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What was highest label on your first car speedometer?

  • 80 mph
  • 88 mph
  • 100 mph
  • 120 mph
  • 150 mph
  • it was in kph like civilized countries use you insensitive clod
  • Other (please specify in comments)

[ Results | Polls ]
Comments:45 | Votes:100

posted by chromas on Saturday March 23 2019, @11:00PM   Printer-friendly

Microsoft device stores digital info as DNA

Microsoft is on its way to replacing data centers with DNA. The company and researchers from the University of Washington have successfully automated the process to translate digital information into DNA and back to bits. They now have the first, full end-to-end automated DNA storage device. And while there's room for improvement, Microsoft hopes this proof-of-concept will advance DNA storage technology.

In its first run, the $10,000 prototype converted "HELLO" into DNA. The device first encoded the bits (1's and 0's) into DNA sequences (A's, C's, T's, G's). It then synthesized the DNA and stored it as a liquid. Next, the stored DNA was read by a DNA sequencer. Finally, the decoding software translated the sequences back into bits. The 5-byte message took 21 hours to convert back and forth, but the researchers have already identified a way to reduce the time required by 10 to 12 hours. They've also suggested ways to reduce the cost by several thousand dollars.

Microsoft just booted up the first "DNA drive" for storing data

Why now? It's a good time for companies involved in DNA storage to show off their stuff. The National Intelligence Agency's IARPA program is getting ready to hand out tens of millions toward radical new molecular information storage schemes.

Oxford Nanopore Technology is involved.

Demonstration of End-to-End Automation of DNA Data Storage (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-41228-8) (DX)

Related: Computer Operating System and Short Movie Stored On DNA
New Technique Could Speed Up DNA Synthesis
Biohacker Injects Himself With Religious Texts Converted to DNA


Original Submission

posted by chromas on Saturday March 23 2019, @08:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the why-didn't-I-think-of-that...oh-wait dept.

Neuroscience Proves Nietzsche Right: Some People are Wired to be More Spontaneous than Others:

“Why can’t you just relax into it?” is a question many of us have asked in frustration with ourselves or others – be it on the dance floor, the sporting field or in rather more private circumstances. The task typically requires us to respond spontaneously to external events, without any deliberation whatsoever. It ought to be easy – all you have to do is let go – yet it can be infuriatingly difficult.

“Stop thinking about it!” is the standard remedial advice, although cancelling thought with thought is something of a paradox. The retort, “I am trying!”, is equally puzzling, for deliberate intent is precisely what we are here struggling to avoid. So what is this act of choosing not to choose, of consciously relinquishing control over our actions? Our new study, published in Communications Biology, has finally provided insights into how this capacity is expressed in the brain.

Astonishingly, this fundamental human phenomenon has no name. It might have escaped academic recognition entirely had the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche not given it a brilliant gloss in his first book The Birth of Tragedy, itself a paradoxical work of philosophy in tacitly encouraging the reader to stop reading and get a drink instead. Whereas other thinkers saw culture on a single continuum, evolving into ever greater refinement, order and rationality, Nietzsche saw it as distributed across two radically different but equally important planes.

Perpendicular to the conventional “Apolline” dimension of culture, he introduced the “Dionysiac”: chaotic, spontaneous, vigorous and careless of the austere demands of rationality. Neither aspect was held to be superior, each may be done badly or well, and both are needed for a civilisation to find its most profound creative expression. Every Batman needs a Joker, he might have said, had he lived in a more comical age.

Of course, Nietzsche was not the first to observe that human beings sometimes behave with wanton abandon. His innovation consisted in realising it is a constitutional characteristic we could and should develop. And as with any behavioural characteristic, the facility to acquire it will vary from one person to another.

Tests were performed with people undergoing an MRI and observed trying to discern which of two nearly simultaneous lights was first illuminated.

We used magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the brains of people performing the task, focusing on white matter – the brain’s wiring. A striking picture emerged. Extensive sections of the wiring of the right prefrontal lobe, a region heavily implicated in complex decision making, was revealed to be stronger in those who were worse at the task: the Apollines. The more developed the neural substrates of volition, it seems, the harder to switch them off.

So, "smarter" people are less able to be spontaneous?

