Other events include a forum to dicsuss a new Berkeley waterfront ferry, the play "Reposessed" and free vaccines for children.
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The post The Rise And Fall Of Liberal Democracy’s Shared Fiction appeared first on NOEMA.
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Just 10.5% of first-year applicants were accepted, and the number of in-state first-years offered admission ticked down.
( 27
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More than a dozen travelers have been detained in recent weeks, prompting immigration lawyers to warn visa holders, asylum seekers and other noncitizens about the risks of flying.
( 25
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At Crazy Block Cheesecakes, Monday night karaoke earns diners 10% off their meal, turning a weeknight lull into a lively neighborhood gathering.
( 29
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The council narrowly rejected a proposal to study changes that would encourage cyclists to ride on other nearby streets, and instead directed staff to revive stalled plans for protected bike paths on Hopkins.
( 26
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The varroa mite killed her colony of 20,000 honeybees. Then Jennie Durant interviewed commercial beekeepers and investigated the threat industrial farming poses to the country’s pollinators.
( 27
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One of the California health department's experts on plague, anthrax and tularemia, she also taught microbiology at Berkeley City College and worked with Cal's Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness.
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"I have a right to speak. I'm here to speak. I have a right to clap, and if you want me out, you're going to have to drag me out."
( 8
min )
What happened when Flock came to Matthew's town; the rise of no phone Luddite events; and the influencers just making up BS about Flock.
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min )
A new AI data center can be up and running in a year. Building new energy infrastructure to power it could take a decade.
( 7
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New calculations seem to have put a 25-year-old particle physics puzzle to rest. But they’ve also created a clash with other experimental results.
The post Physicists Solve a Big Quantum Mystery. Now, Old Results Don’t Add Up. first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Ugliness might stop houses being built – but not in the way you think.
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About half the space for dogs is still unusable and repairs remain ongoing seven weeks after a fire shut down the Berkeley Animal Care Services facility near Aquatic Park.
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A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 26
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Estate sales fuel a second-hand economy of sellers, collectors and retail stores who all have one thing in common: a hunger to find a bargain.
( 34
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Read more »
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The U.S. government has charged Samuel Tunick with allegedly typing in a passcode to wipe his phone before officers could search it. “I hope people understand that the charges against me are meant to intimidate people,” he said.
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“They didn't understand it was satire in the beginning until the end,” Casa Grande, Arizona resident Jacob Petrosky told 404 Media. “They were not happy, they were very upset.”
( 7
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“I’m not going to apologize for using AI in the creation process.”
( 6
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Apple’s Sensitive Content Warning is supposed to protect users from unwanted nude images. It accidentally blurred my friend’s dog video.
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“We want our system to be simple, fun, and fair to everyone. So, to make sure that customers aren’t gaming the rewards by buying our cheaper wines to quickly...
( 7
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The post Inside The Lab Growing Mutant Bacteria To Terraform Earth appeared first on NOEMA.
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Most countries will never have frontier AI. They’re the ones who should be worrying.
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“Are you a participant in a battle of wills with a roommate over who will be the first to give in and do the dishes?”
( 7
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The Wikimedia Foundation waited until immediately after its largest annual conference to say it wouldn't voluntarily recognize its workers' union.
( 5
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Police refused to release the arrest report, saying it could "could interfere with ongoing investigative efforts."
( 6
min )
Joseph speaks to Mike Yeagley about how he bought the world's location data, and what that means for everyone's privacy and security.
( 4
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Claude users are creating public share links, but probably don't realize that means their chats are now ending up in Google searches where anyone can dig through them.
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Spotify doesn’t label AI music on its platform, so websites like SoullessMusic.com and SlopTracker.org do it instead.
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City leaders will decide on an updated plan this week to build the long-debated bike lanes, at the expense of more than 100 parking spaces.
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The second annual festival brought together 60 low-intervention wineries from across the Bay Area for tastings, conversations and to celebrate the local wine community.
( 28
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Saul Zaentz rented space to documentary filmmakers for next to nothing in West Berkeley’s Fantasy Studios. Seven movies made there over four decades are screening next month.
( 29
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An organelle discovered inside a microbe inside a cow’s gut helps explain how livestock burps contribute to warming our planet.
The post A New Way That a Cow’s Inner World Shapes Earth’s Atmosphere first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Coming soon: Dead After Death! Starting on August 1, NPR Music will publish a week-long special series of stories and podcast episodes exploring the legacy a...
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Scientists have predicted that human linguistic diversity flourished between 3,000 and 1,000 years ago, before declining with the rise of multinational states and colonial expansion.
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This globetrotting cold fusion dish boasts south-east Asian, Middle-Eastern and even Italian influences, producing sweet and sour notes and a chilli kick
Can a person in a heatwave ever have too many cold noodle dishes? I’d wager no – hence today’s recipe. It started life as one of my favourite meals, the mighty spaghetti pomodoro, but then packed its bags and travelled through the Middle East, picking up some tahini along the way, then on to Indonesia for some heat (sambal oelek), and then hopped over to Vietnam for a final hurrah of fresh lime, coriander and peanuts. The result is a creamy but perky tomato sauce that can live in the fridge for up to a week for the too-hot-to-cook days.
