New Look at Recommendation Algorithms

 I wondered why China was cracking down on Recommendation algorithms and there was not much going on in the USA about the same thing.  If you have questions about what these are and how they work, see: https://towardsdatascience.com/introduction-to-recommender-systems-6c66cf15ada

The Chinese may be right to look more closely at these.  We are allowing tech companies to write recommendations for all of us on what movies, books, text, et al and we don't have any oversight of these products.  We have enough problems with deep fakes, biased search results, and manipulating where users fall on pages of searches that we don't need any more help with recommendations (or lack of recommendations) based on these tech giants deciding what books we would read, what articles are the most authoritative, or what sites are best for certain types of things like recommendations for Supreme Court Justices.  

We need some research, some of which will appear in my next book called Government Approved Opinion - about governments manipulating public opinion.  There needs to be much more.  

Open Border good for China

 

Anyone trying to figure out why an open border is good for China should read this report.  Besides the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country from all over the world, Fentanyl is coming faster than ever before, and is the reason given for many of the new deaths from opiods.     Today, the U.S.-China Commission released a new staff issue brief entitled, “Illicit Fentanyl from China: An Evolving Global Operation." Key Findings China remains the primary country of origin for illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States: In 2019, China fulfilled a pledge to the United States and placed all forms of fentanyl and its analogues on a regulatory schedule. Nevertheless, illicit fentanyl from China remains widely available in the United States. Chinese traffickers are using various strategies to circumvent new regulations, including focusing on chemical precursors, relocating some manufacturing to India, rerouting precursor shipments through third countries, and leveraging marketing schemes to avoid detection. China’s weak supervision and regulation of its chemical and pharmaceutical industry also enable evasion and circumvention. Since China’s government scheduled fentanyl, the amount of finished fentanyl shipped directly from China to the United States has declined, while the amount shipped from Mexico has increased: The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) assesses Chinese traffickers have shifted from primarily manufacturing finished fentanyl to primarily exporting precursors to Mexican cartels, who manufacture illicit fentanyl and deliver the final product. U.S. law enforcement has seen a growing trend of Chinese nationals, in both Mexico and the United States, working with Mexican cartels. As Chinese suppliers coordinate more with international partners, the DEA is concerned that fentanyl production is becoming increasingly global and more difficult to track and control. Chinese brokers are laundering Mexican drug money through China’s financial system: Chinese money launderers are using financial technology, mobile banking apps, and social media to evade authorities. Cooperation between the United States and China remains limited: U.S. law enforcement agencies have established working groups, conducted high-level meetings, and shared information with their Chinese counterparts, which has led to the dismantling of a few illicit fentanyl networks. At the same time, U.S. authorities are reporting that cooperation remains limited on the ground. The Chinese government has cooperated less with U.S. authorities on criminal and money laundering investigations, conducting joint operations, and U.S. requests for inspections and law enforcement assistance.    Read the full report here.

Thank you,  Jameson Cunningham Congressional Affairs and Communications Director U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission 202-624-1496

Verizon's Router

 I bought the 3100 router and started to configure it for IPv6.  It turns out that it isn't configurable as an IPv6 device, so I called them and asked why that is.  "Why is that important?" the tech says.  From Google:  Key benefits to IPv6 include:

No more NAT (Network Address Translation)

Auto-configuration.

No more private address collisions.

Better multicast routing.

Simpler header format.

Simplified, more efficient routing.

True quality of service (QoS), also called "flow labeling"

Built-in authentication and privacy support.

---- More important to me is that I buy a router I should have been given for free, since I have a gig internet package, but Verizon wants me to pay extra so I can get that service.  That makes no sense.  Then, I get the router which is an IPV6 device, but was never configured that way by the people who sold it to me.  What is going on with these people at Verizon?