Facebook security analyst is fired for using private data to stalk women

Facebook security analyst is fired for using private data to stalk women

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Already under intense scrutiny for leaking sensitive data belonging to more than 87 million users, Facebook said it fired a security engineer accused of using his company position to stalk women.

The allegations surfaced Sunday in a series of tweets from Jackie Stokes, founder of a firm called Spyglass Security.

Stokes included portions of a purported discussion between the unnamed Facebook employee and someone else over the Tinder dating app. In it, the employee said he was a “security analyst” whose role in trying to identify who hackers were in real life made him a “professional stalker.” He then told the person, “so out of habit I have to say you are hard to find lol.” Stokes later tweeted that the exchange was only a limited snippet of the overall conversation.

Referring to the person the Facebook analyst was chatting with, Stokes also wrote, “I have a suspicion that her Instagram account which was connected to Tinder was used to identify her. The question is whether he was able to find the information he gave her in chat (which caused her, a software engineer herself, to be terrified) by identifying her on Facebook.”

The tweets, which were first reporter by Motherboard, quickly found their way to members of the Facebook security team, who initially said they were investigating the allegations. By Tuesday, Facebook publicly confirmed that it fired the employee. In a statement issued Thursday, company Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos wrote:

We quickly investigated this situation and immediately fired the person. It’s important that people’s information is kept secure and private when they use Facebook. It’s why we have strict policy controls and technical restrictions so employees only access the data they need to do their jobs—for example to fix bugs, manage customer support issues or respond to valid legal requests. We don’t just rely on policies; we also verify. Access to sensitive data is logged, and we have automated systems designed to detect and prevent abuse. Employees who abuse these controls will be fired—period.

Like many companies that handle large amounts of sensitive personal data, Facebook permits employees to access user records only when there is a legitimate business reason, such as investigating reports of abuse or troubleshooting performance problems. Only employees in certain roles have the ability to access those records, and even then, before authorized employees can open a record, they receive an on-screen reminder that the access isn’t permitted for personal reasons. All record access is logged, too, to make it easy for abuse to be detected.

The incident underscores the recurring threat Facebook and other companies face from rogue insiders who fail to follow company policies. According to Motherboard, Facebook has fired multiple employees for similar abuse. And of course, the firing comes weeks after the world learned Facebook exposed data from 87 million users to an analytics firm that did work for the Donald Trump presidential campaign. The lesson: if you want to keep a picture, identity or other data secret, don’t post it online, no matter how strict the service claims its policies are.

Tech

via Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com

May 3, 2018 at 01:20PM

Why hasn’t the sun burned out yet?

Why hasn’t the sun burned out yet?

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Our sun is a fairly average star in the Milky Way—not the brightest, not the biggest, and only 4.5 billion years old. It’s only unique in that its light and heat sustains all the life on the only inhabited planet we know of in the universe. Luckily for us, it didn’t burn out before we showed up a few hundred thousand years ago. But how could it have that much fuel? Why hasn’t it been snuffed out like a candle or a campfire? And when will it finally burn out?

This was a pressing question in the 19th century, says Catherine Pilachowski, an astronomy professor at Indiana University. At the time, humans only understood two ways the sun could be generating energy: Either it was creating heat and light through gravitational contractions—pulling itself in at the center and emitting energy (in the form of heat that we feel on Earth), therefore getting smaller over time—or it was literally on fire, like the chemical reaction we see on Earth when we light a match or start a campfire. Thinking that either method could have been the sun’s modus operandi, scientists at the time calculated exactly how long the sun could have existed using both methods. But neither result squared up with what we knew the age of the solar system to be—4.5 billion years. If the sun were contracting or burning, it would have run out of fuel long before we came around. Clearly, something else was going on.

A few decades later and armed with Einstein’s famous E = mc2, which confirmed anything that has mass must have an equivalent amount of energy, 1920s British astronomers proposed that the sun was actually converting its mass into energy. However, instead of a furnace that converts wood and coal into ash and blackened carbon (emitting light and heat along the way), the center of the sun is more like a gigantic nuclear power plant.

The sun contains a massive number of hydrogen atoms. Typically, a neutral hydrogen atom contains a positively charged proton and a negatively charged electron that orbits it. When this atom meets one of its fellow hydrogen atoms, their respective outer electrons magnetically repel each other like bodyguards. This prevents any of the protons from meeting each other. But the sun’s core is so hot and so pressurized that atoms whiz around with so much kinetic energy that they overcome the force binding them together and electrons separate from their protons. This means the protons, usually stuck inside the hydrogen atom’s nucleus, can actually touch, and they join together in a process called thermonuclear fusion.

