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President Biden Pays Tribute To Tony Bennett

President Joe Biden recently released a statement on the passing of legendary singer Tony Bennett. Known for hits such as “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and “The Way You Look Tonight,” Bennett’s iconic voice and enduring classics have won over generations of fans over his more than 70-year career.

Biden noted Bennett’s legendary life, “Along the way, he lived history. He helped liberate prisoners at a subcamp of Dachau. He joined the 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. He performed for Nelson Mandela, John F. Kennedy, and Queen Elizabeth II, and recorded music with everyone from the Count Basie Orchestra to Lady Gaga.”

Biden highlighted not only Bennett’s beautiful voice but also his ability to bring joy to everything he did. Biden’s statement shows the importance of music in bringing people together and its power to connect people across generations and cultures.

The passing of Tony Bennett is a loss for the music world, but his legacy will continue to inspire artists for generations to come. His unique voice and style will continue to enchant audiences, and his music will serve as a time capsule of a bygone era. Tony Bennett’s enduring impact on American music is a testament to his talent and the timelessness of his songs. His contributions to the arts will undoubtedly continue to endure, and his legacy will continue to live on through his music and the countless lives he has touched.

The President closed his statement with, “Jill and I have been fans of Tony’s music for a long time – not only because of his beautiful voice, but also the joy that he brought to everything he did. We send our deepest condolences to his family and fans around the world.”

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It’s Official: Texas Resigns from Democrat Operative-founded ERIC Voter Registration System- 9 States Out – Only 23 Remain | The Gateway Pundit

Today, Texas Director of Elections sent a letter on behalf of the Texas Secretary of State notifying the Electronic Registration Information Center, Inc. know that they were resigning from the ERIC system.  In March, The Gateway Pundit reported that Missouri, Florida, and West Virginia also were withdrawing from ERIC joining Ohio, Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia, and Iowa.

The Gateway Pundit has written extensively about ERIC and its founder, David Becker, who also founded the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), which received $69.5 million in Zuckerbucks and distributed it disproportionately to the “swing states”, with four of the top six states being PA, MI, AZ, and GA, which received an average of $8.5 million compared to $1.58 million on average being distributed to the remaining 23 states that received funds.

AP Writer Urged to Correct Mistakes in Glowing Report Defending ERIC System and Its Soros Seed Money – We Have the Receipts

 

Texas will resign from ERIC, effective 91 days from the July 20th, 2023.  They will have to implement a system that won’t cost more than $100,000.  According to the Texas Tribune:

According to the secretary of state’s resignation letter, the state’s resignation will be effective in three months, in accordance with the program’s bylaws. By then, a law approved by the Texas Legislature this session, authored by Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes, will have gone into effect. That legislation directs the secretary of state’s office to build its own version of a multistate cross-check program or to find a “private sector provider” with a cost that won’t exceed $100,000.

The Gateway Pundit has reported for over a year now on the ERIC voter roll system that is used in 30-32 states.  The system was originally promoted as a tool to clean up voter rolls.  It is anything but that.

For example, Wisconsin is an ERIC State and has over 7 million registered voters in a state with less than 4 million eligible voters.  The Wisconsin state election leader Sarah Whitt was hired by ERIC after performing such exemplary work in Wisconsin.

Obviously, ERIC is not working.  The ERIC system is obsolete, inefficient, and has failed in its purpose.  The Democrat party apparatus loves it for some reason.

The ERIC system is now used in dozens of states despite the fact that voter rolls in those states are more bloated with phantom voters than ever before in US history.

Last year The Gateway Pundit reported on the ERIC Systems in a series of articles and follow-up reports for over a year now.

These articles have gone viral and are being passed on to state officials.

** ERIC Part 1: Who’s “Cleaning” Our Voter Rolls? ERIC Now in 31 States
** ERIC Part 2: Largest U.S. Counties Removed ZERO to TWO Ineligible Voters
** ERIC Part 3: The Founding of the Nation’s Largest Voter Roll Clean-up Operation
** ERIC Part 4: A Response to the Panicked Media Attacks

And our message is resonating.  Since our original reporting, thousands of grassroots activists have called their Secretary of State’s office and demanded they look into the ERIC system.

