Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Sinkholes and Site Seizures
This week, we discuss a ransomware gang, book bans, and infrastructure.
News
ChatGPT Will Guess Your Age and Might Require ID for Age Verification
OpenAI introduces new age prediction and verification methods after wave of teen suicide stories involving chatbots.
Tariffs
$2,000 Shipping: International Sellers Charge Absurd Prices to Avoid Dealing With American Tariffs
Some sellers on eBay and Etsy have jacked up their shipping costs so American buyers won't buy their products.
News
AI-Powered Animal Crossing Villagers Begin Organizing Against Tom Nook
An LLM breathed new life into 'Animal Crossing' and made the villagers rise up against their landlord.
FOIA
Airlines Sell 5 Billion Plane Ticket Records to the Government For Warrantless Searching
New documents obtained by 404 Media show how a data broker owned by American Airlines, United, Delta, and many other airlines is selling masses of passenger data to the U.S. government.
Podcast
Podcast: AI Slop Is Drowning Out Human YouTubers
How Trump's tariffs are impacting all sorts of hobbies; how OnlyFans piracy is ruining the internet for everyone; and ChatGPT's reckoning.
The Abstract
NASA Rover Finds ‘Potential Biosignature’ on Mars
Strange “leopard spots” on Mars are the most promising signs of alien life on the planet yet, but they could also have a geological origin.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: 'Free Speech' and Open Dialogue
This week, we discuss "free speech," keeping stupid thoughts in one's own head, and cancel culture.
Charlie Kirk
Comcast Executives Warn Workers To Not Say The Wrong Thing About Charlie Kirk
An email sent to NBCUniversal employees, including journalists at NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo and more, eulogizes Charlie Kirk as an "advocate for open debate" and reminds staff that even milquetoast statements about Kirk's death can result in their firing.
News
Does Silksong Seem Unreasonably Hard? You Probably Took a Wrong Turn
Harsh lessons from 'Dark Souls' told me to turn my ass around when I got to the red flower jumping puzzle.
News
Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way
The mainstream media seems entirely uninterested in explaining Charlie Kirk's work.
News
The Software Engineers Paid to Fix Vibe Coded Messes
Linkedin has been joking about “vibe coding cleanup specialists,” but it’s actually a growing profession.
The Abstract
Scientists Just Got an Unprecedented Glimpse into the Nature of Reality
“We had promised that gravitational waves would open a new window into the universe, and that has materialized,” one researcher said.”