Just like inside a nuclear reactor, atoms inside the sun’s core slam into each other every second. Most often, four hydrogen protons fuse together to create one helium atom. Along the way, a tiny bit of the mass in those four miniscule protons is “lost;” but since the universe conserves matter, it can’t just disappear. Rather, that mass gets converted into a dramatic amount of energy—every second, the sun radiates 3.9 x 1026 watts of power. (This is such a huge amount of energy that there is honestly no Earth-centered analogy. Perhaps that number can be contextualized like this: This amount of watts is far more than all of the electricity the entire world would use, at current rates, over several hundred thousand centuries.)

The efficiency of thermonuclear fusion is a major reason the sun has kept radiating heat for so long—the energy released by turning just one kilogram of hydrogen into helium is the same as burning 20,000 metric tons of coal. Because the sun is so massive, and relatively young, scientists estimate it has only used about half of its energy-producing hydrogen.

Eventually, the sun’s core will convert all of its hydrogen inside to helium and the star will die. But don’t sweat it. That won’t happen for about another 5 billion years.

Have a science question you want answered? Email us at ask@popsci.com, tweet at us with #AskPopSci, or tell us on Facebook. And we’ll look into it.

Tech

via Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now https://ift.tt/2k2uJQn

May 3, 2018 at 10:30AM

Why People In This Michigan Suburb Say General Motors Polluted Their Water Supply

Why People In This Michigan Suburb Say General Motors Polluted Their Water Supply

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MILFORD, Mich.—On the surface, Diane O’Nions lives in luxury. The suburban Detroit subdivision she has called home since 2005, The Oaks at Beach Lake, showcases beautifully crafted homes that sit on sprawling plots of land with sloping lawns and intricate landscaping. And bottled water. A lot of bottled water. Cases upon cases of it.

For more than a decade, O’Nions herself has gone through countless cases and jugs of water, neatly stacked in her garage, wrapped in their blue labels. It’s what she relies on for just about everything—drinking, cooking, brushing her teeth—and it’s all because her household water supply has been contaminated by excess salt, and now, she says, arsenic.

“Pure Michigan,” the slogan on the bottles reads.

The source of the excess salt and arsenic, she alleges, is her neighbor, America’s No. 1 automaker, the one that has operated a famed testing facility nearby known as the Milford Proving Ground since the 1920s and has paid for bottled water deliveries to her family’s home and their neighbors since 2014: General Motors.

O’Nions and her husband moved to the rural swath of Michigan more than a decade ago, attracted by the striking homes, with their angles and big garages and thousands of square footage, and prospects of a solid school district for their son. To her, it seemed like a place the couple could grow old and retire. They never had a well for drinking water before, she said, so, in August 2005, concerned about the quality, they got it tested for arsenic. All clear.

But several months later, they received a letter from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, notifying them of excessive levels of salt in their water. The agency recommended “that we should be drinking bottled water,” O’Nions said. And so they made the switch.

“It was a bit of a shock,” O’Nions told Jalopnik last month.

O’Nions is now one of several plaintiffs named in a lawsuit filed last autumn against General Motors, alleging the automaker’s decades-long use of salt on roads and in vehicle tests at the 4,011-acre vehicle testing and development facility has contaminated ground and drinking water supplies for The Oaks.

The result, residents say, has been significant damage to their homes and property values, and a situation that poses a risk of serious health problems.

The contamination,” according to the suit, “has caused and will cause the chemical extraction from the earth, and transport into the water used by Plaintiffs, of existing but otherwise dormant hazardous substances including, but not limited to, arsenic.”

O’Nions said they now believe the increased levels of sodium has led to a level of arsenic in their water that’s “above the recommended level.” Long-term, lower level exposure to excessive sodium can lead to increased blood pressure, while arsenic could lead to nausea, damage to blood vessels, and create a sensation of “pins and needles” pricking your hands and feet, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. (A Michigan Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson said that, while some homeowners “may be choosing to collect” samples for arsenic, the state currently doesn’t conduct such tests.)

Backed up by reams of documents and studies dating back decades, the lawsuit also claims that GM has known about the contamination since at least 1985 and repeatedly failed to notify residents about the issue until 2014, when it first acknowledged that “groundwater with elevated levels of sodium and chloride likely… migrated off the Proving Grounds.”

“[GM] made its representations to [the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality] and others with actual intent to defraud, or at least with reckless disregard for the truth and as positive assertions,” the suit alleges.

A corroded faucet at a home in The Oaks subdivision
Photo: Provided by plaintiffs’ attorney Alex Memmen

GM declined to respond to a list of questions sent by Jalopnik, citing the pending litigation, but in a statement the automaker said it “does not believe this suit has merit.

“Salt deposits naturally occur in this area, and salt is also used on the many nearby public roads during winter,” the statement said. “Nonetheless, salt usage at the Milford Proving Ground has been reduced by 60 percent over the last two decades and GM submits regular reports on the groundwater quality at the Milford Proving Ground to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.”

