The whole point of the article is that not everybody is able to use javascript, for a variety of reasons, and it makes perfect sense for apps to provide as close to equivalent functionality as is practicable.
People should send calling cards ("Hi, it's so-and-so, wish to call on you at your convenience") and wait for a response. Same for telephones (send an email/text message first).
The "Switching to fallback DNS server 8.8.8.8." message indicates that you have no DNS servers configured at all, in which case resolved will use compiled-in fallback servers because it tries hard to just work also if you have a locally misconfigured system
It's good to have the knowledge that Google servers are compiled-in to resolved.
The article reveals a few "dark arts" of the PR firm:-
- Twitterbots to "amplify the message"
- "manipulate Google results to 'drown out' negative coverage of human rights violations"
- get Members of Parliament "known to be critical of investigative programmes could be used to attack journalists over minor reporting errors"
- "a team dealing with negative Wikipedia coverage of clients"
and this bit:-
In 2016 the Bureau revealed a secret $500 million propaganda operation run by Bell Pottinger in Iraq for the Pentagon after the invasion in 2003. It involved making videos which would look like they had been produced by local Iraqi TV stations to spin the news, and recutting insurgent videos with code to track anyone who watched them. When the Bureau revealed this Lord Bell told the Sunday Times that "it was a covert military operation" for the CIA, the Pentagon and the National Security Council and "we were very proud of it".
Indeed, copper sheathing [0] may have been used by the ancient Phoenicians and Carthaginians, but the first authenticated use seems to have been in 1758 [1].
It would be super if they were helped to achieve their EUR15K/month target, but after nearly three months, they're only a third of the way there (a situation that is made a little better by having a couple months worth of one-time donations).
"An exchange of letters relating to a teenage prodigy's contribution to linear algebra" [0] would have been a more interesting choice, especially if the article would include some research on Lionel March [1] and his "rebmun algebra".