otters_raft

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/41042525

It's a widely known problem with roots in urban legend: Devices with motherboards failing in the early 2000s with a sudden pop, a gruesome spill, or sometimes a burst of flames. And it was allegedly all due to one guy who didn't copy a stolen formula correctly.

The "capacitor plague" of the early 2000s was real and fairly widespread among devices, even if the majority of those devices didn't go bad at the same time or even in the same year. The story of this widespread failure, passing between industry insider stories and media reports, had a specific culprit, but also a broad narrative about the shift from Japanese to Taiwanese manufacturers and about outsourcing generally.

The Asianometry channel on YouTube recently dug into the "capacitor plague" in a video that asks, "What happened to the capacitors in 2002?" and comes to some informed, broad, and layered answers. It explains the specifics of what's happening inside both a working capacitor and the faulty models, relays the reporting on the companies blamed and affected, and, crucially, puts the plague in the wider context of hotter chips, complex supply chains, counterfeits, and, sure, some industrial sabotage.

"We will never know what exactly happened, but let's try," the host says at the start. It is recommended you follow along.

It's a widely known problem with roots in urban legend: Devices with motherboards failing in the early 2000s with a sudden pop, a gruesome spill, or sometimes a burst of flames. And it was allegedly all due to one guy who didn't copy a stolen formula correctly.

The "capacitor plague" of the early 2000s was real and fairly widespread among devices, even if the majority of those devices didn't go bad at the same time or even in the same year. The story of this widespread failure, passing between industry insider stories and media reports, had a specific culprit, but also a broad narrative about the shift from Japanese to Taiwanese manufacturers and about outsourcing generally.

The Asianometry channel on YouTube recently dug into the "capacitor plague" in a video that asks, "What happened to the capacitors in 2002?" and comes to some informed, broad, and layered answers. It explains the specifics of what's happening inside both a working capacitor and the faulty models, relays the reporting on the companies blamed and affected, and, crucially, puts the plague in the wider context of hotter chips, complex supply chains, counterfeits, and, sure, some industrial sabotage.

"We will never know what exactly happened, but let's try," the host says at the start. It is recommended you follow along.

Authors:

• Paul T. Mitchell | Professor of Defence Studies, Canadian Forces College

• Barbara J. Falk | Professor, Department of Defence Studies, Royal Military College of Canada

Scenario planning isn’t about predicting the future — it’s about highlighting potential futures and the demands they’re likely to present to our current way of life.

Along two axes, we can chart the degree of American commitment to anti-Canadian animus, versus Canadian commitment to its own survival. This mix generates four possible outcomes.

In the first quadrant, where the commitment of both states is low, the result is “business as usual.” Canada continues to commercially serve the U.S market, while the U.S. extracts the best possible trade deals from Canada.

In the second quadrant, the commitment of both states is high. Here, the U.S. would go beyond tariffs and target the ability of Canadian banks to do business with American ones, and pressure SWIFT to cut off Canadian access to international banking.

A Canadian unwillingness to “bend the knee” to the U.S. creates a status not unlike that faced by Cuba, where the Americans have maintained a comprehensive trade embargo since 1958. In this scenario, Canada becomes internationally isolated and impoverished due to its resistance to American demands, seeking allies abroad while stemming capital flight through draconian measures.

In the third quadrant, Canada’s resilience is low and American animus is high. At best, the Canadian situation would be analogous to that of Belarus’s relationship with Russia.

Russia is Belarus’s largest economic and political partner; they share a long water and land boundary. In some respects, Belarus still has a seat at the United Nations, but minuscule manoeuvrability on foreign or defence policy.

Canada becoming a 51st state is highly unlikely. The electoral consequences of admitting 40 million voters much more progressive than most Americans would skew electoral outcomes unsuited to Republican tastes.

Of course, this is accepting the fantasy that Canadians would be admitted with equal rights to “real Americans.” The effort to dispossess Gazans of their rights and land is illustrative here.