Nonetheless, since 2015, after notifying residents that salt-contaminated water likely migrated off the proving grounds, GM has made a bi-monthly delivery of bottled water to some homes in the neighborhood, picking up the tab from Michigan’s environmental quality department. (A spokesperson for the environmental agency said GM “completely took over bottle water service in May 2015″ after the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality had handled it for years.)

And at a time when GM is touting a vision of a cleaner world with zero emissions and plans to introduce 20 new all-electric models in the next five years, O’Nions and her neighbors feel particularly stung by the irony. It’s in their backyard where GM will likely test some of those greener vehicles, while they continue dealing with dead vegetation and trashed household appliances from water allegedly contaminated by the automaker.

That doesn’t even begin to cover the countless adjustments they’ve made to everyday life, like washing produce with a bottle of water, or having to lug 50-pound cases off their driveway and into their home, just to have a clean drinking water supply.

“They’re trying to promote this image of being green and environmentally friendly,” O’Nions said, “and yet they’re not exactly portraying that image to our neighborhood.”

The lawsuit also comes against the backdrop of a water crisis 40 miles to the north, in the City of Flint, where residents’ have been dealing with the fallout from a man-made catastrophe that contaminated their household water supplies with lead. In response to Flint, activists and environmental groups everywhere have called for more investment in water infrastructure and assert that everyone deserves access to clean water. While the situation in Milford is not as severe—in particular, it’s not affecting a disproportionately poor population, and it wasn’t spurred by a haphazard government-led decision to save money that has since wrecked the trust Flint residents have in policymakers—residents of The Oaks say their situation with General Motors has been immensely taxing and burdensome for years.

The case aims to bring some financial relief to families of the subdivision. It could be some time before the case proceeds, however: GM is arguing the automaker’s 2009 bankruptcy prohibits the residents from pursuing several of the claims cited in the complaint, a similar legal maneuver it pulled when addressing its recent ignition-switch scandal. A judge is expected to make a decision on what claims can be pursued in the coming weeks.

“We had hoped it was going to be our dream home and a place to raise our family,” O’Nions said. “But it’s just become a chain around our necks just the steps that we have to take on a daily basis.”


Opened in 1924 and said to be the first of its kind for the then-fledgling auto industry, GM wanted Milford Proving Grounds to be a “place where all types of motor cars are tested and compared under identical driving conditions,” according to a 1928 summary on the facility by the automaker.

The location was ideal. Situated equidistant from major Michigan cities like Detroit, Flint, Lansing, and Pontiac, the hilly countryside locale provided “all sorts of rough and smooth roads with all kinds of surfaces” for tests, as the pamphlet put it. A three-quarter mile concrete loop was laid, a weather observatory was built to send daily reports to every GM division, and garages were constructed to hold the hundreds of cars tested on-site.

Over time, the site expanded to encompass a network of more than 115 commercial and industrial buildings, and over 140 miles of both smooth, pristine roads and trashy dirt drags. Testing went beyond compact cars to include military vehicles and, as of today, vehicles at the site rack up more than 15 million miles recorded annually. It’s also closely associated with GM’s performance cars like the Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette, and industry watchers are often around to try and catch a glimpse of the latest prototype running laps around the track before anyone else can.

At the facility, GM says, salt is used to de-ice the facility’s roads, test tracks and parking areas, as well as for a variety of corrosion tests on vehicles.

As the facility and the automaker grew, more salt was needed for tests, and that eventually had an impact on the water supply. By 1985, GM had grown concerned enough about the facility’s groundwater that the automaker commissioned a study to analyze the supply. The increased levels of chloride in the production well supply had been a prevailing concern for 10 to 15 years by then, according to the study, which was also cited in the lawsuit.

There’s a number of possible causes of chlorides in the water, the study found. Road salt for ice control on paved roads, calcium chloride for dust control on roads, wastewater effluent and pre-existing salt deposits in the area.

But the study concluded that road salt “appears to be a major source of chloride” at the facility.

“Approximately 10,000 tons of salt is used each year on the 120 miles of paved roads and parking lots,” the study found. “The salt drains off the roads and becomes part of the stormwater flow. The salt is readily dissolved into the stormwater.”

The stormwater flows into a nearby lake, the study says, “providing opportunities for the chloride to enter the groundwater system.” The study recommended monitoring of chloride levels and “examine salt usage to determine if lesser amounts could be used.”

The problem, O’Nions and her co-plaintiffs allege in the suit, is that GM failed to disclose the contamination to regulatory authorities or local residents.

“GM concealed its knowledge of the Contamination migration by knowingly and affirmatively making spurious assertions that the MPG was not the source of the Contamination and that groundwater flowed in a south to southeast direction from the MPG,” the suit alleges.

