Bewarethewumpus

Author : Bob Newbell

“We’re almost ready,” said Olav to his companion, Isak. “Are the others out of range?”

“Yes, all the ships are gone,” replied Isak. “It’s just us now.”

The two of them watched UY Scuti waver on their ship’s display like a reflection in water distorted by ripples. But UY Scuti was no reflection. It was a red supergiant star with five billion times the volume of Sol. The great artificial rings that surrounded the enormous sun were far too small to be visible. But they were there, spinning around the great star faster and faster, distorting the fabric of spacetime. If UY Scuti replaced Sol, the former’s photosphere would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter. In a few moments, the star would be compressed to the dimensions of a proton.

“Think we’ll survive?” asked Isak.

“We both made backup copies of our minds,” responded Olav matter-of-factly.

“I know. But I mean…us.”

“There’s a good chance we won’t,” said Olav. “No one’s ever tried to punch a hole out of our D-brane and into another dimension.”

“Assuming our universe is a very large D-brane extended over three spatial dimensions,” remarked Isak. “If that’s the case and all material objects are just open strings bound to this D-brane and gravity is the result of closed strings exerting their force from ‘outside’ our universe…”

“We’ll know either way soon enough,” said Olav.

The ship’s computer started moving the vessel closer to the imploding star.

“I hope opening a hyperspace tunnel out of our brane-space doesn’t do any harm,” said Isak.

“The government approved this. Even if it did cause something catastrophic, in the long run the race would benefit from it,” said Olav.

“Well, that’s taking optimism a bit far,” replied Isak.

“But it’s true. Look at history. Back in 2758, when Eta Carinae went supernova, the gamma ray burst destroyed Earth’s ozone layer. Muon radiation killed almost everything and ultraviolet radiation killed what was left. But the humans in underground colonies on Earth’s Moon and Mars and inside hollowed-out asteroids survived. The survivors were a select population: Intelligent, highly motivated, physically and emotionally tough. It was from this adventurous stock that the human population was restored.”

Isak looked at his companion in disbelief. “It was the worst mass extinction event in history!”

“Oh, certainly it was a horrific nightmare. But without it, mankind would have remained confined to one solar system.”

“Next you’ll be telling me the Plague of Tau Ceti IV was a great leap forward.”

“It was. After the plague, legislation blocking experiments in transhumanism was relaxed and later repealed. The transhuman meta-race wouldn’t exist across the Milky Way if the Tau Ceti plague hadn’t happened. I know it seems grotesque that that’s how progress is made, but–”

Olav was interrupted by the sound of alarms. UY Scuti seemed to suddenly iris down like the image on an ancient television set that had been switched off. The ship lurched forward at high speed toward the narrow tunnel that was opening.

“I sincerely hope this doesn’t turn out to be one of your great moments in the history of progress,” said Isak as the small ship disappeared into higher dimensions.”

Author : Hannah Jenkins

What is the nature of the human soul? That old favourite after-dinner topic of philosophers and theologians has suddenly become much more important, as it is dragged out of the hypothetical realm into cold, hard reality.

What is the soul made of? Where does it go after death? Where is it now? Does it sit in the stomach, undetectable until it leaps with excitement or sinks with despair? Is it in the heart, providing the energy and inspiration behind every beat? Is it in the brain, held in a net of glittering neurons? Or does it roam the body freely, flowing in our blood and dancing along our nerves? Can it break free of the flesh altogether, travelling beyond us into our dreams and imaginings?

So why am I asking all this? Because it is a matter of life and death. Literally. The question I ask is simply this; am I alive, or am I dead? And, despite what else you may have been told, this is the question you are here to answer.

If the soul is contained within the body, before moving on to your choice of afterlife, then my soul fled the shell of my body as it burnt on board the Caracal. It is gone, I am dead, and the person speaking to you now is little more than an imitation, an echo, a literal “ghost in the machine”.

But what if the soul is capable of more than that? What if life is far more fantastic, wild and strange than we ever thought possible? What if my soul remained when my body died? What if…I am alive?

What if, when my mind was uploaded into the computer of the Caracal, my soul went with it?

What if – when the ship was attacked at the edge of the Empire’s territory, when it exploded and the crew died in screaming agony – what if my soul remained, protected deep in the computer core?

