It was the best-selling game of June, with IGN calling it "the most accessible game design tool ever created, and that core is just one part of a greater whole..." Since its launch three weeks ago, fans have already built over 2 million custom stages, NPR notes -- but the real news is that Super Mario Maker 2 finally represents a shift in Nintendo's attitude towards its fan community: It's Nintendo's reliance on the creative spirit of these dedicated players that makes the Super Mario Maker series such a quietly radical property within the Nintendo canon... By loosening its grip on a beloved property and tossing the keys to the player community, Nintendo feeds into the fan-obsessive tendencies they've previously refused. With the Super Mario Maker series, Nintendo acknowledges the history of competitive speedrunning, tournament play, and even the masochistic fan games that have made their games visible and interesting in an entirely different way. It's the rare Nintendo game that is depending on those players, creators, and spectators to keep it alive. Super Mario Maker 2 has only been out for a few weeks, but already we've seen how the game's deceptively complex course editor has led to the community making some astounding levels... Nintendo has always been old-school in the way they rely on offline experiences, downplaying the kind of online communities that other developers prioritize. Ironically, it is that indifference that has made fan communities formed around Nintendo games feel singular and special -- they're smaller, more intimate, and regulated by the players themselves. With the Super Mario Maker franchise, Nintendo finally acknowledges the power and influence of its most obsessive fans -- by creating something that couldn't thrive without them. IGN argues that "it's astonishing how incredibly well it's all held together in one cohesive package... It does nearly everything better than its already excellent predecessor, introducing some incredible new ideas, level styles, building items, and so much more - all while maintaining the charm of Mario games we know and love." And Slashdot reader omfglearntoplay writes "If you like old games from the 1980s, this is your game."

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Anti-Brexit demonstrators protest days before the UK is due to install a new prime minister.

I was 14 years old in 1969, at summer camp, on a trip to the Newport Folk Festival, when the moon landing happened. I remember being part of a huge group of people huddled in front of a VW minibus with a small B&W TV on top, and somehow we all saw the landing. Goosebumps.

US official says new initiative will seek to ensure 'free, open passage' for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

sciencehabit shared this article from Science magazine: Dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up most of the mass of the universe, has proved notoriously hard to detect. But scientists have now proposed a surprising new sensor: human flesh. The idea boils down to this: If a certain type of dark matter particle existed, it would occasionally kill people, passing through them like a bullet. Because no one has died from unexplained gunshot-like wounds, this type of dark matter does not exist, according to a new study... [It's title? "Death by Dark Matter."] This experiment doesn't rule out heavy macro dark matter altogether, says Robert Scherrer, a co-author and theoretical physicist at Vanderbilt University. It merely eliminates a certain range of them. Heavier macro dark matter would not occur frequently enough to measure, notes Katherine Freese, a theoretical physicist at the University of Michigan, and other forms wouldn't kill people. "There is probably still room for very heavy dark matter," says Paolo Gorla, a particle physicist at Italy's underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory, who is not involved with the study.

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Video by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps shows how the British oil tanker was seized in Strait of Hormuz on Friday.

Video by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps shows how the British oil tanker was seized in Strait of Hormuz on Friday.

A contractor for Russia's intelligence agency suffered a breach, revealing projects they were pursuing -- including one to deanonymize Tor traffic. An anonymous reader shared this report from ZDNet: The breach took place last weekend, on July 13, when a group of hackers going by the name of 0v1ru$ hacked into SyTech's Active Directory server from where they gained access to the company's entire IT network, including a JIRA instance. Hackers stole 7.5TB of data from the contractor's network, and they defaced the company's website with a "yoba face," an emoji popular with Russian users that stands for "trolling..." Per the different reports in Russian media, the files indicate that SyTech had worked since 2009 on a multitude of projects. In February ZDNet reported that Russia disconnected itself from the rest of the internet in a test -- and suggests today that it was a real-world test of one of these leaked "secret projects" from the Russian intelligence agency. But the other projects include: Nautilus-S - a project for deanonymizing Tor traffic with the help of rogue Tor servers. Nautilus - a project for collecting data about social media users (such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn). Reward - a project to covertly penetrate P2P networks, like the one used for torrents. Mentor - a project to monitor and search email communications on the servers of Russian companies. Tax-3 - a project for the creation of a closed intranet to store the information of highly-sensitive state figures, judges, and local administration officials, separate from the rest of the state's IT networks. ZDNet also reports that the Tor-deanonymizing project, started in 2012, "appears to have been tested in the real world," citing a 2014 paper which found 18 malicious Tor exit nodes located in Russia. Each of those hostile Russian exit nodes used version 0.2.2.37 of Tor -- the same one described in these leaked files.

