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The article: Police cracked encryption on a privacy-focused phone service provider and ran fingerprint analysis on photos posted by users.

Like I get that law enforcement does things like this, that’s literally what it exists for, I’m just really upset by the cutesy framing.

Also. Like. Don’t organize shit online or over the phone. Law enforcement has been pressuring tech companies to put backdoors into encrypted services for years, this whole crackdown happened because of a device-level attack, and you never know who’s listening.

Let’s say, theoretically, that you had a computer you’ve set up to gather data on extremists. You create fresh social media accounts, you join facebook groups where everyone’s photo is an old dude in oakleys. You’ve got it running linux and you access the internet through ToR.

You do not log in to your wallet-name bank account to check your balance on that device. You don’t check your facebook friend’s wall through that device. You don’t search the names of anyone you know, look up traffic in your area, or browse pornhub on that device.

If you are sharing photos on that laptop, you do not take those photos from your cellphone and you do not allow your fingerprints, cute socks, desktop, or custom bathroom tile to appear in the background of those photos. You do not let serial numbers appear in those photos, you do not let your dog’s nose or your wedding ring appear in those photos.

Remember the woman who got arrested for torching a cop car while wearing a custom shirt from Etsy?

It took an Etsy review, a LinkedIn profile, a handful of Instagram videos, and a few Google searches for FBI agents to identify a masked woman accused of setting two police cars on fire during recent protests in Philadelphia. The protests took place on May 30 in response to the police killing of George Floyd.

The case, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer, demonstrates how police have been able to use social media and other publicly-available online records to identify protesters from just a few scraps of initial information. According to NBC, the individual charged by the FBI, 33-year-old Lore Elisabeth Blumenthal, now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison if convicted and a fine of up to $250,000.

Have you seen how Bellingcat positively ID’d Riley Williams?

Like. I can’t say that I’m upset that the alt-right and a bunch of people associated with some horrifyingly violent crimes don’t have good opsec, but I’d just like to point out that it’s really, really important to be exceptionally careful what you post, and if you’re doing something that potentially puts you at risk from the cops or internet nazis or whatever then you really need to think HARD about whether you want to be doing this in a way that leaves any footprints at all.

Say that it’s bad that they’ve got power? Criticize the state for hacking into private devices? Stand up and very firmly say with conviction that this should not be allowed and is a major threat to privacy? Sign a petition?

That’s a less actionable direction than I prefer to take.

Yes, I always want to chastise people about opsec.

GOOD ENCRYPTION DOESN’T MEAN FUCK ALL IF YOU’VE GOT SHIT OPSEC.

If you’re selling ketamine on the same device you’re using to post photos of your groceries then anyone who has device-level access is going to have access to that information and if you want to keep your ketamine-selling identity separate from your stilton-buying identity you should use separate devices.

The cops are always going to be trying to crack whatever the next best thing in encryption is, there’s always going to be some company out there slavering at a boot to break through that encryption for them, and when protesters are facing eighty fucking years for torching a fucking cop car I’d really like to make sure they don’t have to stare down the barrel of that kind of a sentence because of something as simple as a review of a tee shirt because the cops can compel Etsy to hand over your account data.

Of fucking course cops are the fucking enemy. That’s the REASON that the cutesy framing bothers me. It makes this vast panopticon look like  “whoopsy-doodle, this silly drug dealer didn’t scrub his metadata” and reassures people that if they don’t do something stupid like this they won’t be caught. The thing is that trusting these devices to be secure was the biggest mistake in this situation.

I constantly have people asking me if there’s a safe alternative to google, if signal is safe, if protonmail is safe, if anything is safe.

No. There are some companies that are more secure and that CANNOT, as a function of their design, produce your data if subpoenaed. That doesn’t mean *anything* if the cops can use your fingerprint to unlock the phone that has all of those services logged in. (Side note: folks, always use a passcode instead of biometrics to unlock your devices)

ONE LAST COMIC BEFORE I SEE THIS MOVIE

The man on the bridge... I knew him...

chemistry: neat, monochromatic notes, late night cups of tea, staying after class to ask the professor questions

mathematics: the sound of pencils scratching on paper, perfectionism at its peak, empty library halls with filtered light

physics: the buzz of excitement before the first lecture of the semester, messy handwriting on chalkboards, the relieved exhaustion after an exam is finished

psychology: flashcards and textbooks strewn across a desk, group study sessions with great music, reading scientific journals to learn more about what’s discussed in lecture

engineering: early morning study sessions with really good coffee, whispered jokes during lecture, putting homework off until the last minute but still managing to do okay

biology: notes full of color and highlights, spending hours watching videos on  KhanAcademy but not really getting any work done, great study snacks

neuroscience: whiteboards full of terms and labelled diagrams, messy hair and tired smiles, a to-do list five miles long

astronomy: late nights with windows thrown open, daydreaming in class, doodles in the margins of textbooks

Journey to the Microcosmos:  Tardigrades: Chubby, Misunderstood, & Not Immortal

Images originally captured by Jam’s Germs

Dreaming of going to space? – Astronaut Victor Glover has you covered. 

In his first video from space, take a look at our home through the window of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” spacecraft. Victor arrived to the International Space Station alongside his fellow Crew-1 astronauts on Nov. 16, 2020. 

This is his first trip to space and his first mission on the orbital lab! 

Follow his Instagram account HERE to stay up-to-date on station life and for more behind-the-scenes content like this. 

“Microbe names are weird and wonderful to dive into because they can tell us so much about both the organism and also the person who named them.”

Journey to the Microcosmos: How to Name a Microbe

Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs

Character Ideas:

Character creation masterpost

Character Alignment Chart

More character alignment descriptions

Muslim Character questions

Characters with magical powers

Building a new character advice

How to create a character for an online or tabletop RPG (also a good guide on creating characters in general)

Royalty/nobility TV Tropes page

Basic character profile

OC masterpost

Random character generators - (1), (2), (3), (4)

D&D Character Building Tool

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How clothing affects a character’s personality

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Body and hair types guide

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Naming Help:

Amazing site with an endless amount of naming resources

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Masterlist of names of all types - including but not limited to ancient/old world names, Celtic, African, Northern European, Southern and Central American Native names, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Polynesian, and more

Another name masterlist

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Yet another names masterlist

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How to write multiple viewpoints/juggling a main cast of more than 4 to 6 characters

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When it’s cheap to kill off a character

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