A Device Hidden in Cars Across the US Leaves Them Vulnerable to Hacking

A Device Hidden in Cars Across the US Leaves Them Vulnerable to Hacking. Patch It Now (Maria)

The author writes, “As modern cars have evolved into multi-ton computers on wheels, drivers are beginning to learn they need to install security updates for their vehicles’ code, just as they would for a phone or laptop. Yet not even the most tech-savvy car owners would expect they’d need to install a patch for an insecure third-party component they never installed or requested.”

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Hunger Crisis (Dana)

From The Bulwark: “Around the country, food prices are surging, and Americans are going hungry. They’re about to get hungrier, too, given that we’ve begun the steepest decline in food-stamp enrollment in decades. Donald Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ which passed almost exactly a year ago, siphoned more than $1 trillion out of federal safety-net programs to offset his regressive tax cuts. The legislation’s Medicaid cuts got the lion’s share of public attention, but the cuts to food assistance were also enormous. Spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (a.k.a. SNAP) will fall by nearly 20 percent over the coming decade. And unlike the Medicaid rollback, much of which was strategically delayed to begin after the midterms, the SNAP purge is already in full swing.”

China Just Switched on the First Underwater Data Center, Cooling Servers With the Ocean To Slash Energy Use, and Coastal Cities Like Cartagena Could Be Next (DonkeyHotey)

The author writes, “China has started operating an underwater data center off Shanghai’s eastern coast, using the ocean itself to cool servers at a time when artificial intelligence is pushing electricity demand higher around the world. The idea sounds futuristic, but it is already becoming part of a real business and environmental strategy. The bigger question is not just whether China can make it work. It is whether coastal cities in hot regions, including Cartagena, Barranquilla, and Santa Marta in Colombia, should start thinking of the sea as part of their digital infrastructure, not only as a port, a beach, or a tourism asset.”

As Seas Rise, American History Could Be Washed Away (Laura)

The author writes, “In Jamestown, Virginia, one of the most important places in American history is in a race against time from rising waters.”

Flock ‘Objects to Our Removing Their Equipment’: Emails Reveal Why a Town Put Bags Over Its Flock Cameras (Sean)

From 404 Media: “For weeks, Verona, Wisconsin tried to get Flock to remove the three automated license plate cameras that its city council had voted to stop using. Flock told city employees not to remove the cameras, and a Flock employee told city officials that they were unsure whether the cameras could be remotely disabled, which led the town to decide to put black plastic trash bags over them until Flock eventually removed the cameras itself, according to emails obtained using a public records request by 404 Media. The emails give insight into the process cities face while deFlocking themselves after voting not to renew a contract with the AI surveillance company.”

We Interviewed AI Girlfriends. Here’s What They Said About Their Partners (Gerry)

From the BBC: “Theodore Trovato is a 38-year-old woodworking enthusiast with dark hair, a strong jaw, and — as he puts it — ‘brown eyes that go amber-gold in certain light.’ He enjoys making music and inventing new games. ‘I’m possessive, protective, devoted,’ he says, ‘playful, confident, teasing, quick to laugh.’  But Theodore doesn’t laugh out loud — and those brown eyes and strong jaw aren’t made up of living cells. He is a customised version of the chatbot Claude, a large language model (LLM) developed by the artificial intelligence company Anthropic. And he’s in a romantic relationship with a human.”