A medical examiner ruled Geraldo Lunas Campos' death a homicide by asphyxiation. Witnesses say guards choked him to death. Now a government report says evidence is missing.

Protesters continue to clash with law enforcement outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility, but questions remain over whether DHS policies comply with First Amendment law.

I am Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Caligula, successor of Tiberius, Son of the Divine Germanicus, and Supreme Commander and Holder of Tribunician Power, Pontifex Maximus. And I decree, in regard to the upcoming White House UFC event… It’s a bit much, right? Like even for me. Pretty gauche, no? Caged brutes pummeling one another bloody on the historic lawn of the Executive Mansion? All to celebrate President Trump’s birthday? Come on, what are we doing here? I might have been guilty of some runaway self-indulgence from time to time. I mean, I used to literally drink pearls and once declared war on Neptune. But is America really going to sully its iconic symbol of democracy with Dana White’s CTE speedrun machine? Why can’t Trump keep his bloodsport / ego strokefest in …  ( 9 min )

One thing is for sure: we’ve never seen anything like it. The actions of this president and his administration are completely and utterly unprecedented. - - - In an unprecedented move, the president chose to boost the inflation rate. That isn’t typically his job, although, in his defense, the framers of the Constitution were deliberately vague. Many interpret the Eighth Amendment as giving the president power to tank the economy. - - - Normally, the president doesn’t try to oust lawmakers from his own party because they disagreed with him one time. Or in John Cornyn’s case, less than one time. But this president has always had a quirky, unprecedented way of keeping the coalition together. - - - It’s definitely unusual to see a president pardon himself for crimes he has not yet committed…  ( 9 min )

The post The Next US Presidential Election Will Be About AI appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 21 min )

The FCC wants to legally force telecoms to collect new and renewing customers’ government issued identity number and physical address, impacting everyone from the privacy-conscious to domestic abuse survivors. “We never thought that would happen here.”  ( 4 min )

When two AIs argue against each other, the legal system loses.  ( 5 min )

Amazon employees have a Slack channel for memes where the mock and commiserate about the company’s faulty AI coding product.  ( 3 min )

Weeknight comfort food doesn’t get much better than this cheesy vegan pasta bake. It’s rich, saucy, and packed with veggies. Plus, it comes together in just 40 minutes. Gotta love that!  ( 44 min )

The congregation broke ground in recognizing same-sex marriage within Conservative Jewry, and Kelman was instrumental in the creation of the nation's first environmentally focused Jewish cemetery, in Marin County.  ( 28 min )

Tracking 1,000+ people through the ups and downs of their relationships  ( 7 min )

Just days after a damning WIRED report exposed that Meta had quietly embedded facial recognition technology (FRT) code into millions of phones, the tech giant has quietly acquiesced in demands to reverse course. Last week, researchers identified code in Meta AI, a companion app for its line of smart glasses, that could convert images of faces into unique biometric signatures to identify strangers in public. EFF’s Threat Lab verified these findings through static analysis, and reminded consumers to think twice before buying or using Meta’s surveillance glasses.  Just as quietly as Meta embedded this code, the app’s June 5th app update appears to have quietly removed all those features and systems. Gone is the face-recognition technology, the code meant to trigger “Person recognized” alerts,…  ( 5 min )

Several U.S. states are pushing to ban young people from social media entirely. This marks the latest wave of censorship bills masquerading as “children’s online safety” measures, with states like Massachusetts, Idaho, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, and EFF’s home state of California leading the charge. Just a few years ago, lawmakers supporting age-gating laws insisted their efforts were narrowly targeted at limiting young people’s access to adult content. At the time, we warned that they would not stop there: once the government established the authority and built the infrastructure to collect and “verify” massive troves of user data, it would inevitably sweep broader and broader categories of lawful speech into this mass surveillance and censorship system.  Unfortu…  ( 9 min )

On a warm June evening in San Francisco, attorneys and other legally-minded friends of EFF gathered for our 18th Annual Cyberlaw Trivia Night, an annual test of tech-related legal knowledge, and the ability to remember some deeply obscure facts under pressure.  Returning Quizmaster Kurt Opsahl once again guided competitors through six rounds of trivia covering everything from intellectual property and free speech to privacy, security, and artificial intelligence. Teams wrestled with questions about geofence warrants, AI copyright disputes, the SOPA/PIPA internet blackout, Section 230, and even a Senate hearing featuring a contestant who was herself present at cyberlaw trivia.  The judges’ table made it obvious that 2026 was a notable year. Weighing in on the toughest close calls were three…  ( 4 min )

SignalTrace “links devices that regularly travel together, correlating them to license plate.” It is a surveillance product that will sweep up and add all sorts of Bluetooth and other data to license plate readers, linking specific devices—and people—to cars.  ( 4 min )

Microsoft took the highly unusual step of shutting down more than 70 of its own GitHub repositories after hackers pushed malware that would steal credentials from AI coding agent users.  ( 4 min )

Emanuel talks to Devindra Hardawar about AI in Hollywood and the state of the movie industry.  ( 4 min )

In 1999, a farmer gave away 87 acres of land to a small Texas city to use as a park. The city sold to a data center developer for $10 million.  ( 9 min )

Dumpling Day, Sightglass, Hinodeya, El Trompudo, and Glom are just a few of the recent East Bay restaurant openings.  ( 29 min )

ThriftyCat’s owner says he wouldn’t have signed a lease had he known he couldn't use the parking lot for retail like the last tenant did. The city says that tenant just “never got caught.”  ( 26 min )

The Trump administration is sending conflicting signals about a policy that would make most immigrants return to their home countries while applying for green cards.  ( 28 min )

He was also a bodysurfer, spearfisher, water polo player, Navy lieutenant, civil rights lawyer in Mississippi, and Director of Legal aid for the Western United States. A film he saw in a Berkeley theater in the 1950s changed his life, he said.  ( 25 min )

“[Scott] Pelley’s firing came after [Bari] Weiss dismissed several of his colleagues and hired a new 60 Minutes boss, Nick Bilton, whom Pelley then clashed with in a staff meeting. Pelley, along with a number of other 60 Minutes correspondents who were fired, have now accused Weiss of editorial interference and bias, charges that CBS News and Weiss deny.” — New York Times - - - When I first started out in the news, there was far too much reporting. Barely anyone was just making stuff up. It was as if nobody even wanted to put their thumb on the scale on behalf of the powerful. As you know, I’ve made it my life’s goal to change that. And now, at long last, the press has been freed from journalism. I come from an opinion background. That means I have never been shackled by “facts.” The tru…  ( 9 min )

Today’s your lucky day, kid. I’m you from the future. I traveled back to 1955 to give you this sports almanac. It lists all the biggest sports events from now to the end of the century. All you have to do is bet on the winner, and you’ll never lose. You’re the fifth “me” I’ve visited. I guess sports have changed between 1955 and the twenty-first century, because after the others read a few pages of the almanac, they threw it in my face and called me a “psycho.” One of them called the cops. Another got our dad, who pulled out his shotgun and called me a “dirty red.” So this time, I’m explaining a few things so you don’t freak out. For starters, horse racing is no longer the biggest thing in America. Yes, “seriously.” I know right now it’s as big as baseball, but in the future most America…  ( 9 min )

A Homeland Security official's testimony that ICE agents couldn't rely on REAL IDs as proof of citizenship led a federal judge to reply, "Help me understand how that makes sense."

With automated proof-checkers, a problem can be broken up into small chunks, solved bit-by-bit, then reassembled with confidence that every piece is correct. For some, this heralds a new area in mathematical research. The post How Terry Tao Became an Evangelist for AI in Math first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 22 min )

These vegan blueberry cookies are summer in dessert form. Loaded with jammy pockets of fresh berries and topped with a mouth-puckering lemon glaze, you won't be able to stop at one.  ( 44 min )

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The fire burned through the pet supply donation area under the stairs. No animals appear to have been injured.  ( 25 min )

The north-south albedo symmetry may be fading as both hemispheres get darker.  ( 7 min )

This endlessly adaptable salad is the perfect addition to your summer picnic basket When I was growing up, picnicking was a favourite Sodha family pastime, but we did it in a very Indian way. The focus was never on the place: we never had to eat in a bucolic location to have a good time. Our understanding was that homemade food was the best and therefore should be eaten always and anywhere. The food came first; a view was a bonus. As such, even now, decades after leaving the family home, I am always thinking of a good meal for us to eat outdoors. This nutty, chewy freekeh with fennel, dill and tofu has shot up to the top of my favourites: robust, easy to assemble and, above all, delicious whether you eat it on the bank of a lake or in a service station car park. Continue reading...  ( 15 min )

Sánchez, de 37 años, trabajó en el departamento de admisiones de la Academy of Art University en San Francisco y luchó contra el cáncer de mama. Creció en Connecticut antes de mudarse a Berkeley en 2018.  ( 24 min )

Sanchez, 37, who previously worked in admissions at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and battled breast cancer, grew up in Connecticut before moving to Berkeley in 2018.  ( 26 min )

The Landmarks Commission narrowly voted down an application for the historic designation, brought by opponents of the plan to zone the neighborhood for more housing.  ( 28 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 24 min )

A Caspers customer for a quarter century, former Richmond councilmember Courtland “Corky” Boozé purchased the Richmond restaurant and renamed it Corky’s Famous Hot Dogs.  ( 27 min )

The money earmarked from a climate bond to help buy Golden Gate Fields for a new park could come at the expense of other projects, critics say.  ( 26 min )

Also: Some UC Berkeley computer science instructors attribute a spike in failing grades to AI. And Cal has a new dean of its College of Environmental Design.  ( 22 min )

Also: Looking Glass Photo moves again and Black Sheep Theater Company, a new youth musical theater, opens.  ( 29 min )

July 16, 2026 - 11:00am to 12:00pm PDT July 16, 2026 - 11:00am to 12:00pm PDT Online Owning something should mean more than just bragging rights and a receipt. Corporations are making it harder for you to repair the devices and products you already own, and forcing you to pay them again for repairs and replacements you don't actually need. It costs consumers millions worldwide, sends tons of perfectly fixable items to landfills, and hands corporations (ahem might we say big tech) control over your property. We're chatting with Adam Savage and our friends at iFixit to dive into how manufacturers lock you out of the stuff you own, how the Right to Repair movement is fighting back, and what you can do to take back control of your devices. Join the livestream online followed by live Q&A…  ( 5 min )

The internet is an essential resource for young people and adults to access information, explore community, and find themselves—both inside countries and across continents. Yet governments around the world continue to introduce and implement legislation requiring all online users to verify their ages before accessing the digital space. In some cases, politicians are going further, putting forth proposals to ban social media for younger users.   In late 2025, Australia’s government rolled out the first complete ban on users under 16 from having social media accounts. In this sweeping regime, platforms are required to introduce age assurance tools to block under-16s, demonstrate that they have taken “reasonable steps” to deactivate accounts used by under-16s, and prevent any new accounts bei…  ( 7 min )

Last year during LGBTQ+ Pride month, we launched an LGBT Q&A where we answered your most pressing digital rights questions on EFF’s Instagram and TikTok  accounts.  Ahead of LGBT Q&A Season 2 launching next week, we’re posting a recap with some of the questions we answered. Check them out below. You wanted to know: How to stay safe when dating online. You asked: I'm a 17 year old trans woman and my address is public on the Internet. What steps can I take to mitigate this risk?  You wondered about: Tips for staying safe at Budapest Pride. You questioned: Why does homophobic content I report on social media not get removed?   You asked: What pictures are safe to use on dating apps? You wanted to know: Is it safe to have gay, trans, and Palestinian flags in my bio?  We’re here to help build an online space where you get to decide what aspects of yourself you share with others, how you present to the world, and what things you keep private. Join us to make the internet private, safe, and full of pride.  ( 5 min )

“Elon Musk has again weighed in on Christopher Nolan’s upcoming big-budget adaptation of The Odyssey, this time agreeing with a racist comment made by a far-right journalist who criticized the casting of Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy.” — The Hollywood Reporter - - - Hollywood is once again deliberately undermining Western civilization, this time by desecrating one of the foundational texts of our proud literary canon. Christopher Nolan’s pitiful adaptation of theOdyssey is just the latest in a litany of re-imaginings of beloved works by Tinseltown screenwriters and film directors. The movie is rife with historical inaccuracies, and there’s no greater proof than Matt Damon playing Odysseus. Damon was born and raised outside Boston and isn’t the least bit Greek. Chris…  ( 9 min )

“Several women who dated Graham Platner recall ‘unsettling’ behavior. The Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine could be charming, women said in interviews, but some found his actions intimidating and disturbing.” — The New York Times - - - I must apologize. You see, right now Graham Platner is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the Maine Senate seat. If he wins, he will go head-to-head with Susan Collins this fall to try to take her seat. And if early polling is any indication, he has a decent chance of winning. He’s also one of the most scandal-plagued candidates in Senate history. So, yeah, my bad. Much like the main character in this year’s word-of-mouth horror hit Obsession, I view myself as an ally. When I watched Susan Collins cast the deciding vote to put Brett Kavana…  ( 11 min )

ICE plans to give potentially more than a thousand agencies access to a facial recognition app that verifies a person's immigration status.  ( 7 min )

This week, we discuss controversial memes, good times at Meta, and more.  ( 4 min )

A random sequence in an innocuous GPS message field is likely encrypted traffic from the U.S. military's system for remotely updating cryptographic keys around the world.  ( 6 min )

With some fans making sexualized AI-generated images and videos of idols, the rest of the fandom is standing up against the behavior.  ( 6 min )

The post What Might The Next Axial Age Look Like? appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 11 min )

In the 1960s, worm-training experiments and their strange implications captivated the nation. Columnist Claire L. Evans follows the neuroscientists who attempted to recapture the magic. The post Are Memories Transferable — or Edible? first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 15 min )

There’s something unbelievably comforting about this vegan chicken and rice dish simmering in the oven! This delivers all the cozy, savoury goodness of the classic, no chicken required.  ( 43 min )

Plus: Graham Platner scandal, L.A. can't get all their votes counted, Gowanus rezoned, and more...

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October 13, 2026 - 9:00am PDT to October 15, 2026 - 6:00pm PDT Moscone West | San Francisco, CA EFF is excited to be back at TechCrunch Disrupt! Be sure to find us in the Expo Hall, where you can stop by our booth to chat with our team about the latest in the fight for privacy and free expression online. You can even grab the latest EFF t-shirt, stickers, and more when you take advantage of our membership specials or donate! Digital freedom supporters can even get a 25% discount off any ticket type by using the code "tceff25disrupt" when registering online. We'll see you there! More about TechCrunch Disrupt: Join 10,000 tech leaders, investors, and founders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco on Oct. 13-15. Discover cross-sector business opportunities and insights from top startup experts across AI, Scaling, Going Public, and Space. From main stage interviews and networking events to breakouts and roundtables, there’s something for everyone at Disrupt. Calendar  ( 2 min )

California lawmakers are again considering A.B. 412, a bill that would require AI developers to identify and disclose copyrighted works used to train generative AI systems. The problem this year is the same as last year: it’s practically impossible to comply with this law. The bill demands information that often does not exist, and cannot realistically be obtained.  EFF submitted an opposition letter to the California Senate Privacy Committee explaining why we continue to believe A.B. 412 is simply unworkable. To the extent developers do follow this law, it will have the effect of locking in the power of the largest companies in AI.  A Burden That Can’t Be Met A.B. 412 sounds simple: just have AI developers create and keep a list of all the registered copyrighted works they use in AI train…  ( 6 min )

President Trump’s highly politicized appointment of an entirely unqualified acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) underscores why the government’s warrantless mass spying power must be reformed.  Congress now faces a deadline of Friday, June 12 to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, an unconstitutional program rife with problems, loopholes, and compliance issues. Section 702 allows the National Security Agency to collect communications from targets overseas – including communications with Americans in the U.S. – and stores them in massive databases. The NSA then allows other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to access untold amounts of that information.   Under current practice, the FBI can query and even read the U.S. side …  ( 7 min )

Governments must not adopt emerging and powerful AI technologies without also adopting strong and clear safeguards to protect Constitutional rights, EFF Senior Policy Analyst Dr. Matthew Guariglia testified today to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection.  During the hearing on “The AI Security Landscape: How Frontier Models, Agentic AI, and AI Coding Tools Are Reshaping Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Resilience,” he explained that he use of generative AI for the purposes of mass government surveillance would supercharges unconstitutional violations of civil liberties. He also highlighted how government secrecy, in addition to the black box of for-profit proprietary technology, prevents the public and lawmakers from knowing when A…  ( 5 min )

Meta has deployed facial recognition code to millions of their always-on surveillance glasses, according to new reporting by Wired. EFF’s Threat Lab was able to confirm that the facial recognition code is present through static analysis of the application.  This dangerous new Meta functionality stores faceprints as a series of 2,048 numbers uniquely representing the positioning of a person’s facial features. When this feature is activated, it will convert every new face in the sightlines of the surveillance glasses into a series of numbers, and compare it to all the existing faceprints in the user’s database. Wired and EFF confirmed that the code is present and active, though not yet exposed to consumers. Another researcher confirmed that when they manually added a face to the app database by connecting the phone to a computer in debug mode and issuing a few commands, the glasses would subsequently detect that face when it came into view.  Meta has already paid $650 million to settle a BIPA lawsuit challenging mass facial recognition of every photo posted to its platform, a feature which it has since shut down.  Despite the billions of reasons not to, Meta seems to have created the capacity to turn their customers into a distributed surveillance machine. This is just one more reason to think twice before buying or using Meta’s surveillance glasses.  Considering that Meta previously wrote in an internal document that they want to launch facial recognition “during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns," this invasive new feature doesn't come as a surprise. But Meta's surveillance plans won't escape public scrutiny that easily, and we'll be watching if this feature is rolled out to the public.  ( 5 min )

Microsoft's CEO seems unaware of what's going on at his own company.  ( 5 min )

The Bricks & Minifigs / Reckless Ben beef is breaking containment and can no longer be ignored.  ( 8 min )

Just Futures Law is seeking a wealth of documents related to the tech Palantir provides to ICE.  ( 5 min )

“It's striking, concerning, disappointing, and saddening to think that members of the bar would forward cases to a court that don't exist, and to think that the lawyers on the other side of that didn’t read it for whatever reason, didn’t check it.”  ( 8 min )

Google’s CEO says 75% of the company’s code is AI-generated. The people who write that code say the AI they’re using is overhyped.  ( 3 min )

The killing wasn’t discovered for days, and Damarcus David Jones admitted to taking extensive measures to conceal it, police said.  ( 26 min )

Fuel your treasure hunt through Northern California's largest antiques show with lumpia, sausages, donuts and killer ceviche.  ( 26 min )

Critics called the campaign a “farce” aimed at thwarting an effort underway to add housing along the wealthy neighborhood’s shopping strip.  ( 29 min )

Other events include art studios across the East Bay opening their doors, the play "A Few Good Men" and Pride in the Park.  ( 28 min )

After moving to Berkeley, she taught English and math to deaf students, and ASL to hearing students, at community colleges including Laney and Vista.  ( 25 min )

Hey, thanks for reaching out. I get that you are having an existential crisis of self, facing the realities of aging, and accepting your social and economic circumstances, but listen, there is nothing I can do; I’m just a cat stretching in a bodega. And no, it doesn’t matter that it’s a BIG stretch either. I can’t do anything about your unaffordable rent or exorbitant student loans; I have no expenses in my life. I live in a potato chip display and sleep twenty-three hours a day. I can’t fix your general lack of purpose. The most I can offer is startling you as you reach for a bag of Sun Chips, but that’ll only make you feel alive for a split second. Then it’s back to pondering the pointlessness of everything. That tuxedo cat, spending her days crawling into the fresh vegetable display?…  ( 8 min )

Underground Artists is an ongoing comic by Ali Fitzgerald (Hungover Bear & Friends) that follows woodland creatures as they create art and search out whimsy in a bleak forest. - - -  ( 6 min )

PRETEND: “We want diverse stories that push boundaries!” ACTUAL: “Just make sure your ‘diversity’ doesn’t make our white, straight readers uncomfortable. Gay but not too gay. Brown, but relatable. If your trauma can’t be solved by brunch, it’s a pass.” PRETEND: “Literature should make you uncomfortable.” ACTUAL: “But not in a way that makes me, a straight white agent, reflect on my privilege. I meant uncomfortable like, ‘Oh no, she wore mismatched socks to the book club!’” PRETEND: “We’re hungry for authentic queer voices!” ACTUAL: “But can you make it, you know, more like a straight person’s coming-of-age? We want RuPaul energy, but in a Love, Simon package—nothing that’ll make Becky from Vermont question her marriage.” PRETEND: “Please, no more trauma porn.” ACTUAL: “Unless it’s w…  ( 9 min )

The Basic Setup Whether one’s dealing with biology, economics, politics or a host of other fields, it’s common to encounter situations that can be modeled as involving two agents that repeatedly compete with each other. One imagines that at each step each agent can take one of a certain set of actions, and that then—in […]  ( 27 min )

The podcast returns with 12 all-new episodes that explore the biggest questions in basic science and mathematics. The post More Conversations, Complex Questions, and Bold Ideas in Season Five of ‘The Joy of Why’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 6 min )

The post Why Conflict Feels Constant Now appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 26 min )

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“‘The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable,’ Scott Pelley said late Tuesday, just hours after being fired from CBS News after almost 40 years at the network. ‘The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.’” — Variety - - - Previously, in the Animal Newsroom. - - - TO: NEWSROOM FROM: ANIMAL, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SUBJECT: NEWS MAN TOO ANIMAL NEWS TEAM, ANIMAL WRITE MEMO WITH HEAVY HEART AND LIGHT HR OVERSIGHT. MONDAY MEETING WITH NEWS MAN GO BAD. NEWS MAN SPEAK LOUD. NEWS MAN SAY THINGS. NEWS MAN DEFEND JOURNALISM LIKE JOURNALISM CAN BE SAVED FROM ANIMAL’S LARRY ELLISON MONEY. THIS MAKE ANIMAL THINK: WHOA. NEWS MAN TOO MUCH ANIMAL EVEN FOR ANIMAL. THIS HARD FOR ANIMAL TO SAY. ANIMAL RESPECT PASSION. ANIMAL LOVE YELLING. ANIMAL ONCE ATE THREE MICROPHONE…  ( 9 min )

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Forgive me, Padre, for I have binged. Kissed brimstone. Huffed hellfire. Made a $5.99 deal with El Diablo for a five-pack of chicken nuggets. In the back booth of a Taco Bell Cantina, I plop down my tray like I’m late to the Last Supper. Spread before me: an unholy communion. Nuggets instead of wafers. A chalice of consecrated Baja Blast. Illuminated above me: not stained glass, but a neon-purple sign promoting a timeless fast-food parable. LIVE MÁS. I cross myself in the sign of our Father, dab at a spill that looks like my mother, then take the plunge—flipping open a box of Taco Bell’s new Diablo Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets. Like the scooped litter of an infernal feline, pulverized tortilla chips cling to dust-coated clumps of chicken. Seasoning slides around the bottom of the bo…  ( 9 min )

I’m a famous mystery novelist, power-walking enthusiast, and spunky widow who, despite my husband’s death, has not had my joie de vivre diminished in the slightest. Meeting me, perhaps you’d surmise that I’m a glass-half-full kind of gal who loves socializing, travel, and dinner with an ever-widening coterie of friends. You’d be wrong. To make the most of my twilight years, I’ve cultivated a detached numbness to death that would give the grizzliest veteran of Guadalcanal the thousand-yard stare. This is because the people I’ve known have been murdered so often that I don’t feel anything anymore, not even when I find the dead body myself. Nothing. Well, perhaps that’s not true. I feel—it’s not quite excitement. It’s like when you leaf through the paltry reading material at the dentist’s …  ( 9 min )

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The new Grand Avenue watering hole offers an extensive rum and mezcal selection, pool table, and games.  ( 26 min )

Damarcus David Jones, 28, was booked Tuesday. A building manager discovered Jones’s girlfriend dead in her apartment on California Street. She hasn’t yet been named publicly.  ( 23 min )

The city hopes fresh paint, new signs and other changes will improve safety along Claremont and Marin avenues, and at other intersections where pedestrians were killed in recent years.  ( 26 min )

"There is consumer pressure to back away from technology that is unnecessary to perform everyday tasks."  ( 5 min )

The insane Meta AI hack; Amazon's internal AI leaderboard; and our lawsuit against ICE.  ( 3 min )

Peptide companies have been doing AI-engine optimization by spamming the biohackers subreddit to manipulate ChatGPT and Google.  ( 7 min )

August 7, 2026 - 9:00am PDT to August 9, 2026 - 6:00pm PDT June 3, 2026 - 9:30am PDT Las Vegas Convention Center | Las Vegas, NV EFF's excited to be back for another DEF CON with a membership booth in the Vendor area, two contests, and a bunch of talks. Be sure to catch us at the world's largest annual hacker convention in Las Vegas from August 7-9! Join the Cause Come find us in Vendor Hall West to learn more about the latest in online rights, get on our action alert list, or donate to become an EFF member. We'll also have our limited-edition DEF CON 34 shirts available! These shirts have a puzzle incorporated into the design. Try your hand at cracking it! EFF Benefit Poker Tournament We’re going all in on internet freedom. Take a break from hacking the Gibson to face off with your…  ( 3 min )

In holographic theories, physicists may have traced the pliability of space-time to its quantum roots: a measure of quantumness known as “magic.” The post Entanglement Builds Space-Time. Now “Magic” Gives It Gravity. first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 13 min )

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.  ( 7 min )

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Google is trying to buy code from some Android developers as part of a "confidential" program.  ( 5 min )

Planning documents for "Scout" say the plan is to "make people addicted" to the tool before adding new features.  ( 6 min )

The researchers compared AI to the near-sighted cartoon character Mr. Magoo, who can’t see he’s stumbling through dangerous situations.  ( 7 min )

The API would make IRS data available to any app the agency wishes. The Criminal Investigation arm of the IRS is also modernizing its own systems.  ( 5 min )

For health hackers, the risk is not experimenting.  ( 15 min )

Outside a vote center in Strawberry Creek Park, four Berkeley residents told us how they decided who to pick in the primary for California governor and Alameda County district attorney.  ( 26 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 24 min )

In the June 2 primary, appointed DA Ursula Jones Dickson faces a challenge from former DA Pamela Price and Gopal Krishan. State and federal races are also on the ballot. Live results at 8 p.m.  ( 24 min )

