Wired
Mathematicians Still Trying to Figure Out Who Gets Left Out of the Running Club
Decades later, mathematicians are still trying to prove how many runners on a circular track will always end up isolated, no matter their speed.
Wired
Wired
Tinder Users Can Now Prove They're Human By Staring Into Sam Altman's Orb
Your Tinder profile can now boast a 'verified human' badge, provided you've first allowed Sam Altman's Orb to scan your eyeballs.
Wired
Asus Tuts at Tradition With Gaming Laptop That Forgot Its GPU
Asus tries to sell you a gaming laptop without the one part everyone agrees makes it a gaming laptop, and somehow it's not terrible.
BBC World
Fuel Truck Attempts DIY Fire Brigade, Leaves Trail of Chaos in Syria
A Syrian fuel truck driver's attempt to drive a burning tanker to a fire station resulted in seven injuries and a dozen destroyed vehicles, providing a fiery microcosm of a region stuck on pause.
Wired
Man Blows Fuses, Discovers ChatGPT Is Not a Licensed Electrician
After an AI-guided DIY project fried his home's electrical system, Samuel Beek founded Schematik to be a 'Cursor for hardware,' and now Anthropic is interested.
SpaceNews
Space Surveillance Firm To Go Public, Hopes Investors Don't Spot The Legal Debris
NorthStar plans to go public via SPAC to fund its space debris tracking network, a venture currently entangled in a legal dispute over allegedly faulty satellites.
The Verge
Judge Rules Trump Administration's Anti-ICE-Tracking Pressure Was Unconstitutional
A federal judge found the prior administration's strong-arm tactics to remove ICE-tracking tools from Facebook and Apple were about as constitutional as a screen door on a submarine.
The Verge
OpenAI's Sora Boss Exits After Company Decides Video Is a 'Side Quest'
With Sora shelved as a 'side quest,' its team leader Bill Peebles departs OpenAI as the company doubles down on coding and corporate clients.
The Verge
Journalists Discover You Can Now Bet On Their Job Being Obsolete
Prediction markets like Polymarket are letting people bet on news outcomes, posing a direct and ethically messy challenge to traditional journalism.
TechCrunch
AI Coding Tools Deliver More Code, More Churn, and More Confused Managers
AI coding assistants are helping engineers produce a tidal wave of code, but much of it gets rewritten almost immediately, creating a churn problem that undermines the promised productivity gains.
BBC World
UN Peacekeeper Killed in What Officials Call a 'Deliberate' and 'Very Close Range' Ambush
A French UN peacekeeper is dead in southern Lebanon after an ambush France blames on Hezbollah, who denies it, because the region needed more tension.
UN News
UN Economist Says 'Demographic Timebomb' Is Just A Reality We Need To Deal With
The UN says the real 'demographic timebomb' is trying to afford a house and childcare, not the number of babies being born.
Ars Technica
Amazon's New Fire Sticks: The 'Enhanced Security' of a Walled Garden
Amazon's new Fire Sticks will run on a locked-down OS that bans sideloading, framing the loss of user freedom as an 'enhanced security' feature.
BBC World
White House Holds 'Productive' Chat With AI Firm It Recently Called 'Woke Nut Jobs'
The administration that called Anthropic 'woke nut jobs' now finds its cybersecurity AI too useful to shun, hosting a 'productive' meeting amid an ongoing lawsuit.
SpaceNews
Chinese Astronauts Install Space Umbrella, Get Told to Stay Another Month
After installing space debris armor, three Chinese astronauts get their orbital lease extended by a month, because in space, no one can hear you ask to go home.
Ars Technica
AI's Big Buildout Hits Reality Wall: 40% of Data Centers Running Late
Satellite imagery shows nearly 40% of massive US AI data center projects are running late, thanks to shortages of labor, power, equipment, and a dash of geopolitical trade policy.
TechCrunch
Anthropic and Trump Admin: It's Complicated, But They're Still Talking
While the Pentagon sues Anthropic for being a 'risk,' the rest of the Trump administration is apparently eager to use its AI, proving government unity is as elusive as safe autonomous weapons.
BBC World
Car Mounts Kerb at Pop Culture Event, Killing One and Prompting Arrest
A car crash outside a Melbourne comic convention killed one person, with police yet to determine if the driver's erratic path was intentional or influenced by substances.
SpaceNews
Space Force Casts 'Commercial First' Net, Hopes Industry Bites
The Space Force is shopping for tech in the commercial sector, a strategy detailed on a new podcast that also features ads for companies promising to achieve what others can't.
TechCrunch
AI Insiders Buy Talk Shows, Everyone Else Just Gets New Words to Worry About
As OpenAI buys talk shows and Anthropic demos 'dangerous' AI for bankers, a podcast tries to explain the growing gap between AI insiders and a confused public.
The Good Times
News in your inbox.
One sardonic roundup, delivered on your schedule. Free. Unsubscribe whenever your tolerance for wit runs out.