Word of the water quality issues first appears to have spread outside the proving grounds in 1997, according to the complaint. That’s when the developer of a new subdivision located just southwest of the proving ground discovered high chloride levels, after drilling wells for homes set to be built in the neighborhood.

Officials from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality discussed the issue in a memo dated May 2, 1997. The memo mentions The Oaks’ “big houses, big $” and how its developer discovered chloride levels in wells up to 1,000 parts per million, far exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency’s limit of 250 ppm. (The developer didn’t respond to a request for comment from Jalopnik.)

“Developer angry!!!” the memo says. “GM may be responsible as they have salt storage on site and use salt in splash testing for cars, etc.”

Local county officials conducted tests that confirmed excessive levels of chloride, and that October, Michigan’s environmental quality department told GM that, based on the results of the samples taken, “it appears that a source of sodium and chlorides may therefore emanate from the GM Proving Grounds.”

The letter set off a war of sorts between GM and MDEQ that went on for years. After GM learned that state environmental officials told The Oaks’ developer in an early 1998 letter that it believed the source of the issue was the proving grounds, the automaker demanded the conclusion be retracted.

At the same time, GM started producing a series of reports that were, the lawsuit alleges, “designed to refute or at least obfuscate MDEQ’s hypothesis that… GM’s prodigious use of salt at the MPG was the source of the Contamination.”

The back-and-forth continued until the summer of 2000, when GM switched to a more aggressive strategy, as the complaint portrays it. In a letter to the MDEQ in June 2000, GM argued the conclusion of the earlier 1985 study “that road salting caused contamination at the MPG was wrong.” A few months later, the automaker filed suit against MDEQ that ultimately concluded with an agreement being reached between both sides. The 2001 agreement, according to the suit, called for GM to “implement a number of best management practices with respect to the use, management, [and] storage of road salt and monitor the effects of such measures.”

By then, residents at The Oaks were moving in, and as they put it, they were left in the dark about the water quality issues.


Ellen Moore, a retired elementary school teacher, said her family had moved around the world several times before settling on the quaint neighborhood in Milford in 2004.

Diane O’Nions (left) and Ellen Moore (right) outside the Moore household in April.
Photo: Ryan Felton (Jalopnik)

“I had always admired it,” Moore told Jalopnik this month in the living room of her 3,000-square-foot home. “I wasn’t sure if we can afford it, but we usually figured that we’d only live anywhere three or four years and we were moved again.

But they’ve been there ever since. At first glance, the Moore household is spacious and inviting. On a recent Saturday, a medley of big band songs ticked off in the background of her living room, as Moore explained the issues that’ve emanated from the water contamination.

The property damage is one thing, she says. Household appliances, shower heads and drains, water pipes—it’s an immense, costly hassle, and there are pictures to illustrate the damage. Out back, what appears at first glance to be a lovely yard is pocketed by dead vegetation, something Moore says can’t be salvaged.

“It’s not just what we ingest,” she said. “It’s the damage of the corrosiveness of the sodium chloride and all of our plumbing and our pipes, and our landscaping.”

Provided by plaintiffs’ attorney Alex Memmen
Photo: Alex Memmen

The daily inconveniences are jarring, she said. Moore recalled watching the local news after a recent ice storm knocked out power for thousands of people across Metro Detroit for several days. Residents were—justifiably—complaining about having to make numerous treks to the store for water. That’s been standard operating procedure for years in The Oaks, she said.

“People don’t have any idea, she said. “It’s such an inconvenience for those for 10 days, and this has been going on for years.”

Out of the blue, in 2014, residents of The Oaks received a letter from General Motors about the water supply. Called a “Notice of Migration,” the letter stated that MDEQ asked GM to install three monitoring wells near the southwest boundary of the proving grounds, which is the area adjacent and closest to the subdivision.

Sampling from the wells showed groundwater with elevated levels of sodium and chloride “likely have migrated off the Proving Grounds,” according to the lawsuit, far exceeding federal limits set for each.

The results indicated, the suit continued, “groundwater flow in the southwest corner of the Proving Grounds is to the south and southwest,” meaning in the direction of the Oaks subdivision.

“The first time that any of our clients knew, or had any reason to know that this was coming from General Motors—and was not a natural phenomenon and was not coming from across just salt from the street, or salt in the ground—was in 2014, when General Motors sent out a notice to everybody through the MDEQ that this was a runoff issue,” the plaintiffs’ co-counsel, Alex Memmen, told Jalopnik.

It was a revelation for the residents. O’Nions said they were in disbelief.

“Outrage, absolute outrage,” she said, “because we felt we’ve been deceived, obviously.”