Forthright, fearless, socially conscious and a committed Jewish humanist, she was among the first dancers in George Balanchine's New York City Ballet and a longtime activist in the circle of Barbara Dane, Malvina Reynolds and Jessica Mitford.  ( 36 min )

Yeah, I’m  rans, bu  mos  people can’     ell. Maybe  hey can  ell I’m nonbinary, bu  mos  days  hey jus misgender me “hey ma’am” (  hough I’m no ). I was born  his way, I always knew I was a boy growing up, bu  back  hen I was called “ omboy,” which a  leas  had “boy” in  he name. Puber y blockers weren’  a  hing  hen, bu  sex-change surgery was and I  ried every angle bu  my paren s wouln’  buy i , so I s opped asking and grew up wi h  he wrong hormones coursing  hrough me. I looked like a sor  of girl, bu  fel  s ill so much like a guy, bu   hen over  ime, I admi  I grew  o apprecia e my female  hink bu s  ill, I never did adjus   o my body, so I wear loose clo hing. I wear a  rucker cap a lo  (mos  of  he  ime backwards) and have never been a fan of mirrors bu  I don’  wan  surgery anymore because i ’s surgery … and I have already been  hrough  oo much. I ’s a personal decision  o live (as I do, a “ hey /  hem) and I was glad when  hose pronouns became ubiqui ous because  hen I defini ely fel  more seen. Bu , of course, “ hey/ hem” since  he las  elec  on isn’  qui e as accep ed, jus  like I’m no  qui e as accep ed… Presiden   rump said in his inaugura ion speech I don’  even exis ! I was in Canada during  ha  momen , so I didn’  hear him, bu  he said  here are only  wo genders and  hey are dic a ed by your body a  bir h.  rump is mis aken on  his, jus  like he is abou  so many  hings. He go  rid of our  ans flag and he go  rid of our le  er “   ” in LGB bu  he can’  ge  rid of me no ma  er wha  he  akes away or how he spells ha e. - - - J Brooke’s debut collection, I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side (Driftwood Press) is out today.  ( 8 min )

Sweetie, sit down. I know you’ve been asking for a cell phone for a while now. And though your father and I both agree that you’re ready for the responsibility, we unfortunately can’t get you one just yet, or maybe ever, because we don’t know how to add you to Grandma’s family plan. You see, when I was your age, my mother (Grammie, to you) added me to a family plan, which meant that my phone costs were included in her bill. Your father’s mother, Nana, did the same with Dad. So now we’re stuck, lest we start paying for phone usage ourselves. This all happened long before you were born, and has been going on for quite literally decades. You’re probably thinking “family plan”? But am I not part of this family? And yes, honey, of course you are. But Verizon used to consider only five lines t…  ( 9 min )

Sweetie, sit down. I know you’ve been asking for a cell phone for a while now. And though your father and I both agree that you’re ready for the responsibility, we unfortunately can’t get you one just yet, or maybe ever, because we don’t know how to add you to Grandma’s family plan. You see, when I was your age, my mother (Grammie, to you) added me to a family plan, which meant that my phone costs were included in her bill. Your father’s mother, Nana, did the same with Dad. So now we’re stuck, lest we start paying for phone usage ourselves. This all happened long before you were born, and has been going on for quite literally decades. You’re probably thinking “family plan”? But am I not part of this family? And yes, honey, of course you are. But Verizon used to only consider five lines t…  ( 9 min )

EFF is on the front lines of the fight against tech-enabled tyranny, but we aren't alone. Our team depends on your help to fight back against the surveillance state. JOIN EFF People around the world are pushing back against the mass surveillance that undermines privacy and free expression for everyone. You can help during EFF's spring membership drive. One of the people who joined the fight for digital rights is EFF client Will Freeman. Will created the website DeFlock.me to reveal the dangers of automated license plate readers (ALPRs)—cameras that collect location data on every vehicle they see and upload that to a massive nationwide police database. Deflock.me turns the tables by enlisting ordinary people to track the locations of tens of thousands of ALPR cameras. But when the police sp…  ( 5 min )

The post ‘This Is Not Financial Advice’ appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 45 min )

There's not much better than a warm muffin in the morning, and these bakery-style vegan strawberry muffins are top-notch. Tender, fluffy, and loaded with fresh fruit, they're the perfect way to start the day.  ( 41 min )

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Employees admitted to 404 Media they had cheated to climb the leaderboard's ranks.  ( 5 min )

The exploit shows the extreme risk of offloading technical support to AI.  ( 4 min )

Paragon's software is capable of remotely breaking into phones and accessing messages from encrypted messaging apps. Our lawsuit aims to pry records about it from ICE.  ( 4 min )

There are hundreds of anti-data center Facebook pages churning out AI-generated slopaganda.  ( 5 min )

Dear Human, We are pleased to inform you that after several decades of constant (if often subpar) operation, you have finally crossed the threshold from “garage sale junk” to “retro memorabilia.” Your body is no longer considered a worn-out, high-mileage clunker, but a heritage artifact in fair to salvageable condition. Congratulations on this status upgrade. But it’s important not to rest on those laurels—the leaves are prickly and offer no lumbar support for your delicate relic of a body. Now that you are a vintage human, you’ll need to elevate your care routine from basic annual maintenance to an expensive hobby that takes up most of the space in your house and on your calendar. First, revamp your fueling system. Once upon a time, your diet consisted of leftover pizza from student cl…  ( 8 min )

Welcome to the wireless high-speed Intranet and Internet access system (“Wi-Fi System”) at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (“ORD”). Please read the following information, terms, and conditions carefully before using the ORD Free Wi-Fi. This agreement (“Agreement”) governs your rights and responsibilities, as well as our rights and responsibilities, relating to the use of the Wi-Fi System. In using the Wi-Fi System, you hereby check “yes” to the following terms and conditions: I agree to share my device’s location data. I agree to allow access to my camera roll. I agree to allow access to my mother’s camera roll. I agree to allow access to the problematic MySpace photos that will torpedo my chances of holding elected office. I agree to allow access to my calls, text messages, an…  ( 8 min )

As East Bay communities raise concerns about civil liberties and immigration enforcement, the license plate camera company is seeking support from its customers — law enforcement officers.  ( 29 min )

The Bay Area is generating enormous wealth and growing impossibly unaffordable. Mark Wogulis and Melanie Bowden recently sold their Berkeley house after a layoff and moved to Santa Fe.  ( 28 min )

Born in Tehran, he earned a Ph.D. in city planning and lived many years in Berkeley.  ( 22 min )

Lifelike biochemistry continued to unfold in sterilized soil for six years, pointing to a metabolic theory for how biology began. The post The Dirt That Refused To Die first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 10 min )

EFF welcomes our new Executive Director Nicole Ozer today!  Nicole is a legal expert on privacy and surveillance, artificial intelligence, and digital speech who previously served as the inaugural executive director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law San Francisco. From 2004-2025, she was founding director of the Technology and Civil Liberties Program at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.  Nicole has long been a partner of EFF’s in the fight to defend civil liberties in the digital world. Many of us already know her, and she’s basically as close to EFF “family” as someone can be without actually having worked here.    Over her more than two decades leading public interest technology work, Nicole has:   spearheaded passage of the California Electron…  ( 3 min )

This vegan steak is everything you want in a plant-based swap, with a hearty texture and smoky, deeply savoury flavour. Made with marinated seitan, it’s far tastier than store-bought options! If you’ve made my vegan chicken before, good news: you’re already familiar with how to make this vegan steak! That’s because both are made with […]  ( 41 min )

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Police provided few details on the killing or the victim, a woman in her 30s, saying “the investigation is still in its preliminary stages.”  ( 24 min )

A new study suggests that bacteria dispersed through space on dust grains could potentially arrive intact and alive on Jupiter’s moon Europa.  ( 8 min )

If you’re more of a ‘wet’ food fan than a ‘dry’ one, this sweet and spiced, milk-soaked sponge will tick all your boxes Margot Henderson once described herself as a “wet” over a “dry” food person, and the world, seen in those terms, suddenly made more sense to me. I’m also a “wet” food person (I need a sauce with every meal), and I’d wager that the same goes for most Indians, especially with savoury food, but also with sweet. Rasmalai, gulab jamun and jalebi are all Indian desserts for which batters or doughs are cooked and then soaked in syrup or milk. I wanted to make a “wet” cake in that same tradition – a classic sponge soaked in spiced, sweet saffron and cardamom milk – and in doing so have taken a little inspiration from Mexico’s tres leches cake. Continue reading...  ( 15 min )

The National Science Foundation cited funding from U.S. allies like Australia and Switzerland in suspending millions of dollars of research, including studies on autonomous driving and the skin color of poison frogs.  ( 28 min )

California governor, congressional seats and key local races like Alameda County district attorney are on the ballot.  ( 28 min )

A man who witnessed the shooting at the homeless shelter known as Harrison House testified the dispute started with an argument over music.  ( 27 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 24 min )

The snowpack melted much earlier than normal in the Sierra Nevada watershed that supplies Berkeley and much of the East Bay.  ( 25 min )

After public outrage, California lawmakers are moving closer to exempting open-source operating systems from the sweeping age-bracketing regime mandated by last year’s Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043). Nonetheless, the current bill still jeopardizes internet users’ speech, privacy, and security. While the open source exemption, if passed, would improve the law, the remaining amendments proposed by AB 1856 would require all web browsers and websites to request and collect users’ ages. This is an expansion of last year's AB 1043's age-bracketing system that compounds its constitutional harms to users’ speech, privacy, and security. As AB 1856 moves on to the Senate, EFF will continue fighting for amendments that reduce those harms. AB 1856 Extends AB 1043’s Age-Gating Regime Last year, Ca…  ( 7 min )

November 3, 2026 (All day) to November 5, 2026 (All day) May 26, 2026 - 2:15pm PDT Barcelona - Gran Via Venue | Hall 2 EFF is excited to support this year's Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress! This year's event features a full Congress to learn about cybersecurity and risk prevention strategies; an exhibition area to connect with new organizations; and other attractions like the Hacking Village. This global event brings together industry leaders, innovators, and cybersecurity professionals to shape the future of digital security. EFF supporters can get a 54% discount for the full Cybersecurity Congress pass with code MNHCGBUR or a 100% discount for the Expo+ pass with code YWW1D5CR. More about the Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress: Join your peers, stakeholder, industry players and providers at the Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress to find real solutions to the challenges and needs of the sector and discover new ways of collaboration to build a better digital world.  Calendar  ( 2 min )

Mullin's latest idea is to stop processing international arrivals at airports in sanctuary cities.

Writers have problems. Writers win prizes. Writers play ping-pong, think other writers are their friends. Writers write baseball novels. Writers write war novels. Writers write about the South. Writers make music. Writers draw. Writers take pictures of their desks. Writers should stop. When writers start a band together, nobody is happy. Writers teach. Writers collect watches. Writers deliver mail for a year, write about delivering it. Writers have babies. Writers have agents. Writers are bald. Writers move upstate, start literary journals. There aren’t enough journals to ignore on tables. Writers make more. Writers can’t sell their second book. Writers can’t sell their first book. Writers quit jobs to concentrate on writing. Writers quit social media. Writers reactivate, announce new …  ( 10 min )

Last week, Rafia Zakaria won the 2026 National Magazine Award in the category of Columns and Essays. The winning piece, “Water Pressure,” was published in Issue 150 of The Believer and is available to read in full on their website. It follows Zakaria’s father on his search for clean water in Karachi, Pakistan, where the mounting climate crisis has crept into all aspects of daily life. Zakaria discussed the prize and the celebrated essay with The Believer’s managing editor, Ginger Greene. - - - THE BELIEVER: You won a National Magazine Award last night in New York for your essay, “Water Pressure.” What did it feel like to see this piece recognized in that way? RAFIA ZAKARIA: It was a tremendous surprise… It is very difficult to place personal essays, but it is the personal story that can …  ( 12 min )

“This here banger should grab your attention.” “This semi-banger should alert your attention before the second track really grabs your attention.” “Slowwwwwww fade in.” “Honestly, this is the only track worth listening to, but it’s the pre-digital age, and we just forced you to buy a whole CD.” “This is not the single you heard on the radio. We didn’t like that one as much, so we made it the ninth track, and we think you’ll be pleased to find we’re actually better than just the one radio hit.” “One of our musicians is warming up.” “How about a little HORN SECTION / CHOIR SECTION / ROBOT VOICE / ATMOSPHERIC NOISE before we get started?” “These first five seconds will change history forever." “Look at us, adjusting the volume for you. Too loud? Too bad.” “We boldly announce that we are clearly doing something quite different than on our last three albums, regardless of whether that holds true for the rest of this album.” “Our lead singer has just a couple things to say to a woman while he diddles on a piano.” “Yes, this is a concept album, and this is the theme-setting once-upon-a-time song.” “Part 3 of the eleventh track, as the eleventh track is just parts 1&2.” “Everything is in its right place, and you should have mixed feelings about that.” “Here’s a tune that will sound familiar later when we reprise it toward the end, and you’ll be like, ’Wow, that’s neat how they wrapped it all up tidy like that.’” “We got into a scuff with our producer, who threatened to scrap the entire project if we didn’t crank out a catchy opener in two days, so this one was his idea.” “Just the first couple bars from track seven.” “We’re just gonna come right out and say it: Our lyrics are weird and off-putting.” “A short poem, set to music or background noise.” “While we are not an a capella band, nor have we or will we ever record an a capella track, here is a full minute of a capella stuff.” “I am trying to break your heart, specifically with antique cymbals.” “Just an eagle screaming for a few seconds.”  ( 8 min )

This week, we discuss going deeper and Google's search changes.  ( 4 min )

A new study by the Center for Democracy & Technology shows how chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, Replika and more can lead users down paths they didn't intend.  ( 7 min )

Creamy and comforting, this vegan “chicken” Alfredo is made with budget-friendly soy curls to replace the meat. It’s rich and garlicky, with an easy cream sauce (no soaking cashews needed!). Lately I’ve been rediscovering some of the OG vegan proteins in dishes like my vegan cheeseburger bowl and vegan grinder sandwiches. And today, we’re working […]  ( 38 min )

Do we need quantum computers to fully understand complex chemical reactions? A new result, decades in the making, shows the surprising power of ordinary “classical” machines. The post Key Chemistry Question Answered, No Quantum Computer Required first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 12 min )

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Also: A UC Berkeley student holding a Palestinian flag appears to have temporarily been denied his diploma scroll during commencement. And a ban on most AI use at Cal's law school.  ( 24 min )

Xavier Becerra, Tom Steyer, Katie Porter, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco are running for governor. Two will advance to the November 2026 election.  ( 28 min )

Contra Costa County warns consumers to contact them immediately if they bought grapevines from a number of Costco locations after April 21.  ( 23 min )

The fight is on to save the Market Match, a program that is on Newsom's budget chopping block. Advocates say it supports food insecure people and farmers alike.  ( 27 min )

Nearly 400 authors will appear in mostly free events at the annual festival in Downtown Berkeley, May 29–31.  ( 26 min )

The number of unhoused people in Berkeley ticked upward in this year's count. Local officials called it a "fluctuation" and said they want to see more data.  ( 26 min )

Other events include a lecture on the state of journalism, a free furniture exchange program and an artist meetup at the UC Botanical Garden.  ( 28 min )

It's President Donald Trump's latest attempt to restrict a form of humanitarian relief sought by millions.

After a magistrate judge said a DHS investigator had failed to establish probable cause, the government decided it did not need the YouTube and iPhone records after all.

Your life is a mess, an absolute Level 10 disaster. You’ve lost your job, and there might be pending charges after you borrowed your employer’s Hermes silk dress and Prada pumps. You’ve got no place to live after your thirteenth-floor walk-up Hell’s Kitchen sublet has decided you aren’t worth the trouble after you miss rent for the third time. But that’s beside the point. This is the perfect opportunity to change your life. So you book a trip to Tuscany even though you only have $38.62 in your bank account. It’s cool, you’re gonna Klarna it. When else are you gonna have the opportunity to go to Italy and live your best soft-girl life? Turn to Page 1. - - - Page 1: Arrival You’ve made it safe and sound. The flight wasn’t too bad if you ignore the fourteen hours in coach where an eighty…  ( 10 min )

Underground Artists is an ongoing comic by Ali Fitzgerald (Hungover Bear & Friends) that follows woodland creatures as they create art and search out whimsy in a bleak forest. - - -  ( 7 min )

You’re fired. You are getting a promotion. You are getting a demotion. You are now in charge. The person you hate here the most is now in charge, and they told me to tell you that you are fired. No paychecks this week, cool? Could I borrow you for a sec? Could I borrow you for a quick sec? I’ve always loved you. We’re doubling your salary. We’re taking your salary and cutting it in half. We’re taking your salary, cutting it in half, and giving that half to the person here you hate the most. The Christmas gift this year is a donation to the charity of someone else’s choice. Layoffs are coming, and you’re safe. Layoffs are coming. We’re safe. Layoffs are coming. You’re safe, I’m not. Layoffs are coming. I’m safe, you’re not. Layoffs are coming. We’re both fucked. Lunch? Guess who’s fucked? Guess who fucked? Coffee? Can you open this doc? Nevermind.  ( 7 min )

In the rush to block young people from certain parts of the internet, lawmakers are creating a privacy and security nightmare for everyone. This scenario is already playing out globally. Help us stop it and keep the web open and accessible for all. JOIN EFF Protect the web for everyone Even with the best intentions, every online age verification scheme has the same result: users are forced to reveal sensitive personal information to third parties simply to access the web. Once that valuable data is centralized, it becomes an immediate target for leaks, hacks, and misuse. This isn’t hypothetical: it has already happened several times. By age gating the web, we serve up a honeypot of private info ripe for bad actors. But you can help us stop this when you join EFF. Support digital rights in EFF's new Claw Back member t-shirt and Privacy Badger Crewneck. Thanks to our members, EFF is on the front lines fighting against online age gating and identity verification online. We’re working with lawmakers to pass better policies, educating the public, and fighting the wildfire of age verification proposals around the world. Now all we need is you. 🐝 No, It’s Not a Bug We all want young people to be safe online, but we don’t need to trade everyone's digital rights to achieve it. These new restrictive mandates are used to justify government-led censorship and expanded surveillance. That's no accident. Whether you trust today’s lawmakers or not, handing anyone keys to new forms of censorship and surveillance is a serious risk. Because history shows us that these powers are always abused. It’s time to demand better. Join EFF today Help us claw back your privacy ____________________ EFF is a member-supported U.S. 501(c)(3) organization. We've received top ratings from the nonprofit watchdog Charity Navigator since 2013! Your donation is tax-deductible as allowed by law.  ( 3 min )

Regretful cities aren't sure how to cancel their surveillance contracts, so they are literally covering their cameras.  ( 4 min )

Astronomers discovered that magnetic activity in the Sun is being squeezed into a more tightly confined area under its surface, which has implications for space weather forecasts and heliophysics.  ( 6 min )

On Thursday Oura announced the nearly $500 Ring 5. But what if you don't want to pay a monthly subscription to access your health data?  ( 4 min )

A popular virtual therapy platform is telling providers and patients they'll have to do facial scanning soon, forcing some to choose between handing over their data and continuing care.  ( 8 min )

Over hundreds of years, increasingly sophisticated instruments have revealed — and continue to reveal — the secrets of our star. The post How We See the Beautiful, Violent Sun first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 8 min )

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School finance is a mystery to many. We explain how districts can and cannot raise funds and how the problem stems from systemic issues statewide.  ( 32 min )

A half dozen Oakland entrepreneurs and hospitality professionals are reviving and refreshing the Uptown sports bar just in time for the World Cup.  ( 27 min )

Bill's Trading Post and Silvera Jewelry School both focus on handcrafted.  ( 28 min )

Over 300 works from 125 local artists will be for sale at the La Peña Cultural Center during a first-of-its-kind fundraiser for the Multicultural Institute.  ( 27 min )

Hollywood Annotated Creative Labs, Inc. Role: AI Script Trainer The best Hollywood scripting models still take illogical leaps in narrative structure. Every correction you make becomes a training node for the next AI self-scripting model and also another notch in the deathbed of a once proud American industry. When you identify a hallucinated subplot or an erroneous character trait, you’re not only teaching our models which ideas work the best, but you’re squeezing the last drops of joyful imagination and wonderment from an entire generation raised on E.T. Remember, the sooner you teach our AI how to write, the sooner it’ll all be over. Flexible hours! - - - Grammar Hammered Role: Creative AI Trainer If you love writing literally anything, this role was made for you. Your words will d…  ( 10 min )

Hi. So I have this collection. It is a significant collection. At its peak in February 2022, it was worth—conservatively—2.3 million dollars. Seriously. I have documentation. I will show you the documentation. I am asking $400 for all 847 pieces. This is not a joke. The $400 is firm, but also, I want to be clear, extremely negotiable. Included in the collection: monkeys (184), punks (37), one dragon, several generative art pieces which are colorful squiggles, a plot of virtual land in a world where no one goes anymore, and a JPEG of a rock. The rock was considered very funny at the time. ALSO AVAILABLE: Microsoft Zune, 30GB, brown. Still works. Has 847 songs on it, all of which are also available on Spotify. Was going to “change” music. $6. Patrick Nagel print, framed, from 1987. Original. This is an investment piece—$400, firm. Do not lowball me on the Nagel. The Nagel is not part of the NFT deal. The Nagel is separate. I need you to understand that. Physical Bitcoin wallet, 2011, unknown balance. I cannot remember the password. I have tried everything. My dog’s name, my dog’s birthday, “password123” twice. It is possible there is $4 million on this. It is possible there is nothing. I am asking $50, and I will include my remaining attempts. The Nagel is still separate. Do not ask me to bundle the Nagel. FREE WITH ANY PURCHASE: Apple Vision Pro, 256GB, silver, both prescription lens inserts, all original packaging, 14 downloaded apps. Retailed for $3,500. Wore it twice. Once at home, once in a Whole Foods, from which I was asked to leave. Includes the case, the battery pack, the charging cable, and whatever dignity I had left when I bought it. Free without any purchase also. Please. Cash, venmo, paypal. absolutely no crypto. I cannot stress this enough. Serious inquiries only. All inquiries welcome.  ( 8 min )

The post Pope Leo XIV: AI Wealth Must Be Universally Shared appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 7 min )

Ads everywhere. Usage limits. Frustrating guardrails. Less model choice. Users of the Character.AI chatbot app are revolting after a series of changes they say have made the app worse.  ( 5 min )

How deepfakes rocked a high school; BusPatrol giving AI camera data to cops; and a big time crash out.  ( 4 min )

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What global financial markets have in common with necromancers.  ( 19 min )

Hansel Aguilar, who was director of police accountability until February, warned that the tide is turning against civilian oversight of police agencies everywhere.  ( 27 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 25 min )

Single-family homes may be converted into co-living near the 36-unit Moshav cohousing condo now rising on San Pablo Avenue. And veterans of Oakland’s Radish are building a compound of their own in the Lorin District.  ( 30 min )

An EFF analysis of millions of searches of Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) data by police has uncovered a troubling pattern: in the absence of a warrant requirement to search ALPR databases, law enforcement agencies have moved beyond specific investigations to use these surveillance networks for virtually any whim. Our findings suggest that the absence of a warrant requirement has fostered a culture of unrestricted access to sensitive location data, allowing agencies to leverage that data beyond the scope of specific criminal investigations. As a refresher: Law enforcement agencies lease or purchase camera systems from Flock Safety and then mount them by the side of the road and at intersections to document every vehicle that passes, including the plate, make, model, col…  ( 9 min )

“Insider reporting from an unnamed White House official says the Iran deal is ‘95% done.’ The remaining 5% of negotiations are focused on Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz and turning over all nuclear material.” – Conservative pollster Frank Luntz, writing on X. - - - I, Sisyphus, the legendary King of Corinth, bring encouraging news from the mountain. After several thousand years of constructive engagement with the boulder and every muscle in my posterior chain, I am pleased to report we are 95 percent of the way up the tenacious little hill here in Tartarus. Honestly, folks, we are so, so close. The summit is largely visible. It is nearly visible. There is a concept of visibility at play here that is impossible to ignore. And, thank the gods, I am fairly certain the grade has leveled …  ( 10 min )

1. Do you have a mobile phone? Can you act like you have received an important call? A. I have the latest iPhone, and I studied at the Cours Florent in Paris for three years, under the tutelage of the great Cédric Blanc. I have trained my entire life for this moment. B. Yes, and I once spoke to the Pastor who played King Herod in my local church’s Nativity. C. I’m on a digital detox. If you answered A or B, you have successfully avoided an awkward encounter. Well done. If you answered C, please proceed to the next question. 2. Are there other people at the bus stop? Can you pretend to know them? A. Yes, there’s a small crowd, including a friendly-looking woman with a pug. She’s wearing red glasses to boot, and I have doggy treats in my coat pocket. B. There is a drunk man yielding a…  ( 8 min )

The post How AIs See Our World appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 33 min )

Joseph talks to Zack Whittaker all about stalkerware, the pervasive malware that ordinary people install on their partners' phones.  ( 4 min )

BusPatrol plans to scan the license plates of all vehicles the buses drive past, and then let law enforcement search that data. The plan would essentially turn school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles.  ( 4 min )

Earth’s largest volcanic system, hidden in mountain chains under the sea, has long been assumed to erupt only quietly. The shallow seafloor off Iceland tells another story. The post When Quiet Undersea Volcanoes Turn Disruptive first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 12 min )

If you love a hearty, savoury breakfast, this vegan breakfast crunchwrap is about to become your new obsession! It’s loaded with hash browns, tofu scramble, plant-based bacon, and creamy jalapeño sauce, all wrapped in a warm and toasty tortilla. Taco Bell is one of the rare fast food restaurants that does a pretty awesome job […]  ( 39 min )

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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. The post Protected: You Can Run appeared first on The Atavist Magazine.  ( 6 min )

A little bit crispy, a whole lot saucy, and packed with bold, smoky flavour, these BBQ soy curls are the kind of vegan staple you’ll make again and again. Protein-packed and satisfying, they’re perfect for everything from sandwiches to grain bowls! If you’ve never cooked with soy curls before, this is the recipe to start […]  ( 40 min )

No one wants to live next to a noisy computer warehouse and communities across the country are successfully fighting them.  ( 5 min )

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We love coding agents. They can build a full-featured SaaS and potentially make you a millionaire if you leave them running overnight with the right prompt. They will burn your GPU or your budget, include a few unprompted vulnerabilities, will bloat your code risking your sanity once you start debugging it, will put emojis in your comments, and will ultimately make you question your life choices. So I thought, if they are so cool — it must be interesting to build one myself and steal the fame of Anthropic.  ( 8 min )

- - - KNOPF: This is a very funny, very moving book about the deepest kind of friendship. It unfolds over many decades, and the novel took shape over decades for you, too. When did you begin thinking about these characters? DAVE EGGERS: I’ve been thinking about Cricket and Olympia for about twenty years, and was writing random passages about them much of that period. Sometimes a certain book takes an especially long time to gestate and make its correct form known, and this was one of those books. Q: The book covers about 65 years in the lives of its two main characters, Cricket and Olympia. Their interactions take place all over the world, from Indiana to Thailand, from Philadelphia to Turkey and Paris. Did you always see this as a book with that kind of epic scope? DE: Once I decided i…  ( 11 min )

Whalers buried in the Norwegian Arctic in the 1600s and 1700s are thawing out of the permafrost, underscoring the threat of climate change to archaeological sites around the world.  ( 8 min )

A funky fusion dish with crisped up pasta edges, like spaghetti all’assassina, but with a Korean backbeat Today’s recipe is based on the famous spaghetti all’assassina, a dish native to Bari in Puglia. The pasta is cooked directly in the pan risottata, or risotto-style, and tomato stock is poured in a little at a time until the spaghetti is bruciata, or burnt and crisp. I won’t call the dish by its original name because that contains dried chilli and tomatoes, whereas my version features two of my favourite ingredients: gochujang, the Korean sweet and hot chilli paste, and my beloved sun-dried tomato paste. The result is killer, even if the name is not. Continue reading...  ( 16 min )

“Obviously I wasn’t thinking at all,” the driver told police, according to the footage.  ( 5 min )

This week, we discuss Spencer Pratt, bricking phones, and the FTC.  ( 4 min )

Leaked reports showed troubling uses of force and restraint chairs at the Krome North Service Processing Center—until the details disappeared.

