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Putin's Soccer Ball for Trump Had Transmitter Chip, Logo Indicates (bloomberg.com)
Russian President Vladimir Putin's gift of a soccer ball to U.S. President Donald Trump last week set off a chorus of warnings -- some of them only half in jest -- that the World Cup souvenir could be bugged. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham even tweeted, "I'd check the soccer ball for listening devices and never allow it in the White House." It turns out they weren't entirely wrong. From a report: Markings on the ball indicate that it contained a chip with a tiny antenna that transmits to nearby phones. But rather than a spy device, the chip is an advertised feature of the Adidas AG ball. Photographs from the news conference in Helsinki, where Putin handed the ball to Trump, show it bore a logo for a near-field communication tag. During manufacturing, the NFC chip is placed inside the ball under that logo, which resembles the icon for a WiFi signal, according to the Adidas website. The chip allows fans to access player videos, competitions and other content by bringing their mobile devices close to the ball. The feature is included in the 2018 FIFA World Cup match ball that's sold on the Adidas website for $165 (reduced to $83 in the past week).
Left and Right, let's unite! Put aside our differences and work together for Make America Great Again. Let's do it! We can do it.
Ebony and Ivory living in harmony? Awesome thoughts! Peace out.
Now that we know Putin stole the election from Hillary Clinton it goes without saying that she must be given the Democratic nomination again in 2020. All potential challengers need to step aside. If it weren't for the Russian meddling she would've clearly won so she has to run again.
The summary says:
the chip is an advertised feature of the Adidas AG ball
Are we going to now say that Russia hacked Adidas, put a "spy! device on it (NFC of all things) for the sheer purpose of listening in on Trump?
The Trump Derangement Syndrome has reached new epic proportions.
Sounds like a great place to hide something in plain sight.
A soccer ball with a transmitter that isn't supposed to have one would stand out. However, a soccer ball that has a *different* transmitter than it came with would be much harder to identify.
Remember when the biggest foreign relations scandal involving a president was giving a bust of Churchill back to England?
Good times.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Yet, he was able to beat the smartest woman on the Planet in the race to become President. We could all be so lucky to be a failed billionaire present with a supermodel wife.
Still waiting on the Russia evidence. How many Mueller indictments were there for Russian COLLUSION so far? None? Oh yea, lets indict a couple of russian ham sandwiches that will never show up in court to show some value for the millions spent covering up the incompetence of the Clinton campaign (Yes, yes, we all know that Putin personally prevented Hillary from campaigning in Wisconsin and Michigan).
Watergate investigation took 4 years.
Clinton investigation took 6 years.
Mueller has only taken about 18 months.
And we taxpayers have spent more money flying Trumpoid down to Mar-a-Lago and providing SS protection there, just so he can GOLF than the Mueller investigation has cost so far.
So kindly STFU and FOAD, toadie.
Actually, it seems like it is intentionally pathetic so that it would make the "liberal side" look so.
the Watergate break in was in 1972. Nixon resigned in 1974. 2 years.
Ken Starr was appointed special counsel in 1994. Clinton was impeached in 1998. 4 years.
Why make up dumb shit?
Traitors and asshats
Yeah, sure, 'traitors and asshats' that will actually protect the environment (you know, the air you breathe, the water you drink, and so on), not allow the destruction of animal species for no damned good reason, that won't destroy public education in favor of 'vouchers' that only benefit The Rich and leave The Poor and middle-class with shit schools and shit teachers, not sabotage the national economy with 'tax cuts' that only benefit The Rich and fuck over everyone else, not have a neo-nazi heading up the DoJ, not shit on the long-time allies of the U.S., not piss off the entire world with heavy-handed 'trade tariffs' instead of taking a more thoughtful and measured approach, not tearing apart families for having the almighty GALL to want to get their children away from violent regimes and violent drug cartels, not hand the Internet to greedy ISPs on a silver platter, fucking over the American consumer in the process, not appoint neo-nazis to the Supreme Court, helping drag us back socio-politically to the 1940's, and so on, and so on, and so on. Get your heads out of your asses and stop helping fuck over the country you live in, you mongoloids.
How can she not win this time if she would've won last time without The Russians! meddling? If not for Putin she'd be running for re-election in 2020. Right?
Not sure if trolling or lacking reading comprehension...
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
When you dig deeper in the articles, and read the speeches and comments, they really do sound apologetic. However, the analysts, from sources that are not what one would call right leaning, all seem to miss this. Bias is what bias does, but hey, congrats on being modded up for expressing a liberal leaning view on slashdot. In other news, the sky is blue...
https://www.politifact.com/tru...
"Liberalism is a very noble idea, currently controlled by some very bad people. Be sure you do not get the two confused.
In most cases, like this, an NFC chip is correctly described as transponder, not transmitter. It's a passive device that responds to magnetic field, at lengths around half a feet. So the "transmitter" headline is clickbait unfit for a (former) tech-site. It also seems like classic red herring, nobody knows if the ball was equipped with other toys by Russia, focusing on a known passive transponder distracts from that. On the other hand I get the joke potential as world leaders tend to receive gifts at every meeting, and there are certainly existing protocols to protect them from eavesdropping, bombs etc. Of particular note in this context, the briefcase that follows POTUS around and contains all the nuclear missile launch codes etc. is known as the "nuclear football" making things weird for this particular analogy.
Putin is a trained KGB agent. You seriouly think he and his people would come up with something so obvious and stupid and easily detectable? Seriously?
The problem with the hysteria, both the anti-Trump and the anti-Russia one, is that it is a stupidity epidemic. It contains too much disdain and makes you underestimate them. Both. Trump, for all the spectacle and shouting, actually did a few things right. And Putin, whatever you think about him, is not an idiot.
I'm sure the Russians are spying on the Americans - just like vice versa. But they would be idiots to do it like this. Someone watched too many stupid Hollywood spy movies.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Everything in my world has to be either one extreme or the other extreme, there can't be ANY COMPROMISES of any kind!
Fuck off. I can't even tell anymore which of you are just the garden-variety trolls and which of you really as as fucktardedly stupid as you sound.