Here is a disappointing algorithm result from the Brave Browser. First type “hottest” in the search and notice they show white women with long straight hair as the result.

If you do a similar search on Bing, it’s pretty obvious where Brave is getting their results. It’s the exact same set of pictures.

Then go back to the “autocomplete” and notice that none of it mentions women. In fact, the top suggestion is food.

Now compare that with the Bing “autocomplete”.

That seems different, right? Except here’s the thing: compare the Bing “autocomplete” on the Images tab with the All tab… and you again can see where Brave is getting their results.

So Bing clearly assumes if you switch to the Images tab, you’re needing white women in your results. Whereas if you’re on the All tab, you’re looking for climate change results.

While Brave scrapes all this Bing data, they also modify results, begging the question of accountability.

And I know you’re wondering about Google, at this point, so let’s look there next.

“Hottest” shows an even more serious security vulnerability known as a bias hole:

Bizarrely, I found “spiciest” on Google instead brings up a menu of classification.

Why doesn’t Google prompt you to select Cheetos when you search for “hottest”?

Multiple incidents have led the police near Toronto to issue a warning about Apple AirTag being used to track and steal cars.

Since September 2021, officers have investigated five incidents where suspects have placed small tracking devices on high-end vehicles so they can later locate and steal them. Brand name ‘air tags’ are placed in out-of-sight areas of the target vehicles when they are parked in public places like malls or parking lots. Thieves then track the targeted vehicles to the victim’s residence, where they are stolen from the driveway.

They say the electronic key of cars are being bypassed by simply resetting to a new one.

Once inside, an electronic device, typically used by mechanics to reprogram the factory setting, is connected to the onboard diagnostics port below the dashboard and programs the vehicle to accept a key the thieves have brought with them. Once the new key is programmed, the vehicle will start and the thieves drive it away.

Police advise scanning regularly for the tiny devices, which can be hidden anywhere. They also recommend locking the “data port” to block reprogramming the key. And finally, they recommend keeping vehicles inside a locked container such as a garage.

Really, they should have said ride a bicycle: easy to notice anything added, no data port, easy to lock inside.

Stunning reporting from San Francisco reveals the crisis situation:

The story that stuck with me most came from Greg Moore, director of safe programs for the Tenderloin Community Benefit District. Last month, he was walking at Turk and Hyde streets when he saw a driver in a sport utility vehicle waiting at a red light doze off. The passenger’s head began nodding, too. The driver’s head bounced, and his eyes rolled back. Moore knew both people in the running car were overdosing. Fortunately, the passenger was able to put the car in park before passing out. Two people injected the driver with Narcan, but it didn’t work. Somebody called 911, and paramedics revived the driver, Moore said. He said he doesn’t know whether the passenger made it.

Reportedly 712 city residents died in 2020 (about triple the number killed by COVID-19) from the drug epidemic.

That’s nearly two corpses, on average, taken to the medical examiner’s office every day.

This is not just about one city, however, but a national expansion westward as has been predicted since at least 2016.

Over 100,000 Americans (about 10,000 in California) were killed by drug overdose in the past year. It has reached a new record high, a massive 29% increase from prior year, with over 60% of deaths by the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Meth overdose deaths went up nearly 50% at the same time. For comparison, meth overdoses in 2020 recorded far more deaths in Fresno County, California than the total combined number of homicides and suicides, one and two-vehicle crashes, fire, falls and drowning.

It’s tempting to blame China, given the economics of American consumption, yet “a primer on fentanyl(s)” debunked that right away in 2018:

…there’s nothing magical about China. India also has skilled chemists and a huge flow of mail to the U.S. So, for that matter, does Canada. And so does the U.S.; if international sources dry up, the stuff will, once again, be made here.

San Francisco is now suffering from a wave that has swept across the whole country, so the real question is whether noise from the Tenderloin will catalyze the kind of change that needs to happen at a national level.