HMM: Microsoft President Brad Smith warns that U.S. is repeating a key Sept. 11 mistake in digital era.

Tightly controlled silos of information about cyberattacks persist among U.S. government agencies, Smith writes in a new update to his book, Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age, originally published two years ago.

“It’s impossible to avoid the grave conclusion that the sharing of cybersecurity threat intelligence today is even more challenged than it was for terrorist threats before 9/11,” writes Smith, with co-author Carol Ann Browne, in one of three new chapters in the paperback edition of the book, released Tuesday.

One anecdote illustrates the challenge from Microsoft’s perspective:

“Repeatedly in late 2020 we found people in federal agencies asking us about information in other parts of the government, because it was easier to get it from us than directly from other federal employees. A culture of holding information tightly is so ingrained in the government that even its contracts with us forbid us from letting one part of the government know that another part has been attacked.”

The next big war will be a war of digital systems and ours aren’t nearly hard enough.

WELL, GOOD: New Study Shows Breakthrough Infection Risk Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be.

THAT’S A PROBLEM: Mars Missions Can Only Last 4 Years Due to Radiation.

As the world once again sets its sights on the moon, it can seem like continuing on to Mars is the next logical step. Some space travel fans like Elon Musk have talked excitedly about seeding Maritan colonies within the next decade, but a new study from UCLA could put a damper on such plans. According to the latest data, humans could only safely spend four years on Mars before receiving an unsafe dose of radiation.

The researchers set out to answer two key questions for a hypothetical crewed Mars mission: Is it possible to safely send astronauts to Mars? And could the timing of a mission reduce the amount of radiation astronauts encounter? The answer to both of those questions is “yes,” but there are caveats.

While it’s possible for astronauts to live and work safely on Mars, this is not a long-term proposition. The team calculated that it is possible to shield a spacecraft sufficiently to protect the crew on the way to and from Mars, but that can only do so much. Cosmic radiation on the red planet is a real threat. Unlike Earth, Mars lacks a magnetic field to deflect these deadly rays. Even with shielding and medical monitoring, the clock is ticking from the moment the crew sets foot on Mars.

Mars colonies will likely have to be underground but I suspect Elon Musk knows that and is preparing well in advance.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: California Is Probably Too Stupid to Recall the Tyrant Newsom. “From the outside, it may seem absurd that the thoroughly beleaguered Biden could help Newsom right now. It might be in any other state. California, however, marches to the beat of a drummer that the rest of the country will never meet. Things are so nonsensical there that Kamala Harris was able to rise to power.”

UNBREAKABLE: New Studies Find Evidence Of ‘Superhuman’ Immunity To COVID-19 In Some Individuals. “Over the past several months, a series of studies has found that some people mount an extraordinarily powerful immune response against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. Their bodies produce very high levels of antibodies, but they also make antibodies with great flexibility — likely capable of fighting off the coronavirus variants circulating in the world but also likely effective against variants that may emerge in the future.”

THIS IS CNN: Dr. Fauci Gets a Complete Pass Following Bombshell Report on Wuhan Research.

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: ‘Inexcusable Bureaucratic Red Tape’: Left-wing Senator Excoriates Biden for Delay in Rescuing Americans Behind in Afghanistan.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS ON AN EXTENDED SABBATICAL: Mark Zuckerberg may have lied to Congress about who can see WhatsApp messages.

In 2016, WhatsApp announced it was using end-to-end encryption for all communications on its platform, covering everything from messages to file transfers. The use of end-to-end encryption is intended to offer users a level of privacy and security, but it seems that may not be true for the messaging app.

In a report by ProPublica, it is claimed WhatsApp employs more than 1,000 contract workers in Austin, Texas, Dublin, and Singapore, specifically for examining “millions of pieces of users’ content.” The workers “use special Facebook software” to look through messages and content that have been flagged by WhatsApp users, and have been screened by AI systems.

The reviews occur in spite of an assurance that appears in the app before users send messages for the first time, claiming “No one outside of this chat, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to them.”

In 2018 testimony to the U.S. Senate, Facebook CEO Macrk Zuckerberg claimed “We don’t see any of the content in WhatsApp.”