Continue reading...
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How the words we teach English language learners changed
( 60
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A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 24
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Questions facing Berkeley residents in 2026 include whether to double the soda tax, increase sales taxes and pay new parcel taxes to support the arts and create a public bank.
( 29
min )
She reviewed contracts for the Navy before transitioning into family law and later disability law. She was also a devoted mother, a loyal friend, a swimmer and a world traveler.
( 26
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This week, we discuss astrology, Flock on the brain, The Odyssey, and more.
( 4
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The post The 2026 Berggruen Prize Essay Competition Topic: ‘A New Axial Age?’ appeared first on NOEMA.
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Plus: A 5 Tacos & Beers employee was attacked and robbed while leaving work, and the Downtown Berkeley Association has named a new leader.
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The owners of Airship Electrolysis in the Elmwood help patients get gender-affirming care covered by insurance, and have worked to bring more trans people into the profession.
( 26
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The Westbrae bagel shop, known for its New York-style bagels, is opening a second location on University Avenue.
( 26
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She worked hard to help struggling students graduate and find jobs, staying in touch throughout their lives. She also founded the Computer Academy, now known as AMPS.
( 29
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Other events include Shotgun Players's "Iphigenia in Splott," a winemaking celebration and an author talk for a queer vampire noir novel.
( 28
min )
A judge in Indiana warns a court reporter than it's their job to proofread their work, after catching errors likely made by AI transcription services.
( 4
min )
Flock's CEO Garrett Langley says people don't understand the capabilities of its ALPR system, but they do.
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In an internal email shared with creators, CEO Jack Conte wrote that AI doesn’t replace human creativity — but it does affect how the company operates.
( 5
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Instagram influencers are creating fake cease-and-desist letters, making themselves go viral and muddying the waters about mass surveillance.
( 8
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From phone location data, to social media monitoring, to online undercover tools, a document obtained by 404 Media lays out the surveillance tech available across ICE agency wide.
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A team captured first-of-its-kind footage of orcas holding a sunfish carcass still and ramming it so hard that it burst into fragments, which may be a form of social play. “We could hear the sound,” said one researcher.
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Join us for our latest FOIA Forum where we teach you how to pry records from the government.
( 4
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One of the most contested issues in astrophysics is our understanding of the Universe’s expansion. Adam Riess discusses why there is disagreement and what might resolve it.
The post How Fast Is the Universe Really Expanding? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
( 45
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Shayan Oveis Gharan has won the Abacus Medal for using tools from across mathematics to boost the power of algorithms.
The post A Master of the Traveling Salesperson Problem Finds His Own Path first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Focus, commitment, and insight resulted in a “once in a century” proof. Hong Wang is now just the third woman to win a Fields Medal.
The post Living Fully in the Math World Means Threading the Needle first appeared on Quanta Magazine
( 18
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Determination and effort propelled Jacob Tsimerman to the top of the math world. But now that he’s won a Fields Medal, he worries that the field is in jeopardy.
The post Sometimes Being First Means Seeing the End Before Anyone Else first appeared on Quanta Magazine
( 18
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John Pardon sees connections between different areas of math that others don’t. For that vision, he’s now been awarded a Fields Medal.
The post The Quietest Mathematician Has Always Been Worth Listening To first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Before he won a Fields Medal for his pioneering work balancing randomness and order, Yu Deng first had to achieve equilibrium in his own life.
The post Amid Life’s Chaos, a Meticulous Mathematician Finds Stability first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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The post The Real Problem Plaguing Asia’s Most Important Relationship appeared first on NOEMA.
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Legal intern Suzanne Castillo was the principal author of this post.
The Fourth Circuit issued a disappointing opinion in U.S. v. Belmonte Cardozo, a case in which EFF filed an amicus brief, alongside the national ACLU, its Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia affiliates, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL).
We argued that electronic device searches at the border should require a warrant based on probable cause, but at minimum, regardless of whether an officer searches by hand or with forensic software that plugs into a device and downloads its entire contents for search, the same Fourth Amendment standard should apply to all device searches at the border.
Unfortunately, the court rejected that argument and ruled that a lower standard applies …
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Intermediary liability laws around the world recognize that social media platforms, search engines, and other online service providers have become an integral part of our lives: they shape how we access information, communicate with others and participate in public debate, and foster innovation online. These laws generally shield platforms, to varying degrees, from legal liability for user content: the responsibility for unlawful speech should rest primarily with the speaker, not with those who merely host it.
These liability protections are not a gift for platforms. They exist so that platforms are not encouraged to proactively monitor and filter what we say online, or to remove even lawful speech simply to avoid legal risk.
This is why a recent judgment by the EU Court of Justice, Coy…
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Co-owners Sara Rahimian and Stacie Frederick, who both pivoted from tech industry careers, took over the Bartavelle space in 2025 and recently purchased Henry's Service with plans to convert it into a cafe.
