FOIA
DHS Is Deploying a Powerful Surveillance Tool at College Football Games
Public records show DHS is deploying the "Homeland Security Information Network" at college protests and football games.
Amazon
All Bad Bosses at Amazon Are Now Named ‘Wayne’
The newly-fabricated dispatcher, named Wayne, represents every manager who assigns incompletable routes and package loads. But he’s based in reality.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Serious Science and Hanging Out With Hackers
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss big science and hanging out with hackers.
AI
OpenAI Training Bot Crawls 'World's Lamest Content Farm' 3 Million Times in One Day
"If you were wondering what they're using to train GPT-5, well, now you know."
News
How a Money Laundering Crew Allegedly Moved Millions Through FanDuel
While sports betting has opened up for fans around the country, it has also introduced a greater attack surface for money laundering.
AI
Is Google's AI Actually Discovering 'Millions of New Materials?'
"In the DeepMind paper there are many examples of predicted materials that are clearly nonsensical."
repair
Apple Announces Half Measure to Make iPhones More Repairable Immediately After Law Banned Its Repair Practices
Apple will partially ease its "parts pairing" policy on the same day Colorado is considering a right-to-repair bill that would ban parts pairing, and weeks after Oregon banned the practice.
Instagram Will Automatically Blur Nudes in Direct Messages
This will also apply to end-to-end encrypted messages, because the processing is done on device, according to Meta.
News
How Hackers Can Hijack 2FA Calls with Sneaky Call Forwarding
In a crude but potentially effective attack, a hacker sends a malicious link which quickly sets up call forwarding for a target’s phone number. The result is the interception of 2FA calls, including for Gmail.
science
Paper-Crumpling Study About the Nature of Anger Is the Best Thing I've Read in a Long Time
Science has found that writing down your feelings and performatively disposing of them can make you less angry.
Music
These Songs Are Still Legal in Chechnya
Making 80 to 116 BPM music illegal won't stop stomp-clap or ska.
Features
Inside the ‘Com World War’: Robberies, Brickings, and ‘Drama’
A wave of robberies and other violent acts has swept across the nebulous crime culture known as Com. I watched it all unfold in real time.
Podcast
Podcast: The Wild World of Fake AI Influencers
We introduce our new 404 Media fellow Jules Roscoe; go long on fake AI Instagram influencers; talk about the couple making porn for the Apple Vision Pro; and the bizarre sight at a particular New York City chicken shop.