First it was Apple…

Now it’s Android…

Cloud security vendor Zscaler says customers of Google’s Play Store have downloaded more than 19 million instances of malware-laden apps that evaded the web giant’s security scans.

Zscaler’s ThreatLabz spotted and reported 77 apps containing malware, many of them purporting to be utilities or personalization tools.

Many contained an updated version of the Anatsa banking trojan, malware that first appeared in 2020. The latest build includes a keylogger for password collection, SMS interception capabilities, and anti-detection tools. Zscaler thinks it’s being used to target 831 financial institutions globally, including both crypto exchanges and regular banks.

Full article, HERE from The Register h/t Borepatch!

Ouch… and all this stuff is getting by Google’s vaunted ‘malware detector’…

If I were you, I’d be careful of what apps I downloaded.

Just sayin…

Stuff…

Well, the Cracker Barrel logo fiasco is apparently over…

Cracker Barrel said Tuesday that after listening to its customers, it will scrap its new logo and keep the “Old Timer” in place.

“As a proud American institution, our 70,000 hardworking employees look forward to welcoming you to our table soon,” the restaurant chain added.

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

Now the question is what will happen with the interior ‘redesign’? And the DEI mentality of the CEO and the board???

Not a clue over here, but from what I’ve heard, the ‘old’ interior is fine with folks…

In other news, SpaceX finally got Starship 10 off the ground and had successful tests of both the booster (dropped in the Gulf on purpose), and the test deployment from space of the dummy Starlink satellite units. Additionally, they had a successful test reentry in the Indian Ocean after a ‘stress test’ on reentry. They did burn off part of at least one of the rear flaps, but that’s what testing is all about. The test of the revised tile plan seemed to go well too…

And the Coasties did good! USCG Hamilton got more drug busts in the Caribbean and off South America, which totaled 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana, were worth $473 million! Story HERE. That’s a pretty good hit!!!

Apparently, at least a few Brits are waking up to the fact that they too have an immigration problem (among other things)… Story HERE.

However, I can’t help but wonder if this is too little, too late…

Apple issues…

I’ve had TWO critical iPhone updates in three days…

A recently disclosed vulnerability affecting Apple products has prompted an order for government organizations to patch the bug. 

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) gave civilian federal agencies until September 11 to implement a fix for CVE-2025-43300 — a vulnerability affecting popular brands of Apple phones, iPads and Macbooks. 

Apple said on Wednesday that it is “aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.” 

Full article, HERE from The Record.

Sigh… We all know Android anything is bad, and Apple has. been under attack for years. This one is apparently an 8 or 9 on the 10 scale for vulnerabilities…

So, if you have an Apple device, it might be time to go through the softward updates and plug them in. I know a lot of folks don’t allow ‘auto updates’ to any devices, but ‘I’ would do this one… but that’s just me.

This vulnerability is apparently ‘system wide’ impacting image formats across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

What is worse, it apparently does not require ANY user input, and it automated by the downloaded photo itself… dammit…

So that makes me wonder how many of these virus packages are hidden in memes…

YMMV, etc. etc. etc.

A little humor…

To start the week…

Golf

A couple of women were playing golf. The first of the twosome teed off and watched in horror as her ball headed directly toward a man playing the next hole. Indeed, the ball hit him. He immediately clasped his hands together at his crotch, fell to the ground and proceeded to roll around in evident agony.

The woman rushed to the man and began to apologize. She said, “Please allow me to help. I’m a physical therapist and I know I could relieve your pain if you’d allow me to.”

“Ummph, oooh, nnooo, I’ll be all right… I’ll be fine in a few minutes, he replied breathlessly as he remained in the fetal position still clasping his hands together at his crotch.

But she persisted, and he finally allowed her to help him. She gently moved his hands, loosened his pants, and  put her hand inside and began to massage him.

She then asked, “How does that feel?”

To which he answered, “Feels great, thank you, but my thumb still hurts like hell.”

++++++++++++

Psychiatrist and Proctologist

Best friends graduating from medical school at the same time decided that, in spite of two different specialties, they would open a practice together to share office space and personnel.

Dr. Smith was the psychiatrist and Dr. Jones was the proctologist. They put up a sign reading: Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones: Hysterias and Posteriors. The town council was livid and insisted they change it.

The docs changed it to read: Schizoids and Hemorrhoids. This was also not acceptable, so they again changed the sign to read: Catatonics and High Colonics. This was also a no go. Next they tried Manic Depressives and Anal Retentives. Thumbs down again.

