Althouse: At the Friday Night Cafe...

May 22, 2020

At the Friday Night Cafe...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

52 comments:

narciso said...: What do you think of this trailer

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m-54SEUIYec; 5/22/20, 8:30 PM
dreams said...: "A public visitation for Phyllis George, the former Kentucky first lady, Miss America and pioneering female sportscaster, will be held on Saturday in Versailles—though attendees will be asked to observe restrictions under the COVID-19 pandemic, her family announced Thursday.

A small private service will be held on Monday, May 25 at 3 p.m. It will also be available for live viewing at KET.org.

George, 70, died May 14 in Lexington from complications from a rare blood disorder."

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2020/05/21/public-visitation-planned-phyllis-george-saturday-versailles/5231402002/?fbclid=IwAR2JTKlYvUA7QS7TwOtGDMKGwv-ZCA7nU-8NtqdEWM--f6o_7mUM_uQbi2w; 5/22/20, 8:37 PM
dreams said...: Here's a good article, I recommend it though I don't agree with his drive-by attack of conservatives for supposedly their slow response to the virus.

'It’s a common refrain: We have bubble-wrapped the world. Americans in particular are obsessed with “safety.” The simplest way to get any law passed in America, be it a zoning law or a sweeping reform of the intelligence community, is to invoke a simple sentence: “A kid might get hurt.”"

https://ammo.com/articles/bubble-wrapped-americans-how-us-became-obsessed-with-physical-emotional-safety?fbclid=IwAR07D1veY_QP-9uSR8uu8SmedoOxJGC-ySCyTNDnN_lo2gh6F-x77pVFBAI; 5/22/20, 8:45 PM
Big Mike said...: I see someone blew up and burned down a church in Mississippi that had been suing to reopen. Graffiti painted on the building suggests deliberate arson. This is going way too far.; 5/22/20, 8:46 PM
John henry said...: Boo-Kafe, Boo-kafe, Boo-kafe. YAAAAY!!!

I finished "A Knife for the Juggler" by Manning Coles. Pretty good, as are all of their books. certainly not great literature but a great read. I have a couple more cued up but am giving them a rest for a week or so.

I don't remember how I ran across it. Pehaps Kim du Toit recommended it, perhaps I saw it somewhere else. Last weekend I started reading Three Sips of Gin: Dominating the battlespace with Rhodesia's Selous Scouts. In the 60s & 70s, Rhodesia was engaged (Now Zimbabwe) was engaged in a fierce guerilla war internally and was shunned by the international community.

Tim Bax was born in Tanzania, raised in England and Canada, and at about 20 emigrated to South Africa. Almost by accident he wound up in the Rhodesian army. He did well, became an officer then was selected to join the Selous Scouts. The Selous were a secret special operations group that used unconventional tactics. Kind of like Delta Force if Delta Force was unconstrained by law and was more badass than they are. Assuming that the Scouts were as badass as Bax makes them out to be. Some of the chapters read like they should start "Now this ain't no shit..."

Bax has a great writing style and the book is interesting throughout.

So what's everyone else reading?

John Henry; 5/22/20, 8:59 PM
Michael K said...: Hertz is about to file for bankruptcy. I wonder if big corporations will reconsider their Democrat support?; 5/22/20, 8:59 PM
Lucien said...: After that first post (and for other reasons) allow me to recommend movie reviews by “The Critical Drinker”. Usually found on YouTube.; 5/22/20, 9:01 PM
narciso said...: Dejavu

https://quodverum.com/2020/5/the-9-11-plotters-the-world-forgot.html; 5/22/20, 9:02 PM
Oso Negro said...: 43,000,000 unemployed. Headed for 50,000,000. Good times.; 5/22/20, 9:05 PM
John henry said...: I also just started reading Glenn Curtiss' "The Curtiss Aviation Book by Glenn Curtiss.

This is the history of aviation up to about 1938. Glenn Curtiss was a pioneer of aviation and a major aircraft manufacturer.

Just getting into the first chapter but he, Alexander Graham Bell and some others have just formed a group to experiment with aviation. So far, in 1908, they have built 3 airplanes.

I don't know how much of the writing Curtiss did and how much was ghosted but the book's writing style is very good.

Curtiss is a pretty interesting guy.

No mention of the Wright brothers yet. They seem to have been fairly bitter rivals.

