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American Farming is Dead

The Plight of American Farming

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It is impossible to pinpoint a single cause for the misery of American farmers since it is a complicated problem. However, some of the main causes of their challenges include increasing production costs, declining demand for specific commodities, and the expansion of large-scale agribusiness. The number of farms and farmers in the United States has decreased as a result of these factors, which have made it harder for small and mid-sized farms to compete with their bigger counterparts.

It is impossible to pinpoint a single cause for the misery of American farmers since it is a complicated problem. However, some of the main causes of their challenges include increasing production costs, declining demand for specific commodities, and the expansion of large-scale agribusiness. The number of farms and farmers in the United States has decreased as a result of these factors, which have made it harder for small and mid-sized farms to compete with their bigger counterparts.

Due to this reduction, the United States today imports a substantial amount of its food from other countries. Fruits and vegetables made up a significant portion of the nation’s $137 billion worth of food imports in 2020. This suggests that a significant amount of the food consumed frequently by Americans is imported rather than produced locally.

American Farming is Dead
American Farming is Dead

Based on the latest data available from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the year 2020, the top 10 countries the United States imports food products from, along with their annual dollar value of imports, are as follows:

  1. Mexico – $28.7 billion
  2. Canada – $25.3 billion
  3. China – $5.6 billion
  4. Brazil – $4.9 billion
  5. Chile – $3.1 billion
  6. Argentina – $2.8 billion
  7. Vietnam – $2.7 billion
  8. Peru – $2.5 billion
  9. India – $2.4 billion
  10. Indonesia – $2.2 billion

It is important to note that these figures only represent the value of food products that are officially recorded by the USDA and do not account for informal trade or unrecorded imports. Additionally, the types of food products imported from each country vary widely and include everything from fruits and vegetables to meat and dairy products.

The United States is currently importing a sizable portion of its food from other nations as a result of this reduction. In 2020, the nation imported food worth over $137 billion, with fruits and vegetables making up a sizable share of total imports. This implies that a large portion of the food that Americans regularly eat is not produced locally but is instead imported from other nations.

Notwithstanding these obstacles, the government has been slow to assist the growth of small and mid-sized farms and give local farming priority. Instead, it has concentrated on regulations that aid industrial agriculture and large-scale agribusiness. For instance, whereas restrictions and zoning laws frequently make it challenging for small farmers to sell their products directly to consumers, subsidies are frequently given to large-scale producers.

The government might help small and mid-sized farms flourish and give local agriculture precedence as a potential solution to this issue. This might entail taking steps like providing tax benefits to local farmers, funding research on ecologically friendly agriculture practices, and aiding the expansion of local food markets. The United States can ensure a more sustainable and resilient food supply while also promoting the economic viability of local farming communities by prioritizing local agriculture.

I’d want to wrap this up by emphasizing that the state of American farms and farmers is a complex issue that requires thought and action from decision-makers. By putting an emphasis on local farming and encouraging the expansion of small and mid-sized farms, the United States can create a more resilient and sustainable food system that benefits both consumers and farmers. Nevertheless, unless the government takes these steps, the trend toward importing food rather than producing it locally is likely to continue, putting People at risk for food safety and endangering the success of local farming communities.

American Farming is Dead
American Farming is Dead

Based on the latest data available from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the year 2020, the top 10 food products imported into the United States, along with their annual dollar value of imports, are as follows:

  1. Fresh fruits – $17.6 billion
  2. Fresh vegetables – $11.8 billion
  3. Wine and beer – $6.4 billion
  4. Snack foods – $5.7 billion
  5. Coffee and tea – $5.5 billion
  6. Fish and seafood – $5.4 billion
  7. Processed fruits and vegetables – $5.2 billion
  8. Chocolate and cocoa products – $4.2 billion
  9. Red meats – $3.3 billion
  10. Dairy products – $3.1 billion

It is important to note that these figures only represent the value of food products that are officially recorded by the USDA and do not account for informal trade or unrecorded imports. Additionally, the types of food products imported vary widely and include both raw materials and finished products that are sold directly to consumers.

I was going to end my life…..

Bitcoin Cryptocurrency

Half a Trillion Withdrawn

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Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto assets have been liquidated in the last 24 hours as a powerful law enforcement agency sets its sights on Ethereum (ETH).

New data from Coinglass shows 137,969 traders were just liquidated to the tune of $429 million with the majority of traders losing bets on BTC and ETH, which saw $141 million and $110 million in liquidations respectively.

