For the sake of humanity itself we really hope this guy is some kind of comedy/creative writer, and that this DIDN’T actually occur. 

Burning Man Arts is thrilled to announce that we have selected the 2018 Temple: Galaxia by Arthur Mamou-Mani!

Token sales and initial coin offerings (ICO) were certainly the hottest buzzwords of the year for thousands of recreational cryptocurrency enthusiasts and seasoned investors alike. But have you ever wondered precisely how much money was poured into this trend this year? There’s a visualization that can give you an idea. Cryptocurrency startup Elementus has compiled a nifty animated visualization that shows every token sale that has successfully raised at least $100,000 since 2014. The graph also displays the entire cashflow that went into these ICOs, with detailed month-by-month information for the past four years. As you will notice in the video…

This story continues at The Next Web

We have seen a lot of companies use browser-embedded mining scripts to piggyback on visitors’ user resources. In virtually every case, such scripts are used to mine Monero, a very popular altcoin with a strong focus on privacy and anonymity. One thing no one would have expected is how Starbucks has embarked on such an undertaking as well. Or more specifically, the company’s in-store WiFi provider has done so. It’s a very troublesome development for Argentinian coffee lovers, to say the least. Starbucks and Monero Mining It is somewhat disconcerting to learn that people can’t even connect to a free WiFi

Juno is NASA’s project focused on bringing a deeper understanding to Jupiter and the processes that might have governed our solar system’s creation. The spacecraft was launched in 2011 to explore several facets of the planet’s composition, including its atmosphere, magnetic force field, and dense cloud coverage.
This series of close-up photographs was taken by Juno within the last year, and is a dazzling diverse display of the planet’s gaseous composition. Swirling blue and brown clouds appear like impressionist paint strokes across Jupiter’s atmospheric surface, a spectacle which is constantly shifting into new optically charged formations. More

Artificial intelligence is a game-changer. Never in the history of human existence has there existed a technology with the power to wipe out cancer, end traffic accidents, and perhaps even formulate an actionable plan to reverse climate change. And fortunately for us, some of the smartest people in the world are working on ways to tap AI’s immense power to do just that. Others are using it to create fake videos of celebrities getting fucked. So far the tool’s creator has produced videos or GIFs of Gal Gadot (now deleted ), Maisie Williams, Taylor Swift, Aubrey Plaza, Emma Watson, and…

This story continues at The Next Web

A new leak from the mega-publisher Electronic Arts reveals a marketing plan for two of the company’s smaller games, and while there’s nothing particularly extraordinary in here, it makes for an interesting peak inside the sausage factory.

The marketing plan was first posted last week by Reddit user OldSoul2, who said he had been accidentally getting e-mails from EA and uploaded one of them, which contains roadmaps for the upcoming games Fe and A Way Out. Although EA has not acknowledged the leak—and did not respond to a request for comment—last night at The Game Awards, the publisher showed a new trailer for A Way Out (called “Meet Vincent & Leo”) that lines up with this plan.

Here’s the full image:

Some highlights from all this:

• Fe, which was announced at E3 2016, is described as “well received” but EA says it has “not seen anything spark it to cut through the noise,” noting that the trailer has 500,000 views.
• To fix that problem, EA hopes to contact journalists who seemed interested in the colorful action-adventure game, and will “look at giving them exclusive stories and access to help build awareness.”
• There’s apparently a Nintendo Direct coming in January, and EA plans to show Fe for the Switch then.
• EA expects to sell 707,000 total copies of Fe and 894,000 total copies of A Way Out.
• To promote the co-op prison break game A Way Out, EA hopes to “leverage relevant influencers to create Let’s Plays” with director Josef Fares.  
• That said, EA warns, in my favorite line of this whole thing: “Josef as a personality is a plus, his passion is great, but need to watch out for controversy.” After watching last night’s speech, that sure seems prescient.

Now don’t you want to see the plans like this for Star Wars Battlefront II?

Regular visitors to Bored Panda will no doubt be familiar with the incredible artwork of Thomas Romain. He’s a French anime artist living in Tokyo who’s worked on various popular series including Space Dandy, Basquash!, and Aria, but his best ideas are the ones that come from his sons.

For some time, France has been determined to overtake London as the leading center of European finance. This latest move could end up helping them do just that. France has traditionally taken a very hard stance when it comes to the trade and advertisement of leveraged financial instruments such as CFDs and Forex pairs. It still wants to be a leading blockchain financial center, however, a decidedly untraditional move.  In a statement to the press,

The post France to Allow Blockchain-Based Trading of Unlisted Securities in Bid to Become Leading Finance Center appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

The headlines could hardly be scarier and more apocalyptic. In a speech delivered by the head of Britain’s military last week, the world learned that Russian President Putin could bring about global financial collapse and return civilization to a communications dark ages by a mere snip-snip of underwater transatlantic internet cables!