Only place the names crop up is in the intro, not by Curtiss. Then it is only to mention that when the Aero Club of the US started issuing pilot licenses, they did so in alphabetical order. Curtiss wound up with License #1, the wrights with License #5&6.

John Henry; 5/22/20, 9:09 PM
JackWayne said...: Looper 2020.; 5/22/20, 9:09 PM
Narr said...: Finally got to the reopened public library and snagged Simon Winchester's "The Man Who Loved China." Joseph Needham, the eccentric Englishman who completely overturned centuries of ignorance of Chinese scientific, engineering, and technological leadership in the distant past--not least among the Chinese.

Already engrossing, like Winchester's best.

Narr
Maybe I'll stay up late tonight, between book and blog; 5/22/20, 9:10 PM
narciso said...: The selous scouts were the unit stephen hatfill was briefly involved with in the 70s. It was the pretext meryl nass and susan rosenberg had to point him out to nick kristof; 5/22/20, 9:16 PM
narciso said...: An interesting offering lawrence wright he wrote the looming tower, but he also wrote the movie 'the siege' which was about a multiple strike in nyc in 98, wrote a novel about an outbreak out of indonesia; 5/22/20, 9:25 PM
narciso said...: His name is will jordan and hes a novelist in his own right

https://mobile.twitter.com/TheCriticalDri2/status/1263786156078006272; 5/22/20, 9:29 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: IT seems for some reason PBS isn't ugly anymore.; 5/22/20, 9:31 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I am quite touched by what they are doing on Danial Tigers Neighborhood and hope you all are too.; 5/22/20, 9:33 PM
John henry said...: I've read a number of James McCullough's biographies. I've enjoyed them all.

Last year I read his bio of the Wright Brothers and found it pretty good until the end.

After Wilbur died in 1912, McCullough seems to think there is nothing more to say. Orvil lived another 36 years. From McCullough one gets the impression that he just put his feet up and did nothing during that time.

It also felt like McCullough thought "Well, they wanted 500 pages, this is 500 pages so I'll just stop now.

Good bio spoiled by the end.

John Henry; 5/22/20, 9:35 PM
Matthew Heintz said...: My father was the head librarian at Kenyon College for 20 years. I haven't read a book for 20 years.Balance is a tedious task.; 5/22/20, 9:35 PM
narciso said...: Heres his first one

https://www.amazon.com/Redemption-Ryan-Drake-Will-Jordan-ebook/dp/B0080K3W5W; 5/22/20, 9:50 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: So what's everyone else reading?

John Henry

_The Land of the Blessed Virgin: Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia_, W. Somerset Maugham (1905).

Maugham thought that the Reconquista was disaster. He found the dry, hot climate of Spain a vast improvement over the weather of England.
It is always entertaining to read good travel writing from a century or more ago.; 5/22/20, 9:51 PM
Michael K said...: No mention of the Wright brothers yet. They seem to have been fairly bitter rivals.

We had some of this discussion at Chicagoboyz. The Wright brothers had trouble with an engine that was light and produced enough power. Hence Curtis-Wright was the engine builder. They got into trouble in WWII and ended up with a scandal but built thousands of engines.

From 1941 to 1943, the Curtiss Aeronautical plant in Lockland, Ohio produced aircraft engines under wartime contract destined for installation in U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft.[10][11] Wright officials at Lockland insisted on high engine production levels, resulting in a significant percentage of engines that did not meet Army Air Forces (AAF) inspection standards. These defective engines were nevertheless approved by inspectors for shipment and installation in U.S. military aircraft. After investigation, it was later revealed that Wright company officials at Lockland had conspired with civilian technical advisers and Army inspection officers to approve substandard or defective aircraft engines for military use.[10][11] Army Air Forces technical adviser Charles W. Bond was dismissed by the Army in 1943 for "gross irregularities in inspection procedure."

That story may have been the source for the play "All my sons" by Arthur Miller.

Interestingly, the Curtis Wright engines were called "Wright" such as the B 29 and DC 7 engine the Wright Cyclone.; 5/22/20, 9:52 PM
narciso said...: Curtiss is the one who built opalocca in thr moorish style.; 5/22/20, 10:01 PM
narciso said...: Around the time of that books publication, curtiss wright was involved in exporting weapons to south america, it even became a subject of a major supreme court case.; 5/22/20, 10:02 PM
heyboom said...: My wife spoke to her coworker today who contracted the Wuhan virus and was intubated for 12 days. She got sick around the third week of March. High risk candidate at age 64, asthmatic, overweight and diabetic. She managed to survive and is resting at home and eager to come back to work.

