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Your company is sheltering some of the worst individuals who work to destroy privacy and security.
From the link that you posted, the first thing it asks for is your full name. This is the same when attempting to signup for the VPN service. If paying with crypto, the process tries to steal even more info from you such as zip code and country. No other normal privacy or VPN services ask for a full name or zip code.
The "freedom policy" on the site talks about how the company won't spy on anyone or do anything to compromise privacy, then goes on to talk about "think of the children!"
Minors might subscribe to privacy services. Vp.net would harm minors more than a child predator due to the false sense of security and privacy.
The business lies to everyone saying it is secure because of SGX, which has new vulnerabilities pop up weekly.
>> thanks to a 146,000-year-old skull unearthed in Harbin, China, in mysterious circumstances more than 90 years ago
Collaboration with outside scholars plus China willingness to slowly grant access to their rich expansive history is still a century or two behind the same amount of study put into the Roman empire. Imo, time will hold the Chinese empire and its role in human history in the same western revered status of the Roman empire. Having had only a fraction of aeral bombing damage of west Europe has left much more of the historical record intact.
As a child I had a deep lasting fascination with the the Iron Curtin and countries behind it. Particularly China. I have no idea why; my parents didn't understand why I wanted to learn Chinese as a young child in the late 80's-90s. I couldn't say why either, I just did. But that wasn't going to happen in 1980's Texas. I never did learn; also never lost my wonder of the place. Probably fueled by my fantastical projection of historical tales and stories (ok, Shaolin kung fu temples too) onto a country that only opened its doors to the rest of the world 45-50 years ago.
FWIW, my fantastical projections mostly lived up to my historical and daoist fascinations after spending time there. Mostly in Shaanxi province (Xi'an's city wall is something to behold -- after recovering from the absolutely terrifying taxi ride from the airport) + a long days hike on Huashan to middle/east/south peaks followed by a very cold night between the South/West Peak to catch the morning views. Took the north peak cable car down because...stairs. Then a brief visit to Henan province where I met the only other "westerns" during the entire trip (the couple were the only other ones to walk up to the english language historical plaques)
I really wish we could get over this west vs east thing and progress humanity as you know, humans, or maybe earthlings.
It means the damage done by the massive amounts of aeral bombings destroyed a large amount of historical records, cultural heritage sites & artifacts, libraries, national and academic archives etc. It wasn't only Germany that lost these things. But since you mention it, I wonder how much of the looted artifacts by Nazi soldiers got destroyed in the leveling of Germany in WWII. It's a miracle that da Vinci's Last Supper survived the the bombings and only because someone cared enough to try and put sandbags up, many of the other walls of the church & convent did not
I know the Chinese state destroyed their own culture that they didn't like. That happens everywhere, every culture, it happens to this day (see Buddhas of Bamiyan) -- it's a fact of life. The Longmen Grottoes comes to mind as it was a place I visited. The scale vs bombings is simply not the same, Europe also had its own cultural heritage self destruction over the centuries.
But that is not what I am talking about. That self-inflicted + looting level destruction is not the destruction that comes with carpet bombing cities. Bombs can ruin/degrade future archeological digs sites. An example from personal experience: The Xi'an city wall is the longest & oldest continuous city wall that is still a part of the city. There are older city walls (that I also visited) but they are in sections and are mostly combined archaeological/cultural tourist sites (I mean no one is riding bikes on them), some from time some from bombings and some had parts rebuilt but none (that I am aware of) stand up to the walls of Xi'an. One would get far more historical data from the well preserved Xi'an than from the ones destroyed in bombings.
Technically I don’t remember if bikes are allowed but there are plenty of joggers.
Of course being 1000 years older they are somewhat more primitive than the walls in Xi’an.
Anyway you are somehow still implying that the majority of all European towns and cities that had ancient buildings were destroyed during WW2? Which is rather silly.
Had you ever been to Spain, France, Italy, or even England?
There was alot of general looting and destruction over the centuries. Much of the Roman forum was supposedly somewhat intact well into the late middle ages. Same of course applies to China which wasn’t exactly the stablest region historically…
> Anyway you are somehow still implying that the majority of all European towns and cities that had ancient buildings were destroyed during WW2? Which is rather silly.
I absolutely did not imply that, maybe try re-reading while assuming good faith. Just as I will assume in good faith you are in no way implying that nothing important was destroyed unless it was in Germany. (do correct me if I'm am wrong, and that you are implying that)
Besides, what of the things we don't know that we don't know got destroyed? how many of the people that did know were also lost? To think simply because it's not there now or may have been forgotten or could have yet to been discovered does not mean it wasn't ever there even if it is not now - and thats my point. How much was lost? We can't know, but to think very little was is, as you may say, silly.
> Had you ever been to Spain, France, Italy, or even England?
...Yes, and I generally travel solo which absolutely does not involve shopping beyond food. It is focused on experiences, cultures, customs, and really really old things; I have not a single selfie at any of these places and have been doing it for over a decade now
Roman architecture and sites being some of my favorite. The Abraham religions' related historical places (particularly all variety of churches and grounds) and mountains/historic trails tied for a close second. In another life, maybe I'd be a sociocultural anthropologist with a focus in the Roman Republic. For now being a hobby will have to do, but it does share time with my interest in many other threads of history. I know it's probably not what you were expecting given my previous post. There was and still is too much friction with how China keeps such a tight control on both its current desired perception and how it wants its history told. That doesn't make it any less interesting, besides I find it personally amusing that my interest are connected by the silk road.