Other prominent crypto assets affected include smart contract platform Solana (SOL), Bitcoin alternative Litecoin (LTC), meme asset Dogecoin (DOGE), layer-2 scaling solution Polygon (MATIC), oracle provider Chainlink (LINK) and XRP.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are trading for $19,935 and $1,406 at time of writing, both over 6% declines during the last 24 hours.

The broad market plunge comes as the Biden Administration and New York’s Attorney General launch an assault on crypto assets and their owners.

ETH has been labeled as a security by New York Attorney General Letitia James in a lawsuitfiled with the Supreme Court of New York on Thursday, and the Biden administration is targeting Bitcoin mining in a new tax proposal, following the regulatory pressure that collapsed crypto-friendly bank Silvergate.

The macroeconomy is not helping the crypto markets either.

Equities are reeling from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which was officially shut down by regulators today after reporting a $1.8 billion loss from selling mostly US government bonds.

Mainstream economists believe banks can buy government bonds as a safe way to diversify their assets, but the Fed’s sharp interest rate hikes have sent their prices in a downward spiral.

Zombie Apocolypse

A Real Zombie Apocolypse?

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A zombie apocalypse, as portrayed in popular culture, would likely be caused by some sort of outbreak or virus that turns people into zombie.

A virus like the rabies virus, which already exists, may have undergone a mutation as one potential cause. Rabies is a fatal virus that spreads through saliva and is known to make those who have it act violently. It would be simple to spread and result in widespread infection if a strain of rabies were to mutate to the point where it could be transmitted through the air.

Another possible cause could be the emergence of a new virus that is specifically designed to create zombies. This could be the result of bioweapons research gone wrong, or it could be the work of a malicious individual or group.

A parasite, such as a protozoan, which invades the human brain and changes the animal’s behavior to make it more aggressive and less reasonable, is another possible cause. Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that may infect rats and alter their behavior by making them less frightened of cats, is one illustration of this. A zombie apocalypse might occur if a parasite like that infected people.

Additionally, a zombies apocalypse could also be caused by a bacterial infection, such as the one caused by Necrotizing fasciitis, it is a fast-moving flesh-eating bacteria, which causes severe tissue damage, this could lead to zombie-like symptoms.

A zombies apocalypse could also be caused by a neurological disorder, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), it is a rare, degenerative, fatal brain disorder, it is caused by abnormal proteins called prions. These prions cause nerve cells in the brain to die, leading to a loss of brain function. Symptoms of CJD include aggressive behavior, which could be mistaken for zombie-like symptoms.

And finally, a number of circumstances might combine to bring forth a zombie apocalypse. For instance, a parasite may propagate a virus that makes people aggressive and enhances the infection’s effects. In addition, the virus’s effects could be strengthened by a bacterium that induces tissue death, leading to even more severe symptoms resembling zombies.

Overall, a zombie apocalypse is a hypothetical scenario that could be caused by a number of different factors, including viruses, parasites, bacteria, and neurological disorders. Each of these factors alone could cause severe problems, but combined they could lead to an outbreak of zombies on a massive scale.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided some insights into how a real-life zombie apocalypse may unfold. The way the virus spread and affected people’s behavior are similar to the way a zombie outbreak would progress.

One of the most significant lessons from the epidemic is the importance of early discovery and prompt action. After the virus was first identified in Wuhan, China, the World Health Organization (WHO) took some time to proclaim a pandemic. By the time the virus was detected, it had already spread to neighboring countries, making containment considerably more difficult. This highlights the need for rapid and decisive action in the case of a further breakout.

Another important lesson learned is the importance of international cooperation in dealing with a global threat. The virus quickly spread to every corner of the globe and it became clear that no country could deal with it alone. The way different countries responded and cooperated with each other was a big influence on how the pandemic played out, with some countries having greater success than others.

The pandemic also brought to light the necessity for health systems to be prepared and their susceptibility. Many nations were unprepared for a pandemic of this magnitude and were forced to race for supplies like hospital beds, ventilators, and personal protective equipment. This made combating the virus considerably more difficult and contributed to more fatalities. This shows how important it is to have a functioning healthcare system that is capable of handling pandemics and other emergencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the effects of false information and false information. The spread of false information during the pandemic, including conspiracy theories and false news, has made it more difficult to fight the infection. Due to the difficulty in getting correct information out to the public, there was misunderstanding, mistrust, and to some extent, a lack of cooperation. This demonstrates how crucial proper information is during an outbreak and how harmful disinformation can be.