She said she was treated with Hydroxychloroquine for two days but her condition got worse. She was then given a 10-day regimen of Remdisivir, which cured her. She lost a lot of weight and is still weak, but is grateful for a second chance at life.

Dr. K., if you're still on this cafe I want to give you credit for first bringing up the drug Remdisivir as a treatment for this virus. You did it early in the pandemic and you got it right.; 5/22/20, 10:13 PM
narciso said...: The verminous froads
https://mobile.twitter.com/Techno_Fog/status/1263840670957154304; 5/22/20, 10:15 PM
stephen cooper said...: It took him a while, but Donald Trump finally called out the martial law governors who deemed abortion clinics essential but tried, in the evil of their hearts, to persuade us that "houses of worship" are not equally essential.

You all are going to miss him after his second term is over, I think.; 5/22/20, 10:21 PM
William said...: I re-watched The Fly. In a perverse way, it's a woman's picture. The gross things are there to dramatize a woman's horror about all the icky stuff that goes into sex and reproduction. It's kind of a reverse Princess and the Frog. She kisses the Prince and he becomes a fly. In one scene, Jeff Goldblum. whose face has become blunt and ugly, vomits a white fluid on a donut before eating it. Geena Davis is moved by his plight and rushes in to embrace him. The uses of enchantment as Bruno Bettelheim would say, but later his grossness becomes too much for her to bear when he tries to introduce a threesome into their domestic arrangement.....Spiderman is more of a masculine take on the same predicament. Peter Parker uses his spurting white fluid not to gross his girlfriend out but rather to fight crime and injustice in this wicked world.; 5/22/20, 10:32 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: Blogger Michael K said...
Hertz is about to file for bankruptcy. I wonder if big corporations will reconsider their Democrat support?

Probably, who wouldn't want more of that sweet four trillion dollar deficit, 25% unemployment, negative GDP and bat-shit crazy pharmaceutical advice.; 5/22/20, 10:46 PM
Sebastian said...: "Hertz is about to file for bankruptcy"

Marginal business.

"43,000,000 unemployed."

Marginal people.; 5/22/20, 10:52 PM
Inga said...: A hair stylist in Springfield, Missouri, exposed as many as 91 people to coronavirus after working at a salon for eight days while symptomatic, health officials said Friday.

The exposed include 84 Great Clips customers and, potentially, seven coworkers, said Clay Goddard, director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. The condition of the stylist, who was not identified, was not revealed.

So far, no other positive case connected to the stylist has been confirmed, but the county is nonetheless facing "a glut of cases," Goddard said.

Those exposed at the salon would be offered tests.; 5/22/20, 10:58 PM
Yancey Ward said...: "After that first post (and for other reasons) allow me to recommend movie reviews by “The Critical Drinker”. Usually found on YouTube."

I have posted links to more than a few of his reviews in these threads in the last year or so.
Simply the best movie/television/computer game reviewer working today- in depth, and just hilariously funny. And, for me, the best thing is that I can back test his reviews- his taste and thoughts about what makes a movie/show good or bad is highly aligned with my own.

The only downside is that his focus is mostly sci-fi/fantasy stuff, but he does it with such style.; 5/22/20, 11:08 PM
n.n said...: There are now two choices for Planned Pathogen: the HCQ+AZ cocktail and the day after Ivermectin pill. They just need to trace the immigration, migration, sanitation, business or pleasure transmission vector of SARS-CoV-2 to nursing homes, churches, hospitals, and communities.; 5/23/20, 12:44 AM
StephenFearby said...: The Times (of London) May 23, 2020

'One of France's richest men has admitted that as a teenager, he hacked the mobile telephone of the late President Mitterrand [without a FISA warrant!] on behalf of the state security service.

Xavier Niel, 52, a tech entrepreneur and co-owner of Le Monde newspaper, also said that he spied on the computers at the Renault motor group for the internal intelligence service, known at the time as the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DST). The service, now called the DGSI, wanted to learn about hacking techniques, which were new at the time, he said.