You all know what happened next. Twenty-three ships were lost that day. One thousand, two hundred and eighty-eight names were added to the monument on Capitol Hill. The relief ships trawled the debris field for the bodies of the fallen, and anything else that could be saved. The Pallas found a computer core, drifting in the remains of the Caracal. They linked it up to a power source and reactivated it, hoping to retrieve some useful data on the battle. Instead, they found me. The intact consciousness of the pilot, held in a net of circuitry. Nobody thought it was possible. Some people maintain that it still isn’t. I died, they say. My name is on the monument. My next of kin have been informed. End of story.

Of course, if it was that simple, you wouldn’t be here.

The Pilots’ Union has fought for over a year to bring about this hearing, and for that they have my immense gratitude. They believe that I am alive, which means that I have kept my rights as a citizen of the Empire. These include the right to speak freely, the right to a fair trial, and, of course, the right to life.

For this hearing the computer containing me has been connected to a portable generator. That’s the grey box next to the platform. You can see that on the front is an on/off switch. Ladies and gentlemen and uncategorised, I invite you to make your decision. Is pressing that switch no different from turning off an interactive entertainment vid, or is it murder? Your choice.

An unnamed 17 year-old kid has been arrested, and may face felony charges, after being caught organising a DDOS attack against the West Ada School District in Idaho, which has 52 schools and 32,000 students.

The attacks took place earlier this month, reports KTVB (via Daily Dot), and resulted in the schools being unable to reliably access the internet for over a week. The attacks took place while students were taking their Idaho Standard Achievement tests; a District spokesperson says kids “lost all their work, and some had to take the tests multiple times this week.”

Multiple times? Sheesh.

The absurd thing is he didn’t even do the job himself; the accused paid someone else to do it, which didn’t stop police from being able to track him down regardless.

If the boy is charged with a felony (for computer crime), he’s looking at up to 180 days in juvenile detention. And his parents will be handed the bill “for any financial restitution suffered by the school district.”

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From the team behind Kurz Gesagt (In a Nutshell), this terrific animation about Net Neutrality that premiered at last night's Webby Awards in New York City.

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Scott K. Johnson

The steel pipe is a stand-in for a lava tube— the conduits that form within large lava flows as the outer skin solidifies. The banana is a stand-in for a banana.

47 more images in gallery

Back in 2012, we pointed you to an awesome project at Syracuse University that creates artificial lava flows for science, art, and outreach. They don’t use some mild, room-temperature stand-in for lava, they do it the artisanal way:  melting small batches of basalt in a serious furnace and pouring out the incandescent results. I’ve been hoping to see it for myself ever since, and recently I got the chance to tag along with a group of volcanology students from Colgate University, who were designing and running their own lava experiments for class.

The furnace is surprisingly well-insulated, disguising the fact that it holds molten rock heated to over 1,200 degrees Celsius. It does emit a low, ominous roar, however, as it consumes natural gas to feed its fire. Once poured out, the lava quickly loses heat—it solidifies in just a minute or so, though it still remains incredibly hot long after. Because it solidifies so quickly, it forms amber-black volcanic glass riddled with bubbles of gas that were unable to escape.

The lava pours are as mesmerizing and beautiful as they are geologically exciting. And they’ve probably shocked many a bus rider staring dully out the window while passing the art building.

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(Misfit Photographer)

The matter before the court in Henderson v U.S. involved a U.S. Border Patrol agent who was arrested on marijuana distribution charges. As a condition of his bail, the FBI took possession of his firearms. He later entered a guilty plea to a felony charge.

Under 18 U.S.C. §922(g), convicted felons are prohibited from possessing a firearm. So the man requested that the FBI transfer ownership of his guns to a friend. However, the FBI refused.

A federal court denied his request saying that the transfer of the weapons to a friend could effectively allow him to retain possession of the guns through the friend. An appeals court affirmed this decision.

In arguing before the Supreme Court, the government had maintained that the law prevents all transfer of convicted felons’ weapons to third parties, even in cases where a court approves the recipient, except to licensed firearms dealers who will sell them on the open market.

But in today’s SCOTUS ruling [PDF], Justice Elena Kagan explains that this is too oversimplified a view of the law.

She writes that the government is conflating the right to possess an item with the right to “sell or otherwise dispose of that item.”

Taking away a felon’s right to own a gun does not necessarily mean the felon gives up all his rights to decide where that gun ends up. Likewise, giving the felon the ability to determine the disposition of his guns doesn’t put him in possession of the weapons.

Kagan notes that in the Henderson example, where the felon turned over his guns to the FBI before he was even convicted, “The felon has nothing to do with his guns before, during, or after the transaction in question, except to nominate their recipient.”

