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French candidate hacked just before presidential election
Just days before the final round of the French presidential election, a large trove of emails from one candidate's campaign has allegedly been leaked online. In a statement on its website, the En Marche! campaign in support of candidate Emmanuel Macron confirmed the release and indicated that false documents may have been added to the official ones to sow confusion. That statement came just before midnight in France, as the election entered a silent period that is legally enforceable until Sunday at 8PM, preventing the broadcast of "electoral propaganda" by politicians, journalists or even regular citizens.
Germany confronts Russia over election hacking
Speaking with reporters at a conference in Potsdam, Hans-Georg Maassen, president of the BfV agency (Germany's domestic intelligence group) renewed claims that Russian hackers were behind the attack on his country's parliament. He also warned the other nation against attempting to weaponize the "large amounts of data" stolen in that breach in the upcoming national elections come September.
Prepare for the world's first nanocar race this month
Nanotechnology is fascinating, but for most people who aren't full-time chemists, it's a ridiculously dense field of study. An international team of scientists are trying to make nanotechnology more accessible to the public with the world's first nanocar race, scheduled to start on April 28th in the French city of Toulouse. Six teams hailing from three continents will gather at the Centre for Materials Elaboration and Structural Studies and attempt to jolt their custom nanocars across a polished gold track 100 nanometers in length (roughly one-thousandth the width of a human hair).
Facebook adds 'educational' guide to counter fake news
Facebook has repeatedly come under fire over the last year as a distributor of "fake news", despite repeated its protests that it isn't a media company per se. The social network has taken a number of steps to push back against the influx of falsehoods, from hand curating articles to rejiggering its news surfacing algorithms, though none have done much to stem the tide so much as give Facebook something to crow about. On Thursday, the company continued that trend by introducing an "educational tool" that will live at the top of the newsfeed and provide tips on how to spot false reports.
Bipartisan bill aims to curb warrantless phone searches at the border
The Trump administration revealed its "extreme vetting" procedures on Tuesday and hoo boy, are they draconian. They'll require foreign visitors -- even close allies like France and Germany -- to potentially reveal passwords, phone contacts and even financial records in order to enter the country. Americans are being searched as well, with Border Patrol forces increasingly demanding the same information from US citizens as they cross the border, but a newly introduced bicameral bill could help safeguard their privacy.
First Unity-built cartoon proves the engine isn't just for games
As the NBA's eSports league proves, video games are quickly becoming mainstream. Games are having a moment, and so are the tools used to make them. Case in point, the Unity game engine recently reached a big milestone. French animated show Mr. Carton just became the first cartoon TV series made with Unity.
Facebook and Google tackle fake news ahead of French elections
Fake news on Facebook and Google reached millions of people during US elections, and France wants to make sure its own presidential contests aren't disrupted. Compounding the risk, a lot of fake US news reportedly came from Russia, and Marine Le Pen's far right National Front party is funded by Russian banks friendly with Vladimir Putin. As such, Facebook has teamed with eight major news organizations including Agence France Presse (AFP), LeMonde and Les Echos to curb false information during France's April elections.
France isn't ready to ban cyclists from cheating with motors
The pro cycling world may be cracking down on the use of hidden motors to cheat in races, but it doesn't look like governments are ready to make it a criminal offense. The French government has shot down a proposed law that would have made this "technological doping" illegal, adding legal penalties to the punishments from racing leagues themselves. It's not that the politicians endorse cheating, of course. Rather, it's that they feel the proposal was premature and potentially too harsh given existing measures.
Send your love around the world in this box
LoveBox is a French messaging startup that, in exchange for $120, will let you send messages of love to your amour... or your paramour. Simply hand your beloved one of the boxes, pair it to your phone with the companion app, and you're all set. Then, when you're out and about, you can send text-message length missives back home, for the box to receive over WiFi.
Qarnot's smart space heater has learned some new tricks
Anybody with a desktop tower (or a laptop running Chrome) knows how much waste heat processors can throw off during the course of their computing. Typically that heat is simply discarded, shunted from the processor's surface through a complex series of tubes and sinks. But French startup Qarnot has a better idea: Use that energy to heat your home.