In a television interview with the Parliamentary Channel, Mr Niel was expanding on his unruly teenage years "as an example for kids today to show how you can do silly things and come good".

The entrepreneur, who disrupted the cosy group of French phone and internet providers when he founded the Iliad Free group, said the security service, which is run by the interior ministry, called him in after he was caught cracking the decoder boxes of Canal Plus, the French pay channel, in the mid-1980s. Aged 17 and newly dropped out of his studies in suburban Paris, he had been making pocket money by selling the codes.

"They said to us: 'That's great, the hacking. It's not very serious but you're doing something interesting. You and your mates are managing to get inside computer sites that contain sensitive data. Carry on, but instead of bothering you, why not create a group of young people who will help us understand this ecosystem better'," he said. "At the time, they didn't have any of these systems. They were just starting up." Mr Niel and his friends took up the offer. "I wasn't in the secret service. I was a sort of part-time correspondent who would tell them regularly what we're finding, what we were seeing, in our world of hacking," he said. In 1986 he had "hacked the database of French mobile phones, including that of President Mitterrand," he said. Another target was Robert Pandraud, junior minister for security in the government, led then by Jacques Chirac..'

"...[Niel] gave up his hacking work for the DST at 20 and moved on to make money running erotic sites on the Minitel, a state-run French precursor of the internet..."

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/i-have-spied-for-france-admits-billionaire-boss-of-le-monde-30f8rgwk3

The link may or may not work for you.; 5/23/20, 1:19 AM
gilbar said...: Whitmer extends Michigan's stay-at-home order until June 12

remember way back when it was 'close down, for two weeks; to flatten the curve'?
NOW, it's: "If we’re going to lower the chance of a second wave"

We HAVE TO suspend civil liberties, and ALL free enterprise; because we want to lower the chance of some tenuous thing; 5/23/20, 4:12 AM
narciso said...: Did they use zinc in the treatment its critical as a catalyst.; 5/23/20, 4:22 AM
Big Mike said...: @John Henry, you might enjoy A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham. His exploits as a scout and gunfighter would be unbelievable if they weren’t completely documented. Then Burnham went off to Africa, became a scout for the British Army, and had even more unbelievable exploits.; 5/23/20, 5:36 AM
Big Mike said...: @Inga, is there a point where it penetrates that silly little thing you jokingly call a brain that it is not your job, nor the job of Democrat governors, to decide whether the risks involved in attending church are too great? What an arrogant creature you are to think that you have the right to deprive others of their rights.; 5/23/20, 5:42 AM
stevew said...: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/22/metro/doubts-raised-about-value-states-testing-tracing-plan/

The "flatten the curve" objective is turning into "stopping the spread of the virus. The government of MA will now allow high school graduations so long as social distancing rules are followed, and they absolutely prohibit hand shakes and hugs.; 5/23/20, 5:53 AM
Jersey Fled said...: Inga:

You left out part of the story.

"The salon was closed for sanitizing and deep cleaning, (the salon owner) said. Goddard (the County Health Director) said he was pleased with the location's response and that it's "safe to go there" now."

Sooo ... 91 people exposed. None yet known to be infected. One dumb person who worked while they were sick. Could have been at Walmart.

Is anyone else here disgusted by the sick pleasure Inga seems to get posting stuff like this?; 5/23/20, 6:36 AM
Danno said...: Jersey Fled, maybe Inga recommends closing all WalMarts, Targets, Costcos, and grocery stores to stop the spread.; 5/23/20, 7:07 AM
iowan2 said...: I read Inga's comment (link, she couldn't generate a cogent comment) and saw the number, but never did find meaningful context. All it lacked was scare quotes to make it really good propaganda; 5/23/20, 7:24 AM
Darkisland said...: Big mike

Sounds interesting just downloaded the sample.

Thanks

John Henry; 5/23/20, 7:26 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: The excitement yesterday was that FBI Dir Wray has ordered his equivalent of Internal Affairs to look into abuse by FBI agents in regards to Spygate. The suggestion has been that he was under a lot of pressure by AG Barr, who has been clean8ng up his own front, having delegated USA Jensen to investigate te Mueller investigation, etc. The motion to dismiss the charges in the Flynn case is hopefully just te first fruits of that. Hopefully they can get rid of the remaining Mueller prosecutors. My memory is that Bendon Van Grack was yanked from all of his pending cases at the same tie he was removed from the Flynn case. And that he had gone on to run the FARA unit at the DOJ - not somewhere you want a political fanatic like him.

