We debated the use of facial recognition in cities with the policy makers and law enforcement officials who actually use it. The discussion got to the heart of EDRi’s warnings that biometric surveillance puts limits on everyone’s rights and freedoms, amplifies discrimination, and treats all of us as experimental test subjects. This techno-driven democratic vacuum must be stopped.

I've been writing Laundry Files stories since 1999, and there's now about 1.4 million words in that universe. That's a lot of stuff: a typical novel these days is 100,000 words, but these books trend long, and this count includes 11 novels (of which, #10 comes out later this month) and some shorter work. It occurs to me that while some of you have been following them from the beginning, a lot of people come to them cold in the shape of one story or another.
So below the fold I'm going to explain the Laundry Files time line, the various sub-series that share the setting, and give a running order for the series—including short stories as well as novels.

Paolo Nespoli and Roland Miller have tapped into this collective appetite with their new book, Interior Space: A Visual Exploration of the International Space Station, which is being published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of continuous human life aboard the ISS.

A forthcoming report from sanctions experts at the United Nations warns people not to attend a cryptocurrency conference in North Korea next month, since it might violate sanctions. The news: The confidential report will be submitted to the UN Security Council later this month, according to Reuters. It warns that previous presentations at the same…

Cyberattacks waged against cryptocurrency exchanges are now common, but the theft of just over $7 million from the Singapore-based exchange DragonEx last March stands out for at least three reasons.  First there is the extremely elaborate phishing scheme the attackers used to get in, which involved not only fake websites but also fake crypto-trading bots.…

 In at least 20 countries, the pandemic was cited as a reason to introduce sweeping new restrictions on speech and arrest online critics. In 28, governments blocked websites or forced outlets, users, or platforms to censor information in order to suppress critical reporting, unfavorable health statistics, or other content related to the coronavirus. In at least 45 of the countries studied, people were arrested as a result of their online posts about covid-19.
Many countries are also conducting increasingly sweeping surveillance of their populations, with contact tracing or quarantine compliance apps particularly ripe for abuse in places like Bahrain, India, and Russia. In China, the authorities used high- and low-tech tools not just to manage the outbreak of the coronavirus, but also to stop people from sharing information and challenge the official narrative. 

impact will change Dimorphos’s speed by about one millimeter per second, or one five-hundredth of a mile per hour. Though Dimorphos is not about to collide with Earth, DART is intended to demonstrate the ability to deflect an asteroid like it that is headed our way, should one ever be discovered.

Global financial institutions use their own secure messaging system called SWIFT to exchange information about financial transactions and comply with money-laundering rules. Now cryptocurrency exchanges are under pressure from regulators to create a similar system, but it’s not at all clear how. The Travel Rule: In June, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the influential…

The Handshake Network, an ambitious public blockchain project whose developers want to reinvent how internet domain names are assigned, has  finally launched its main network after the project was revealed more than a year ago. Meet the DNS: When you enter a website name into your browser, you make a request of a network of…

The Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, has announced the launch of a year-long pilot project of its proposed e-krona. The project will use distributed ledger technology inspired by the blockchains that run cryptocurrencies. Cashless in Sweden: Physical cash is headed toward obsolescence in Sweden. Nearly everyone uses a mobile payment application called Swish, and it’s been…

With almost 6,300 cases and more than 40 reported deaths, South Korea has become home to the world’s largest coronavirus outbreak outside China. As a result, the government in Seoul has taken what it calls “maximum” action to contain the spread of the disease—including sending thousands of people into mandatory home quarantine. Now it is…

Coronavirus in Köln: Hier finden Sie die wichtigsten Informationen zu den Auswirkungen des Virus in Köln.

Cryptocurrency scammers raked in $4.3 billion worth of digital money in 2019, more than triple 2018’s haul. That’s according to the latest in a series of recent data drops by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, all of which it has included in a lengthy report it published Wednesday entitled “The 2020 State of Crypto Crime.” You’ve…

Droht Deutschland ein Stillstand wie in Italien? In Berlin und Köln werden unter anderem Clubs, Kinos und Bars geschlossen. Die USA weiten den Einreisestopp derweil nun doch auf Großbritannien und Irland aus.

Von einer - auch von SPIEGEL.de - gemeldeten Verlangsamung von Infizierten-Zahlen in Deutschland kann doch nicht ausgegangen werden. Die Berechnung des Robert Koch-Instituts war unvollständig, etliche Fallmeldungen waren dort nicht eingegangen.

Die Corona-Krise zeigt, dass Regierungen zu drastischen Maßnahmen bereit sind, um Menschenleben zu retten. Warum passiert das nicht bei der Seenotrettung? Ein Debattenbeitrag.

Dieser Beitrag wurde am 27.01.2020 auf bento.de veröffentlicht.

Last week, as shutdowns and shelter-in-place orders became increasingly common, a mysterious Google Form circulated among students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business: “Love Is Blind, Bschool Edition.” The name was inspired by the hit Netflix show where couples talk in isolated pods and subsequently get engaged without seeing each other. The…

Bisher hatten Impfgegner kein gutes Argument, warum sie sich nicht impfen lassen. Mit dem elektronischen Impfpass könnte sich das erstmals ändern. Sollte die Sorge um die eigenen Gesundheitsdaten künftig Menschen von einer Impfung abhalten, kann das kaum im öffentlichen Interesse sein. Wie die Erfahrung der letzten Jahrzehnte gezeigt hat, weckt ein solches zentrales Register Begehrlichkeiten und schafft Missbrauchspotential. Gerade angesichts der hohen opt-out-Rate von ELGA und der kritischen Haltung der Bevölkerung zu staatlicher Datensammlung, sollte die Politik nach der Pilotphase einlenken und das Register optional gestalten.

This year has not been easy for people in the coffee industry, including 25 million smallholder farmers who are responsible for growing 80% of the world’s coffee. In total, 125 million people depend on coffee for their livelihood, from transporting and roasting the beans to selling the final product. Baristas and coffee shop owners were some of the first to close the doors to their businesses as lockdowns began. Some never reopened.

Despite the incredibly challenging working environment imposed by Covid-19 restrictions, consumers have still been able to get their hands on their favourite drink, thanks largely to the resilience of coffee producers and supply chains.