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Her 12th novel, “A Perfect Hand,” has a Victorian marriage plot — with a twist. Other new Berkeley books include poems written on the Tamalpais fence in Codornices Park and a look at the influence of UC Berkeley faculty’s brown-shingle summer homes on Inverness’ architectural history.
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The Trump administration cancelled $2 billion of research grants to University of California professors. Their legal team says it has proof that those terminations were unconstitutional.
( 28
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Most who failed to show up at Concord Immigration Court in July for the new "mega master" hearings got deportation orders. “It’s a trap,” one former immigration judge said.
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My small town in South Carolina will soon have more Flock cameras than police officers.
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"For the time being, if you or someone on your crew has availability to secure black plastic bags (or something else) over the cameras, that would be great."
( 5
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How cops are using Flock to look for specific people; the company buying mountains of books for AI companies; and the big Suno hack.
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Here's how your personal address travels from your credit card provider, through middlemen companies, and ends up with ICE.
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They say employees are underpaid and the hotel is understaffed.
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He made Cal Performances a destination for the world's most celebrated artists and companies — the Bolshoi, Alvin Ailey, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Yo-Yo Ma and countless more.
( 29
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A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 26
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Revenue from the sales tax has helped preschools stay afloat in Berkeley and beyond. Soon, the measure will also set a $25 minimum wage for childcare workers.
( 27
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“My Program Did the Wrong Thing!” Bugs are a ubiquitous phenomenon in the software world. And—essentially by definition—each one of them is somehow unique and unexpected. But—particularly given their ubiquity—one might wonder whether there could perhaps be some kind of general “scientific” theory that could be developed about them. My goal here is to explore […]
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Is it really plausible that children survived the terrible hardship of medieval life without devoted parents?
( 5
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Do you have to show ID to get unlimited pasta at Olive Garden? Yes. Is this the same as secure voting? Definitely not.
( 6
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For a year, Apple knew that an issue in its Hide My Email feature was exposing customers’ real email addresses. Apple only fixed the issue after 404 Media covered it.
( 5
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ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”
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The post What Humanity Needs To Flourish In The Next Decade appeared first on NOEMA.
( 43
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Welcome to Issue 15.
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“A video just a few seconds long and accompanied by a simple question, ‘What am I looking at?’ was enough to turn a Seattle raccoon into a global internet sensation this week. The viral critter—dubbed ‘Jimothy’ by the internet—has a shorter spine than the average raccoon. His unusual appearance is likely the result of a congenital deformity in his spine.” — Oregon Public Broadcasting
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It would seem I have become a minor celebrity on your information channels. It would also seem I have become something of an avatar for your collective longing for a better world, one that contains more whimsy and delight and less discord and horror. I am not immune to flattery, surely, but I regret to tell you that the weight of your longing is a bit much for my (apparently hilarious) abbreviated spin…
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Hola, Chad aquí, de Greenwich, Connecticut, a muy blanco área of los Estados Unidos. A few weeks ago, I decidir to watch Estados Unidos vs. Paraguay in fútbol. Normalmente, I watch “football” and not “fútbol—¡Soy muy americano!—but I was curioso about the Copa Mundial; also, Pilar, mi guapa neighbor from España, asked if me gusta fútbol, and I said, “sí.” ¡Qué mentira!
¿El problema? The Copa Mundial was on Fox televisión, but mi antena is muy mala. When Estados Unidos switched to televisión digital a few años ago, they said we’d get every channel. ¡But la verdad is nobody recibir channels anymore! Or not buenos channels, like “ABC” or “CBS”—only Cozi TV and some muy religiosos ones. I could have streamed on FS1 or Fox One, but I already pay for diez suscripciones, and I didn’t querer spen…
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Most of the arrests happened in California communities, rather than at the border. The data comes from a project based at UC Berkeley.
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Provocation Theatre hosts weekend performances and classes for the quiet, the thoughtful, the loud and the funny. A four-day festival this weekend is themed “Bigger, Better, More Gay!”
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Repeat arrests of participants dropped from 43% to 18%, but the program’s funding expires in December.
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She also worked as a dance educator for the San Francisco Ballet and developed the dance program at the Athenian School in Danville.
( 25
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Extremophiles that thrive in the most unforgiving environments aren’t just biological curiosities. Understanding their resilience has many implications for us.
The post The Organisms That Make Earth’s Harshest Places Home first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Cops and drone companies seem increasingly eager to put weapons on their drones.
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The mummified remains of 4,000-year-old Egyptian royals suggest that they were buried with weapons because they could use them, not for symbolic reasons.
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When Ubisoft's Watch Dogs 2 was released in 2016, it was a headtrip for those of us working on digital-rights issues in the Bay Area. During the day, I'd fight tech-authoritarianism from EFF's San Francisco offices and then, at night, I'd fight tech-authoritarianism in an uncanny simulation of San Francisco from my home gaming console.
Watch Dogs 2 is an open-world video game that follows a hacktivist collective called Dedsec as they take on surveillance tech and discriminatory AI systems that are being controlled by tech bros, government contractors, and corrupt cops. The game's missions often felt like they were ripped from the pages of EFF's Deeplinks blog.