Back to Dir Wray. I think that the corruption at the top of the FBI had gotten too well exposed for him to completely continue to run interference. He was a poor choice for FBI Director - he has shown himself too dedicated to protecting the reputed the organization, as opposed to cleaning it up. Not what is needed there. Right now, I expect him out right after the election, if Trump wins. He has vowed to fire or discipline any of his employees who violated laws or FBI rules I the #Resistance. That is akin to closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. The black hats are mostly gone, like Comey, McCabe, Strzok and Page. Even some with gray hats like Priestap. Besides, I think that USA Jensen was poking his nose in across the street at the FBI, as evidenced by the handwritten Priestap memo that suddenly appeared.

Back a couple years ago, I had thought that Comey might have been mostly the hapless figurehead, and not guilty of much more, kinda like Mueller. Who was manipulated by his underlings, liked DD McCabe who had almost literally been bought and paid for by the Clintons ($700k campaign contribution to his wife by Clinton bagman Terry McAwful). And, indeed, the Clinton exoneration in June, 2016 very well could have been engineered by McCabe as a result. But Comey appears at least to have been the designated fall guy for the entire scandal by the Obama Administration, as suggested by the “By The Book” Inauguration Day CYA email.; 5/23/20, 7:44 AM
Michael K said...: Dr. K., if you're still on this cafe I want to give you credit for first bringing up the drug Remdisivir as a treatment for this virus. You did it early in the pandemic and you got it right.

I'm glad it worked for your friend. I am less optimistic about it now but we still have to see. I have downloaded and am reading an article in the journal "Cell" on the current status of the virus. It's in the May 28 issue. Complicated but I think it shows this virus was engineered but I don't know if as a weapon or just manipulated for study.

I think HCQ works early, if it is going to and remdesivir later if it is going to. The cytokine storm is characteristic and will need other treatment, maybe with Interferon 1 and 6. When I was a medical student interferon was just discovered. The world is a lot more complicated now.; 5/23/20, 7:48 AM
alan markus said...: Inga is being a good minion in service to "the cause".

Georgia, Florida and Texas have all reopened without experiencing disaster — so far, so good — but that doesn’t mean there won’t be “spikes” or localized outbreaks that cause public-health concerns. If your local area’s current level of infection is low, a couple dozen new cases can produce a troubling “spike” in the statistical trend, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in imminent danger. The liberal media have spent weeks trying to promote the narrative that corpses will soon be stacking up like cordwood in rural America (e.g., “The coronavirus invades Trump country”), but most of this is just statistical voodoo: “Look at this outbreak at a North Dakota meat-processing plant! ICU overcrowding in Montgomery, Alabama! See? We told you so!” If you examine such stories with a skeptical eye, however, you find that anomalous events are being dishonestly portrayed as examples of a “trend” that doesn’t actually exist.; 5/23/20, 8:01 AM
Jersey Fled said...: Just a little more context re: Inga's link/comment.

According to rt.live, the rate of transmission of the virus for the state of Missouri as of May 20th was 0.87. This means that, on average, each infected person will spread the disease to 0.87 other persons. Another way of saying this is that less than one person will be infected out of all people that that person is in contact with, both directly and indirectly, in all settings over the full time that that that person is contagious. According to NY data cited by Governor Cuomo recently, that person is most likely someone in the infected person's own household.

