Month: January 2022

Retired FBI agent has new theory about who betrayed Anne Frank’s family to Nazis

Vincent Pankoke ID’d Jewish Council member Arnold van den Bergh as most likely culprit

Anne Frank in 1940. A new book, <em>The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation</em>, by Rosemary Sullivan, claims that a retired FBI special agent and a team of investigators have solved the mystery of who betrayed the Frank family to the Nazis.

Enlarge / Anne Frank in 1940. A new book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation, by Rosemary Sullivan, claims that a retired FBI special agent and a team of investigators have solved the mystery of who betrayed the Frank family to the Nazis. (credit: Public domain)

Former FBI special agent Vincent Pankoke was looking forward to a relaxing retirement hanging out at the beach when he left the agency. Instead, he was drawn into solving a famous cold case: the question of who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis, leading to their arrest and deportation to a concentration camp. Only the father, Otto Frank, survived. To find his own answer to that question, Pankoke assembled his own crack team of dogged investigators. They spent five years poring over every bit of pertinent material, setting up an extensive online database, and developing an AI program to help them sift through it all and find new connections.

While admitting that the case is circumstantial and some reasonable doubt remains, Pankoke et al. believe the most likely culprit is a man named Arnold van den Bergh, a local Jewish leader who may have handed over lists of addresses where fellow Jews were hiding to the Nazis in order to protect his own family. The Pankoke team's story was featured in a segment on 60 Minutes earlier this week (see video at end of post), and is covered in detail in a new book by Rosemary Sullivan, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation.

Millions of people have read The Diary of Anne Frank since it was first published posthumously in 1947. It's been translated into 70 languages and inspired a theatrical play and subsequent Oscar-winning 1959 film, featuring Millie Perkins in the title role. Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, but the family fled the country and settled in Amsterdam after Adolf Hitler came to power. They didn't flee quite far enough: the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands began in May1940 and eventually forced the Franks (and many other Jews) into hiding.

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A white supremacist website got hacked, airing all its dirty laundry

Patriot Front says it’s aligned with American heroes. Leaks paint a darker picture.

Patriot Front members spray painting in Springfield, IL.

Enlarge / Patriot Front members spray painting in Springfield, IL. (credit: Unicornriot.ninja)

Chat messages, images, and videos leaked from the server of a white supremicist group called the Patriot Front purport to show its leader and rank-and-file members conspiring in hate crimes, despite their claims that they were a legitimate political organization.

Patriot Front, or PF, formed in the aftermath of the 2017 Unite the Right rally, a demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia where one of the attendees rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, resulting in one death and 35 injuries. PF founder Thomas Rousseau started the group after an image posted online showed the now-convicted killer, James Alex Fields, Jr., posing with members of white supremacist group Vanguard America shortly before the attack. Vanguard America soon dissolved, and Rousseau rebranded it as PF with the goal of hiding any involvement in violent acts.

Since then, PF has strived to present itself as a group of patriots who are aligned with the ideals and values of the founders who defeated the tyranny of the British in the 18th century and paved the way for the United States to be born. In announcing the the formation of PF in 2017, Rousseau wrote:

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Morefine M6 is a phone-sized mini PC with Celeron N5105

The Morefine M6 is a computer with an Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core processor, up to 16GB of RAM and support for up to two SSDs, and support for Windows 11, Ubuntu, or other Linux-based operating systems. It’s also pocket-sized, measuring 155 x 80 x 19mm (6.1″ x 3.1″ x 0.75″) and weighing 195 grams (6.9 ounces), […]

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The Morefine M6 is a computer with an Intel Celeron N5105 quad-core processor, up to 16GB of RAM and support for up to two SSDs, and support for Windows 11, Ubuntu, or other Linux-based operating systems. It’s also pocket-sized, measuring 155 x 80 x 19mm (6.1″ x 3.1″ x 0.75″) and weighing 195 grams (6.9 ounces), making this mini PC about the size of a modern smartphone (or more like two stacked atop one another since it’s a bit on the thick side).

First announced in October, the went up for pre-order through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in January with prices starting at $256 and an expected ship date of April, 2022. But it turns out you can already buy an M6 from AliExpress for $229 and up.

