Month: March 2017

Google’s Algorithm Is Lying to You About Onions

Google
Jason Tate

Tom Scocca, writing for Gizmodo:

A little under five years ago, I got angry about a piece of fake information, and I decided to do something about it. I was reading a recipe in the New York Times, and the recipe told me, as many, many recipes had told me before, that it would take about 10 minutes of cooking to caramelize onions.

I knew from personal experience that this was a lie. Recipes always said it took 5 or 10 minutes to caramelize onions, and when you followed the recipes, you either got slightly cooked onions or you ended up 40 minutes behind schedule. So I caramelized some onions and recorded how long it really took — 28 minutes if you cooked them as hot as possible and constantly stirred them, 45 minutes if you were sane about it — and I published those results on Slate, along with a denunciation of the false five-to-10 minute standard. […]

Not only does Google, the world’s preeminent index of information, tell its users that caramelizing onions takes “about 5 minutes” — it pulls that information from an article whose entire point was to tell people exactly the opposite. A block of text from the Times that I had published as a quote, to illustrate how it was a lie, had been extracted by the algorithm as the authoritative truth on the subject.

There are quite a few examples of how Google’s massively dropping the ball with their “one true answer” feature.

International Women’s Day/Day Without a Woman Strike

Women / Strike
Jason Tate

Today is International Women’s Day and the “Day Without a Woman” strike. Here’s a few articles I’ve found that are worth giving a read:

NARAL:

Today, we’re taking a moment to draw inspiration from the many moments in history where women have spoken truth to power, pushed back against oppression and injustice, and fought to make our country and our world safer and more equitable.

New York Times:

“This is the day to emphasize the unity between work done in the so-called formal economy and the domestic sphere, the public sphere and the private sphere, and how most working women have to straddle both,” says Ms. Bhattacharya. “Labor is understood to be work only at the point of production, but as women we know that both society and policy makers invisibilize the work that women do.” The strike calls for women to withhold labor, paid or unpaid, from the United States economy to show how important their contributions are.

The Guardian:

Our roundup of this year’s celebrations, featuring global events and rallies to mark the ongoing fight for women’s equality

The Washington Post:

That’s no coincidence. From the beginning, International Women’s Day was tied tightly to activism and labor strikes. In fact, the day was named in 1909 by the Socialist Party of America to honor a 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York City.

Errata Security’s Notes on the WikiLeaks CIA Leak

Technology
Jason Tate

Robert Graham, writing for Errata Security:

I thought I’d write up some notes about the Wikileaks CIA “#vault7” leak. This post will be updated frequently over the next 24 hours.

The CIA didn’t remotely hack a TV. The docs are clear that they can update the software running on the TV using a USB drive. There’s no evidence of them doing so remotely over the Internet. If you aren’t afraid of the CIA breaking in an installing a listening device, then you should’t be afraid of the CIA installing listening software.

The CIA didn’t defeat Signal/WhatsApp encryption. The CIA has some exploits for Android/iPhone. If they can get on your phone, then of course they can record audio and screenshots. Technically, this bypasses/defeats encryption — but such phrases used by Wikileaks are highly misleading, since nothing related to Signal/WhatsApp is happening. What’s happening is the CIA is bypassing/defeating the phone. Sometimes. If they’ve got an exploit for it, or can trick you into installing their software.

This is a good post that corrects a lot of misinformation floating around.