the stories the mainstream news slept through.
US Senate Amends EARN IT Act — To Transfer the Fight Over Section 230 to the States to Let Them Restrict Encryption
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the amended version on July 2.
SNEWS
How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
Police monitored a hundred million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots.
A Massive Star Has Seemingly Vanished from Space With No Explanation (VIDEO)
Astronomers are trying to figure out whether the star collapsed into a black hole without going supernova, or if it disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Quantum Physics Provides A Way To Hide Ignorance
Students can hide their ignorance and answer questions correctly in an exam without their lack of knowledge being detected by teachers — but only in the quantum world.
St. Louis Mayor Doxes Constituents Who Called For Defunding the Police During Live Video Stream
In the now-deleted Facebook video, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson read the full names and street addresses of protesters who are calling on the city to defund the police department during a Facebook Live public briefing Friday afternoon,
Rolling Stones Threaten to Sue Trump Over Using Their Songs
The Rolling Stones are threatening President Donald Trump with legal action for using their songs at his rallies despite cease-and-desist directives.
Trump Used Looted Venezuelan Public Money to Build Border Wall With Mexico
Around $24 billion of Venezuelan public money was looted by the US government, and the Trump administration has used at least $601 million of it to construct a militarized wall on the US-Mexico border.
IBM’s New Differential Privacy Library Works With Just a Single Line of Code
On Friday, IBM Research updated their open source “IBM Differential Privacy Library,” a suite of new lightweight tools offering “an array of functionality to extract insight and knowledge from data with robust privacy guarantees.”
Firm That Tracked Protesters Targeted Evangelicals During 2016 Election
The CEO of data broker Mobilewalla, which worked with Republican SuperPACs, says it tracked Evangelicals’ cell phone locations for six months.
Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby Red Dwarf
The nearest exoplanets to us provide the best opportunities for study, including searching for evidence of life outside the Solar System. Astronomers have now detected a system of super-Earth planets orbiting the nearby star Gliese 887, the brightest red dwarf star in the sky. The newly discovered super-Earths lie close to the red dwarf’s habitable zone, where water can exist in liquid form.
Bizarre Saber-Tooth Predator From South America Was No Saber-Tooth Cat
A new study has shown that not all saber-tooths were fearsome predators.
Facial Recognition Bill Would Ban Use By Federal Law Enforcement (VIDEO)
The bill would also make federal funding for state and local law enforcement contingent on the enactment of similar bans.
Mass-Tracking COVI-PASS Immunity Passports Slated to Roll Out in 15 Countries (VIDEO)
COVI-PASS will determine whether you can go to a restaurant, if you need a medical test, or are due for a talking-to by authorities in a post-COVID world. Consent is voluntary, but enforcement will be compulsory.
Activists Urge US Dept of Agriculutre to Deny Deadly New Monsanto GMO-Herbicide Combo
The US is considering approving the product even as Monsanto juggles multiple multi-million dollar lawsuits from cancer patients over its deadly Roundup herbicide.
Monster Black Hole Found in the Early Universe (VIDEO)
Astronomers have discovered the second-most distant quasar ever found. It is the first quasar to receive an indigenous Hawaiian name, Poniua’ena. Data show the supermassive black hole powering Poniua’ena is surprisingly massive, challenging current theories of how supermassive black holes formed and grew in the young universe.