Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Backdoors and the Miracle of Wikipedia
This week, we discuss Apple's iCloud, Wikipedia as a miracle of humankind, and good soup.
The Abstract
Antarctica's Only Insect
This week: A tale of creative cryopreservation, Transylvania's 16th-century weather reports, and dancing turtles.
dei
Researcher Captures Contents of ‘DEI.gov’ Before It Was Hidden Behind a Password
The list includes budget claims like "$3.4 million for Malaysian drug-fueled gay sex app" and "Disbursed $15,000 to 'queer' Muslim writers in India."
News
Trump Admin Adds Note Rejecting ‘Gender Ideology’ on Sites Court Ordered Them to Restore
FDA and HHS sites now note that “The Trump Administration rejects gender ideology and condemns the harms it causes to children.”
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Backdoors and the Miracle of Wikipedia
This week, we discuss Apple's iCloud, Wikipedia as a miracle of humankind, and good soup.
AI
Lawyers Caught Citing AI-Hallucinated Cases Call It a 'Cautionary Tale'
The attorneys filed court documents referencing eight non-existent cases, then admitted it was a "hallucination" by an AI tool.
AI
A ‘True Crime’ Documentary Series Has Millions of Views. The Murders Are All AI-Generated
The creator of a viral "true crime" series where the murders were all invented by AI explains how he did it.
Waste.gov
Elon Musk's Waste.gov Is Just a WordPress Theme Placeholder Page
Musk told reporters all of DOGE's actions are "maximally transparent." The website tracking waste is currently about an imaginary architecture firm.
Podcast
Podcast: AI Is Breaking Our Brains
This week we discuss a new Microsoft study that finds using generative AI is "atrophying" people's cognition and critical thinking skills, the right's war on Wikipedia, and, in the subscriber's section, the idea of posting against fascism.
News
AI Slop of Musk and Trump on TikTok Racks Up 700 Million Views
Motivational videos on TikTok using AI-generated voices of Trump, Musk, and other celebrities are racking up millions of views.
News
The Murky Ad-Tech World Powering Surveillance of US Military Personnel
A Florida data broker told a US senator it obtained sensitive data on US military members in Germany from a Lithuanian firm, which denies involvement—revealing the opaque nature of online ad surveillance.
health
Judge Orders CDC and FDA to Restore Pages Removed by Trump Admin Before Midnight
After health agencies responded to Trump's executive order deeming there to be only "two sexes" by scrubbing sites of important resources, a judge ordered they have until midnight Tuesday to bring them back online.