As we reported earlier, several states have stepped away from the platform and more will follow.

Of course, this is a grave concern to Democrat lawmakers like Jocelyn Benson from Michigan and Gabe Sterling from Georgia who contributed to a recent AP report.   The two liberal activists are concerned that several states are now taking a closer look at the failed system.  They feel threatened.

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British Bank Apologizes to Nigel Farage After Closing His Account for Holding “Thatcherite Beliefs” After UK Treasury Gets Involved – While US Financial Companies Continue to Shut Down Conservative Accounts | The Gateway Pundit

British BREXIT leader Nigel Farage announced on Friday that UK banks have shut down his accounts. And they did this without explanation.

Apparently, the communist-left in the UK is as fierce as their American counterparts!

The establishment are trying to force me out of the UK by closing my bank accounts.

I have been given no explanation or recourse as to why this is happening to me.

This is serious political persecution at the very highest level of our system.

If they can do it to me, they… pic.twitter.com/O4xQ1h79ub

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) June 29, 2023

On Thursday British Bank NatWest apologized to Nigel Farage after a bank report was released that found he was not “inclusive enough” and was holding “Thatcherite beliefs” and his political positions were the reason he had his accounts closed.

NatWest is worried after the UK Treasury got involved and spoke out about unfair banking practices based on one’s political beliefs. Treasury announced that UK banks will be subject to “stricter rules” over closing customers’ accounts, in an effort to protect freedom of speech in the country – Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail reported:

The boss of NatWest apologised to Nigel Farage tonight for a ‘deeply inappropriate’ internal report that found he was not ‘inclusive’ enough to be a Coutts customer.

In a letter to the former Ukip leader, Dame Alison Rose insisted the assessment of Mr Farage ‘does not reflect the views of the bank’.

She stressed that ‘freedom of expression’ and access to banking were fundamental to society, saying she has ordered a review of Coutts’ processes. However, she stopped short of offering to restore Mr Farage’s relationship with the exclusive private bank, instead repeating the offer of an account with NatWest.

The letter emerged as the Treasury announced that UK banks will be subject to stricter rules over closing customers’ accounts, in an effort to protect freedom of speech.

Dame Alison has been urged to ‘take responsibility’ after the Brexiteer unearthed the NatWest subsidiary’s secret dossier accusing him of promoting ‘xenophobic, chauvinistic and racist views’ and noting his ‘Thatcherite beliefs’.

Unfortunately, conservatives in America are still losing banking privileges despite our First Amendment protections.

Without Warning The Gateway Pundit Is Banned from Paypal

The Gateway Pundit was also banned from PayPal without warning due to our conservative values.

Without Warning The Gateway Pundit Is Banned from Paypal

Unfortunately, we do not have a government willing to protect the rights of conservatives in America today.

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Google demos “unsettling” tool to help journalists write the news

Enlarge / An AI-generated image of a “robot journalist.”

Midjourney

Google has been developing tools aimed at helping journalists write news articles, reports The New York Times and Reuters. It has demonstrated one tool, dubbed “Genesis,” to the Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Reportedly, Google is positioning the tool as a personal assistant for news reporters.

According to Reuters, Genesis is not intended to automate news writing but can instead potentially support journalists by offering suggestions for headlines or alternative writing styles to enhance productivity. “Quite simply, these tools are not intended to, and cannot, replace the essential role journalists have in reporting, creating, and fact-checking their articles,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters.

Like OpenAI with its ChatGPT AI assistant that can compose text, Google has also been developing large language models (LLMs) such as PaLM 2 that have absorbed massive amounts of information scraped from the Internet during training, and they can use that “knowledge” to summarize information, rephrase sentences, explain concepts, and more. Naturally, both companies have sought to find market applications for this technology, including in journalism.

However, unnamed anonymous executives who previewed Google’s presentation described Genesis as “unsettling,” according to the Times. Two of the executives told the outlet that the Google product seemed to underestimate the effort it takes to produce accurate and interesting news stories.

