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after-seeing-wi-fi-network-named-“stinky,”-navy-found-hidden-starlink-dish-on-us-warship

After seeing Wi-Fi network named “STINKY,” Navy found hidden Starlink dish on US warship

I need that sweet, sweet wi-fi —

To be fair, it’s hard to live without Wi-Fi.

A photo of the USS Manchester.

Enlarge / The USS Manchester. Just the spot for a Starlink dish.

Department of Defense

It’s no secret that government IT can be a huge bummer. The records retention! The security! So government workers occasionally take IT into their own hands with creative but, err, unauthorized solutions.

For instance, a former US Ambassador to Kenya in 2015 got in trouble after working out of an embassy compound bathroom—the only place where he could use his personal computer (!) to access an unsecured network (!!) that let him log in to Gmail (!!!), where he did much of his official business—rules and security policies be damned.

Still, the ambassador had nothing on senior enlisted crew members of the littoral combat ship USS Manchester, who didn’t like the Navy’s restriction of onboard Internet access. In 2023, they decided that the best way to deal with the problem was to secretly bolt a Starlink terminal to the “O-5 level weatherdeck” of a US warship.

They called the resulting Wi-Fi network “STINKY”—and when officers on the ship heard rumors and began asking questions, the leader of the scheme brazenly lied about it. Then, when exposed, she went so far as to make up fake Starlink usage reports suggesting that the system had only been accessed while in port, where cybersecurity and espionage concerns were lower.

Rather unsurprisingly, the story ends badly, with a full-on Navy investigation and court-martial. Still, for half a year, life aboard the Manchester must have been one hell of a ride.

Enlarge / A photo included in the official Navy investigation report, showing the location of the hidden Starlink terminal on the USS Manchester.

DOD (through Navy Times)

One stinky solution

The Navy Times has all the new and gory details, and you should read their account, because they went to the trouble of using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to uncover the background of this strange story. But the basics are simple enough: People are used to Internet access. They want it, even (perhaps especially!) when at sea on sensitive naval missions to Asia, where concern over Chinese surveillance and hacking runs hot.

So, in early 2023, while in the US preparing for a deployment, Command Senior Chief Grisel Marrero—the enlisted shipboard leader—led a scheme to buy a Starlink for $2,800 and to install it inconspicuously on the ship’s deck. The system was only for use by chiefs—not by officers or by most enlisted personnel—and a Navy investigation later revealed that at least 15 chiefs were in on the plan.

The Navy Times describes how Starlink was installed:

The Starlink dish was installed on the Manchester’s O-5 level weatherdeck during a “blanket” aloft period, which requires a sailor to hang high above or over the side of the ship.

During a “blanket” aloft, duties are not documented in the deck logs or the officer of the deck logs, according to the investigation.

It’s unclear who harnessed up and actually installed the system for Marrero due to redactions in the publicly released copy of the probe, but records show Marrero powered up the system the night before the ship got underway to the West Pacific waters of U.S. 7th Fleet.

This was all extremely risky, and the chiefs don’t appear to have taken amazing security precautions once everything was installed. For one thing, they called the network “STINKY.” For another, they were soon adding more gear around the ship, which was bound to raise further questions. The chiefs found that the Wi-Fi signal coming off the Starlink satellite transceiver couldn’t cover the entire ship, so during a stop in Pearl Harbor, they bought “signal repeaters and cable” to extend coverage.

Sailors on the ship then began finding the STINKY network and asking questions about it. Some of these questions came to Marrero directly, but she denied knowing anything about the network… and then privately changed its Wi-Fi name to “another moniker that looked like a wireless printer—even though no such general-use wireless printers were present on the ship, the investigation found.”

Marrero even went so far as to remove questions about the network from the commanding officer’s “suggestion box” aboard ship to avoid detection.

Finding the stench

Ship officers heard the scuttlebutt about STINKY, of course, and they began asking questions and doing inspections, but they never found the concealed device. On August 18, though, a civilian worker from the Naval Information Warfare Center was installing an authorized SpaceX “Starshield” device and came across the unauthorized SpaceX device hidden on the weatherdeck.

Marrero’s attempt to create fake data showing that the system had only been used in port then failed spectacularly due to the “poorly doctored” statements she submitted. At that point, the game was up, and Navy investigators looked into the whole situation.

All of the chiefs who used, paid for, or even knew about the system without disclosing it were given “administrative nonjudicial punishment at commodore’s mast,” said Navy Times.

Marrero herself was relieved of her post last year, and she pled guilty during a court-martial this spring.

So there you go, kids: two object lessons in poor decision-making. Whether working from an embassy bathroom or the deck of a littoral combat ship, if you’re a government employee, think twice before giving in to the sweet temptation of unsecured, unauthorized wireless Internet access.

Update, Sept. 5, 3: 30pm: A reader has claimed that the default Starlink SSID is actually… “STINKY.” This seemed almost impossible to believe, but Elon Musk in fact tweeted about it in 2022, Redditors have reported it in the wild, and back in 2022 (thanks, Wayback Machine), the official Starlink FAQ said that the device’s “network name will appear as ‘STARLINK’ or ‘STINKY’ in device WiFi settings.” (A check of the current Starlink FAQ, however, shows that the default network name now is merely “STARLINK.”)

In other words, not only was this asinine conspiracy a terrible OPSEC idea, but the ringleaders didn’t even change the default Wi-Fi name until they started getting questions about it. Yikes.