I would posit that those who are more sensitive to negative feedback (i.e. have developed a part of the brain to detect and avoid potentially negative consequences) are less spontaneous. They strongly consider how others react to their actions and such thinking takes time. Those who are less concerned about other's perceptions have a less developed region and thus it takes less time for them to go from conception to action.

Think of the speed of a computer program. Those programs having exhaustive input validation and with thorough error checking of intermediate results run slower than "proof of concept" code which performs only minimal checking, if any at all.


Original Submission

posted by chromas on Saturday March 23 2019, @06:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the safety-sold-separately dept.

Boeing takes $5 billion hit as Indonesian airline cancels 737 MAX order

Indonesia's largest air carrier has informed Boeing that it wants to cancel a $4.9 billion order for 49 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Garuda Indonesia spokesperson Ikhsan Rosan said in a statement to the Associated Press that the airline was cancelling due to concern that "its business would be damaged due to customer alarm over the crashes."

Garuda had originally ordered 50 737 MAX aircraft, and Boeing delivered the first of those aircraft in December of 2017. The airline already operates 77 older Boeing 737 models; two of the aircraft ordered were conversions from earlier orders for 737-800s. Garuda also flies Boeing's 777-300 ER, and the company retired its 747-400 fleet in the last few years—so the airline was looking for an economical long-range aircraft to fill in gaps.

Doomed Boeing Jets Lacked 2 Safety Features That Company Sold Only as Extras

As the pilots of the doomed Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia fought to control their planes, they lacked two notable safety features in their cockpits. One reason: Boeing charged extra for them.

For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with customized add-ons. Sometimes these optional features involve aesthetics or comfort, like premium seating, fancy lighting or extra bathrooms. But other features involve communication, navigation or safety systems, and are more fundamental to the plane's operations.

Many airlines, especially low-cost carriers like Indonesia's Lion Air, have opted not to buy them — and regulators don't require them. Now, in the wake of the two deadly crashes involving the same jet model, Boeing will make one of those safety features standard as part of a fix to get the planes in the air again.

See also: They didn't buy the DLC: feature that could've prevented 737 crashes was sold as an option

Previously: Second 737 MAX8 Airplane Crash Reinforces Speculation on Flying System Problems
Boeing 737 Max Aircraft Grounded in the U.S. and Dozens of Other Countries
DoJ Issues Subpoenas in 737 Max Investigation
Pilot Who Hitched a Ride Saved Lion Air 737 Day Before Deadly Crash


Original Submission

posted by chromas on Saturday March 23 2019, @03:41PM   Printer-friendly

Bloodhound: Land speed record car is relaunched

The Bloodhound supersonic car is back, under new management and preparing to renew its pursuit of the land speed record.

The project went into administration last year, unable to secure the financing needed to go racing - even though the vehicle was all but built. But with the purchase of the car by entrepreneur Ian Warhurst, Bloodhound has been put on a new footing. Engineers are looking to start high-speed trials "as soon as possible". These could take place in the South African desert later this year, although team-members are being cautious about giving hard timelines for the re-booted venture.

Previously: 3D-Printed Tech to Steer Bloodhound Supersonic Car
Bloodhound Supersonic Car to be Tested in October
Bloodhound Supersonic Car Project Terminated Due to Lack of Funds


Original Submission

posted by chromas on Saturday March 23 2019, @01:20PM   Printer-friendly

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Scientists hunt down the brain circuit responsible for alcohol cravings

Scientists at Scripps Research have found that they can reverse the desire to drink in alcohol-dependent rats—with the flip of a switch. The researchers were able to use lasers to temporarily inactivate a specific neuronal population, reversing alcohol-seeking behavior and even reducing the physical symptoms of withdrawal.

[...] Although the laser treatment is far from ready for human use, [associate professor Olivier] George believes identifying these neurons opens the door to developing drug therapies or even gene therapies for alcohol addiction.

[...] George and his colleagues have been hunting for the brain cells that driving drinking in an alcohol-addicted rat model. In 2016, they reported that they had found a possible source: a neuronal “ensemble,” or group of connected cells in a brain region called the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA).

[...] For the new study, they tested the role of a subset of neurons in the ensemble, called corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) neurons. The George laboratory had found that these CRF neurons make up 80 percent of the ensemble.