EFF’s mission is defending civil liberties in the digital world, and we do that with activists, technologists, and lawyers. If …
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Renderings from the developers show five apartment buildings rising over what is now the station's parking lot. Here’s the first public look at what the project could become.
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A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
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Red Oak Realty offers advice to homeowners considering their next move.
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Next year, during certain times in proposed “entertainment zones,” you may be allowed to order booze from a bar and sip it outside places like Berkeley Rep, La Marcha or Chez Panisse.
( 28
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“President Trump used a rare prime-time address Thursday night to renew his attacks on the security of U.S. elections…Trump said China had accessed voter data of 220 million people in 18 states, but that information is generally publicly available and does not contain information that would allow a bad actor to change votes or hack into an election system.” — Los Angeles Times
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Our nation’s voting system is broken. Americans should be able to trust that when they go to the polls, their votes will be counted. Instead, millions of citizens now no longer believe the United States has free and fair elections. We must hold those responsible for this distrust accountable.
Our administration recently uncovered definitive proof that our nation’s voting infrastructure has been used for nefar…
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The post The Heated Debate In Europe Over Air-Conditioning appeared first on NOEMA.
( 12
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We're celebrating with TWO NIGHTS of good times: A live taping of the podcast, and a party the following night! Paid 404 Media subscribers get free and discounted access. Details below.
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This week, we discuss AI music, slop bowls, and the endless quest for optimization.
( 4
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A new procurement record says ICE wants access to personal data, including names, Social Security numbers, and ethnicity, to investigate in part what the agency calls “voters fraud.” It also plans to use the data to investigate immigration fraud.
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The biologist’s bold “energetic view of life” looks to the body’s strangest organelles as the link between cells, health, and mind and the foundation of our experience of being alive.
The post Martin Picard’s Mitochondrial Theory of Mind first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Also: A photo spread of student protesters in the Berkeley High yearbook is under investigation by the district because it includes a photo of a student holding a sign justifying the Oct. 7 attack.
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ICE and the State Department took a 30-year-old into custody last week near Telegraph and Woolsey, with plans for deportation. ICE claims the person had violated terms of a visa, but has not said how.
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Litter and illegal dumping are a problem from the Marina to Grizzly Peak. Here’s what people are doing to help — and how you can pitch in.
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One of the most popular dishes at the Emeryville restaurant is inspired by chef Tony Tung's favorite afterschool snack while growing up in Taiwan.
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Opponents accused the council of militarizing a department they feel cannot be trusted, while police said access to dogs and aircraft will help them save lives and solve crimes.
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Other events include a car meet on Fourth Street, a tragicomedy performance at Live Oak Park and a tank house walking tour.
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“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday a new mandatory screening program to test all service members age 30 and older, including women, for testosterone deficiency annually.” – New York Times
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In the past, Washington said the real dangers facing Americans were nuclear weapons, cyberattacks, China, terrorism, and online radicalization. I, too, have seen many of these reports.
But none of them capture the true threat facing the American public: low testosterone levels.
Numbers don’t lie. Since we started testing testosterone levels yesterday, the results were the worst this country has ever seen. Effective immediately, every god-fearing soldier will be jacked to the gills with T.
Consider the modern battlefield—a brutal and unrelenting place. On a remote base outside…
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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.
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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…
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For the first time, scientists found that a rocky planet in the habitable zone of its star has an atmosphere. It’s the best place to look for alien biosignatures, scientists say.
( 6
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The post How AI Is Rewriting Human Nature appeared first on NOEMA.
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EFF and ARTICLE 19 have submitted joint comments to the European Commission on draft guidelines for the Digital Services Act’s trusted flagger mechanism. Having long advocated for a DSA that protects freedom of expression while preserving intermediary liability protections and the prohibition on general monitoring, we welcome the Commission's effort to provide practical guidance on how the trusted flagger system should operate.
The DSA’s trusted flagger system can help platforms identify illegal content more efficiently. But if implemented poorly, it could also encourage over-removal of lawful speech, weaken due process, and give government authorities disproportionate influence over online expression.
We support the Commission's focus on good practices and illustrative examples, rather …
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UC officials will speed up a decision on whether to revive a standardized testing requirement, after a push led by UC Berkeley math professors.
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Coming from Oakland and San Francisco, Jamie Parks will oversee the department handling street paving, safety projects and other city infrastructure.
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Oakland’s newest queer bar has caviar bumps, cruising corners and your Ex’s Ex.
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A prophetic voice in the world of homeless journalism, he was a lifelong advocate for peace, justice, and the people whose voices are often left unheard.
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Oura Rings, Garmin GPS fitness watches, Apple Watches, Whoop bands—every year, more and more tech devices are promising to monitor our health and fitness, guide us toward healthier living, and provide useful health metrics to take to our doctors. But few of these tools provide the sorts of privacy and security promises we demand from all technology, let alone tech that captures personal health data. It’s time they step up and start providing transparency reports and stronger encryption options.