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So far, attempts to use generative AI to augment journalism haven’t gone very well. In January, BuzzFeed announced it would begin publishing AI-written content (which followed obvious formulas and lacked variety). That same month, CNET received intense pushback from its own staff for publishing AI-written articles. More recently, an AI-generated Star Wars article published by Gizmodo sparked criticism for being full of errors.

Based on early reports, Google’s new tool seems to represent a different path away from full automation, envisioning a partnership between a human author and AI assistant that could see journalists adopting generative AI as labor-saving tools similar to typewriters, word processors, and spell checkers before them. Still, some newsrooms may seek to draw a clear line between an AI model merely suggesting phrasing or critiquing a piece and actually introducing new factual content, which could be mistaken or confabulated.

Journalism professor Jeff Jarvis told the New York Times, “If [Genesis] is misused by journalists and news organizations on topics that require nuance and cultural understanding, then it could damage the credibility not only of the tool but of the news organizations that use it.”

Even if tools like Genesis are initially used to accelerate productivity for journalists, there may still be a temptation to automate the writing process entirely to save money, as we’ve already seen in cases like CNET’s. Critics worry that the drive to automate content production could create an echo chamber of noise and misinformation online, with bots feeding off other bots while human-crafted content remains potentially siloed behind paywalls or away from the open web.

Still, The New York Times says that Google sees Genesis as a “responsible technology” that will help the publishing industry avoid pitfalls with generative AI. Exactly what that means will have to wait until Google brings Genesis further into view.

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Irish Journalist Explains How Trans Ideology Spreads in Organizations (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit

Helen Joyce is an Irish journalist. In a video that has been going viral on social media, she talks about how trans ideology spreads and gets defended in organizations.

She attributes it to the parents of trans children, who can’t admit that what they have done to their kids is wrong and who will cause others to be afraid to discuss the issue.

She suggests that this particular type of parent will spend the rest of their lives trying to justify their actions because they have to. Facing the truth is not an option.

Partial transcript via Real Clear Politics:

HELEN JOYCE: Something you may not have thought of is that there are a lot of people who can’t move on from this. And that’s the people who have transitioned their own children. So those people are going to be like the Japanese soldiers who were on Pacific islands and didn’t know the war was over. They’ve got to fight forever. This is another reason why this is the worst, worst, worst social contagion that we’ll ever have experienced.

A lot of people have done what is the worst thing you could do, which is to harm their children irrevocably, because of it. Those people will have to believe that they did the right thing for the rest of their lives, for their own sanity, and for their own self-respect. So they’ll still be fighting, and each one of those people destroys entire organizations and entire friendship groups.

Like, I’ve lost count of the number of times that somebody has said to me of a specific organization that has been turned upside down on this, “Oh, the deputy director has a trans child.” Or, oh, the journalist on that paper who does special investigations has a trans child. Or whatever. The entire organization gets paralyzed by that one person.

And it may not even be widely known at that organization that they have a trans child. But it will come out, people will have sort of said quietly, and now you can’ talk truth in front of that person, and you know you can’t, because what you’re saying is: “You as a parent have done a truly, like, a human rights abuse level of awful thing to your own child that can not be fixed.”

Watch the video below:

That’s going to be some earth shattering truth for some people. #LiberalismIsAMentalDisorder @Nicoletta0602 pic.twitter.com/Tj57193htl

— You can’t fix stupid (@CallananCharles) July 11, 2023

She makes perfect sense, doesn’t she?

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Microsoft to stop locking vital security logs behind $57-per-user monthly plan

Getty Images | SOPA Images

Microsoft will expand access to important security log data after being criticized for locking detailed audit logs behind a Microsoft 365 enterprise plan that costs $57 per user per month. The logging updates will start rolling out “in September 2023 to all government and commercial customers,” the company said.

“Over the coming months, we will include access to wider cloud security logs for our worldwide customers at no additional cost. As these changes take effect, customers can use Microsoft Purview Audit to centrally visualize more types of cloud log data generated across their enterprise,” Microsoft announced yesterday.

Microsoft Purview Audit Premium is available on the $57-per-user Microsoft 365 E5 plan for businesses as well as the similar A5 education plan and G5 government plan. There’s also a Purview Audit Standard service that comes with a much wider range of plans, including the Microsoft 365 Business Basic tier that costs $6 per user per month.

