force multiplier. One of the biggest problems right now is recruiting.”
    5. On the other hand, AI-driven software could lead the major powers to cut down their decision-making window to minutes instead of hours or days. They could come to depend far too much on AI strategic and tactical assessments, even when it comes to nuclear war. The danger, said Herbert Lin of Stanford University, is that decision-makers could gradually rely on the new AI as part of command and control of weaponry, since it operates at vastly greater speeds than people can. …
    6. “The real problem is how little it takes to convince people that something is sentient, when all GPT amounts to is a sophisticated auto-complete,” said Lin, a cybersecurity expert who serves on the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Given AI’s propensity to hyperbole, Lin said, “when people start to believe that machines are thinking, they’re more likely to do crazy things.”
    7. In a report published in early February, the Arms Control Association said that [regarding] AI and other new technologies, … the scramble to “exploit emerging technologies for military use has accelerated at a much faster pace than efforts to assess the dangers they pose and to establish limits on their use. It is essential, then, to slow the pace of weaponizing these technologies, to carefully weigh the risks in doing so, and to adopt meaningful restraints on their military use.”
    8. S. officials have said they are doing so, but they may be navigating a slippery slope. This January, the Defense Department updated its directive on weapons systems involving the use of artificial intelligence, saying that at least some human judgment must be used in developing and deploying autonomous weapon systems. At the same time, however, the Pentagon is experimenting with AI to integrate decision-making from all service branches and multiple combatant commands. …
    9. In a 2019 speech, Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, the former director of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, said that while the Defense Department was eagerly pursuing “integration of AI capabilities,” this would definitely not include nuclear command and control. Shanahan added that he could imagine a role for AI in determining how to use lethal force—once a human decision is made. …
    10. The question is whether the Chinese and Russians, along with other third parties, will follow the same rules as Washington. …
    11. ANDREW: I appreciate the article pointing out that GPTs aren’t actually sentient, and aren’t able to make decisions in place of humans. I’m aware of a campaign group called Stop Killer Robots, who are arguing for the world to take action against the development of autonomous weapon systems– a core component of which would be GPT technology. What I’m seeing from Stop Killer Robots is that there really aren’t any governments around the world on any geopolitical side that are treating this issue with the appropriate caution and oversight. That concerns me. It also reminds me of the history of nuclear weapons.
    12. MIKE: I admit that I’m becoming increasingly concerned about AI and its more nefarious applications. There’s an old saying: “Behind every computer error is a human error.”
    13. MIKE: When AI is limited to “expert programs”, I think they can be great tools. But when AI controls the levers of things, that’s when I start getting worried. And even if AI’s are initially designed with good and noble intentions, there will always — and sooner rather than later — be people and groups who will use these powerful systems for crime and evil.
    14. MIKE: And yet, I don’t see how it can be stopped. There’s little that can enforceably be done by international treaty, and there’s nothing to stop rogue individuals and organizations from pursuing it. I think that all we can do is cross our fingers and hope the powers-that-be can keep it under control.
    15. REFERENCE: The Crazy Eights Of Large Language Models — April 10, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan
    16. REFERENCE: Eight Things to Know about Large Language Models, by
        Samuel R. Bowman — PDF
    17. REFERENCE: “Answer”, by Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972.) (“Is there a God?” sci-fi short story, posted by obront):
11. Russia’s UN council presidency is most contentious in memory; By EDITH M. LEDERER| APNEWS.COM | April 16, 2023
    1. … [A]t the April 10 official [Security Council] meeting, [Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia ] accused the West of encouraging countries to violate agreements not to export arms from Russia without its written consent, with the aim of increasing supplies to Ukraine. He said the West also is urging the resumption of production of Soviet weapons by East European countries that were once part of the Soviet block and are now Western allies.
    2. Nebenzia then denied what he called “baseless accusations” from the West that Iran and North Korea are providing weapons to Moscow in violation of Security Council sanctions.

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