--- /dev/null
+---
+postid: 040
+title: Europe at the end of 2015: a chronicle
+excerpt: A second piece of synthetic journalism.
+date: December 19, 2015
+author: Lucian Mogoșanu
+tags: asphalt
+---
+
+**Mid-September, 2015** --
+ [Croatia overwhelmed by flood of migrants, EU calls summit][1]:
+
+> [...]
+>
+> Croatia said it may have to use the army to stop thousands of migrants
+> criss-crossing the Western Balkans in their quest for sanctuary in the
+> wealthy 28-nation bloc. It shuttled some to reception centers near
+> Zagreb, but many simply slipped the net of overwhelmed authorities and
+> set off for the Slovenian border, just 30 kilometers (19 miles) from
+> the Croatian capital.
+
+**Beginning of October, 2015** --
+ [David Cameron condemns Russia's strikes in Syria][2]:
+
+> "It's absolutely clear that Russia is not discriminating between Isil
+> [IS] and the legitimate Syrian opposition groups and, as a result,
+> they are actually backing the butcher Assad and helping him," he said.
+>
+> "Rightly, they [Russia] have been condemned across the Arab world for
+> what they have done and I think the Arab world is right about that.
+>
+> "But we should be using this moment now to try to force forward a
+> comprehensive plan to bring political transition in Syria because that
+> is the answer for bringing peace to the region."
+
+
+**End of October, 2015** --
+ [Swiss parliament shifts to right in vote dominated by migrant fears][3]:
+
+> The shift to the right comes as surging numbers of migrants and
+> refugees moving through Europe have heightened the focus on the issue
+> in Switzerland, even though the wealthy Alpine nation is yet to be
+> significantly affected by the crisis.
+>
+> "We have to make Europe less attractive and send a signal that we
+> cannot give asylum here, not even to refugees of war," SVP chief Toni
+> Brunner told AFP.
+
+**November 13, 2015** --
+ [Paris under siege: More than 150 dead in terror attacks][4]:
+
+> Terrorists killed at least 153 people and wounded scores of other
+> innocents in coordinated shooting and suicide-bomb attacks in Paris
+> late Friday that included a mass execution at a rock concert,
+> authorities said.
+>
+> [...]
+>
+> In an address broadcast around the world, Hollande said of the
+> massacre: "It's a horror."
+>
+> "Two decisions will be taken: A state of emergency will be decreed,
+> which means certain places will be closed, traffic may be banned and
+> searches may also take place throughout the Paris region," he
+> said. [...]
+>
+> "The second decision I have taken is to close the borders. We must
+> guarantee that no one can come in to commit any act. And at the same
+> time, those who may have committed crimes can be arrested if they try
+> to leave the country," he said.
+>
+> [...]
+>
+> At the White House, President Obama said, "This is not just an attack
+> on Paris or the people of France, it was an attack on humanity." [...]
+>
+> "This is a heartbreaking situation. Obviously, those of us in the
+> United States know what it's like. We’ve gone through these kinds of
+> episodes ourselves. Whenever these kinds of attacks happened, we've
+> always been able to count on the French people to stand with us."
+
+**November 24, 2015** --
+ [Turkey shoots down Russian warplane on Syria border][5]
+
+**November 24, 2015** --
+ [Terrorism Response Puts Belgium in a Harsh Light][6]:
+
+> "What was I supposed to do about them? It is not my job to track
+> possible terrorists," Ms. Schepmans said in an interview. That, she
+> added, "is the responsibility of the federal police."
+>
+> The federal police service, for its part, reports to the interior
+> minister, Jan Jambon, a Flemish nationalist who has doubts about
+> whether Belgium -- divided among French, Dutch and German speakers --
+> should even exist as a single state.
+
+**November 25, 2015** --
+ [France's Hollande heads to Russia hoping for Syria breakthrough][7]
+
+**November 26, 2015** --
+ [Migration crisis 'could push UK out of Europe': As immigration hits record 336,000, a stark warning from the Foreign Secretary][8]:
+
+> [...]
+>
+> Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said voters will choose to leave the
+> EU unless there was a clampdown on migrant benefits. The number of
+> people coming into the country was 'not sustainable' and was putting
+> too much pressure on schools and hospitals, he said.
+>
+> Yesterday's figures also revealed:
+>
+> * A wave of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria is driving up the
+> number of Europeans coming here;
+> * 265,000 EU citizens arrived in a year – the equivalent to a city the
+> size of Derby – and net migration of EU citizens increased by 42,000
+> to 180,000;
+> * The migration crisis which engulfed Europe over the summer led to a
+> sharp rise in the number of refugees seeking asylum in the UK.
