Shorra's 2012 piece Death of a Cyborg remixed William-Adolphe Bouguereau's 1888 painting The First Mourning/Premier Deuil, giving it a 21st century zest that I found so moving that I bought… Read the rest of the article: Death of a Cyborg

Filmmaker Brett Gaylor (previously) writes, "Stealing Ur Feelings is an augmented reality experience that reveals how apps like Snapchat can utilize facial emotion recognition technology to secretly collect data about… Read the rest of the article: Stealing Ur Feelings: interactive documentary on the snakeoil "science" of facial emotion detection

I'm coming to Maine to keynote the Maine Library Association conference in Newry tomorrow (Sept 30); later that day, I'm appearing with James Patrick Kelly at the Portland, Maine Main… Read the rest of the article: Come see me tomorrow in Portland, Maine with James Patrick Kelly!

Science fiction writer, essayist, and Macarthur "genius" Jonathan Lethem (previously) has excellent bona fides to write about Edward Snowden: not only has he helped make a short film about the… Read the rest of the article: Jonathan Lethem on Edward Snowden's "Permanent Record"

Space Nerds in Space is a free/open source team game where players take on the roles of Navigation, Weapons, Engineering, Communications, Damage Control and work their controls to safely land… Read the rest of the article: Space Nerds in Space: a free/open co-op multiplayer spaceship landing simulator with combat, NPCs and more

Ruairi Robinson's short sf/horror film Corporate Monster is a contemporary take on the classic (and still trenchant) 1988 John Carpenter movie "They Live": in Robinson's take, a recently fired corporate… Read the rest of the article: Corporate Monster: a short, contemporary take on "They Live"

Trump's FCC Chairman Ajit Pai rammed through an illegal Net Neutrality repeal by claiming that the Obama-era Net Neutrality rules slowed down investment in broadband, depriving Americans of fast internet.

Phil Torrone from Adafruit writes, "Why roam around with a boring pumpkin bucket when you collect delicious candy with a robotic Xenomorph head? This robotic candy bucket shoots out a… Read the rest of the article: Make: a robotic xenomorph candy collector for Halloween

On Jan 1, 2020, Californians who rent will gain new protections under the law, thanks to AB 1482, which comes on the heels of the defeat of Prop 10, which… Read the rest of the article: Burbankers! Tell city council to enact a rent freeze between now and when statewide rent control kicks in

I sat down for an interview for Reason's short feature, The Decentralized Web Is Coming, which documents the surging Decentralized Web movement, whose goal is to restore the internet's early,… Read the rest of the article: Short documentary on the quest to re-decentralize the internet

Annalee Newitz (previously) just published her second novel, The Future of Another Timeline, a madcap feminist time-travel novel that pits incel extremists who are trying to snuff out feminism before… Read the rest of the article: Annalee Newitz's "Future of Another Timeline": like Handmaid's Tale meets Hitchhiker's Guide

Fashion Institute of Technology photographer Jessica Wynne's "Don Not Erase" project documents the beautiful chalkboards of mathematicians, which will be collected in a book from Princeton University Press in 2020… Read the rest of the article: Do Not Erase: Jessica Wynne's beautiful photos of mathematicians' chalkboards

In 74% of US counties, the average worker can't afford the median home. It's getting worse: Six months ago, it was 71% of counties. The results come from Attom's new… Read the rest of the article: Across America, the average worker can't afford the median home

Just look at it. (Thanks, stasike!)

Between its line of Ring-brand surveillance doorbells and its "Rekognition" facial recognition product (both of which are used in law-enforcement and immigration-enforcement contexts), Amazon is at the center of the… Read the rest of the article: Amazon wants to draft model facial recognition legislation

One important detail from this week's admission from Doordash that they'd suffered (and remained silent about) a breach of 4.9 million records: Doordash, by its nature, includes the home addresses… Read the rest of the article: Doordash's breach is different

For three years now, cryptographer Matt Blaze (previously) and his colleagues have hosted a Voting Village at Defcon, the annual hacker con in Vegas, in which all comers are welcomed… Read the rest of the article: Report from Defcon's Voting Village reveals ongoing dismal state of US electronic voting machines

The last five years have seen a renaissance of merchandise related to Disney's Haunted Mansion, hearkening back to the glory days of amazing fright masks, magic tricks, and novelties from… Read the rest of the article: Her Universe launches a line of licensed Haunted Mansion clothing

Gollancz, a venerable British science fiction publisher (now a division of Hachette) has announced its BAME SFF Award, with a top prize of £4,000 for science fiction written by over-18… Read the rest of the article: Gollancz announces a £4,000 prize for sf writing by people of color

When a corporation is investigated for malfeasance — cheating or hurting customers or workers, say — the DoJ sometimes allows it to enter in a deferred prosecution agreement (DPAs) or… Read the rest of the article: The DoJ's corporate "diversion" program is supposed to change bad corporate culture, but really, it enables repeat offenders