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io9How Netflix’s Space Force Acts Like a Parallel Universe to Our Own
Fans looking to blame something or someone that the American version of The Office hasn’t returned need only look to the stars. In the seven years since that show’s end, its creator and executive producer Greg Daniels has been working almost solely on shows with space or sci-fi themes. His latest show, Netflix’sSpace Force, reunites … Continued
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Tech NewsBonehead Mercenaries Behind Failed Coup in Venezuela Plagiarized Website
A U.S. private military contractor with a plagiarized website and unclear connections to Trump’s White House recently attempted to invade Venezuela and depose its authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro and replace him with a U.S.-backed puppet government this month—leading to predictably disastrous results. In the aftermath, the record of incompetence involved in this story has only … Continued
By Tom McKay -
io9TrailersSpace Force‘s First Trailer Is Funny Until You Realize How Close to Reality It Is
The concept of the U.S. Government establishing a new branch of the military just to muck about in space is patently funny on its face, but the more you think about it, the more depressing it becomes because it’s a dumb waste of taxpayer dollars…regardless of how many UFOs we think we’ve seen. Space Force’s … Continued
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Tech NewsFrench Government Report Explains Fighter Jet Passenger Who Accidentally Ejected Himself Was Really Stressed Out
It’s happened to all of us: You’re unexpectedly pressured to fly around in a military fighter jet despite your lack of aviation experience before you accidentally mash that eject button. That scenario is exactly what occurred last March at an airbase in Saint-Dizier, France, according to a French government report released this month. Colleagues of … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsThe Army Predicted 80,000 to 150,000 Coronavirus Deaths Back in February: Report
Back in early February, the U.S. Army predicted that 80,000 to 150,000 people could die as a result of the covid-19 outbreak, as evidenced by an unclassified briefing published by the Daily Beast this morning. That range now falls below the White House task force’s latest projection of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths, but the awareness … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightSpace Force to Get the Hell Off of Earth
The U.S. Space Force is scheduled to launch its first mission to space in a two-hour window beginning at 2:57 p.m. ET on Thursday from Cape Canaveral, sending a communications satellite into orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Per the Orlando Sentinel, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite onboard (AEHF-6) is the … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceHealthNavy Hospital Ships Promised by White House May Take Days to Weeks to Launch
Two U.S. Navy hospital ships Donald Trump said are in “tip top shape” and would be deployed “in the next week or so” to assist the response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic are actually undergoing maintenance and are not currently staffed with medical crews, NBC News reported on Wednesday. According to Bloomberg, Defense Secretary Mark … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsLeak Exposes U.S. Navy Sailor as Once-Prolific Recruiter for Neo-Nazi Group [Updated]
Hate forums and social media platforms have likely made it easier for atomized white supremacists and neo-Nazis to find like-minded individuals, laying the base for a resurgence in far-right organizing and violence. But that’s come with a price: a lengthy online trail that makes it difficult to stay anonymous. Leaks and loose tongues can let … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityJulian Assange Lawyers to Argue Trump’s New Intel Chief Sought Shady Extradition Deal
Defense lawyers for Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder facing possible extradition to the U.S. from the UK on 18 charges related to his leaks of U.S. military and security secrets, plan to argue they have evidence new acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell abused his power to interfere in the case on behalf of … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsCommerceAmazon Wins Court Injunction, Halting Work on $10 Billion JEDI Contract It Lost to Microsoft
A federal judge just put the brakes on a major military contract after Amazon argued it only lost out to rival Microsoft because the president wanted to “screw” CEO Jeff Bezos. This injunction marks the latest development in the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project’s ongoing saga. The contract—an up to $10 billion purchase order … Continued
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io9Leave Star Trek Alone, You Piece of Shit
The similarities between Donald Trump’s newly revealed United States Space Force logo and the logo for Star Trek’s Starfleet are uncanny. He’s made pop culture references plenty of times before but whoever “designed” this logo may be hearing from CBS or Paramount pretty soon. Yes, while the Air Force Space Command has utilized a delta … Continued
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io9MoviesWhat the Bloodshot Movie Needs in Order to Stand Out and Succeed
It isn’t hard to understand the calculus behind multiple studios’ years-long attempts at turning characters from Valiant’s comics universe into the next big-screen draw. Comic book movies can and often do make outrageous amounts of money because people like watching them. But with each new super solo movie and big crossover event, the core ask—“Hey, come … Continued
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Tech NewsReport: 51 Members of Congress and Their Spouses Collectively Own Millions in Defense Stocks
51 members of Congress or their spouses own between $2.8 million to $5.3 million worth of stock in the top 30 defense contractors worldwide, Sludge reported on Monday, thus placing them in a position to potentially profit from the U.S. military contracting process or wars waged with the firms’ equipment. According to Sludge, the data … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsU.S. Confirms Iranian Missile Strikes on Iraqi Bases Housing U.S. Troops
The Department of Defense said in a statement on Tuesday evening (EST) that the Iranian military retaliated against the Trump administration’s assassination of Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani last week, launching “more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq” in the early hours of Wednesday morning local time. … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsIt’s Time to Stop Using Police Dogs
One overcast day in February 2016, a massive police motorcade coursed through Pittsburgh. Hundreds of officers mourned one of their own—Officer Aren, a five-year-old German Shepherd, a four-year veteran of the city’s Port Authority force. The dog had died from stab wounds. Days earlier, 37-year-old Bruce Kelly, Jr., a Black Baltimore resident, was reportedly drinking … Continued
By Janet Burns -
Tech NewsEverything That Happened in Iran While You Were Sleeping
The U.S. assassinated a high-ranking Iranian official in a targeted airstrike at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq early Friday, local time. The strike killed Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as at least seven other people. And now there’s concern that the killing could spark a significant … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsFormer Google Exec Says He Was Forced Out for Opposing Company’s Pivot to Evil
A onetime top Google executive, former head of international relations Ross LaJeunesse, is now publicly alleging that the company abandoned its “Don’t be evil” ethos because it was more interested in chasing “bigger profits and an even higher stock price.” LaJeunesse, who is now running for Senate as a Democrat in Maine, is one of … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPentagon Warns Military Members Against At-Home DNA Tests
There’s a lot of reasons why you should probably chuck that DNA kit you got for Christmas in the trash. That’s doubly true for military personnel, the Pentagon warned in an internal memo. The memo, which was initially obtained by Yahoo News, notes that mail-in consumer DNA kits, like 23andme or Ancestry, could pose a … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security‘Anonymized’ Location Data Leak Allows Reporters to Quickly Track Trump’s Secret Service Detail
New York Times reporters working on an investigation into the sprawling location data business—in which the paper obtained a three-year-old file containing 50 billion location pings for over 12 million Americans—were able to track the movements of a member of Donald Trump’s Secret Service security detail. And thus, the Times reporters were able to track … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsDefense Department, Army Units Post Glossy Photo of Nazi War Criminal to Facebook
Today in extremely bad decisions: The Department of Defense as well as the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division and XVIII Airborne Corps uploaded the same glossy, artificially colorized headshot of reviled war criminal and Waffen-SS officer Joachim Peiper to Facebook on Wednesday, the Daily Beast reported. The posts were ostensibly part of a series commemorating … Continued
By Tom McKay