+
+**November 26, 2015** --
+ [Moldova: 13 detained on suspicion of plot to attack cities][9]
+
+**November 27, 2015** --
+ [Romania OKs Visit by Russian Official Under EU Travel Ban][10]
+
+**December 1, 2015** --
+ [Romania foils bomb plot on National Day parade][11]:
+
+> Romania's anti-terror force foiled on Tuesday a bomb plot on National
+> Day parade in central county of Covasna, after raiding the home of a
+> suspected extremist, seizing a home-made explosive device.
+>
+> A "well-known member of the extension in Romania" of the
+> extremist-nationalist structure "64 Counties Youth Movement" of
+> Hungary intended to detonate in public a home-made explosive device,
+> at Targu Secuiesc of the Covasna County, during the National Day
+> ceremony, informed a release by the Directorate for Investigating
+> Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT).
+
+**December 6, 2015** --
+ [France's Far-Right National Front Gains in Regional Elections][12]:
+
+> [...]
+>
+> Appearing before her supporters, Ms. Le Pen called it a "magnificent"
+> result, saying the National Front was "the only party that can
+> reconquer the lost territories of the republic, of Calais, where we
+> won 50 percent of the votes, or of the suburbs." What Ms. Le Pen
+> described as "lost territories" were the French city of Calais on the
+> English Channel, which now has more than 4,000 migrants on its
+> doorstep hoping to reach Britain, and the suburbs of major French
+> cities, many of which have sizable Muslim populations.
+>
+> The National Front "is the only party to defend an authentically
+> French republic," she added, and to be dedicated to "the preservation
+> of our way of life."
+>
+> [...]
+>
+> "The old themes and proposals of the National Front have been reprised
+> in the political debate, not only on the right but also, more and
+> more, on the left and in particular in the voice of the executive
+> branch, and that legitimizes the National Front," he said.
+>
+> Both Mr. Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls have evoked more
+> nationalistic themes recently and taken a particularly hard line on
+> security issues. Although the government is leans left, its leaders
+> have begun to discuss extending the state of emergency, which gives
+> law enforcement extraordinary powers, beyond its current duration of
+> three months.
+
+**December 12, 2015** --
+ [Paris climate deal: nearly 200 nations sign in end of fossil fuel era][13]
+
+**December 12, 2015** --
+ [James Hansen, father of climate change awareness, calls Paris talks 'a fraud'][14]
+
+**December 13, 2015** --
+ [National Front Party in France Is Dealt a Setback in Regional Elections][15]:
+
+> A week after the National Front came out on top in the first round of
+> voting, France sent a far different message, with the party losing
+> even in a northern region where its charismatic leader, Marine Le Pen,
+> had been widely expected to win.
+>
+> The projections also showed the National Front being defeated in
+> another of its strongest areas, the south around Nice, where Ms. Le
+> Pen's 26-year-old niece, Marion Maréchal Le Pen, was on the ballot.
+>
+> [...]
+>
+> Ms. Le Pen made her presidential ambitions for 2017 clear: "This
+> distinction will be what is fundamentally at stake in the huge
+> political decision of the presidential elections."
+
+**December 18, 2015** --
+ [European shares fall as Fed rally loses momentum][16]:
+
+> European shares fell in volatile trade on Friday as the Fed-inspired
+> rally of the previous session ran out of steam and investors took
+> profits ahead of the holiday season.
+>
+> The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 1.2 percent by 1540
+> GMT, after gaining 1.3 percent on Thursday, while the euro zone's
+> blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index weakened 1.7 percent.
+>
+> European stocks had rallied on Thursday as investors took the
+> U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates as a sign of
+> confidence in the world's biggest economy.
+>
+> "Yesterday's rally was a bit overdone and investors are taking profit
+> as they prepare for the holiday. Lower oil prices this morning and
+> weaker U.S. markets gave the pretext to sell," said Stephan Rieke,
+> senior economist at BHF-BANK in Frankfurt.
+
+[1]: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/17/us-europe-migrants-idUSKCN0RD0P420150917
+[2]: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34432440
+[3]: http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/swiss-parliament-shifts-to-right-in-vote-dominated-by-migrant-fears
+[4]: http://nypost.com/2015/11/13/gun-battle-breaks-out-at-paris-restaurant-explosion-rocks-bar-near-stadium/
+[5]: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34907983
+[6]: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/world/europe/its-capital-frozen-belgium-surveys-past-failures-and-squabbles.html
+[7]: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/25/us-mideast-crisis-russia-idUSKBN0TE0RE20151125
+[8]: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3335651/Migration-crisis-push-UK-Europe-immigration-hits-record-336-000-stark-warning-Foreign-Secretary.html
+[9]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/moldova-13-detained-suspected-of-wanting-to-attack-city/2015/11/26/34e74528-9437-11e5-befa-99ceebcbb272_story.html
+[10]: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/romania-oks-visit-russian-official-eu-travel-ban-35442519
+[11]: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-12/02/c_134874642.htm
+[12]: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/world/europe/frances-far-right-national-front-gains-in-regional-elections.html
+[13]: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/paris-climate-deal-200-nations-sign-finish-fossil-fuel-era
+[14]: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/james-hansen-climate-change-paris-talks-fraud
+[15]: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/14/world/europe/france-regional-elections-national-front.html
+[16]: http://www.reuters.com/article/europe-stocks-idUSL8N14732E20151218
--- /dev/null
+---
+postid: 041
+title: Cloud software is unreliable [ii]
+excerpt: Or, the cloud is unreliable.