Purview Audit Standard will soon get access to features currently only available in the premium audit service, Microsoft’s announcement said.

“As our expanded logging defaults roll out, Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard) customers will receive deeper visibility into security data, including detailed logs of email access and more than 30 other types of log data previously only available at the Microsoft Purview Audit (Premium) subscription level. In addition to new logging events becoming available, Microsoft is also increasing the default retention period for Audit Standard customers from 90 days to 180 days,” Microsoft said.

“Pay-to-play security”

As we wrote last week, Microsoft has faced criticism for restricting access to detailed audit logs, calling it “pay-to-play security.” The advanced logs available only on the most expensive plans were useful in detecting breaches that gave a Chinese hacking group access to email accounts.

“If you’re not an E5-paying customer, you lose the ability to see that you were compromised,” Will Dorman, senior principal analyst at Analygence, told Ars.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a security advisory last week that a federal executive branch agency discovered a breach of Exchange Online data “by leveraging enhanced logging—specifically of MailItemsAccessed events—and an established baseline of normal Outlook activity (e.g., expected AppID).” This “enables detection of otherwise difficult to detect adversarial activity,” CISA said.

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CISA and the FBI even said they “strongly encourage organizations to Enable Purview Audit (Premium) logging,” while acknowledging that the “logging requires licensing at the G5/E5 level.”

“CISA and FBI are not aware of other audit logs or events that would have detected this activity,” the advisory said. “Critical infrastructure organizations are strongly urged to implement the logging recommendations in this advisory to enhance their cybersecurity posture and position themselves to detect similar malicious activity.”

CISA urged Microsoft to expand access

CISA had been talking to Microsoft about expanding access to the logs. “CISA and Microsoft have been working for the past several months to identify key logging activities to include in their offerings,” CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein wrote in a blog post yesterday.

Goldstein said the Microsoft move will “make necessary logs identified by CISA and our partners as most critical to identifying cyber-attacks available to customers without additional cost. While we understand it will take time to roll out such a major step, this effort will enhance cyber defense and incident response for every Microsoft customer.”

Goldstein also criticized the approach of making security logs exclusive to higher-priced subscriptions. “While vendors can offer wider logging access at specific cloud licensing levels, this approach makes it harder to investigate intrusions,” he wrote. “Asking organizations to pay more for necessary logging is a recipe for inadequate visibility into investigating cybersecurity incidents and may allow adversaries to have dangerous levels of success in targeting American organizations.”

Microsoft said its decision to bring advanced logging to all business plans is “the result of close coordination with commercial and government customers, and with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) about the types of security log data Microsoft provides to cloud customers for insight and analysis.”

The log “data plays an important role in incident response because it provides granular, auditable insight into how different identities, applications, and devices access a customer’s cloud services,” Microsoft said. “These logs themselves do not prevent attacks, but they can be useful in digital forensics and incident response when examining how an intrusion might have occurred, such as when an attacker is impersonating an authorized user.”

Purview Audit Premium will still be differentiated from Audit Standard by providing “longer default retention periods and automation support for importing log data into other tools for analysis,” Microsoft said.

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Lavender Haze Drink Recipes To Make at Home

Swifties, assemble! In the wake of the most viral concert tour of all time—The Eras Tour—we’ve gathered four ways to make a Taylor Swift-inspired lavender haze drink to quench your thirst and give you enough energy to sustain an all-night T. Swift dance party. (Maybe—can’t make any promises.)

Haven’t heard “Lavender Haze” blaring on the radio and had it stuck in your head for endless (mid)nights? You’re in for a treat. Just be sure to have one of these lavender-infused beverages on tap to pair. So, are you…ready for it?

Health benefits of lavender 

There’s no denying that lavender haze is a chill song. According to Rachelle Robinett, a registered herbalist and the founder of Supernatural, this is fitting: lavender is a nervine herb that’s extremely calming for the body. “Nervine means an herb that loves your nervous system. It’s used for brain function, things like focus, for supporting mood, and specifically for sleep; we found that lavender helps improve sleep latency. Sleep latency is the amount of time it takes for us to fall asleep, and lavender also improves sleep quality,” Robinett shared with Well+Good.