Finally, there are complicated issues at stake, such as differences over political rights, gun control, universal health care and state-supported education. A more probable outcome would involve Canada becoming a type of vassal state, not unlike Belarus.

In the last quadrant, Canadian resistance is high, but the U.S. is willing to tolerate at least a modicum of independence. Here Finland’s relationship with the former Soviet Union is relevant.

Canada would be permitted the ability to maintain independent diplomatic relations. But it would have to tread carefully by never entering alliances or agreements that would upset the Americans. Any thought of Canada joining the European Union would be dead.

These four models don’t capture all possible outcomes.

They don’t take into consideration how military force might be deployed against Canada.

Outright invasion is unlikely. But “freedom of navigation” operations in the Northwest Passage are highly likely.

In the context of a new push to secure North America’s Arctic security, the seizure of one or more islands in the Arctic Archipelago is also imaginable.

Initially I ended up quoting most of the article, so I removed some of it

It can often seem as if phone and online scammers are beyond accountability. Often operating from abroad, where illegal activity is either tolerated or ignored, the organized criminal groups behind the scams that annoy and frustrate so many of us, have reaped billions in stolen gains from some of society's most vulnerable.

But there is a small army of good guys fighting back.

Three of the world's most popular "scambusters" — who have a combined following of more than 10 million across their social media platforms — joined forces with CBC's Marketplace to create a fraud-fighting centre, using their unique skills to infiltrate criminal networks overseas, reroute 62 active scam call centres back to their operation and intercept fraudulent calls to stop scammers from accessing money from Canadian victims.

As for why Marketplace is involved in this:

Marketplace has helped bring some of those scams to light, through travels to Mumbai, exposing where many of the overseas criminal operations are based. The team has also taken hidden cameras inside tech support scam centre operations to reveal what's happening and the victims scammers usually target. In 2022, the team exposed some of the Canadians with alleged financial connections to the overseas criminal operations running scam call centres.

So I'm looking forward to this crossover episode 😄

The episode should be available on this playlist within a day or so, considering the last one was uploaded 6 days ago: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeyJPHbRnGaZmzkCwy3-8ykUZm_8B9kKM

CBC Gem is also free with ads, relatively cheap without, if you want to support the CBC that way

It can often seem as if phone and online scammers are beyond accountability. Often operating from abroad, where illegal activity is either tolerated or ignored, the organized criminal groups behind the scams that annoy and frustrate so many of us, have reaped billions in stolen gains from some of society's most vulnerable.

But there is a small army of good guys fighting back.

Three of the world's most popular "scambusters" — who have a combined following of more than 10 million across their social media platforms — joined forces with CBC's Marketplace to create a fraud-fighting centre, using their unique skills to infiltrate criminal networks overseas, reroute 62 active scam call centres back to their operation and intercept fraudulent calls to stop scammers from accessing money from Canadian victims.

As for why Marketplace is involved in this:

Marketplace has helped bring some of those scams to light, through travels to Mumbai, exposing where many of the overseas criminal operations are based. The team has also taken hidden cameras inside tech support scam centre operations to reveal what's happening and the victims scammers usually target. In 2022, the team exposed some of the Canadians with alleged financial connections to the overseas criminal operations running scam call centres.

So I'm looking forward to this crossover episode 😄

The episode is available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeyJPHbRnGaZmzkCwy3-8ykUZm_8B9kKM

CBC Gem is also free with ads, relatively cheap without, if you want to support the CBC that way

For the first time in its history, Canada has unveiled a comprehensive Africa strategy, marking a significant milestone in the Canadian approach to engaging with the African continent.

Launched on March 6 by Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, the parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister, the strategy represents a crucial step towards a more coherent and intentional relationship with Africa.

Authors:

• David J Hornsby | Professor of International Affairs and the Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President (Academic), Carleton University
• David Black | Professor of International Relations and Development, Dalhousie University
• Edward Akuffo | Associate Professor and Department Head, Political Science, University of The Fraser Valley
• Thomas Kwasi Tieku | Professor of Politics and International Relations, King's University College, Western University