Sonny Vleisides (right), is Butterfly Labs' co-founder and largest shareholder. A federal judge told him in January 2014 that there was a "strong smell" of fraud with respect to his company. Nasser Ghosieiri

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a civil lawsuit against Butterfly Labs (BFL), an embattled Kansas-based Bitcoin miner manufacturer. The FTC alleges that the company engaged in fraudulent and deceptive practices.

Federal authorities believe that the three named members of the company’s board of directors—Jody Drake (aka Darla Drake), Nasser Ghoseiri, and Sonny Vleisides—spent millions of dollars of corporate revenue on all kinds of things, including saunas and guns, while ignoring many customer orders that went unfulfilled or were significantly delayed.

The case was filed in federal court last week in Missouri and unsealed late Monday, and it comes over a year after Ars first reported on the company and began testing its initial round of specialized computers designed to do nothing but mine for Bitcoin.

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One of the biggest scientific claims of the year has received another set-back, putting the result of a bet between two significant physicists in jeopardy.

A material dubbed the darkest substance on earth is being used creatively by internationally acclaimed artist Sir Anish Kapoor.

Synology has been relatively quiet over the last couple of months (barring the responses to various security issues), but, today, they are coming out with a couple of expected announcements. Seagate has the bragging rights for being the first vendor with an off-the-shelf NAS based on an Intel Rangeley SoC (the storage platform integrating Silvermont CPU cores). Today, Synology is introducing their first NAS model utilizing one of the Silvermont-based SoCs, the DS415+. Compared to the 1.73 GHz dual-core Intel Atom C2338 in the Seagate NAS Pro units, the DS415+ utilizes a 2.4 GHz quad-core Intel Atom C2558 C2538. The availability of hardware-accelerated encryption (AES-NI) is touted as a major feature. Other than that, thee DS415+ is the typical SMB-targeted 4-bay NAS, sporting dual GbE ports and a host of virtualization certifications. The hardware specifications of the Synology DS415+ are provided below.

Synology DS415+ Hardware Specifications

The important aspect to note here is that, like the Seagate NAS Pro units, the internal drive bays are all connected to SATA II 3 Gbps ports. With SSDs, one is unlikely to obtain maximum performance out of the unit when it comes to internal transfers (such as LUN cloning through VAAI), but the four SATA II ports are enough to saturate the two GbE links for external traffic. Synology claims over 235.04 MB/s reads and 233.51 MB/s writes for targeted workloads. With encryption enabled, the AES-NI feature enables 234.97 MB/s reads and 213.14 MB/s writes for the same workloads.

In other Synology news, we also have the launch of the new beta of their NAS OS, the Disk Station Manager (DSM) 5.1 beta. Updates in DSM 5.1 include synchronization across encrypted folders, usage of Windows ACL for privilege settings in Cloud Station and an option to disable versioning. Three new public cloud services (OneDrive, Box and hubiC) have also been added. IPV6 support for Quick Connect also comes in the feature set. Other improvements include NFS VAAI support (in addition to iSCSI in earlier DSM versions) and a better interface to the SSD caching setup. Security features (in the form of a new Security Advisor and AppArmor package) also receive focus in this release. On the mobile apps side, DS File has been updated (iOS users can play files from within the app, while support for third-party integration is present in Android 4.4+) and a new DS Note app synchronizes with the new Note Station package (similar to EverNote and OneNote) on the Synology NAS.

Patricia Hewitson from Exmouth, Devon, unwittingly grew a 5ft (1,5m) tall cannabis plant from a pack of bird seeds - but her error was only revealed when she contacted a radio phone-in show.

Weeks after the start of term, many state schools in the capital, Islamabad, are still closed, after being taken over by police drafted in to deal with ongoing political protests.

Version:next-20140923 (linux-next) Released:2014-09-23

The US and allied nations have launched a campaign of air strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, the Pentagon says.

The Rockefeller family, which made its fortune from oil, is to sell its investments in fossil fuels and put money into clean energy.

US authorities say Omar Gonzalez, who broke into the White House on Friday evening, had 800 rounds of ammunition, a machete and two hatchets in his car.

The iPhone 6 (left) and iPhone 6 Plus (right) have kicked small phones to the curb. Andrew Cunningham

CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});Big-screened iPhones are what the people want, and Apple has acquiesced. After months of part leaks and rumors, you can finally buy the newer, bigger, faster iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and it looks like plenty of people are doing so.

Any review of the new phones needs to spend an extensive amount of time with these screens, since they're the headlining feature and the one that the most people will notice. We're going to spend a lot of time with them, too, but there's a lot more going on here than just big displays—Apple has upgraded the phones' cameras, expanded their batteries, and replaced last year's 64-bit A7 chip with the brand-new A8. iOS 8, a large release even if you're not upgrading your phone this year, has picked up some features (and some challenges) unique to these new phones.

Buckle up, because we've gotten our hands on the new phones, and we've been torture-testing them during every waking moment since. Wondering what the iPhone 6 Plus' optical image stabilization does for your pictures? Want to know more about the Apple A8 and which of Apple's promises about the chip stand up to scrutiny (hint: not all of them)? Need to know what your apps are going to look like and how they're going to work in this brave new big screen world? Read on, because we've got all that and more.

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The number of people dying from dengue fever in Malaysia has more than tripled this year compared with 2013, with 250 cases being reported daily.

Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and taxidermy experts have preserved Lonesome George, the last Pinta giant tortoise, who died in 2012 in the Galapagos Islands.

Planck, and the image of the sky that it has given us. ESA

Earlier this year, researchers who used a telescope based at the South Pole called BICEP announced that they obtained evidence for gravity waves caused by the Big Bang itself. The results would provide direct evidence that a model of the Universe's origin called inflation had left its mark on the present-day Universe.