2022 Twitter thread announcing that

2022 Twitter thread announcing that “STINKY” would be the default SSID for Starlink.

After seeing Wi-Fi network named “STINKY,” Navy found hidden Starlink dish on US warship Read More »

jack-black-stars-as-expert-crafter-steve-in-a-minecraft-movie-teaser

Jack Black stars as expert crafter Steve in A Minecraft Movie teaser

Kadoosh! —

“Anything you can dream about here, you can make.”

Jason Momoa and Jack Black star in A Minecraft Movie.

Minecraft is among the most successful and influential games of the early 21st century, winning many awards and selling over 300 million copies (so far) since its 2011 release. So it was only a matter of time before Hollywood gave us a feature film based on the 3D sandbox game, simply titled A Minecraft Movie. Sure, one might have reservations about yet another video game-based movie, but on the plus side, we’ve got Jason Momoa and Jack Black co-starring. And the first teaser is full of eye-popping candy-colored cubic visuals and sly references to the game that should please fans.

Within a year of Minecraft‘s initial release, Mojang Studios was fielding offers from Hollywood producers about making a TV series based on the game, but the company wanted to wait for “the right idea.” There was a 2014 attempt to crowd-source a fan film, but game creator Markus “Notch” Persson didn’t agree to license that effort since he was already negotiating with Warner Bros. about developing a film based on the game. Thus began a long, convoluted process of directors and writers being hired and leaving the project for various reasons.

When the dust finally settled, Jared Hess (who worked with Black on Nacho Libre) ended up directing. The COVID pandemic and 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike delayed things further, but filming finally wrapped earlier this year in Auckland, New Zealand—just in time for a spring 2025 theatrical release. Per the official synopsis:

Welcome to the world of Minecraft, where creativity doesn’t just help you craft, it’s essential to one’s survival! Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks)—find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like Piglins and Zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve (Jack Black). Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative… the very skills they need to thrive back in the real world.

Game players will recognize Steve as one of the default characters in Minecraft. The teaser is set to The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” and opens with our misfits encountering a fantastical Tolkien-esque landscape—only with a lot more cube-like shapes, like a pink sheep with a cubed head.  We get the aforementioned Piglins and other creatures before Black appears and dramatically announces with great fanfare, “I…. am Steve.” Honestly, we’ll probably watch it just for Black’s performance alone.

A Minecraft Movie hits theaters in April 2025.

Listing image by YouTube/Warner Bros.

Jack Black stars as expert crafter Steve in A Minecraft Movie teaser Read More »

ukrainian-drones-now-spray-2,500°-c-thermite-streams-right-into-russian-trenches

Ukrainian drones now spray 2,500° C thermite streams right into Russian trenches

dragon’s fire —

Mechanical dragons now deliver fire on command.

Ukrainian drones now spray 2,500° C thermite streams right into Russian trenches

Wars of necessity spawn weapons innovation as each side tries to counter the other’s tactics and punch through defenses. For instance—as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made drone warfare real, both sides have developed ways to bring down drones more easily. One recent Ukrainian innovation has been building counter-drone ramming drones that literally knock Russian drones from the sky.

In the case of the trench warfare that currently dominates the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainians have another new tactic: dragon’s fire. Delivered by drone.

Videos have begun to circulate on Telegram and X this week from Ukrainian units showing their new weapon. (You can see three of them below.) The videos each show a drone moving deliberately along a trench line as it releases a continuous stream of incendiary material, which often starts fires on the ground below (and ignites nearby ammunition).

The most terrifying development in drone warfare I’ve seen thus far. Makes FPVs with unitary warheads look like a walk in the park.

The POV videos of incendiary rockets cascading burning magnesium and thermite were horrifying, but this is next level. pic.twitter.com/muF2kbHPqJ

— Artoir (@ItsArtoir) September 2, 2024


Ukrainian thermite dropping drones continue to rapidly proliferate through various drone units.

Seen here, a Ukrainian drone from the 60th Mechanized Brigade drops a stream of molten thermite on a Russian-held treeline. pic.twitter.com/o20diLuN1L

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 4, 2024


This drone type is allegedly called “Dragon” and is said to feature thermite, a mixture of metal powder (usually aluminum) and metal oxide (in this case, said to be iron). When a thermite mixture is ignited, it undergoes a redox reaction that releases an enormous amount of heat energy and can burn anywhere. It can get really, really hot.

Wikipedia offers a nice description of the advantages of thermite:

The products emerge as liquids due to the high temperatures reached (up to 2,500° C [4,532° F] with iron(III) oxide)—although the actual temperature reached depends on how quickly heat can escape to the surrounding environment. Thermite contains its own supply of oxygen and does not require any external source of air. Consequently, it cannot be smothered, and may ignite in any environment given sufficient initial heat. It burns well while wet, and cannot be easily extinguished with water—though enough water to remove sufficient heat may stop the reaction.

Whether such weapons make any difference on the battlefield remains unclear, but the devices are a reminder of how much industrial and chemical engineering talent in Ukraine is currently being directed into new methods of destruction.

Ukrainian drones now spray 2,500° C thermite streams right into Russian trenches Read More »

agatha-all-along’s-latest-teaser-hints-at-one-character’s-true-identity

Agatha All Along’s latest teaser hints at one character’s true identity

Some intriguing speculation —

“This journey… it’s a death wish.”

Kathryn Hahn reprises her WandaVision role as Agatha Harkness in the spinoff series Agatha All Along.

Disney introduced the poster and first full trailer for Agatha All Along during its annual D23 Expo earlier this month. And now Marvel Studios has dropped a one-minute teaser that has fans wildly speculating about the possible true identity of one character in particular, who might just be a future Young Avenger.

(Spoilers for WandaVision below.)

