Month: November 2016

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Kheng ho Toh)

The net neutrality rules implemented during Barack Obama’s presidency don’t seem likely to survive Donald Trump’s administration.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler crafted the rules to survive lawsuits filed by Internet service providers, and the strategy worked when a federal appeals court upheld the rules in June of this year. But that doesn't mean a new presidential administration can't overturn them.

The FCC rules say ISPs may not block or throttle lawful Internet traffic or speed up Web services in exchange for payments from online service providers. A similar set of net neutrality rules was previously struck down in court, leading to Wheeler’s decision to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. The commission’s Title II authority was enough to put the rules on solid legal ground.

Hillary Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta blasted FBI Director James Comey in the wake of Donald Trump's victory. (credit: Fortune Live Media)

The post-election autopsies and fingerpointing have been non-stop in the wake of Donald Trump's presidential victory over Hillary Clinton. James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is now among those officially being blamed by the Clinton campaign.

According to The Hill, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta reportedly told supporters in a private conference call Thursday that Comey is "who we think may have cost us the election."

Podesta was referencing Comey's actions last month. Eleven days before the election, Comey spun heads from the left and the right when he forwarded a letter to congressional leaders, saying the bureau had renewed its investigation into Clinton's use of a private e-mail server during her time as secretary of state. Months before in July, Comey announced Clinton was "extremely careless" but recommended no prosecution after an FBI investigation.

(credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Advertisers that place Facebook ads related to housing, credit, or employment won't be allowed to exclude certain ethnic groups anymore, the company said.

"We are going to turn off, actually prohibit, the use of ethnic affinity marketing for ads that we identify as offering housing, employment, and credit," Erin Egan, Facebook's vice president of US public policy, told USA Today.

Facebook has been advertising "ethnic affinity" marketing as a way to reach a multicultural audience since at least 2015. But the way those features could be combined with ads for legally sensitive areas like jobs and housing was widely publicized last month when Pro Publica published an article about the practice. Pro Publica reporters bought their own housing ad targeting people who were house hunting, but the organization excluded anyone who had an "affinity" for African American, Asian American, or Hispanic people.

The way Iowa looked when I reported aboard in January, 1987. (credit: US Navy/National Archives)

Today is Veterans Day in the US, and we wanted to recognize the Ars readers and staff who've served by resurfacing former Navy man Sean Gallagher's trip to his old home, the USS Iowa. His piece originally ran on May 15, 2015.

A few months ago, as I was planning to head out to California for Microsoft's Build developer conference in San Francisco, I decided I needed to stretch the trip a bit further to the south—down to the Port of Los Angeles to visit the Pacific Battleship Center, the home of the battleship USS Iowa.

I served on the Iowa for two years in the late 1980s, and that experience was life-changing. But I had not had a chance to see the ship in over 26 years—my last visit had been in late April of 1989, weeks after an explosion in the ship's second 16-inch gun turret took the lives of 47 men. Many of those who died had worked in my division aboard Iowa; others had been colleagues and friends.

Enlarge / Dungeons & Dragons, one of this year's inductees into the Toy Hall of Fame. (credit: The Strong National Museum of Play)

For more than four decades, people looking for a bit of fun escapism have been able to turn to Dungeons & Dragons, the tabletop role-playing game first published in 1974. The game, currently in its fifth edition, has had a big influence on countless other tabletop games and video games, and this year The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, has recognized its contributions by inducting it into its Toy Hall of Fame.

“More than any other game, Dungeons & Dragons paved the way for older children and adults to experience imaginative play,” said museum curator Nic Ricketts. “It was groundbreaking. And it opened the door for other kinds of table games that borrow many of its unique mechanics. But most importantly, Dungeons & Dragons’ mechanics lent themselves to computer applications, and it had a direct impact on hugely successful electronic games like World of Warcraft.”

D&D was inducted alongside Fisher-Price's Little People toddler toys and the swing (yes, as in swing set). The three new inductees were chosen from a list of 12 finalists and beat out Nerf, the coloring book, Transformers, the card game Uno, and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, to name just a few.

Enlarge / A weak La Niña has arrived. (credit: NOAA)

A relatively weak La Niña has developed, scientists with NOAA say, with lower than normal temperatures persisting across most of the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean. This should eventually bring some cooler weather to parts of the United States, which just experienced its third warmest October on record.

Climate officials declared La Niña conditions this week after sea surface temperatures in the Niño3.4 region of the Pacific Ocean were about -0.7 degrees Celsius below average during October, and associated atmospheric conditions aligned with a La Niña pattern. Scientists say this slight La Niña has a 55 percent chance of persisting through January or February, but almost all of the forecast model guidance suggests it will end no later than the spring.

In contrast to El Niño, which increases the potential for severe weather across parts of the United States, La Niña's effects are typically more mild. It could mean drier weather and warmer than normal temperatures for the southern United States and wetter, cooler-than-normal weather for the northern plains through New England. These conditions are reflected in NOAA's official forecast for winter. There's no clear consensus on whether La Niña will benefit drought-stricken areas of California based upon past rainfall totals during analog winters.