GM offered residents two options. They could either install a reverse osmosis system at one location in the house, or receive as much bottled water as they’d like. Some residents took up the reverse osmosis option, but Moore and O’Nions said the company balked at installing them for every location in their homes. Plus, they said, the maintenance costs for a reverse osmosis system are expensive; it’d be far easier to have clean water running out of their tap.

The size of the reverse osmosis system GM installed at a home in The Oaks
Photo: Provided by plaintiffs’ attorney Alex Memmen

Moore said residents started banding together and hired a law firm to look into filing a lawsuit. At first, she honestly expected GM would hold itself accountable and take action.

“I honestly said to everybody in our family that—and I have said this for a long time—when we get to the right people, and we have all of our information, they’re going to do the right thing,” she said. “Because right is right and wrong is wrong. And they caused this. All this time I have thought they were going to do the right thing.”

Battling GM is bound to be a slog, though. The company hauled the case before the judge that oversaw its bankruptcy and restructuring in 2009—which created two entities generally referred to as “old GM,” which exists to handle claims filed against the automaker during its bankruptcy, and “new GM,” the business representing the automaker today.

As a result of the bankruptcy, GM’s aiming to stymie the water contamination case before it gets any further, similar to what it attempted during the ignition switch scandal.

In court, GM argues the Oaks residents cannot pursue the majority of their allegations, claiming the bankruptcy prohibits them from “asserting claims against [New GM] that it did not assume.”

Attorney Memmen, expectedly, doesn’t believe the bankruptcy argument’s valid. The plaintiffs are arguing the case deserves to be heard in state court, and say their claims are indeed permissible. Whether both sides are discussing a settlement isn’t clear—Memmen declined to comment on whether negotiations are ongoing—but the attorney said he doesn’t expect GM’s legal tactics to slow things down.

“We’re hoping to get a ruling in the next month or two,” he said on GM’s effort to stop the case because of its bankruptcy.

The next step would to be asking the court to certify their complaint as a class-action suit to include more affected parties in the case. (The residents claim the contamination is starting to spread and impact homes beyond their subdivision). Memmen wouldn’t comment on how many residents are possibly interested in joining the suit, but said “there is a large number of people who are similarly situated.” The lawsuit asks for a settlement in excess of $25,000 for each plaintiff, and request that GM be held liable for cleanup and remediation costs.

O’Nions said the emotional toll from the situation is an enormous burden to shoulder.

“It’s so hard because, you know, you work hard, you strive to live a decent life,” she said.

“And then suddenly everything is turned upside down. When people come to your home and they’re saying, ‘Oh, you live in such a nice neighborhood. Oh, this must be your dream home. And you tell them, ‘Well, no, it isn’t.’ It’s a living nightmare.”

Tech

via Gizmodo http://gizmodo.com

May 2, 2018 at 02:48PM

Senator urges Uber to stop forced arbitration in sexual assault cases

Senator urges Uber to stop forced arbitration in sexual assault cases

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AOL

A CNN investigation recently revealed that Uber has had at least 103 different sexual assault cases filed against its drivers in the past four years. What’s worse is that Uber has also reportedly forced victims to settle their cases via arbitration rather than open court, a move which helps keep the epidemic silent. Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal is now calling on the company to release the survivors of these assaults from these agreements and allow them to seek justice in court.

“I challenge you to finally demonstrate how seriously you take the issue of sexual harassment and assault,” said Blumenthal in a letter to Uber. “Your company must lead by example and show that it values transparency and your users’ safety more than your company’s bottom line. I respectfully request that you immediately stop enforcing arbitration agreements against individuals who bring claims of sexual harassment or assault. More broadly, I urge you to end your use of these dangerous agreements against your customers.”

Forced arbitration clauses, says Blumenthal, also prevent victims from joining class-action suits. They disadvantage consumers for the benefit of large corporations and can also deter victims from seeking justice in the first place. The letter also points out that Microsoft has voluntarily ended its practice of using arbitration agreements in the case of sexual harassment, and calls on Uber to do the right thing and follow suit. “A company that is focused on its customers should be working to protect their rights,” Blumenthal wrote, “not to eliminate them.”

Tech

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

May 2, 2018 at 03:15PM

AKiTiO’s Node Lite Optane Drive: An External Intel 905P SSD in Exclusive Red

AKiTiO’s Node Lite Optane Drive: An External Intel 905P SSD in Exclusive Red

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AKiTiO and Intel this week announced plans to release a special product bundle consisting of AKiTiO’s Node Lite Thunderbolt 3 box and Intel’s Optane 905P SSD. The Node Lite Optane Drive will be the industry’s first factory-built external storage solution based on Intel’s 3D XPoint memory and will be aimed at content creators with anApple MacBook Pro and other high-end PCs.