Long Term Meat Storage United States Prepper

Meat Storage Long Term

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Long-term meat storage can be challenging, but with the correct methods and equipment, you can preserve your meat fresh and fit for consumption for a considerable amount of time. Here are some strategies for long-term beef storage:

  1. Freezing: This is one of the most effective ways to store meat long-term. It slows down the growth of bacteria and helps to preserve the flavor and texture of the meat. You can freeze both raw and cooked meat, but it’s important to wrap it properly to prevent freezer burn.

  2. Canning: When preparing for the zombie apocalypse, canning is an excellent technique to conserve meat for longer periods of time. Using this technique, meat is heated to a high temperature in jars, killing microorganisms and forming a vacuum seal that preserves the meat’s freshness.
  3. Dehydration: By eliminating moisture from the meat, this method of preservation reduces the growth of bacteria and enables longer-term storage of the product. Making your own jerky or other dry meat snacks is a breeze when you cure meat using a dehydrator or even the sun.
  4. Curing: Meat is preserved through the process of curing, which involves seasoning it with salt and other curing chemicals. By removing moisture, this generates an environment that is unfriendly to microorganisms. The most popular cured meats are salami, ham, and bacon.

  5. Smoking: Smoking is a method of preserving meat by exposing it to smoke, which can help to kill bacteria and add a smoky flavor to the meat. This method is best for tougher cuts of meat like pork shoulder or beef brisket.

  6. Pressure Canning: This is another great method of canning meat, It uses a pressure cooker to heat the meat to a higher temperature which kills any bacteria and creates a sealed environment for storing the meat for long term.
  7. Fermenting: Fermenting involves cultivating meat with advantageous microbes. This may enhance the meat’s flavor and aid in its preservation. Sauerkraut and kimchi are two examples of fermented meats.

  8. Brining: Similar to curing, brining involves adding salt, sugar, and spices to meat in a liquid solution, which helps to preserve it and add flavor. The process of brining can also make the meat more tender.

  9. Vacuum sealing: This is another effective way to store meat long-term by removing the air and creating an airtight environment around the meat. It keeps the meat fresh and stops it from getting freezer burns.

  10. And lastly, good old fashioned Salt curing: This method is one of the oldest ways of preserving meats, it is also one of the most effective. This method involves rubbing salt, sugar and various other spices on the meat and then let it sit for some time. This process draws out the moisture, kills bacteria and preserves the meat for a long period of time.

While each of these methods can be useful for long-term meat storage, it’s crucial to use the right one for the kind of meat you’re preserving and to handle food safely to avoid contamination. Always be ready and have some solutions available because you’ll need to be able to safeguard and preserve your meats in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

government-controlled-cryptocurrency

Government Controlled Cryptocurrency

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Building on the bitcoin model, central banks are planning to produce their own “digital currencies”. Removing any and all remaining privacy, granting total control over every transaction, even limiting what ordinary people are allowed to spend their money on.

From the moment bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies first emerged, sold as an independent and alternative medium of exchange outside the financial status quo, it was only a matter of time before the new alternative would be absorbed, modified and redeployed in service of the state.

Enter “Central Bank Digital Currencies”: the mainstream answer to bitcoin.

For those who have never heard of them, “Central Bank Digital Currencies” (CBDCs) are exactly what they sound like, digitized versions of the pound/dollar/euro etc. issued by central banks.

Like bitcoin (and other crypto), the CBDC would be entirely digital, thus furthering the ongoing war on cash. However, unlike crypto, it would not have any encryption preserving anonymity. In fact, it would be totally the reverse, potentially ending the very idea of financial privacy.

Now, you may not have heard much about the CBDC plans, lost as they are in the tangle of the ongoing “pandemic”, but the campaign is there, chugging along on the back pages for months now. There are stories about it from both Reuters and the Financial Times just today. It’s a long, slow con, but a con nonetheless.

The countries where the idea progressed the furthest are China and the UK. The Chinese Digital Yuan has been in development since 2014, and is subject to ongoing and widespread testing. The UK is nowhere near that stage yet, but Chancellor Rishi Sunak is keenly pushing forward a digital pound that the press are calling “Britcoin”.

Other countries, including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Malaysia, are not far behind.

The US is also researching the idea, with Jerome Powell, head of Federal Reserve, announcing the release of a detailed report on the “digital dollar” in the near future.