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Iran seizes a UK oil tanker after Britain detained one of its ships off the coast of Gibraltar earlier this month.

Iran seizes a UK oil tanker after Britain detained one of its ships off the coast of Gibraltar earlier this month.

The Argentine architect designed some of the world's most recognisable buildings.

A local official says 13 people were killed a day after hospital authorities reported four died of gunshot wounds.

Thousands turned out for a so-called Safeguard Hong Kong rally, calling for unity in a city that has become deeply divided.

An anonymous reader quotes Android Authority: Studios like Disney and NBCUniversal are making preparations to launch their own streaming services, and they are planning to take back their back catalog of films and TV series with them. That's also what's happening with WarnerMedia, the AT&T-owned entertainment group that operates, among many other things, HBO, Warner Bros, and CNN. Recently, the conglomerate announced its own upcoming dedicated streaming service, HBO Max... Unconfirmed reports from Hollywood trade news outlets claim that HBO Max will cost between $16 and $17 a month. The service will be ad-free, although some reports have indicated that WarnerMedia might launch an ad-supported version of HBO Max at some point after the official launch in 2020. If that happens, it's likely the cost to sign up will be much less... While HBO Max will have quite a lot for subscribers to watch from WarnerMedia's library of content, it will have its own range of original TV shows and movies that will be found exclusively on the streaming service. They will be known as Max Originals. Here's what has been announced for HBO Max so far, which includes a couple of spin-offs from current and upcoming Warner Bros. series: Dune: The Sisterhood: Based on the classic Dune sci-fi novels by Frank Herbert, this 10-part series will focus on the Bene Gesserit group of women in this universe. Denis Villeneuve, who is directing the upcoming feature film adaptation of Dune, will also direct the pilot episode of the series. Gremlins -- The Animated Series: The mischievous and destructive creatures from the two Gremlins feature films will return as an animated series on HBO Max... A beta version of the service may launch before the end of 2019, according to Deadline. The studio's announcement also promised that HBO Max woud also include previously-announced HBO programs, including: Stephen King's The Outsider, a dark mystery starring Ben Mendelsohn, produced and directed by Jason Bateman. Lovecraft Country, a unique horror series based on a novel by Matt Ruff, written and executive produced by Misha Green, and executive produced by Jordan Peele (Us) and J.J. Abrams (Westworld). The Nevers, Joss Whedon's new science fiction series starring Laura Donnelly.

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"Fight For the Future, a tech-focused nonprofit, on Thursday released its Ban Facial Recognition map, logging the states and cities using surveillance technology," reports CNET -- noting that "surveillance technology" in this case includes Amazon's Ring doorbell security cameras. A CNET investigation earlier this year highlighted the close ties between Ring and police departments across the US, many of which offer free or discounted Ring doorbells using taxpayer money. The cameras have helped police create an easily accessible surveillance network in neighborhoods and allowed law enforcement to request videos through an app. The arrangement has critics worried about the erosion of privacy. Until the release of Fight for the Future's map, there was no comprehensive directory of all the police departments that had partnered with Ring. Now you can find them by going on the map and toggling it to "Police (Local)." It lists more than 40 cities where police have partnered with Amazon for Ring doorbells.... The map is far from complete. Police departments aren't always up front about the technology that they're using. On the interactive map, Fight for the Future asked visitors to send it any new entries to add to the map.... The map also has filters for airports, stores and stadiums that are using facial recognition, as well as states that provide driver's license photos to the FBI's database of faces... . Fight for the Future's map also features a filter for regions where facial recognition use by government is banned. For now, that's only in San Francisco; Somerville, Massachusetts; and Oakland, California. The group's deputy director told CNET that the map's goal is allowing people "to turn their ambient anxiety into effective action by pushing at the local and state level to ban this dangerous tech. "No amount of regulation will fix the threat posed by facial recognition," he added. "It must be banned."

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