4 dreamy ways to make a lavender haze drink1. Lavender Haze Latte

Every so often, life blesses us with a union of two things that are simply better together. Case in point: two shots of espresso (yes, two, who are we kidding) and a few pumps of lavender syrup. In a recent TikTok video by @tilliero, Tillie Ro shows us how to make the perfect coffee drink for the one and only Taylor. And, although some may opt for a boozy pregame before a concert, according to Ro’s caption, this lavender haze oat milk latte is all you need to get the vibes going and the energy flowing before you head to the concert (or any other occasion for that matter).

Get the recipe: Lavender Haze Oat Milk Latte

@tilliero see you tonight bestie @taylorswift pregaming with this lavendar haze oat milk latte & im obsessed #taylorswift #oatmilk #latte #lavendarhaze ♬ Lavender Haze – Taylor Swift

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2. Creamy Lavender Haze Latte

When it comes to coffee drinks, we can’t stop, won’t stop. (Sorry, not sorry.) So, let us introduce you to the creamiest and dreamiest (ever!) lavender haze latte by @jessica_furniss. To make it, Jessica Furniss combines oat milk, vanilla creamer, lavender syrup, and purple food coloring (BTW, this plant-based food coloring has no artificial dyes) and whips it to perfection using a handheld frother. Once thick and creamy, she transfers it to a cup, adds espresso, and tops it with a few dried lavender flowers. B-e-a-utiful. Although Furniss chose to go the coffee route this time, the drink can also be made with other gut-healthy drink favorites like matcha or tea instead. Cheers!

Get the recipe: Creamy Lavender Haze Latte

@jessica_furniss Lavender haze latte #lavenderhaze #latte ♬ Lavender Haze – Taylor Swift

3. Lavender Syrup Latte

Let us clue you in on a little secret: Making homemade lavender syrup is beyond easy. But, in case you need clarification, @lifewithtuyen shows us exactly how to do it. You only need three ingredients: Dried lavender, sugar, and water. Next, you’ll combine the ingredients in a pot, bring it to a boil, and once the flavors have had a chance to combine to their full glory, you’ll want to strain the mixture, leaving behind a lavender-infused syrup ideal for adding to just about anything. Think: Coffee, tea, smoothies; the list goes on—easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Get the recipe: Lavender Syrup Latte

@lifewithtuyen make a honey lavender latte at home partially inspired by all of the tour content #lavenderhaze #homecafe #coffeetiktok ♬ Lavender Haze – Taylor Swift

4. Blueberry Tahini Lavender Smoothie

Okay, okay, we’ll give the coffee content a break (for a millisecond) to give you this decadent blueberry lavender smoothie by @hannahupdegraff that’s sure to knock your socks off, especially on a sweltering hot day. Combine bananas, blueberries, lavender, tahini, and the milk of your choice in a blender, and boom—the perfect lavender haze effect. (With a punch of antioxidants and gut-healthy fiber, of course.) And ICYMI, blueberries are a super source of longevity-boosting antioxidants (known as anthocyanins), which have been linked to helping protect against free radical damage and decreasing your risk of chronic health conditions.

Get the recipe: Blueberry Tahini Lavender Smoothie

@hannahupdegraff blueberry lavender smoothie this is one of my favorite smoothies to make for breakfast #blueberrylavender #blueberrysmoothie #lavendersmoothie #healthyrecipes #smoothierecipes #dairyfreesmoothie ♬ telepatía – xxtristanxo

Lavender on your mind? How about the perfect nightcap lavender latte of your dreams:



Our editors independently select these products. Making a purchase through our links may earn Well+Good a commission.

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Kirby on Biden Hunched Over and Mumbling Incoherently to Israeli President, “He Was Very, Very Clear!” (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit

Top Biden spox John Kirby told Fox News host Martha MacCallum that Joe Biden spoke ‘very, very clearly’ when he dropped his head down and mumbled to Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Biden held a bilateral meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

It was the first time Biden had been seen publicly in days after he returned from Europe and he was in very bad shape.