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach warned Russia could in an instant end 97% of global communications capabilities and disrupt trillions in daily financial transactions, ushering in a "catastrophic" economic collapse, as the roughly 200 international undersea network cables are under imminent threat. Peach said that Russia’s modernized Navy constitutes a “new risk to our way of life.”

Putin engaging in undersea collusion with Trump. Image source: AFP/Getty

The speech from a lone British military chief generated endless fear-inducing headlines and thousands of lines of anxiety and panic-driven commentary, a mere sampling of which is below…

• Russia could cut off internet to NATO countries, British military chief warns (NBC)
• Russian Navy ‘could cut underwater cables and devastate UK economy’ warns UK Armed Forces chief (IBT)
• UK defense chief says Russia poses risk to undersea cables (AP)
• Top British Officer: Russia May Be Able To Cut Undersea Cables (NPR)
• How Russia could use drones armed with explosives to destroy vital underwater cables linking Britain’s phone and internet to rest of the world (UK Mirror)
• Russia’s naval updates threaten undersea comms network, says top British military officer (Defense News)
• Russian Ships Could Cause ‘Catastrophe’ for West by Cutting Transatlantic Internet Cables (Newsweek)
• Could Russia cut undersea communication cables? (BBC)
• Russia could cut off internet to Nato countries, British military chief warns (The Guardian)
• Russia ‘could cut UK’s undersea internet cables’, defence chief warns (The Independent)
• Russia ‘could CRIPPLE Britain by cutting undefended undersea internet cables’ (The Sun)
• Senior British Officer: Russia Could Cut Undersea Cables (Newsmax)
• Top UK military official says NATO must protect underwater cables from possible attacks by Russia (EuroNews)
• Russian navy ship Yantar can sever internet cables (Sunday Times)

Meanwhile, Defense News included in its coverage the following casual and passing reference:

“In addition to new ships and submarines, Russia continues to perfect unconventional capabilities and information warfare. Therefore, we must continue to develop our maritime forces with our allies to match Russian fleet modernization,” said Peach, who will give up his job as Britain’s top military commander next year to become chairman of the NATO Military Committee.

So NATO’s future military chief needs to increase those budgets before sliding into his new position you say? His speech also emphasized how member countries need to ensure their own fleet modernization keeps pace with the oh-so-scary ‘Russian threat’. Budgets, budgets, budgets people! Cause the Russians are coming!

But we’ve seen those headlines before – they are essentially the same as a barrage of stories that came out in 2015, also based on military officials speculating and ruminating on all the possible scariest Russian threats.  

Oops! Though it sounds like a fresh new Russian threat the media had yet to tap into, it turns out the British commander is merely channeling these old headlines, most from October 2015 after a New York Times story ran which relied on the usual "anonymous officials". Well, perhaps it just sounds more legit the second time around when delivered through a British accent?

RUSSIA COULD CUT UNDERWATER INTERNET CABLES. If my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle. #mediahysteria #whatif

— aLleluia (@DumbJam) December 16, 2017

The 2015 NYT story cited the Russian underwater cable threat as "raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict." Below is a small sampling of the headlines generated from that more than two year old reporting originally based on "some American military and intelligence officials":

• Russian Ships Near Data Cables Are Too Close for U.S. Comfort (NYT, Oct. 2015)
• Why Is Russia Interested in Undersea Internet Cables (VOA News, Nov. 2015)
• Fears over Russian submarine and spy ship patrols near vital undersea internet cables (Daily Mail/Reuters, Oct. 2015)
• How Bad Would It Be If The Russians Started Cutting Undersea Cables? Try Trillions In Damage (Forbes, Nov. 2015)
• We Asked an Expert What Would Happen if Russia Cut the Pipeline to the Internet (Vice News, Oct. 2015)
• US fears Russia could sever undersea internet cables (The Verge, Oct. 2015)
• Russia, the Internet and a new way to wage war? (CNN, Oct. 2015)
• US fears that Russia is plotting to sever its undersea internet cables (The Inquirer, Oct. 2015)
• Russia possibly mapping underwater internet cables in Mediterranean (Washington Times, Oct. 2016)
• Undersea Cables: How Russia Targets the West’s Soft Underbelly (Oct. 2015)
• In Case Of Nuclear War, Cut Internet Cables (Oct. 2015)

Naturally, Congress should impose new sanctions on Russia, banning all bolt and wire cutters from being shipped to the country… Before it’s too late!

Read more…

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