So if the felon nominates a recipient, a judge approves that recipient, and law enforcement handles the transfer, Kagan writes that this is just doing exactly what the law is supposed to — getting the weapons out of the hands of a convicted felon.

“Such a felon exercises not a possessory interest (whether directly or through another), but instead a naked right of alienation—the capacity to sell or transfer his guns, unaccompanied by any control over them,” she explains.

The appeals court had held that Henderson had no standing on which to request equitable relief for his weapons being held by the FBI because of “unclean hands.” But in a footnote to the SCOTUS ruling, Kagan dismisses this line of thought, pointing out that the while the “unclean hands doctrine proscribes equitable relief,” that is only in instances where the felon’s misconduct has “immediate and necessary relation to the equity that he seeks.”

Because Henderson’s conviction had nothing to do with firearms, this doctrine doesn’t apply, explains Kagan.

SCOTUS believes that courts have the authority to review firearm transfer requests from felons. The trial court “may properly seek certain assurances: for example, it may ask the proposed transferee to promise to keep the guns away from the felon.” If the court doesn’t believe that this transfer or sale will prevent the felon from exercising possession, it can deny the request.

Today’s ruling could have farther reaching implications for convicted felons who have been denied requests to transfer or sell property that was seized but unrelated to the crime for which they were committed.

[via SCOTUSblog.com]

Last night’s Saturday Night Live season finale featured comedian Louis C.K., who joked that this could be his last time hosting the show. His opening stand-up set showed why.

He opened with a bit about how growing up in the 1970s means he suffers from “mild racism,” then joked about how his two daughters fight like Israel and Palestine, then examined how child molesters must love raping children as much as he enjoys eating Mounds bars, because why else would they take the risk.

Too far? Or just right?

[via Mediaite]

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(This post is from our new blog: Unofficial Sources.)

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., today blasted the secrecy shrouding the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

“They said, well, it’s very transparent. Go down and look at it,” said Boxer on the floor of the Senate. “Let me tell you what you have to do to read this agreement. Follow this: you can only take a few of your staffers who happen to have a security clearance — because, God knows why, this is secure, this is classified. It has nothing to do with defense. It has nothing to do with going after ISIS.”

Boxer, who has served in the House and Senate for 33 years, then described the restrictions under which members of Congress can look at the current TPP text.

“The guard says, ‘you can’t take notes.’ I said, ‘I can’t take notes?’” Boxer recalled. “‘Well, you can take notes, but have to give them back to me, and I’ll put them in a file.’ So I said: ‘Wait a minute. I’m going to take notes and then you’re going to take my notes away from me and then you’re going to have them in a file, and you can read my notes? Not on your life.’”

Watch the video below:

Boxer noted at the start of her speech that she hoped opponents of the trade promotion authority bill — the so-called fast-track legislation required to advance the TPP — would be able to block the bill via a filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is expected to file a motion to invoke cloture on the measure later this afternoon.

“Instead of standing in a corner, trying to figure out a way to bring a trade bill to the floor that doesn’t do anything for the middle class — that is held so secretively that you need to go down there and hand over your electronics and give up your right to take notes and bring them back to your office — they ought to come over here and figure out how to help the middle class,” Boxer said.

In 2012, U.S. chief TPP negotiator Barbara Weisel said that “constantly evolving TPP chapter texts cannot be released to the public.” The same year, then-U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk claimed that secrecy was justified because openness and debate last decade killed talks surrounding the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Sam Knight is a writer and reporter living in Washington, D.C. He is the co-founder of the watchdog news site The District Sentinel. 

Photo: Getty Images

The post “You Can Read My Notes? Not on Your Life!”: Top Democratic Senator Blasts Obama’s TPP Secrecy appeared first on The Intercept.

(This post is from our new blog: Unofficial Sources.)

Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Tex., campaigned on a pledge to support the War on Terror and voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act in 2011.

But the conservative lawmaker changed his opinion due to Edward Snowden’s leak of government documents on surveillance. Explaining his about-face Tuesday evening during the House Rules Committee hearing on the USA Freedom Act, Burgess said that he remembered being told by intelligence officials that Section 215 of the Patriot Act would only be used to collect data on terrorists calling other terrorists in a foreign country.

“With the Snowden revelations,” Burgess said, he found out that Section 215 had been expanded by the NSA to include “every call everyone makes in this country,” a change that was only shared with congressional leadership, not rank-and-file members like himself.