That’s despite the fact that the crowdfunding campaign claims that the higher price tag represents a 30% discount off the expected retail price. Now it looks like Morefine might have been using that figure to make its crowdfunding campaign more attractive.

Anyway, the model available from AliExpress is available in configurations ranging from 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage for $226 to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $352.

At the heart of the little computer is Intel’s Celeron N5105 chip, which is a 10-watt, 4-core, 4-thread processor with base and burst speeds of 2 GHz and 2.9 GHz, respectively plus Intel UHD graphics with 24 execution units and base / burst speeds of 450 Mhz and 800 MHz.

Under the hood the little computer features LPDDR4 2933 MHz memory, M.2 2280 and M.2 2242 slots that can be used for NVMe and SATA storage, respectively, and an Intel AX201 wireless card with support for WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

Ports include:

  • 1 x HDMI 2.0
  • 1 x USB Type-C (full function)
  • 1 x USB Type-C (power input)
  • 3 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A
  • 1 x 3.5mm audio
  • 1 x 2.5 Gbps Ethernet

Morefine notes that the computer can drive up to two 4K/60Hz displays when using the HDMI and USB-C port at the same time, thanks to USB DisplayPort Alt Mode functionality. And since the other USB-C port which is used for power works with any power supply that supports 12V/2A output, not only can you plug the computer into a wall charger, but you may be able to power the system from some USB power banks, enabling on-the-go usage.

The little computer is an actively cooled device with a small fan inside the case. But Morefine says it’s been optimized to balance noise and performance.

Morefine is offering 3 pricing/configuration options for the M6 during crowdfunding:

  • 8GB RAM/256GB NVMe storage for $256 (Super Early Bird price)
  • 8GB RAM/512GB NVMe storage for $298 (Super Early Bird price)
  • 16GB RAM/1TB NVMe storage for $359 (Super Early Bird price)

But if you order from AliExpress, you get more options – for example you can snag a model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for about $290.

via Morefine (Facebook) and AndroidPC.es

This article was originally published January 22, 2022 and most recently updated February 17, 2022. 

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2022 Wagoneer rocks a high-end, vast interior while guzzling hydrocarbons

Luxurious interior and quiet ride combine with disappointing mileage.

The 2022 Wagoneer. Uncooperative weather forced us to rely on Stellantis media images for this review.

Enlarge / The 2022 Wagoneer. Uncooperative weather forced us to rely on Stellantis media images for this review. (credit: Stellantis)

Even as the automotive industry charts a course into a mostly electrified future, internal combustion engines still rule the roost in most segments. This includes the full-size SUV segment dominated in the US by the Chevy Tahoe and Ford Explorer. Although Jeep parent Stellantis forecasts having 40 percent of its sales come from BEVs by the end of the decade, it needs to challenge GM and Ford with its own three-row SUV: the all-new Wagoneer.

Starting at $71,845 for the base model, this is not your father's Jeep Wagoneer. While the grille screams Jeep, that word doesn't actually appear on this massive SUV. Instead "Wagoneer" appears in numerous spots inside and outside. And it is truly massive—the Grand Wagoneer measures a whopping 215 inches (5,461 mm) from head to tail, a couple of inches longer than the competition from GM and Ford.

  • Smooth sailing on smooth pavement. [credit: Stellantis ]

To propel this beast of an SUV, Jeep has gone with a 5.7-liter V8 with eTorque (a 48 volt battery-powered motor generator designed to help with performance and fuel economy) and an eight-speed automatic transmission. Although it uses the same box-on-frame design as the Ram pickup truck, the rear-wheel drive Wagoneer's independent suspension gives it a much smoother ride than the Ram 1500 with its solid rear axle. The upside is nearly 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg) of towing capacity, surprisingly quick acceleration, and smooth rides on the highway. The downside of this combination of power, weight, and size? Disappointing mileage. The EPA estimates 15 mpg in the city, 20 mpg on the highway, and 17 mpg overall. Our week of late fall driving resulted in just 13.5 mpg. (This is a reminder that it's not just EVs that lose range in cold weather.)