[...] First, the scientists established a baseline for how much the rats would drink before they got addicted to alcohol. The rats drank little this point—the equivalent of a glass of wine or one beer for a human. The scientists then spent several months increasing consumption in these rats to establish alcohol dependence.

The researchers then withdrew the alcohol, prompting withdrawal symptoms in the rats. When they offered alcohol again, the rats drank more than ever. The CeA neuronal ensemble was active, telling the rats to drink more.

Then the scientists flipped on the lasers to inactivate the CRF neurons—and the results were dramatic. The rats immediately returned to their pre-dependent drinking levels. The intense motivation to drink had gone away. Inactivating these neurons also reduced the physical symptoms of withdrawal, such as abnormal gait and shaking.

[...] The effect was even reversible. Turn off the lasers, and the rats returned to their dependent behavior.

Inactivation of a CRF-dependent amygdalofugal pathway reverses addiction-like behaviors in alcohol-dependent rats, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09183-0)


Original Submission

posted by chromas on Saturday March 23 2019, @11:10AM   Printer-friendly

SpaceX's Starlink satellite lawyers refute latest "flawed" OneWeb critique

After years of relentless legal badgering from internet satellite constellation competitor OneWeb, SpaceX's regulatory and legal affairs team appears to have begun to (in a professional manner) lose patience with the constant barrage.

On February 21st, SpaceX published a withering refutation of OneWeb's latest criticism that offered a range of no-holds-barred counterarguments, painting the competitor – or at least its legal affairs department – as an entity keen on trying to undermine Starlink with FCC-directed critiques based on flawed reasoning, false assumptions, misinterpretations, and more. Alongside a number of memorable one-liners and retorts, legal counselors William Wiltshire and Paul Caritj and SpaceX executives Patricia Cooper and David Goldman openly "wonder whether OneWeb would be satisfied with SpaceX operating at any altitude whatsoever."

In late 2018, SpaceX filed a request with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) that would allow the company to significantly modify parts of its Starlink satellite constellation license, cutting 16 spacecraft from the original total of 4425 and moving Phase 1's now-1584 satellites from an operating altitude of ~1100-1300 km (680-810 mi) to just 550 km (340 mi). Aside from further reducing the latency of communications, SpaceX also argues that "the principal reason" behind lowering the operational altitude of the first ~37% of Starlink satellites was "to [further] enhance the already considerable space safety attributes of [the] constellation."

[...] [There] is a great deal more irony to be found in OneWeb's attempt to block SpaceX from lowering the orbit of its first ~1600 satellites. In 2017 and 2018, the company repeatedly complained to the FCC about the fact that SpaceX's Starlink constellation was to nominally be placed in orbits from ~1100-1300 km, effectively sandwiching OneWeb's own ~1200 km constellation. OneWeb continues to demand an unreasonable level of special treatment from the FCC, hoping that the commission will allow it to establish a sort of buffer zone extending 125 km above and below its own constellation, basically demanding that a huge swath of low Earth orbit be OneWeb's and OneWeb's alone. In reality, this is likely nothing more than a thinly veiled anti-competitive tactic, in which success would almost entirely bar other prospective space-based internet providers from even considering the same orbit.

Starlink and OneWeb satellite constellations.

Related: Competing Communications Constellations Considered
Airbus and OneWeb Begin Building Satellites for Internet Constellation
FCC Authorizes SpaceX to Provide Broadband Satellite Services
U.S. Air Force Awards SpaceX $28.7 Million to Study Military Applications of Starlink
Blue Origin to Provide Multiple Orbital Launches for Telesat
SpaceX Seeks Approval for 1 Million Starlink Ground Stations, Faces Pentagon Audit


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 23 2019, @08:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the surely-just-a-bug dept.

Submitted via IRC for FatPhil

Finland Feds Investigate Nokia Phones Sending Data To China

Finland's chief of data protection said on Thursday that he would investigate Nokia owner HMD over claims that its mobile phones have been sending data to Chinese state-owned servers.

The investigation follows an report by Norwegian public broadcaster NRK which claims that owners of Nokia 7 Plus phones may have sent sensitive information to a server in China for several months.