As previously reported, the nine-episode series, starring Kathryn Hahn, is one of the TV series in the MCU’s Phase Five, coming on the heels of Secret Invasion, Loki S2, What If…? S2, and EchoAgatha All Along has been in the works since 2021, officially announced in November of that year, inspired by Hahn’s breakout performance in WandaVision as nosy neighbor Agnes—but secretly a powerful witch named Agatha Harkness who was conspiring to steal Wanda’s power. The plot twist even inspired a meta-jingle that went viral. WandaVision ended with Wanda victorious (of course) and Agatha robbed of all her powers, trapped in her nosy neighbor persona. This new series picks up where WandaVision left Agatha, and apparently we can expect a few more catchy tunes. Per the official premise:

The infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…

In addition to Hahn, the cast includes Aubrey Plaza as warrior witch Rio Vidal; Joe Locke as Billy, a teenaged familiar; Patti LuPone as a 450-year-old Sicilian witch named Lilia Calderu; Sasheer Zamata as sorceress Jennifer Kale; Ali Ahn as a witch named Alice; and Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Billy’s boyfriend. Debra Jo Rupp reprises her WandaVision role as Sharon Davis (“Mrs. Hart” in the meta-sitcom), here becoming a member of Agatha’s coven. Also reprising their WandaVision roles: Emma Caulfield Ford as Sarah Proctor (aka “Dottie Jones”); David Payton as John Collins (“Herb”); David Lengel as Harold Proctor (“Phil Jones”); Asif Ali as Abilash Tandon (“Norm”); Amos Glick (pizza delivery man “Dennis”); Kate Forbes as Agatha’s mother, Evanora; and Brian Brightman as the Eastview, New Jersey, sheriff.

This latest teaser opens with Billy fanboying over Agatha, newly released from her spell, admitting that he knows “an egregious amount about you”—ever since he discovered her history during “the Salem days.” WandaVision fans will recall that’s when Agatha absorbed all the power in her then-coven, killing them in the process—including her own mother. Billy admires the fact that Agatha is the only witch to have ever survived the Witches’ Road. But when she asks him who he is, a magical script covers his mouth and garbles his answer. Naturally Agatha finds this intriguing.

Given that the squiggly script resembles an ornate “M,” (or possibly a “W” and “V”) fans are speculating that Billy is connected to Wanda Maximoff—possibly a young Billy Kaplan, who goes on to become Wiccan of the Young Avengers, one of Wanda and Vision’s twin sons. Those sons technically ceased to exist when Wanda ended her reality-warping spell in WandaVision‘s finale. But does anybody ever really cease to exist in the MCU? (The twins were eventually reborn in the comics, with Tommy becoming Speed.)

The first two episodes of Agatha All Along drop on September 18, 2024, on Disney+, with episodes airing weekly after that through November 6. It looks like dark, spooky fun, just in time for the Halloween season.

Listing image by YouTube/Marvel

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trying-to-outrun-ukrainian-drones?-kursk-traffic-cams-still-issue-speeding-tickets.

Trying to outrun Ukrainian drones? Kursk traffic cams still issue speeding tickets.

SLOW DOWN —

Drones are everywhere. Traffic cameras don’t care.

Photo from a Ukrainian drone.

Enlarge / Ukrainian FPV drone hunting Russian army assets along a road.

Imagine receiving a traffic ticket in the mail because you were speeding down a Russian road in Kursk with a Ukrainian attack drone on your tail. That’s the reality facing some Russians living near the front lines after Ukraine’s surprise seizure of Russian territory in Kursk Oblast. And they’re complaining about it on Telegram.

Rob Lee, a well-known analyst of the Ukraine/Russia war, comments on X that “traffic cameras are still operating in Kursk, and people are receiving speeding fines when trying to outrun FPVs [first-person-view attack drones]. Some have resorted to covering their license plates but the traffic police force them to remove them.”

The Russian outlet Mash offers more details from a local perspective:

Volunteers and military volunteers who arrived in the Kursk region are asking the traffic police not to fine them for speeding when they are escaping from the drones of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Several people who are near the combat zone told Mash about this. Cameras are still recording violations in the border area, and when people try to escape from the drones, they receive letters of happiness [tickets]. One of the well-known military activists was charged 9k [rubles, apparently—about US$100] in just one day. He accelerated on a highway that is attacked almost every hour by enemy FPV drones. Some cover their license plates, but the traffic police stop them and demand that they remove the stickers.

Mash claims that the traffic police are sympathetic and that given the drone situation, “speeding can be considered as committed in a state of extreme necessity.” But those who receive a speeding ticket will have to challenge it in court on these grounds.

An image from a Russian traffic camera.

Enlarge / An image from a Russian traffic camera.

Mash

The attack drones at issue here are widely used even some distance beyond the current front lines. Russian milbloggers, for instance, have claimed for more than a week that Ukrainian drones are attacking supply vehicles on the important E38 highway through Kursk, and they have published photos of burning vehicles along the route. (The E38 is significantly to the north of known Ukrainian positions.)

So Russians are understandably in something of a hurry when on roads like this. But the traffic cameras don’t care—and neither, apparently, do the traffic police, who keep the cameras running.

Estonian X account “WarTranslated” provides English translations of Russian Telegram posts related to the Ukraine war, and the traffic cam issue has come up multiple times. According to one local Russian commentator, “In frontline areas, they continue to collect fines for violating traffic rules… For example, drivers exceed the speed limit in order to get away from the drone, or drive quickly through a dangerous place; the state regularly collects fines for this.”

