Samsung's sleazy deals with Facebook mean that owners of Samsung phones are not able to uninstall the Facebook apps that come pre-installed with their devices.

A Turkish court has sentenced journalist Pelin Ünker to 13 months' imprisonment for her participation in reporting the Panama Papers, a massive leak of documents from the tax-evasion enablers Mossack-Fonseca.

Sinclair Target's long, deeply researched history of the format wars over RSS are an excellent read and a first-rate example of what Charlie Stross has called "the beginning of history":… Read the rest of the article: A history of the sprawling personality clashes over RSS

When top German officials had their emails and social media hacked and dumped, people wondered whether the attack was some kind of well-financed act of political extremism, given that the… Read the rest of the article: Unemployed 20-year-old who lives with his parents confesses to massive German political dox

The Ferguson uprising was triggered by the police assassination of Michael Brown, but even before that killing, the city was a powder-keg, thanks to the practice of financing the city… Read the rest of the article: American towns survive by fining poor people, and use debtors' prisons to make them pay

30,000 employees of the LA Unified School District are preparing to go on strike tomorrow, demanding a reversal of the trend to privatizing public education.

Mass protests have wracked Serbia after critics of nationalist strongman president Aleksandar Vučić were attacked in a series of failed assassination attempts, compounding Vučić's own human rights abuses and indifference… Read the rest of the article: Serbia erupts in nationwide protests after assassination attempts prompt fears of fascist resurgence

In Saudi Arabia, women can only get a divorce after proving abuse in court, but men can simply file — in secret — for a divorce from their wives, and… Read the rest of the article: Saudi law now requires sending a text to women after their husbands secretly divorce them

The same year that Trump's FCC Chairman Ajit Pai killed broadband privacy and cheated Network Neutrality to death, the Trump tax plan delivered a $20B windfall to AT&T — both… Read the rest of the article: Trump gave AT&T a $20B tax break and killed Net Neutrality, now they're prepping mass layoffs

What an excellent choice! Dr William Gibson, Grand Master of Science Fiction has such a nice ring to it. Go Bill! You can watch him get his award at the… Read the rest of the article: The Science Fiction Writers of America inducts William Gibson as its next Grand Master

There are more houses for sale in San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and San Francisco County than at any time since 2013; inventory in December was up 113% year-on-year,… Read the rest of the article: Silicon Valley real estate asking prices fall 12% from peak

If you want to follow someone in realtime, you don't need to shell out to shady data-brokers like Securus (which use a marketing company that exploits a privacy law loophole… Read the rest of the article: Bounty hunters track targets by buying realtime location data generated by T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T

It's been ten years since the people of Juneau, Alaska succumbed to conspiracy theories and voted to ruin their kids' teeth by removing fluoride from the drinking water, and it… Read the rest of the article: Ten years after Juneau ditched water fluoridation, kids racked up an average of $300/each in extra dental bills

Last month, London's Gatwick airport (the second busiest airport in the UK) was closed for several days after drones were sighted in its airspace.

In the 1930s, the Works Public Administration commissioned a 1":100' wooden model of San Francisco; the final model is 38' x 42', with 6,000 removable city blocks spanning 158 pieces.

Every ten years, the US government is constitutionally mandated to carry out a census: the first census, in 1790, only counted "the head of household and the number of free… Read the rest of the article: An interactive timeline of race categories in the US Census

The 2018 election included a Florida ballot initiative to restore felons' voting rights (with the exception of convicted murderers and sexual offenders): the 1.4 million Americans who will get their… Read the rest of the article: More Americans get the vote today than on any day since sufferage

In four days, federal employees will suffer their first missed paycheck since Trump's border wall shutdown; it's hard to say who will be worst hit: the employees who are furloughed… Read the rest of the article: Travel warning: four days until Trump's shut-down costs TSA screeners their first paycheck

After 20 years of unprecedented lows, Canada's central bank is gradually raising rates; this, combined with strict rules on new loans, empty house taxes in overheated cities like Vancouver, and… Read the rest of the article: Canada's housing market is slowly but surely imploding, and Canadians are more exposed than the US was in 2008

No one in America explains the importance of good network policy than Susan Crawford (previously), a one-woman good sense factory when it comes to Network Neutrality, municipal fiber, and reining… Read the rest of the article: America's Fiber Future: Susan Crawford on how America's wired future is slipping away