France gives you legal permission to avoid work email
New Year's Day 2017 isn't just a chance to reflect on the past and plan for the future... in France, it's a new lease on life for many workers. As of January 1st, the country has enacted a law that requires companies with over 50 employees to negotiate times when staff have the right to ignore email and other communications. If there's a deal, your employer can't punish you for refusing to look at your messages beyond set hours. Does your manager need a spreadsheet update while you're eating dinner? Too bad. And if there's no deal, the company still has to explicitly outline expectations (and your rights) when you're off the clock.
After Math: Merry Christmahanukwanzakkahs
It's been a festive week and, for once, not a complete socio-political trainwreck. I know, I'm just as surprised as you are, but some good things really did happen. Like, we found an effective vaccine against Ebola, Super Mario Run broke iOS download records, both the UK and France have come to embrace renewables and Canada set some impressive broadband speed rules. Numbers, because how else are we going to count down the million years until Sweet Meteor O'Death finally comes calling?
A French town just installed the world's first 'solar road'
The tiny town of Tourouvre-au-Perche in Normandy, France no longer has to worry about how it will power its street lights. The Sun will handle that.
France is the first to use drones for its national mail service
It's no longer surprising to see postal services experimenting with delivering mail using drones. However, France is kicking things up a notch: its national mail service will be the first to deliver packages by drone on a regular route. DPDgroup, the express courier subsidiary of the mail service, is running a test program where a hexacopter drone (not shown here) will carry packages up to 6.6 pounds along a 9.3-mile route in France's southern Provence region.
Ubisoft executives fined millions for alleged insider trading
In addition to a looming hostile takeover, Ubisoft corporate has to deal with over a million Euros in fines for alleged insider trading. The Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) has levied a combined €1.27 million (almost $1.4 million) fine against Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat and VP of corporate affairs Francis Baillet. Executive director of worldwide studios Christine Burgess, Ubisoft Montreal VP of executive operations Olivier Paris and Damien Moret, who's the director of brand development for the company were also named.
Interpol is using AI to hunt down child predators online
The FBI may have scored a big win with operation Playpen, which helped dismantle a ring of TOR-based pedophiles and prosecute its members (thanks, Rule 41), but that was just one battle in the ongoing war against the sexual exploitation of children. That fight is now a bit easier for European law enforcement, which as debuted a new machine learning AI system that hunts for child porn on P2P networks.
France jailed a man for visiting pro-ISIS websites
France's mercurial relationship with technology and the internet is in the news once again. This time it's because a man was going to pro-ISIS websites with regularity. Facing a two year sentence, the suspect said that he was simply curious and wanted to "tell the difference between real Islam and the false Islam," France Bleu reports.
Google's Curio-Cité shows you a different side of Paris
Anyone can visit Paris, but even residents like myself can't just stroll into Mayor Hidalgo's office or go backstage (and underneath) the Opéra Garnier, the venue that inspired Phantom of the Opera. So you may be interested in Google's latest Curio-Cité project that lets you stroll through ten "forgotten corners" of Paris.
Caption Contest: Chanel and the art of Robocouture
Karl Lagerfeld's love of technology runs deep. For his latest fashion show at the Grand Palais in Paris, Chanel's Creative Director celebrated the surreal beauty of information infrastructure by anointing his fashion runway with data center aesthetics. Lagerfeld even went so far as have some of his models don robot helmets like high-fashion Cybermen. But what was going through those models minds as they were crammed inside those robodomes?
Woman who received world's first face transplant dies at 49
Isabelle Dinoire, the first person in the world to undergo a face transplant, died at the age of 49 in Amiens, France, of complications following her groundbreaking surgery. In May 2005, Dinoire was mauled by her labrador while she was sleeping and in December of that same year, she received a partial face transplant of the chin, mouth and nose. The procedure left her with the ability to eat, speak and smile normally, and surgeons labeled it a success, though her body never fully accepted the new tissue.