Another Russian complains, “The fact is that in the Kursk region, surveillance cameras that monitor speeding continue to operate. There are frequent cases when fighters are fined when they run away from enemy FPV drones. Papering over license plates on cars does not help, either. For example, a guy from the People’s Militia of the city of Kurchatov was sent to 15 days of arrest because of a taped-over license plate.”

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to end the drone danger in Kursk.

Trying to outrun Ukrainian drones? Kursk traffic cams still issue speeding tickets. Read More »

turns-out-martin-shkreli-copied-his-$2m-wu-tang-album—and-sent-it-to-“50-different-chicks”

Turns out Martin Shkreli copied his $2M Wu-Tang album—and sent it to “50 different chicks”

STILL MAKING FRIENDS —

“Of course I made MP3 copies, they’re like hidden in safes all around the world.”

Martin Shkreli—he's back, and he's still got copies of that Wu-Tang Clan album.

Enlarge / Martin Shkreli—he’s back, and he’s still got copies of that Wu-Tang Clan album.

The members of PleasrDAO are, well, pretty displeased with Martin Shkreli.

The “digital autonomous organization” spent $4.75 million to buy the fabled Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which had only been produced as a single copy. The album had once belonged to Shkreli, who purchased it directly from Wu-Tang Clan for $2 million in 2015. But after Shkreli became the “pharma bro” poster boy for price gouging in the drug sector, he ended up in severe legal trouble and served a seven-year prison sentence for securities fraud.

He also had to pay a $7.4 million penalty in that case, and the government seized and then sold Once Upon a Time in Shaolin to help pay the bill.

The album was truly “one of a kind,” a protest against the devaluation of music in the digital age and the kind of fascinating curio that instantly made its owners into “interesting people.” The album came as a two-CD set inside a nickel and silver box inscribed with the Wu-Tang logo, and the full package included a pair of customized audio speakers and a 174-page leather book featuring lyrics and “anecdotes on the production.”

In a complicated transaction, PleasrDAO purchased the album from an unnamed intermediary, who had first purchased it from the government. As part of that deal, PleasrDAO created a non-fungible token (NFT—remember those?) to show ownership of the album. The New York Times has a good description of what this entailed:

To tie “Once Upon a Time” to the digital realm, an NFT was created to stand as the ownership deed for the physical album, said Peter Scoolidge, a lawyer who specializes in cryptocurrency and NFT deals and was involved in the transaction. The 74 members of PleasrDAO… share collective ownership of the NFT deed, and thus own the album.

Makin’ copies…

But after purchasing the album and sharing the collective ownership of its NFT, PleasrDAO discovered that its “one of a kind” object wasn’t quite as exclusive as it had thought.

Shkreli had, in fact, made copies of the music. Lots of copies. On June 30, 2022, PleasrDAO said that Shkreli played music from the album on his YouTube channel and stated, “Of course I made MP3 copies, they’re like hidden in safes all around the world… I’m not stupid. I don’t buy something for two million dollars just so I can keep one copy.”

Shkreli began taunting PleasrDAO members about the album, telling one of them, “I literally play it on my discord all the time, you’re an idiot” and claiming that PleasrDAO was concerned about an album that “>5000 people have.” Shkreli claimed on a 2024 podcast that he had “burned the album and sent it to like, 50 different chicks”—and that this had been extremely good for his sex life.

Shkreli even offered to send copies of the album to random Internet commenters if they would just send him their “email addy.” He also told people to “look out for a torrent” and hosted listening parties for the album on his X account, which reached “potentially over 4,900 listeners.”

We know all of these details because PleasrDAO has sued Shkreli, claiming that he is acting in violation of the asset forfeiture order and that he is misappropriating “trade secrets” under New York law.

Shkreli “knew that by distributing copies of the Album’s data and files or by playing it publicly, his actions would decrease the Album’s marketability and value,” said PleasrDAO. They have asked a federal judge to stop Shkreli—and also to get them a list of everyone he has distributed the album to.

The Wu-Tang Clan album sits inside this box.

Enlarge / The Wu-Tang Clan album sits inside this box.

Not a secret

Shkreli’s response to all this is, in essence, “so what’s the problem?”

When he purchased the album for $2 million in 2015, he also acquired 50 percent of the copyrights to the package. Before the album was seized by the government, Shkreli says he took advantage of his copyright ownership to make copies as he was “permitted to do under his original purchase agreement.” The government, he says, seized only the individual, physical copy of the album, and Shkreli was within his rights to retain the copies he had already made.

As for trade secrets, well—a trade secret actually has to be “secret.” Thanks to his own actions, Shkreli has made sure that the album is not a secret. “Because Defendant legally purchased and shared the work before the Forfeiture Order and the Asset Purchase Agreement, the work is no longer a trade secret,” his lawyers wrote in his defense.

The Empire State strikes back

On August 26, 2024, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued a preliminary injunction (PDF) in the case as the two parties prepare to battle things out in court. The injunction prevents Shkreli from “possessing, using, disseminating, or selling any interest in the Wu-Tang Clan album ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ (the ‘Album’), including its data and files or the contents of the Album.”

Furthermore, Shkreli has to turn over “all of his copies, in any form, of the Album or its contents to defense counsel.” He also must file an affidavit swearing that he “no longer possesses any copies, in any form, of the Album or its contents.”

By the end of September 2024, Shkreli further must submit a list of “the names and contact information of the individuals to whom he distributed the data and files” and say if he made any money for doing so.

Turns out Martin Shkreli copied his $2M Wu-Tang album—and sent it to “50 different chicks” Read More »

natgeo’s-cursed-gold-documents-rise-and-fall-of-notorious-1980s-treasure-hunter

NatGeo’s Cursed Gold documents rise and fall of notorious 1980s treasure hunter

From rags to riches—to jail —

Thompson’s expedition discovered wreck of the SS Central America, aka the “Ship of Gold.”

gold coins and gold bars scattered on the ocean floor

Enlarge / Cursed Gold: A Shipwreck Scandal documents the spectacular rise and fall of treasure hunter Tommy Thompson.