No deplorable is advocating for sick people to go to work. Sometimes we just need to have a little perspective.; 5/23/20, 8:09 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: The funny thing is that we have known the general outline of Obamagate for almost three years. Or at least a pretty good outline of what went on. It is just amazing that it has taken so long to formally come out. Almost three years ago, a selected sample of the Strzok/Page emails suddenly appeared. Both of them left the Mueller investigation right after that. He was later fired (along with Comey and McCade) and she left to I believe join (surprise, surprise) Lawfare. There were a lot of redactions, but the texts selected appear ypto have been carefully selected, or curated, esp in retrospect. They strongly suggested the corruption behind the whitewashing of Crooked Hillary over her use of her illegal private email server. They also showed the maneuvering and fraud used to set up the Crossfire Hurricane investigation of Trump. Strzok was the one who went to Europe to formally receive the material that was used to formally predicate the investigation (the Misfyp/Downer push/pull of Popadopolis orchestrated by Stefen Halper under a defense intelligence agency contract - that amazingly wasn’t corroborated until just this week). We also knew from those text messages that Gen Flynn had been set up, Strzok and Page visited Flynn on a pretext, that the 302s had been edited by Strzok and Page, and not filed until approved by McCabe. Also that Strzok had tried to bury the Clinton emails found on the Carlos Danger laptop, in order to run out the clock on the election, and that he had lied to Comey about actually having done more than sampled a tiny fraction of the emails found, before telling him that there was nothing there.; 5/23/20, 8:57 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: (Continued)

The amazing thing is that many of us have known much of the plot since the release of those text messages, and it has taken three years to corroborate the details. One theory that I have voiced here before is that there are two different groups of people. And organizations in our Intelligence Community: Military and Civilian. On the civilian side, you have the CIA, DOJ NSD, FBI CD, elements of the State Department, etc. DNI Clapper under Obama was one of theirs. There has always been this split, or at least since the end of WW II, when the CIA was formed out of elements of, I believe, the OSS. I think that it may have been 2012 when the Obama Administration had corrupted the civilian side to cheat to the extent that they were spying more and more blatantly on American citizens for purely political reasons. Much of this seems to involve them working to get their Iran deal signed and enacted. They very much appear to have been surveilling a number of members of Congress, as well as the press. Illegal searching of the vast NSA databases, mostly by contractors, using the FBI’s FISA 702 interface steadily increased throughout Obama’s second term, until upwards of 100 queries a day were being made. It was blatant. It was political. And it was very wrong.

Military intelligence fought this. There is a suggestion that they were willing to work with most Republicans, but that Trump was their favorite. And they supported him strongly. Flynn was one of their fair haired boys, maybe a knight or a bishop. He pissed off Obama and got himself fired for telling him that his policies on al Quadra, ISIL, and Iran were idiotic. And he was right. I am thinking that Strzok, whose father was apparently CIA, and was supposedly dual hatted (in any case, was FBI CD DAD) with them, was a knight tasked to take out Flynn, a bishop on the chess table.

The other aspect is that there are strong indications that Q is tied to the military side of this conflict. And that military intelligence was behind getting the Strzok/Page text messages out into the public. Moreover, they seized control of the NSA (it is now apparently formally under military control), reducing the probability that the FBI could again abuse their access to it at nearly the egregious level that they had built up to by spring of 2016.

As a note on Q - he said early on that they had the “coms”. I think that included the Strzok/Page text messages. To show this though they showed a discussion on a closed Star Wars discussion group from the days that Comey got fired and then Mueller appointed, of the maneuvering to get that done. It very much looks like the principals, including McCabe, plotting this on an extremely obscure back channel. Interestingly, Rosenstein wasn’t a member, but was guaranteed to be under their control. If true, this is scary stuff.; 5/23/20, 8:58 AM
Paco Wové said...: "We HAVE TO suspend civil liberties, and ALL free enterprise; because we want to lower the chance of some tenuous thing"

Don't go disobeying Governor Mommie Dearest, Mr. G.; 5/23/20, 9:14 AM
Birkel said...: When the food riots start, I hope Inga gets her just desserts.; 5/23/20, 12:43 PM
FullMoon said...: StephenFearby said...

The Times (of London) May 23, 2020

'One of France's richest men has admitted that as a teenager, he hacked the mobile telephone of the late President Mitterrand [without a FISA warrant!] on behalf of the state security service.

Xavier Niel, 52, a tech entrepreneur and co-owner of Le Monde newspaper, also said that he spied on the computers at the Renault motor group for the internal intelligence service, known at the time as the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance (DST). The service, now called the DGSI, wanted to learn about hacking techniques, which were new at the time, he said.

In a television interview with the Parliamentary Channel, Mr Niel was expanding on his unruly teenage years "as an example for kids today to show how you can do silly things and come good".

Oh, sure, kind of second rate compared to this Obama lauded tech genius. Wonder what he is up to these days.
Clock Genius to Flee Country After Meeting Obama ...; 5/23/20, 2:28 PM