The Russian troops had expected their “special operation” to be brief. Soldiers had brought scant supplies: one admitted that he’d packed only a single uniform, because he thought he was on a training exercise. Some asked Semenov where they could buy cigarettes. “They said, ‘Why are there no shops near here?’ I said, ‘This is a restricted zone!’ They didn’t understand where they were.”
Great read about Chernobyl under Russian occupation during the recent invasion. Where senior staff had to keep up quite a balancing act in order to save lives and avoid disaster.
A great explanation of real time bidding and how your personal information does get shared by google (and many others) with thousands of third-parties, some in China and Russia. Whatever sneaky language they use to reassure you, this is the reality of the online advertising world.
Two women reminisce about their teenage years in the 1890s. They were obviously better off than many of their counterparts of the day but it's still quite fascinating to get first-person accounts that go so far back. I'm also impressed by one woman's cycling endurance. London to Brighton and back on what was effectively a fixed-gear bike is quite something.
As someone who used to hang out in all these strange and exciting places, I'm happy to know it's all still happening despite the mainstream takeover.
It's a long read, but well worth it. The story of how investigators followed Bitcoin transactions to bring down a large child abuse site.
Bitcoin isn't as anonymous as most people think:
Within a few years of Bitcoin’s arrival, academic security researchers—and then companies like Chainalysis—began to tear gaping holes in the masks separating Bitcoin users’ addresses and their real-world identities. They could follow bitcoins on the blockchain as they moved from address to address until they reached one that could be tied to a known identity. In some cases, an investigator could learn someone’s Bitcoin addresses by transacting with them, the way an undercover narcotics agent might conduct a buy-and-bust. In other cases, they could trace a target’s coins to an account at a cryptocurrency exchange where financial regulations required users to prove their identity. A quick subpoena to the exchange from one of Chainalysis’ customers in law enforcement was then enough to strip away any illusion of Bitcoin’s anonymity.
Warning: there's some disturbing content in the article. It's depressing to read about these people.
If you haven't seen it yet, this segment from John Oliver about data brokers is worth a watch, particularly the magnificent ending.