Recovery Limited Partnership Liquidating Trust

Many people dream of finding lost or hidden treasure, but sometimes realizing that dream turns out to be a nightmare. Such was the case for Tommy Thompson, an American treasure hunter who famously beat the odds to discover the location of the SS Central America shipwreck in 1988. It had been dubbed the “Ship of Gold” since it sank in 1857 laden with 30,000 pounds of gold bars and coins—collectively worth enough money to have some impact on the Panic of 1857 financial crisis.

Thompson and his team recovered significant amounts of gold and artifacts to great fanfare, with experts at the time suggesting the trove could be worth as much as $400 million. The euphoria proved short-lived. Thirty-nine insurance companies filed lawsuits, claiming the gold was rightfully theirs since the companies had paid damages for the lost gold back in the mid-19th century. Thompson eventually prevailed in 1996, when courts awarded him and his discovery team 92 percent of the gold they’d recovered.

But actually realizing profits from the gold proved challenging; In the end, Thompson sold the gold for just $52 million, almost all of which went to pay off the massive debt the project had accumulated over the ensuing years. So naturally, there were more lawsuits, this time from the investors who had financed Thompson’s expedition, accusing him of fraud. Thompson didn’t help his case when he went on the run in 2012 with his assistant, living off some $4 million in assets stashed in an offshore account.

Thompson was finally captured by US marshals in 2015 to face his investors in court. A jury awarded the investors substantial compensatory damages, and the court ordered Thompson to hand over 500 commemorative gold coins that had been minted out of some of the Central America gold to meet that judgment. Thompson claimed he had forgotten where he’d stashed them and was jailed for contempt of court until the coins had been recovered and handed over. He’s still in prison as of this writing, and the gold coins have yet to be found.

It’s quite a tale, so small wonder that National Geographic has made a riveting three-part documentary about Thompson’s spectacular rise and fall: Cursed Gold: A Shipwreck Scandal, based on the 1998 book by Gary Kinder entitled Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue SeaCursed Gold director Sam Benstead read Kinder’s book and was instantly hooked on the story. “Not only was it a hugely exciting story with many twists and turns, but it was also an emotional story, which left you pulling for Tommy and his crew,” he told Ars. “Tommy came through as an extraordinary character: eccentric, brilliant, someone willing to try things no one else had. When I discovered all the things that had happened after the book, I knew it was a story I had to tell.”

Ship of Gold

  • Engraving by J. Childs of the 1857 sinking of the SS Central America.

    Public domain/National Maritime Museum, London

  • Sonar expert Mike Williamson hard at work during production of Cursed Gold.

    National Geographic

  • John Moore is a lead designer of deep-sea robot Nemo.

    National Geographic

  • Dramatic reconstruction of crew members looking at monitors in the ship’s control room.

    National Geographic

  • Dramatic reconstruction of a crew member looking at computer screens in the ship’s control room.

    National Geographic

  • Dramatic reconstruction of sonar operator John Lettow navigating Nemo from the ship’s control room.

    National Geographic

  • Dramatic reconstruction showing Nemo descending to the seabed off the coast of North Carolina.

    National Geographic

  • Gold bars and coins on the bottom of the sea bed off the coast of North Carolina.

    Recovery Limited Partnership Liquidating Trust

  • Robotic machine recovers gold bars on the bottom of the seabed.

    Recovery Limited Partnership Liquidating Trust

  • Crew members ogle gold bars on deck after being brought up from the sea floor.

    Recovery Limited Partnership Liquidating Trust

  • Crew members looking at gold bars retrieved from the ocean floor.

    Recovery Limited Partnership Liquidating Trust

  • Journalist Dylan Taylor-Lehman looks through case files.

    National Geographic

  • Veteran US Marshal Mark Stroh lifting box of files in a dramatic reconstruction.

    National Geographic

  • Lawyer Quintin Lindsmith works on case files.

    Gold bars and coins on the bottom of the sea bed off the cost of North Carolina.

  • US Marshal Christopher Crotty waits in his car in a dramatic reconstruction.

    National Geographic

  • A case displaying the missing 500 commemorative gold coins.

    Recovery Limited Partnership Liquidating Trust

A lot has happened to Thompson since Kinder’s book was published in 1998. Benstead and his production team combed through more than 600 hours of archival footage from the original expedition, as well as over 700 pages of court transcripts. “We also consulted multiple figures who we didn’t film with but who helped inform the story,” said Benstead. “In the editing process, National Geographic’s research department, together with our team, worked diligently to do their best to bottom out every fact, every claim. In a story that is so contested, this really helped us feel confident in standing behind the resulting films.”

“One of the main challenges was in condensing an incredibly complex 30-year saga into three films,” Benstead continued. “There were many legal cases and side stories that we had to exclude or could only touch on. And there were areas of the story that were strongly disputed by different sides. Sometimes we had to make choices that didn’t fully satisfy either camp, but we did our best to remain fair to the plurality of viewpoints, while also telling a powerful story.”

The director remains in awe of the original discovery, however badly the adventure turned out. “For the guys on the boat, almost without exception, this period was one of the best times of their lives,” he said. “It was a privilege to relive their struggles and final triumph in finding the gold. I still find it remarkable that they found the SS Central America in almost two miles of water with the resources they had in the 1980s.”