The proposals for how these CBDCs might work should be enough to raise red flags in even the most trusting of minds.

Most people wouldn’t like the idea of the government monitoring “all spending in real-time”, but that’s not the worst it.

By far the most dangerous idea is that any future digital currency should be “programmable”. Meaning the people issuing the money would have the power to control how it is spent.

That’s not an interpretation or a “conspiracy theory”, just listen to Agustin Carstens, head of the International Settlement Bank, speaking earlier this year:

Here’s that quote again, with some emphasis added:

…which tells you not only that they want and are seeking this power, but how they justify it to themselves. They transform other people’s money into an “expression of their liability”, and so consider it’s only right that they control it.

An article in the Telegraph, back in June, was just as candid [our emphasis]:

Digital cash could be programmed to ensure it is only spent on essentials, or goods which an employer or Government deems to be sensible.

The article goes on to quote Tom Mutton, a director at the BoE:

You could introduce programmability […] There could be some socially beneficial outcomes from that, preventing activity which is seen to be socially harmful in some way.

Governments and employers making sure the money they issue can only be used on “sensible” things, and not be used in “socially harmful” ways? It doesn’t take much imagination to see just how this system could evolve and re-shape society into a truly dystopian nightmare.

In China the process is already beginning, with a trademarked lack of subtlety. As they progress toward the release of their digital currency, they are banning all cryptocurrencies to remove competition and it’s already known the digital yuan will be programmable.

The West’s approach will probably be less direct, but no less controlling for that.

Britcoin will likely be programmed in only “special circumstances”. Starting, as the Telegraph says, with state benefits. They will be flagged to be spent only on “essentials”. (Of course, if Universal Basic Income is put in place, then it’s possible the majority of people could end up on “state benefits”.)

It’s also not hard to see programmable money feeding into the “protect the NHS narrative”, where people aren’t allowed to spend state money on sugar, cigarettes or alcohol. Or people on organ waiting lists, or diagnosed with certain conditions, have their wages and spending controlled.

By and large, however, it is the nature of British tyranny to be unofficial. So the UK government will make a big show of renouncing their own power to program the money, thereby positively contrasting themselves with China…but at the time will take no steps to prevent large companies “programming” the wages they issue.

So, while the state controls the digital yuan in China, the digital pound will be subject to corporate control and used to enforce the unspoken state-corporate partnership that defines true fascism.

It will likely start in small, predictable ways designed to “limit competition”. McDonald’s, for example, will make it impossible to spend their wages at Burger King, and vice versa. Coke and Pepsi. Starbucks and Costa. You get the idea.

We’ve witnessed the rise of cancel culture, the cultivated age of identity politics, and virtue signalling. Well, imagine how programmable currency fits into that. Companies could commit to “combatting hate”, and stop their employees from donating money to black-listed political parties, religious groups, charities or individuals.

In the age of Covid we have seen how authors/actors/singers who step out of line are subject to poisonous witch hunts, but imagine a world where companies could “renounce those who spread misinformation”, by making it impossible to spend wages they issue on art/films/music/books by outspoken critics of the government.

Maybe companies will make it so that employees who aren’t vaccinated have more limitations placed on their wages than vaccinated ones. Maybe an unvaxxed paycheck can’t be spent at cinemas or nightclubs, to “stop the spread of the virus”.

John Cunliffe, deputy director of the Bank of England, told the Telegraph:

You could think of smart contracts in which the money would be programmed to be released only if something happened.

So maybe employers will remove choice altogether, and make a negative test and/or a vaccine booster a prerequisite for unlocking your wages. That could be applied to all kinds of behaviours moving forward.

The World Economic Forum has a clear vision of the future where people “own nothing and are happy”, combine that with a prolonged war on homeownership, and you can see employers and governments issuing money which can be spent on rent, but not on a mortgage.

Now imagine the nascent “Green New Deal”. Hard limits on how much money you can spend on petrol, plastic, or meat.

Only X dollars on flights per year. Only Y pounds on beef. All for the good of the planet.

Money will turn from an expression of independence into nothing but a voucher system operated completely at the whim of corporate monoliths.

All of this would have sounded like rampant paranoia just two years ago, but would you honestly be surprised to see that suggestion in the Guardian, these days?

A programmable digital currency would have, coded into it, the ability to control our entire society. And it looks like that’s where The New Normal is heading next.

power-outage-map-texas

Texas needs some Preppers!

