Month: November 2016

(credit: Phil Roeder)

"By sitting here and doing nothing, the Senate has given consent to this expansion of government hacking and surveillance."

Those were the words Wednesday of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) as he failed to convince fellow senators to even hold a floor vote that could block changes to what is known as Rule 41 from taking effect Thursday.

Wyden was referencing an amended Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure, which originated from an unelected advisory committee and was signed by the Supreme Court in April. By rule, it becomes effective December 1. The measure clarifies the law allowing judges to sign warrants that let authorities hack into computers outside a judge's jurisdiction. The rule also gives federal judges the authority to issue a warrant to search multiple computers—even without knowing who is the targeted computer owner. Previously, some judges had practiced this, while others did not.

Jonathan Gitlin

Infiniti's 2017 Q60 sports coupé exemplifies a trend that's been underway for some time in the auto industry: the software-defined car. The car—Infiniti's answer to a BMW 4 Series—is completely drive-by-wire. Yes, the throttle and brakes are all controlled by electronics, but so too is the steering, which operates without a mechanical linkage to the front wheels. The flick of a switch reconfigures the Q60's systems, changing the car's behavior to suit one's mood and the road conditions. This is fast becoming normal throughout the automotive marketplace, but it represents a sea change compared to cars from just a few years ago.

The Q60 fills an important niche in Infiniti's lineup. The brand had a lot of success with the rear-wheel drive G35 and then G37 coupés here in the US, and Infiniti wants to rekindle that, drawing away sales from BMW and Audi. That means this car ought to look good inside and out, pack a punch under the hood, and provide the kind of driver feedback (read, excitement) that encourages the owner to think about taking the long—and twisty—way home instead. To find out if that's the case, we spent a week with one—a 3.0t Premium rear wheel drive model.

Enlarge (credit: Free Barrett Brown)

Barrett Brown, an award-winning journalist who was sentenced in January 2015 to more than five years in federal prison, has been released from federal prison in Texas. At the time of his sentencing, he had already served 28 months and had 34 months remaining. Brown was released early on good behavior.

On Tuesday, the first thing he did post-release was enjoy this Egg McMuffin from a local McDonald’s.

As Ars reported previously, in April 2014 Brown took a plea deal admitting guilt on three charges: “transmitting a threat in interstate commerce,” interfering with the execution of a search warrant, and being "accessory after the fact in the unauthorized access to a protected computer."

Enlarge / The incredible flurry of (mostly small) earthquakes in Oklahoma has been clustered around areas of wastewater injection in deep disposal wells (shown in warm colors). (credit: Langenbruch and Zoback (2016), Science Advances)

The onset of Oklahoma’s earthquakes several years ago suddenly changed life in the north-central part of the state. But since they are self-inflicted, this seismic shift need not be a permanent one.

The earthquakes have been triggered by the injection of large volumes of wastewater in deep disposal wells, which is able to raise fluid pressure and loosen long-locked faults in the crystalline “basement” rock below. The wastewater comes from oil and gas wells in the area, which cough up a lot of dirty, salty water along with the hydrocarbons.

Just a few weeks ago, a magnitude 5.0 earthquake caused a fair amount of damage to buildings in Cushing—buildings that were never designed to withstand seismic activity. And in September, a magnitude 5.8 quake in Pawnee set a historical record for the state.

A white South Carolina police officer on trial for shooting an African-American man in the back—in a video of the killing that has been watched millions of times online—took the witness stand in his own defense and said he was gripped with "total fear."

Michael Slager, a 35-year-old North Charleston officer, is on trial for killing Walter Scott, 50, who was pulled over in April 2015 for a routine traffic stop. Scott, who had a warrant for his arrest, fled the Mercedes-Benz he was driving, was chased into a field, and was then shot and killed as a passerby secretly captured the shooting on video. The footage prompted the police to change their response to the killing, and charges were eventually levied.

"In my mind at that time was, people don't run for a broken tail light. There's always another reason," he testified Tuesday, sometimes in tears. "I don't know why he ran. It doesn't make any sense to me."

Enlarge / President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail. (credit: Getty Images | Joe Raedle)

President-elect Donald Trump yesterday announced a third advisor to oversee the Federal Communications Commission's transition from Democratic to Republican control.

Roslyn Layton, Trump's new addition, joins Jeffrey Eisenach and Mark Jamison on the FCC transition team. All three are outspoken opponents of the FCC's Title II net neutrality rules and are affiliated with the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Current FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's signature move was the reclassification of ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act and imposition of net neutrality rules. The move was supported by Democrats and consumer advocates who say ISPs shouldn't be able to favor or disfavor online content by blocking, throttling, or charging for prioritization. Wheeler's Title II net neutrality rules survived a court challenge from ISPs but could be eliminated under Trump either with Congressional legislation or FCC action.