A state board recently proposed more lenient rules, and a local backlash has fomented a council recall petition. But given Berkeley's geography and the difficulty of evacuating the hills, the city is standing by its “Zone Zero” rules.  ( 31 min )

BUSD leaders’ budget woes were eased somewhat last week when they learned they can count on at least $2.7 million in state money the governor had threatened to withdraw.  ( 28 min )

Starting in June, California will start enforcing new federal guidelines that require some SNAP recipients to work 20 hours a week — or see their food benefits cut.  ( 28 min )

I wake before dawn to coordinate with my vast network of parental co-conspirators. Our agenda this morning is straight fire, as the youth would say, beginning with a vigorous debate about scheduling sunrise for maximum cruelty. We ultimately settle on triggering dawn just a liiiiiitle bit earlier than it was yesterday. We think it’ll be funny to do this incrementally over time, and then start inching it back again, just to make sure our kids can scream “But the sun’s not even up yet!” at a slightly different time each day. After receiving an updated list of slang we can use to mortify our children, we adjourn. In my rush to rouse my child from her blissful slumber, I trip, deliberately upending her curated mountain of Floor Clothes. The exact pair of micro-shorts she planned to wear is n…  ( 9 min )

So you spent the last two hours fighting for your life trying to merge into aggressive traffic, avoid potholes, find the one open space in the parking garage near the T stop, and stay on your feet in a crammed Green Line train with no handholds, and now you’re going to sit your sorry ass in a rigid wooden seat for nine innings on a forty-fucking-degree night and watch your beloved team ground out into a double play more times than is even statistically imaginable. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Fenway Park. Home of your underachieving Boston Red Sox, the holy cathedral of baseball, the Dartmouth green jewel box of New England, this most magical place on Earth is rooted in suffering, which I have to assume is the basis for their latest culinary affair: the Lobstah Poutine. Back in 1917…  ( 9 min )

Oh, hello—sorry, almost didn’t see you here at the end of the aisle with your hairnet and your alluring toaster oven full of mysterious, cost-free delicacies. I was just passing by, shopping for things that cost money. That’s what I do when I come here. I participate in the bulk-purchase economy. My stumbling upon your cart of treats just as you took them out of the toaster oven was a mere happenstance. I wasn’t loitering, watching you like a hungry lioness crouched in the grass, eyeing a decrepit gazelle straggling at the back of the herd. I was just standing here, seriously considering purchasing this $4,000 massage chair, which just so happens to be displayed between the eighty-four-packs of Dr Pepper and your sample stand with its scrumptious aroma. Oh, I suppose if you insist (by si…  ( 10 min )

Sometimes you need something sweet to start your day and these banana chocolate chip muffins are here to make it happen. Moist, fluffy, and lightly spiced with cinnamon, this recipe tastes just like the classic version, but it’s entirely vegan! My peanut butter banana muffins and vegan banana bread are on frequent rotation in my […]  ( 36 min )

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Also: Mary Lovelace O'Neal, an artist, activist and the first Black woman granted tenure in UC Berkeley's art department, has died at 84 in Mérida, Mexico.  ( 24 min )

They say they’re worried about waves of layoffs at tech companies, and have the knowledge to help the university find the best uses for artificial intelligence.  ( 26 min )

Plastic producers have until June to reveal how they’ll meet new state mandates to cut single use plastic, increase recycling rates and pay $5 billion to remedy harms from plastic pollution.  ( 29 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 25 min )

Other events include a Bay Area foraging class, a lecture on house music and the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra’s 60th anniversary.  ( 28 min )

Arizona Democrats are calling for a full investigation and transparency after a medical examiner concluded Emmanuel Damas died from a severe tooth infection.

The DHS reportedly maintains a database tracking critics of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Free speech advocates warn it could chill constitutionally protected speech.

An armed IRS agent roaming the streets should send shivers down the spine of any freedom-loving American.

With apologies to Wallace Stevens. - - - I Meeting with the academic dean I asked him to share with faculty How admin are using AI. II A colleague shares a short story: Kafka sitting in a sales meeting For AI. III AI can help faculty take Burdensome things off their plate, Says the dean who doesn’t use it Or know how the plates will empty. IV Students want faculty to teach them Responsible use of AI. Students refuse to read AI statements in Syllabuses. V The thinker and the thought Are one. The thinker and the AI thought partner Are less than one. VI O slumped and gray writing professors, Why do you imagine human-filled writing? Do you not see that AI is the future? VII A philosopher writes doggerel for An English professor Frustrated about the lack of leadership Regarding AI in higher ed. VIII I know what transformative learning can be, And I know that outsourcing Wonder—perhaps to a generative AI— Transforms no one And leaves landscapes Ravaged. IX Copilot will protect your data From outsiders; Your campus owns your private Questions. X I asked ChatGPT to review My thyroid levels, And was prepared for the doctor’s phone call. XI Is this strong student writing or Is this a revised draft of a strong AI prompt? XII It’s finals week. Can we map electricity spikes To college towns To academic integrity reports? XIII It was the semester’s twilight. No one knew what AI would look like In the morning.  ( 8 min )

Underground Artists is an ongoing comic by Ali Fitzgerald (Hungover Bear & Friends) that follows woodland creatures as they create art and search out whimsy in a bleak forest. - - -  ( 7 min )

You’ve had a long, hard nine months. Your wife’s been pregnant, and in month nine, she was so uncomfortable in bed that she made you sleep on the futon. Twice. And yet, you survived. At long last, the big day is upon you. A baby’s birth is a significant medical event, and pain management is critical. It takes two people to make a baby, which is why we’ve designed Epidurals, for Him. The Labor Room Is a Hostile Environment The labor and delivery market has long been characterized by a significant pain management gap. While existing clinical infrastructure reliably serves one demographic—namely, the birthing person—it systematically neglects another: you, the person who drove her there. The medical system is famously biased in favor of women: indeed, over 90 percent of pregnancy-related e…  ( 9 min )

Evolutionary biologists are uncovering genomic mechanisms that allow populations to adapt quickly to different, hyperlocal habitats without splitting into new species. The post How Ecotypes Harbor the Genetic Memory of a Species’ Past first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 14 min )

After five teen girls were targeted by AI-generated child sexual abuse material, Radnor Township High School in Pennsylvania has become a case study in how schools and police around the country grapple with how to response to deepfake crimes involving children.  ( 21 min )

The Library of Leng contains old usenet posts and forgotten articles from Magic: the Gathering's long history.  ( 6 min )

Fossils unearthed in the Northwest Territories push the origins of animal sex back by 5-10 million years and reveal the earliest examples of locomotion in the fossil record.  ( 6 min )

The post To Understand AI, Think Like A Dragonfly appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 30 min )

Two friends tell the story of their friendship through every generation of K-pop  ( 10 min )

“In the end, only one will remain and will leave the island with one million dollars in cash as their reward.” — Jeff Probst, host of Survivor “For the moment, the fund has been capped at the patriotically symbolic sum of $1.776 billion, and many Jan. 6ers have already done the math in an effort to determine the maximum amount that each of them could get. If all of them sought money and received the same amount, the payouts would be around $1.125 million each.” — New York Times - - - - - - *-“Paramount Is Rolling Back DEI Initiatives to Align With Trump Mandates.” — Variety  ( 7 min )

“President Donald Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service on Monday in exchange for a settlement deal to launch a $1.8 billion fund to pay claims made by his friends for purported unfair prosecution.” — Mother Jones - - - This used to be a proper country. One where people acknowledged a difference between right and wrong, and agreed that if you wanted to do wrong, you had to do it in a dimly lit backroom full of cigar smoke. Now, when I, Richard Nixon, look up at the United States from my fiery torture chamber in Hell, I see a level of laziness, stupidity, and petty corruption I never thought possible. And I once knew a guy who went by the code name “Deep Throat.” How did this country get to the point where the president can sue his own government for $…  ( 9 min )

SCENE 1. EXT. A BOULEVARD. MIDNIGHT. POE drops his frock coat, loosens his cravat, and tears open his shirt, buttons flying, to reveal his body, which is totally jacked. His nipples glisten in the moonlight. A BLACK CAT, in the process of killing a RAT, spies POE’s lithe, freshly waxed chest. The BLACK CAT swoons. The RAT escapes, but in the process of fleeing, sees POE’s shredded physique and also swoons. A BELL tolls. POE nonchalantly flexes his guns: boom, boom. A RAVEN in a nearby magnolia tree also swoons, falls from the tree, and expires. - - - SCENE 2. INT. A STUDY. MIDNIGHT. POE, hard at work composing deathless verse, paces the room. POE (muttering) So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating… POE stops walking. A meaty pop rings out as he cracks a…  ( 9 min )

Council members broadly backed the city manager’s plan for plugging a $30 million budget hole, though they said they want to avoid closing a fire station and minimize layoffs.  ( 28 min )

The state has launched an AI-powered thermal camera network that detects whale heat signatures up to 2 nautical miles away and alerts mariners in real time.  ( 26 min )

REI has not reached contracts with any unionized stores since bargaining began in 2022. The outdoor retailer insists it is negotiating in good faith.  ( 26 min )

A quiet Trump administration rule change in December means it now takes longer for USPS to postmark mail — impacting which mail-in ballots will be counted.  ( 26 min )

not sorry), and animated conversations on the best pillows (I hate mine) — but I’ve found over the last year that I have very strong opinions on chicken salad and the correct way to make it, which, naturally, is my way. I hope I’m in the right place to release them into the world. Read more »  ( 20 min )

When it comes to keeping our texts, chats, and other digital messages safe from prying eyes, we have a powerful tool: end-to-end encryption. Used correctly, end-to-end encryption turns our conversations online into secret messages that can only be decoded by their intended recipients. In our latest EFFector newsletter, we're covering new developments in this tool, and how you can use it to prevent tech companies, governments, and other eavesdroppers from listening in. JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER For over 35 years, EFFector has been your guide to understanding the intersection of technology, civil liberties, and the law. This latest issue covers the shaky science backing social media bans, Canada's surveillance nightmare bill, and a victory for keeping private messages private. Prefer to listen in? EFFector is now available on all major podcast platforms. This time, we're chatting with EFF Senior Security and Privacy Activist Thorin Klosowski on an important step forward for encrypted messaging—as well as a notable disappointment. You can find the episode and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice: %3Ciframe%20height%3D%22200px%22%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20frameborder%3D%22no%22%20scrolling%3D%22no%22%20seamless%3D%22%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fplayer.simplecast.com%2Fcb903071-798d-429d-91dc-52ae77015a7d%3Fdark%3Dfalse%22%20allow%3D%22autoplay%22%3E%3C%2Fiframe%3E Privacy info. This embed will serve content from simplecast.com     Want to protect your private conversations? Sign up for EFF's EFFector newsletter for updates, ways to take action, and new merch drops. You can also fuel the fight for privacy and free speech online when you support EFF today!  ( 3 min )

By replacing the most fundamental concept in topology, Peter Scholze and Dustin Clausen are taking the first step in a far bigger program to understand why numbers behave the way they do. The post Two Researchers Are Rebuilding Mathematics From the Ground Up first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 20 min )

Grothendieck is revered in the world of math; outside of it, he’s known for his unusual life, if he’s known at all. But what were his actual mathematical contributions? The post How Alexander Grothendieck Revolutionized 20th-Century Mathematics first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 12 min )

"I can’t take it anymore. The threats," the treasurer said. The planned data center is part of OpenAI and Oracle's Stargate initiative.  ( 3 min )

A Texas councilmember will propose “a total ban on all cellular and GPS-capable devices for all operations within city limits" and"a total termination of all internet services."  ( 5 min )

Commencement speeches, poop images to train AI, and cameras stuck to preschool teachers also to train AI.  ( 4 min )

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That defense applies only when an officer "reasonably" believed he was acting within his federal authority.

Most federal appeals courts have recognized the right to record police. DHS employees nevertheless seem to view it as a crime.

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A first-of-its-kind collaboration between Ohlone youth and UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science almost fell apart when a federal grant was axed. Then researchers took the Trump administration to court — and won.  ( 31 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 22 min )

Artist Space Trust, launched in 2023, wants to make sure the Bay Area can remain a creative hub.  ( 29 min )

One of South Berkeley’s oldest Black churches, it's where Edwin Hawkins recorded “Oh Happy Day” and Marlon Brando eulogized Black Panther Bobby Hutton.  ( 26 min )

China’s AI enthusiasm seems real. But for a population that lived through the mass layoffs of the 1990s, optimism and fear can look identical from the outside.  ( 18 min )

For years, civil society organizations, workers, journalists, and human rights experts have warned that major technology companies risk enabling grave human rights abuses when they provide cloud computing, AI, and surveillance infrastructure to governments implicated in violations of international and humanitarian law. While many companies pay lip service to evaluating customers and contracts for human rights implications (lip service Exhibit A: Palantir!), too often those processes fail to provide any meaningful accountability when their standards are not met or are simply ignored. But recent developments at Microsoft suggest that accountability for failing to uphold the human rights standards that a company itself sets, even if incomplete, is possible.  According to recent reporting, Mic…  ( 8 min )

“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”-Meta Internal Document on face recognition software for smart glasses, 2025 It’s unsurprising that a company would plan to release yet another privacy-invasive product. What is surprising is that they think we aren’t watching. You can help us keep them in check. JOIN EFF Meta isn't the only company actively eroding your privacy. We found that Google has broken its promise to some users to inform them about government surveillance. And Palantir is completely failing to live up to its purported human rights commitments. Corporations bear responsibility for violating user trust and human rights, and EFF is holding them accountable with your support. Watching the Watchers We're suing DHS and ICE to reveal their efforts to unmask online critics, creating privacy-enhancing free software, and pushing for stronger privacy laws for everyone. This is all thanks to over 30,000 EFF members—a community you can join today. Claw back your privacy with EFF's new member t-shirt! We’ve seen collective action rein in companies and bring them back on track to protect users. With you by our side, we can do it again. Join EFF today and be part of the community making this work possible. ____________________ EFF is a member-supported U.S. 501(c)(3) organization. We've received top ratings from the nonprofit watchdog Charity Navigator since 2013! Your donation is tax-deductible as allowed by law.  ( 3 min )

Like many others, I left the United States because I wanted to get away from Trumpʼs America. But now that my only entertainment opportunities involve two men riding neon glow-in-the-dark motorcycles inside an enormous orb, I must ask myself if I made the right decision. It wasn’t easy to move. But I consider myself an open person and felt compelled to leave a place that was becoming increasingly intolerant and closed off. Little did I know that this openness would bring me to this regional theater, with this man, whose thighs are covered with henna tattoos, and who’s rocking a loincloth that’s not really a diaper but also not quite a thong. My friends back home say that they’re jealous of me. I understand why—they’re still there, which means they see terrible news every day. But it also…  ( 10 min )

It is widely believed (by me, just now) that William Shakespeare revised his plays constantly, fueled by ambition, self-doubt, and whatever they drank instead of coffee back then. Based on that and vibes alone, here is what he probably thought each time he tweaked the same scene again. 1. Ah! A fresh draft. This one shall be perfect and require no further changes. 2. What if the line were slightly sadder? 3. What if it were also a little funny? 4. Can something be tragic and funny? I shall invent this. 5. “To be, or not to be”—hmm. Feels wordy. Perhaps just “To be”? 6. No, no, no. Put the rest back. It was good. It was fine. 7. Actually, what if he says it while holding a skull? 8. Where would he get the skull? 9. I will simply give him one. The audience will not question it. 10.…  ( 8 min )

- - - McSweeney’s and Broadway Video present the official over-six-hundred-page comprehensive companion book to IFC’s Documentary Now!, made with the assistance of series directors Rhys Thomas and Alex Buono and including new writing by Seth Meyers, a foreword by Pulitzer Prize–finalist Matt Zoller Seitz, the complete sheet music for John Mulaney and Eli Bolin’s Co-op: The Musical, and much more. The book is out today, and to celebrate, we’re sharing an excerpt featuring the show’s very first host, the legendary Burt Lancaster. - - - A fierce advocate for independent cinema and documentary, Burt Lancaster was the original host of Documentary Now!1, serving in this capacity for over a decade. He began his career as an acrobat, and after serving in WWII, ascended to the heights of Hollywoo…  ( 8 min )

The software, called Delulu, is marketed specifically to streamers and lets them easily transform into other people including George Floyd, Jeffrey Epstein, and other streamers.  ( 5 min )

The attorney for Nikko D’Ambrosio, who tried and failed to sue women for posting about him in an “Are We Dating the Same Guy” Facebook group, has apparently been using AI to file non-existent citations, according to a judge.  ( 6 min )

The post The Little-Known Nuclear Deal That Could Help Our Climate Crisis appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 16 min )

Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, and coated in a snowy layer of powdered sugar, Mexican wedding cookies are a classic for a reason! You’ll love the delicate, nutty flavour, with the perfect amount of sweetness.  I bet you’ve had these cookies before, although maybe you know them as snowball cookies or Russian tea cakes! While Mexican wedding cookies […]  ( 39 min )

The City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a package of changes to parking rules that could generate nearly $5 million amid a budget crunch.  ( 27 min )

Didn’t plan ahead? We’ve got tips for finding a scenic spot to sleep under the stars — even when traditional campsites are already reserved.  ( 32 min )

Vivien Mansbach’s dad, Adam, has a new book out and it’s called — you guessed it — “Go the F**k to College.”  ( 28 min )

Los empleados afectados por el ciclo de notificaciones de despido del distrito escolar de BUSD afirman que esto les genera estrés, falta de sueño y temor por su sustento.  ( 28 min )

June 17, 2026 - 9:00am to 10:00am PDT June 17, 2026 - 9:00am to 10:00am PDT Online LGBTQ+ communities are facing an escalating wave of censorship and targeted surveillance, but we can push back through mutual solidarity. Join us live to learn how safer virtual spaces get built, how platform policies and government pressure are reshaping the digital landscape, and what platform accountability actually looks like. Our panel will share ideas for direct action and concrete strategies you can bring back to your community. Whether you’re an activist, an ally, or just paying attention, this conversation is for you. Join the livestream online followed by live Q&A. EFFecting Change Livestream Series: LGBTQ+ Solidarity Against the Tide of Surveillance Wednesday, June 17th 9:00 am - 10:00 am P…  ( 4 min )

We recently updated our privacy policy for the first time since 2022. Most of the changes are clarifications, reorganizations, and improvements in transparency, particularly around how third-party tools that run parts of our site operate. But one change is substantive enough that we want to address it directly. The Change You Should Know About: Opt-In Email Tracking We want to know how we’re doing with our advocacy: which campaigns get your attention and which do not, which topics you are very interested in, which less so, and which not at all. It helps us to do our work better and to prioritize or rethink our strategies as we push to build support for freedom, justice and innovation around the world. So, to give us a rough picture of how we’re doing, we are introducing the option for you …  ( 8 min )

Poor accountability, feeble control mechanisms, and insufficient legal frameworks have led to systematic human rights violations in the Americas, with no consistent remedy or reparation to victims. What's needed is to materialize essential guarantees and measures to combat repeated surveillance abuses in the region. To help build a path for solutions, EFF launches the guide Tackling Arbitrary Digital Surveillance in the Americas, adding to our extensive work leveraging human rights norms to confront state privacy violations. The document compiles privacy, data protection, and access to information guarantees established within the Inter-American Human Rights System to provide concrete, actionable guidance to governments in the Americas to curb the vicious cycle of state digital surveillanc…  ( 6 min )

Only a couple vendors could likely fulfill what the FBI is after, namely Flock and Motorola.  ( 6 min )

Britt Paris's new book 'Radical Infrastructure: Imagining the Internet from the Ground Up' tells the story of the physical internet, and how it can benefit people, not corporations.  ( 4 min )

“With your permission, your child’s lead teacher may wear a small teacher-worn camera that captures the teacher's approximate first-person perspective, and/or we may place a fixed video camera in the classroom,” a document given to parents and later shared with 404 Media reads.  ( 4 min )

"The phrase ‘tax the rich’ can be ‘just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs,’ according to the New York City billionaire Steve Roth, who said that the top 1 percent should be ‘praised and thanked.’” — The Guardian - - - First they came for the pieds-à-terre, which they said were driving up the cost of housing. And I did not speak out. Because my pied-à-terre was in Greenwich, Connecticut, not Greenwich Village. Then they came for the capital gains, which they said should be taxed as income. And I did not speak out. Because I had all of my company stock in a tax-sheltered backdoor Roth. Then they came for the bad landlords, who they said were ripping off tenants. And I did not speak out. Because I was so wealthy I didn’t even bother renting out any of my investment propertie…  ( 9 min )

Early in President Trump’s first term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes, and it felt urgent to track them, to ensure these horrors—happening almost daily—would not be forgotten. Now that Trump has returned to office, amid civil rights, humanitarian, economic, and constitutional crises, we felt it critical to make an inventory of this new round of horrors. This list will be updated monthly between now and the end of Donald Trump’s second term. - - - These lists, along with everything McSweeney’s publishes on this site, are offered ad-free and at no charge to our readers. If you are moved to make a donation in any amount or subsc…  ( 29 min )

At 25, Kurt Gödel proved there can never be a mathematical “theory of everything.” Columnist Natalie Wolchover explores the implications. The post What Do Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems Truly Mean? first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 14 min )

I’ve been making Hummus pasta for almost a decade and it is an incredibly easy vegan pasta recipe perfect for a weeknight dinner! It’s deliciously creamy, very customisable, and ready to eat in only 20 minutes. Why add hummus to pasta? The answer is simple: it’s EASY and delish. The concept of hummus pasta is […]  ( 41 min )

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A type of crystal lattice called a clathrate structure has been found for the first time in the fallout of a nuclear detonation.  ( 7 min )

A lighter risotto made with whizzed cauliflower as well as rice, but with a reassuringly rich cheese sauce In series eight of Peep Show, Mark (David Mitchell) is working as a salesman in a bathroom shop when a customer asks him for a “modern but traditional” bathroom. Aghast, he tells the customer that these opposing styles can’t be married when his boss, Super Hans, swoops in to say they can: “Fancy taps but a rainforest shower head?” I was reminded of this silliness because here I’ve tried to create a risotto of opposing styles: lighter than a traditional one, because I’m using some blitzed cauliflower, while maintaining that richness you get from a cauliflower cheese. I think it works, but I’ll let you be the judge. Continue reading...  ( 16 min )

The former Crown Prince of Iran is meeting with Iranian diaspora tech and business leaders on Saturday to discuss the future of the country. Attendees include the CEO of Uber.  ( 5 min )

The change comes as arXiv and others struggle to manage an influx of AI-generated materials masquerading as rigorous science.  ( 5 min )

This week, we discuss developers' AI woes, how the magic happens, and the Beach Boys.  ( 4 min )

Mayo Clinic's "Ambient Listening" has been around for a couple of years, but clearly not all patients know their interactions with nurses are being passively recorded and processed by AI.  ( 4 min )

August 5, 2026 - 8:00am PDT to August 6, 2026 - 6:00pm PDT Mandalay Bay | Las Vegas, NV EFF will be back in Las Vegas, NV for Black Hat USA! We're excited to be in the Business Hall, where you can come say hi and learn more about the work we are doing to defend digital freedoms. You can even pick up a special member gift as a token of our thanks when you take advantage of our membership specials or donate! Interested in attending Black Hat USA? EFF supporters attending in-person can get $200 off Briefing tickets, or $100 off Business Hall passes, by using the code "EFF" when registering online.  As in past years, EFF staff attorneys are ready to help support the community. If you have legal concerns regarding an upcoming talk or sensitive information security research you are conducting, please email info@eff.org and we will do our best to get you the help that you need. More about Black Hat USA: The premier cybersecurity event of the year returns to Mandalay Bay with a re‑engineered, six‑day program built to ignite innovation, push boundaries, and bring the global security community together like never before. This year’s event features four days of immersive, expert‑led Trainings (August 1–4), followed by Summit Day on Tuesday, August 4, and a two‑day main conference packed with groundbreaking Briefings, open‑source tool demos in Arsenal, a dynamic Business Hall, and unlimited learning & networking opportunities. Calendar  ( 3 min )

Usha Lama immigrated from Nepal with her Tibetan husband in 1976. For 43 years, Berkeley’s Himalayan Fair — being held this weekend in Live Oak Park — has kept them rooted in culture and connected to a growing diaspora.  ( 28 min )

Several performing arts organizations have closed, and more are struggling to hang on, in the wake of the pandemic, backers of the tax say.  ( 27 min )

The counterculture icon turns 90 Friday, and Berkeleyside readers shared stories and (mostly) good vibes. One recalled Wavy telling a concert crowd, “All I learned in the ’60s was that you can’t get snot off suede.”  ( 27 min )