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(CNN) A winter storm and lengthy cold snap have crippled power facilities in Texas and caused about 2.3 million outages as of Wednesday evening, leaving residents in the cold and dark for several days.

The lack of power to about a quarter of the state has created a widespread emergency, with families huddling in homes or cars without heat, burst water pipes, failing water systems and gasoline shortages.
Barbara Martinez said she had been burning firewood to try to heat her suburban Houston home, which had been without power from early Sunday until Tuesday.
 
“We got power for four hours and then it went off again and it stayed off for a few hours, came back for like two hours then went away,” she said Wednesday morning. “It’s currently off.”
 
The outages cover the areas served by Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, from the counties bordering Mexico up to those touching Oklahoma, and from Houston in the east to rural Big Bend in the west. Yet areas outside of ERCOT’s coverage zone, including the eastern border with Louisiana, the northwest panhandle and El Paso in the west, are basically unaffected.
 
Texas officials pointed the blame at the power company and called for investigations. US Rep. Marc Veasey, a Democrat who represents parts of Fort Worth and Dallas, said he’s learned from an industry executive that the power grid was just minutes from failing on Monday before state agency officials initiated emergency rolling outages.
 
“I want people to know that we were minutes away from the entire grid crashing,” he told CNN’s Ed Lavandera, criticizing ERCOT and Republican leaders for not better preparing for the freeze.
 
“They certainly could have taken some precautions that would have prevented what we’re having to deal with now,” Veasey said.
An ERCOT spokesperson did not immediately return a CNN request for comment. But earlier Wednesday, CEO Bill Magness said the issue largely was a lack of energy supply as the cold weather shuttered power facilities. ERCOT’s controlled power outages, he said, had in fact averted the system’s collapse.
 
“If we had waited, and not done outages, not reduced demand to reflect what was going on, on the overall system, we could have drifted towards a blackout,” he said. “People feel like what we’re seeing feels like a blackout, but the blackout that can occur if you don’t keep the supply and demand in balance could last months.”
 
The power issues are likely to continue, especially given that the cold temperatures will last for another day or two. Over 21 million people, or nearly 70% of Texas’s population, are currently under some sort of winter weather alert.
 
The controlled outages have created rotating power issues as ERCOT has tried to spread around the pain, pushing people to rely on warming centers or the kindness of neighbors.
 
“We have power for about 30 or 15 minutes and then we get a blackout for about five to six hours,” said Eder Lemus of San Antonio.
The pipes in his house froze, so he, his wife and three children are relying on others for water.
 
 
“As of now, we are using a neighbor’s faucet to refill a bucket of water to drain our toilets,” he told said. “When and if the lights come back on, we try to take showers and refill our drinking water gallons so that we can stay hydrated.”
 
Gov. Greg Abbott said that he has spoken with both the lieutenant governor and the state House speaker, and that an investigation of ERCOT is slated to begin next week.
 
“ERCOT is an independent private entity that, candidly, I have both investigated and prosecuted before when I was attorney general of Texas, and we’re now investigating again,” Abbott said. “I’m not suggesting any way that there’s been any criminal activity or anything like that, but it is something that needs to be looked at.”
 
Abbott said a news conference Wednesday that 6,000 megawatts have been added to the state’s grid — enough power for about 1.2 million households.
 
There will be additional onboarding coming from the South Texas Nuclear Project and additional operations will increase from coal-produced power, Abbott said.
 
These sources will add more than 2,000 megawatts to the grid and provide additional power for about 400,000 homes, according to Abbott. About 17,200 megawatts of renewable generated power remain out on Wednesday afternoon, due to “freezing of the wind, or because of lack of sun for the solar,” Abbott said.
 
The widespread outages stem from a weather disaster coupled with an unprepared infrastructure.
 
A winter weather system brought unusually frigid temperatures to much of the central US over the past few days, including in Texas, the country’s energy leader. The deep freeze caused demand for power and heating to skyrocket even as it knocked out the state’s natural gas, coal, wind and nuclear facilities, which were not ready to function in such cold weather.
Climate Change

Running from Climate Change

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Here’s The Best Place To Move If You’re Worried About Climate Change

But would you actually go through with it?