NRK conducted an investigation after being tipped off by a man named Henrik Austad, who monitored the traffic on his Nokia 7 - discovering that it was sending unencrypted information to a Chinese server "vnet.cn" while switched on. The data reportedly included his location, SIM card number and the phone's serial number.

The information consists of identifiable data on both the telephone and the telephone number to which it is attached, and which base station it is associated with. This enables the recipient of the package, and anyone with access to the traffic stream along the way, to follow the phone's real-time movements. -NRK

[...]When NRK tried to track down the ownership information for the URL to which the information was being sent, they hit a dead end.

(Emphasis in original.)


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 23 2019, @06:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the sounds-like-a-new-MMO dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

New Horizons team unravels the many mysteries of Ultima Thule

The farthest object ever explored is slowly revealing its secrets, as scientists piece together the puzzles of Ultima Thule – the Kuiper Belt object NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew past on New Year's Day, four billion miles from Earth.

Analyzing the data New Horizons has been sending home since the flyby of Ultima Thule (officially named 2014 MU69), mission scientists are learning more about the development, geology and composition of this ancient relic of solar system formation. The team discussed those findings today at the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas.

Ultima Thule is the first unquestionably primordial contact binary ever explored. Approach pictures of Ultima Thule hinted at a strange, snowman-like shape for the binary, but further analysis of images, taken near closest approach – New Horizons came to within just 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) – have uncovered just how unusual the KBO's shape really is. At 22 miles (35 kilometers) long, Ultima Thule consists of a large, flat lobe (nicknamed "Ultima") connected to a smaller, rounder lobe (nicknamed "Thule").

This strange shape is the biggest surprise, so far, of the flyby. "We've never seen anything like this anywhere in the solar system," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. "It is sending the planetary science community back to the drawing board to understand how planetesimals – the building blocks of the planets – form."

Because it is so well preserved, Ultima Thule is offering our clearest look back to the era of planetesimal accretion and the earliest stages of planetary formation. Apparently Ultima Thule's two lobes once orbited each other, like many so-called binary worlds in the Kuiper Belt, until something brought them together in a "gentle" merger.

"This fits with general ideas of the beginning of our solar system," said William McKinnon, a New Horizons co-investigator from Washington University in St. Louis. "Much of the orbital momentum of the Ultima Thule binary must have been drained away for them to come together like this. But we don't know yet what processes were most important in making that happen."


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 23 2019, @03:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the correlation¬=causation dept.

From the abstract to Associations of child and adolescent anxiety with later alcohol use and disorders: a systematic review and meta‐analysis of prospective cohort studies:

Background and Aims

Despite a wealth of literature, the relationship between anxiety and alcohol use remains unclear. We examined whether (a) child and adolescent anxiety is positively or negatively associated with later alcohol use and disorders and (b) study characteristics explain inconsistencies in findings.

Design and Setting:
We conducted a systematic review of 51 prospective cohort studies from 11 countries. Three studies contributed to a meta‐analysis. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and PsycINFO databases, and studies were included if they met the following criteria: English language publication, human participants, anxiety exposure (predictor variable) in childhood or adolescence and alcohol outcome at least 6 months later.

Participants:
Study sample sizes ranged from 110 to 11 157 participants. Anxiety exposure ages ranged from 3 to 24 years, and alcohol outcome ages ranged from 11 to 42 years.

Measurements:
Ninety‐seven associations across 51 studies were categorized by anxiety exposure (generalized anxiety disorder, internalizing disorders, miscellaneous anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias) and alcohol use outcome (drinking frequency/quantity, binge drinking and alcohol use disorders).

Findings:
The narrative synthesis revealed some evidence for a positive association between anxiety and later alcohol use disorders. Associations of anxiety with later drinking frequency/quantity and binge drinking were inconsistent. Type and developmental period of anxiety, follow‐up duration, sample size and confounders considered did not appear to explain the discrepant findings. The meta‐analysis also showed no clear evidence of a relationship between generalized anxiety disorder and later alcohol use disorder (odds ratio = 0.94, 95% confidence interval = 0.47–1.87).

Conclusions:
Evidence to date is suggestive, but far from conclusive of a positive association between anxiety during childhood and adolescence and subsequent alcohol use disorder.

From the open access journal Addiction, 2019; DOI: 10.1111/add.14575.