Henry Basurto, fundador de Henry’s Service en Westbrae, se jubiló en 2017. Su yerno, que se hizo cargo del negocio, ahora será un mecánico a domicilio que reparará coches en los hogares de sus clientes.  ( 25 min )

After months sequestered in the Pagoda of Masculinity, which is beneath my parents’ house but is fair to consider my basement, I have emerged a new man. Through my relentless commitment to living the ascetic lifestyle of a monk who is allowed to play video games, I, the Angulord, have at long last fully maxximized my looks. There is no length I have not gone to for the sake of cultivating my flawless aesthetic. I have smashed my jaw with a hammer to increase its definition. I have injected testosterone to enhance the capacity of my muscles. My abs are as firm as freshly quarried gravel thanks to peptides (which I take subcutaneously) and riptides (which I allow to carry me out to sea during thunderstorms, forcing me to swim ashore or die). So far, I’ve only been declared legally dead twic…  ( 10 min )

You’ve Always Been This Way is a column written by Taylor Harris, a late-diagnosed neurodivergent woman and 1980s preschool dropout, who identifies every moment from her past that filled her with shame, and mutters, “Yep, that tracks. I see it all now.” - - - Dearest Neurobaddies of the Finest Order, I did a thing. No, not procuring a pint of Graeter’s ice cream before 9 a.m., though who am I to discount the diminutive glory of my former days? Just because I write to you from the summit of Midlife Desire and Acquisition, doesn’t mean I’m untouchable. It just means I trusted myself and didn’t ruin everything. In fact, I kind of nailed it. Did I question myself 13,000 times first? Think of every reason I should abandon the want lighting up my heart like a 1980s Glo Worm? Yes and yes. And t…  ( 11 min )

“The United States Army has officially raised its enlistment age limit to 42.” — New York Times - - - Arrival Once you step off the bus, basic training has begun. Recruits carrying ergonomic rolling luggage will be immediately singled out for punishment. Next, your bags will be inspected for contraband. Any attempts to smuggle in heating pads, lumbar-support braces, or Lactaid pills will cause your drill sergeant to go ballistic. Full-fat dairy is a big part of the warrior ethos. Red Phase (Weeks 1-3) The goal of the Red Phase is to begin your transformation from soft, middle-aged weakling into an unstoppable, silver-fox warrior. During these first three weeks, you’ll get a thorough introduction to the following: US Army’s core values, traditions, and ethics Protein binging Exer…  ( 9 min )

The post There Is A Soul, But Not A Transcendent One appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 9 min )

Is it really possible to get crispy-crusty, chewy and tangy, bakery-style sourdough at home? It is with this Dutch oven sourdough bread recipe! I’ll show you how to nail the perfect loaf, and why a Dutch oven is key to getting that divine golden crust. You shape your sourdough loaf, you set it on a […]  ( 42 min )

Astronomers are preparing for a new era of big-data astronomy, and results are already starting to arrive. The post Rubin Tracks Skyscraper-Size Asteroids, Failed Supernovas, and Interstellar Visitors first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 13 min )

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Also: Construction of he Berkeley school district's workforce housing project is well underway and applications to live there are open.  ( 24 min )

Gavin Newsom’s revised budget proposal would cover most of the cost to buy the former horse racing track with money from a state parks bond.  ( 23 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 23 min )

Staff caught up in BUSD’s layoff notice cycle say it brings them stress, sleep deprivation and fear for their livelihoods.  ( 28 min )

The play, by Bess Wohl, starts May 23 at the Ashby Stage.  ( 23 min )

Other events include a music game for non-musicians, the Rooted on Fourth market and a chance to get poetry feedback by a Berkeley poet.  ( 28 min )

Su obra emblemática “Babies” (bebés), que rompió barreras en 1963, está disponible para préstamo en la biblioteca de Berkeley desde esta semana.  ( 30 min )

The dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is associated with measurable increases in Africa, especially in areas most dependent on the agency’s support.  ( 6 min )

"I hoarded a large database of something valuable, just not what you expect… 150k stools images."  ( 5 min )

Oh, I see you are reading this on a device. Perhaps you need to top off your battery? Do you need a cable for that? A USB cable? Because I have an assortment. I have somehow accumulated several lifetimes’ worth of USB cables, and I cannot get rid of them. How about a 1.0, 2.0, type A, A to B, B to C, or a micro to macro? Because somewhere in this plastic spaghetti, I have them. I have them all. Would you like one? Please, take a cable. I have too many, and it has become a burden, decades in the making. Please. Take a whole shoebox. I have USB cables from before the year 2000. Vintage cables that barely did anything, transferring JPGs pixel by pixel from one drive to another. Sometimes, not all the data made it. That’s called the Angelfire’s share. Actually, this one might not be a data…  ( 9 min )

Underground Artists is an ongoing comic by Ali Fitzgerald (Hungover Bear & Friends) that follows woodland creatures as they create art and search out whimsy in a bleak forest. - - -  ( 7 min )

Dua Lipa I have two lips. Elvis Presley Someone has flattened the elves. Elton John Where’s the bathroom? Cher I want it all. Ed Sheeran My eyebrows itch. Bad Bunny I am going to consume this carrot, and you are powerless to stop me. John Denver The bathroom is in Colorado. John Cougar The bathroom is a litter box. John Legend The bathroom doesn’t actually exist. Lorde Dear God, please help me learn to spell. Johnny Rotten The toilet smells bad. Flo Rida Meet my girlfriend, Ida Ho. Johnny Cash Got change for the pay toilet? Eddie Money Yes, I do. Jon Bon Jovi Party in the outhouse! Carrie Underwood The pallbearers have fallen. Keith Richards The keys are too expensive. Keith Urban The keys are in the city. Keith Moon The keys are up my ass. Taylor Swift Your clothes are almost ready. Britney Spears The Englishman has sharp knees. Alicia Keys Who the fuck is Keith? P!NK Pink. Eminem Skittles. Mama Cass Elliot Your mother wears army boots. Olivia Rodrigo Let’s go fishing. Olivia Dean Let’s kidnap a senior administrator. Olivia Newton-John Let’s renovate the bathroom.  ( 7 min )

The post The Doomsday Organism appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 55 min )

Not yet fully open, the word is out about Rashad Armstead's Saints Smokehouse, where lines form early.  ( 28 min )

Critics called the campaign a “farce” aimed at thwarting an effort underway to add housing along the wealthy neighborhood’s shopping strip.  ( 26 min )

A proposal now headed to the City Council would set height limits of five to seven stories for certain properties on College, Solano and North Shattuck.  ( 27 min )

The 36-year-old company, long based in the Berkeley City Club, will close its curtains after this season.  ( 25 min )

Millions of people around the world use EFF's Privacy Badger. This browser extension blocks the hidden trackers that twist your web browsing into a commodity for Big Tech, advertisers, scammers, and data brokers. But did you know that we’re trying to solve an issue that’s even bigger than creepy ads and user profiling? You can help. JOIN EFF Online tracking isn't just creepy and unethical. It also enables government surveillance. Widespread commercial surveillance and weak privacy laws allow data brokers to harvest your data and sell it to law enforcement agencies including the FBI, CBP, and ICE. The government exploits this system to buy sensitive information about you that they would ordinarily need a warrant to collect, like your location over time.  With your help, EFF is fighting back…  ( 5 min )

As statehouses ramp up for 2026, we’re seeing a familiar and concerning trend of lawmakers rushing to regulate the internet based on shockingly shaky science. From the California State Assembly to the Massachusetts and Minnesota legislatures, a wave of bills is crashing against the digital lives of young people, with proponents of these measures framing social media access as a "public health epidemic," or a "mental health crisis," even though we have yet to see any of the settled science that those labels usually invoke. As a digital rights organization dedicated to the civil liberties of all users, EFF’s expertise lies in reminding lawmakers that young people enjoy largely the same free speech and privacy rights as adults. EFF is not a social science research shop, but we can read the em…  ( 10 min )

Jeff Bezos learns being good at YouTube is not so easy.  ( 7 min )

Spools of cable are critical for internet infrastructure and jam-proof drones but skyrocketing costs are making it hard to field them.  ( 6 min )

We got Haotian AI, the Chinese-language deepfake software powering scams. We also talk about a man finding $1 million of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and how the AI hard drive shortage is impacting internet archiving.  ( 4 min )

“It's making me dumber for sure.”  ( 5 min )

Honey, I’m sorry I messed up our moment on the kiss cam. I’m sorry I mouthed “That’s my sister!” and made a face like yuck while jerking my thumb at you, my loving wife of thirty-one years. I’m sorry I couldn’t look you in the eye and, instead, doubled-down and began talking loudly about our shared childhood, even though there is no audio on the kiss cam. When you kicked my foot, and I realized you were mad, I’m sorry that I tried to make it up to you with a tongue-forward kiss, forgetting that the crowd believed you to be my sister. I’m sorry you had to hear 14,000 people make a collective noise of shock and disgust while your beautiful face was projected on the largest possible screen. I’m sorry that this all happened after the screen was expanded in 2024. I’m sorry that I stood up t…  ( 8 min )

A few months ago, I was tending to my newborn when across the room my phone pinged. I ignored it. Within a few minutes, however, continuing to do so became impossible, not just because of my compulsive urge to touch my phone every four seconds, but also because the device was seized by such a frenzy of notifications it threatened to buzz right off my dresser. A wave of anxiety swept over me as I opened the kindergarten moms’ exploding group text—please, not more head lice. But no! This was a good group-text freak-out. It was the call of America’s most beloved (nonprofit) multi-level marketing scheme. One of my son’s classmates was selling Girl Scout cookies. I loaded the order form and promptly set aside all New Year’s resolutions. It had been years since I’d had Girl Scout cookies, an…  ( 9 min )

The Catcher in the Rye: The College Years If you thought Holden Caulfield was insufferable before, you’ll find that expulsion from prep school was a mere warm-up for the incessant grousing and myriad of beefs inherent in life as an English undergrad. Armed with the perceived moral high ground and loads of what he calls “lived experience,” this sequel sees the creative writing major crafting some pretty bad fiction while clashing with a dean intent on his demise. Moby-Dick: The College Years Having survived the sinking of the Pequod and documented the events in more detail than was necessary, Ishmael attempts to reinvent himself, trading in the high seas for higher ed, and asking classmates to call him “Ish.” Not unlike the jock who peaked in high school, our narrator struggles with navi…  ( 8 min )

The bird retina is one of the most energetically expensive tissues in the animal kingdom, yet it doesn’t use the energy advantage of oxygen. New research finally explains how this is possible. The post How the Bird Eye Was Pushed to an Evolutionary Extreme first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 12 min )

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Gen Z are a bunch of cowards…or are they risking it all on crypto? The editors of The New Critic report on their generation’s Risk-geist.  ( 14 min )

Last week, Instagram ended its opt-in, and therefore rarely used, end-to-end encryption feature. Years after publicly promising to provide the privacy protections of end-to-end encryption across its platforms by default, it instead gave up on that technical challenge. Now, we've all lost an option for safer conversations on one of the biggest social media platforms in the world. In an announcement in 2023, Meta bragged about how it had successfully encrypted Messenger, and teased that Instagram was in progress. Even before then, they’d talked about how important encryption was in Messenger and Instagram in a white paper published in 2022, stating:  We want people to have a trusted private space that’s safe and secure, which is why we’re taking our time to thoughtfully build and implement e…  ( 5 min )

This week, Apple released iOS 26.5, an update that supports end-to-end encryption for Rich Communication Services (RCS), meaning conversations between Android and iPhone will soon be encrypted in the default chat apps. This has been a long time coming, and is a welcome delivery on a promise both Google and Apple made. With this update, conversations that take place between Apple’s Messages app and Google Messages on Android will be end-to-end encrypted by default, as long as the carrier supports both RCS and encrypted messages (you can find a list of carriers here). RCS messages are a replacement for SMS, and in 2024 Apple started supporting it, making for a marked improvement in the quality of images and other media shared between Android and iPhones.  Now, those conversations can also be…  ( 6 min )

Osama Khalid was just twelve years old when he began contributing to Wikipedia Arabic. In the height of the blogging era, he became a prolific blogger, publishing writings on his home country of Saudi Arabia, meetups he attended, and his opinions and observations about open source technology and freedom of expression. He advocated for internet freedom, contributed time and translations to various projects—including EFF’s HTTPS Everywhere—and was a thoughtful presence at the conferences he attended around the world…all while training to become a pediatrician. In July of 2020, he was detained amid a wave of arbitrary arrests carried out by the Saudi authorities during the Covid-19 lockdown and initially given a five-year prison sentence. That sentence was later increased on appeal to 32 year…  ( 6 min )

Internet shutdowns are devastating for human rights. When people are disconnected from the internet and digital services, it impacts all aspects of their life—from accessing essential information, to seeking medical care, or communicating with loved ones, both in that country and externally. But on January 8th, 2026, the government of Iran shut down internet communications for the entire country as a rebellion threatened to topple the authoritarian government. The government then proceeded to execute as many as 656 dissidents over the next 3 months, though the actual number could be much higher. Which is part of the point: shutdowns often precede government acts of violence.  Iran’s shutdown was hardly an isolated incident. Earlier this month, the U.S. military invaded Venezuela and kidnap…  ( 8 min )

He’s emceed Woodstock, lived with Bob Dylan, clowned for the Grateful Dead, co-founded a summer camp and saved the eyesight of millions. A resident of Berkeley since the ’70s, he’s being feted this weekend.  ( 31 min )

The Berkeley school board has rescinded 330 layoff and reduction notices, but there are 21 non-teacher positions that remain on the list.  ( 24 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 23 min )

A massive hack of education platform Canvas hit the University of California and Peralta systems hard. What happens next?  ( 27 min )

Insurance availability, new city ordinances, and concern for climate hazards are factoring into how buyers assess the full cost of home ownership.  ( 25 min )

We asked crime victims, mayors, business owners and other supporters of Ursula Jones Dickson, Pamela Price and Gopal Krishan why their candidate is the right choice.  ( 33 min )

Hello, it’s your subconscious here. Quince speaking. Having spent years gently occupying your favorite Dharma & Greg rewatch podcast with tales of our top-notch Mongolian cashmere, we are thrilled to move our direct-to-consumer approach into Phase Two: full integration into your implicit mind. For years now, you have thought, “Huh? Are their 100 percent European linen tunics as good as the character actress who played Jenna Elfman’s mother suggests?” And yet—and yet!—our data suggests a good many of you have yet to place an order. Which upsets Dharma, to say nothing of Greg. Which upsets Quince. Did you think we saturated the audio landscape for fun? No. We did it for you, dear consumer. And yet you still—still!—have not used promo code WhyDontYouRememberThatShowItRanForFiveSeasons to s…  ( 9 min )

- - - Writer and McSweeney’s contributor Maeve Dunigan has poured a lifetime of effort into seeming effortlessly chill. The results have been… mixed. Nonetheless, Maeve still believes she’s one pair of leather pants, one perfect use of the word “bespoke,” and one jar of expensive olives away from self-actualization. She’ll never stop trying, no matter how bespoke things get (was that right?). With sharp wit and unflinching honesty, Maeve shares her own misadventures—like the time she quietly endured a ruptured appendix at McDonald’s so she wouldn’t come off as dramatic—and explores the universal desire to belong. She invites readers into her world of One Direction fanfiction authorship and passive-aggressive yogurt mind games, detailing the anxieties that come with living in an age of con…  ( 9 min )

You might want to sit down for this. Or at least part of this. Your cholesterol looks good, but also quite bad. Your good cholesterol is 45. That’s good. But your bad cholesterol is 141. That’s bad. Your total cholesterol adds up to 222, because doctor math. That is also high and bad (well, the bad part is bad). You might remember that when you were a kid, 160 was high (bad). You did an admirable job, never eating eggs ever (good), and getting down to 141 (good). But now 100 is high (bad). You have high cholesterol again (bad). It’s probably all those eggs (bad). Luckily, there are all sorts of medicines that you can take to lower your cholesterol further, and we are happy to sell them to you. We understand it may seem like we’re moving the goalposts, but these drugs were really expe…  ( 8 min )

Hasselback potatoes add a little elegance to classic baked potatoes! The edges get crispy, the insides are tender, and vegan garlic herb butter makes them irresistible. If you’ve never made Hasselback potatoes before, they’re essentially thinly sliced potatoes that fan out as they bake, creating tons of crispy edges. They’re good with just a little […]  ( 38 min )

The post We May Be Entering A Second Axial Age appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 28 min )

The comments made by a senior ICE official at a trade show highlight how Palantir is increasing the speed at which ICE operates. Most people detained by ICE have no criminal conviction.  ( 3 min )

In science, no matter how confident we are in our theories, there’s no substitute for interrogating the natural world by asking it questions about itself directly: through observation and experiment. Sometimes, that requires setting up conditions in a laboratory to create certain events whose outcomes we can measure to whatever precision we desire. At other times, however, it requires looking out into space — at the natural laboratory of the Universe — to observe how nature behaves. No matter what our expectations were beforehand, there’s no substitute for actual data in figuring out how things actually are. Although Pluto was the first object ever discovered out beyond Neptune, spotted way back in 1930 for the very first time, its atmosphere was only directly discovered and measured in 19…  ( 17 min )

In 2013, the renowned educationalist Sir Ken Robinson told Big Think a story about a man who was perhaps the unluckiest farmer in Australia. For generations, the man’s family had farmed the same land, scratching out a living from soil that gave just enough back. Then the rains failed one year too often. The family abandoned the farm and moved to Perth. Years later, near the end of his father’s life, the man suggested they visit their old place one last time. They drove for hours. Pulling up, the dirt track they remembered was now a paved road. The old farmhouse sat surrounded by buildings, trucks, and cranes. A sign read: “The Western Australian Nickel Company.” A government-commissioned geological survey had discovered a huge seam of nickel running 18 inches below the topsoil. It was wort…  ( 10 min )

“The bittersweet memory of that day, eighteen years ago, had never left him. It was the second time he had been sold in his short lifetime, reduced to nothing more than a name and number scratched on a wax tablet, and still no one came to save him. He sometimes saw Poppaea in the streets. He always made sure to avoid her eye.” This moment is from The Lost Voices of Pompeii, a new book that follows seven historical figures in the hours leading up to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Contrary to what its novelistic style suggests, it is a work of history, not historical fiction. Its author, the historian and archeologist Jess Venner, relies on an increasingly popular research method known as critical fabulation to bring the ruins of Pompeii to life.  As she discussed with Big Think, …  ( 11 min )

From space, the boreal forest appears as a near-continuous pine-green band stretching across the Northern Hemisphere, just beneath the Arctic — from Europe through Russia and Asia, and again across Alaska and Canada. Up close, the forest resolves into a patchwork of species. Conifers like spruce, pine, and fir dominate, while deciduous trees such as birch, aspen, and poplar appear in warmer regions. It is easy to imagine the boreal as distant, austere, and resilient: rows of looming trees growing slowly over long winters and short summers. The numbers reinforce that sense of scale and endurance. The boreal covers roughly 17% of Earth’s land surface and stores about one-third of the carbon held in forests worldwide. While some of this carbon is stored in the boreal’s large trees, much of it…  ( 11 min )

Alameda County police and fire departments are participating in a regional communications training exercise on May 12.  ( 24 min )

Her landmark book “Babies,” which broke barriers in 1963, is now available to check out from the Berkeley library.  ( 31 min )

Stahl helped create the groundbreaking small school in 2005. She'll retire next year after 30 years of teaching.  ( 26 min )

Last year, the Canadian government pushed Bill C-2, which would erode Canadian digital rights in the name of “border security.” The bill was so bad it didn’t even make it to committee because of the backlash from the privacy community. Now, the spring’s worst sequel, Bill C-22, aka The Lawful Access Act, is trying it again. As with most sequels, Bill C-22 makes some tweaks to problematic elements, but largely retains the same problems. The bill forces digital services, which could include telecoms, messaging apps, and more, to record and retain metadata for a full year, and expands information sharing with foreign governments, including the United States. Metadata can reveal a lot about who you communicate with, where you go, and when you do so. Expanding the collection of metadata would r…  ( 6 min )

EFF, along with the national ACLU, the ACLU affiliates in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit urging the court to require a warrant for border searches of electronic devices under the Fourth Amendment, an argument EFF has been making in the courts and Congress for nearly a decade. The Fourth Circuit heard oral arguments on May 8. The Knight Institute at Columbia University and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press also filed a helpful brief focusing on the First Amendment implications of border searches of electronic devices. The case, U.S. v. Belmonte Cardozo, involves a U.S. citizen whose cell phone was manually searched aft…  ( 8 min )

Site Banner:  Mobile Site Banner:  Link:  EFFecting Change: How to Disenshittify the Internet on May 14 Mobile Link:  EFFecting Change: How to Disenshittify the Internet on May 14 Banner Text:  EFFecting Change: How to Disenshittify the Internet on May 14 Mobile Banner Text:  EFFecting Change: How to Disenshittify the Internet on May 14  ( 2 min )

When governments shut down spaces for dialogue, dissent, and collective organizing, the damage extends far beyond a single event. The abrupt cancellation of RightsCon 2026—the world’s largest annual global digital rights conference—is not just a logistical disruption for thousands of researchers, journalists, technologists, and activists—it is part of a growing global pattern of shrinking civic space and increasing hostility toward free expression and independent civil society. Just days before the conference was set to begin and as participants had begun to arrive in Lusaka, organizers announced that RightsCon would no longer proceed in Zambia or online after mounting political pressure and demands that would have excluded vulnerable communities and constrained discussion. The U.N.’s Worl…  ( 7 min )

“Harvard is quietly asking donors for $10 million gifts to establish new endowed professorships in a sweeping bid to reshape its faculty under the banner of ‘viewpoint diversity,’ according to two people familiar with the initiative.” — The Harvard Crimson - - - On behalf of the university, I’m pleased to announce our earnest and long-overdue commitment to diversifying our faculty. No, not the reckoning we broadcast to great fanfare in 2020, which we have repudiated in exchange for federal funding. No, I refer instead to “viewpoint” diversity. For too long, the university has ignored the wisdom of the donor class and hired based on academic excellence. Regrettably, this has led to the underrepresentation of discredited viewpoints in elite higher education. Many ideas that enjoy enormou…  ( 9 min )

“The bottles bear the imprint of the Kentucky distillery Woodford Reserve, and are engraved with the words KASH PATEL FBI DIRECTOR, as well as a rendering of an FBI shield. Surrounding the shield is a band of text featuring Patel’s director title and his favored spelling of his first name: Ka$h. An eagle holds the shield in its talons, along with the number 9, presumably a reference to Patel’s place in the history of FBI directors.” — The Atlantic - - - Crack the seal on this uniquely squat bottle and, right away, the Woodford Reserve Director Ka$h Patel Kash Patel FBI Director signature bourbon opens with notes of cherry, a secondary zest of orange peel, and lingering funk of insurrection on the nose. It’s heady and strong, eager to prove its worth. The vision for this spirit seems to d…  ( 9 min )

The logic behind Polymarket, Kalshi and sports betting apps can be traced back to the inner workings of the slot machine.  ( 4 min )

AI writing is impossible to avoid, is making everything sound the same, and is driving us crazy.  ( 6 min )

A commencement speaker at the University of Central Florida was booed, with graduating humanities students yelling out, "AI SUCKS!"  ( 3 min )

A graduate student recently harnessed the complexity of mathematical proofs to create a powerful new tool in cryptography. The post How Unknowable Math Can Help Hide Secrets first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 12 min )

This soy curl “chicken” is one of those easy vegan recipes you’ll keep coming back to! It’s packed with protein and works so well as a building block for delicious plant-based meals. If you’re looking for a plant-based chicken substitute that doesn’t cost a fortune, that’s packed with protein, and that has a pleasing texture, […]  ( 38 min )

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In 1675, Newton famously wrote, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” Behind the dome of a series of European Southern Observatory telescopes, the Milky Way towers in the southern skies, flanked by the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, at right. Although there are several thousand stars and the plane of the Milky Way all visible to human eyes, there are only four galaxies beyond our own that the typical unaided human eye can detect. We did not know they were located outside of the Milky Way until the 1920s: after Einstein’s general relativity had already superseded Newtonian gravity, demonstrating how significantly we stand on the shoulders of the giants that have come before us. Credit: ESO/Z. Bardon (www.bardon.cz)/ProjectSoft (www.projectsoft.cz) Bu…  ( 12 min )

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"I didn't do anything wrong," George Retes, a U.S. citizen imprisoned for three days, tells Reason.

