Our picksSurrendering to rising seas; prosecuting ISIS fighters; to doxx a racist, and more
• TSA mulls a plan to eliminate security checkpoints at 150 smaller airports
• The battle to stop 3D-printed guns, explained
• To doxx a racist
• Surrendering to rising seas
• DARPA’s prepare program: Preparing for what?
• How the Carr Fire became one of the most destructive fires in California history
• 3 steps for putting the DHS cybersecurity strategy to work
• The mystery of ‘Q’: How an anonymous conspiracy-monger launched a movement
• Prosecuting the Islamic State fighters left behind
TSA mulls a plan to eliminate security checkpoints at 150 smaller airports (AshleyHalsey III, Washington Post)
Security checkpoints would be eliminated at more than 150 smaller U.S. airports under a plan being considered by the Transportation Security Administration. Passengers would instead be screened when they arrived at larger airports after their initial flight. The idea was first floated by the TSA two years ago and was seen then by critics as a transparent effort to get Congress to spend additional money on the agency.
The battle to stop 3D-printed guns, explained (German Lopez, Vox)
Policymakers are trying to stop the spread of firearms that could bypass federal and state laws.
To doxx a racist (Vegas Tenold, New Republic)
How a dead white supremacist sparked a debate over the tactics used against the extreme right
Surrendering to rising seas (Jen Schwartz, Scientific American)
Coastal communities struggling to adapt to climate change are beginning to do what was once unthinkable: retreat
DARPA’s prepare program: Preparing for what? (Filippa Lentzos and Jez Littlewood, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
The U.S. military—specifically, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA—announced plans in May to initiate a “gene tuning” program. Called “Prepare” (short for “Pre-emptive Expression of Protective Alleles and Response Elements”), the program aims to develop programmable modulators that temporarily boost protective genes, either before or after exposure, to biological, chemical, or radiological health threats. Inadvertently, however, the project may contribute to rising international tensions in the biological field. The program might push the limits of what is allowable under international security treaties, particularly the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC).
How the Carr Fire became one of the most destructive fires in California history (Umair Irfan, Vox)
Heat, wind, and drought conspired to create a ferocious, deadly fire.