80-year-old Joe Biden hunched over and mumbled incoherently during the meeting.

“And we brought Israelis and Palestinians together on a political level and they uh – uh – and they uh – and uh [unintelligible],” Biden said.

Martha MacCallum played the clip of Biden mumbling incoherently and asked Kirby, “Why is it so hard to understand what the president is trying to say there?”

Without skipping a beat Kirby replied, “I think he was very, very clear, Martha!”

VIDEO:

John Kirby on Biden mumbling incoherently while trying to talk to the Israeli president: “He was very, very clear” pic.twitter.com/mFS92Iv19q

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 20, 2023

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Firmware vulnerabilities in millions of computers could give hackers superuser status

Two years ago, ransomware crooks breached hardware-maker Gigabyte and dumped more than 112 gigabytes of data that included information from some of its most important supply-chain partners, including Intel and AMD. Now researchers are warning that the leaked information revealed what could amount to critical zero-day vulnerabilities that could imperil huge swaths of the computing world.

The vulnerabilities reside inside firmware that Duluth, Georgia-based AMI makes for BMCs (baseboard management controllers). These tiny computers soldered into the motherboard of servers allow cloud centers, and sometimes their customers, to streamline the remote management of vast fleets of computers. They enable administrators to remotely reinstall OSes, install and uninstall apps, and control just about every other aspect of the system—even when it’s turned off. BMCs provide what’s known in the industry as “lights-out” system management.

Lights-out forever

Researchers from security firm Eclypsium analyzed AMI firmware leaked in the 2021 ransomware attack and identified vulnerabilities that had lurked for years. They can be exploited by any local or remote attacker with access to an industry-standard remote-management interface known as Redfish to execute malicious code that will run on every server inside a data center.

Until the vulnerabilities are patched using an update AMI published on Thursday, they provide a means for malicious hackers—both financially motivated or nation-state sponsored—to gain superuser status inside some of the most sensitive cloud environments in the world. From there, the attackers could install ransomware and espionage malware that runs at some of the lowest levels inside infected machines. Successful attackers could also cause physical damage to servers or indefinite reboot loops that a victim organization can’t interrupt. Eclypsium warned such events could lead to “lights out forever” scenarios.

In a post published Thursday, Eclypsium researchers wrote:

These vulnerabilities range in severity from High to Critical, including unauthenticated remote code execution and unauthorized device access with superuser permissions. They can be exploited by remote attackers having access to Redfish remote management interfaces, or from a compromised host operating system. Redfish is the successor to traditional IPMI and provides an API standard for the management of a server’s infrastructure and other infrastructure supporting modern data centers. Redfish is supported by virtually all major server and infrastructure vendors, as well as the OpenBMC firmware project often used in modern hyperscale environments.

These vulnerabilities pose a major risk to the technology supply chain that underlies cloud computing. In short, vulnerabilities in a component supplier affect many hardware vendors, which in turn can be passed on to many cloud services. As such these vulnerabilities can pose a risk to servers and hardware that an organization owns directly as well as the hardware that supports the cloud services that they use. They can also impact upstream suppliers to organizations and should be discussed with key 3rd parties as part of general supply chain risk management due diligence.

BMCs are designed to provide administrators with near total and remote control over the servers they manage. AMI is a leading provider of BMCs and BMC firmware to a wide range of hardware vendors and cloud service providers. As a result, these vulnerabilities affect a very large number of devices, and could enable attackers to gain control of or cause damage not only to devices but to data centers and cloud service infrastructure. The same logic flaws may affect devices in fall-back data centers in different geographic regions part of the same service provider, and can challenge assumptions cloud providers (and their customers) often make in the context of risk management and continuity of operations.

The researchers went on to note that if they could locate the vulnerabilities and write exploits after analyzing the publicly available source code, there’s nothing stopping malicious actors from doing the same. And even without access to the source code, the vulnerabilities could still be identified by decompiling BMC firmware images. There’s no indication malicious parties have done so, but there’s also no way to know they haven’t.

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The researchers privately notified AMI of the vulnerabilities, and the company created firmware patches, which are available to customers through a restricted support page. AMI has also published an advisory here.

