An NBC investigative journalism team and a security researcher went wardriving around the DC area with a cell-site-simulator detector that would tell them whenever they came in range of a fake cellphone tower that tried to trick their phones into connecting to it in order to covertly track their locations (some cell site simulators can also hack phones to spy on SMS, calls and data).

Swatting is the practice of tricking police SWAT teams into storming your victim's home by phoning in fake hostage situations; it's especially prominent among cybercriminals, gamers and was a favored tactic of Gamergater trolls.

Well, there's a second-decade-of-the-21st-century headline for you!

Worst vacay ever.

First Lady Melania Trump swatting away president Donald Trump's hand on the tarmac in Israel
Video of the couple arriving at an airport in Israel shows President Donald Trump reaching out to hold his wife's hand. But Melania, who was apparently not interested in touching her husband at that moment, appears to slap the president's hand.

In this episode of the Flash Forward podcast we travel to a future where humans have decided to eradicate the most dangerous animal on the planet: mosquitos. How would we do it? Is it even possible? And what are the consequences? — Read the rest

If you're a woman on the Internet, harassment comes with the territory. There have been jerky dudes since time immemorial, after all. But with the advent of America's militarized cops, sociopathic misogynists have a new, deadly force-multiplier in their war on women.

When I set out to research the out-of-control harassment problem in gamer culture, I never dreamed my mother would be caught up in the middle of it all.

The Offworld staff had a lot to say about nostalgia last week, particularly around the announcement that a remake of the fan-favorite 1997 game Final Fantasy VII is on the way.

Message to drones: watch where you're going.

Activist and intel/security journalist Barrett Brown criticizes the government that wants to put him in jail for eight-and-a-half more years in his sentencing speech, while also expressing "sincere regret" for threatening an FBI agent and his family.

Internet harassment doesn’t just stay on the internet any more. Banned from 4chan, the 'net's worst trolls are making life hell for "social justice warriors."

Meet the professional victimizer.

Brian Krebs is a security expert and investigative journalist who has published numerous ground-breaking stories about the online criminal underground, much to the consternation of the criminal underground. Krebs has been the victim of much harassment, including a dangerous SWATting (where someone called a SWAT team to Krebs's door, having told them that an armed gunman was inside). — Read the rest

[iPhone snapshot above: Xeni Jardin; illustration inset, Shepard Fairey.]

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was in Long Beach, California this morning to accept the inaugural edition of a "Shine a Light on Human Rights" award from Amnesty International. — Read the rest

Chinese entrepreneurs are renting random white guys to pretend to be visiting businessmen, and to lend an aura of general Being Connected to the West to business meetings, conferences and receptions:

And so I became a fake businessman in China, an often lucrative gig for underworked expatriates here.

Carrie McLaren is a guest blogger at Boing Boing and coauthor of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. She lives in Brooklyn, the former home of her now defunct Stay Free! magazine.

As mentioned earlier, I collect books by people who have raised apes or monkeys in their homes, so, as a service to Boing Boing readers, I thought I'd review them for you. — Read the rest

Boing Boing is collaborating with GOOD Magazine on a series of features written by BB editors. The latest installment in that series is a collection of excerpts from a journal I kept during a recent trip to West Africa. Longer form video and audio features are planned for future release through Boing Boing Video. — Read the rest

Today at Boing Boing Gadgets, we bopped to the tunes of an album written on the Nintendo DS ("Music to Make Love To Your Old Pleasure Model By…") and introduced BBG's newest mascot, Humbert Humbird, to his own vacuuming robotic steed. — Read the rest

David sez, "Susan Crawford urges the US to stop pussyfooting around and do what needs to be done: Restructure the Internet carriers so they allow competition, and separate the carriers of bits from the suppliers of content and services. This is how you get Net Neutrality that works." — Read the rest

This fly swatter is patterned with a street map of Milan, Italy. Charles & Marie sells them for $15 in a variety of colors, but apparently they're sold out at the moment.
Link (Thanks, Lindsay Tiemeyer!)

Previously on BB:
• Electrified mosquito-swatting tennis-racket Link
• Secrets of the Venus Fly Trap Link