Don’t use any Facebook services.

HE’S A PROTECTED MEMBER OF AMERICA’S NOBLE CLASS: Why Does Fauci Still Have a Job?

THE BIG LIE: Biden’s Withdrawal From Reality. “Don’t be surprised if Biden is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The brazenness is stunning. This is not your typical political spin, it is propaganda. It is the willful effort to corrupt our perception of reality. Say it loud and long enough and people will believe it. If they don’t, get Twitter mobs and cancel culture to silence and punish them. That is increasingly becoming the Democrats’ playbook.”

ROBERT SPENCER: Communist China Is Taking Advantage of Biden’s Weakness on the World Stage. “It’s hard not to see China’s new belligerence toward Taiwan as yet another core element of the Biden legacy: When America projects weakness to the world, malign actors take advantage. Nor is this even anything new; the ChiComs began acting aggressively toward Taiwan just days after Old Joe took office.”

#NOMEANTWEETS: Goldman Cuts Its US GDP Forecast For The Third Time In The Past Month. “It got so bad that the NY Fed on Friday unexpectedly announced that it was suspending its GDP Nowcast tracker, as the underlying numbers had gotten so bad volatile, the central bank’s economists were ashamed to use them for analysis as the product would have been ugly for the Biden admin.”

RESTORING RESPECT FOR THE OFFICE: College Students Hurl Profanity in Unison at Joe Biden. “A profane three-word chant directed at the president was bellowed during several NCAA football games Saturday, from North Carolina and Virginia to Alabama and Texas.”

SHUT UP, THEY EXPLAINED: YouTube Suppressing Any Mention of Ivermectin. “YouTube is even yanking videos critical of using Ivermectin to treat Flu Manchu.”

Related: Federal government using social-media giants to censor Americans.

SO NOW WHO’S GOING TO TELL JOE WHAT TO DO? Jill Biden Is Taking a Break From Being Co-President. Here’s What She’ll Be Doing.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: California Bleeding: More Business Have Already Fled This Year Than All of 2020.

Plus:

• National Archives declares our national archives to be harmful
• Whatever it is Jeb Bush wants you to do, don’t
• Tesla quality control is awful, Tesla fan rejoices anyway

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

BOOM? Rose McGowan to Hillary Clinton: ‘I’ve been in a hotel room with your husband and here comes the bomb.’

THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS VOTING FOR THE SAME PARTY AGAIN AND AGAIN WHILE EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT: It Looks Like Biden’s Presidency Will Be as Disastrous for Black America as Obama’s Was.

THERE’S NO REASON TO BELIEVE HER ON THIS, BUT THAT SHE FEELS THE NEED TO CLAIM IT IS A BIG TELL: Nikole Hannah-Jones Says Her Privately Funded School Program Won’t Teach Critical Race Theory.

CUE THE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN: Afghan Evacuee Complains About the Quality of Meals He is Getting for Free at Fort Bliss.

HOSTAGE CRISIS: Biden State Dept Says It Has No Resources To Rescue Trapped Flights In Afghanistan, No ‘Reliable Means’ To Confirm Details.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Why in the World Is the Government Disrupting the Distribution of Monoclonal Antibodies Now?

WHOSE TWEET IS IT, ANYWAY? Facebook or Twitter posts can now be quietly modified by the government under new surveillance laws.

A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security.

The bill updates the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. In essence, it allows law-enforcement agencies or authorities (such as the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) to modify, add, copy or delete data when investigating serious online crimes.

The Human Rights Law Centre says the bill has insufficient safeguards for free speech and press freedom. Digital Rights Watch calls it a “warrantless surveillance regime” and notes the government ignored the recommendations of a bipartisan parliamentary committee to limit the powers granted by the new law.

It’s Orwellian, is what it is.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: History Will Not Be Kind to the Biden Train Wreck Presidency. “Here in the modern media and academic malpractice era, Democrats have much of the havoc they wreak upon America rewritten, especially by historians. I’m getting the feeling that the drooling puppet in the White House might be such an overwhelming disaster that even the left-leaning hacks in academia won’t have the desire or skill to cover for him.”