Watch a clip of the congressman’s remarks below:

As The Intercept has reported, lawmakers have had extreme difficulty in receiving answers to simple questions about intelligence programs they have been asked to vote to approve.

Burgess noted that the Snowden documents caused a “visceral reaction” in his district. Today he voted against approval of the USA Freedom Act, a law that reauthorizes and modifies the Patriot Act. Critics say the bill does not go far enough in reining in NSA surveillance powers.

Photo: Oliver Douliery/Getty 

The post Conservative GOP Congressman Credits Snowden For Changing His Position on Patriot Act appeared first on The Intercept.

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Remember the security researcher who was pulled from a United flight and had his equipment taken (before its frequent flier miles-paying bug hunt) for tweeting about hacking into the plane via its entertainment system? In an application for a search warrant, FBI agents said he previously told them he's gone further than that. APTN National News obtained the document, which contains claims that Chris Roberts told them he connected his laptop to a plane via an Ethernet cable, hacked into a thrust management computer and briefly controlled one of the engines, causing the plane to change course. As reported previously by Wired, he has warned of vulnerabilities in planes for years -- manufacturers deny they exist -- and the conversations were apparently intended to get these problems fixed.

Find myself on a 737/800, lets see Box-IFE-ICE-SATCOM, ? Shall we start playing with EICAS messages? "PASS OXYGEN ON" Anyone ? :)

- Chris Roberts (@Sidragon1) April 15, 2015

Irony: for FBI to make its case against Chris Roberts, they're going to have to seriously harm confidence in the aviation industry.

- Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) May 16, 2015

If you tell FBI agents you can control an airplane's engines with your laptop, you're gonna have a bad time. http://t.co/73qWvaxTvU

- Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) May 16, 2015

According to the application, Roberts traveled from Denver to Chicago via United flight 1474 on April 15th, and when agents checked it, they found damage and evidence of tampering to the electronic system under his seat. On Twitter, Roberts has since claimed that no systems were harmed during the trip, and more recently, that discussion is "out of context." He told Wired in an interview that he had only ever tapped in to watch data traffic on airplanes, and while he believed such hacks were possible, he has only done them in a simulated environment.

Last month's arrest spurred warnings from the TSA and FBI to watch out for passengers trying to access internal networks. Now, while law enforcement sorts out the difference between theoretical and actual hacking, it may be a good idea to tuck in any loose network cables while going through security.

[Image credit: Nicholas Burningham / Alamy]

Filed under: Transportation

Comments

Source: APTN

We’re going to be rolling out an exciting new program in The Old Reader over the next few weeks.  As you know, The Old Reader has been entirely Ad free since it’s inception and we’ve been vocal about doing our best to protect our users from excessive online advertising.  Our Premium accounts have been very successful, but we’re frankly still not where we need to be in terms of revenues in order to fund planned development and continue innovating this service.  We have a small, dedicated, and talented team but our vision for The Old Reader is ambitious.

So we’re taking a cue from some publishers that we really admire (such as Daring Fireball) and introducing Sponsored Content.  Premium users will never see sponsored content, but all other users will see up to 1 sponsored post per week in their RSS feeds.  That’s it.  It’s an exclusive program and we believe we’ll be able to make the program beneficial to both users and sponsors.

We’re also adding weekly site sponsors that would get a banner placement on the web interface.  It’ll be an exclusive program and we’ll only accept sponsors that we believe are relevant and inoffensive.  We will under no circumstances use any techniques such as tracking cookies or harvesting user data to advertise to our users.  And again, premium users will never see any sponsored content.

We know some of you might have concerns and we’re happy to field any questions that you might have.  If you are interested in signing up for the sponsor program, please visit out sponsorship page.

A 2-year-old boy really doesn’t like seeing monkeys on top of his parent’s car.

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(Adam Fagen)

While big companies are known to quietly seek out the services of white-hat hackers to test for weaknesses in their networks and websites, it’s not every day that a major airline publicly offers a “bounty” to people who can diagnose vulnerabilities in its systems.

United’s Bug Bounty program rewards independent researchers with airline miles for discovering and reporting issues that affect United’s websites, mobile apps and online portals in a way that could put customer data at risk, Wired reports.

United said in an announcement on Thursday that the new program is an extension of its commitment to protecting customers’ privacy and the personal data they share with the airline.

“We believe that this program will further bolster our security and allow us to continue to provide excellent service,” the company said.

The airline offers three bounties (or mileage amounts awarded) depending on the type and severity of bug found.

High severity bugs, such as a vulnerability that would allow a hacker to execute code on a United property, result in a pay out of as many as 1 million miles.

