Tech NewsPrivacy & Security

Georgia Attorney General Won’t Defend Election Officials in Lawsuit Over Wiped Electoral Server

Worried about whether U.S. elections are vulnerable to outside interference? On Wednesday, tech giants Facebook, Twitter and Google testified that their platforms were used to spread Russian misinformation and propaganda to millions of potential voters in 2016. But here’s a case that illustrates how the struggling technical systems that run elections on a local level … Continued

Earther

Trump’s NASA Pick Says Human-Caused Climate Change Depends ‘On a Whole Lot of Factors’

The White House’s effort to head every science-adjacent agency with science skeptics continued apace today, when the Senate held a confirmation hearing for Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), Trump’s pick to lead NASA. You’ll be shocked to learn that his views on climate change do not exactly comport with the overwhelming scientific consensus on the issue. NASA … Continued

io9Television

The Senate Democrats Do Not Understand Stranger Things

The White House’s long-awaited tax plan is supposed to be officially unveiled tomorrow after details of how the proposal would immediately raise taxes on the middle class were reported on by multiple outlets. In preparation for tomorrow’s news, the Senate Democrats decided to get with the times through pop culture. Looking to get in on … Continued

Tech NewsArtificial Intelligence

Powerful Lobby Group Wants to Keep AI Unregulated

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI)—a Washington D.C.-based lobby group that boasts Google, Amazon, and Microsoft among its many clients—is telling governments to think twice about establishing laws to regulate AI. But given mounting safety, ethical, and social justice concerns, is that such a good idea? On Tuesday, ITI released its “AI Policy Principles,” in … Continued

Tech News

Twitter Backs Down, Allows Rep. Marsha Blackburn to Promote ‘Baby Body Parts’ Video

Twitter has ended a standoff with Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn one day after taking down advertisements containing her Senate campaign announcement video, in which she bragged about fighting “the sale of baby body parts.” In a statement to Gizmodo, a Twitter spokesperson explained the original call was made on the basis of its advertising moderation … Continued

EartherConservation

House Republicans and the Trump Administration Are Waging a War on Wildlife

The war on wildlife is fast becoming a thing. This week, the U.S. government unleashed a flurry of activity that puts furry friends along with plants, fish, insects and a host of other species at risk. House Republicans introduced a bill this week that would weaken the Endangered Species Act’s conservation priorities. They also passed … Continued

Tech News

Donald Trump’s Potentially Illegal Habit of Deleting Tweets Is Getting More Ridiculous

Donald Trump can’t stop deleting his own tweets, and we’re not just talking about typos any more. On Tuesday, the president scrubbed evidence of his support for Alabama senator Luther Strange on Twitter, after Strange lost a primary runoff. A Trump tweet congratulating Roy Moore, the anti-establishment candidate that beat Strange, also disappeared, though it … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Fighting Climate Change in a Red State

ATLANTA — “The South” describes a vast, diverse group of people, ideologies and cultures linked, sometimes exclusively, by soupy, sweaty summers. Georgia’s right wing government that recently attempted to pass an anti-LGBT “religious freedom” bill, its Paris Accord exit-supporting senators and Bible Belt location make its largest city, Atlanta, feel like a progressive island in … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy & Security

Reports of Russia’s Election Hack Keep Getting Scarier

A New York Times investigation offered some unnerving news on Friday. Not only was the hacking of electoral systems during last year’s election “more extensive than previously disclosed,” the paper reports, multiple sources say that nobody’s really examining the the attacks on a state or local level. The reasons why are as complex as they … Continued

Tech News

Telecoms Pay for Totally Shocking Analysis of Net Neutrality Comments 

Today is the last day to submit comments on the proposal to kill open internet rules to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Good luck with that, though. The public comment period has been complete disaster from the start, and a new study funded by big telecom suggests that the record-setting 21 million comments already submitted … Continued

io9

What Was the Point of Marvel’s Secret Empire?

There was something very telling about Marvel’s decision this past Monday to announce to The New York Times how its Secret Empire event would end. It felt like the publisher was trying to get ahead of yet more problems coming from the series’ conclusion. Now that the final issue of its primary series is in … Continued

EartherClimate Change

It Turns Out That Knowing More About Science Doesn’t Correct Misbelief

When Kevin Esvelt, an evolutionary biologist at MIT, started thinking about using genetically engineered mice to fight Lyme disease, among his first stops was a community meeting in the small Martha’s Vineyard town of Chilmark. Esvelt makes regular field trips to talk to the public about his work. If the potential of tools like CRISPR … Continued

Tech News

State Department Science Envoy Resigns With Letter Containing Hidden Message

It is no secret that the screaming Twitter man in charge of the United States and scientists do not get along. Everyone knows this. As if scientists weren’t angry enough from Trump’s rejecting evidence-based facts, they also happen to be human beings, human beings who do not like the fact that the President of the … Continued

EartherClimate Change

This Is Not How Science Works

Last week, a draft of a Department of Energy study on electric grid reliability leaked. Though its final version could change, it essentially found that an increased reliance on renewable energy sources, including solar and wind, have not made the grid less stable. Instead, electric grids are “more reliable today” than before the ongoing adoption … Continued

Tech NewsSocial Media

How Normal Guy Mark Zuckerberg Arranges All Those Candid Encounters With Real Americans

In his new, obsessively documented mission to gather (and probably, in some way, monetize) the authenticity of Common People, Facebook’s putty-faced CEO is doing exactly what common people do: showing up to places uninvited, unannounced, and demanding absolute secrecy from strangers. As Amy Dudley, one of Zuckerberg’s handlers and a former aide to Tim Kaine … Continued

Tech News

Free Speech Fans Sue Donald Trump for Blocking Them on Twitter

Suing people isn’t easy. Suing the President of the United States of America, however, is huge pain in the ass. But that hasn’t stopped a group of Twitter users from filing suit against Donald Trump. These free speech advocates were all blocked by Trump after tweeting things he didn’t like. Now they’re claiming this violated … Continued

io9Books & Comics

6 Things the US Government Is Doing That Supervillains Have Also Done

Supervillains have seized power many times over the past several decades. Sometimes they simply want domination, or they employ military might to eliminate those they hate or fear. Sometimes, it’s even worse. Our current government may not be hunting the X-Men (at least not yet) but it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that the people … Continued

Tech News

Evolution Will No Longer Be Taught in Turkish Schools

Claiming that evolution is “debatable, controversial, and too complicated for students,” Turkey’s board of education has decided to stop teaching Darwinian natural selection in its schools. The move has infuriated the country’s secular opposition, but it could embolden other countries to do the same. The Guardian reports that Turkey’s senior education official, Alpaslan Durmuş, says … Continued

Tech News

Dad Regrets Buying Kids Something More Interesting Than He Is

A dad in Colorado bought his tweens smartphones and now he regrets it. This is not an uncommon sentiment from parents. My mom regretted buying my brother a Nokia in 2001, buying my sister an old car in 1997, and on more than on occasion she’s regretted bringing me into the world. But most parents … Continued

Tech News

So Uh, Is Tim Cook Running for President, Too?

A gloomy Tim Cook stalks Bloomberg Businessweek’s cover today, and he has some thoughts. Some thoughts that sound suspiciously like a preamble to a “my fellow Americans” speech. Editor Megan Murphy’s conversation with the Apple CEO isn’t substantively different from the sprawling, 10,000-word interview he conducted with the Washington Post last year—whole paragraphs of boilerplate … Continued