Surveys suggest that around 40 percent of people in the United States own some sort of commercially available wearable health device. Despite being marketed as health devices, they have no special health-related privacy protections that one might hope for. The companies who make these devices can an…
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Your total is $6.99.
You added relish. Your total is $7.99.
You added mustard. Your total is $8.99.
You tried to remove mustard. Your total is $9.99.
You tried to add ketchup. What is wrong with you? Your total is $12.99.
We queried the Google Maps API and saw the closest open restaurant is 40 minutes away. Your total is $17.99.
You added sport peppers. Your total is $18.99.
We noticed you’ve been drinking at the dinky bar next door for the last four hours and are assuming you’re pretty desperate. Your total is $26.99.
You added a pickle spear. Your total is $27.99.
We subpoenaed OpenAI for your ChatGPT transcripts and learned you’re going through a bad breakup and are being really pathetic about it. Your total is $34.99.
We saw your recent mopey Instagram posts and learned this …
( 10
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ChatGPT flyers are everywhere; how Waymo drove some kids to the cops; and a $3,000 suit that electrocutes your muscles.
( 4
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Hacked source code reveals how Suno scraped decades worth of music and podcasts from the internet to train its AI tool.
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Federal officials have not confirmed who, if anyone, they detained or arrested, or their basis for doing so. Berkeley police do not cooperate with immigration agents, part of the city’s sanctuary policies.
( 27
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A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 26
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Despite OAK changing its name to boost business, spiking jet fuel costs and higher ticket prices are dampening travel demand.
( 24
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The post Why We Demand Perfect Machines Yet Tolerate Human Carnage appeared first on NOEMA.
( 17
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Remap Radio’s Rob Zacny and Emanuel dive deep into their current favorite game, Marathon, and what its middling success says about the future of games.
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Vibecoding has made it possible to create a cheap rip off of a video game in just a few hours.
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The U.S. Postal Service said the Solano Avenue branch would resume services soon but did not say exactly when. People could access their post office boxes as of Monday.
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Serotonin Scoops makes ice cream with extra protein, prebiotics and no added sugar.
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Kuboba Spot, 84 Viet, True Burger and Koja Kitchen were also among the recent East Bay restaurant closures.
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Police can track vehicle movements with Flock's license plate-reading cameras and have asked for more Flock hardware to build out a network of fixed-surveillance cameras. Critics say the tools are ripe for abuse.
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Pole Poll #1: Is the defining sound of West Berkeley the train whistle, the Bayer alarm, a murder of crows or the bicycle megaphone man?
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The 35-year-old Cal transfer student, who overcame foster care and incarceration, is remembered for her compassion and resilience. She was studying public policy to improve the lives of people who grew up like her.
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This week we’re joined by Dr. Angela Jones, who asks these questions and much more in their new book, Sex in Public.
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The Los Angeles Police Department let its Flock contract expire over the weekend in part because it was regularly "investigating" and surveilling innocent people.
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Celebrities like George Clooney have praised the expensive Katalyst suit. For me, it derailed my other exercises and made me reassess my obsession with fitness and efficiency.
( 4
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Welcome to the AI-generated poster hall of shame.
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For more than a decade, the strange light patterns emitted by “Tabby’s Star” have sparked speculation about alien megastructures and exotic natural explanations. The discovery of a giant planet is a new twist.
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It would apply to unincorporated parts of the county. Berkeley, where the minimum wage is now $19.61 per hour, would remain free to set its own floor.
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ChaHalo, Oakberry, Dropo Sushi, Divan and Glom were among the several new restaurants to recently open in the East Bay.
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Alexander Popov, the co-owner of Cornerstone, took a plea agreement in Solano County in which another 12 felony counts of stealing from an elder were dismissed. It’s the latest allegation of financial misconduct in his decades-long history of court battles.
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For their book “Normalizing Inequality,” two UC Berkeley professors spoke with dozens of Californians clinging to a middle-class lifestyle — seeking to understand how they make sense of living here.
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In his 24-year coaching career, the team won two state championships and seven in Northern California. He also taught students from first through eighth grade and was an assistant principal at all three of Berkeley's middle schools.
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ChatGPT uses too many dream sequences and Gemini won’t stop describing characters.
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This week, we discuss mobile podcasting, participating in the meme, and vertigo.
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By now, many of you have probably read or heard about the recent exposé revealing a secretive society in which the wealthy and the famous hunt poor people for sport. I more than understand fans being concerned about my reported involvement when they’re seeing bizarre headlines and posts about panels where we allow the poor person to plead for their life and the dinners in which an unhoused man is mockingly honored as “the king of the hunt” when we put a construction paper crown on his head and feed him empty banana peels and crusts of bread.
In other words, my critics are missing the nuance of my membership in the wealthy people hunting poor people for sport club.
To be clear, I have only been to three or four hunting poor people for sport conferences. Three. Or four. That’s not quite a …
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The post China’s Open AI Models Are Advancing Its Global Soft Power appeared first on NOEMA.