By Maggie Koerth

This summer, we asked readers to send us their climate change questions. A lot of those questions sat squarely under umbrella topics we expected: how climate science works, what individuals can do to prevent greenhouse gas emissions and what crazy technological solutions might actually be effective. We’ll be coming back to those later. But first, we wanted to address a different sort of question: Who is winning climate change? Sure, climate change is a very bad thing in a larger, existential sense. But are there animals and plants whose habitats will expand in a warmer world? Is there anybody who has figured out how to profit off the coming apocalypse? Won’t some places be nicer to live in than others? You wanted to know. We’re going to find out.

Matthew Kahn has dreamed about buying a climate change retreat. If anybody would know where to go, you’d think it would be an environmental economist who literally wrote the book on which cities will adapt to a warming world and how they’ll do it. But rather than investing in land that’s safe from the risks of coastal flooding, midwestern downpours and crippling drought — Kahn was thinking Bozeman, Mont. — he’s instead settling into a new job in Baltimore, a city that’s expected to be flooding daily by the end of the century.

When we asked for your climate change questions, we ended up with 20 different responses that were all asking a version of the same thing: Where should I move if I want to avoid the worst of it?

Turns out, finding a place in the U.S. that is benefiting from climate change is both easy and hard, researchers say. It’s not difficult to find the places at the lowest risk of experiencing the biggest hazards. Popular Science has mapped it using data from a variety of scientific research papers and risk assessment reports. Economists have mapped it based on projected changes in various quality of life indexes. Nonprofits are working on projects that will map it based on flooding risks.

But it’s one thing to look at these maps and start dreaming of your climate condo in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s another thing entirely to say that it is a place you should move now. Or that the Upper Peninsula is necessarily going to “win,” just because in the long term it’s less subject to the negative side effects of a changing climate. The problem is one of both personal preferences and economics. We don’t all like the same weather. We seldom make investment choices on long time scales. We value things about our hometowns, other than whether they’re safe from a wildfire. It’s hard to predict which regions might win climate change when we don’t all agree on what “win” means.

“There are a couple of areas, in the short run, that actually improve,” said David Albouy, professor of economics at the University of Illinois. In 2016, he published a paper that compared the places Americans currently prefer to live with the predicted environmental change under global warming. In doing so, he produced maps of how quality of life might change in various parts of the country. “It’s still a generation away,” he said. But according to his estimates, Northern Minnesota, Seattle, Portland, Ore., and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan could all end up with more moderate temperatures and weather patterns than they currently have.

His maps, which include upstate New York and much of New England among the regions improved by climate change, somewhat align with estimates of the safest places to live made by mapping disaster risk alone. That’s especially true for the Upper Peninsula, a region fortunate enough to avoid increased risks of sea level rise, drought, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and disease-carrying mosquitoes.

But despite the occasional trend story about coastal millennials moving to places that seem better positioned to ride out the ravages of climate change, there’s no real evidence that the Upper Peninsula is attracting new residents due to its climate prospects. In fact, nearly every county in the region has lost population in the last decade. Somebody found the place you should move. But nobody is moving there. So what gives?

That’s partly because real estate investing works at a different pace than climate change does, Albouy and Kahn told me. The maps that show the Upper Peninsula winning against other parts of the country are forecasts of the year 2100. “But why does it matter that [the value of the land] will go up in 100 years?” Albouy said.

Even coastal Florida, a region that’s been repeatedly affected by rising sea levels and storm surge from hurricanes, hasn’t yet seen a decrease in property values, said Matthew Eby, founder and director of First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that’s attempting to improve and expand flood risk mapping in the United States. The value of those homes aren’t rising as fast as homes further inland, he told me. His modeling suggests hundreds of millions of dollars in lost appreciation value. But the prices are still rising, and coastal property continues to be worth more than inland property. Just as climate scientists have long warned about the way climate change’s slowly raising stakes make them easier for politicians to ignore, real estate investors are also subject to the frog-in-a-pot-of-boiling-water problem.

That’s not the only reason there’s not a run on real estate in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., however. Let’s back up to the study that Albouy published. His approach was based on calculating the financial drawbacks Americans are willing to put up with in exchange for pleasant weather today. For instance, wages are basically average in Hawaii and the cost of living is exceptionally high. But lots of people live there anyway. “Why? Because the weather is perfect,” he said.

But here’s where spotting the climate winners gets tricky, Albouy told me. When people talk about the best place to move to avoid climate risks, he thinks they’re usually thinking about places that are currently too cold becoming, well, more like California and other parts of the country in which Americans are willing to take economic losses in order to enjoy today.