Or, maybe, if you don't enjoy the feeling of being drunk, you're not likely to abuse alcohol, no matter your anxiety or circumstances?


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 23 2019, @01:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the which-products-were-killed-gently? dept.

A Eulogy for Every Product Google has Ruthlessly Killed (145 and Counting):

Tez. Trendalyzer. Panoramio. Timeful. Bump! SlickLogin. BufferBox.

The names sound like a mix of mid-2000s blogs and startups you'd see onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt!. In fact, they are just some of the many, many products that Google has acquired or created–then killed.

While Google is notorious for eliminating underperforming products–because even though these products often don't cost much for ongoing operations, they can pose a serious legal liability for the company–it's rare to hear them spoken of after they've been shuttered. In fact, Killed By Google is the first website to memorialize them all in one place. Created by front-end developer Cody Ogden, the site features a tombstone and epitaph for each product the company has killed since it originated.

"This project was born as an act of criticism toward a culture of software product churn. It was ignited by the announcement that Google would be killing Inbox by Gmail," says Ogden. "I've come to call it 'a place of reverence.' Like a graveyard, Killed by Google is a place to show respect for what used to exist, and to provide an opportunity for introspection about what one's digital future holds."

Throw spaghetti on the wall and see what [does not] stick?

What products have been killed by other major vendors (such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, etc.)? Is there a functional and/or temporal overlap?


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Friday March 22 2019, @11:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the 1984-wasn't-supposed-to-be-a-playbook dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

How to hack your face to dodge the rise of facial recognition tech

UK police forces are increasingly experimenting with controversial new facial recognition (FR) technology for crowd control and locating suspects. Critics, however, have labeled the trials a shambles, pointing to the high error rate and even higher cost of the program.

Documents released under Freedom of Information Act requests have shown that collectively South Wales Police and London's Metropolitan Police have spent millions of pounds on trials of the technology, despite the fact that both systems have been shown to have an error rate over 90 per cent.

Similar trials around the world have raised concerns around the technology, including in San Francisco where privacy advocates are calling for a ban on the use of FR by law enforcement.


Original Submission

posted by Fnord666 on Friday March 22 2019, @09:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the boggles-the-mind dept.

Pilot Who Hitched a Ride Saved Lion Air 737 Day Before Deadly Crash:

As the Lion Air crew fought to control their diving Boeing Co. 737 Max 8, they got help from an unexpected source: an off-duty pilot who happened to be riding in the cockpit.

That extra pilot, who was seated in the cockpit jumpseat, correctly diagnosed the problem and told the crew how to disable a malfunctioning flight-control system and save the plane, according to two people familiar with Indonesia's investigation.

The next day, under command of a different crew facing what investigators said was an identical malfunction, the jetliner crashed into the Java Sea killing all 189 aboard.

[...] The previously undisclosed detail on the earlier Lion Air flight represents a new clue in the mystery of how some 737 Max pilots faced with the malfunction have been able to avert disaster while the others lost control of their planes and crashed. The presence of a third pilot in the cockpit wasn't contained in Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee's Nov. 28 report on the crash and hasn't previously been reported.

The so-called dead-head pilot on the earlier flight from Bali to Jakarta told the crew to cut power to the motor driving the nose down, according to the people familiar, part of a checklist that all pilots are required to memorize.

[...] The Indonesia safety committee report said the plane had had multiple failures on previous flights and hadn't been properly repaired.


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Friday March 22 2019, @07:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the does-that-not-compute? dept.

Intel to Stop Developing Compute Cards

Intel will not develop new Compute Cards, the company has confirmed to Tom's Hardware. Compute Cards were Intel's vision of modular computing that would allow customers to continually update point of sale systems, all-in-one desktops, laptops and other devices. Pull out one card, replace it with another, and you have a new CPU, plus RAM and storage.

"We continue to believe modular computing is a market where there are many opportunities for innovation," an Intel spokesperson told Tom's Hardware. "However, as we look at the best way to address this opportunity, we've made the decision that we will not develop new Compute Card products moving forward. We will continue to sell and support the current Compute Card products through 2019 to ensure our customers receive the support they need with their current solutions, and we are thankful for their partnership on this change."

Oh yeah, that was a thing.