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Pirate IPTV Reseller Ordered to Pay TV Companies $164,000 in Damages

A 58-year-old man has been ordered to pay four Swedish TV companies more than $164,000 in damages after being found guilty of selling illegal IPTV service subscriptions. He claimed that a third party was responsible for the sales but a local court found him guilty of copyright infringement offenses, also handing down a four-month suspended prison sentence.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

IPTVDue to the way many pirate IPTV services are structured, top level suppliers often rely on a cascading marketing system whereby subscriptions are sold and resold through a network of so-called resellers.

This type of arrangement allows lower-level individuals to sell subscriptions to their own customer bases while also helping to shield providers from unwanted attention from copyright holders and authorities. Of course, this can also draw attention to the resellers who end up shouldering the blame when investigations get underway.

Investigation in Sweden

In 2018, a representative of several Swedish copyright holders began an investigation into one such individual and in October that year, bought a set-top box from the man that came loaded with a one-year pirate IPTV subscription that boasted “ALL sports and movies”.

According to Aftonbladet (paywall), police raided the man’s house in November 2019 and found IPTV devices that were being sold through a website he had owned since 2009.

A financial investigation revealed that the 58-year-old had sold IPTV boxes and subscriptions on at least 119 occasions during the previous year, earning him up to SEK 300,000 (US$ 32,900). Police also retrieved data from storage and communications devices revealing sales of pirate IPTV subscriptions plus emails and text messages to customers.

Not Me, Man Claims

Two days after the initial house search the listings for IPTV devices were removed from the man’s website and according to Aftonbladet, the man provided details of his activities under questioning. During his court hearing, however, he denied wrongdoing.

The man claimed that the sales had been carried out by a third party in his name. He declined to name the person but the Stockholm District Court wasn’t convinced. He was sentenced for aiding and abetting violations of the Copyright Act and was considered for a four-month prison sentence. However, since the Court found that he was unlikely to re-offend, the sentence was suspended and he was handed a relatively small fine.

Damages to TV Companies

After finding the man guilty of copyright infringement the matter of damages payable to the four large TV companies behind the action remained. Aftonbladet reports that the damages were calculated based on the 119 illegal subscribers that gained unauthorized access to 56 channels for a period of a year. That means that the man must now pay damages of SEK 1.5 million (US$164,460) to the TV companies.

According to a 2021 survey from research company Mediavision, an estimated 225,000 Swedes subscribe to illegal IPTV services but according to the authorities, suppliers and resellers are their main targets – end users are not a priority.

“Customers are not prosecuted, they do not make copyrighted material available, which is one of the requirements to be a violation of copyright law,” says Brita Wallström who works with the police’s National Operational Department (NOA). Instead, Wallström says that for users, it’s a moral issue.

“You give your hard-earned money to someone who does not tax their income or contribute to society in general, so of course you should think before you buy this type of service. There is also a risk that the service will be shut down.”

Other countries around Europe do not adopt the same stance against end-users. In the UK, buyers of pirate IPTV subscriptions have been warned they could be committing fraud and in Italy, users face fines for receiving stolen goods.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

What happens if a space elevator breaks

You don’t want to be under one if the cable snaps.

What happens if a space elevator breaks

Enlarge (credit: TCD | Prod.DB | Apple TV+/ | lamy)

In the first episode of the Foundation series on Apple TV, we see a terrorist try to destroy the space elevator used by the Galactic Empire. This seems like a great chance to talk about the physics of space elevators and to consider what would happen if one exploded. (Hint: It wouldn't be good.)

People like to put stuff beyond the Earth's atmosphere: It allows us to have weather satellites, a space station, GPS satellites, and even the James Webb Space Telescope. But right now, our only option for getting stuff into space is to strap it to a controlled chemical explosion that we usually call "a rocket."

Don't get me wrong, rockets are cool, but they are also expensive and inefficient. Let's consider what it takes to get a 1-kilogram object into low Earth orbit (LEO). This is around 400 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, about where the International Space Station is. In order to get this object into orbit, you need to accomplish two things. First, you need to lift it up 400 kilometers. But if you only increased the object’s altitude, it wouldn't be in space for long. It would just fall back to Earth. So, second, in order to keep this thing in LEO, it has to move—really fast.

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