But in reporting on the results, our own Matthew Francis suggested that the discovery was not as definitive as it might be, writing "the story of BICEP2, inflation, and primordial gravitational radiation is just beginning." And since then, it became clear that there was a complicating factor—dusty material in our own galaxy—and that the BICEP team's way of controlling for it left a little something to be desired (it involved using processed data obtained from a PDF used in a conference presentation).

Yesterday, the team that put the PDF together in the first place released its own analysis. And they've determined that BICEP was probably staring at dust, rather than the earliest moments of the Universe.

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Mark Lowen speaks to refugees on Turkey's border with Syria, as the Turkish government says more than 130,000 Syrian Kurds have crossed over in the last three days to try to escape IS militants.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. JD Lasica

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt today said it was a “mistake” to support the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that has said human-created climate change could be “beneficial” and opposes environmental regulations. Schmidt said groups trying to cast doubt on climate change science are "just literally lying."

Google’s membership in ALEC has been criticized because of the group’s stance on climate change and its opposition to network neutrality rules and municipal broadband. Earlier this month, Google refused to comment after 50 advocacy groups called on the company to end its affiliation with ALEC.

That changed today when Schmidt appeared on The Diane Rehm Show and was asked by a listener whether Google is still supporting ALEC. The listener described ALEC as “lobbyists in DC that are funding climate change deniers.”

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Beats' message upon acquisition; unclear if sunsetting Beats Music was on the table at the time. Beats Audio

Dueling reports from TechCrunch and Recode Monday suggest that Apple is likely to bring changes to Beats Music, the streaming music service owned by Beats Audio. TechCrunch cites five anonymous sources from both Beats and Apple as saying that Apple plans to shut the service down, but Recode cites Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr as saying TechCrunch's report is "not true," and that while the brand may fade away, Apple will keep it around and "modify it over time."

Apple originally acquired Beats Audio back in May, and the company has remained fairly quiet about the future it sees for the company's various components. Beats Music was mentioned exactly once during Apple's September iPhone and Apple Watch event, and a Beats Music app was notably absent from the Apple Watch interface that debuted there.

TechCrunch writes that Beats Music CEO Ian Rogers was put in charge of iTunes Radio back in August and has been "splitting his time" between the two services. Apple does not currently offer à la carte streaming service like Beats Music; one possible course of action would be to roll the service's functionality into iTunes to make it more directly competitive with Spotify and Rdio. Recode's story fits with this approach a bit more: the site writes that "Apple won't shutter the streaming service," but may change it, and one of those changes may be to alter its branding.

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Malicious ads appears on Last.fm after advertising network Zedo serves up malicious content. Courtesy Malwarebytes

Google shut down malicious Web attacks coming from a compromised advertising network on Friday. The move follows a security firm's analysis that found the ad platform, Zedo, serving up advertisements that attempted to infect the computers of visitors to major websites.

In an attack that ended early Friday morning, visitors to Last.fm, The Times of Israel, and The Jerusalem Post ran the risk of their computers becoming infected as Zedo redirected visitors' systems to malicious servers. Because the advertisements hosted on Zedo's servers were distributed through Google's Doubleclick, the attack reached millions of potential victims, Jerome Segura, senior security researcher at Malwarebytes Labs, told Ars.

Distributing malware through legitimate advertising networks, a technique known as "malvertising," has become an increasingly popular way to compromise the systems of consumers and workers alike.

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Unless you already own Vita memory cards, you're probably better off ponying up for the bundle, which includes a measly 8GB (but better than nothing). Sony Computer Entertainment of America

Sony's latest gaming hardware product, the PlayStation TV, received a release date announcement on Monday, months after its official E3 unveiling this summer. Starting October 14, fans in the US will be able to buy the hardware by itself for $99 or purchase a "bundle" that includes a DualShock 3 controller, an 8GB memory card, and a free copy of The LEGO Movie Videogame for $40 more.

The PlayStation TV, which launched in Japan nearly one year ago as the Vita TV, essentially doubles as a Vita system that plugs into your HDTV. Just like the Vita, the system can play both physical and downloaded Vita games (along with PS1 titles and other fare sold via PlayStation Network). It can also serve as a PlayStation 4 streaming device via the Remote Play feature, and it supports the PlayStation Now streaming service, which serves PlayStation 3 games to your hardware by way of the cloud.

One of PSTV's limitations is its lack of touch, microphone, and motion support for Vita games, since neither the DualShock 3 nor DualShock 4 perfectly emulates Vita's features, meaning Vita-exclusive standouts like Tearaway are essentially unplayable (and other games' touch support requires some awkward joystick-clicking-and-aiming moves to emulate the Vita's taps). And while Vita games are upscaled to 720p resolution on the PlayStation TV, so are Vita video apps like Netflix and Hulu Plus. This limits them compared to the 1080p set-top competition.

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"Perhaps you should switch to another cable company… oh, that's right, we're the only one in town." Viacom

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has made it clear he thinks there isn’t enough broadband competition in America, but Comcast is trying to convince the FCC that it faces enough competition right now. Already the largest pay-TV and broadband company in the US, Comcast is seeking permission to buy Time Warner Cable.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable don’t compete for customers in any city or town, despite being the nation’s two largest cable companies, which helps explain why US residents have so few viable options for cable and high-speed Internet service. But in response to merger-related questions from the FCC, a Comcast filing points to a broad range of competitors and says it’s easy to switch to a different provider (though a horde of angry customers might disagree).

Comcast said it faces competition from municipal broadband networks, though the telecom industry has pushed state governments to pass laws that restrict municipal broadband growth. Wheeler has said he will try to preempt those state laws, saying they prevent competition.

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