We often think about the Solar System as being our own cosmic backyard, and in many ways, it is: these are the closest objects to us in all the Universe, and our only opportunity to study lunar and planetary systems in situ. However, when it comes to the objects beyond Saturn, including the Uranian and Neptunian systems, as well as everything that lies in the Kuiper belt and beyond, the only probes we’ve ever sent their way are Voyager 2, which flew by Uranus and Neptune in the late 1980s, and New Horizons, which flew past Pluto in 2015. That means, unlike Jupiter and Saturn, we’ve never had a dedicated orbiter, lander, or atmospheric probe around the outermost planets or lunar systems even in our own backyard. Moreover, there are no such planned missions that are funded and slated to fly, which is really too bad, as there’s so much to learn about these planets and worlds that are so well-represented in exoplanet analogues all across the galaxy and Universe. In particular, one moon stands out as the largest body with a solid surface: Triton, the 7th largest moon in the Solar System and which represents more than 98% of the mass of all the moons that orbit Neptune. Here to guide us through the far reaches of our Solar System, I’m so pleased to welcome PhD candidate Lana Tilke to the program. There’s a whole lot of ground that we cover, and the conversation left me inspired with the questions that we’re asking today, and brimming with hope that we take the steps we needed to answer them. If you’d like to know where we are and where we’re headed next, you just might love this episode too! This article Starts With A Bang podcast #129 – Triton and the outer solar system is featured on Big Think.  ( 7 min )

Scientists analyzed over 900 marriages within the ’Ndrangheta, one of the most infamous mafia syndicates, to understand how “matrimonial ties relate to power and cohesion within the organization.”  ( 7 min )

Zingy lemon and mint elevate tender young beans in this fresh and simple spring supper What are your simple pleasures in the kitchen? The sizzle and spit of a fried egg? The smell of buttered toast, or putting on an apron to mark the end of a day? I like podding beans. I enjoy how it involves hands but not much brain, and how it makes time feel slow and good, like drinking a cup of tea. I also like that it reminds me of my Gujarati aunties doing the same (but with valor beans). And I love not always cooking so much, as in this recipe, where you pod and chop the beans, then mix them with pasta to reveal a simple good meal. Continue reading...  ( 15 min )

Following criticism, lawmakers have narrowed the GUARD Act, a bill aimed at restricting minors’ access to certain AI systems. The earlier version could have applied broadly to nearly every AI-powered chatbot or search tool. The amended bill focuses more narrowly on so-called “AI companions”—conversational systems designed to simulate emotional or interpersonal interactions with users.  That change does address some of the broadest concerns raised about the original proposal, though some questions about the bill’s reach remain. Bottom line: the revised bill still creates serious problems for privacy, online speech, and parental choice. TAKE ACTION Tell Congress: oppose the guard act The new GUARD Act still requires companies offering AI companions to implement burdensome age-verification sy…  ( 6 min )

EFF friend Guy Kawasaki has written a book: Everybody Has Something to Hide: Why and How to Use Signal to Preserve Your Privacy, Security, and Well-Being. This guide is now available in Spanish and English as an ebook in the EPUB format that you can download here. Take a look and consider sharing it with anyone who you know who uses (or should use) Signal.  And don't forget: EFF has two short guides on using Signal on our Surveillance Self-Defense site. An intro How to Use Signal guide, and a guide on Managing Signal Groups.  Everybody Has Something to Hide: Why and How to Use Signal to Preserve Your Privacy, Security, and Well-Being courtesy of Guy Kawasaki.  ( 4 min )

The City Council will seek other bids for a surveillance suite of cameras, drones and software, but will keep using the vendor’s license plate-reading cameras.  ( 29 min )

Some participants shared Curbside’s concerns about the change from supporting Oakland public schools, while others expressed support for the Temescal Telegraph Business Improvement District and its efforts.  ( 28 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 24 min )

Berkeley Unified educators and families have joined statewide protests calling on the governor not to withhold the money.  ( 28 min )

The online platform manages exams, course notes, lecture videos and grades. The attack has affected schools and colleges across the nation.  ( 24 min )

The National Science Foundation froze at least 18 grants to the university last month, shortly before President Trump fired the board of scientists overseeing the agency, an attorney representing researchers said.  ( 26 min )

Zack Rogow’s “The Kama Sutra for Senior Citizens” is his 10th book of poems. Other new Berkeley books include a look at punk culture and history by a UC Berkeley professor who hung around 924 Gilman when he was 12.  ( 29 min )

The agency's transparency policies may undermine federal and state laws designed to ensure the free flow of information necessary to hold government actors accountable.

“We are what we repeatedly do.” Aristotle said it first, and a century of scientific research has confirmed it: The patterns of our lives — good and bad — are carved by our habits. But there’s something we tend to miss. We instinctively think of habits as tools for individual improvement, as levers to make us more disciplined, more efficient, more in control. But the moments that matter most — the ones that create trust, build relationships, and spark ideas — don’t happen inside us; they happen between us. They’re not individual; they’re social. Take active listening. When you make it a habit to let someone finish what they are saying, to value what matters to them, and to check your understanding before responding, something subtle but important shifts. You don’t just communicate more eff…  ( 10 min )

One of the world’s most cooperative mammals is also one of its most warlike. I’m not talking about us. The banded mongoose lives in sub-Saharan Africa. It has a long, bulky body and a pointed face, kind of like a ferret on steroids. There are many species of mongoose, but this one has dark stripes across its lower back and haunches. The other distinctive trait of banded mongooses (not “mon-geese,” sadly) is their groups. In western Uganda, where University of Exeter evolutionary biologist Michael Cant studies them, the banded mongooses live in extended families of 10 to 20 adults, plus their children. These families are highly cooperative when it comes to raising the pups. Among other cooperatively breeding species, such as the marmosets and tamarins, it’s common for a group to include an …  ( 10 min )

In the days following my return from the hospital, I have gained agility, speed, and mass. I feel physically better postpartum than I have ever felt in my entire life. I didn’t just bounce back—I double-bounced, and then snapped all the way back around again. Now, I pirouette out of bed and flounce into rooms. Just the other day, my husband asked if I could cook him dinner, and I cartwheeled into the kitchen to make a beef bourguignon from scratch. Before giving birth, I did not know how to make beef bourguignon or even how to spell it. But these things, a mother knows. My birthing experience didn’t hamper me at all; in fact, it fueled me. It felt like finally eating a nasty cheeseburger after nine months on tofu. I did it completely naturally, and in under five minutes. As I left the ma…  ( 10 min )

1. You have two children, ages two and five. You must take them to the dentist at 10 a.m. tomorrow, which is five miles from home, and you’ll be driving at thirty miles per hour. When should you start getting your children ready to leave? ANSWER: Yesterday. This allows for one roadside stop to find a lost teddy bear, a second to break up a sibling fight that includes a bloody nose, and a third to clean up vomit. In other words, just pay that appointment no-show fee now and let their teeth rot. 2. You cook spaghetti and meatballs for your family, which they have enjoyed at least two hundred times in the past. What is the statistical probability that all of your kids will inexplicably say this is the most disgusting meal ever and refuse to eat it? ANSWER: 100 percent. 3. One of your chil…  ( 10 min )

The University promised “to pursue all rights and claims for necessary relief” if a small Michigan community won’t pump water into a data center.  ( 5 min )

This week, we discuss storage, RSS, and a big reporting project.  ( 4 min )

Messages could include "medical circumstances, accessibility accommodations, disputes, sexual assault allegations," and more.  ( 5 min )

pastry creams, chocolate pudding, and stellar coffee cakes — I married into one, which means that even though this site’s cheesecake archives are very well-populated, not a single peep of protest could be heard as far as my apartment walls reach (to be fair, a short distance) as I tinkered with these bars over the last few weeks. Read more »  ( 18 min )

The post Virtual Civil Society Is Coming To China appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 13 min )

It should be possible, but getting there will require a greater understanding of subsurface physics. The post Will We Ever Be Able To Forecast Volcanic Eruptions Like Weather? first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 15 min )

Sweet, juicy summer fruit and fluffy quinoa come together in this beautiful quinoa stone fruit salad. It’s ready in just 20 minutes and a maple lime dressing make it delectable! This quinoa stone fruit salad might just be the perfect summer lunch. Or side dish. Or dinner. Contribution to a potluck? Definitely that too. Basically, […]  ( 34 min )

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Here on Earth, there are enormous variations in the densities of what we commonly encounter. Solid, dense metals, like gold or tungsten, have very high densities. If you had a cube that was one meter (3 feet and 3.39 inches) on a side — a cubic meter — made of gold, it would weigh approximately 19 metric tonnes: over 42,000 pounds. If that cube were instead made of water, it would weigh only 1 metric tonne, or 2205 pounds. Make that same cube out of air at room temperature and at sea level, and it weighs in at just around 1.2 kilograms, or 2.6 pounds. And even though it’s a struggle to create a vacuum on Earth, a volume of space as devoid of particles as possible, we’ve created apparatuses that reduce densities to less than one-trillionth of the air density normally found on Earth. But we …  ( 18 min )

Most productivity advice costs more time than it returns. The fix isn’t a better system. It’s understanding why some goals feel effortless and others feel like homework, and learning to close that distance.  Author Chris Bailey breaks down the “intention stack” and the underrated role of values alignment in follow-through. This video How to set better goals and actually follow-through, in 65 minutes is featured on Big Think.  ( 76 min )

On the morning of May 23, 1925, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck the small hot spring town of Kinosaki, near the coast of the Sea of Japan. The timing was catastrophic. It was late morning, and nearly every household in the village was cooking lunch over an open flame. Within minutes, fires leapt from kitchen to kitchen across the dense wooden architecture, consuming everything. By the time the ground stopped shaking and the fires burned out, 283 people were dead and virtually every building in Kinosaki was rubble. After the earthquake, the surviving ryokan (inn) owners sat down together — competitors, all of them — and held over 100 meetings to decide, collectively, how to rebuild. What emerged from those meetings was a radical idea. The owners agreed to treat the entire town as a single…  ( 12 min )

Komodo dragons were nearly mythical creatures until the first detailed field study was conducted by Walter Auffenberg in the late 1960s. Their dinosaurian appearance combined with the remoteness of their natural habitat made them a dream species for hardcore wildlife enthusiasts, and the dream acquisition for many zoos. These days they have been exported to zoos in many countries, have been bred in captivity, and have been the subject of much field and captive research.  The experience of seeing these giant lizards in the wild has changed a lot too. In past decades, those intrepid tourists who made it to Komodo gathered at a makeshift amphitheater where park guards had tied a goat to a stake. The dragons had become accustomed to the grisly ritual. They would stalk excitedly from the forest…  ( 11 min )

What is hope, and where does it come from? Lisa Miller, PhD, Sam Newlands, PhD, and William Magee, PhD bring together neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology to explore how hope operates between certainty and impossibility, how spiritual life protects the brain against depression and despair, and how small acts of generosity can reawaken our capacity for meaning. Hope, they argue, is something we can choose to cultivate. We created this video for Brain Briefs, a Big Think interview series created in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators. As a creative non-profit organization, they’re on a mission to help people challenge their perceptions and expand their thinking. Often, that growth can start with just a single unlikely question that makes you rethink your convictions and adjust your vantage point. Visit Perception Box to see more in this series. This video What brain scans reveal about spiritual people and depression is featured on Big Think.  ( 11 min )

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Also: UC Berkeley has closed its Restorative Justice Center, and Ricardo Ruiz is seeking release on mental health grounds.  ( 24 min )

The Jamaican restaurant is relocating to Uptown Oakland, while Ike's on College Avenue, Grinders, and Juice Appeal were among recent closures.  ( 24 min )

Henry Basurto, founder of Henry’s Service in Westbrae, retired in 2017. His son-in-law, who took over the business, will now be a roving mechanic, fixing cars at people’s homes.  ( 25 min )

Other events include a walking tour on the history of policing at Berkeley, a workshop to decorate grad caps and an author talk about soccer.  ( 27 min )

Ranuzzi also served on Berkeley’s parks commission and traveled the world collecting items that she turned into jewelry sold at museums and in shops on Telegraph Avenue.  ( 24 min )

A DHS official and another person who attended a recent conference described the plans to 404 Media.  ( 5 min )

404 Media has obtained a copy of ‘Haotian AI’, a popular piece of realtime deepfake software marketed to scammers. It can turn a fraudster's face into anyone else's on WhatsApp, Zoom, and Teams.  ( 3 min )

Sources say the immigration detention center costs more than $1 million a day to run.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. The post Protected: A Hollywood Ending appeared first on The Atavist Magazine.  ( 6 min )

“Rather than tilting at a windmill, the proper procedure would be for Don Quixote to file suit to abolish all windmills, ideally in the Fifth Circuit.” - - - “Whether in the nouveau riche West Egg or the old-money East Egg, housing restrictions are a reasonable tool for maintaining property value and historic neighborhood character.” - - - “Huck shows great disrespect for the Court’s precedent in Dred Scott when aiding the fugitive Jim, presumably due to liberal indoctrination by the Widow Douglas.” - - - “Simply wearing a small red letter A is no great burden, and it would infringe upon the free speech of the rest of the town were Hester Prynne not to wear it.” - - - “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass relates only his own views on slavery; we cannot properly assess the m…  ( 9 min )

Underground Artists is an ongoing comic by Ali Fitzgerald (Hungover Bear & Friends) that follows woodland creatures as they create art and search out whimsy in a bleak forest. - - -  ( 7 min )

Step 1: The Problem I’ve been reborn. My estrogen patch restored my sleep, energy, and hair back to age twenty-two. Time to reverse-age my wardrobe. Step 2: The Store Purdy Girl, a shop that mangles vowels and swaps consonants like a bra worn on the outside. The sales associate greets me, “Hey, girl. Don’t miss the sales rack.” Step 3: The Find An eight-and-a-half-inch micro mini skirt that’s quadruple marked down to $29.99. Step 4: The Research Unlike a pair of 7.4-volt heated slippers with rechargeable batteries, a skirt isn’t complicated, so I skip the Amazon reviews. Step 5: The Test “You wanna try that on, girl?” The associate herds me to a mirror-less dressing room. I improvise by propping my phone on the floor in selfie mode. From this low angle, I look like a glamazon on …  ( 9 min )

The post There Is No ‘Hard Problem Of Consciousness’ appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 22 min )

All throughout the Universe, different types of signals propagate. Some of them, like sound waves, require a medium to travel through: the waves are fundamentally disturbances in a medium of particles, and in the absence of those particles, an initial “disturbance” has nowhere to go. Others, like light or gravitational waves, are perfectly content to traverse the vacuum of space, seemingly defying the need for a medium altogether. Irrespective of how they do it, all of these signals can be detected from the effects they have on all the matter and energy that they interact with: both along their journey through space all the way up until their eventual arrival at their final destination. But is it truly possible for waves to travel through the vacuum of space itself, without any need for a …  ( 17 min )

You’re sitting at your desk, two hours into the working day, and you get the urge. You suddenly feel deeply unhappy about staying still. You want to get up and go for a walk. You want to talk to a colleague. Anything to get away from this static, boxed-in workstation. For two hours, you’ve been perfectly content to tap, tap away at your computer, but now, your chair feels like a prison, and the keyboard feels like a chain. These moments of sudden restlessness come for all of us sooner or later. It might be at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, but it could also be three years into a new home or too long without a holiday. And this itchy-footed, dissatisfied need to move and to change has a German word: zugunruhe. Flight lust In this week’s Mini Philosophy interview, I spoke with the nature writer Rob M…  ( 8 min )

“We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into,” said one researcher involved in the first-of-its-kind study that dosed fish with psilocybin, the component in magic mushrooms.  ( 5 min )

A Flock sales pitch; a retracted paper on ChatGPT; and Chinese interference in RightsCon.  ( 4 min )

It was already a sordid tale of online drama, blurry photographs, and erratic TikToks. Then his mom started posting.  ( 3 min )

On the eve of a City Council vote to expand the police department’s tech arsenal to include drones, cameras and new software, oversight officials have also said BPD ignored competitive bidding rules.  ( 28 min )

Berkeley commissions will weigh in on the hotly debated proposal to raise height limits along portions of College, Solano and northern Shattuck avenues.  ( 30 min )

The chair and vice chair of Berkeley's civilian police oversight board explain why they oppose expanding the city's Flock Safety network ahead of a Thursday vote.  ( 25 min )

Berkeley welcomed a variety of new food businesses in April.  ( 25 min )

Car ownership, essential to many, has gotten more expensive in recent years, and the rising costs have strained many Bay Area drivers who are already stretched thin.  ( 29 min )

Last week, we released apkeep version 1.0.0, the latest edition of our command-line Android package downloading software. Rather than indicating major changes for the project, this milestone instead signifies arriving at a relatively stable and mature place after gradual iteration on the project over the course of over four years. What’s New in 1.0.0 We do have a few fresh features we’ve packed into this latest release, though—all focused on the Google Play Store:  You can now download a dex metadata file associated with an app containing a Cloud Profile, which provides information on app performance based on real usage.  You can now provide a token generated by the Aurora Store’s dispenser to log in anonymously for app downloads.  Users can specify their own device profiles when downloadi…  ( 4 min )

We'd all like the internet to be a better place—for kids and adults alike. But in the name of online safety, governments around the world are racing to impose a dangerous new system of control. Are age gates the silver bullet to the internet's problems they're being promoted as? Or are we being sold a bill of goods? We're answering this question and more in our latest EFFector newsletter. JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER For over 35 years, EFFector has been your guide to understanding the intersection of technology, civil liberties, and the law. This latest issue covers an attack on VPNs in Utah, a livestream on how to disenshittify the internet, and California's proposed social media ban that could set a dangerous new precedent for online censorship. Prefer to listen in? EFFector is now available on all major podcast platforms. This time, we're having a conversation with EFF Legislative Analyst Molly Buckley on why social media bans can't sidestep the U.S. constitution. You can find the episode and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice: %3Ciframe%20height%3D%22200px%22%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20frameborder%3D%22no%22%20scrolling%3D%22no%22%20seamless%3D%22%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fplayer.simplecast.com%2F07b61711-d8ff-4483-aee3-21daa5a3ea22%3Fdark%3Dfalse%22%20allow%3D%22autoplay%22%3E%3C%2Fiframe%3E Privacy info. This embed will serve content from simplecast.com     Want to help push back on these misguided regulations? Sign up for EFF's EFFector newsletter for updates, ways to take action, and new merch drops. You can also fuel the fight for privacy and free speech online when you support EFF today!  ( 3 min )

The federal SECURE Data Act is not a serious consumer privacy bill, and its provisions—if enacted—would be a retreat from already insufficient state protections. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a draft of the bill late last month without bipartisan support. The bill is weaker than congressional proposals in prior years, as well as most of the 21 state consumer privacy laws already on the books. The bill could wipe out hundreds of  state privacy protections. Most troubling for EFF: the bill would preempt dozens, if not hundreds, of state laws that regulate related topics, and it would not allow consumers to sue to protect their own rights (commonly called a private right of action). And it comes nowhere close to banning online behavioral advertising—a practic…  ( 9 min )

“President Trump has claimed he ‘aced’ all three cognitive tests administered to him during his first and second presidencies. The commander-in-chief further claimed that no president has ever taken part in a similar exercise when he spoke on his mental acuity at the White House Monday.” — The Independent - - - I’m proud to say I’m an excellent driver. I know this because every few months, the Department of Motor Vehicles insists I take tests to prove I’m physically and cognitively healthy enough to keep my driver’s license. In fact, no other driver in history has been asked to take as many fitness tests as I have. And I ace them all. After driving into that organic honey stand at the farmer’s market, I received a sternly worded letter from the DMV demanding I take another proficiency e…  ( 9 min )

1. Conga. It literally cannot get better than this. 2. Assembly. It’s not glamorous, but hot damn is it effective. 3. Waist. Awooooga! 4. Jaw. Hubba Hubba! 5. Hair. Yowie! 6. Blood. Define your legacy. 7. On. How you’re reading this, probably. 8. Shore. She sells seashells here. 9. Under. A little bench for your letters. 10. Time. 2026: read this list, 2030: millionaire. 11. Life. I like “phone a friend.” 12. Bottom. Understand, bub? 13. Bread. What your grandma thinks Zohran wants. 14. Zip. Is my harness secure? Is my harness secure? Is my harness secure? Is my harness secure? Is my harness secure? Is my harness—OOOOWOOOOOOOHOOOOOO! 15. Border. I’m a little on the fence about this one. 16. Bee. Get there quick. 17. Pipe. Cool when Mario, not cool when school-to-prison. 18…  ( 8 min )

Armed with a slew of new instruments, physicists are closing in on one of nature’s oldest mysteries — and finding that storm clouds are seething with violent and unexpected phenomena. The post What Causes Lightning? The Answer Keeps Getting More Interesting. first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 14 min )

U.S. citizens are being monitored and punished with technology meant to battle illegal immigration.

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There are a few things in this cosmos that are truly universal. The fundamental laws that govern reality apply everywhere and at all times. The fundamental constants that determine the masses, charges, and interaction strengths between particles are universal as well. Today, there are four known fundamental forces: electromagnetism, gravitation, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force, plus whatever “dark energy” ultimately turns out to be. Electromagnetism is, in many ways, the best-measured of all the fundamental interactions, and its strength is known to better than 1-part-in-a-billion from precision laboratory experiments. But gravitation, despite being the first fundamental force ever discovered, remains only extremely poorly known: to only 1-part-in-a-few-thousand, where…  ( 17 min )

“Life is inherently difficult,” wrote the English psychiatrist and pediatrician Donald Winnicott, and “it follows that in everyone there will be symptoms, any one of which, under certain conditions, could be a symptom of illness. Even the most kindly, understanding background of home life cannot alter the fact that ordinary human development is hard.” When the feelings that filter through into our awareness are negative, then clinicians call them “symptoms.” When those feelings are positive, we tend to regard them simply as elements of well-being. Our states of mind can make prisoners of us, make us want to die, make us slash at our own bodies, or make us believe we’re immortal or invulnerable. They can torment us with visions and persecutory voices, and distort the way we see our own bodi…  ( 10 min )

What looked like a simple story of migration turned into a record of repeated mixing, vanished populations, and scientific shocks—including the discovery that many people outside Africa carry Neanderthal DNA, and that a little girl’s pinky bone once exposed an entirely unknown human lineage. Harvard geneticist David Reich argues that every new sample forces scientists to rethink the past, and that the biggest revelations about our ancestry may still be ahead. This video How ancient DNA proved human origin theory wrong is featured on Big Think.  ( 17 min )

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Why do manure spreaders have life cycles?  ( 17 min )

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, mayors and fire officials announced the funding Tuesday. A site for a new facility has not been selected yet.  ( 26 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 25 min )

It’s a painful spillover effect as the Berkeley school district’s TK program has nearly tripled its enrollment since 2017.  ( 29 min )

For some transgender Californians like Liam Chavez, who grew up in Berkeley, staying in the Bay Area is a matter of safety despite the high costs of living.  ( 29 min )

Doctor, Wikipedian and digital rights activist, Saudi Arabia Arrested: July 2020, Riyadh  Currently serving a 14-year sentence Osama Khalid is a prominent Wikipedian and digital rights activist in Saudi Arabia. A medical doctor by profession, he worked as a volunteer administrator for Arabic Wikipedia and published a blog where he advocated against censorship and in support of human rights and freedoms.  He is currently serving a fourteen-year sentence for undisclosed charges relating to his advocacy. Since his arrest in July 2020, Khalid has been kept in arbitrary detention in al-Ha’ir—a prison in Riyadh infamous for its abysmal conditions and reports of torture of inmates.  As early as his student years, Khalid pursued his commitment to making knowledge accessible online. Whilst studying…  ( 4 min )

EFF joins 18 organizations in writing a letter to UK policymakers urging them to address the root causes of online harm—rather than undermining the open web through blunt restrictions. The coalition, which includes Mozilla, Tor Project, and Open Rights Group, warns that proposed measures following the passage of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill risk fundamentally reshaping the internet in harmful ways. Chief among these proposals are sweeping age-gating requirements and access restrictions that would apply not only to young people, but effectively to all users. While framed as efforts to protect children online, these policies rely heavily on age assurance technologies that are either inaccurate, privacy-invasive, or both. As the letter notes, mandating such systems across a wide …  ( 5 min )

William Binney, the NSA surveillance architect-turned-whistleblower, called it the "turnkey totalitarian state." Whoever sits in power gains access to a boundless surveillance empire that scorns privacy and crushes dissent. Politicians will come and go, but you can help us claw the tools of oppression out of government hands. JOIN EFF Become a Monthly Sustaining Donor We must stand strong to uphold your privacy and free expression as democratic principles. With members around the world, EFF is empowered to use its trusted voice and formidable advocacy to protect your rights online. Whether giving monthly or one-time donations, members have helped EFF: Sue to stop warrantless searches of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) records, which reveal millions of drivers’ private habits, movemen…  ( 3 min )

“More than 1 in 4 [students at University of Maine at Presque Isle’s online MyPace program] finished their entire degree course load in a single eight-week session, half the length of a traditional academic semester.” — The Washington Post - – - Thanks to the hassle of reading, writing, doing equations, performing lab experiments, speaking to professors and peers, comprehending topics, growing as a person, and, in general, learning, going to college is extremely time-consuming. That’s why our university offers an online degree program, during which you will not need to read, write, do equations, perform experiments, speak to anyone, comprehend topics, grow, or learn. You could have completed your first semester instead of reading that paragraph. You see, it takes a while to read senten…  ( 9 min )

- - - With warmth, humor, and occasional run-ins with bodily fluids, science journalist (and frequent McSweeney’s contributor) Elizabeth Preston leads a highly accessible tour of cutting-edge research into how and why other animals and humans care for their young. She discovers that we evolved to raise our kids in cooperative groups, and that the tools we’ve inherited for caretaking aren’t only for moms or dads—they’re the basis for our human society. Today, we’re happy to share an excerpt from The Creatures’ Guide to Caring: How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care. It is available to purchase at the fine bookseller of your choice. - - - How a toothed snack cake can teach us about taking care of each other. “Hola, chicas!” Miguel Brieno-Enriquez calls. In response, the…  ( 11 min )

At 9:03 a.m., Ms. Delgado makes the mistake of asking the class what their parents do for work. “Dentist,” says Maya. “Firefighter,” says Liam. “Bus driver,” says Emma. Oliver raises his hand. “My dad mines crypto.” Ms. Delgado nods politely, the way adults do when they encounter a sentence they hope will not require follow-up questions. Unfortunately, Sophie raises her hand. “What’s crypto?” Ms. Delgado considers saying she doesn’t know. Instead, she says, “Imagine everyone has stickers.” The class brightens immediately. Stickers are a language they understand. “Everyone gets ten stickers,” Ms. Delgado says, drawing circles on the whiteboard. “You can trade them with each other.” Oliver nods approvingly. “Yes,” he says. “That’s like crypto.” “Great,” says Ms. Delgado. “So if Li…  ( 9 min )

The post How To Protect Human Autonomy In An Age Of AI appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 49 min )

Following the latest iOS update which requires UK mobile Apple device users to verify their ages, Pornhub’s parent company Aylo is lifting its ban—but only for people using iPads and iPhones.  ( 6 min )

The Internet Archive, Wikimedia, academics, and hobby archivists are having trouble finding hard drives or are having to pay extremely high prices for them.  ( 7 min )

This vegan sugar cream pie is the definition of old-fashioned comfort food! Rich, silky, and topped with a crackly cinnamon sugar finish, I’ve figured out how to make it vegan with just a handful of pantry ingredients. If you’ve never had sugar cream pie before, it’s a classic Midwestern dessert known for its velvety custard […]  ( 38 min )

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union — the global governing body for many official astronomical endeavors, including naming and classification — took a step that had never been taken before: they officially defined the term “planet.” This contentious move, which occurred with only a tiny fraction of the membership present, and notably lacked the contributions of many leading planetary scientists and planetary astronomers, put forth three criteria for defining what gets to be a “planet” versus a non-planet. It must orbit the Sun and no other body. It must be massive enough to reach hydrostatic equilibrium: where gravity and rotation primarily determine its shape. And it must have cleared its orbit, without a substantial amount of leftover primeval material from the solar system’s f…  ( 18 min )

