Russia is moving to make digital identity verification standard practice at hotels nationwide. Hotels will soon be required to check in guests who arrive without an internal passport using the state-backed messaging app Max. https://ftnnews.com/travel-news/accommodation/russia-mandates-digital-id-app-for-hotel-check-ins-from-september-1/

⚡️Bio-Surveillance with Andrew Kaufman

Is wearable technology creating an internet of bodies?

In our latest #TBOT interview, I sat down with Dr. Andrew Kaufman, a medical researcher who has firsthand experience with wearable biosensor technology. That experience gives him a unique perspective on the rapidly expanding Internet of Bodies and the risks that come with connecting our bodies to the internet.

“Gather the data first, and ask questions later” seems to be the modus operandi of the big tech companies steering the wearable industry, Andrew and I discuss how this fits into brainwave decoding, wearable biosensors, digital IDs, biometric surveillance, AI, and the growing push to gather massive amounts of personal data.

How much of your health data are you willing to give away for convenience?

📺 Watch now on Substack
🎒Protect your student’s privacy this school year, check out Above's Back to School Sale

—
@takebackourtech
Website | XMPP | Substack | X

⚡️ AI Arms Race or Overbuild?

U.S. tech leaders push AI as a defense race with China, yet 80% of China’s data centers sit unused. When they say it’s all about meeting demand, is there a different agenda behind the boom?

🎥 Watch the full interview here
📖 Read the full AI Data Center Ecology Report

—
@abovephone
Website | Substack | X

⚡️The Business of Staying Sick

In this clip from Real World Ayurveda, Nicole and Hakeem contrast symptom management with a system of health care that is actually focused on helping people get well.

They discuss the revolving-door model of chronic treatment and why true healing should eventually mean needing less intervention, not more.

Ayurveda focuses on addressing the root, supporting the body, and helping people move toward long-term health and seasonal care.

Book a consultation with Nicole:
https://newleafsac.com/appointments

📺 Watch on Substack
👉 Subscribe to Real World Ayurveda

My latest article for TLAV:

Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology: The Largest US Biometric Database You’ve Never Heard Of

A long-delayed, over-budget biometric program is set to become the largest centralized database of biometric data collected from Americans and foreigners who have visited the United States.

https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/hart-facial-recognition/

⚡Ayurveda for Me, Not for Thee

In episode 5, "Ayurveda for Me but not for Thee" Hakeem and Nicole jump right in to the hot topic of how the rich and powerful use Ayurveda for there own health care and yet are propagandists for big Pharma. Prince Charles, Opra Winfrey, Bill Gates to name a few are all on the guest lists of Ayurvedic spas in India. Covid 19 came with fear and restrictions around the use of natural healthcare options and Ayurveda was no exception.

Nicole discusses her courageous act of keeping her practice open during the pandemic, how she addressed the fear and sicknesses she saw and is still seeing in the aftermath of the injections. De-bunking more fear paradigms that are employed against Ayurveda this episode delivers truth backed by direct experience.

Taking some interesting twists and turns, this episode lives up to RWA's goal of dispelling the myths of sick care medicine including the C-word, Cancer. This Episode will empower you to live in reality and escape the fear trap that keeps you afraid and in the dark.

Book a consultation with Nicole:
https://newleafsac.com/appointments

📺 Watch on Substack
🌱Subscribe to Real World Ayurveda
—
@takebackourtech
Website | XMPP | Substack | X

⏰ Last Call — Sale Ends Tomorrow!

Our Back-to-School Sale ends tomorrow, August 31, and these prices will disappear.

Save $449 on an Above Book Quantum, $400 on the Pixel 8 Pro, $300 on a Pixel 7a B-Grade, and more.

Every purchase includes our 30-day risk-free guarantee and a free 45-minute support session.

👉 Shop before the sale ends:
https://abovephone.com/school/

Announcing the Dates for The People's Reset 2027 + Our First Speaker!

Join us from March 10-14, 2027 for The People's Reset in Morelia, Mexico!

This year we are focused on manifesting Liberation 2030.

Our first in person speaker for 2027 is..... (watch the video to find out!)

Tickets are now available for $188 USD here: https://thegreaterreset.org/product/tpr2027/

Nominate a speaker or performer here: https://thegreaterreset.org/speaker-performer-nominations/

Stay tuned for lots more details to come!

⚡️ The U.S. Data Center Boom: Are We Heading for Empty Shells?

With around 400 hyperscale data centers already online, we’re building at breakneck speed. Yet China’s example shows what happens when capacity far exceeds demand. What does this mean for the U.S.?

🎥 Watch the full interview here
📖 Read the full AI Data Center Ecology Report

—
@abovephone
Website | Substack | X

The U.S. has been dealing with severe groundwater decline since the 20th century, driven by rapid development, agriculture, heavy industry—and now, data centers.