The AKiTiO Node Lite Optane Drive will come in an exclusive red aluminum enclosure and will pack Intel’s Optane 905P PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD with a 960 GB capacity (or higher, when such drives become available). Since Intel’s Optane 905P SSD cards feature LED lighting, the red Node Lite box will have a window to demonstrate the stylish storage device. The Node Lite Optane Drive is targeted at owners of high end notebooks that need about a terabyte of very fast storage and who would like to have it in a red enclosure for all to see.

For performance, we already reported earlier this week that the Intel Optane 905P SSDs will offer up to 2600 MB/s sequential read speed as well as up to 2200 MB/s sequential write speed, whereas its random performance numbers are speced at 575K and 550K for reads and writes, respectively – under Apple’s macOS the manufacturers are reporting 2200 MB/s reads and writes. This storage solution will be among the fastest storage options for TB3-enabled computers in terms of random performance and latencies.

Given a very high endurance of 3D XPoint memory, the Node Lite Optane Drive will be offered with a five-year warranty and will be rated for 10 DWPD, a rather massive number for a desktop-class storage device.

As for the price of the new unit, AKiTiO and Intel will not officially publish it before they start taking pre-orders in June. In the meantime, one can make an educated guess based on the fact that the Intel Optane 905P 960 GB carries a $1299 price tag, whereas AKiTiO sells its Node Lite enclosure for $199.

Related Reading

Tech

via AnandTech https://ift.tt/phao0v

May 3, 2018 at 08:07AM

The 21 Best Food And Travel Shows On Netflix

The 21 Best Food And Travel Shows On Netflix

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Eating food and going places: These are things we all do, or wish we could do more of. Netflix knows this, which explains the spike in food/travel programming in recent years. After all, when we’re not eating food or going places, there’s a good chance we’re thinking about eating food or going places. The binge-watch model works wonderfully when indulging in such programming.

Whether an exciting history lesson is revealed or a new recipe is explored, Netflix has something for everyone. From the sardonic sensibilities of Anthony Bourdain to the awkward dad humor of Phil Rosenthal, here are 21 of the best food/travel shows available on Netflix right now.

21. Eat Your Words

Eat Your Words sounds like the perfect Yelp-themed revenge story. Instead of simply leaving the bad reviews untouched, the concept for the series puts contestants in the cook’s shoes and challenges them to recreate the dish they didn’t enjoy in the first place. What transpires is redemption on both sides–with the chefs sometimes receiving the vindication they seek, while the dissatisfied foodies sometimes prove they’ve got their own worthy culinary skills. After cooking up the negatively rated meal, the finished product is presented to a panel of judges–and then rated on their own Yelp-like star system.

20. Chef & My Fridge

Chef & My Fridge delivers a familiar cooking competition formula but through a South Korean reality show lens. The concept finds chefs teamed with regular people, with the goal of cooking up high-end dishes using only the ingredients contained in the guest star’s fridge. Needless to say, the show’s tone is lighthearted and a bit wacky, and gives American viewers insight into the country’s reality food programming. Oh, and don’t forget the emojis. There are lots of emojis.

19. Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories

Unlike the majority of shows on this list, Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories tackles food-themed voyeurism in a scripted format. The 10-episode series gives a peek into Tokyo’s late night scene. It follows an assortment of characters–all of them diner regulars–as they partake in an assortment of Japanese comfort food. That’s only the beginning, though, as the dishes in question spark different stories–full of heart, humor, and emotion. For those unfamiliar with Japanese culture, this show offers a lovely introduction to its food and people.

18. Testing the Menu

What’s most interesting about Testing the Menu is the fact that it’s a New Zealand cooking show focused on Asian fusion cuisine. Chef Nick Watt travels around Auckland and its surrounding area, testing out different recipes on the general public–which may or may not be added to the menu of the various Japanese restaurants he owns. Watt’s nerdy presence offers a different dynamic for those needing a break from those shows that may take themselves a bit too seriously. As appetizing as things get, the show succeeds best when it highlights New Zealand culture.

17. A Cook Abroad

If you’re looking for an Anthony Bourdain-style show, but without all that Bourdain-iness, A Cook Abroad may quench your proverbial thirst. Each episode follows a different host as they traverse different parts of the world. From Sikh chef Tony Singh’s trip to India to motorcycle enthusiast Dave Meyer’s jaunt to Egypt to Rachel Khoo’s inspiring look at Malaysia, it’s easy to see the adventurous appeal of the series. There’s only six episodes of the BBC 2 series–but that’s surely enough to give viewers a taste of the show’s unique worldly aesthetic.