Then came Minds and Behinds – still no good. Another attempt resulted in Lost Souls and Butt Holes – unacceptable again! So they tried Nuts and Butts – no way. Freaks and Cheeks – still no good. Loons and Moons – forget it.

Almost at their wit’s end, the docs finally came up with: Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones – Specializing in Odds and Ends.

Everybody loved it.

Where???

Will the power for the data centers come from???

It appears that ‘some’ of the huge data centers planned with consume up to 5 Gigawatts of power. Who is going to provide it???

HERE was Google in 2017 talking about green/sustainable energy for ‘their’ data centers…

And this week, we have HERE from Google in 2025…

Here are the current top ten Data Centers in the US and their power requirements.

# Location Data Centers Megawatts
1 Northern Virginia 300 3,945
2 Phoenix 100 1,380
3 Dallas 150 1,125
4 Atlanta 80 1,065
5 Chicago 110 805
6 Northern California (Silicon Valley) 160 790
7 Portland (including Hillsboro) 50 540
8 New York & New Jersey 145 450
9 Seattle (including Quincy) 70 395
10 Los Angeles 65 220
Total 1,230 10,715

The direct link is HERE. What I find interesting is that the three smallest are in Seattle, LA, and Portland, all places that have power issues…

The following YouTube is the planned mega or hyper data centers. It’s 36 minutes long, but very informative… especially the way they are getting power…

I can’t help but wonder what will happen to those folks who also need power for their homes? Who has the priority???

Somehow, I don’t think it will be the little people… Sigh…

What’s old…

Is new again…

SECDEF has announced there will be a medal for those who serve on the Mexican border…

Border medal, yes. New medal, no. We have proudly revived the 1918 “Mexican Border Service Medal” — same mold, same ribbon, same name, same service. We look forward to pinning the award on brave border soldiers soon…

X post HERE.

You know this is gonna upset a lot of folks…

Snerk…

A reckoning coming???

IMHO, long overdue…

August 13, 2025: The current American president ordered audits organizations many had long suspected of diverting the money to recipients that would support anti American groups, lavish salaries for pro-government officials as well as foreign nation officials who responded to large bribes to see things the American way or just to oblige the recipients to one day return or carry out tasks requested by the current president.

Over 250 NGOs received most of this money and distributed according to what the current American president wanted. The recent U.S. government audits of most of these activities continued into 2025 because the NGOs and their government handlers believed they were immune to fraud claims because their activities served the wishes of whatever Presidential administration was in power. They were wrong and audits named names, and suggested cutting the money off and prosecuting those responsible. Those investigations and prosecutions continue.

The current government wants to destroy these practices. This does not surprise a lot of Americans who already knew that something like this was suspected because there had been rumors and stories in the news detailing some of this malpractice. These accusations were always ignored or denied.

Full article, HERE from the Strategy Page

This was published a week ago, but I’m just now catching up on my reading…

As anybody who has served in the military and been overseas knows, NGOs are the bane of our national policy.

Why, you may ask, do I say that if the are ‘doing the will of the administration’?

Well, because it long ago became what the NGOs ‘wanted’ to do and there was little to no check placed on them to ensure they were actually spending the money where it was supposed to go.

Everybody remembers the kerfuffle a few years ago over the salaries at the Red Cross, which is an NGO, but it’s even worse today. Reference HERE. And some of us have personal stories of the ARC trying to take over emergency relief in various places, including trying to ban volunteers from operating (Cajun Navy), providing free food (bbq, HEB providing water, etc.) and collecting money for EVERY emergency that happens, and they say they spend almost 90% of funds on “program services.” So no one really knows how much actually gets to the flood victims, etc.

Another huge NGO is now the United Nations. They spread food and other ‘relief’ around the world, but a lot of it ends up stolen by boots on the ground, much like the US Aid relief packages of food, flour, etc. you can see for sale in most third world souks…

And that’s not counting the relief workers that are raped, killed, etc. every year.

The original premise was ‘doing good’, but that has morphed to what the NGO leaders, e.g. ‘we’ think is good. And many of them are westerners, who have zero understanding of what is ‘good’ in a particular country…

So yes, I agree, audit the hell out of them. Charge them and send the guilty to prison! And take that capability and put in under control with audits, transparency, and knowledgeable people who are not out to feather their own nests…

Kicking the soapbox back in the corner and going to go find my BP meds.

Book promo…

First up is John Van Stry with the sixth book in his Wolfhounds series, End Game

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

The fight has been a long one and a hard one with many unseen events along the way. The end however is here. The last battle of the war. The most important battle of the war. Soon they will leave for Cor Imperii, the capital of the empire. Soon they will launch a head-on attack against Speaker Phillip T Neill of the Democratic People’s Republic of Solaria. Soon Chase will do what he swore to do: Kill Neill, personally, tear down the DPRS, abolish the Secret Police, the Loyalty Officers, and re-establish the Empire of Solaria.

