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.
‘AI Instagram Influencers’ Are Deepfaking Their Faces Onto Real Women’s Bodies
AI 'influencers' on Instagram have racked up hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views by stealing reels from real women to make the AI seem more "believable."
Announcements
Introducing the First 404 Media Fellow: Jules Roscoe
Jules will be covering labor and automation and helping our stories show up on all platforms as our first 404 Media fellow.
layoffs
Best Buy Geek Squad Agents ‘Going Sleeper’ After Mass Layoffs
Laid-off employees say they weren't given notice, and were instead given notice via email about a "work from home" event.
AI
A ‘Law Firm’ of AI Generated Lawyers Is Sending Fake Threats as an SEO Scam
Backlink scams are now leveraging fake, AI-generated 'lawyers' and DMCA trolling to try to pressure site owners to link to their 'clients.'
open source
Bullying in Open Source Software Is a Massive Security Vulnerability
The Xz backdoor and a near miss on the F-Droid app store show how the entitled attitude of some people in the open source community can be used to push malicious or insecure code.
Zodiac Killer
Cryptographers Who Solved Zodiac Killer Cipher Publish Paper About How They Did It
The paper details the "authors’ many years of failed experiments and dead-end ideas."
Kagi
Friendship Ended With GOOGLE Now KAGI Is My Best Friend
I replaced Google with Kagi, a search engine that has no ads and costs $10 per month.
FOIA
Officer Screamed ‘Stop Shooting Her’ While Police Killed Unarmed Teen After Car Chase
404 Media has obtained newly released video and audio material related to the 2022 killing of Savannah Graziano.
repair
The Car Repair Apocalypse Could Soon Be Upon Us
The widespread availability of independent car repair needs to be protected from software-based DRM.
xz backdoor
The Xz Backdoor Highlights the Vulnerability of Open Source Software—and Its Strengths
The backdoor highlights the politics, governance, and community management of an ecosystem exploited by massive tech companies and largely run by volunteers.
AI
Shareholders Sue AI Weapon-Detecting Company, Allege It 'Does Not Reliably Detect Knives or Guns'
Evolv, which will be used by the NYC subway, is under investigation by the FTC and SEC, and also had to retract a claim that the UK government validated its product.