+date: January 16, 2016
+author: Lucian Mogoșanu
+tags: cogitatio
+---
+
+A couple of years ago I was arguing that
+[cloud software is unreliable][part-i], and moreover, that the concept
+itself is fundamentally flawed. The ifs and whys of this discussion
+were, and probably still are, debatable, but the fact is that despite my
+argument, people use the so-called "cloud" a lot more than they've been
+using it two years ago. Not only that, but they've come to *rely* on it,
+or *depend* on it, if you will; I myself am using it more and more under
+social pressure from friends, co-workers and so on, despite the fact
+that distributed[^1], albeit less convenient alternatives do exist. So a
+rather good question is, how much we're actually trading for that
+convenience?
+
+This migration towards service-as-a-stuff is happening despite recent
+events such as the Sony PSN hacks, the infamous iCloud scandal, numerous
+database leaks from corporations and so on and so forth. These are all
+apparently small and forgettable[^2], and I've already foreseen some of
+them in [the previous part][part-i]; but since they're not the only
+ones, it doesn't hurt to extend the thought experiment with more (more
+gruesome, painful and whatnot) scenarios.
+
+**Scenario 4**: The enemy of the state. I've been avoiding this in the
+previous scenarios, more for the sake of not giving in to paranoia if
+anything. However, it has become clear that today's states, even the
+ones in the so-called "[civilized][political-correctness]" Western
+world, *especially* those in the Western world, will gladly smash your
+head[^3] to ensure their own security. In that moment, the state[^4]
+will have complete control over your data, including the power to forge
+stuff. Because in the logic of "preventing" "terrorism", no one's really
+thought of actually preventing terrorism.
+
+**Scenario 5**: The great bankrupcy. Corporations are people, and
+people, believe it or not, very often die of natural causes. So what
+will happen with your company's data when they discontinue Google? This
+will send giant ripples all through the Interwebs, and while you're
+drowning, somewhere on the sides you'll see ol' Richard Stallman chewing
+his foot and saying "I told you so".
+
+**Scenario 6**: The Second Library of Alexandria (as coined in
+[the archive™][the-archive]). This is pretty much the endgame scenario
+for the Internet, the most improbable of all, given the latter's
+resilience. However, "resilience" is still billions of miles away from
+"immunity", which makes the thought behind this scenario at least
+interesting, if not of any practical use. It's safe to say that in such
+an improbable event, [your worth to humanity][worth-humanity] will be
+much higher if you have control over your very own data.
+
+Or, as the old saying goes, "don't put all your eggs in one basket".
+
+[^1]: Not necessarily the same as "decentralized". For example Bitcoin
+is distributed in the sense that storage exists, and control flow
+occurs, independently on each node; moreover, it is decentralized in the
+sense that updates to the storage are performed by everyone according to
+a clearly defined set of validation rules. It is however centralized in
+the sense that it depends on a single conceptual data store to be
+synchronized between the nodes. That would arguably be considered a
+point of failure, if it weren't such a great feature.
+
+[^2]: Although I would argue the opposite. I wouldn't trust my personal
+data to entities with a track record of well-known exploited
+vulnerabilities. Wait, what do you mean "it's the hackers' fault"? I
+don't care if it is, it's *my* personal data.
+
+[^3]: To quote Orwell's 1984:
+
+ > There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of
+ > life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always -- do
+ > not forget this, Winston -- always there will be the intoxication
+ > of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing
+ > subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of
+ > victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is
+ > helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot
+ > stamping on a human face -- forever.
+
+ I don't know about the novel's other predictions, but this one has
+ definitely become true. In the name of democracy and all.
+
+[^4]: So that we're clear, "the state" includes "tech companies" such as
+Google, Facebook and Amazon. Might as well call them "the department of
+ads", "the department of more ads" and "the department of selling you
+ads via drones". Hey, whaddaya know, they've come up with a politically
+correct word for "propaganda"!
+
+[part-i]: /posts/y00/00e-cloud-software-is-unreliable.html
+[political-correctness]: /posts/y01/02e-on-the-inherent-harmfulness-of-political-correctness.html
+[the-archive]: /posts/y01/038-the-archive.html
+[worth-humanity]: /posts/y01/032-your-worth-to-humanity.html
projects / thetarpit.git / commitdiff