Heist

Blue Eyes Black Lotus

We finally heard back from our dear spacecraft. Also, a massive trading card heist that wasn't particularly exciting, Elon promising the world when he'd prefer to leave it, I can hear you type your password, and let's talk about a pretty neat lady.

Endeavorance

Aug 7, 2023 — 4 min read

IT TEXTED US BACK

After losing contact for a while, we are now back in full communication with the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

As I talked about in a previous installment of Stuff Keeps Happening, we accidentally lost communication with the Voyager 2 after a set of commands were sent to it that caused its antenna to tilt a bit off. We then spent a while just kinda doing everything we could to listen for it and communicate with it.

We first heard it, kinda. We detected a signal from it, albeit faint and degraded due to the… poor reception. But since then, Science People did what they're calling an "interstellar shout," which is basically just "we started blasting messages" and it eventually was like "oh, bet" and readjusted itself towards us.

So, yay.

$300,000 Trading Card Heist

If you're not aware, Gen Con happened this past week—a major tabletop and gaming convention in Indianapolis. Like, major major. Like real big, y'all.

Anyway, while vendors were setting up their booths, a couple of dudes rolled in and stole $300,000 worth of trading cards that were in boxes and wrapped up nice and neat on a palette.

These absolute lads rolled up with a palette jack and just kinda… took it. They were seen plainly on video though so uh, might not go super well for them long term.

Ugh Elon Bullshit

I really keep telling myself that I'm gonna stop talking about Elon news but like its just so… there.

First off, he stole another Twitter handle. A dude named Jeremy Vaught has had the @music twitter handle since 2007, and it was just yanked from him. He's spent all that time working with people and making the @music handle be a thing, and Elon just kinda yoinked it from him. Problem is that Vaught is seemingly an Elon stan still, so despite being upset about having the past decade+ of his work just ruined, he's still like "oh but I have faith in Elon!" Reminder: it's a cult.

Anyway, Elon went on to randomly fucking tweet out that…

If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill.

No limit.

Please let us know.

which is a whole new level of "what the fuck" considering that Elon Musk literally fired people from Twitter for stuff they posted on Twitter after he bought it. Nevermind the third part of this list of Elon bullshit, which is that they've delayed their second round of promised payouts to people who signed up for their creator revenue share system. They can't afford bills, are losing advertisers and can barely stay online, but plan to start paying out to people for shitposting on their site.

Totally gonna be real, just like everything else he said would happen. I believe they may do another payout, maybe even a third and fourth, but I would be rather shocked if…

He is still the owner of the company in a year
The payout system actually stabilizes, ever

I Can Hear Your Password

Alright so stop typing. I can hear your password now. Researchers have proven a potential method of cyber attacks where an attacker can steal information using an audio recording of you typing.

"But Endeavorance," you interject thinking you've it all figured out, "that's no problem, I'll just hide in the anechoic chamber I built in my basement and they won't be able to hear me!"

That's where you're wrong because I am literally inside of your computer—via Zoom.

Yes: they were able to steal typed information from audio taken over Zoom. Now everyone will know that you're shit talking in DMs during the meeting. Except not really because this is still a proof of concept and I doubt it will be an attack that is deployed on you specifically any time soon. But still. Wild.

On This day…

Today in 1890 was the birthday of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. She was an unbridled badass.

She was one of the founding members of the ACLU—yes, that ACLU—and fought strongly for women's rights, women's suffrage and access to birth control. However they ultimately booted her out of the organization for being too rad (she was a communist and they didn't like that cuz, y'know)

That didn't stop her though, as she would go on to be arrested and jailed for her causes, dedicating her life to fighting for rights.