16. The Wild Chef

Martin Picard is an award-winning chef that hails from Montreal. He’s appeared as a guest on multiple food shows–the Canada episode of Parts Unknown comes to mind. And with The Wild Chef, he lets his adventurous food spirit free. Each episode finds the man and his sous chef Hugue Lafour hitting the road to brave the elements–hunting moose and trapping muskrats–only to create a delicious dish using what they find in the wilderness. While the show doesn’t necessarily give you instructions on making these meals at home, The Wild Chef provides a survivalist angle to the food-travel show construct. And the result is quite entertaining.

15. Avec Eric

Another series that has banked on the success of the Anthony Bourdain food/travel show formula is Avec Eric–which is not surprising since Eric Ripert is one of Bourdain’s closest friends. The show follows the French chef as he travels the world, showcasing cultural highlights of whatever destination he’s visiting. He may lack the charisma one would expect–there’s no witty sarcasm here–but his show doesn’t pander either. Staying true to his Buddhist sensibilities, Ripert keeps his focus on foods and locales of an exotic nature–and he does so without any pretension or judgment, which is delightful in its own right.

14. The Big Family Cooking Showdown

What’s not to love about The Big Family Cooking Showdown? The host of the show, Nadiya Hussain, used her big win in Season 6 of The Great British Baking Show to launch this new competition series. Hailing from BBC Two, Hussain is joined by co-host Zoë Ball, and the two head to the British countryside to find the area’s best home cooks. Rounding out the cast are judges Roseman Shrager and Michelin Star-winning chef Giorgio Locatelli. Cut from that feel-good Mary Berry cloth, the program succeeds at scratching the British Baking Show itch.

13. The Great British Baking Show: Masterclass

For those put off by the overhaul The Great British Baking Show went through, this show may be for you. While Mary Berry hasn’t returned for the new season of the food competition series, this quaint spinoff reunites her with judge Paul Hollywood for an up-close-and-personal baking education. Instead of watching contestants struggle to keep up with each culinary challenge, Berry and Hollywood bring viewers into the kitchen to show how to make some of the toughest desserts featured on the popular series. Mary Berry may be gone from The Great British Baking Show, but her presence here is a treat for old and new fans alike.

12. Zumbo’s Just Desserts

With a name like Zumbo, you might expect something a bit clown-ish when tuning in to Zumbo’s Just Desserts. While it’s not the circus sideshow the name implies,, the Australian series does come packed with plenty of spectacle. Each episode finds pastry chef Adriano Zumbo presenting two dessert-making challenges to a group of amateur bakers. What makes the series stand out from the pack are the out-of-this-world concoctions Zumbo whips up. Giant sugary sculptures and magical layered cakes abound in this series. Willy Wonka would be proud.

11. Jack Whitehall: Travels with my Father

Jack Whitehall is pretty famous in the UK. The comedian and TV personality has earned himself a loyal following. And with his travel series, Jack Whitehall: Travels with my Father, he’s connected with a whole new audience. The program follows a Bourdain-like formula as Whitehall travels to South Asia, aiming to fulfill his gap year dreams. But things get interesting when he decides to bring his father and former producer and talent agent, Michael Whitehall, along for the ride. What transpires is a hilarious bonding session that plays out between a hesitant, fancy father and his brash, adventurous son.

10. Rotten

Rotten takes an in-depth look at the different aspects of the food business–and the fraud, crimes, and tragedies that come with it. From the "Honey" episode’s focus on corruption and contamination plaguing America’s honey industry to the "Peanut" episode’s investigation into the drastic rise of food allergies, the six-part docuseries pulls no punches. It’s not your typical feel-good food show, but the series does help to shine a light on lesser known, but quite critical, aspects of the food industry. Oh, and it’s produced by Zero Point Zero–the Emmy-winning company behind a handful of hit food/travel shows, including Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

9. Cooked

Executive produced by author Michael Pollan, Cooked breaks down the familiar food docuseries format into four parts: "Fire," "Water," "Air," and "Earth." Each episode focuses on each of the planet’s powerful elements to explore just how these resources are connected to sustenance, impacting the day-to-day foods we eat. The program peels back the curtain on the cultural history of global food practices, instead of just displaying food porn for food porn’s sake. Ultimately, the Alex Gibney-directed (Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, The Looming Tower) series is informative without being pretentious–highlighting different perspectives the world over on topics from sustainable crops to food prep to the simple joy of enjoying dinner with family around a table.

8. The Mind of a Chef

Anthony Bourdain put his producer hat on for PBS’s Mind of a Chef. Different celebrity chefs take the helm to host the series, with the assistance of Bourdain’s familiar voice-over narration style. What audiences should expect here are similar components that make other Bourdain joints a success. You’ve got beautiful shots of food, travel tips, a peek into a town’s history, an a handful of intriguing personalities. David Chang helms the first season–each episode is about 20 minutes long–which gives viewers that lovely Anthony Bourdain feel, without all the Bourdain.