Here's some EOMA68 news from 2018:

Remember The EOMA68 Computer Card Project? It Hopes To Ship This Year
A libre GPU effort based on RISC-V, Rust, LLVM and Vulkan by the developer of an earth-friendly computer
The EOMA68 Libre Computer Developer Wants To Tackle A Quad-Core RISC-V Libre SoC Design

Previously: Intel Announces Compute Card, a Small and Flat Form Factor for Computing

Related: EOMA68 Free/Libre and Modular Computing Devices
Intel Discontinues Edison, Galileo, and Joule Product Lines


Original Submission

posted by martyb on Friday March 22 2019, @06:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the Monsanto-will-fall dept.

Recently published in theBMJ:

Findings suggest that an offspring's risk of autism spectrum disorder increases following prenatal exposure to ambient pesticides within 2000 m of their mother's residence during pregnancy, compared with offspring of women from the same agricultural region without such exposure. Infant exposure could further increase risks for autism spectrum disorder with comorbid intellectual disability.

Risk of autism spectrum disorder was associated with prenatal exposure to glyphosate (odds ratio 1.16, 95% confidence interval 1.06 to 1.27), chlorpyrifos (1.13, 1.05 to 1.23), diazinon (1.11, 1.01 to 1.21), malathion (1.11, 1.01 to 1.22), avermectin (1.12, 1.04 to 1.22), and permethrin (1.10, 1.01 to 1.20).

For autism spectrum disorder with intellectual disability, estimated odds ratios were higher (by about 30%) for prenatal exposure to glyphosate (1.33, 1.05 to 1.69), chlorpyrifos (1.27, 1.04 to 1.56), diazinon (1.41, 1.15 to 1.73), permethrin (1.46, 1.20 to 1.78), methyl bromide (1.33, 1.07 to 1.64), and myclobutanil (1.32, 1.09 to 1.60); exposure in the first year of life increased the odds for the disorder with comorbid intellectual disability by up to 50% for some pesticide substances.

This story has been kicking around for over 10 years, my first recollection of it was an Italian study I read back in 2007, though this is the first time I have seen Permethrin implicated as a risk factor.


Original Submission

posted by janrinok on Friday March 22 2019, @04:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-puns-write-themselves dept.

"He's Literally Suing an Imaginary Cow": Late-Night Hosts Mock Rep. Devin Nunes:

On Monday, Devin Nunes' cow was an obscure Twitter account with around 1,200 followers. Then Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) filed a lawsuit demanding that Twitter and several Twitter accounts—including the user behind the pseudonymous cow—pay him $250 million for the "pain, insult, embarrassment, humiliation, emotional distress and mental suffering, and injury to his personal and professional reputations" caused by their tweets.

Now, Devin Nunes' cow has more than 420,000[*] Twitter followers—that's more than Nunes himself, who has 395,000 followers.

It's a beautiful example of the Streisand Effect. Nunes appears to have filed the lawsuit in part to raise his own profile within the conservative movement, as the lawsuit was peppered with gratuitous swipes at the Democratic Party, Fusion GPS, and other high-profile villains in the conservative pantheon.

But the lawsuit appears to have done more to raise the profile of Devin Nunes' cow than it did Nunes himself. Television comedians Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah, and Stephen Colbert all had fun at Nunes' expense on Tuesday night.

"He's literally suing an imaginary cow," Kimmel said, noting that Nunes had co-sponsored the Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act during the last session of Congress. "We can't have livestock insulting our elected officials. This DevinCow account obviously really bothers Devin Nunes. So in the interest of civility, I'm asking you please don't follow @DevinCow on Twitter."

[...] Santa Clara University legal scholar Eric Goldman is skeptical that Nunes will win his lawsuit. The law gives online service providers like Twitter broad immunity for content posted by its users. As for Devin Nunes' cow, many of the supposedly defamatory statements made by the parody account are clearly non-actionable opinions.

[*] 420,000 at the time the linked story was posted (2019-03-20 18:42:00 UTC). At the time of this submission (2019-03-21 03:42:03 UTC) the count had risen to 534K. That works out to adding 1000 followers every 5 minutes or so.

Following @DevinCow on Twitter could reveal moooving comments on all that is at steak in this rare social medium... you can run but you can't hide.


Original Submission