The vulnerabilities are:

CVE-2023-34329, an authentication bypass via HTTP headers that has a severity rating of 9.9 out of 10, andCVE-2023-34330, Code injection via Dynamic Redfish Extension. Its severity rating is 8.2.
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Barbie’s Out-of-Date Beauty Standards Still Persist

I grew up collecting Barbies that looked nothing like the chubby, acne-prone-by-age-10, frizzy-haired little girl I saw in the mirror ever would—and I say that as a white woman without disabilities or any other intersectional layers of marginalized identity. Even now, the aesthetic that Barbie embodied left me questioning how I look and present in my world. (Though I’m not blaming Barbie for the body dysmorphia I developed as a teen, she certainly didn’t help). So when the doll got an inclusive makeover in 2016 after decades of controversy surrounding her unrealistic proportions, I felt hopeful that the next generation of doll lovers wouldn’t hold themselves to the same impossible beauty standards that I did.

To date, Barbie manufacturer Mattel has since expanded the brand to include more than 175 dolls with varying skin types, hairstyles, and body types, as well as a doll with vitiligo, a doll with Down syndrome, dolls that use a wheelchair or a prosthetic limb, a doll with hearing aids, and a doll without hair. And when I more recently found out that Greta Gerwig would be directing the new Barbie movie—and had plans to use the film to address the doll’s problematic past and include Barbies of all shapes and sizes, all through a feminist lens—I marked my calendar for July 21 and started planning my hot pink outfit for premiere day.

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Fast-forward to about a month ago, when Barbiemania emerged in full force amid the movie’s official press tour and general cultural excitement. It’s become impossible to log on to social media (or drive down any billboard-laden street or walk into a freaking Zara store) without being bombarded with images of Barbie’s blonde hair, blue eyes, and thin body in the form of actor Margot Robbie, who’s playing the iconic doll in the film. It didn’t take long before my work inbox began to flood with emails from beauty brands with products that promised to make me (and, by proxy, any Well+Good reader) look as blonde, smooth, and perfect as Barbie. The rhetoric brought me right back to feeling the same way as I did when I was 10 years old and realized that I would never look like that Barbie.

To be clear: I haven’t seen the movie. From what I understand, though, the beauty industry’s commoditization of and messaging surrounding Barbiemania is in complete opposition to the film’s messaging, which reportedly rejects the perception that Barbie—in her classic form—is the pinnacle of feminine beauty. “I don’t think you should say, ‘This is the one version of what Barbie is, and that’s what women should aspire to be and look like and act like,’” Robbie recently told Time magazine. “If [Mattel] hadn’t made that change to have a multiplicity of Barbies, I don’t think I would have wanted to attempt to make a Barbie film.”

Though the film features various actors playing various Barbies—Issa Rae as President Barbie, Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie, Kate McKinnon as Gymnast Barbie—it’s Robbie’s “Stereotypical Barbie” (a moniker in the movie meant to highlight that the original blonde Barbie may still be most associated with the toy but isn’t the only legitimate one on the block) whose likeness we can’t escape. And certain segments of the beauty industry have capitalized on the insecurity that the traditional Barbie image evokes to try to sell products—completely missing the point of the steps that the film has tried to take forward and, in effect, messing with our mental health.

Barbie, personified

When Barbie hit the shelves 1959, she was the first ever mass-produced adult doll on the market. Before she came around, baby dolls that taught little girls how to be mothers were the only option. At the time, Barbie’s blonde hair, blue eyes, and itty-bitty waist represented the “ideal” woman. It wasn’t until 50 years later—in 2014!—that people caught on to the fact that it would be physically impossible for a human to actually look like her (her breast-to-waist ratio would cause her to topple over, she’d have to walk on all fours, and she wouldn’t be able to hold up her own head).

But by then, the damage had already been done. A 2016 study—which, coincidentally, came out the same year that the body-inclusive Barbies were introduced—found that girls aged 6 to 8 who played with Barbies were more likely to experience body dissatisfaction than those who played with what the research calls full-figured dolls. And now, the once-inanimate doll has come to life in the form of a living, breathing, human being.

