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It’s 2017 and Hayes AT modem commands can hack luxury cars
The affected BMWs went on sale between 2009 and 2010, the affected Infiniti models were built between 2013 and 2015 and there's a chance Nissan Leafs manufactured between 2011 to 2015. The problem device is a 2G baseband chipset, the S-Gold 2 (part number PMB 8876) used by Continental.

The first vulnerability is a stack-based buffer overflow exposed by the Hayes-AT commands AT+STKPROF, AT+XAPP, AT+XLOG and AT+FNS. The second vulnerability is remotely exploitable if by a 2G connection which lets an attacker “access and control memory” for “remote code execution on the baseband radio processor of the TCU.”
Details from DEFCON.

We found a hidden backdoor in Chinese Internet of Things devices
VoIP company "dbltek" found a vulnerability in their GSM-to-VoIP devices which uses components from a Chinese vendor that refuse to fix it.

Basically, when you try to telnet into the device as dbladm, the gadget tries to connect to UDP port 11000 on 192.168.2.1 on its local network. If it receives a valid response, it grants access.

Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman said on Monday that the free movement between United Kingdom and EU will end in March 2019.

Get those consulting gigs complete by then.. :p

The ride failure at the Ohio State Fair, USA on 2017-07-26 that killed one 18-year old:
WKYC Channel 3: Verify: How safe are the rides here in Ohio?

This investigation by the news outlet notes at 2:20 something interesting. Namely that the swing arm shows signs of metal fatigue. Maybe someone will take a metal grain microscopy of the surfaces. It ought to tell a lot.

Today 2017-07-19 inside Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant at the primary containment vessel of the Unit 3 reactor. A marine robot with the nickname the
"little sunfish", is on a mission to study damage and find resources such as fuel that experts say has melted and mostly fallen to the bottom of a chamber. There's a picture of the robot too.

Mobile phone users in Turkey got surprise voice message by Turkish President Erdogan when placing a call through Turkcell or Vodafone around midnight on the anniversary of the 15 July 2016 coup attempt.

After dialing a number, the dial tone were replaced with a voice message from Erdogan congratulating them on the national holiday of “democracy and unity” and only after Erdogan’s message did the dial tone begin.

If people had any doubt that mobile communications are unsafe. Then they got a in your face status message this midnight. Maybe people will reconsider end-to-end crypto VoIP now.

CHP MP Barış Yarkadaş wrote that it's a "extortion of freedom of communication". And MP Aykut Erdoğdu said "What is this on top of all insults? It’s such a nightmare!".

Maybe they got inspired by USA Belkin http MITM attack in 2003 ..?

(At other times Erdogan tells his son to hide the millions of Euros (2014) and that Turks should reproduce with at least five children, especially if they live in Europe.)

Robert Michels (1876-1936):

"Who says organization, says oligarchy." /../ "Historical evolution mocks all the prophylactic measures that have been adopted for the prevention of oligarchy."

/../ all organizations eventually come to be run by a "leadership class", who often function as paid administrators, executives, spokespersons, political strategists, organizers, etc. for the organization. Far from being "servants of the masses", Michels argues this "leadership class," rather than the organization's membership, will inevitably grow to dominate the organization's power structures. By controlling who has access to information, those in power can centralize their power successfully, often with little accountability, due to the apathy, indifference and non-participation most rank-and-file members have in relation to their organization's decision-making processes. Michels argues that democratic attempts to hold leadership positions accountable are prone to fail, since with power comes the ability to reward loyalty, the ability to control information about the organization, and the ability to control what procedures the organization follows when making decisions. All of these mechanisms can be used to strongly influence the outcome of any decisions made 'democratically' by members.

Michels stated that the official goal of representative democracy of eliminating elite rule was impossible, that representative democracy is a façade legitimizing the rule of a particular elite, and that elite rule, which he refers to as oligarchy, is inevitable

These factors seems interesting enough to pay attention to:
  * Power comes the ability to reward loyalty.
  * Ability to control information about the organization.
  * Controlling procedures.

Jerry Pournelle (1933-)

In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.

On other words. The people that indulge themselves into the organization itself and gives a shit about the outcome gains the most?

It just seems like these intrinsic of people and organizations to play out repeatedly in the society. The ability to recognize these phenomena and negate them may be of importance.

Do you recognize these things anywhere where it mattered?

Vertical takeoff vehicle using batteries already here?

Lilium - Vertical takeoff vehicle
World's First All-Electric VTOL Jet Tested - Are Flying Cars Here?

Quick data:
Motor power: 324 kW
Range: 300 km
Top speed: 300 km/h
Planned release: year 2025

It's started by technical students from Technical University of Munich (Germany). And they use ESA business incubator facilities.

Seems like it might get some trouble if power fails because the front seems to lack passive lift power, ie wings.

At least 1 million homes in the USA have solar systems on their rooftops and their use together with local batteries is increasing, enabling homeowners the ability to collect energy and store it for later usage on-site. Enabling homeowners to cut their dependence on the electrical grid and their bills. This could be economically painful for utilities. A new McKinsey study predicts two outcomes 1) electrical grid cut off completely 2) primarly local energy collection and the electrical grid as a backup.

The cost of of collecting solar energy and store it on-site makes the incentive too small even for residents of sunny Arizona to cut the electrical grid off. But partial defection from the grid with 80-90% of the demand supplied on-site makes economic sense in 2020 and total defection makes sense around 2028

The prediction by McKinsey is that the electrical grid will be repurposed as an enormous, sophisticated backup. Where utilities only adds energy at those times when the on-site systems aren't collecting enough energy.

My comment: So far good enough. But then why not simple connect to neighbors directly for electrical power transfer and cutting the utilities out of the loop even for electrical fallback needs?
A electrical power mesh grid might need some interesting mathematical modeling though.

(As a side note, maybe this makes UPS for home use obsolete soon enough?)

Daniel Stenberg a Swedish Mozilla employee was denied entry at the airport ticket counter early Monday morning despite his visa waiver ESTA. The incident stirred fears among international tech workers, who fear they'll miss out on work and research opportunities in USA. Microsoft's chief legal officer Brad Smith, tweeted a legal assistance offer. Many commenters have suggested to apply for a standard visa despite it being a pain in the ass.
Daniel have also written the command-line tool curl.

This movie kind of illustrates what can happen when AI gets the opportunity for power:
Colossus: The Forbin Project
It's a movie from 1970 but perhaps even more relevant now.