After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet and Phone Ban
The Bandera, Texas city council voted 3-2 to terminate its contract with surveillance firm Flock, ending the deployment of eight AI‑powered license‑plate reader cameras funded by a state grant. Residents repeatedly protested, vandalizing camera poles and driving up replacement costs. In response, dissenting councilmember Jeff Flowers announced plans to introduce a “Bandera Declaration of Digital Independence,” calling for a blanket ban on smartphones, internet, and outward‑facing cameras. The proposal frames privacy as a return to 1880‑era analog practices.
War and Data Centers Are Driving Up the Cost of Fiber-Optic Cable
The price of fiber‑optic cable is soaring as demand from AI‑driven data centers and military drone operations spikes. A kilometer of cable that cost $2.20 in 2023 now sells for $5.83 in China and $4.10 from Sun Telecom, nearly doubling...
How the World Became a Casino
The article examines how gambling mechanics have migrated from Las Vegas slot machines to everyday digital experiences, turning everything from sports scores to geopolitical events into bettable outcomes. It highlights Natasha Dow Schüll’s seminal research on slot‑machine design and its relevance...
University Claims Withholding Water From Nuclear Weapons Data Center Is 'Unlawfully Discriminatory' To Data Centers
The University of Michigan has threatened legal action after the Ypsilanti Community Utility Authority voted to impose a 365‑day moratorium on water service for a proposed $1.2 billion, 220,000‑square‑foot data center that will support Los Alamos National Laboratory’s nuclear‑weapons research and...
Behind the Blog: Storage Woes and RSS
The Behind the Blog post reveals the logistical and ethical hurdles behind a recent 404 Media investigation into a Chinese real‑time deepfake platform used for worldwide scams. Reporters spent weeks, eventually more than a month, negotiating access to the software...
'The Biggest Student Data Privacy Disaster in History': Canvas Hack Shows the Danger of Centralized EdTech
On Thursday, ransomware group ShinyHunters breached Instructure’s Canvas platform, locking out millions of students and stealing data tied to more than 275 million users. The attackers claimed to have exfiltrated names, email addresses, student IDs and private messages, prompting a rapid,...
ICE Plans to Develop Own Smart Glasses to ‘Supplement’ Its Facial Recognition App
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is evaluating the creation of smart glasses to supplement its Mobile Fortify facial‑recognition app, which scans individuals and cross‑references a database of roughly 200 million biometric records. The agency argues the wearable heads‑up display would free officers’...
‘HELLO BOSS’: Inside the Chinese Realtime Deepfake Software Powering Scams Around the World
A Chinese startup has released a real‑time deepfake engine that can map a target’s face onto a live video feed within seconds, allowing scammers to impersonate victims on platforms like Microsoft Teams. The software runs on consumer‑grade gaming laptops and...
The AI Hard Drive Shortage Is Making It More Expensive and Harder to Archive the Internet
The surge in AI‑driven data‑center demand has triggered a sharp shortage of hard drives and SSDs, pushing prices up 150%‑300% across consumer and enterprise segments. A 2 TB Samsung SSD that cost $159 last fall now sells for $575, and 28‑30 TB...
'Nature' Retracts Paper on the Benefits of ChatGPT in Education
Nature has retracted a May‑2022 paper that claimed ChatGPT positively influences student learning. The study, a meta‑analysis by Jin Wang and Wenxiang Fan of Hangzhou Normal University, aggregated findings from 51 research projects published between November 2022 and February 2025. It reported...
People Are Selling Kills of Marathon’s Hardest Boss on eBay
A seller on eBay is offering to kill the Compiler, Marathon’s most challenging end‑game boss, for real‑money fees ranging from $125 for the kill alone to $400 for three Biotoxic Disinjector weapons. The service includes options to play on the...
City Learns Flock Accessed Cameras in Children's Gymnastics Room as a Sales Pitch Demo, Renews Contract Anyway
Atlanta‑suburb Dunwoody discovered that Flock Safety employees accessed live feeds from cameras in a children’s gymnastics room, a playground, a school, a Jewish community center and a pool as part of a sales demonstration. The company says the access was...
Japan Is Building Cardboard Suicide Drones
Japan’s defence minister Shinjirō Koizumi unveiled the AirKamuy 150, a flat‑pack cardboard drone built to be destroyed in combat. The low‑cost, pre‑fabricated UAV is already being used by the Japan Maritime Self‑Defense Force as a target for training. Koizumi said the...
Apple Fixes Bug That Let FBI Extract Deleted Signal Messages After 404 Media Coverage
Apple released an iOS update that eliminates a flaw allowing the FBI to retrieve deleted Signal messages stored in the iPhone’s notification database. The bug let investigators extract copies of incoming messages even after the app was removed, as reported...
People Using AI to Represent Themselves in Court Are Clogging the System
A new pre‑print study finds that generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude have sparked a sharp rise in self‑represented (pro se) federal civil cases, climbing from a stable 11 % share before 2022 to 16.8 % in 2025. The research,...