Facebook Might Make You Pay To Send Messages To Strangers

Today Facebook is adding a couple of new settings for messages to make sure you see the ones you need to see. And it’s also testing a system where you pay a buck to ensure someone you aren’t friends with reads a note you sent. Ugh, hopefully that test fails. More »

Read More:
Facebook Might Make You Pay To Send Messages To Strangers

Amazon Has Another Huge Security Hole

You may recall that Amazon was implicated as the weak link in the Mat Honan iCloud hack , wherein a gadget blogger had his entire online identity nuked from orbit because Amazon gave up the secondary identifying information necessary to issue a password reset over at Apple. (The last four of your credit card, incidentally.) I’m sad to say that Amazon has clearly not improved their authentication protocols in any meaningful way, but this time it’s hurting them directly. More »

See the original article here:
Amazon Has Another Huge Security Hole

How Syria Turned Off the Internet

November 29, 2012, between 1026 and 1029 (UTC), all traffic from Syria to the rest of the Internet stopped. At CloudFlare, we witnessed the drop off. CloudFlare spent yesterday morning studying the situation to understand what happened. The following graph shows the last several days of traffic coming to CloudFlare’s network from Syria. More »

Read More:
How Syria Turned Off the Internet

Original Star Wars trilogy scribe Lawrence Kasdan reportedly attached to new trilogy, plus Simon Kinberg

That didn’t take long: within one month, we got all of our screenwriters lined up for the new Disney-Lucasfilm Star Wars trilogy, and one of them is a pretty reliable man for the job. As we reported earlier, Michael Arndt will be taking Episode VII , and now it’s being reported that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg will take on Episodes VIII and IX , though it’s unspecified who will take which script. If you recall, Kasdan wrote both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi , and if I may make a wild prediction, I’m going to call the final episode for him. Let the veteran round out the new trilogy. Kinberg is also hardly a slouch, having written Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Sherlock Holmes , plus he’s currently writing the sequel to X-Men: First Class , on which he was a producer. (In other words, experience in sci-fi/fantasy franchises.) Both Kasdan and Kinberg will also join Kathleen Kennedy as producers on both films. All three of the new movies will be based on story notes from George Lucas , but will be written and directed by others. Probably the best thing for Star Wars that George Lucas could ever do at this point. The Hollywood Reporter (and several other sites) seem to have this news all but confirmed. Disney-Lucasfilm have not offered a comment yet, except to say that they will make an official announcement on StarWars.com , where they confirmed Arndt’s role. For the moment, that is still the most recent news item . Photo credit: Collider Sources: Lawrence Kasdan, Simon Kinberg Lock Deals to Write and Produce ‘Star Wars’ Installments [The Hollywood Reporter]

Visit link:
Original Star Wars trilogy scribe Lawrence Kasdan reportedly attached to new trilogy, plus Simon Kinberg

What destroyed the Maya? We have a new clue, in the form of an ancient stalagmite.

The Maya civilization was among the most advanced in history, and its disintegration has perplexed researchers for ages. One of the most compelling theories to date suggests that a shifting climate, playing puppeteer to sociopolitical marionettes, had a devastating role in the Maya’s downfall. Now, researchers have combined remarkably detailed climate data — recorded in a Central American stalagmite — with historical records to help determine what really happened to this mysterious Mesoamerican society. More »

Continue Reading:
What destroyed the Maya? We have a new clue, in the form of an ancient stalagmite.