( 9
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Researchers thought that what enabled complex fluids to break apart was their elasticity. But a crack in a nonelastic simple fluid has them questioning that idea.
The post We Know Simple Fluids Can Flow. Turns Out, Some Can Fracture. first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Also: A Berkeley woman's family has been devastated by Venezuela's earthquakes.
( 23
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Rebecca Alcalá-Veraflor, a top San Francisco Public Library official, was appointed Berkeley’s new director of library services.
( 26
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Thursday and Sunday nights at 51 & Tel in Temescal went from slow to slammed with the launch of watch parties for the popular Peacock show.
( 29
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In a rare move, the board will appoint a replacement for director Ana Vasudeo. Applications are due July 29 and a new director will be selected in August.
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Other events include a presentation on the future of Golden Gate Fields, a Women's History Month celebration and a Latin American music jam.
( 28
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A UC Berkeley graduate treasured for her caring nature, empathetic listening and generosity, she ended her career at Farmers Insurance as an associate trial attorney.
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As a purveyor of maternity attire, we feel pregnancy is sacred, divine, and an opportunity to celebrate the beauty of e-commerce by repurposing fabric originally intended for sails on a line of girly sailboats and re-dyed circus tents. For a limited time (eighteen months from the date you google anything remotely obstetric), we will bombard you with ads for our sacks, compression socks, and other polyester wonders, like rompers. For more formal occasions: overalls.
Congrats, Mama!
Your blossoming bosom deserves support, so for select Shapeless Maternity Sack designs, we’ve licensed a delicate Shein ruching technique for the top and added a blunt square neck. Prices start at $18.99 and don’t stop, because we have implemented location-based demand pricing, like Uber.
We love that your are…
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“Creators deserve credit, compensation, and consent. If that's not on the table, the crawlers can stay the fuck off Patreon," CEO Jack Conte wrote on Thursday.
( 5
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The FTC's settlement with John Deere actually has teeth, unlike previous settlements that largely maintained the status quo.
( 7
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An AI detection company found that amount of AI content that users actually see in their day-to-day browsing is shockingly high.
( 7
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Last May, EFF reported that a sheriff’s office in Texas searched data from more than 83,000 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras to track down a woman suspected of self-managing an abortion. ALPRs are promoted as tools for keeping communities safe by finding missing persons and locating stolen vehicles, but this case showed how ALPRS can be weaponized to investigate people’s private healthcare decisions. And these aren’t the only tools in the surveillance arsenal: others include location tracking tools like Locate X, which can show a person’s visit to an abortion clinic, or search histories which might be used as evidence of a person’s interest in obtaining abortion pills. Taken together, these tools create a dangerous surveillance pipeline that threatens everyone’s health privacy…
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Google owes its existence to the open web, but today, its technological “innovations” have much to do with locking users into a “walled garden.” The latest of these is “reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification,” an experimental initiative that will let companies block users if they are running independent, "de-googled" versions of Android. These “indie Android” versions are favored by people who want to protect their privacy and their attention by blocking trackers and ads. Worse, this is just the latest in a line of similarly user-hostile measures.
Long before “agentic AI,” we had the idea that software would act as your agent on the internet. That's why the old-fashioned technical term for a browser is a “user agent.” Your browser acts on your behalf to retrieve information and then show it to you…
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Astronomer David Kipping discusses why claims of extraterrestrial life keep dissolving under scrutiny, why we need a more statistically grounded approach to searching for life beyond Earth, and why it’s rational to believe that we may be alone.
The post Will We Ever Find Alien Civilizations? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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The post AI’s Greatest Gift To Humanity appeared first on NOEMA.
( 27
min )
Imagine a wearable device that records every moment of your day and makes suggestions based on your mood.
( 6
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One of the co-founders of MintStars, a subscription site used by adult content creators, announced she's giving her entire stake in the company to a pool for the platform's creators and to the nonprofit SWOP Behind Bars.
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"Hey if this is your flyer, I’m not going, I’m not donating, I’m not sharing. Don’t ask me."
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min )
"Sorry to brands like WNPETHOME, EHEYCIGA, YXYL, LU&MN, JOYIN, TOMY, GODONLIF, YOOJEE, LINGTENG, LANEIGE, VISCOO, BIODANCE, COOFANDY, BALENNZ, TOSY, and LUENX."
( 5
min )
How companies are burning through their AI tokens; and the fake AI-generated flowers all over Etsy, eBay, and Amazon.
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“Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the former majority leader, was hospitalized on June 14. Since then, his office has provided few updates about his condition. The scant official statements have led to speculation around Washington and efforts to piece together information on what happened.” — New York Times
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Everyone knows that Democrats want to force the government into our private lives. They’ve spent decades shoving public schools and fire departments into communities that never asked for them. Now, Democrats think that Big Government should be monitoring the health of America’s senior senators.
Thankfully, Republicans are standing up for medical privacy and the sacred relationship between doctors and their political patients.
For weeks, Senator Mitch McConne…
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The oversubscribed program now requires a $4 copay and caps how much the city will cover per ride. Some seniors say the new system is hard to navigate.