> Roman wall of Lugo
As said, that I am aware of. Thank you for that link, TIL, and I have a new place to visit. I have a thing for old walls if you couldn't tell. On a slight pedantic note, the Xi'an wall is almost 9 miles (14 km) vs Lugo at little over a mile (2km)
Almost certainly, Havana Syndrome. Caused by a (microwave-, possibly) weapon that can lead to permanent neurological symptoms. And the US is not the only country that has it but is expanding a lot of energy into making the media talk about it less. CHUPPL did a great investigation on it if you're interested
Your linked article admits it might not even be real.
>A 2023 review article written by Bartholomew and Baloh concluded that Havana syndrome was erroneously classified as a novel entity due to a moral panic based on the fear of foreign entities such as the Russians or Cubans attacking the U.S, the over-interpretation of data, misconceptions about psychogenic illness, and coverage and leaks by the media. The authors stated that the U.S. intelligence community had concluded that Havana syndrome is "a socially constructed catch-all category for an array of pre-existing health conditions, responses to environmental factors, and stress reactions that were lumped under a single label".[8][9]
>A 2024 review article by Connolly et al., surveying multiple peer-reviewed studies, concluded that the cause of AHIs is still unknown. The review discussed several possible causes, including mass psychogenic illness and head trauma, but did not endorse a specific cause.[6]
That "linked article" is Wikipedia. The second link is an actual investigation which goes into good detail debunking and investigating the source behind claims that it's a social psychogenic illness
Those microwave attacks by spies are known since at least the sixties if you care to read some CIA leaker books. What's new is that those attacks became public, even if they didn't name and shame the attackers yet, if Chinese or Russians.
In a purely technical ponderance, I wonder if it's possible to design a stun gun that would inflict death by either increasing the current and voltage, or if a specific signal could be sent to the heart that would induce an arrhythmia. Basically the opposite of a defibrillator. A biotech maintenance guy told me that if you receive a shock when your heart is in a critical phase of the complex, it can cause it to shut off. Maybe a heart attack stun gun could attempt to read the cardiac waves and deliver the shock at the worst possible point.
(I have to emphasize that no homicidal motive drew me towards wondering that. It's just the borderless free thought that causes random ideas to float through my mind. If I can think of it, certainly the people who design covert weapons also have)
Totally possible. This is why stun guns and tasers are referred to as "less lethal" by some instead of non-lethal. Lots of electricity will occasionally stop someone's heart, and they die.
Was he referring to commotio cordis? There's a window of tens of milliseconds where a blow to the chest can cause sudden cardiac death, due to the ventricular rhythm being disrupted rather than any mechanical damage to the heart.
i have no idea if this is possible, but i have to point out that really smart people pondering out loud is heard/read by many people who may have much sinister intentions than the nerd simply pondering out loud.
1984 has become a playbook. be careful what ideas you share. the public internet is not a casual conversation among friends.
For sure, though those really sinister people in high places tend to be extremely smart too. By the time the public develops some technology that could be of great interest to those people, those people have likely already developed something along those lines.
To give an obvious example (not necessarily involving sinister people): the NSA invented public key cryptography long before Diffie and Hellman.
There are weapons that can permanently paralyze an entire city. Not paralyze infrastructure or traffic... but permanent incurable paralysis of all the people in any area exposed to the weapon. That is still a 20th century technology.
That's a hell of a claim, and unless you're talking about some kind of chemical spray or seeding some weaponized microbe across the city, you could at least post a link or name that explains what it is.
I'll gladly jump into the gray with you. Or hopefully that changes.
My dear old friend, now on the yonder side, showed me research that showed the intravenous injection of nothing more than mineral oil consistently causing a form of cancer that I can't remember the type for.
He had a low level position in the NSA via the Navy prior and was persistently interesting, to me. Foremost an exceptionally fine person who I sorely miss. I remember him being fervently berated by a few intellectual (IT inclined) adversaries for attempting to explain more than a few things that came out in the Snowden docs almost a decade later.
Personally, I've no doubt cancer can be quickly, efficiently induced, albeit probably not with a mineral oil squirtgun. I've heard of things I wouldn't discuss here.
I've always wondered why we've not experienced the evil terrorist version of David Hahn, say from a guy in a major food production facility. The bright side of surveillance I guess.
I may be a worthless, irrelevant moron, but I think for anyone with a bit of intelligence and a big imagination, the world is a very frightening place in this regard. I try not to think of it, but many scenarios have occurred to me and I'm often surprised, quite pleasantly so, that so far as I know, only to me, for now, and indefinitely I hope.
You should talk to a radiation oncologist. It is extremely hard to target a person with directed ionizing radiation at any distance in a way that would significantly increase the risk of cancer without causing very obvious surface effects.
It's a remarkable coincidence that Hugo Chavez and Kim Jong Il died very young within two years of each other (2011 and 2013). Yes, the level of medical care in Venezuela and North Korea is poor, but these were dictators who had access to the best doctors in their own countries as well as imported experts from China, Cuba, etc.
