Greg Baum in the SMH today - Cocooned in sycophancy, the Australians seem not to grasp nor care how poorly this behaviour sits with the other half of a cricket-following public they repeatedly and ever more deeply divide, even in their finest hours. They also do not seem to care or grasp how it rankles with opponents, and how insufferably arrogant it makes them look. Do they really think they are the only country that plays with passion and pride? Do they think they patented the will to win? Do they think they have cornered the market in competitiveness? ...

Love these Improv Everywhere guys: https://youtu.be/gcXSEhxqUl4

The New Horizons space probe is about to reach Pluto to take high resolution photos of the surface, and there’s a public vote page to select a list of names for the features on its surface. Fantastic effort and should be interesting, but I’d just point out the time at which New Horizons was launched, Pluto was still a planet. STILL A PLANET, GENTLEMEN!

Google (where else) develops computer program capable of learning tasks independently, is training it on computer games from the 80s (so far). I’m… really not sure that’s a great idea to start A.I. learning the most efficient methods to get high scores on games that will often involve killing… (nobody say Skynet!)

In 2010, GCHQ and the NSA hacked a company responsible for producing a huge number of mobile SIMs and stole all the security keys: With these stolen encryption keys, intelligence agencies can monitor mobile communications without seeking or receiving approval from telecom companies and foreign governments. Possessing the keys also sidesteps the need to get a warrant or a wiretap, while leaving no trace on the wireless provider’s network that the communications were intercepted. Bulk key theft additionally enables the intelligence agencies to unlock any previously encrypted communications they had already intercepted, but did not yet have the ability to decrypt. ...