But that’s not how climate change works. Michigan is getting warmer and wetter, but it’s still colder than Albouy’s calculations — or 30 years of data on American internal migration — suggest Americans really want it to be. Meanwhile, climate change tends to exacerbate extremes and increase the risk of probabilistically rare disaster events — things that don’t really make a place better even if they make it warmer. Imagine a Chicago with winters that aren’t much different than they are today, but summers that are more like those of Memphis. “Climate change doesn’t deliver quite the climate change they’d like to see,” he said.

Even if it did, Kahn said, there are all kinds of incentives — both social and economic — that make staying in a riskier region attractive. Consider the citizens of New Orleans, who have for generations known their city was prone to flooding and saw rising sea levels for years before Hurricane Katrina. Research since that disaster has shown that survivors who were displaced by the storm ended up making more money in their new cities. So why not move sooner? New Orleans had their families and their communities, and moving itself is expensive, Kahn said.

In the end, leaving a risky city before you have to might not look like a great option, even if you stand to economically benefit in the long run. If your climate “win” is at odds with where your family and friends are, it might not actually be a win.

Maggie Koerth is a senior science writer for FiveThirtyEight.

Where to live in America, 2100 A.D.

USA Climate Change
Hacked Drinking Water

Hacked Water

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An unidentified hacker has accessed the computer systems for the water treatment facility in the city of Oldsmar, Florida, and has modified chemical levels to dangerous parameters.

News of the attack was disclosed today in a press conference by city officials.

The intrusion took place on Friday, February 5, when the hacker accessed a computer system that was set up to allow for the remote control of water treatment operations.

The hacker first accessed this system at 8 am, in the morning, and then again for a second and more prolonged intrusion at 1:30 pm, in the afternoon.

This second intrusion lasted for about five minutes and was detected right away by an operator who was monitoring the system and saw the hacker move the mouse cursor on the screen and access software responsible for water treatment.

HACKER MODIFIED LYE LEVELS

“Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is the main ingredient in liquid drain cleaners. It’s also used to control water acidity and remove metals from drinking water in the water treatment plant,” said Oldsmar Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

“The hacker changed the sodium hydroxide from about 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million. This is obviously a significant and potentially dangerous increase.”

Oldsmar city staff said that no tainted water was delivered to local residents as the attack was caught in time before any lye levels could be deployed.

According to Sheriff Gualtieri, the hacker disconnected as soon as they modified the lye levels, and a human operator set the chemical level back to normal right away.

Officials didn’t attribute the attack to any specific hacker group or entity. The timing of the attack is also of note as the city of Oldsmar is located near the Tampa urban center, which hosted the Super Bowl LV game on Sunday.

NOT THE FIRST TIME

This is the second incident of its kind where a hacker has accessed a water treatment facility and modified chemical levels.

A similar incident was reported back in 2015-2016 at an unnamed water treatment facility, but investigators said the intruders didn’t seem to know what they were doing, making random changes, and investigators classified the intrusion as an accident rather than an intentional attack.

Another set of attacks took place earlier this year, but without as dire consequences. In the spring and summer of 2020, Israeli officials reported attacks against local water treatment facilities, water pumps, and agricultural irrigation systems.

Tel Aviv officials, which blamed the attacks on the Iranian government, said hackers tried to access the management panels of several types of smart water management systems and asked local organizations to change their passwords.

None of the attacks were successful, officials and local media reported at the time.

truthfinder-spy-tracking

Truthfinder

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Have you ever googled yourself? A crush? Your neighbors? 57% of Americans admit to keeping an eye on their online reputation, and 46% admit to using the internet to look up someone from their past.

But Google is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding personal information. There’s a new website going around that users are calling “creepy,” “scary,” and “awesome.”

Have you ever been issued a speeding ticket? Failed to stop at a stop sign? Do you know someone who’s had a run-in with the law? If you’re like most of us, the answer to at least one of those questions is “yes.” Most of us have slipped up at least once or twice. In fact, one in four Americans has an arrest or a criminal record.

An innovative new website called Truthfinder is now revealing the full “scoop” on millions of Americans.

TruthFinder can search through hundreds of millions of public records in a matter of minutes. TruthFinder members can literally begin searching in seconds for sensitive data like criminal, traffic, and arrest records. Plus, they are able to check as many records as they want (think: friends, family, neighbors, enemies, etc. etc.).

