This is not the least bit racist.

Portland college decides April is White Shaming month. April Fools, parents of students!

"'Whiteness History Month: Context, Consequences, and Change' is a multidisciplinary, district-wide, educational project examining race and racism through an exploration of the construction of whiteness, its origins, and heritage," PCC states on its website. "Scheduled for the month of April 2016, the project seeks to inspire innovative and practical solutions to community issues and social problems that stem from racism."

The WHM site makes clear that the project is not a "celebratory endeavor" like heritage months, but is rather "an effort to change our campus climate" by "[challenging] the master narrative of race and racism through an exploration of the social construction of whiteness." ("Challenging the master narrative," PCC explains, "is a strategy within higher education that promotes multicultural education and equity.")

Remember that name my friends, Portland Community College. You will want to know where not to send your young sprouts when they get to post-secondary ed.

Nice article on 'Cultural Appropriation"

SJWs and Progs generally like to bandy about this cultural appropriation thing. A favorite is white girls with dreadlocks. White girls are not allowed to have dreads because dreads are a "black thing".

Now, for my money dreadlocks aren't a thing at all, because black or white they make you look like a haystack and make you smell funny. Dirty hair is not a nice feature, ok?

But never mind, I'm a curmudgeonly old man. I believe in stick shifts on cars too.

Intuitively, anyone with a brain immediatly understands there's no "white things" and "black things". There's things, and we use them or not as it suits us.

Cultural appropriation doctrine as preached by the Progs means that as a white man, I am not allowed to sing songs like "Kumbaya" because that is a Negro Spiritual, and I'm not to be appropriating that for my own use. Only black people are allowed to sing that, it's their song.

By this logic, Indian people are not allowed to make pizza, and Spanish people are not allowed to go to sushi bars.

This article here goes into the logic fails underpinning cultural appropriation as a concept rather nicely. It's worth a read.

Smart phone tethers, now chips.

Finally, somebody decided the time is right to push implanted chips for security at airports.

A man who implanted a microchip containing his airline booking details into his hand was able to use it to pass effortlessly through security to his flight.

Andreas Sjöström, vice president of digital for technology consulting company Sogeti, had the near-field communication chip (NFC) about the size of a grain of rice injected into his hand with a syringe, before using it at Stockholm Arlanda Airport to pass through security and board his plane.

The technology has been used before to make digital payments, control a mobile phone and unlock doors, in the same way contactless payment cards work. All it requires is a scanner to link up to that is compatible with the NFC.

There is going to be a BIG push for this. It's just soooo attractive to a certain kind of mindset to be able to easily scan and identify everybody who walks through a door or past a post on the street. They get all warm at the very notion. Lots of companies and organizations are going to try their best to make this verrrry attractive.

I suggest y'all resist the temptation. Cutting one out is going to suck a lot more than having it put in.

The Phantom

Toldja: Cell phones listen to what you're watching on TV.

Little Brother is getting to be more of an asshole that Big Brother, if you ask me. Big Brother listens to criminals and political agitators, Little Brother listens to ME.

Wait, what? It's using the microphones on cell phones to listen? Who's it listening in on?

The company behind the technology is called Symphony Advanced Media. The Observer spoke to its CEO Charles Buchwalter, about how it works, via phone. "Our entire focus is to add insights and perspectives on an entire new paradigm around how consumers are consuming media across  platforms," he told the Observer.

Cool, but is Symphony listening to viewers without their knowledge?

Short answer: pretty much no.

Symphony collects data with a similar strategy to Nielsen, by inviting users to opt-in to specific monitoring. Nielsen has the set meter and its paper diaries. Unlike Nielsen, Symphony uses a less direct strategy than a box on top of a TV to track what a viewer is watching, because not all the viewing is on TVs and not all the broadcasters want to be tracked.

For the privacy-conscious, Symphony's app isn't hidden inside other apps with permissions buried in user agreements no one reads.

Symphony asks those who opt in to load Symphony-branded apps onto their personal devices, apps that use microphones to listen to what's going on in the background. With technology from Gracenote, the app can hear the show playing and identify it using its unique sound signature (the same way Shazam identifies a song playing over someone else's speakers). Doing it that way allows the company to gather data on viewing of sites like Netflix and Hulu, whether the companies like it or not. (Netflix likes data)

So, this time you have to agree to be listened to.

That is not always the case. Chrome apparently tracks pretty much every click and mouse movement these days, AND harvests your cookies. Meaning the guy who has your Facebook cookie can log in to your Facebook account. Or your gmail account, or any other service you use that has an "instant log-in" feature that remembers you are logged in. You know that little "remember me" box? That works by cookies.

There are other things in Chrome that allegedly turn on your microphone without telling you. I don't have time to verify that right now, I'm just going to assume it's true. We know for sure there are apps like Shazam that work by using the microphone, and Siri uses the microphone.

I do believe there is a shitload of money to be made in a SECURITY APP that shuts off the ability of people to spy on you through your phone. I'd pay $500 right now for an app or service that locked down all my stuff and kept Google, Apple and every other government or non-government asshole from surveiling my behavior.

Next killer app is security. Count on it.

You must have this.

http://monsterhunternation.com/2016/01/11/ar-lowers-with-free-mhi-laser-etching-january-only/

This is the coolest thing. On sale for January, an AR15 lower with the Monster Hunter International logo laser etched on it.

Those of you who are unfamilliar with MHI, go to Baen.com and download the first one for free. Sweetness awaits.