The experience also instilled “a real respect for the people who shared their story with us, especially Tommy’s family members, who have had so much written about them over the years,” said Benstead. “They didn’t trust us easily, and I feel very fortunate that they took part. Whenever people share the deepest, most affecting parts of their lives with you, you walk away carrying a big responsibility. I hope that they feel we have done their side of the story justice.”

Did Benstead come to his own conclusions about whether or not Thompson committed fraud? “Different people have different viewpoints on Tommy, even amongst those on the boat, investors, lawyers, and law enforcement,” he said. “We felt it was very important to allow the series to reflect this diversity and to allow the audience to make up their own mind. My own view is that Tommy isn’t a con man, and to be in prison for approaching nine years for contempt of court feels like a sad reflection on the US justice system. But it is also the case that, albeit under immense pressure, he made certain choices (like going on the run), which contributed to his own downfall. I hope that in the coming years his achievements, which have been obscured by the legal circus, are given the recognition that they deserve.”

Cursed Gold: A Shipwreck Scandal is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

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$1,700 “smart” bassinet adds $20/month sub—but only if you buy it used

“SMART” —

Non-new Snoos now lose some use.

Picture of the Snoo

Enlarge / The Snoo, a “smart” bassinet.

Owners of the $1,695 Snoo “smart” bassinet like to gather in forums like Reddit’s r/snoolife to swap tracking graphs of their children’s sleep patterns. But they also like to complain about Happiest Baby, the company behind the Snoo. That’s because Happiest Baby this summer added a $20 monthly subscription fee to several of the Snoo’s “premium features,” which are controlled by a smartphone app.

Those who bought their Snoo from an “authorized” retailer before July 15, 2024, get the premium features free for nine months. No problem!

But those who bought their Snoo from an unauthorized retailer—that is, got it used—can “enjoy all the fun and benefits of our premium App features—for FREE—until July 15, 2024,” the company announced in its fine print. After that date, premium features went away; the only option for premium feature access on used Snoos now is to cough up $20 each month, atop the $600–$1,000 already spent on the device.

Because the Snoo is so [fabulously|ludicrously|incandescently] expensive, and because a bassinet is used only for those first few months while a newborn [learns to sleep|bawls its head off at least six times a night], and because having a new baby can be [expensive|extremely expensive], many [new parents|sleep-deprived zombies] seek out a non-new Snoo. And the parents are not happy about this new subscription fee. Says one Reddit user:

Just saying. This is bullshit. The current owners and users of Snoo should have been grandfathered in and continue to have access to basic feature like motion lock (the one I use most) and future new accounts should get a clear notification that without paying $20/mo they’re just buying a $2,000 basket.

Time to review bomb their app.

Dazed and confused

The Snoo works by rocking the bassinet at different levels while tracking the baby’s sleep level, and it can do things like simulate a car ride or offer gentle motion when a baby wakes at night. The idea is that the baby and parents both sleep more.

Basic features of the Snoo work for everyone, even those who purchased used devices, but the premium package includes things like the aforementioned “car ride mode,” responsiveness settings, weaning mode (to get ready for a crib), sleep tracking and logging, a “level lock,” and “sleepytime sounds.” In other words, the premium sub includes some pretty basic functionality that most Snoo owners want. (A common online complaint, in fact, is that the “premium” features are quite basic for a smart device like this.)

Many of the angriest online comments appear to get the actual details of the new subscription wrong, especially the fact that new Snoo purchasers do still get the premium features for free (well, for nine months).

But that’s part of the problem with these sorts of sudden business model changes—the details are confusing! Customers buy an expensive piece of hardware, hoping to placate a squalling child, and then find that in addition to a squalling child and a lot of cash out of pocket, they have to think about email addresses and online accounts and subscription fees and whether they bought a device new or used and if today is before or after July 15. Just rock the crying baby, smart bassinet!

In addition, whatever its legality, charging for features that used to be free can often feel like an injustice, leading even mild-mannered Snoo owners to take the above Redditor’s advice and start “review bombing” Happiest Baby’s apps.

On the Google Play Store, for instance, Happiest Baby’s smartphone app is currently down to 1.4 stars. Most of the recent reviews are one-star complaints that say things like:

When we first got our Snoo, the app was free and it worked properly. 5 months later you now charge to access the log (and other features) that were free. And now the app is glitching all the time too! Every time we go to turn it on, we have to reset the app first and then it’ll comment. Glad we only have 1 month left. I LOVE the snoo. It has been a savior. But the decision to charge for most of the app features out of no where was shameful. Even wean mode? That’s bull.

Or:

This app used to be great. But then they took many of the more important features and locked them behind a “Premium” subscription of $20/month, which is ridiculous. And just in case Happiest Baby tries to “clarify”, yes, the free version has several features. But that doesn’t change the fact that all of those “Premium” features USED TO BE FREE. It is purely a way to try and get more money out of parents who are just trying to do what is best for their kids.

Angry parents have also gone to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to leave complaints about Happiest Baby, which currently has one out of five stars and is rated an “F.”

$1,700 “smart” bassinet adds $20/month sub—but only if you buy it used Read More »

german-warship-floats-down-thames-while-playing-darth-vader’s-theme

German warship floats down Thames while playing Darth Vader’s theme

BUM BUM BUM —

“No deeper meaning,” says German navy.

The German navy going “full Empire” down the Thames.

The FGS Braunschweig is a German naval corvette made for stealthy littoral (shoreline) operations, but the Braunschweig ditched the stealth completely while transiting up the Thames this week on a training mission to London. Instead, the ship turned out its enlisted men to stand on deck in light blue shirts and dark pants while the boat blasted a recording of “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)” from Star Wars as it floated past Tower Bridge.

