IT… Wikileaks Docs Show How the CIA Allegedly Infected Offline Computers 23 Jun 201722 Jun 2017 Hacking air-gapped machines—computers that are not connected to the internet, so theoretically less vulnerable—is always pretty interesting. On Wednesday, Wikileaks published a series of alleged CIA documents that supposedly show…
Gesellschaft… European Politicians Are Fighting to Ban Backdoors Into Encrypted Messaging Apps 20 Jun 201719 Jun 2017 Despite swelling surveillance powers creeping across Europe, a European Parliament proposal is actually calling for a ban on "backdoors" that allow law enforcement agencies and governments into encrypted communications such…
Gesellschaft… The Military Wants to Create the Ultimate Good Boy 28 Apr 201727 Apr 2017 US Special Forces wants to give doggos performance enhancers for the battlefield. By Ben Sullivan | MOTHERBOARD Humanity has kindly shared the horrors of war with our animal-kin for thousands…
Ökonomie… Why Britain’s Snap Election Is Bad News for Science 19 Apr 201718 Apr 2017 Theresa May has a questionable history with science and tech policies, and her leadership might now be extended. By Ben Sullivan | MOTHERBOARD With British Prime Minister Theresa May's decision…
Ökonomie… This Site Sells Replica ISIS Suicide Vests and Pressure Cooker Bombs 16 Apr 201715 Apr 2017 Islamic State's weaponized drones are now so ubiquitous that you can even buy replicas of the bombs they drop for training purposes. They look just like the real thing, and…
Gesellschaft… The CIA Can Now Order Drone Strikes Without Pentagon Approval 15 Mrz 201714 Mrz 2017 President Trump is widening the CIA's remit on targeted killing. By Ben Sullivan | MOTHERBOARD Last November, Motherboard asked how President Trump would handle the legacy of his predecessor's drone program.…
Ökonomie… Elite Scientists Have Told the Pentagon That AI Won’t Threaten Humanity 20 Jan 201719 Jan 2017 A new report authored by a group of independent US scientists advising the US Dept. of Defense (DoD) on artificial intelligence (AI) claims that perceived existential threats to humanity posed…
Bildung… The United States Is Not an Apocalyptic Wasteland, Explains Steven Pinker 7 Dez 20166 Dez 2016 Donald Trump’s rise to power was driven in part by an apocalyptic narrative according to which, in a phrase, you are in grave danger. This is consistent with many people’s…
Ökonomie… Virtual Reality’s Next Big Thing Could Be Wireless Tech 23 Nov 201622 Nov 2016 I admire the HTC Vive virtual reality headset, but I've always felt it leaves me too tethered to stones-and-bones reality. That feeling usually has little to do with graphics or…
Gesellschaft… White Supremacists Are Still Using Twitter Ads to Spread Their Message 17 Nov 201616 Nov 2016 Just hours after Twitter heralded the introduction of new ways to combat trolls, some users have reported seeing sponsored ads from a white supremacist group on their feeds. By Ben…
Fundamentalismus… Turks Are Flocking to Tor After Government Orders Block of Anti-Censorship Tools 9 Nov 20168 Nov 2016 Turkish internet users are flocking to Tor, the anonymizing and censorship-circumvention tool, after Turkey’s government blocked Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai | MOTHERBOARD Usage of Tor inside of…
Gesellschaft… Cops Monitoring Social Media Is Much More Than Just Collecting Tweets 20 Okt 201619 Okt 2016 It’s not just your friends following you on Facebook or Twitter. The cops are, too. By Joseph Cox | MOTHERBOARD Law enforcement agencies around the world have used social media…
Ökonomie… Star Trek in VR Really Is ‘The Next Generation’ 14 Okt 201613 Okt 2016 I’m not a Trekkie, but I certainly hold a soft spot for The Next Generation—as I think most of my peers do—after watching countless reruns during my childhood in the…
Geschichte… Our Closest Earthlike Planet Appears to Be Covered in Water 8 Okt 20167 Okt 2016 Jupiter’s moon Europa recently became the best candidate yet for harboring alien life within our Solar System. But in the search for life outside of our cosmic backyard, an Earth-sized,…
Demokratie… Why Facts Don’t Matter to Donald Trump or the 2016 Electorate 1 Okt 201630 Sep 2016 Between the hours of 3 AM and 5 AM Friday morning, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump went on a tweetstorm in which he was, you know, just saying that maybe…
Geschichte… This AI Sees Things in Art That Humans Don’t 3 Sep 20162 Sep 2016 What’s the same about a photo of the most recent Notting Hill Carnival parade and an 18th century portrait of an upper class family? It might not be obvious to…
Geschichte… The Language of Aliens Will Always Be Indecipherable 27 Aug 201626 Aug 2016 There’s about 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe—and as the technology of our telescopes improves, humans will probably discover as many as a trillion galaxies. Galaxies, like our own,…
Ökonomie… Confessions of a Former Apocalypse Survival Guide Writer 25 Jul 201624 Jul 2016 The first time I bid on a freelance job to ghostwrite a doomsday survival guide, I was only asked one question: Did I have experience writing for middle-aged Republican men?…
Geschichte… Your First Step to Becoming A Cyborg: Getting This Pierced In You 23 Jul 201622 Jul 2016 If you’ve always wanted to be a cyborg, an artificially-enhanced human with bionic technology, but you’ve always been too afraid of getting a chip in your wrist, North Sense might…
Ökonomie… It’s Safe to Eat These 4 Crops Grown in ‚Martian Soil‘ 25 Jun 201624 Jun 2016 Remember that scene in The Martian where actor Matt Damon grows crops in a makeshift greenhouse on Mars so he can eat them? There are people on Earth making that…
Gesellschaft… Shark-Spotting Drones Could Protect Both Swimmers and Sharks 25 Mai 201624 Mai 2016 While the nightmarish scenarios from Steven Spielberg’s hit movie Jaws might be a bit over the top, beachgoers around the world still face the risk of an occasional shark attack.…