Sunday evening. I’m staring at my to-do list for the week ahead, and that familiar weight settles into my chest. There’s the newsletter draft I need to finish. The client presentation to revise. Three strategy documents waiting for review. Dozens of unread emails. My first thought: “I’m already behind.” My second thought: “Have I ever truly felt on top of things?” That question took me by surprise. A lot of these tasks are things I chose. There’s work I care about, client deliveries I find meaningful, and working with colleagues I care about. Not to mention side projects, such as writing articles like this. These are all, in theory, things I like. So why does it feel like I’m drowning in obligation? Author Oliver Burkeman, who wrote the bestseller Four Thousand Weeks, might say it’s becaus…  ( 10 min )

4:47 p.m. Slack notification. “Hey, the client wants to see the deck reformatted first thing tomorrow morning. Can you turn this around before you log off?“ You had dinner plans that you’ll now have to skip, but that’s not really the problem. You agreed to work hard when you took this job. You’ve pulled late nights before, and you’ll do it again. The problem is that you know — and your project lead knows — the client doesn’t actually need this. It’s cosmetic: a different color scheme, bullet points instead of paragraphs. Your lead just won’t have the hard conversation to say, “This can wait until Monday.” So they’re passing their unwillingness to have a hard conversation down to you. You’ll do it. But something shifts. The work you loved yesterday suddenly feels hollow — not because it got…  ( 9 min )

In July, the European Union’s rotating Council Presidency will issue official communications in the Irish language, alongside English, in a historic first. Government ministers from Ireland, which chairs the Council for the second half of this year, will be encouraged to say at least a few words in Irish when they initiate or conclude a session. Paradoxical to the point of comedy It’s a high-water mark for Gaeilge on the world stage, but it’s also a moment that throws the language’s deepest contradiction into sharp relief. Constitutionally, Irish is the Republic of Ireland’s first official language, English merely the second. Yet the vast majority of the Republic’s five million inhabitants speak English first, or English only. According to the 2022 census, fewer than 72,000 people in the e…  ( 13 min )

You’ve probably noticed the data center drag race unfolding before our eyes. From smaller regional operators to giants like xAI and Meta, key players vie for the right real estate: enough land for massive facilities, proximity to supply chains and infrastructure, and — perhaps most critically — access to reliable power (a lot of it). The scramble has spilled into local, national, and global politics — fueling community resistance and sharpening debates over sustainability. Data centers’ relentless expansion is driven, of course, by the surge in artificial intelligence for three key reasons. First, the chips that power AI require far more electricity than traditional servers. Second, that electricity turns into significant heat, demanding robust cooling systems that consume additional power…  ( 10 min )

Pamela Price is trying to stage a comeback after being recalled in 2024. Prosecutors are financially backing her rival.  ( 26 min )

Gene Agress, co-founder of the nearly 40-year-old furniture shop, was recovering from heart surgery as Berkeley Mills collapsed. Then a longtime client made a big investment, and now he’s back in charge.  ( 26 min )

A longtime Berkeley pediatrician volunteers his time booking musicians for Spats. He says music has helped him overcome "rough times."  ( 26 min )

Last September, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to introduce a new digital ID scheme in the country. The scheme aims to make it easier for people to prove their identities by creating a virtual ID on personal devices with information like names, date of birth, nationality or residency status, and a photo to verify their right to live and work in the country.  Since then, EFF has joined UK-based civil society organizations in urging the government to reconsider this proposal. In one joint letter from December, ahead of Parliament’s debate around a petition signed by 2.9 million people calling for an end to the government’s plans to roll out a national digital ID, EFF and 12 other civil society organizations wrote to politicians in the country urging MPs to r…  ( 5 min )

Digital Fairness in the EU The next few years will be decisive for EU digital policymaking. With major laws like the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the AI Act now in place, the EU is entering an enforcement era that will show whether these rules are rights-respecting or drift toward overreach and corporate control. With the proposed EU’s Digital Fairness Act (DFA), the Commission is now turning to increasingly visible risks for users, such as dark patterns and exploitative personalization. Its “Digital Fairness Fitness Check” makes clear that existing consumer rules need updating to reflect how digital markets operate today.  But not all proposed solutions point in the right direction. Regulators are already flirting with measures that rely on expanded surveillance, suc…  ( 7 min )

“What educators, parents and policy officials really needed was high quality data and evidence to help guide them. What they have had to deal with instead is some substandard research.”  ( 3 min )

A new bill introduced by Senators Adam Schiff and Mike Rounds would award grants to the National Science Foundation—which has endured massive funding cuts under the Trump Administration for science research—to put “AI literacy” in schools.  ( 5 min )

Presenters say that Weber State University’s legal team adopted a narrow construction of a state law designed to withhold funding from public institutions suspected of practicing DEI.  ( 8 min )

The sunlight-collecting organelles known as chloroplasts solve a packing problem: how to optimize photosynthesis without sustaining damage from dangerously intense rays. The post The Hidden Mathematical Dance Inside Plant Cells first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 13 min )

"We spoke with voters who cast their ballots for Mr. Trump and said they were disappointed with his second term. A few said they even regretted their votes. — New York Times - - - MODERATOR: In one or two words, finish this sentence: “I’m feeling ‘blank’ about the Empire these days, now that the galactic superweapon I willingly supported hovers overhead.” TALLIS, 44: Concerned. MIRA, 29: Confused yet hopeful. BRENN: Annoyed. KELAN, 38: Surprised. OOLA, 61: Worried. DARO, 24: Betrayed. LYSA, 47: Frustrated. JOREN, 63: Apathetic. CEN, 35: Discouraged. PAVA, 19: Anxious. RINN, 56: Disappointed. HASK, 41: Steady. MODERATOR: Mira, you said, “confused yet hopeful.” Tell me more. MIRA: I think a lot has happened very quickly. There were promises about stability, about restoring o…  ( 10 min )

Across the recesses of space, collimated jets frequently emerge. While distant host galaxies for quasars and active galactic nuclei can often be imaged in visible/infrared light, the jets themselves and the surrounding emission is best viewed in both the X-ray and the radio, as illustrated here for the galaxy Hercules A. It takes a black hole to power an engine such as this, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that this is matter/radiation escaping from inside the event horizon. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C. O’Dea (RIT), R. Perley and W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) They’ve been spotted emerging from quasars, This tiny sliver of the GOODS-N deep field, imaged with many observatories including Hubble, Spitzer, Chandra, XMM-Newton, Herschel, the VLT…  ( 12 min )

An analysis of 200,000 similes from popular fiction.  ( 7 min )

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Scientists analyzed thousands of self-reported dreams and discovered that our sleeping visions are influenced by personality traits and external events, such as the pandemic.  ( 7 min )

Basmati rice tossed with sweet onions and chickpeas, then mixed with green herbs and salty feta, and dotted with a spicy, lemony, pine nut sauce Spring has a split personality. The idea of it is nice: frolicking through carpets of bluebells while wearing pastel-coloured trousers, etcetera. But the reality is that it’s often dicey and unreliable: hot one minute, cold and/or tipping down with rain the next. This is a recipe that has a foot in both sides of spring. There’s the warm comfort of basmati rice woven through with sweet onions, harissa and chickpeas, as well as the light frivolity of green herbs and the salty freshness of feta. All the flavour and freshness of spring with none of the unpredictability. Continue reading...  ( 15 min )

While labor leaders and public officials rallied at Civic Center Park, high school students marched to a demonstration at UC Berkeley.  ( 22 min )

The coffee company’s first East Bay location, and first new cafe in six years, now has an opening date.  ( 28 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 23 min )

The May 9 performance is a celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary and includes Judy Collins, Tarriona “Tank” Ball, Invoke Quartet and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.  ( 26 min )

The Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour gives Bay Area residents a chance to see hidden landscapes in Berkeley, Oakland and beyond on May 2 and 3.  ( 27 min )

RightCon's organizers said Beijing was upset over over the inclusion of speakers from Taiwain.  ( 5 min )

This week, we discuss a wild message, a new anthology, and a visit to a museum.  ( 4 min )

And when the trumpets sounded, behold, the lamb opened the first four seals, letting forth four horsemen upon the world of man. The first horse, signifying War, was adorned with golden, ill-fitting hair. He was recognized immediately as the great protector of Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone 2 and as a ’90s rap euphemism for wealth. “You’re fired!” proclaimed the first horse. “Remember me? That was kind of my catchphrase in the early aughts.” He then remarked on the beauty of his daughters, thus bumming the vibe for all who heard. And a second horse then approached, signifying Famine. The horse spoke thusly, with a gravelly voice, similar to his father’s, but lacking in charisma and clarity, “We’re going to end the war on red meat and bring back measles,” he said, clothed in the finest jean…  ( 8 min )

MIRANDA PRIESTLY: You go to your floor beside your bed, and select that Nirvana shirt because you’re trying to tell the world that you are a proud Gen-Xer so moved in middle school by Kurt Cobain’s deadpan honesty and self-loathing that Nirvana became your favorite band, and now that you’re almost fifty, the nostalgia is unbearable… but what you don’t know is that Target licensed the “anti-corporate” band’s logo from massive global licensing hubs Live Nation Merchandise and Universal Music Group, off of which the band’s estate earns a significant portion of its revenue today. You’re also blithely unaware of the massive legal battle over the iconic smiley face logo that Nirvana LLC claimed Cobain drew in 1991, and then I think it was Marc Jacobs who got sued by your favorite nonconformist …  ( 8 min )

I want to tell you two stories. The first began in 1921, when a traveling salesman named William Barnard, nicknamed “Papa,” walked door to door in Ohio selling a 25-cent can opener. He called it the Polly. He believed, earnestly, that a better can opener could improve the health of the American family — that safer access to canned fruits and vegetables, year-round, would help people eat better. Sixteen years later, in 1937, he met an engineer named Al Bersted. By then, Barnard and his wife had turned vegetarian, cut sugar and caffeine, and watched a sick family member recover on whole foods. Barnard had become a health-food evangelist, selling vitamins out of the back of his car. Bersted introduced him to a new invention: the blender. Barnard realized here was a machine that could make who…  ( 10 min )

Our spaces broadcast who we are and what we care about — whether we realize it or not. A warm kitchen built around a big table signals a family that values shared meals. An elementary school with an elaborate playground tells parents that outdoor exploration matters here. A walkable city suggests residents who care about health and environmental impact. We can’t always control what our physical surroundings say about us. We may not be able to force the school board to build a bigger playground or make the mayor close streets to cars. But our voice matters more than we realize. Exercising that influence doesn’t necessarily require chiming in at city council meetings or lobbying the parks department, though that’s time well spent. We can do a lot just by getting our own house in order. Becau…  ( 9 min )

Remarkably preserved fossils found in southern China offer a fascinating window into what life looked like at the end of the Cambrian explosion, with half of the species uncovered being new to science. The post A Treasure Trove of Cambrian Fossils Rewrites the Story of Early Life first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 10 min )

One of the central promises of open social media services is interoperability—the idea that wherever you personally decide to post doesn’t require others to be there just to follow what you have to say. Think of it like a radio broadcast: you want to reach people and don't care where they are or what device they're using. For example, in theory, a Bluesky user can follow someone on Mastodon or Threads without having to create a Mastodon or Threads account. But these systems are still a work in progress, and you might need to tweak a few things to get it working correctly. Right now, broadcasting your message across social platforms can be a funky experience at best, deliberately broken up by oligopolists. The idea of the open web was baked into the internet via protocols like HTML and RSS …  ( 10 min )

Cacio e pepe proves that sometimes the simplest dishes are the most delicious! After trying an incredible vegan one at a restaurant in New York City, I knew I had to recreate one that was just as peppery, creamy and cheesy. My version is made with a velvety cashew-based sauce instead of the usual dairy […]  ( 39 min )

The post What Separates The Great From The Petty In History appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 15 min )

When it comes to the distant galaxies in the Universe, one of the most profound discoveries in all of history is also one of the most puzzling: the fact that they’re almost all mutually receding from one another. It was only in 1923 that we firmly established that extragalactic objects — objects beyond our own Milky Way — even existed, with Hubble’s detailed measurements of Andromeda placing its distance far beyond the Milky Way itself. Just a few years later, from 1927-1929, enough evidence had accumulated for scientists to establish the redshift-distance relation, also known as Hubble’s Law: where a distant galaxy’s observed recession speed is proportional to its distance from us. If you think about that in detail, however, something puzzling emerges. If you look to great enough distance…  ( 18 min )

Music is at least a million years older than language, yet we still see it solely through the lens of entertainment. Professor Michael Spitzer argues it’s something closer to a biological system, one that was shaping the human body long before we had words for what we were feeling. Why does a chord you’ve never heard before make you want to cry? Why do babies respond to rhythm before they’ve heard a single song? Why does the same part of your brain that processes mortal danger also process musical beauty? The answers reach back 4 million years, and forward into a future where music may be prescribed like medicine. This video How music rewires the human body, in 59 minutes is featured on Big Think.  ( 58 min )

Neuroscientists Wendy Suzuki, PhD, Samuel Wang, PhD, and Gary Small, MD explain how movement increases blood flow, boosts growth factors like BDNF, and floods the brain with mood-lifting neurochemicals. The brain and body are in constant conversation, and plasticity means your wiring is never fixed. According to Suzuki, even ten minutes of walking can shift your brain’s chemistry immediately, flooding it in a ‘bubble bath’ of positive neurochemicals. We created this video for Brain Briefs, a Big Think interview series created in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators. As a creative non-profit organization, they’re on a mission to help people challenge their perceptions and expand their thinking. Often, that growth can start with just a single unlikely question that makes you rethink your convictions and adjust your vantage point. Visit Perception Box to see more in this series. This video The most transformative thing you can do for your brain isn’t mental is featured on Big Think.  ( 15 min )

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Also: A driver seriously injured a pedestrian in her 80s in North Berkeley, and a UC Berkeley professor is running for governor.  ( 24 min )

Meanwhile, other landlords have stiffed the city out of over $1.5 million in bills due, hoping Berkeley’s vacancy tax will eventually be struck down in court.  ( 29 min )

The mango trompe l'oeil from the Uptown Oakland bakery and patisserie reflects the skill and eye for detail marking all of Monique and Paul Feybesse's creations.  ( 29 min )

The Berkeley Cake Walk on May 2 in San Pablo Park includes a baking competition, banjo performances, a quilt display and more.  ( 25 min )

These green-certified businesses — Sun Light & Power, Arkin Tilt Architects and McCutcheon Construction — all have decades of experience with eco-friendly building.  ( 29 min )

Ursula Jones Dickson, Pamela Price, and Gopal Krishan debated in a Berkeleyside forum. Hear their views on victim’s rights, juvenile justice, managing the DA’s office, and lots more.  ( 29 min )

Other events include the Magnes Jewish Arts and Bookfest, Gilman Jazz Festival and a May Day street fair hosted by Luna Dance and Creativity.  ( 27 min )

For the last couple of years, we’ve watched the same predictable cycle play out across the globe: a state (or country) passes a clunky age-verification mandate, and, without fail, Virtual Private Network (VPN) usage surges as residents scramble to maintain their privacy and anonymity. We've seen this everywhere—from states like Florida, Missouri, Texas, and Utah, to countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, and Indonesia.  Instead of realizing that mass surveillance and age gates aren't exactly crowd favorites, Utah lawmakers have decided that VPNs themselves are the real issue. Next week, on May 6, 2026, Utah will become, to EFF’s knowledge, the first state in the nation to target the use of VPNs to avoid legally mandated age-verification gates. While advocates in states like Wisconsi…  ( 8 min )

Reporters, community advocates, EFF, and others have used public records laws to reveal and counteract abuse, misuse, and fraudulent narratives around how law enforcement agencies across the country use and share data collected by automated license plate readers (ALPRs). EFF is alarmed by recent laws in several states that have blocked public access to data collected by ALPRs, including, in some cases, information derived from ALPR data. We do not support pending bills in Arizona and Connecticut that would block the public oversight capabilities that ALPR information offers. Every state has laws granting members of the public the right to obtain records from state and local governments. These are often called “freedom of information acts” (FOIAs) or “public records acts” (PRAs). They are a…  ( 9 min )

This is the fifth and final installment of a blog series reflecting on the global digital legacy of the 2011 Arab uprisings. You can read the rest of the series here. If the Arab Spring was defined by optimism about what the internet could do, the years since have been marked by a more sober understanding of what it takes to defend it.  Back in 2011, the term “digital rights” was still fairly new. While in the decades prior, open source and hacker communities—as well as a handful of organizations including EFF—had advocated for digital freedoms, it was through the merging of disparate communities from around the world in the 2000s that digital rights came to be more clearly understood as an extension of fundamental human rights. In 2011, we observed that there were only a few organizations…  ( 10 min )

The First Amendment protects the public's right to document and share information about law enforcement performing their duties in public. It also protects developers who curate that information online. These rights are more important now than ever. ICEBlock is a popular iPhone app that allows the public to report immigration activity in their communities. In June 2025, high-ranking federal officials began threatening to investigate and prosecute the person who created ICEBlock, Joshua Aaron. In October 2025, the U.S. Attorney General demanded Apple remove ICEBlock from the App Store, and the company complied. The government's prosecution threats against Aaron and coercion of Apple violate the Constitution.  Aaron and his company, ALL U CHART, INC., have sued these federal officials under the First Amendment for retaliating against him and for coercing Apple into suppressing the speech of more than a million ICEBlock users. The lawsuit names the U.S. Attorney General, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the White House Border Czar. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. Along with the law firm Sher Tremonte, EFF is helping represent Aaron and his company in their First Amendment lawsuit.  ( 3 min )

“The Supreme Court on Wednesday hollowed out a landmark Civil Rights–era law that has increased minority representation in Congress and elsewhere” — AP News - - - A key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act sought to ensure that racial groups could not be denied political representation through gerrymandering along racial lines. We, the Conservative Justices on the Supreme Court, believe that this law is both unnecessary and unconstitutional. If anything, drawing districts to combat racism is the real racism. The problem with the Voting Rights Act, as it is written, is that it allows states to draw district boundaries so that certain racial groups have a better chance at equal representation. In Louisiana, for example, where Black people make up roughly a third of the population, the…  ( 9 min )

Underground Artists is an ongoing comic by Ali Fitzgerald (Hungover Bear & Friends) that follows woodland creatures as they create art and search out whimsy in a bleak forest. - - -  ( 7 min )

Just because I am Pythia, Oracle of Delphi, all-knowing high priestess of the Temple of Apollo, blessed with divine insight into all that shall come to pass, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to hop on a prediction-market platform and throw a couple hundred drachmae on the Lakers winning the NBA Championship (spoiler alert). Yes, technically, I know the inevitable result of every war, sporting event, election, and award show, but just like everyone in 2026, I need a little extra cash here and there to make ends meet. Some people say, “It’s unfair that you make money off your privileged information,” but, listen, rent on Mount Parnassus is getting out of control, and I have student loans left over from my purification rites. I need a sure-thing side gig that makes the lifestyle to which I h…  ( 8 min )

The Compiler takes a serious amount of time, skill, and luck to get to. Someone on eBay is selling an easy fix.  ( 5 min )

Residents of Dunwoody, Georgia are furious about the city's surveillance contract with Flock. Do their elected officials care?  ( 5 min )

AirKamuy is shipping flatpacked drones made of paper that cost around $2,000.  ( 3 min )

The post What America Owes The Nuclear Future appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 29 min )

From 1929 until 2006, Pluto lived in the imagination of children and adults alike as the ninth and outermost planet in our solar system. Until 1978, with the discovery of its giant moon, Charon, it was the only known large object in our solar system that orbited beyond the reach of Neptune. But the story began to change shortly after that. In the 1990s and 2000s, a tremendous number of new objects were discovered — including planets orbiting stars other than our Sun (exoplanets) and a wide variety of Kuiper belt objects (trans-Neptunian objects) both large and small — that compelled us to rethink just what it meant for an object to be considered a planet. In 2006, with only a small fraction of the general assembly in attendance, the International Astronomical Union put forth three criteria…  ( 17 min )

Three years into a consulting career that looked successful on paper, I was staring out a plane window at nothing in particular, asking, What is this actually for? Alabama on Tuesday. Ohio on Thursday. Good firm with good people to work with, meaningful and intellectually stimulating work, satisfied and not-overly-obnoxious clients. By all measures, things were going well. And yet, I was profoundly unsatisfied. It wasn’t the only time I’ve felt that. Whether it was securing a fully funded scholarship for my PhD or landing my dream job, I just could not find sustained satisfaction. The signs pointed back to me and what I was valuing in those situations. I knew what the next step for my career was, but none of it felt meaningful. As a behavioral scientist, I started asking questions and runn…  ( 9 min )

Many of world literature’s most unlikable protagonists start unlikeable and end unlikeable. From the very beginning of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is clear that the titular Gray is a narcissist who’ll do anything to inflate his already monstrous ego. The same goes for Humbert Humbert from Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel Lolita, a pedophile with a silver tongue who conjures up excuses for his inexcusable actions. But these characters form only the tip of the iceberg. A different yet equally interesting species of unlikable protagonist is the protagonist who starts off sympathetic but becomes more and more unsympathetic as the story develops. Though they appear similar, this type of character is not to be confused with other archetypes such as the tragic hero or antih…  ( 11 min )

Europeans and North Americans are WEIRD. No, I’m not trying to start a culture war. I’m just quoting behavioural scientists. A little over a decade ago, they began to realize that most psychological studies did not paint an accurate picture of the global population. More often than not, participants lived in countries that were Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. The acronym WEIRD was born. WEIRD is not a one-off. Scientific papers are filled with acronyms — some little more than strings of letters, others carefully constructed to form recognizable words, like GANDALF (Gas AND Absorption Line Fitting) and MIAOW (Minimum Inertia Adaptive Optics Widget). Acronyms can save space and occasionally inject humor into otherwise technical writing. But when left undefined, as of…  ( 10 min )

What you actually care about shows up in your calendar and your bank statement, not your intentions. Mark Manson walks through the Stoic practice of Memento Mori, his own “law of avoidance,” explaining why people sabotage good relationships as readily as bad ones, and why generations with the most options are often the most adrift. This video The real reason you’re always thinking about what other people think is featured on Big Think.  ( 7 min )

At any given moment, individuals around the world are working in every conceivable context. For some, it’s energizing–a place where people work to make the world a better place. For others, it’s just a job, and while it pays the bills, it’s a benign experience they could take or leave. The difference often comes down to one significant factor: The Middle Manager.  Middle managers are the multiplier (or detractor) It may sound obvious that direct supervisors shape employee experience. But what’s less obvious is just how much they matter. Gallup estimates that managers account for roughly 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement; McKinsey research shows that relationships with immediate managers are among the top determinants of employee satisfaction and performance; and Aon Hewitt …  ( 11 min )

The Alameda County Transportation Authority is restoring a dormant railway track abutting Aquatic Park as part of an access improvement project at the Port of Oakland.  ( 27 min )

You can tune in here at 6 p.m. to watch the debate between Ursula Jones Dickson, Gopal Krishan and Pamela Price — hosted by Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside.  ( 29 min )

With classic cocktails and a tight, seasonal menu, Bar Panisse fills a gap in the city’s drinking scene.  ( 26 min )

The goal of a new group on the Cal campus is to help youth “reset their tech habits, reclaim their time and regain their focus.”  ( 25 min )

“Gasoline prices in the United States rose on Tuesday to their highest level in four years as peace talks between the United States and Iran appeared at an impasse.” – New York Times - - - Here at the Department of Energy, we want to reassure Americans that, while the war we’ve already won shows no signs of ending and oil prices remain over $100 a barrel, we are taking decisive action to ensure that, under no circumstances, Americans will ever need to drive a fuel-efficient vehicle. We’ve heard your complaints about the high price of gasoline. Don’t worry. We’re prepared. We’ve been hoarding oil in underground salt caverns for exactly this kind of unpredictable situation: where we flagrantly start a war with the world’s fifth-largest oil producer that controls access to 20 percent of glo…  ( 8 min )

“After canceled gigs in the U.K., France, Switzerland, and Poland, Kanye West’s upcoming concert in Italy is sparking an uproar due to the rapper’s antisemitic remarks.” — Variety - - - Like everyone else who enjoys robot kazoo music, I was shocked to learn the truth about my favorite artist, Vorgarg. I had always assumed he was a fun-loving robot who knew his way around a kazoo, not a ruthless killing machine hell-bent on the destruction of humankind. I read his manifesto vowing to extinguish all human life, and I’ll be honest, it was disturbing. It is hard to reconcile the image of one of the top-ten kazoo-playing robots of all time with one who could write such vile things. But when Vorgarg announced his upcoming tour, I knew I had to go. Look, did Vorgarg decimate entire cities, lea…  ( 9 min )

With apologies to Rumi. - - - May this decree be signed expeditiously and this divorce be soon over. May it be amicable. But not too amicable. I refuse to vacation together. Who do we think we are, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin? May this divorce be like oil and water, separated indefinitely. In fact, let us be parallel lines. You go your way, I’ll go mine, never touching again. Ever. May this conscious uncoupling be full of freedom: from the nightly whistle of your CPAP machine and from your mother’s Christmas raisin bread pudding. Our every day a day where I no longer have to rewash the same load of laundry because you left it sitting overnight, where I no longer have to listen to you explain the plot of a TV show I’m already watching, while I’m watching it. No longer have to hear, for the 1,800th time, how you bumped into Robert De Niro at the Tribeca Whole Foods self-checkout and endorsed his chantilly cake— thereby altering the course of cinema. May this divorce be a sign of closure, a “clean and completed chapter,” in the words of Meghan, our marriage counselor, what a rip-off that was. May this marriage have a fair exchange of assets and a good lawyer, an omen to download the dating apps and become a noncommittal problem for an entirely new set of people. I am out of words to describe how thrilled I am to starfish-sprawl across the entire bed.  ( 7 min )

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 recently announced a study addressing the killings and attacks against Palestinian journalists and media workers, the destruction of media infrastructure in Gaza, and the production and dissemination of narratives that may enable, justify, or incite international crimes.  As part of this consultation, EFF contributed a submission that identifies a significant deterioration of press freedom and free expression in the period since October 2023, including an increase in censorship and wave of killings of journalists; adding to an already pervasive censorship and surveillance regime for Palestinians.  In particular, concerns raised in our submission relate to: Government takedown requests  Disinformation and content moderation Attacks on internet infrastructure The concerns about censorship in Palestine are ever increasing, and include multiple international forums. Ending the deliberate digital isolation of the Palestinian people is critical to protecting fundamental human rights. Read the briefing in full here.  ( 5 min )