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Local doomers say “Colossus: The Forbin Project,” filmed at the Lawrence Hall of Science, is a newly urgent warning about the danger of unchecked AI.
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Several people reported seeing an armed man near the Haas School of Business around 3 p.m. but officers did not locate any suspects, according to school officials. Police gave the all-clear shortly after 4 p.m.
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A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 24
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Over 100 people incarcerated by the county when they were underage claim they were subjected to rape, strip searches, and other violations.
( 25
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The firm is undaunted by the old wiring in Berkeley's historic homes, and helps owners bring houses up to code.
( 25
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June saw tax measures fail at the ballot across the Bay Area. Transit advocates are betting that a mass transit tax will be different.
( 26
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At a recent mid-run performance of the world-premiere musical, the audience was roughly half South Asian and half older white Berkeleyan.
( 26
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“An oysterman who has never held elected office, Mr. Platner has been dogged by controversies since he announced his bid [for Maine Senate seat] last August, including allegations about his past treatment of women, revelations of a tattoo he had that resembled a Nazi symbol and a trove of offensive online posts he made over more than a decade.” — New York Times
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Boy, do I feel silly. Until now, I’ve been a passionate supporter of SS-Sturmbannführer Arnold Toht, the Nazi who got his face melted off by the sight of God, in his race for Senator. I believe the people of Maine deserve better than Susan Collins, and so even though I had some misgivings about Toht, I ignored every click and whirr of my moral compass to cheer him on.
Sure, he didn’t have much of a record in government—well,…
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The post Pakistan’s Rise To A Middle Power appeared first on NOEMA.
( 23
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The San Mateo Police Department posted on Facebook: “Parents do you know where your teens are? Waymo does!"
( 4
min )
Researchers found that a single dose left persistent changes to the genomes of neurons, a discovery that could have implications for treating addiction.
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America kept on trying to get me to go to her birthday party. She does this every year, but this time it got really weird. She sent reminder after reminder, over and over again, that it was going to be her birthday soon, like, months in advance.
“I’ve actually been celebrating for a while now, but I don’t think I’ve seen you at any of my parties?” she’d say to me, slurring her words.
“Oh, yeah, no, sorry,” I said. “I’ve been super busy.”
“But it’s my birthday. I’m two hundred and fifty.”
“Happy birthday.”
“Thanks.”
I thought maybe that would be the end of it, but she just wouldn’t let up. And she got more and more aggressive as the day approached. Last week, she wobbled over to me, completely out of her mind, mumbling something about how the news is saying it’s almost her birthday.
…
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“‘A total disappointment’: revelers face unbearable heat at Great American State Fair.” — The Guardian
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I drove from Dubuque for this, you know. My remaining friends are all longtime Nyarlathotep supporters, and the ones still able to speak coherently always tell me my homemade Dread Lord memorabilia is top-notch. Hats, T-shirts, beer koozies, flaying scythes—I make ‘em all myself. There’s even a diner in town that sells some of my wares. You know the place; The New York Times interviewed me there two or three times about my thoughts on various issues.
So when my buddy suggested I toss some of this swag into my truck and hit the road for President Nyarlathotep’s Great American Shitshow, I thought, “Why the hell not?” The kids are off at college, at least that’s what they told me bef…
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City leaders are closing a 47-year-old lifeline a year after ending a similar non-police crisis response unit launched post-George Floyd. They’re asking Alameda County to pick up the slack without extra funding.
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Join the Nosh team July 18 at Temescal Brewing for an afternoon of food, music, prizes and more.
( 25
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The seven pro-Palestinian protesters, all with Berkeley ties, were found guilty of multiple lesser charges after a Tax Day protest in 2024 that blocked Bay Area traffic on the bridge for hours.
( 25
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A lifelong freelance writer, he wrote Playboy's annual “Celebrity Christmas Carols” parodies in the 1970s and contributed many comedic op-eds to the San Francisco Chronicle.
( 25
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We rounded up a dozen of the most creatively curated, whimsical little libraries in the city.
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A Florida police officer met a woman on a TV set, surveilled her for weeks, stalked her, and nearly caused a head-on collision while chasing her to pull her over.
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A spicy, umami-rich salad provides sweetness and crunch alongside these simple Chinese-style courgette pancakes
This week marks nine years since I started writing this column, and here’s something I’m excited by: that we’ve only just scratched the surface when it comes to our collective knowledge about Asian cuisine. When it comes to Chinese food, for example, we might know a fair bit about, for example, Cantonese or Sichuan food, but what about Fujian or Hunanese? There are still so many riches to discover and excellent meals to be had. Today’s offering is a small token in that vein: a simple vegetable pancake made with courgette, known as hutazi and straight from the homes of Beijing. I’ve taken the liberty of embellishing it with some hot and sweet cucumbers.
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This week, we discuss the Supreme Court, the private jet, and AI on the TV.
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Berkeley Unified trimmed its budget by $11.2 million for the 2026-27 school year, but a $7 million gap is projected for the following year.