Coming eight decades after Londoners lived through the German “blitz” in World War II and then spent years waiting for a German naval invasion that never materialized, playing the Big Bad Guy’s theme from Star Wars films was certainly a bold choice. But a German naval spokesperson assured the BBC that the music had “no deeper message” and added that it was not some sort of commentary from the German naval staff. Rather, the boat’s commander “can choose the music freely.”

The little spectacle did show two things. One—assuming this was, in fact, a joke—it put the lie to the old stereotype that the Germans have no sense of humor, a stereotype which has led to the production of actual BBC headlines like “Why people think Germans aren’t funny.”

Second, it’s a reminder that people of my generation, those who grew up watching the original (and best!) Star Wars trilogy, are now the people running the world and its weapons systems. And we’re bringing our musical tastes with us, even if they come from a galaxy far, far away.

Listing image by Lucasfilm / ILMxLAB

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disney-cancels-the-acolyte-after-one-season

Disney cancels The Acolyte after one season

haters gonna hate —

Star Wars series was admittedly uneven, but didn’t deserve the online hate it received.

Asian man in white robe with one hand extended in front of him

Enlarge / We have doubts that any amount of Force powers will bring the show back.

YouTube/Disney+

In news that will delight some and disappoint others, Disney has canceled Star Wars series The Acolyte after just one season, Deadline Hollywood reports. The eight-episode series got off to a fairly strong start, with mostly positive reviews and solid ratings, albeit lower than prior Star Wars series. But it couldn’t maintain and build upon that early momentum, and given the production costs, it’s not especially surprising that Disney pulled the plug.

The Acolyte arguably wrapped up its major narrative arc pretty neatly in the season finale, but it also took pains to set the stage for a possible sophomore season. In this streaming age, no series is ever guaranteed renewal. Still, it would have been nice to see what showrunner Leslye Headland had planned; when given the chance, many shows hit their stride on those second-season outings.

(Spoilers for the series below. We’ll give you another heads-up when we get to major spoilers.)

As I’ve written previously, The Acolyte is set at the end of the High Republic Era, about a century before the events of The Phantom Menace. In this period, the Jedi aren’t the underdog rebels battling the evil Galactic Empire. They are at the height of their power and represent the dominant mainstream institution—not necessarily a benevolent one, depending on one’s perspective. That’s a significant departure from most Star Wars media and perhaps one reason why the show was so divisive among fans. (The show had its issues, but I dismiss the profoundly unserious lamentations of those who objected to the female-centric storyline and presence of people of color by dubbing it “The Wokelyte” and launching a review-bombing campaign.)

The Acolyte opened on the planet Ueda, where a mysterious masked woman wielding daggers attacked the Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) and killed her. The assassin was quickly identified as Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg), a former padawan now working as a meknek, making repairs on spaceships. Osha was arrested by her former classmate, Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett), but claimed she was innocent. Her twin sister, Mae, died in a fire on their home planet of Brendok when they were both young. Osha concluded that Mae was still alive and had killed Indara. Osha’s former Jedi master, Sol (Lee Jung-jae), believed her, and subsequent events proved Osha right.

Mae’s targets were not random. She was out to kill the four Jedi she blamed for the fire on Brendok: Indara, Sol, Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman), and a Jedi Wookiee named Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). The quartet had arrived on Brendok to demand they be allowed to test the twins as potential Jedi.

The twins had been raised by a coven of “Force witches” there, led by Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), who believed the Jedi were misusing the Force. While Mae was keen to follow in their mother’s footsteps, Osha wanted to train with the Jedi. When the fire broke out, both Mae and Osha believed the other twin had been killed along with the rest of the coven. How the fire really started, and the identity of Mae’s mysterious Master who trained her in the dark side of the Force, were the primary mysteries that played out over the course of the season.

(WARNING: Major spoilers below. Stop reading now if you haven’t finished watching the series.)

Lightsabers and wuxia

wuxia-inspired fight scenes.” height=”320″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/acolyte-olega-640×320.jpg” width=”640″>

Enlarge / The camera moved on a single axis for the wuxia-inspired fight scenes.

Lucasfilm/Disney+

From the start, The Acolyte was a bit of a departure from a typical Star Wars series, weaving in elements from wuxia films and detective stories while remaining true to the established Star Wars aesthetic and design. That alone made it an intriguing effort, with fresh characters and new takes on classic Star Wars lore. And the martial arts-inspired fight choreography was clever and fun to watch—especially in the shocking, action-packed fifth episode (“Night”).

But there were some obvious shortcomings as well, most notably the clunky dialogue—although that’s kind of a long-standing attribute of the Star Wars franchise. (Alec Guinness notoriously hated his dialogue as Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope.) The pacing lagged at times, and there was a surprisingly high body count among the central characters.

A high body count: All of these Jedi are dead.

Enlarge / A high body count: All of these Jedi are dead.

Lucasfilm/Disney+

That alone might have made a second season challenging. I mean, they killed off Moss’ Jedi master in the first 10 minutes (although she reappeared in flashbacks), with Torbin and Kelnacca meeting the same fate over the next few episodes. By the time the final credits rolled, almost all the Jedi lead characters were dead. And senior leader Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) opted to blame the murders on Sol (RIP) rather than Mae’s master, who turned out to be Vernestra’s former apprentice, Qimir (a scene-stealing Manny Jacinto)—now apprentice to Sith lord Darth Plagueis. (This was strongly implied in the finale and subsequently confirmed by Headland.)

