Month: April 2017

Invader Zim, the Nickelodeon animated series that ran for two seasons in the early '00s, will end its longtime television absence "soon-ish." The cable network announced its intentions on Tuesday in the form of a dry press release and a far-less-dry animated teaser. In the teaser, Zim, the series' neurotic titular alien, announces his evil intentions under the veil of darkness—and then is interrupted by his longtime robo-pal Gir.

"I like your voice!" Gir chuckles mid-video. "It's funny!"

"I'm not BEING funny!" Zim retorts. "I'm being, you know, terrifying and spooky!"

Enlarge / Pedestrians crossing the northbound US border from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Ysidro, California. People crossing the border are subject to having their electronics searched by US authorities. No warrant is needed. (credit: Punxsutawneyphil)

There's a big area in the US where the Constitution doesn't apply, at least when the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure is concerned. It's called the US border, or port of entry. In that area, you and your electronic devices, whether you're coming or going to the US, can be searched without reason. You even can be forced to unlock or decrypt a device so the authorities can comb through your life, like your social media accounts, cloud accounts, you name it. This intrusion is known as the "border search exception" to the Fourth Amendment.

This invasive practice is on the rise, too. Consider that the Department of Homeland Security said it searched fewer than 5,000 mobile phones at the border without a warrant in 2015. The number mushroomed to 25,000 last year. And for the month of February, the DHS reports that it has already searched 5,000 devices of Americans and foreigners without a warrant at a border crossing.

Now, a bi-partisan group of lawmakers is proposing the unthinkable. Republicans and Democrats in both the House and the Senate on Tuesday floated legislation requiring US Customs and Border Protection agents to get a court warrant to search electronic devices. That's right—in an era when you can be accused of publishing fake news for even questioning the government, a few members of Congress want to expand your civil rights and require a judge to sign off on a device search.

Enlarge / A Tesla showroom in California where direct sales are legal. (credit: Patrick Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In a decision on Monday, the Utah Supreme Court decided (PDF) that the state’s regulators could prohibit an auto manufacturer from having ownership interest in a dealer.

In what the court called “a narrow, legal decision,” it said that it wouldn't weigh in on whether allowing the state’s Tax Commission to prohibit direct sales from Tesla’s wholly owned subsidiary was the best policy for residents of Utah. Instead, the court said its job was simply to determine whether the commission could legally make that prohibition.

Tesla has faced resistance to its “direct sales” business model in a variety of states, from Texas to Michigan to Connecticut. Dealership associations push back against this model because they say it gives Tesla an unfair advantage and robs the consumer of “intra-brand competition,” where dealers compete to sell the same cars. Tesla contends that consumers are unfamiliar with electric vehicles and need a consistent, tailored retail experience to convince them that going electric is in their interest. The company has so far refused to move to a dealership model in any state.

Bottlenose dolphins living off the coast of southwest Australia have a dilemma. The local octopuses are tasty and packed with protein, but they are also intelligent, fierce fighters. It's not enough to bite the cephalopods' heads off, because octopus nervous systems are so decentralized that their legs can continue the battle even when detached. Nevertheless, the dolphins have persisted in their pursuit of tentacled meals. Now, after years of observation with video, scientists have seen dozens of examples of the dolphins' elaborate octopus hunting strategy.

Bottlenose dolphins are known for problem-solving when it comes to hunting difficult prey. Previously, researchers have seen the dolphins protecting their soft snouts with sponges while digging in the seafloor for fish. Octopus hunting requires other skills, however. First, the octopus has to be disarmed—literally. And then those arms have to be bashed into submission. Those who do not learn this trick are likely to die. In a paper published recently in Marine Mammal Science, Murdoch University marine biologist Kate R. Sprogis and colleagues report that they've come across two dolphins killed while trying to eat octopuses:

It is apparent that octopus handling is a risky behavior, as within our study area a known adult male stranded and a necropsy confirmed the cause of death was from suffocation from a large 2.1 kg octopus. The dolphin had attempted to swallow the octopus, however, the octopus was found almost intact, with the head and the mantle of the octopus in the dolphin's stomach and the 1.3 m long arms separated from the head and extending out of its mouth. Similarly, another [bottlenose dolphin] died from suspected asphyxiation due to an octopus lodged in its mouth and pharynx.

Essentially, the octopuses' tentacles keep fighting, blocking the dolphins' airways, even after most of their bodies have been swallowed. It's a terrifying way to die, but Sprogis and the researchers observe that octopuses must be such valuable prey that they are worth it. Over seven years of observation, she and her team watched 33 dolphins "handling" octopuses in ways that made them meal-ready. Typically, the encounter would start with the dolphin biting the octopus' head off, followed by tossing the legs into the air so that they smack hard into the water over and over. Dolphins would execute the grab-and-toss move about 10-15 times before they were satisfied.