If AI keeps booming, what happens to our groundwater?

Read more about the risks to our water systems before it’s too late: https://aidatacentermap.org/

—
@abovephone
Website | Substack | X

⚡️Flock Is Only One Piece

In my conversation with Hrvoje Morić from Geopolitics and Empire and Derrick Broze, we got into the bigger picture: license plate readers are just one piece of a surveillance system that includes drones, digital infrastructure, and the data centers storing and processing it all.

The technology is connected. Our response has to be bigger than fighting one camera at a time.

📺 Watch the full episode
📖 Read the full AI Data Center Ecology Report
🛡 Make surveillance harder, start with your own tech

—
@takebackourtech
Website | XMPP | Substack | X

For those who want to replace their self development process with AI:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260904014440/https://abcnews.com/US/3-hikers-ai-plan-trip-rescued-after-becoming/story?id=136176177

New Shock Gloves Used on Students In Omaha

https://kimmonson.com/news/omaha-schools-shock-gloves-324-362-volts-two-students/

Susan Kochevar, owner of the 88 Drive-In Theatre, brought the Omaha deployment to The Kim Monson Show on September 4. The company’s name was what struck her first, she said. “I just find that name right out of George Orwell’s 1984,” Kochevar said. She told listeners it is “a device that the school resource officers wear,” that it “delivers a painful shock ranging from 324 to 362 volts directly through skin contact,” and that it is “very painful, and it doesn’t leave a mark,” which she noted the company advertises as an advantage.

@takebackourtech

⚡️ Speaking Out Is Not Extremism

Across the U.S., people opposing data centers are being labeled "violent extremists” when, in reality, the real threat is unchecked AI infrastructure. We need to call out the inversion: those protecting land and water aren’t the ones doing harm.

🎥 Watch the full interview here
📖 Read the full AI Data Center Ecology Report

—
@abovephone
Website | Substack | X

⚡️The Great Elements Part 1

Join Hakeem and Nicole as they kick off a deep-dive exploration into what it takes to begin to practice and understand Ayurveda. Learning to experience Reality through your senses is essential, not only for an accurate health assessment, but to properly understand Doshas. Dosha theory is the most well-known aspect of Ayurveda and is often misunderstood and, because of that, improperly used. Ayurveda requires us to pay attention to perceivable Reality, and this podcast explores what it takes to do that.

Comparing Eastern and Western approaches, Nicole talks about the value of assessing the elemental nature of an individual, and how that understanding will create avenues for healing otherwise absent from our current healthcare systems. You'll get to watch an endearing practice session with Hakeem's house plant, revealing how this process is both humbling and revealing. Enjoy!

📺 Watch on Substack
👉 Subscribe to Real World Ayurveda

In San Marcos, Texas, residents twice pushed back against a planned $1.5 billion data center that would use 380 MW of power—almost 2.5x the city’s peak demand.

Read the case study: https://aidatacentermap.org/

Tonight my city planning board is being asked to renew a previously granted permit (2021). Because it's older, it falls outside the signed moratorium from July. The company asked unions to send members to speak. Of course promising jobs. SMDH, as a lifelong environmentalist all I can say is the corporate criminal mind does not change. Nor have I forgotten our slogan: there will be no jobs on a dead planet. Of course in the cases of these monstrosities, there's more at stake than simply jobs. Our working group has put the word out too. We packed city council chambers 3x to get the moratorium, we'll do it a 4th. I'll be there early to seat save. Please send positive energy eastward, we're in New England.

⚡️Breaking Bad #1 -Ayurveda

News Flash! Breaking Bad Ayurveda is a new offering of time-sensitive content. Using day-to-day experiences in a real Ayurvedic clinical setting, Hakeem and Nicole break down the concerns of the season, giving you the inside scoop so that you can better navigate the real world with Ayurveda.

This episode of Breaking Bad Ayurveda covers a host of problems concerning supplements being offered on popular websites in the health freedom space. Discussing the contraindications that are not listed online, Nicole brings her clinical experience to the conversation, warning that without evaluation, these supplements can be dangerous. Discussing the Summer season of Pitta and the transition to Fall, Nicole guides us to the right choices to soothe our hot/dry bodies and set us up for the best outcome for the weather changes ahead.

📺 Watch on Substack
👉 Subscribe to Real World Ayurveda

—
@takebackourtech
Website | XMPP | Substack | X

⚡️Where Does the Privacy Line Stop?

Hakeem recently sat down with Oto Gomes to talk about how surveillance has changed since the Snowden disclosures. Today, sensitive location data can be bought from commercial data brokers without following the traditional warrant process people associate with government surveillance.

And location is only one layer. As our devices collect more about our bodies and lives, the real question is: where do we draw the line?

📺 Watch the full episode
📱 Put less of your life in big tech’s hands, go Above

—
@abovephone
Website | Substack | X