If you had “National Parks subtweet the new president” on your 2017 bingo card, today’s your lucky day. After the US National Parks Service was temporarily banned for retweeting images comparing Trump and Obama’s inaugurations, the official Twitter account of the appropriately named Badlands National Park, based in South Dakota, appeared to go rogue by posting a series of now-deleted tweets on climate change. Badlands National Park’s now-deleted tweets on climate change Photograph: Twitter The tweets were eventually deleted, and, while the official accounts may not be saying much right now, some “alternative” accounts have been set up. One, @BadHombreNPS tweeted: “Hey, friends. Here toRead More →

Several high-profile opinion writers and activists have vocally distanced themselves from today’s protest because of the alleged involvement of the Socialist Workers party (SWP), who they are critical of due to the handling of a rape allegation dating back to 2008. They include Owen Jones, who organised last Monday’s Downing Street protest and co-founded the Stop Trump Coalition. He said: “I’m not taking part in tomorrow’s Trump demo because of the leading role of the SWP in it, a cult which covered up rape.” Stop Trump (@UKStopTrump) Too often activist spaces aren’t a safe space for women. We’re committed to a zero tolerance approach toRead More →

Dear Spokane, Washington. The Guardian owes you an apology. On Tuesday, in anticipation of March Madness, we at Guardian US published a piece by Cody Delistraty, a writer and journalist who grew up in Spokane and is gunning for the Gonzaga Bulldogs in this year’s tournament. (Go Zags!) Cody’s essay was intended to reflect on the success of Gonzaga’s basketball team in their post-industrial surroundings, drawing on his own experience in the place he calls home. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite hit the right note, and it caused a storm among Spokanites. “The Guardian misses with flawed Spokane story,” wrote Poynter. “Hashtag trolls writer who portrayedRead More →

Is the cryptocurrency bitcoin the biggest bubble in the world today, or a great investment bet on the cutting edge of new-age financial technology? My best guess is that in the long run, the technology will thrive, but that the price of bitcoin will collapse. If you haven’t been following the bitcoin story, its price is up 600% over the past 12 months, and 1,600% in the past 24 months. At over $4,200 (as of 5 October), a single unit of the virtual currency is now worth more than three times an ounce of gold. Some bitcoin evangelists see it going far higher in theRead More →

The satellite communications that ships, planes and the military use to connect to the internet are vulnerable to hackers that, in the worst-case scenario, could carry out “cyber-physical attacks”, turning satellite antennas into weapons that operate, essentially, like microwave ovens. According to research presented at the Black Hat information security conference in Las Vegas, a number of popular satellite communication systems are vulnerable to the attacks, which could also leak information and hack connected devices. The attacks, which are merely a nuisance for the aviation sector, could pose a safety risk for military and maritime users, the research claims. Ruben Santamarta, a researcher for theRead More →