> AFAIK, there is absolutely zero evidence either Intel or AMD CPUs are compromised, even less so that they're somehow remotely accessible by the US government...
The concerns are similar to US supplied fighters having the kill switch or remotely damaging centrifuges in Iran using software virus.
No one knows whether CPUs are compromised similar to no one knew beepers with explosives in Lebanon were compromised by Israel, allegedly during manufacturing. CPUs don't need to be accessed remotely, any compromised person locally will be enough.
These are fascinating cases to show how far state actors will go and how long the compromise can stay dormant.
> The concerns are similar to US supplied fighters.
I doubt that they actually do, just cutting off software support substantially cripples the F-35 in multiple ways and without spares they aren't going to fly very long (on the timescales of fighter programs).
The risk isn't worth the payoff because if anyone found that killswitch, US arms sales would crater.
All that said I don't think my country should be buying US systems if European equivalents or near equivalents exist anyway for geopolitical reasons.
> The concerns are similar to US supplied fighters having the kill switch
This is very different though, first they're huge, expensive machines, requiring infrastructure, maintenance and crew, there are huge surface areas to hide things like kill-switches. With CPU packages, not so much, and also fairly established how exactly you can clear the entire CPU, good luck doing that with the complexity-machines known as fighter jets.
> No one knows whether CPUs are compromised
Right, but what we do know, is that any US company (or any EU subsidiary with US owner, like "AWS European Sovereign Cloud") can and will be used to hold our data hostage when needed by the US government, as proven by recent actions.
So, based on what we know and what we don't know, "data sovereignty" remains a priority, and until proven, "hardware sovereignty" remains less important, for now.
With the advent of LLMs, data sovereignty is being bypassed. All three Service, Data, and Hardware sovereignty are important and should be the focus. It is not about prioritizing one over the other.
"Everything is highest priority" is the same as saying none of them are high priority. Considering one is a real issue we've already experienced, and others are theoretical ones we haven't, I feel like I agree with the current prioritization which is data migrations. Guess I'm too pragmatic to chase the ideal here, even though I'd want to eventually get to the ideal too of course.
The source was my experience living with Japanese friends in Japan for around a month. This was, however, quite a few years ago. I believe that the complexity of the Japanese street naming system may have had something to do with it.
Look into some of the products and services used in Japan for elderly care at home.
My FIL, in his late 80's was living at home alone. My wife used a monitoring service, provided by local package delivery company. They installed motion sensors in the toilet and on the door. If no motion detected for 24 hours, the company will alert my wife by phone and send the nearest delivery driver to check on him.
I myself have tried Home Assistant setup on Raspberry Pi and variety of sensors for different purposes.
Good luck, the Sapporo Chitose airport is closed for inspection of both runways.
BTW, you are safer in hotel than outside. No need to stay in lobby, go to bed, just protect your head. I experienced much bigger one in Sapporo in 2018.
When I moved to SF, someone told me that the three most important things you can do for earthquake safety are:
- make sure nothing can fall on you when you're in bed (no mounted artwork above the headboard; no lamps etc on side tables that are high enough to fall on you)
- make sure you have footwear in your bedroom, so you can be mobile if there's broken glass everywhere
- store extra drinking water somewhere (I used a 6-gallon carboy that I periodically refilled)
Probably there are other good things to do, but all those made a lot of sense to me. Most of us spend more time in bed than in any other fixed location, so making sure the bed is a safe place rings true. And water is life.
Keep in mind that this is a major metropolitan area in a state that has a history of earthquakes. You can expect state level response (and federal as well) within the same day. Their main priority will be water, and elements exposure.
Sf fire department has also a pdf with what you should have in an at home emergency kit. It's some simple things you can get in one trip to a camping store and Walgreens. https://sf-fire.org/media/794/download?inline
I also recommend SF people consider joining NERT: neighborhood emergency response team. Disaster after disaster should teach us the opposite of what you argue in terms of response: in fact it's more likely that the scale of people affected will quickly overwhelm resources, and the existence of choke points will severely limit movement of people and resources, especially if infrastructure is damaged and people are flooding out of the city. That can be mitigated by having locals trained to help facilitate emergency response efforts. It's less "pulling people out from under bookshelves" and more "help managing the bureaucracy of the fire department," forms on forms on forms! Though the training does involve pulling someone out from under a bookshelf. It's a week long and quite fun!
Modern buildings like hotels are built to withstand earthquakes of some magnitudes. Wouldn't count on that at a local construction site or a worn down house you might pass on the street.
That "worn down house" might be good until "upper 6". Beyond that it all depends on when it was built and the associated construction standards at the time.
Japan has had earthquakes forever. Their building regulations mandate things like isolation and dampers.
It all stems from an earthquake in 1923 in Yokohama which killed 140,000. Since then Japan's has over time developed some of the strictest seismic standards.
Sure, in the middle of a magnitude 9 earthquake I'd rather be in the middle of a suburban golf course (as long as it is far from any coastal tsunami) than any building, but I don't spend the majority of my time outside.
Two issues:
1. If you're making this choice during an earthquake, "outside" is often not a grassy field but rather the fall zone for debris from whatever building you're exiting.
2. If the earthquake is big/strong enough that you're in any real danger of building level issues, the shaking will be strong enough that if you try to run for the outside you're very likely to just fall and injure yourself.
The main two ways people get injured in earthquakes (at least in Japan) are a) gas fires b) things falling on them. And being outside but near buildings is a good way for things to fall off those buildings onto you.
I am visiting India. The app wasn’t installed automatically. I received the SMS telling me to install the app but I am using an Indian sim borrowed from a friend. So I figured I got the SMS because of Indian sim. My wife didn’t receive sms as she is using Airalo esim data service.
I didn’t know the SMS was legit or not and I just marked it as spam. The challenge I have found with mobile in India is the excess of sms spam. Also the sender is always some cryptic alphanumeric characters so authenticity is difficult to judge.
I actually prefer content style of Japanese websites. I get all the relevant info on one screen instead of having to scroll/click thru tens. The western style websites are very inefficient and hide info (feels scammy with lack of info).
There are subreddits dedicated to these kind of topics, for example /r/AmerExit /r/movingtojapan /r/expats (that I know of) with wealth of info. I am sure there are dedicated Facebook groups too. You most likely will find people and orgs that can help with migration in such targeted groups. As I understand, most desirable countries have seen multi-fold increase in inquiries and applications from US.
> Does, which what I think you are getting at, the law apply to a head of state?
I don’t know if he will exempt as head of state, but as ordinary US citizen he will be paying taxes to US as his income exceeds FEIE exemption threshold.
Toxicity of fluoride: critical evaluation of evidence for human developmental neurotoxicity in epidemiological studies, animal experiments and in vitro analyses https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7261729/
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