Bewarethewumpus

Alan writes, "In a formal response to a motion by shareholders to get a vote requiring AT&T to publish a transparency report the telecom giant has said, essentially, it's none of your business."

The response claims that the decision (not) to publish a transparency report is a matter of normal business operation and so should not be the subject of a shareholder vote. Oh, and anyway they would only disclose what they've given to law enforcement. Cooperation with the three-letter-agencies still wouldn't be in the report. So, nyah!

AT&T Responds to Shareholders’ Concerns on User Data [Brian X Chen/NYT]

(Thanks, Alan!)

Gaston divulges a little known secret about Belle’s father.

TRUTH!

Having a good time in Battlefield 4 in an unconventional way doesn't always mean stacking 64 players into an elevator or changing pilot seats mid-air. There's jet ski jousting! Jackfrags and his crew show us how to play this grand sporting spectacle.

Two teams battle for supremacy on water, while jet skis and rocket launchers replace horses and lances. That's fair enough.

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Actually, Ganon being lactose intolerant would explain all the world-conquering rage. Life without cheese must be hard.

As you might have guessed, indeed it's Random Encounters that is back once more with a lovely performance, this time based on Wind Waker. It's pretty much par for the course as far as Random Encounters vids go—it's fun, catchy, and filled to the brim with references. Definitely give it a listen.

"Legends of Zelda" - Tales of the Wind Waker [Random Encounters@YouTube]

Questions? Comments? Contact the author of this post at andras-AT-kotaku-DOT-com.

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Two days ago, a truck carrying a container of radioactive cobalt-60 (enough to make a dirty bomb) was stolen by carjackers off a highway near Tijuana. Today, authorities found the truck and the men who stole it. The thieves aren't terrorists, just some guys who wanted a truck with a crane attached to it. But, at some point, they opened the container of cobalt-60 and will now almost certainly die from radiation exposure.

It's appraised at $200,000 to $300,000.

Harrison Ford’s charismatic smuggler, Han Solo, is arguably the most popular character in the original Star Wars trilogy. The space-scoundrel-turned hero’s persona is irrevocably tied to his blaster pistol. Solo was modeled after the rogue gunslingers of the westerns that influenced creator George Lucas. This non-firing blaster was created for The Empire Strikes Back and was also used in Return of the Jedi. It would have been used in the majority of scenes that feature Han, with the heavier, live-fire weapon being used for close-up shots. Particularly noteworthy scenes requiring this lighter version are when Darth Vader uses the Force to lasso the blaster out of Han’s hand in Empire, and in Jedi when Han wrestles with a Stormtrooper to regain possession of his blaster during the Rebels’ encounter with Imperial forces on Endor. Based on the German issue Mauser C96 pistol, this piece, measuring 11 in. long, was custom made for the film from resin by casting the original hero prop from the first Star Wars: A New Hope, it therefore exhibits the same serial number as the hero prop, which is thought to no longer exist. The blaster is exactly in its original filming condition and therefore exhibits wear from use, but retains all of the original details, including the flash suppressor and scope (the eye-piece of which is detailed with reflective scotch-lite tape). The added distinction of this particular piece is that it was also likely used by Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, as both characters shared the same style of weapon in Empire. Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from a noted Star Wars collector. To our knowledge this is the only known example of this type of blaster in private hands. This is a truly incredible item of motion picture history and quite possibly the most exciting science fiction weapon to have been offered for public auction.

Lot 379: Harrison Ford "Han Solo" DL-44 Blaster from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

In this latest animated short from Cyanide and Happiness, a painter tries to impress his nude portrait model with a finishing touch of GIF animation to his masterpiece.

A British teacher and artist named Guy Tarrant has assembled two cases' worth of toys confiscated from London schoolchildren, soliciting them from fellow teachers. The collection represents items from 150 schools and 30 years, and is on display at the excellent Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. The Childhood Museum is very close to my home, and it's one of my favourite London museums -- I like it better, even, than its enormous parent institution, the V&A down in South Kensington.

These “confiscation cabinets,” assembled by veteran teacher and artist Guy Tarrant, are an unusual archive: toys taken from London schoolchildren in 150 different schools, over thirty years.

Tarrant became interested in the toys as tokens of resistance to school routines and teacherly discipline. He enlisted other teachers to donate their own confiscated items to his project. In all, he made eight such cabinets, which are currently on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood in London.

A British Teacher's Archive of Confiscated Toys [Rebecca Onion/Slate]

(via Super Punch)

(Photos: Guy Tarrant)

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(630): my biography would be titled "haunting truths and dick jokes: a tale of love, loss, and masturbation.".

A new report in the New York Times by James Risen and Laura Poitras details how National Security Agency officials seeking dominance in intelligence collection, "pledged last year to push to expand surveillance powers," according to a top-secret strategy document leaked by Edward Snowden.

In a February 2012 paper laying out the four-year strategy for the N.S.A.’s signals intelligence operations, which include the agency’s eavesdropping and communications data collection around the world, agency officials set an objective to “aggressively pursue legal authorities and a policy framework mapped more fully to the information age.” Written as an agency mission statement with broad goals, the five-page document said that existing American laws were not adequate to meet the needs of the N.S.A. to conduct broad surveillance in what it cited as “the golden age of Sigint,” or signals intelligence. “The interpretation and guidelines for applying our authorities, and in some cases the authorities themselves, have not kept pace with the complexity of the technology and target environments, or the operational expectations levied on N.S.A.’s mission,” the document concluded.

"N.S.A. Report Outlined Goals for More Power" (nytimes.com)

And don't miss this earlier report by Charlie Savage in the New York Times, "Warrantless Surveillance Continues to Cause Fallout."

Related, in Ars Technica, the US response: "House intel bill adds $75 million to NSA budget to stop future Snowdens."

submitted by Wadegoerzen [link] [287 comments]

[Video Link via Arbroath]

It’s been easy to forget about the Wii U lately, with this month's high-profile launches of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. In fact, it’s been easy to forget about the Wii U in general; Nintendo's console has sold poorly since its release last November, and truly exciting software has been all but non-existent. Until now.

Super Mario 3D World is the best game on the Wii U by far, and arguably the best game to come out this holiday season on any platform. It sees Nintendo finally firing on all cylinders again, at a time when it's needed the most. It's Nintendo at its creative, playful, unhinged best.

Nintendo typically uses its 3D Super Mario titles as a showcase for new hardware, so the design of Super Mario 3D World could have been cause for concern. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, it draws most of its influence from 2011's Super Mario 3D Land, a fantastic 3DS title that took many by surprise. Both games share the same isometric perspective and simple eight-way directional control; by limiting camera and player movement, the two come off as an accessible hybrid between previous 2D and 3D Super Mario releases. While the formula is proven, some will certainly feel slightly disappointed that the Wii U isn't seeing an all-new blueprint.

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Question: "Am I free to go or am I being detained?"

Answer: "Duh constitution don't apply at checkpoints."

The cops are desperate to bust this young man. They are surprised to discover that they are being videoed.

(Thanks, Mikea)