Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Brainrot and Brain Power Hours
This week, we discuss the death of Mr. Deepfakes, introducing kids to the Manosphere, and working on big, difficult, high-brain-power scoops.
News
Man ‘Disappeared’ by ICE Was on El Salvador Flight Manifest, Hacked Data Shows
Ricardo Prada Vásquez was not on a government list of people sent to a mega prison in El Salvador. But hacked data shows he was booked on a flight to the country.
AI
'I Loved That AI:' Judge Moved by AI-Generated Avatar of Man Killed in Road Rage Incident
How the sister of Christopher Pelkey made an avatar of him to testify in court.
News
GlobalX, Airline for Trump’s Deportations, Hacked
Hackers say they have obtained what they say are passenger lists for GlobalX flights from January to this month. The data appears to include people who have been deported.
Tariffs
Your Children’s Children Will Die in Our Factories
The small, pathetic technofeudalist dystopian vision of Howard Lutnick and the Trump administration.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: The News Hits Different
This week, we discuss eyebrow-raising apps, more media mess, and lovingly gazing at AI slop.
Tourism
Recession Indicator: Bookings for the German Tour Bus in Los Angeles Are Down 30%
Donald Trump: "Tourism is way up."
XBAND
The Infamous ‘You Wouldn’t Steal a Car’ Anti-Piracy Font Was Pirated. But By Who?
You wouldn't download an illegal font ... unless you wanted to use it to sell a modem for the Sega Genesis?
AI
Reddit Issuing 'Formal Legal Demands' Against Researchers Who Conducted Secret AI Experiment on Users
Reddit called it an "improper and highly unethical experiment" and said it did not know it was happening.
AI
Researchers Secretly Ran a Massive, Unauthorized AI Persuasion Experiment on Reddit Users
The researchers' bots generated identities as a sexual assault survivor, a trauma counselor, and a Black man opposed to Black Lives Matter.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Feeling Smart Along the Way
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 cheating in job interviews, "scary good" surveillance tech, and prudes in payment processing.
Data Hoarding
Sales of Hard Drives for the End of the World Boom Under Trump
PrepperDisk is a mini internet box that comes preloaded with offline backups of some of the content that is being deleted by the administration.