There’s just one last battle to fight to win the war.

Or is it? The last battle that is. Neill has his doomsday weapon, out there, somewhere, being developed in secret. It could kill billions, maybe more. Whole planets could be wiped out if it’s not found and stopped before it can be finished, before it can be used.

There’s also other players about. Other star kingdoms who have seen the inevitable decline that Neill and his government started when they lost access to the Tomb after killing off the prior emperor. In a hope to survive, or perhaps just seeing the state of the decaying Democratic People’s Republic, they’ve decided that some of those planets are ripe for the taking.

Which means that this battle may still have a few more rounds left in it before the Wolfhounds can, once and for all, return home.

Next is Pam Uphoff with the 18th novel in her Chronicles of the Fall series, Outer Tiers

The blurb-

Konstantin Aslanov is back!

And posted to an Outer Tier World with an orphaned guardian’s store–the official name of the oft rumored “Doomsday Cubes” so popular in cheesy spy movies.

He hadn’t counted on children in danger, buying a hundred race horses, or running head on into a corrupt colony government. But with newly acquired sidekicks, it’s full speed ahead to save an entire World as Plagues and Invasions hit the entirety of the Three Part Alliance!

Last but certainly not least, Josh Amos with his second book in the Orphan series, The Orphan’s Autumn

The blurb-

In “The Orphan, The Marine, and the Mastiff” Josh Amos introduced us to Brother, a broken Marine war fighter, and Mei Mei, his eight year old half sister as they struggle to overcome their respective traumas and form a family of choice.  

In “The Orphan’s Autumn” we find Brother and Mei Mei are continuing to bond together as an odd couple, and are off to a shaky but determined start as they struggle to get on with making the best lives that they can for themselves.  They are aided by the growing English Mastiff puppy Boudicca, because as Brother says “Little kids need dogs.” 

Unfortunately for the odd couple siblings, dark forces are working to take Mei Mei away from Brother and Boudicca.  Brother finds that all of this training and experience at war, are mostly inapplicable to his current challenge. To save his sister, Brother will have to find new ways to cope with his war injuries and his PTSD as he struggles to thwart the looming threat to his new family.

Highly recommend all three of these!!!

PSA…

In case you didn’t or haven’t seen it, appears Walmart/Sams may have gotten some bad shrimp!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday said it is actively investigating after a shipment of Walmart shrimp tested positive for a man-made radioactive material. 

Officials collected multiple samples for radionuclide analysis, confirming Cs-137 in one sample of breaded shrimp. The shrimp supplier, PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati (aka BMS Foods), was added to the “red list,” meaning its products cannot be sold in the U.S. until the issue is resolved.

FDA officials said consumers should not eat or serve Great Value raw frozen shrimp from Walmart with lot codes: 8005540-1, 8005538-1 and 8005539-1.

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

This one is odd, in that normally it’s e coli or something like that. CS-137 has a half life of 30 years, and this is the warning from the CDC website…

Exposure to Cs-137 can increase the risk for cancer. Internal exposure to Cs-137, through ingestion or inhalation, allows the radioactive material to be distributed in the soft tissues, especally muscle tissue, exposing these tissues to the beta particles and gamma radiation increasing cancer risk. 

Not particularly something one wants to eat…

Just sayin…

So, if you’ve bought Shrimp at Wally World lately, check those lot codes, and if what you bought in in one of those lots, dump it.

Posted in PSA

Snort…

I ‘did not’ expect this… italics mine…

A funny thing happened on the way to once-Great Britain’s transformation into George Orwell’s dystopian Airstrip One: The renegade users of the anonymous 4chan forum got themselves legal representation and told British busybodies to sod off. 

A little background.

4chan’s exploits are legendary, if not always savory.

Ever wanted to know how lefties came to believe that the perfectly innocent “OK” hand gesture is some kind of secret code for white supremacy?

That was 4chan.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

We all know 4chan is not a nice bunch of folks. As they say, they’ve ‘weaponized’ autism and taken it to the next level.

And people ‘really’ don’t want to piss them off, because they don’t get even, they get WAY ahead…

So this was an interesting way to take on the Brits. Now I’m sure that there are ‘alternate’ plans in place if the Brits get stupid on this, but kudos to 4chan for at least trying to do it the right way.

Hopefully, the Brits are smart enough to back off and leave well enough alone. If not… well…