Amazon Sidewalk is a new service that connects Amazon speakers and other devices into an open wireless network, and y'all are automatically opted in. In other words, some of my neighbors will soon be inadvertantly letting their other neighbors use their internet connections, with all the lost privacy and acquired liability this entails. Android Authority has instructions on how to opt out.
Amazon’s grand design for Sidewalk is simple. The free service allows the company to easily broaden the coverage and connectivity of smart home devices beyond a Wi-Fi network. “For example, if your Echo device loses its Wi-Fi connection, Sidewalk can simplify reconnecting to your router,” it explains. “For select Ring devices, you can continue to receive motion alerts from your Ring Security Cams, and customer support can still troubleshoot problems even if your devices lose their Wi-Fi connection.” While Amazon does provide documentation (h/t Ars Technica) on how it uses the service, the encryption it employs, and user privacy, it’s likely many users aren’t too thrilled by the concept.
National Covid variants given official names to avoid confusion | Boing Boing
The World Health Organization announced easy-to-say names for Covid variants. Though official strain names already existed, they are highly technical and media invariably used vague and sensational terms such as “British variant” to describe them instead—and now there are at least two separate variants confusingly referred to as “Indian”. The “variants of concern”:
Covid Alpha: first documented in UK
Covid Beta: first documented in South Africa
Covid Gamma: first documented in Brazil
Covid Delta: first documented in India
83% of Japanese oppose forthcoming summer Olympics | Boing Boing
A poll found that 83% of Japanese people did not want the Olympic games to proceed there this summer, with 40% wanting them outright canceled and 43% calling for another postponement.
Those figures are up from 35 percent who backed cancellation in a survey by the paper a month ago, and 34 percent who wanted a further delay. Only 14 percent support holding the Games this summer as scheduled, down from 28 percent, according to the poll of 1,527 replies from 3,191 telephone calls. If the Games do go ahead, 59 percent of respondents said they want no spectators, with 33 percent backing lower fan numbers and three percent a regular capacity Games.Foreign visitors are already banned from the games, but there will still be thousands of athletes, coaches, support staff and other officials—and plenty of local fans traveling to catch the action. Most Japanese—71.5%—are already displeased with the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic there. More than 11,000 have died, in a country of 126m, since the outbreak began.
Legions of the Parthian Wars
Parthia had always been a thorn in the side of the Roman Empire. The initial campaigns by Crassus and Mark Antony were total failures, and although Trajan and Syrian governor Cassius made some progress in the 2nd century CE, both failed to eliminate the Parthians as a viable threat. The last big clash came in 198 CE under Septimius Severus, which ultimately achieved nothing but left both empires weakened.