Previously, if you needed to research somebody’s arrest records, it involved a lot of work. First, you’d need to know where the arrest records were located. Then you’d have to travel to the appropriate county court office — in person! After filling out long and boring paperwork, you’d have to wait for the results.

Searching arrest records could take days, weeks, or even months. And what if somebody was hiding an arrest in an unknown county? You might never find it.

But with websites like TruthFinder, a background check is simple and easy. With just a few clicks of your mouse, you can find detailed and explicit information not readily available through a standard search engine.

I decided to test it out for myself and discover what information TruthFinder might expose about me. The search was easy, and after a few minutes, I found myself staring at my background report — and it wasn’t pretty!

There was that mortifying blog that I’d started in high school, still up for all the world to see! My report even included embarrassing photographs of myself that I’d totally forgotten about. I couldn’t believe that TruthFinder even found my secret social media profiles that I’d created under an alias. The sheer volume of data about me was definitely scary. I feel like a perfect stranger could look me up on TruthFinder and find out my entire life story.

After conducting just one search, I was totally hooked. I just couldn’t believe that it was legal to have this many personal details online! One of my friends from back home has pretty much dropped off the map entirely for the past three years. I’ve been kind of worried about him, and nobody seemed to know where he had gone. So, I typed his name into TruthFinder and was absolutely devastated by the search results.

My “friend” had gone to jail. TruthFinder had every single detail on the case, from the date he was arrested to which prison he was currently in. But the gruesome description of his offence made me realize that I probably needed to reevaluate who my friends were. This guy’s records listed charge after charge for battery, assault, and child abuse. His criminal record read like an infinite scroll of total depravity. I just couldn’t believe it.

From now on, I’m looking up everybody — no matter how normal they seem. Luckily for me, TruthFinder offers unlimited searches, so I’ll never be fooled again.

Although TruthFinder can show deeply shocking criminal records, I’ve really been surprised by just how practical it is as an everyday tool. I’ve used it to look up addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, estimated income levels, assets — heck, I’ve even found Amazon wishlists on TruthFinder. One time I looked up Todd Kohlhepp, the scary serial killer from South Carolina who confessed to seven murders. Well, guess what? His Amazon profile came up in his background report, and let me tell you, it was downright chilling. He literally left reviews on knives and shovels, discussing how he used them in the murders. It was one of the creepiest things I’ve ever found online.

My own report came back with an interactive map of local sex offenders in my neighborhood, complete with mugshots and explicit details of their crimes. I was seriously grossed out to learn that my last apartment building was absolutely infested with perverts, rapists, and total scumbags.

It isn’t all scary — After reading more about TruthFinder, I’ve heard lots of positive stories, too. Apparently, people have reunited because of this website. Estranged families have used public records to contact long-lost family members to get back in touch. Military friends have reunited after years of lost contact because they found the right phone number or email address on their report.

All in all, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend TruthFinder to my friends and family. In today’s world, you need to take precautions to keep yourself and your family safe. But if you’re going to look up someone that you know using TruthFinder, I have to warn you: the information you might find could forever change how you feel about someone. Make sure that you’re emotionally prepared for the consequences if you find something you don’t want to see. To get started with your search, click here.

iphonehack

Hackers force quick iOS update

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Apple is urging iPhone and iPad users to promptly update their operating systems to fix security bugs that may have already been exploited by hackers.

On its support webpage, the company said three security flaws “may have been actively exploited.” It did not reveal too many specifics about the bugs, noting “Apple does not disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until an investigation has occurred and patches or releases are available.”
The issue is a link in an exploit chain, meaning a hacker would need to exploit further bugs for it to be fully executable. The company declined to comment further on any attacks.
The company pushed out the security patches on Tuesday as part of its new iOS 14.4 software, which also includes fixes for keyboard lag and allows smaller QR codes to be read by the camera.
Apple said two security issues stem from its WebKit, an open source browser engine used by Safari and iOS browsers. “A remote attacker may be able to cause arbitrary code execution,” the company said in the description notes. Meanwhile, Kernel, an Apple developer framework, was also affected.
The exploits were reported by “an anonymous researcher,” according to the webpage.
Apple prides itself on device security but it’s not immune to exploits. Last year, Google researchers found several websites with code that allowed hackers to quietly infiltrate iPhones. Meanwhile, an iOS13 bug exposed contact details stored in iPhones without requiring a passcode or biometric identification — a flaw that the company did not publicly address until several months after it was first reported.
 
CDI’s Best Alternatives for ditching Smartphones?

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