Medium severity flaws, which the airline says includes the ability to identify information of customers or bypassing login requirements, can result in a reward of up to 250,000 miles.

Smaller vulnerabilities, like third-party issues that affect United, come with a bounty of up to 50,000 miles.

Of course the airline put in several stipulations and restrictions to the program.

For one, it’s first-come-first-serve, meaning only new discoveries qualify for rewards.

Bugs that only affect legacy or unsupported browsers, plugins and operating systems and bugs on the internal sites for United employees and agents are not eligible for submission. Additionally, employees and those living in their households are not permitted to take part in the program.

While the program is centered on finding vulnerabilities in United’s systems, it doesn’t cover all areas of the airline, such as an aircraft’s network.

In fact, participants are prohibited from testing on aircraft or aircraft systems such as inflight entertainment or inflight Wi-Fi.

According to the program’s rules, anyone who attempts to breach those systems will be permanently disqualified and could face criminal or legal action.

The susceptibility of those networks came to light back in April when the Government Accountability Office released a report that identified security weaknesses within the airline industry including the possibility that newer airplanes with interconnected WiFi systems could be hacked.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Transportation Security Administration quickly followed up the report by issuing an alert warning airlines to be vigilant about monitoring for such threats.

United Will Reward People Who Flag Security Flaws—Sort Of [Wired]

"Would you go to a toddler’s birthday party and kick over their cake to announce that you, too, have birthdays? The answer should be 'no.'"

Vlogger and comedian Akilah Hughes joined forces with teen-positive Rookie Magazine to pen an incredibly insightful article about activism and allyship. Hughes frames her piece around #BlackOutDay—a cool social media project that encouraged black people to share selfies as a way to challenge the ubiquity of European beauty standards and celebrate black beauty. As is the case with the #BlackLivesMatter movement, some white people took offense and tried to argue #BlackOutDay was exclusionary.

Hughes argues, however, that not every movement has to support everyone:

Blackout Day did not claim that non-black people are immune to body image issues, or that others don’t face societal pressures. But, without fail, any time a historically oppressed group asserts their equality by boldly denying any inferiority to someone outside their group, some member of the un-oppressed majority takes it personally. Well, when oppressed groups take the initiative to lift themselves up, it is not an invitation to victimize yourself. Would you go to a toddler’s birthday party and kick over their cake to announce that you, too, have birthdays? The answer should be “no.”

Hughes also readily admits that she is sometimes on the flip side of this conversation too. Although she’s an ally to the LGBT community, she was initially taken aback when she saw a post jokingly mocking straight relationships. But she eventually came to a big realization with the help of a friend who is a lesbian:

My friend was smart and patient. She simply asked, “Did you lose anything when they lifted themselves up?” and I thought really hard about it. The world hadn’t changed. I wasn’t somehow disadvantaged because queer people asserted their right to exist. I didn’t lose my right to marry, or suddenly have slurs hurled at me about my sexual orientation.

Realizing that their gay pride didn’t take away from or negate my lived experience helped me grow up so much in that moment. I saw the other side of the argument and they were right. And while I don’t condone making fun of anyone, I certainly do not think it makes much sense to equate my personal situation with the centuries-long history of oppression that anyone who isn’t heterosexual carries on their shoulders.

It. Wasn’t. About. Me.

Since that conversation, I’ve learned to listen before I follow my knee-jerk reaction and take offense at movements about which I’m not educated. It isn’t always easy to stop the instinct to be defensive, but it is necessary if things are ever going to get better. After really hearing the other side, ask yourself if anyone loses rights or status when that group gains theirs. John F. Kennedy said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” It’s important to remember that sweeping progress benefits us all, so let others do what they must to finally achieve equality.

Read the full article over on Rookie.

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With Colombia's president Juan Manuel Santos banning use of controversial herbicides to eradicate coca crops, the president of the Quindio Botanical Garden proposed that an army of Cocaine Tussock Moths (Eloria noyesi) could be enlisted to destroy the coca by eating it.

"Cocaine-eating butterflies proposed to replace herbicides in Colombia" (AP)

More in this 2005 article.

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Astronaut Don Pettit, the unofficial Don of space photography, explains some of the space oddities of the International Space Station's design in this episode of the YouTube video series 'Smarter Every Day.'

It's all about about the cupola, and features a demo from Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

"7 HOLES in the Space Station - Smarter Every Day 135" [youtube.com, HT: Mitch Youts]

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