Ultimately, however, it all came down to the ratings. Per Deadline, The Acolyte garnered 11.1 million views over its first five days (and 488 million minutes viewed)—not bad, but below Ahsoka‘s 14 million views over the same period. But those numbers declined sharply over the ensuing weeks, with the finale earning the dubious distinction of posting the lowest minutes viewed (335 million) for any Star Wars series finale. That simply didn’t meet Disney’s threshold for renewal, so we won’t get to learn more about the Qimir/Darth Plagueis connection.

Disney cancels The Acolyte after one season Read More »

kraven-the-hunter’s-new-trailer-gives-us-a-dark,-gore-filled-revenge-story

Kraven the Hunter’s new trailer gives us a dark, gore-filled revenge story

“When the man comes around” —

It’s the latest installment in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, which has floundered recently.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) plays the title character in the forthcoming film Kraven the Hunter.

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU) got off to a strong start with Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), both of which racked up high box office earnings despite mixed-to-negative reviews from critics. But then the studio foundered badly with a couple of box office flops: 2022’s Morbius and 2024’s Madame Web.

Sony hopes to right the ship with a third Venom film in October (The Last Dance) and the much-delayed Kraven the Hunter this December. We’ve got a new trailer for the latter, leaning heavily into R-rated gore and set to Johnny Cash’s moodily atmospheric “The Man Comes Around.” It’s an entirely different, darker vibe from prior offerings: a revenge narrative rife with violence and daddy issues. Color us intrigued.

Comic book fans are well acquainted with Kraven as one of Spider-Man’s most formidable foes, a founding member of the Sinister Six. He’s a Russian immigrant with an aristocratic background who fled his home country when Tsar Nicholas II’s reign collapsed in 1917. He’s a big game hunter with enhanced abilities thanks to ingesting a mysterious potion made from jungle herbs. He’s very hard to injure, has super-human strength, and enhanced sight, hearing, and smell, as well as being a good tactician with excellent hand-to-hand combat skills.

Screenwriter Richard Wenk has said that Sony intended to adapt the critically acclaimed 1987 storyline in Kraven’s Last Hunt by J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck, and Bob McLeod, which leaned heavily into the character’s Russian origins to create a very Dostoyevsky-like arc of a tortured soul. That storyline features an older Kraven whose health is failing who decides to hunt Spider-Man one last time, whereas the film is clearly an origin story. And Kraven actually dies by suicide in that comic arc, but we’re guessing Sony has plans to use him in other SSU films, with or without his arch-nemesis Spider-Man.

Per the official premise:

Kraven the Hunter is the visceral, action-packed origin story of how and why one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.

In addition to Taylor-Johnson and Crowe, the cast includes Ariana DeBose as the voodoo priestess Calypso, Kraven’s love interest; Fred Hechinger as Dmitri Smerdyakov, aka Chameleon, Kraven’s half-brother; Alessandro Nivola as Aleksei Sytsevich, aka Rhino, a Russian mercenary who can transform into a human/rhino hybrid; Christopher Abbott as a mercenary and assassin called the Foreigner; and Levi Miller as young Sergei.

Kraven the Hunter hits theaters on December 13, 2024.

Listing image by YouTube/Sony Pictures

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the-witch’s-road-might-take-everything-in-agatha-all-along-d23-trailer

The Witch’s Road might take everything in Agatha All Along D23 trailer

witchy women —

“The Witch’s Road will give you the thing you want most… if you make it to the end.”

Kathryn Hahn seeks a new witchy coven in Agatha All Along.

Disney introduced the poster and first full trailer for Agatha All Along during its annual D23 Expo this weekend. The nine-episode series, starring Kathryn Hahn, is one of the TV series in the MCU’s Phase Five, coming on the heels of Secret Invasion, Loki S2, What If…? S2, and Echo.

(Spoilers for WandaVision below.)

As reported previously, Agatha All Along has been in the works since 2021, officially announced in November of that year, inspired by Hahn’s breakout performance in WandaVision as nosy neighbor Agnes—but secretly a powerful witch named Agatha Harkness who was conspiring to steal Wanda’s power. The plot twist even inspired a meta-jingle that went viral. That series ended with Wanda victorious and Agatha robbed of all her powers, trapped in her nosy neighbor persona.

Head writer Jac Schaeffer (who also created WandaVision) has said that the series would follow Agatha as she forms her own coven with “a disparate mixed bag of witches… defined by deception, treachery, villainy, and selfishness” who must learn to work together. And apparently we can expect a few more catchy tunes—one of which is front and center in the new trailer. This new series picks up where WandaVision left Agatha. Per the official premise:

The infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…

In addition to Hahn, the cast includes Aubrey Plaza as warrior witch Rio Vidal; Joe Locke as Billy, a gay teenage familiar; Patti LuPone as a 450-year-old Sicilian witch named Lilia Calderu; Sasheer Zamata as sorceress Jennifer Kale; Ali Ahn as a witch named Alice; and Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Billy’s boyfriend.

Debra Jo Rupp reprises her WandaVision role as Sharon Davis (“Mrs. Hart” in the meta-sitcom), here becoming a member of Agatha’s coven. Also reprising their WandaVision roles: Emma Caulfield Ford as Sarah Proctor (aka “Dottie Jones”); David Payton as John Collins (“Herb”); David Lengel as Harold Proctor (“Phil Jones”); Asif Ali as Abilash Tandon (“Norm”); Amos Glick (pizza delivery man “Dennis”); Kate Forbes as Agatha’s mother, Evanora; and Brian Brightman as the Eastview, New Jersey, sheriff.

The first two episodes of Agatha All Along drop on September 18, 2024, on Disney+, with episodes airing weekly after that through November 6.

Disney+

Listing image by YouTube/Disney+

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