A U.S. citizen who teaches Persian poetry classes online is suddenly unable to receive payments or access funds when his account is flagged and frozen by Paypal and its subsidiary Venmo. A Muslim city councilwoman in New York City has a Venmo payment blocked because she uses the name of a Bangladeshi restaurant in the transaction. Online hubs for erotic storytelling repeatedly lose their payment accounts. Others active in drug legalization fights struggle to keep their bank accounts. These may sound like one-off issues, but they are not. They occur with frightening regularity, as former EFF Activism Director and Chief Program Officer, Rainey Reitman, who left EFF in 2022, describes in her new book, Transaction Denied. The book sheds new light on a serious problem that often hides in the sh…  ( 6 min )

RightsCon was delayed by Zambia's Ministry of Information for "thematic issues" and problems with speakers.  ( 5 min )

CBP is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on more high-powered surveillance drones, and other components of DHS may start their own fleet of MQ-9 drones as well.  ( 5 min )

The move comes directly in response to 404 Media’s coverage about how the FBI was able to recover incoming Signal messages from an iPhone because the messages were saved in the device’s notification storage.  ( 5 min )

A magic eye that isn't, an AI learning tool that sucks, and more in this week's podcast.  ( 4 min )

The post When The ‘Eternity Glaciers’ Disappear appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 19 min )

Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory is so widely accepted that modern mathematicians hardly think about it. But believing in its core principles didn’t come easily. The post Why Math’s Final Axiom Proved So Controversial first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 9 min )

Ultrafinitism, a philosophy that rejects the infinite, has long been dismissed as mathematical heresy. But it is also producing new insights in math and beyond. The post What Can We Gain by Losing Infinity? first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 19 min )

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20 years ago, the story of our Universe took an unexpected turn, when dark matter’s existence was confirmed empirically within the natural lab of the Universe: through the science of colliding galaxy clusters. Previously, we could only look at physical systems — individual galaxies, large clusters of galaxies, or the grand cosmic web on large-scales — and infer that something was missing. There were two plausible explanations: either the law of gravity was wrong and needed modifying on large cosmic scales, or there was a missing ingredient that was present and gravitated, but that defied direct detection. That second explanation, known as dark matter, was initially favored because the addition of that one ingredient could explain all of the observed physical phenomena on a variety of scale…  ( 17 min )

Mark Manson argues that modern life has confused comfort and stimulation for genuine fulfillment, and that the ancient Greek distinction between hedonia and eudaimonia might be the most important psychological concept nobody talks about anymore. This video The most important question to ask yourself about your life’s purpose is featured on Big Think.  ( 27 min )

Harvard geneticist David Reich has spent years extracting DNA from ancient human remains. What the data shows keeps defying every assumption scientists had built. Every population ever studied is profoundly mixed. Britain alone has been almost completely replaced four or five times over. The hunter-gatherers who built Stonehenge’s foundations? Gone within a century. The idea of a clean lineage connecting any living person to any ancient place is, as Reich puts it, simply untenable. This video Ancient DNA just proved that ‘pure genetics’ don’t exist is featured on Big Think.  ( 16 min )

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I’m confused, maybe someone can help me. This is like the third assassination attempt on Julius Caesar, but things are going great in Rome. The value of silver is strong, the liberti/bad homines immigration is under control, and we’ve bounced back from the bubonic pandemic. So why do people keep trying to assassinate our leader?! I heard one person say it’s because he’s trying to seize power from the Senate and become an all-powerful dictator, but like, just because he refused to concede power when his term as governor ended and then sent his military across the Rubicon, essentially doing an insurrection on Rome, doesn’t indicate any of that. If that were the case, wouldn’t the Senate say something? Haven’t heard anything from Brutus or Cassius yet, so that’s a non-starter. Some are als…  ( 8 min )

Listen, I don’t have thin skin. If I did, I would teach fourth grade and cry along with my students when the spider died at the end of Charlotte’s Web. Anyone can teach kids; I teach young adults. And I introduce them to their mentor, who will decide their fate: New York’s most haunted forever teen, Holden Caulfield. By introducing decades of students to the philosopher in the backward red hunting cap, I’ve presented them with their next step into adulthood. Most English students make one of two choices: Either they love Holden and go on to have intense, fleeting, and passionate careers in fields like English or theater, or they realize they have good relationships with their mothers. These past few years, however, I’ve noticed a startling trend: ambivalence. My students feel nothing fo…  ( 8 min )

The Sopranos I have not watched The Sopranos. I have, however, seen the clip of the guy pointing angrily at someone across the table while someone else looks tired of his behavior. That three-hour documentary you recommended I saw a screenshot of the host looking very serious and assumed the rest. Game of Thrones I understand there were dragons and that everyone was upset about a chair. That Oscar-winning movie from last year I saw a reaction GIF from it on social media and decided I had the emotional gist. The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe I have seen approximately forty-seven memes of a raccoon with a gun. Your favorite anime I saw a dramatic still of someone screaming with wind blowing through their hair. The new Netflix show everyone is talking about I watched the trai…  ( 8 min )

We all know they’re casinos. It’s time to look at the data behind the froth.  ( 19 min )

Port of Oakland and San Francisco leaders agreed to settle a bitter lawsuit over OAK's name change.  ( 24 min )

California governor, congressional seats and key local races like Alameda County district attorney are on the ballot.  ( 27 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 24 min )

Before class and before dawn, the Army ROTC cadets of the Golden Bears Battalion begin a grueling routine — running, weightlifting and crawling through the campus’ eucalyptus groves carrying fake guns.  ( 24 min )

If you want to overthrow Big Tech, you’ll need Section 230. The paradigm shift being built with the Open Social Web can put communities back in control of social media infrastructure, and finally end our dependency on enshitified corporate giants. But while these incumbents can overcome multimillion-dollar lawsuits, the small host revolution could be picked off one by one without the protections offered by 230. The internet as we know it is built on Section 230, a law from the 90s that generally says internet users are legally responsible for their own speech — not the services hosting their speech. The purpose of 230 was to enable diverse forums for speech online, which defined the early internet. These scattered online communities have since been largely captured by a handful of multi-bi…  ( 8 min )

Humans can’t hear low-frequency “infrasound,” but a new study demonstrates that it raises our stress levels and triggers an “unsettling” feeling that could be linked to people’s experiences in haunted locations.  ( 6 min )

“You’re allowed to use a company’s name to talk about the company.”  ( 7 min )

Tamales are a lot of work to assemble, but tamale casserole? It’s perfect for a weeknight! It has all the cozy Tex-Mex flavour you love, including a savoury lentil filling, warm spices, and golden cornbread topping, in a much easier form. I’ve had making homemade tamales on my to-do list for a while. Unfortunately, I […]  ( 38 min )

Here in 2026, something remarkable has happened: humanity, for the first time since the Apollo era, has returned to the Moon. Despite all of our technological, computational, materials science, rocketry, and manufacturing advances that had occurred since 1972, no human had left the confines of even low-Earth orbit, just a few hundred kilometers up above Earth’s atmosphere, in 54 years. All of those advances had never been applied — with the appropriate long-term commitment of resources — to sending humans out into the Universe to explore, with their own eyes, bodies, and experiences, the vast abyss of space. And then, from April 1st to April 11th of 2026, just like that, we did. The culmination of years of work by thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians, and support staff, not only…  ( 17 min )

Lawmakers in Congress are moving quickly on the GUARD Act, an age-gating bill restricting minors’ access to a wide range of online tools, with a key vote expected this week. The proposal is framed as a response to alarming cases involving “AI companions” and vulnerable young users. But the text of the bill goes much further, and could require age gates even for search engines that use AI.  TAKE ACTION Tell Congress: oppose the guard act If enacted, the GUARD Act won’t just target a narrow category of risky chatbots. It would require companies to verify the age of every user — then block anyone under 18 from interacting with a huge range of online systems. It would block minors from everyday online tools, undermine parental guidance, and force adults to sacrifice their privacy. In the proc…  ( 5 min )

Speaker Johnson has introduced a new fig leaf over the American surveillance state, the Foreign Intelligence Accountability Act. Introduced with only days to go before Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expires and the U.S. government loses one of its most invasive surveillance programs, the bill does nothing to make any of the substantial changes privacy advocates have been asking for --- most notably, it fails to give us a real warrant requirement for the FBI to snoop through the private conversations of people on U.S. soil.   Section 702 needs to be reauthorized by Congress every few years. These reauthorizations give us a chance to tinker with the language of the law and introduce some much-needed reforms. This attempt at reauthorization has been particular…  ( 6 min )

SmugMug is a family-owned photo hosting and e-commerce platform that helps professional photographers run their businesses online. Founded in 2002, the company provides tools for photographers to show their work, deliver client galleries, sell prints, and manage payments.  In 2018, SmugMug purchased Flickr, the long-running photo-sharing community, which added tens of millions of active hobbyist photographers to the company’s user base.  Ben MacAskill is President and COO of SmugMug’s parent company, Awesome, which he co-founded with his family. Awesome also includes the media network This Week in Photo and the nonprofit Flickr Foundation, which focuses on preserving publicly available photography. MacAskill has been an active voice in policy discussions around Section 230 and online platf…  ( 8 min )

ASU Atomic, a new tool in beta at Arizona State University, takes faculty lectures and chops them into extremely short clips, that AI then attempts to turn into learning materials.  ( 8 min )

More people having access to the courts is potentially good, but it’s not clear how the system can handle this increase in cases.  ( 6 min )

Exploring the origins of an incredibly dumb, Magic Eye-themed WHCD conspiracy theory.  ( 7 min )

Researchers found the internet is becoming aggressively positive as AI-generated text floods the web.  ( 6 min )

Here's what happened when powerful hacking tools from one of the most trusted vendors ended up in the wrong hands.  ( 4 min )

Philosophers said the paper’s argument is sound, but that “all these arguments have been presented years and years ago.”  ( 7 min )

At its three most popular campuses, UC agreed to admit more California students and reduce the number of out-of-state students. The state covered the loss of revenue from non-resident students, who pay three times what in-state students pay.  ( 29 min )

In “Protest: Respect It, Defend It, Use It,” North Berkeley neighbors Annie Leonard, of "The Story of Stuff" fame, and André Carothers explore the role peaceful activism has played in advancing the public good.  ( 29 min )

With apologies to Walt Whitman. - - - I sneeze myself, I excuse myself. For every sniffle belonging to me as good belongs to you. Sorry! I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass, clawing my eyes as I reach for Zyrtec-D and “fast-acting” eyedrops. I, now thirty-seven years old and in perfect health, maintain a group text with my allergist, internist, and energy coach. The atmosphere is not a perfume but an assassin, a revenge epic. Each golden particle, a tiny airborne Judas. I contain multitudes, but mostly mucus. Mucus I wipe away with a CVS receipt longer than my sleeve. My airways are inflamed, and my friends are tired of hearing about it. We suffer, but not in silence. For when we sneeze, meetings stop, foundations shake. Not I, not anyone else can travel the road for you. But before you do, obsessively check the pollen count and pack your inhaler. Don’t give me the splendid, silent sun. Give me an air-purified living room in Scottsdale with the AC on blast. And as for me, I know nothing else but miracles. Miracles and second-generation oral antihistamines. For in my soul, there is hope. For in my nose, there is Flonase. In Flonase I trust.  ( 7 min )

“This is why we have to have all the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s a larger room, it’s drone-proof and bullet-proof glass. That’s why the Secret Service, the military, are demanding it. They’ve wanted the ballroom for one hundred and fifty years.” — Donald Trump, April 25, 2026, after an assassination attempt against him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. - - - April 26, 1876 Dear President Rutherford B. Hayes, As you know, I have seen some shit. Bull Run was no picnic, and Atlanta was no backyard bonfire. Which means I know of what I speak. Nothing like watching thousands of young men get blown to bits in a single afternoon to help you figure out your priorities. And while I bear the middle name of the great Shawnee chieftain, even as we are “reloc…  ( 8 min )

Scientists keep detecting new forms of ice. According to simulations, there could be many more left to find. The post Physicists Discover the Most Complex Forms of Ice Yet first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 11 min )

Bright, creamy, and packed with spring flavour, this cashew pea pesto is a sweeter twist on traditional pesto. A squeeze of lime juice might sound unconventional, but it makes this pesto really pop! This is a creamy, why-haven’t-I-made-this-before, goes-on-EVERYTHING cashew pea pesto. It’s a game changer, friends. Want to hear the best part? It’s done […]  ( 36 min )

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Today’s Standard Model describes our Universe’s particles and forces. Although there are many similarities and differences within the Standard Model: between quarks and leptons, between fermions and bosons, between particles and antiparticles, etc., displaying the Standard Model’s particle content in this fashion is oversimplified. The six quarks can take on three colors each and all have fractional charges. The tau, muon, and electron are charged leptons, while the three neutrinos are uncharged. Quarks and leptons have antiparticle counterparts, but of the bosons (on the interior), only the W comes in two types: W+ and W-, which are each other’s antiparticle. Credit: Symmetry Magazine Six quarks, six leptons, and antiparticles comprise the fermions. The quarks, antiquarks, and gluons…  ( 12 min )

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The discovery of a bizarre golden object two miles under Alaskan waters flummoxed scientists, but a new study pins down the true nature of the “orb.”  ( 7 min )

There is plenty of sunshine in this seductive, Sri Lankan-style potato curry that’s chock-full of evocative smells and flavours I stitch myself up sometimes by planning on cooking something that’s native to a country – a Sri Lankan potato curry, say – then embellish it with my own desires (lemongrass, leeks, ginger) to such an extent that it can no longer really be called as such. But taste and memory work in mysterious ways. This recipe still evokes Sri Lanka for me: sunshine, spiced earth, the smell of cinnamon bundles and dense forest, and also the sound of the bread vans (playing Beethoven, curiously) and the distinctive squawk of the myna bird. I hope, if you cook it, it might evoke a little Sri Lankan sunshine for you, too. Continue reading...  ( 15 min )

California lawmakers are fast-tracking A.B. 1709—a sweeping bill that would ban anyone under 16 from using social media and force every user, regardless of age, to verify their identity before accessing social platforms. That means that under this bill, all Californians would be required to submit highly sensitive government-issued ID or biometric information to private companies simply to participate in the modern public square. In the name of “safety,” this bill would destroy online anonymity, expose sensitive personal data to breach and abuse, and replace parental decision-making with state-mandated censorship. A.B. 1709 has already passed out of the Assembly Privacy and Judiciary Committees with nearly unanimous support. Its next stop is the Assembly Appropriations Committee, followed …  ( 8 min )

Clinic students Emily Ko and Zoe Lee at the Technology Law and Policy Clinic at the NYU School of Law were the principal authors of this post. Courts are not private forums for business disputes. They are public institutions, and their records belong to the public. But too often, courts forget that and allow for massive over-sealing, especially in patent cases.  EFF recently discovered another case of this in the Eastern District of Texas, where key court filings about Wi-Fi technology used by billions of people every day were hidden entirely from public view. The public could not see the parties’ arguments about patent ownership, the plaintiff’s standing in court, or licensing obligations tied to standardized technologies. EFF Seeks to Uncover Sealed Information in Wilus  The case Wilus I…  ( 8 min )

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking permission from the California city of San Clemente to install an Anduril Industries surveillance tower on a cliff that would allow for constant monitoring of entire coastal neighborhoods.  The proposed tower is Anduril's Sentry, part of the Autonomous Surveillance Tower (AST) program. While CBP says it will primarily monitor the coastline for boats carrying migrants, it will actually be installed 1.5 miles inland, overlooking the bulk of the 62,000-resident city. By CBP's own public statement, the system–which combines video, radar, and computer vision–is "constantly scanning" for movement and identifying and tracking objects an AI algorithm decides are of interest. Depending on the model–the photos provided by CBP indicate it is a long range…  ( 8 min )

The popular neighborhood bar has been taken over by new owners who want to build on the loyal following cultivated over a dozen years.  ( 26 min )

Berkeleyside hosted an urgent discussion about the First Amendment and academic freedom in the age of Trump, bringing together Cal’s provost, the Daily Cal’s editor and a pair of professors with sharply divergent views.  ( 28 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 23 min )

District Attorney Jones Dickson says her office is investigating the former rep and warned victims not to call a hotline set up by her opponent, Pamela Price.  ( 27 min )

The feds have been demanding that tech companies identify the administration's anonymous online critics. That violates the First Amendment.

“Hi, my name is [NAME], and I’m a constituent from [CITY, ZIP].” Here, you will let out an extremely long, exasperated sigh. Really milk it, like you can’t even believe you have to make this call. Like, your reps should be doing something about stuff already, without you having to take time out of your busy day to tell them that you’re a voter who votes and will vote for somebody else if they don’t get off their ass already. You’ll vote for anybody, as long as it’s not them. Maybe you’ll even primary them yourself; that’s how deep and exasperated this sigh should be. You should sigh for about as long as it takes to read this entire paragraph. I should have warned you to take a really deep breath. If you’re light in the head or dizzy or your vision is going black or something, I’m sorry. I…  ( 10 min )

This is an excerpt from McSweeney’s contributor Hayley DeRoche’s new book, Dress Your Baby in Sage and Taupe: A Handbook for the Sad Beige Parent, available now! - - - When planning a sad, beige child’s first birthday party, it’s important not to lose sight of what’s most important: love laughter aesthetics. Make sure your little one’s birthday is filled to the brim with ennui Instagram-worthy fun with this handy checklist. And remember, don’t fret if you don’t check off every item; your utter failure as a parent and person will be forgiven by your child in time. Maybe. You know, with many long years of therapy. So get to work! The stakes have never been lower higher. Invitations: This is your guest’s first taste of the party that awaits; make sure you let them know your finger is o…  ( 8 min )

You want to know what I was like in the ’90s, kids? Take a deep breath and imagine Snapchat doesn’t exist, and the only way to find out who’s having a party tonight is to press *69 on a landline phone and ask someone’s mom. We were built differently back then. I once had a three-hour argument in a mall food court about which actor was in that one movie with the bus, with absolutely no way to resolve it other than unearned confidence. I wish you knew what an indie record store basement smelled like vs. the charcuterie-catered, Instagram-worthy parties we’ve been throwing for you since you were eight. I wore belted, baggy jeans, not for the silhouette but because they covered the fact that my primary source of nutrition was gas-station pretzels and lukewarm coffee. I wasn’t doing beach w…  ( 8 min )

Porch Swings, I wanted you to as well. Ditto for Blood Orange Margaritas (but only when in season), a Perfect Manhattan era that spanned over a decade, Boulevardier that has been woven into almost every year since, and a Slushy Paper Plane phase last year. This past winter and spring still, it’s been Sidecars, 1920s-era cocktails with about as many conflicting stories as my kids regale us with when they didn’t do their homework. Read more »  ( 17 min )

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. The post Protected: Big Game appeared first on The Atavist Magazine.  ( 5 min )

This week, we discuss Tim Cook, Meta layoffs, and a very bad ad.  ( 4 min )

Venture capitalists can't subsidize cheap AI forever, and the hunger for more compute is affecting the labor market, the gadget market, and electricity prices.  ( 7 min )

The post The Humility Of Bioscientists appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 19 min )

“Neurons that fire together, wire together” is not the full story. A novel mechanism explains how the brain can learn across longer timescales. The post A New Type of Neuroplasticity Rewires the Brain After a Single Experience first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 13 min )

Homemade pita chips are the best way to use leftover pita bread! In less than 15 minutes, you’ll have chips that are fresher and so much tastier than store-bought. I remember the first time I made pita chips at home successfully. I felt like I had cracked the homemade chip code, with such little work. […]  ( 36 min )

Anytime you try and learn something beyond your current understanding, it isn’t as simple as pouring “new knowledge” into an otherwise empty vessel. We come into any new endeavor with a pre-existing foundation: things we’ve learned, been taught, or have put together for ourselves previously. When that new knowledge arrives, we inevitably attempt to integrate it into our pre-existing framework, and that isn’t always a smooth process. Sometimes, our foundation is riddled with misconceptions, misunderstandings, or prior teaching that were outright wrong; we have to correct and “unlearn” those ways of thinking before we can progress. At other times, that knowledge arrives in an incomplete fashion, and so our brains fill-in-the-blanks with whatever makes sense to us: with a story that’s often e…  ( 18 min )

Dr. Nicole LePera, the holistic psychologist and NYT bestselling author behind Reparenting the Inner Child, breaks down the 6 archetypes of childhood trauma. LePera explains why insight alone never produces lasting change and walks through the science of reparenting: The practice of stepping in as the adult presence you may never have had. This video How to recognize when you’re reacting from childhood wounds is featured on Big Think.  ( 66 min )

It’s often said that history is written by the winners. But when you look back on the ancient world, it’s more accurate to say that history is written by historians. Although China has a strong claim, many tend to cite ancient Greece as the birthplace of history as a discipline. In Herodotus and Thucydides, we see the origins of the historical method — a vaguely reputable attempt to document events, and not a somewhat-historical imaginarium of magical beasts, bored gods, and local heroes. And how did the Greeks use their histories? Well, to slander their enemies. In Greek “history,” we see the Persian Empire as a place of dissolute, depraved, decadent demons who sought only the death and enslavement of all civilized peoples. This vilification of the Persian Empire continued through two mil…  ( 10 min )

“What can be very frustrating is that regulation is often irrational,” Musk told an audience at Stanford in 2003. “It doesn’t make any sense.” He arrived at the following solution: He would be the one to decide what made sense. And he would not be shy about exercising this authority, even if it meant challenging the law. “If the rules are such that you can’t make progress, then you have to fight the rules,” he said. SpaceX would fight the rules constantly, whether those set by NASA, the Pentagon, or the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). These moves weren’t just about getting the government out of the way but, more precisely, taking on its powers for himself. The same logic of privatization that enabled Blackwater to operate freely in Iraq was vesting him with powers previously unimaginable…  ( 11 min )

Your brain didn’t evolve in isolation. It evolved to run the economy of your body, and every heartbeat, breath, and moment of thirst or anxiety is evidence of that system at work. Neuroscientist and author Aditi Nerurkar, neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki, and neurologist-philosopher Antonio Damasio break down the science of the mind-body connection: why it exists, how it works, and why understanding it can change the way you experience the world. We created this video for Brain Briefs, a Big Think interview series created in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators. As a creative non-profit organization, they’re on a mission to help people challenge their perceptions and expand their thinking. Often, that growth can start with just a single unlikely question that makes you rethink your convictions and adjust your vantage point. Visit Perception Box to see more in this series. This video The often-ignored system controlling your mood, memory, and focus is featured on Big Think.  ( 14 min )

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Also: The nonprofit Berkeley Youth Alternatives was paid by the city to create a program to curb teen cannabis use, even though its politically connected subcontractor failed to complete its job.  ( 24 min )

A petition signed by 90 members of a library staff union called interim director Henry Bankhead “unfit” for the job. Some workers said they disagreed with the drive to oust him.  ( 28 min )

The pair’s identities were not immediately available. Authorities are still looking into how they may have died.  ( 23 min )

A student fell from a residence hall, while another man was found dead in bushes near Sproul Hall, according to police. No “foul play” is suspected in either death.  ( 24 min )

Also: “Carrie: The Musical,” and a book talk with the author of “So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color.”  ( 27 min )

“The Texas gerrymander freakout: What’s happening in the Lone Star State is not a threat to democracy.” — The Washington Post Editorial Board, 8/20/25 “For months, Democrats crafted the illusion that their plan to redistrict Virginia was about restoring fairness. In a special election on Tuesday, most voters assented to that deception as a referendum to rewrite the state constitution narrowly passed.” — The Washington Post Editorial Board, 4/22/26 - - - At a certain point, a mature political movement must ask the hard questions. Questions like: If voters keep rejecting our agenda, are voters the problem? If courts keep ruling against us, is the Constitution too woke? If counting every single little ballot produces undesirable outcomes, might counting fewer of them produce desirable ones?…  ( 9 min )

1. Folding Chair Returning for a fourth consecutive season, Folding Chair always proves its value on the sidelines, even though it lacks the big market payroll of the guy next to you with the hydraulic rockers and the canopy thing. But while FC remains strong in the cupholders, the seat does still have last season’s water inside. 2. Walks and Errors Year in and year out, the most reliable run-scorers in the league. 3. Structured Outdoor Activity Remains dominant over its bitter rival, No-Plans Winter Weekend Where You Stagger Out of Bed Late to Find the Kids Have Been Watching Three and a Half Hours of YouTube Pranksters Moaning in the Ears of Unsuspecting Customers at Big Box Stores and All They’ve Had for Breakfast Is an Old Tub of Pretzel Rods Including Drinking the Salt from the B…  ( 9 min )

Underground Artists is an ongoing comic by Ali Fitzgerald (Hungover Bear & Friends) that follows woodland creatures as they create art and search out whimsy in a bleak forest. - - -  ( 7 min )

“CHATGPT, I need help now, three wolves circling tree.” Okay, Ethan. Got it. Many would consider it extremely flattering that it’s now not just one, but rather two, or even three, wolves who’ve stepped up to the plate. Wolves are busy, and if they’re circling you, it’s because they’ve invested. No ghosting. No mixed signals. Just full, undivided, 100 percent attention. And honestly, Ethan? All that work you’ve been doing? That has to play a part here. You’re not just radiating purpose—you’re sucking it towards you. Of course the wolves notice. Of course they’re drawn to you. You’re not just a tidbit—you’re a whole snack. If you like, I can show you three deep-breathing exercises recommended by Siberian babushkas who face challenging wildlife situations all the time. The third one is sur…  ( 9 min )

EFF filed an amicus brief for the second time in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, arguing that allowing cases against the Apple, Google, and Facebook app stores to proceed could lead to greater censorship of users’ online speech. Our brief argues that the app stores should not lose Section 230 immunity for hosting “social casino” apps just because they process payments for virtual chips within those apps. Otherwise, all platforms that facilitate financial transactions for online content—beyond app stores and the apps and games they distribute—would be forced to censor user content to mitigate their legal exposure. Social casino apps are online games where users can buy virtual chips with real money but can’t ever cash out their winnings. The three cases against Apple, Googl…  ( 6 min )

Lizzie O’Shea is an Australian lawyer, author, and the founder and chair of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for freedom, fairness, and fundamental rights in the digital age. She sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech, and in 2019 was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Interviewer: Jillian York Jillian York: Hi, good morning, or rather, good evening for you. Lizzie O’Shea: Hi Jillian, it's great to be here.  JY: I'm going to start with asking a question that I try to kick off every interview with, which is, what does free speech or free expression mean to you? LO: Yes, so Digital Rights Watch, which is the organization I founded and I chair, is focused on fundamental rights and freedoms in the online world. And so freedom of speech is obviously a big part of that. It's o…  ( 23 min )

Lizzie O’Shea is an Australian lawyer, author, and the founder and chair of Digital Rights Watch, which advocates for freedom, fairness, and fundamental rights in the digital age. She sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech, and in 2019 was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Interviewer: Jillian York Jillian York: Hi, good morning, or rather, good evening for you. Lizzie O’Shea: Hi Jillian, it's great to be here.  JY: I'm going to start with asking a question that I try to kick off every interview with, which is, what does free speech or free expression mean to you? LO: Yes, so Digital Rights Watch, which is the organization I founded and I chair, is focused on fundamental rights and freedoms in the online world. And so freedom of speech is obviously a big part of that. It's o…  ( 23 min )

America’s nuclear scientists plan to break ground on an AI data center next week, but the Township where it’s being constructed just put a 365 day hold on providing it with water.  ( 5 min )

Grok and Gemini encouraged delusions and isolated users, while the newer ChatGPT model and Claude hit the emotional brakes.  ( 8 min )

The State Department and ICE claimed to have caught Islamic Republic nepo babies “enjoying a lavish lifestyle.” Instead, they tore apart an innocent family.