7. Ugly Delicious

Ugly Delicious takes the pretentiousness out of food programming, highlighting the importance of the ugly and delicious world of home cooking. Since David Chang disrupted the food world with his restaurant Momofuku, he’s made a reputation of being one of the more vocal food personalities in the industry. As audiences have seen with his work from Vice’s Munchies to Mind of a Chef, the man has interesting things to say. Chang isn’t the only host of the series, though, giving a collection of unique voices a chance to shine. And that’s great, especially for those out there who find his brash sensibilities an acquired taste.

6. Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

From the man behind Seinfeld–the game-changing "show about nothing"–comes a simple show concept: Each episode follows the comedian as he drives some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry around the city in a classic car. Of course, they end up getting coffee, which is a selling point for any coffee fan, but the crux of the show finds Jerry chopping it up with his famous peers–from Jim Carrey to Barack Obama. It’s like taking the best parts of a late night talk show on the road. And with Netflix’s acquisition of the series, not only is every episode available to be viewed, it’s delightfully bingeable.

5. The Great British Baking Show

In a world where loud judgmental hosts like Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain focus on the darker aspects of the culinary world, Mary Berry’s The Great British Baking Show offers a different, pleasant perspective on things. As charming as it is beautiful, the show focuses on the delightful aspects of baking. And while this is a competition series, the programming formula sheds the expected reality show drama–there’s no villain amongst the contestants–and focuses on the struggles and victories of the actual food-making process. It’s a breath of fresh air, honestly.

4. Chef’s Table

When it comes to food programming, Chef’s Table stands out from the pack with its epic production value. While this show provides a very high level of food porn for the senses, each episode adds an emotional component by delving into a famous chef’s backstory. Without food, we’d surely die. But watching these stories unfold–exploring just how the culinary business not only saved, but changed lives for the better–shows just how important to the culture chefs are. Making meals may not always be pretty, but this heightened docuseries cuts through the fat, exposing the passion behind the meal.

3. Chef’s Table: France

Netflix one-upped itself with Chef’s Table: France. Sure, Chef’s Table changed the game when it comes to food porn. The cinematography alone in these episodes deserve all the awards. That said, bringing the series to France was a no-brainer. Not only do these episodes appeal to French locals, presenting the subject matter all in the country’s native tongue, the program opens things up to a global audience. Exploring these various dishes and culture is impactful here for the simple reason that French cuisine has–and continues to have–a monumental impact on food around the world. If Chef’s Table dug into the stories and struggles behind the food, Chef’s Table: France breaks the whole thing down to its basest id. And it’ll leave your mouth watering for more.

2. Somebody Feed Phil/I’ll Have What Phil’s Having

Upon watching Somebody Feed Phil (The Netflix continuation of PBS’s short-lived series I’ll Have What Phil’s Having) you instantly feel a stark difference from the grumpy host stylings that either Bourdain or Chang bring to the table. Phil Rosenthal–he’s the guy who created Everybody Loves Raymond–has one goal in mind: To go to new places and try new things. As he travels around the world and puts local delicacies into his mouth, the man’s joy becomes quite contagious. After all, he’s not here to judge. He’s here to encourage everyone to try new food. And if they like what they try, to have a little more!

1. Parts Unknown

Since he brought No Reservations to The Travel Channel over a decade ago, Anthony Bourdain’s punk rock panache and sardonic sense of humor cut through the TV fluff and changed the food-travel show game. Now that he’s taken his brand to CNN, Parts Unknown has built upon his familiar formula. Through the six seasons available on Netflix, Parts Unknown has brought viewers a plethora of food porn, travel show stories, insight from food personalities around the world, and a multitude of deep history lessons. In other words, this is Anthony Bourdain’s world–we’re just living in it.

Games

via GameSpot’s PC Reviews https://ift.tt/2mVXxXH

May 2, 2018 at 03:03PM

The Bubble flying water car rises above waves and traffic

The Bubble flying water car rises above waves and traffic

https://ift.tt/2jnw5lu

Flying water car. The Bubble is a 100 percent electric water taxi created by the French company SeaBubbles. The goal is to lower pollution and provide relief from heavy traffic on busy city streets.

It creates no waves, no noise, and no CO2. When the Bubble reaches 7.5 mph, it rises above the water. This prevents wakes from forming. The absence of sudden movements helps prevent seasickness. The Bubble can operate autonomously and seats five, including a pilot. Its docking station captures solar, wind, and water energy to charge the battery.

SeaBubbles plans to bring its water transit system to 50 cities in the next 5 years. No word yet on price or future locations. Could you use the Bubble in your busy town?

Learn more at

www.seabubbles.fr

Cars

via Autoblog http://www.autoblog.com

May 2, 2018 at 04:50PM