Again, though the film itself and Robbie’s portrayal of Barbie reportedly aims to be progressive, in the lead-up to the premiere, the attention given to her resemblance of the original iteration of the doll is unignorable. To no fault of Robbie’s, the fanfare associated with the movie has brought the doll’s impossible beauty standards out of Barbieland and into the real world, which has paved the way for Barbiemania to mess with our heads in an entirely new way.

“When it’s just a plastic doll, we can look at the doll and say, ‘That’s made in a factory, that’s not attainable. It’s 12 inches tall, its measurements are ridiculous, I couldn’t look like that.’ While we might still feel an emotional desire to look perfect, we know it’s a doll,” says Carla Marie Manly, PhD, author of Joy From Fear. “However, when Hollywood makes a human being into the doll, it’s not a human-to-doll comparison any longer—it’s human-to-human. Our brains don’t go through the steps of thinking that it took perfect lighting, great costuming, an entire crew, and many hours of work to achieve that look. They immediately think, ‘If another human looks that good, I should be able to look that good, too.’”

Dr. Manly calls the phenomenon that this evokes “toxic comparison,” which causes us to stop focusing on becoming the best versions of ourselves in favor of trying to be like someone else. “The minute we start comparing ourselves to any other human being is the minute we go down the slippery slope of worsening our self-esteem and our ability to really embrace self-love,” she says. “Instead of using your energy to evolve into a better version of you, that energy is going toward thinking ‘What can I buy? What can I do to myself to look like this other person?’ So you’re inherently giving yourself the message that you’re not good enough.”

Beauty brands have capitalized on Barbiemania in a way that feels… icky

As images of “Stereotypical Barbie” have become ubiquitous, many brands have capitalized on the potential insecurities they bring to light by offering products and services that will make you look more like a classic Barbie.

In the past week alone, I’ve received emails about “The Barbie Drug” (aka Melanotan, a nasal spray that makes you look tan and that doctors absolutely advise against using), a “Barbie Butt lift,” a lip plumper to make you ”pout like Barbie,” and a slew of “last minute beauty buys to turn you into the Barbie of your dreams.” A plastic surgeon on Long Island is even offering a “Barbie Makeover”—complete with a breast augmentation, liposuction, facial reconstruction, and whatever other custom cosmetic services you may need to transform into Barbie—for $120,000.  “If advertisers or the media can convince us that we need to be a certain type of individual, especially one that is unattainable, then they not only have our attention, but they also have our discretionary income,” says Dr. Manly. “The more they can make us feel as though we are imperfect in negative ways, the more they have grabbed us for a lifetime of wanting to be something that is not only unhealthy to achieve, but impossible.”  None of these products or services are related to the movie in any official capacity—the film’s actual beauty partnerships (with brands like NYX, OPI, and Kitsch) are cute, fun, and overwhelmingly pink. But there’s a stark difference between getting a #barbiecore manicure and engaging in questionable cosmetic practices meant to make you look like a doll.

“By most accounts, the new Barbie movie will be a feminist take on the character, but the film still embraces the look of an archetypal Barbie—with her non-functional feet and tiny, flat, ski-slope nose…I worry about reintroducing these ideals, even in the context of a modern story,” says Dara Liotta, MD, a facial plastic surgeon in Manhattan. “Romancing Barbie may not be not good for [people’s] mental health,”

It’s time we move beyond the old-school version of Barbie beauty

I love—and have always loved—Barbie, and am genuinely excited to see how Robbie, Gerwig, and everyone else involved in the project will contribute to shifting her narrative onscreen. But for all of the feminist strides the film promises to make, it’s a real disappointment to see the beauty world using the opportunity as an excuse to peddle the same tired beauty standards. Barbie herself has moved beyond—in a spaceship, on a motorcycle, and in her iconic pink Corvette—so why can’t we?

And for those of us who are feeling insecure in bodies that don’t fit into the Stereotypical Barbie level of perfection, remember: “She’s factory-formed, and we are human,” says Dr. Manly. “We want to celebrate and honor the uniqueness of the ordinary human form, the everyday beauty of a woman who knows and loves and feels good about herself regardless of her physical appearance—who loves herself from the inside out.”

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