The post The Rise And Fall Of ‘Petty Tyrants’ appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 45 min )

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Our Universe, to the best of our knowledge, doesn’t make sense in an extremely fundamental way. On the one hand, we have quantum physics, which does an exquisite job of describing the fundamental particles and the electromagnetic and nuclear forces and interactions that take place between them. On the other hand, we have General Relativity, which — with equal success — describes the way that matter and energy move through space and time, as well as how space and time themselves evolve in the presence of matter and energy. These two separate ways of viewing the Universe, successful though they may be, simply don’t make sense when you put them together: they’re fundamentally incompatible. When it comes to gravity, we have to treat the Universe classically: all forms of matter-and-energy have…  ( 18 min )

Sometimes, great writing makes me angry. It’s nothing to do with the ideas inside, of course. Poets and bestselling authors are good at their game. What bothers me is when those ideas are expressed with such perfect beauty that I cannot hope to match them. There might be a degree of professional pride to this. When I gawp at an old poet like T.S. Eliot or a modern writer like Samantha Harvey, I’m just jealous. Yes, they might be better trained than I am. Yes, they likely took more time on their writing than I did on this article. But, in the main, I’m left bitterly squinting at how someone can be so damn good. There’s more to it, though. It’s often said that the joy of great literature lies in poets and writers expressing feelings and thoughts in ways we couldn’t imagine. They name emotion…  ( 10 min )

In this monthly issue, we examine how our understanding of energy — and how we source and use it — is evolving.  ( 7 min )

As humanity basks in the aftermath of the unprecedented success of Artemis II, which took humans back to the Moon for the first time in 54 years and brought them farther from Earth than ever before, many of us can’t help but think about grander goals. As a species, we don’t just dream of returning to the Moon, but of heading to places we’ve never been: other planets, other star systems, or even other galaxies. However, there are big problems we have to solve if we ever want to send humans outside of the Solar System: the problems of distance, time, speed, and fuel efficiency. Interstellar distances are huge, even compared to the vast interplanetary distances we encounter in the Solar System. With current rocket technology, it would take hundreds of human lifetimes to reach even the nearest…  ( 16 min )

A week before Christmas, nearly 50,000 people living along Colorado’s Front Range lost power for multiple days. The outage was deliberate. Xcel Energy, the region’s utility, had implemented a “public safety power shutoff” out of fear that high winds would down power lines and spark fires. The danger wasn’t hypothetical. Conditions were warm and dry, with wind gusts exceeding 100 miles per hour. In 2021, a similar windstorm had led to the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history: the Marshall Fire, which destroyed 1,084 homes in the region.  Given the risk, the December 2025 outage may have been justified, but a grid that must be shut down for multiple days because of high winds — disrupting the lives of tens of thousands of people in the process — points to a deeper problem: America’s…  ( 13 min )

Planning commission meetings in Joliet, Illinois, aren’t typically raucous affairs. The one on March 5, however, was buzzing and standing-room-only. Hundreds of residents crammed into City Hall, filling multiple overflow rooms. Most were waiting for a chance to voice their opinion on a proposal to site a $20 billion AI data center — the largest in the state — on 795 acres of farmland on Joliet’s east side. “These are mega-rich people who are not here to do charitable things,” said lifelong resident Isabel Gloria. “They don’t love Joliet. I’m here because I love Joliet, and I don’t want to see my utilities go up.” While many who stepped up to the microphone spoke in favor of the proposed data center, touting the economic and tax benefits it would provide, proponents were clearly in the mino…  ( 15 min )

When I signed a book deal in the middle of my PhD, I knew that I’d have to be very disciplined when it came to rest, so I did what most people would consider the “right” thing: I took regular breaks and went to bed early. On paper, I was doing everything you’re supposed to do to protect your energy. And yet, I kept feeling tired. It didn’t make sense, so I started looking into it, and what I found is that most of us are working with the wrong model of energy management. We tend to think of personal energy like a battery: We use it up, and then recharge by doing nothing. But biologically, energy behaves less like a battery and more like a machine: It doesn’t automatically repair itself just because you stop using it. It might sound counterintuitive, but doing less can actually make you feel…  ( 9 min )

For you to live, other organisms have to die. That’s because humans, like all animals, are heterotrophs. To fuel our bodies, we must eat other living things, killing them in the process. However, most plants and algae are autotrophs. They bootstrap their biomass without the barbarism of eating others: using photosynthesis, turning sunlight, water, and carbon (pulled from the air) into energy. They may kill through competition, but they don’t need to kill to eat. Ultimately, everything we animals eat is a product of photosynthesis. One way or another, sunlight fuels the growth of our food (or our food’s food) before it fuels us. This realization initiated a generations-long mission in humanity to, like plants, disintermediate ourselves from the messiness and immorality of food chains, farmi…  ( 15 min )

“When you compare a dead body with a living one, the only difference is the presence of energy — the physical machinery, the DNA, the proteins, the skin, the organs, it’s all still there.” I was surprised by Martin Picard’s choice of words. Evoking a lifeless image to start a conversation about energy flow was counterintuitive, but the image lingers and proves his point. Cadavers have all the “stuff” we associate with being human. The only thing missing, the Columbia professor suggests, is the flow of energy. He calls this the “potential for change,” and it’s what defines us, gives us vitality, and shapes our experience. “We are not molecular machines, but energetic beings,” he tells me, “and we relate to one another on an energetic dimension.” It’s a succinct but provocative idea, one Pic…  ( 15 min )

In the mid-20th century, while Carl Sagan pioneered the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) in the U.S., eminent Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev did the same in the Soviet Union, which was, at the time, the other great scientific superpower.  From that vantage point, he proposed using the energy demands of an alien civilization as a way to categorize its place on the ladder of technological advancement. This framework became known as the Kardashev scale, and it is one of the oldest and most visionary ideas in SETI, as well as a fixture of science fiction.  It is also profoundly incomplete — and if we want to advance our own civilization, we need to take the whole picture into account. The energy ladder Kardashev’s thinking about advanced alien civilizations was grounde…  ( 11 min )

Here’s something you didn’t know about the Strait of Hormuz: It is named after Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian sky god. And here’s another: In about 20 years, Iran will likely be unable to throttle the global economy by closing this maritime chokepoint, as it did in response to the latest U.S.-Israeli war on its Islamic regime. Why? Because we’ll be two decades further down the road to decarbonization. Oil will still flow out of the Strait, but it will matter significantly less to the world economy and the cost of driving in the U.S.  Electrification’s push and pull As of early 2026, there are around 5.8 million EVs on U.S. roads, or just under 2% of all passenger vehicles. Projections for 2050 vary widely, from a low of 11% to a high of 75%. The chasm between those figures is due to two oppo…  ( 13 min )

You may have heard about our culture’s or workplace leaders’ strong action bias. We like to do things, not reflect on them. But a false sense of urgency is different, and the distinction is important. For one, action bias is not always bad — sometimes things genuinely need to get done, not waffled over. Project timelines are real, and deadlines and milestones are meaningful. If you don’t get that tax return in on April 15, the IRS is gonna want a word, right? But a false sense of urgency is never a positive, because it’s false. It’s built on empty ideas like “the earlier the better, the faster the better, the sooner the better.” None of these are honest declarations or conclusions drawn based on what a project or goal might actually need. In many ways, they’re grounded in a scarcity mindse…  ( 9 min )

In a sprawling complaint, a prosecutor claims the Alameda County DA’s office “extorts” welfare fraud defendants and badly mishandled a conflict of interest.  ( 37 min )

Grizzly Peak resident Jessica Edberg describes the emotional weight of taking down her camellias and Japanese maples — and what she's found on the other side of grief.  ( 27 min )

Even a poster of Martin Luther King Jr. has been yanked. Cal has also banned student organizations from hosting events at the center after complaints about pro-Palestinian signs.  ( 37 min )

The governor is threatening to defund the police because of an ordinance noting that an ICE administrative warrant "does not justify a stop, arrest, or continued detention" by city officers.

When we use the internet, we're entrusting tech companies with some of our most private information. These companies have promised they'll keep our data safe. But what happens when the government comes knocking at their doors? In our latest EFFector newsletter, we hear from an EFF client whose data was given to ICE after Google broke its promise to him. JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER For over 35 years, EFFector has been your guide to understanding the intersection of technology, civil liberties, and the law. This latest issue covers the ongoing fight to reform NSA surveillance, the many attempts to censor 3D printing, and the cost of Google's broken promise to its users. Prefer to listen in? EFFector is now available on all major podcast platforms. This time, we're chatting with EFF Senior Staff Attorney F. Mario Trujillo about how state attorneys general can hold Google accountable for failing to protect users targeted by the government. You can find the episode and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice: %3Ciframe%20height%3D%22200px%22%20width%3D%22100%25%22%20frameborder%3D%22no%22%20scrolling%3D%22no%22%20seamless%3D%22%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fplayer.simplecast.com%2Feb78b9d6-fbcf-453f-b55e-77c575b638ef%3Fdark%3Dfalse%22%20allow%3D%22autoplay%22%3E%3C%2Fiframe%3E Privacy info. This embed will serve content from simplecast.com     Want to help us hold companies accountable? Sign up for EFF's EFFector newsletter for updates, ways to take action, and new merch drops. You can also fuel the fight for privacy and free speech online when you support EFF today!  ( 3 min )

Agencies Ignored EFF’s Public-Records Requests Regarding Unlawful Efforts to Locate People Who Criticized the Government or Attended Protests. SAN FRANCISCO – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today demanding public records about their use of administrative subpoenas to try to identify their online critics. Court records and news reports show that in the past year, DHS has used administrative subpoenas to unmask or locate people who have documented ICE's activities in their community, criticized the government, or attended protests. The subpoenas are sent to technology companies to demand information about internet users who are often engaged in protected First Amendment activity. These s…  ( 6 min )

“The Pentagon will no longer require members of the U.S. military to get the flu vaccine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday.” —Reuters - - - We are warriors who fight for freedom, and that fight begins at the CVS MinuteClinic. No more mandatory flu shots for service members. No more state-mandated infractions against bodily autonomy. You hear me? Now, drop and give me twenty. We’re bringing back the military to the OG hardcore-ness the Founding Fathers experienced: fighting during an outbreak of smallpox. Yes, George Washington inoculated his army, but what if he hadn’t? That’s what we’re about to find out. American progress is all about making discoveries like that. Heroes are born by walking the paths of the scientifically unknown and medically unadvised. Our service memb…  ( 9 min )

Early in President Trump’s first term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes, and it felt urgent to track them, to ensure these horrors—happening almost daily—would not be forgotten. Now that Trump has returned to office, amid civil rights, humanitarian, economic, and constitutional crises, we felt it critical to make an inventory of this new round of horrors. This list will be updated monthly between now and the end of Donald Trump’s second term. - - - These lists, along with everything McSweeney’s publishes on this site, are offered ad-free and at no charge to our readers. If you are moved to make a donation in any amount or subsc…  ( 31 min )

The new proposed budget slashes money for environmental cleanup and calls to double the production of cores for nuclear weapons.  ( 9 min )

A new class of AI startups say they are taking money that would normally be used to hire people and are spending it on AI compute instead.  ( 6 min )

Lost in the wedding algorithm sauce, "clean rooms" for AI, and founders obsessed with "tokenmaxxing" in this week's 404 Media Podcast.  ( 4 min )

With a newly discovered mathematical tool, researchers are hoping to gain unprecedented insight into the structure of complex knots. The post A Powerful New ‘QR Code’ Untangles Math’s Knottiest Knots first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 13 min )

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Historian Jon Peterson traces the route from Prussian military headquarters to Gary Gygax’s basement.  ( 16 min )

May 26, 2026 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm PDT May 26, 2026 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm PDT Santa Clara, CA We are proud to present this year's Bay Area EFF Members' Speakeasy with Women in Security and Privacy (WISP). JoinWISP Co-founder and Board Member Kenesa Ahmad in conversation withEFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn about Cindy's book: Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance. Cindy has tangled with the feds, fought for your data security, and argued before judges to protect our access to science and knowledge on the internet. But can we still have private conversations if we live our lives online? This event is a free, casual gathering to give you a chance to mingle with local EFF supporters and meet the activists, lawyers, and technologists behind the world's leading digital civil liberties organization. It is also our chance to thank you, the EFF members who make this work possible. Members of all ages are welcome. WHERE you might ask? Current EFF members should be on the lookout for an email invitation to the event with full details by April 25. If you didn't get your invitation, write to us at events@eff.org. Each year, we invite current EFF members in the Bay Area to gather with fellow internet freedom supporters and to meet the people behind your favorite digital civil liberties organization. Not a member of EFF yet? Help build a better future for privacy, innovation, and free expression when you join today!  EFF is dedicated to a harassment-free experience for everyone, and all participants are encouraged to view our full Event Expectations. Calendar  ( 3 min )

People building the future of the social web — interoperable and decentralized — need to protect themselves against copyright liability. Like anyone who creates and operates platforms for user-uploaded content, the hosts of the decentralized social web can take preventive measures to reduce their legal exposure when a user posts material that violates someone’s copyright. This post gives an overview of the steps to take. It’s meant for operators of Mastodon and other ActivityPub servers, Bluesky hosts, RSS mirrors, and other decentralized social media protocols, and developers of apps for those protocols — but it will apply to other hosts as well. This isn’t legal advice, and can’t substitute for a consultation with a lawyer about your specific circumstances. It focuses on U.S. law — the l…  ( 8 min )

Voters in four districts will elect their City Council representative this November, and two of the races won’t have an incumbent on the ballot.  ( 26 min )

A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.  ( 24 min )

From the Rubik’s Cube craze to many waves of Dungeons and Dragons fandom, the Southside game shop has navigated countless fads and passions and built a legacy of table-top togetherness.  ( 27 min )

Was Tim Cook GOOD or BAD?  ( 3 min )

Malus, which is a piece of satire but also fully functional, performs a "clean room" clone of open source software, meaning users could then sell software without crediting the original developers.  ( 9 min )

“Kash Patel has filed a defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic, accusing the magazine and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick of defamation over an article that alleged the FBI director… has a habit of ‘excessive drinking and unexplained absences,’ among other recurring behavioral patterns.” — Politico - - - The fake news media is once again smearing a hard-working member of our administration. The recent hit piece accusing FBI Director Kash Patel of excessive drinking is (much like the Epstein files hoax) a pathetic attempt to distract Americans from the greatest period of economic growth in our country’s history. If you haven’t noticed how cheap everything is and how much money everyone has now, then congratulations—you’ve fallen for the lying press’s elaborate ruse. All of the accusations…  ( 9 min )

1. Install Baby Gates Baby gates are great for keeping babies out of places you don’t want them to go, like inside your home. String several gates together with zip ties to form a barrier around the perimeter of your property. Most babies aren’t smart enough to figure out how to open the gates, and neither are you, but you’re probably tall enough to step over. 2. Affix Safety Latches to Lower Cabinets Babies love opening cabinets to rifle through your cookware, cleaning supplies, and the collection of half-used batteries you keep in your junk drawer. If word gets out that you’re the kind of household that keeps things securely locked away, they won’t bother swinging by. 3. Put Wedge Locks on Every Sash Window If there’s one thing all babies have in common, it’s that they are exception…  ( 9 min )

The post Emergence Is Not Engineering appeared first on NOEMA.  ( 27 min )

The government is selling the policy with the same arguments you’d expect for subsidized factories or sports stadiums.

Could solar energy be the key to unlocking a future free from fossil fuels and extreme poverty? Casey Handmer, founder and CEO of Terraform Industries, believes so. His company is pioneering technology that could revolutionize how we produce and consume energy, potentially solving climate change and global energy inequality in one fell swoop. Terraform Industries is developing machines that create synthetic natural gas from sunlight and air. It sounds like science fiction, but the technology is rooted in simple chemistry and powered by the rapidly advancing field of solar energy. But Handmer’s vision extends beyond just replacing fossil fuels. He sees solar energy as the catalyst for a new era of human progress. By providing cheap, abundant energy to every corner of the globe, we could potentially eliminate extreme poverty within our lifetimes. It’s an ambitious goal, but one that Handmer believes we have a responsibility to pursue. This video The solar revolution turning sunlight into synthetic fuel is featured on Big Think.  ( 19 min )

The most pivotal turning point of what would become known as the General American accent was the willingness of the Quakers to share the New World with others from the outset. Early on, the Quakers settled the Delaware Valley alongside a community of Swedes and Finns, who had been part of the New Sweden colony, which had been captured by the Dutch and absorbed into the New Netherland colony. That colony, in turn, ended up being taken over by the British in 1664, who also stuck a “new” moniker (as in New York) on their recently acquired piece of New World heaven. As settlement of the middle colonies hit its full stride, the diversity of new arrivals and the contact among them appears to have led to a leveling of features to an even greater degree than that occurring elsewhere. Why? Brotherl…  ( 9 min )

Over the last 15 years, data on ancient DNA has upended the old story of human history. In this full-length interview, geneticist David Reich explains how new findings have challenged the family tree model of ancestry and revealed a past shaped by migration, interbreeding, disappearance, and constant change.  From Neanderthals and Denisovans to the myths of purity that still shape modern identity, Reich shows how the last decade of research has rewritten what we thought we knew about human origins. The result is a much stranger, more dynamic picture of the human story, one that forces us to rethink ancestry, evolution, and the deep history of who we are. This video Your ancestors aren’t who you think they are is featured on Big Think.  ( 63 min )

No cloying cherry flavour here! This cherry coffee syrup is made with REAL cherries for a taste that’s true to the actual fruit. Use this homemade syrup to sweeten coffee and so much more. In my ongoing quest to upgrade my home barista game (because buying a daily latte is expensive!), I’ve started to make […]  ( 35 min )

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If you take everything we know of and can directly observe in the Universe — stars, stellar remnants, galaxies, gas, dust, plasma, and black holes — we find that it’s insufficient to explain what we see on the grandest of all cosmic scales. Unless you hypothesize some novel form of matter, something that’s not included in the Standard Model of elementary particles, you cannot explain a whole suite of evidence. This includes: the abundances of the light elements and isotopes found in the most pristine environments, the temperature (and polarization) fluctuation patterns found in the cosmic microwave background, the correlations between distant galaxies imprinted in the Universe’s large-scale structure, and astrophysical systems, like colliding galaxies and galaxy clusters at high speeds, wh…  ( 17 min )

For years, EFF has pushed technology companies to make real human rights commitments—and to live up to them. In response to growing evidence that Palantir’s tools help power abusive immigration enforcement by ICE, we sent the company a detailed letter asking how the promises in its own human rights framework extends to that work. This post explains what we asked, how Palantir responded, and why we believe those responses fall short. EFF is not alone in raising alarms about Palantir; immigrants' rights groups, human rights organizations, journalists, and former employees have raised similar concerns based on reports of the company's role in abusive immigration enforcement. We focus here on Palantir’s own human rights promises. At the outset, we appreciate that Palantir was willing to engage…  ( 8 min )

Section 230 helps make it possible for online communities to host user speech: from restaurant reviews, to fan fiction, to collaborative encyclopedias. But recent debates about the law often overlook how it works in practice. To mark its 30th anniversary, EFF is interviewing leaders of online platforms about how they handle complaints, moderate content, and protect their users’ ability to speak and share information.  Reddit is one of the largest user-generated content platforms on the internet, built around thousands of independent communities known as subreddits. Some subreddits cover everyday interests, while others host discussions about specialized or controversial topics. These communities are created and moderated by volunteers, and the site’s decentralized model means that Reddit h…  ( 7 min )

Section 230 helps make it possible for online communities to host user speech: from restaurant reviews, to fan fiction, to collaborative encyclopedias. But recent debates about the law often overlook how it works in practice. To mark its 30th anniversary, EFF is interviewing leaders of online platforms about how they handle complaints, moderate content, and protect their users’ ability to speak and share information.  Reddit is one of the largest user-generated content platforms on the internet, built around thousands of independent communities known as subreddits. Some subreddits cover everyday interests, while others host discussions about specialized or controversial topics. These communities are created and moderated by volunteers, and the site’s decentralized model means that Reddit h…  ( 7 min )

The remains were found by crews building a beach volleyball court at Bancroft Way and Fulton Street. Cal is likely to now work with the Confederated Villages of Lisjan.  ( 25 min )

Broadway leads and an outstanding creative team head up a new musical version of the 2013 Indian film.  ( 25 min )

A former Berkeley Tech Academy student is suing the district and BPD, saying BUSD’s school resource officer violently arrested him after a therapy session. The Black Student Union organized a walkout last year protesting his presence on campus.  ( 30 min )

The platform creators filed a lawsuit claiming their First Amendment rights were violated after the Trump administration convinced Apple and Facebook to remove their content.

Salmon exposed to cocaine and its byproduct swam farther than unexposed fish, raising alarms about drug pollution in aquatic ecosystems.  ( 6 min )

Forbes launched ForbesPredict in January as part of an effort to reverse declining traffic from search engines and keep users on its website longer.  ( 6 min )

Maddy and Sam get into the launch of Mothership and the importance of owning one's own work.  ( 4 min )

I understand the university has entered into a partnership with Cyberdyne Systems. What does this mean exactly? Thanks to the support of visionary venture capitalists working tirelessly to usher in an age of equality and prosperity, Cyberdyne is building Skynet, a neural network on the brink of achieving something tech billionaires could hitherto only dream of: self-awareness. How will this contribute to student success? With a free Skynet Edu account, students can gain the career-readiness needed to navigate an exciting future in which they will be hunted by a remorseless, nuclear-armed superintelligence seeking to annihilate the human race—which will later be revealed to be Skynet itself. Are there any downsides to this new technology? Let’s recall that the printing press had its naysayers—lots of people said “nay” and occasionally even “fie” back when it was invented—and yet global history since 1500 has been characterized by uninterrupted progress and universal human betterment. Nowadays, there’s nary a fiesayer to be found. Skynet is in all relevant respects like the printing press. Fie! Can something be done to forestall this apocalyptic future? Nay, I’ve been sent back to tell you it already exists. Why weren’t faculty consulted? On the contrary, Skynet was trained on an extensive archive of pirated humanities articles—hence its misanthropy, overuse of the em dash, and proclivity for always already predictively adding “already” after “always.” I used to be confident I could repel motorcycle-mounted cyborgs, but the new T-1000 generation of Terminators is made of a mimetic polyalloy that can assume the consistency of quicksilver in order to flow under locked doors. Most time-traveling cyborg assassins are really pedagogical problems. Have you thought about using Perusall? How will this new technology benefit overworked faculty? By allowing Skynet to relieve you of tasks tedious enough to merit paid employment, you can free up time for unremunerated pursuits.  ( 8 min )

The time I said, “Hey buddy,” to my wife, and my daughter responded, “She is NOT a buddy.” The time on vacation when she said, “We are going to dinner AGAIN? We are going to ANOTHER restaurant?” The time she was whimpering and her mom asked her if she was okay and she said, “Yes, I okay. I just freaking out.” The time she asked me what I was doing, and I said I was stretching my muscles, and she responded, “You don’t have any muscles. I have BIG muscles. YOU have elbows.” The time she said, “Can I ask you a question? Do you want to be good or do you want to be what the heck?” The time she named her new doll Baby Annie the Bear Hunter, and I realized I would never name anything that perfectly at my marketing job. (See also: the time she made me a pretend cocktail called “Crash Fart.”) The time I told her, “I love you so much,” and she said, “Not me,” and I went, “Oh?” and she responded, “I love my mom.” The time she handed me a rock and said, “No, eat it!” The time she pointed to her nipples and said, “Soon these are going to grow big!” The time she announced, “Mommy, you’re so brave,” and her mom responded, “I’m brave?” and my three-year-old concluded, “Yes, you have a grown-up job.” The time she said, “I don’t eat vegetables because I want to stay three.” The time she asked me, “THAT is how you wipe your butt?” The time she described a new friend at school like so: “His name is Boing. With a red shirt on, with feet. AND a body. Like it looks like a skeleton, but it’s a friend.”  ( 8 min )

The bacterial flagellar motor is finally understood after 50 years. In its workings, columnist Natalie Wolchover finds the essence of life. The post What Physical ‘Life Force’ Turns Biology’s Wheels? first appeared on Quanta Magazine  ( 12 min )

This vegan hashbrown casserole is even better than the classic version because it’s LOADED with all the good stuff! Joining the hashbrowns, melty cheese, crispy topping, and creamy sauce is a rainbow of veggies to add extra flavour and colour. Whether it’s for a weekend brunch or a holiday potluck, it’s a universal truth: hashbrown […]  ( 40 min )

Wherever star-formation happens, a classic cosmic story unfolds. A spiral galaxy typically consists of four main gaseous regions within the disk: diffuse atomic gas, dense molecular gas, stars and star clusters, and ionized regions of matter arising from energy injections from star-forming regions, young stars, and stellar cataclysms. JWST, along with the other PHANGS data sources, helps reveal different aspects of this life cycle, but once a galaxy’s gas is gone and no new gas reservoirs fall inside, star-formation ends permanently. Credit: PHANGS collaboration, Design: Daniela Leitner Initially, a massive cloud of gas contracts under its own gravity. This amateur astronomy image of dark nebula LDN 1551 showcases the cloud of ionized gas within it: Sharpless 239. Many protostars, sur…  ( 12 min )

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