Monday, 29 May 2017

Joshua Tree Report: May 29th, 2017

This is the Joshua Tree Report for May 28th, 2017, but posted on May 29th because it's a three day weekend and I got accordingly distracted.

General Data

The temperature in Cody is 62° Fahrenheit and the weather is fair. The temperature in Kirkwall is 9° centigrade and the weather is partly cloudy. The temperature in Muscat is 41° centigrade and the weather is sunny. A barrel of crude oil is selling at $49.80, and $1.24 currently exchanges for £1. This week's geospatial image is the an escarpment near the Algeria-Libya-Niger tripoint.

In the News

Here are a few of this week's top stories.

  • Saudi Arabia Can't Win Its Own Battles (War is Boring)
  • US, Saudi agree arms deals worth almost $110 billion: White House (AFP)
  • US-Saudi arms mega deal looks to counter Iran (AFP)
  • Bahrain: 5 dead as security forces clash with 'outlaws' (al Jazeera)
  • Qatar says state news agency hacked after report cites emir criticising US (BBC News)
  • Qatar to 'prosecute perpetrators' of QNA hacking (al Jazeera)
  • Misrata Militants Are Winning the Air War in Southwest Libya (War is Boring)
  • Can OPEC prevent another oil price collapse? (al Jazeera)
  • Erdogan says EU must decide on Turkey membership (AFP)
  • After Bailing Out Assad, the Russian Military Risks a Syria Quagmire (War is Boring)
  • China backs security services after spy deaths report (AFP)
  • China flexes muscle in spy games against US (AFP)
  • Moody's downgrades China over surging debt fears (al Jazeera)
  • Beijing's new weapon in economic war: Chinese tourists (AFP)
  • China Wants to Sell Attack Helicopters to the World (War is Boring)
  • Russian Hackers Are Using "Tainted" Leaks to Sow Disinformation (Wired)
  • E-mails phished from Russian critic were “tainted” before being leaked (Ars Technica)
  • Florida Republican Who Teamed Up With Guccifer 2.0 Says Secretly Working With Russia Is NBD (Gizmodo)
  • Foreign fighters 'among Philippines militants' (BBC News)
  • Calm Down, Everyone. America is Still Committed to Europe’s Defense (War on the Rocks)
  • Trump budget cut would make UN work 'impossible' (al Jazeera)
  • Trump’s Bigger Fleet Is Dead in the Water (War is Boring)
  • More people infected by recent WCry worm can unlock PCs without paying ransom (Ars Technica)
  • Windows 7, not XP, was the reason last week’s WCry worm spread so widely (Ars Technica)
  • There's new evidence tying WCry ransomware worm to prolific hacking group (Ars Technica)
  • Jury out on North Korea link to ransomware attack (AFP)
  • Exclusive: North Korea's Unit 180, the cyber warfare cell that worries the West (Reuters)
  • How the APT32 Hacking Group Operates (Wired)
  • Think Before You Tweet In the Wake of an Attack (Wired)
  • How Facebook's tentacles reach further than you think (BBC News)
  • Italy's pollution-eating cement (al Jazeera)
  • Turning CO2 into stone in Iceland (al Jazeera)
  • First oil flows from redeveloped Schiehallion field (BBC News)
  • Birmingham University to open campus in the Gulf (BBC News)
  • Saudi Arabia: Ramadan moon sighting continues on Friday (al Jazeera)
  • Ramadan 2017: Why is it so important for Muslims? (al Jazeera)
  • Russian explorers find 'swamp' of Soviet money (BBC News)

    Top Podcasts

    These were my favorite podcasts from the last week.

  • What North Korea wants (War College)
  • Climate and Security: An Interview with Brig. Gen Gerry Galloway and Rear Adm. Dave Titley (SpyCast)
  • Episode 195 - Annual Policy Review - Making it Worthwhile (The Southern Fried Security Podcast)
  • Risky Business #455 -- What a mess (Risky Business)
  • D3E6 - Security Engineering (CyberSecStudy)
  • D4E1 - Communications & Network Security (CyberSecStudy)
  • D4E2 - Communications & Network Security (CyberSecStudy)
  • D4E3 - Communications & Network Security (CyberSecStudy)
  • D4E4 - Communications & Network Security (CyberSecStudy)
  • D4E5 - Communications & Network Security (CyberSecStudy)
  • Archive Notes: Prosthetics and the First World War (The National Archives)
  • Digitising MH 47 the Middlesex military service appeal tribunal (The National Archives)
  • America Prepares for War (The MacArthur Memorial)
  • Event: Passchendaele - A New History (King's College London War Studies Podcast)
  • The Americans S:5 | E:3 The Midges (The Americans Podcast by Slate Magazine)
  • The Americans S:5 | E:4 What's the Matter With Kansas? (The Americans Podcast by Slate Magazine)
  • The Americans S:5 | E:5 Lotus 1-2-3 (The Americans Podcast by Slate Magazine)

    Course Report

    ENG 199: I didn't do any reading.
    PAC 130: Still basically suspended.
    BA 480/CS 406: I listened to six CyberSecStudy CISSP preparation podcasts.
    PI5502: I checked out a bunch of archival materials at the Qatar Digital Archive, and made a game-changing discovery.
    HST 406 (OGHAP): I didn't do anything OGHAP-related last week.

    Quote of the Week
    "Argument, properly understood and subject always to charity, is merely a dialogue in which both parties intend to arrive at the truth, or at least end up closer to it."
    - Joseph Pearce, C.S. Lewis & The Catholic Church
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