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From gluten-free pizza to grain-free wontons, we sampled takeout dishes from Paltrow's latest wellness venture.
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A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 25
min )
Hundreds of volunteers working out of a small Berkeley office send around 30,000 books each year to people incarcerated across the country.
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Other events include a Sindependence Day celebration and a production of "Scabmuggers, the Play" by Berkeley labor organizer Yvonne Martinez.
( 27
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Are you George, Alexander, Thomas, or Ben?
( 7
min )
Faced with observations of early black holes and galaxies that weren’t expected to exist, scientists have come up with a wealth of new theories to explain them. Now they just need to figure out which ones are true.
The post Astrophysicists Puzzle Over Webb’s New Universe first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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The post When The Machines Deserve Our Consideration appeared first on NOEMA.
( 25
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Sources and leaks from Amazon, Adobe, Atlassian, Citi, and more show what is really happening with AI right now: companies are trying to rein in AI use as costs spiral out of control.
( 7
min )
Plus: A team of Cal grads have developed a platform for reporting problems with autonomous vehicles, such as reckless driving or accessibility issues.
( 25
min )
Meanwhile, Berkeley is seeking bidders other than Flock for its surveillance network expansion and approved new rules Tuesday for handling video feeds shared with police.
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The new restaurant is a mix of the classics, fresh updates, and features two colorful underwater murals from Bay Area artists.
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Whether your student is on the BUSD waitlist or attending a non-district school, these are some local after-school programs and tips for enrolling.
( 39
min )
Law professor John Yoo was a senior Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration and authored memos justifying “enhanced interrogation” techniques after 9/11.
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“It was so unnecessary,” said Councilmember Mark Humbert, who’s pushing to simplify approvals after a seven-month dispute between neighbors over a hot tub permit escalated to the City Council in 2024.
( 25
min )
How companies are burning through their AI tokens; and the fake AI-generated flowers all over Etsy, eBay, and Amazon.
( 4
min )
Researchers discovered that people found AI impersonators to be more authentic, coherent, and relevant than the real politicians, raising alarm bells around the potential for public deception.
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”Hide My Email users deserve to know that it may be possible for attackers to discover their hidden email addresses,” the person who reported the issue said.
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“A bare majority of five justices, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that the long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, makes a citizen of anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions.” — The Associated Press
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Every serious legal mind must inevitably face a fundamental choice: Read the Constitution and apply its words as the bedrock laws of the land, or transcend its tired text and interpret the super-secret invisible version that tells you exactly what you want to hear.
Sadly, many Americans remain trapped in the former dimension of understanding; that dim-witted first stage of constitutional awareness where one looks at the document, finds the relevant words, and believes the words mean something.
This is wh…
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The post America At 250 & Beyond appeared first on NOEMA.
( 44
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Scientists built a synthetic cell that combines more lifelike properties than ever before — proof of concept that it’s possible to bring nonliving materials to life, or something close to it, in the lab.
The post For the First Time, a Cell Built From Scratch Grows and Divides first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Two Dutch brothers invented a system that transformed a city previously ravaged by fires
( 9
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The Lawrence Hall of Science, the UC Botanical Garden and the Tilden Steam Train will also be closed. Fireworks remain banned in Berkeley, Oakland and in East Bay parks.
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Prices are going up for AC Transit fares. Again.
( 25
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A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
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With help from Bayer and others, the nonprofit will soon move into its own kitchen.
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With city restrictions soon to expire on income and sale price after 30 years, residents of a 14-unit communal living group in Poet’s Corner wonder if its founding values will survive the open market.
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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 )
Meta's new Starfire AI glasses, made in partnership with Kylie Jenner, are giving me the creeps.
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Henrico County is a major hub for data centers in Virginia. Its officials said it expects a 25% rise in electricity costs next year, and advised workers to close the blinds and turn off their computers to make up for it.
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Ebay, Amazon, and Etsy are unable to stop the flood of AI-generated seed scams.
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A senior OpenAI employee has contributed code to the project, simply called 'caveman.'
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My journey inside the world of LARPing, where hustlebros pretend to be rich for TikTok.
( 12
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The post We Need A Way To Prove Personhood Online appeared first on NOEMA.
( 42
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Everyone knows RCTs are the gold standard of evidence. ….Right?
( 18
min )
Seven activists, all with Berkeley ties, blocked the span in 2024, protesting genocide in Gaza. Jurors resume deliberations Monday in the nationally watched felony trial.
( 34
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University of California leaders and scientists had supported the bill, which they called critical to securing the future of science in the state.
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Masala y Maiz, a Mexico City restaurant whose founders met in Oakland, is championing a worldwide pay-what-you-can day on Aug. 26. with more than 75 participants.
( 28
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The former House speaker will co-teach a course on Congress at Cal when the Nancy Pelosi Institute launches in January.
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A Berkeley library worker for 22 years, he was a devoted audiophile and managed a rec baseball team in Berkeley called the Ozone Rangers.
( 26
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Americans across the nation are celebrating the country’s 250th birthday this July 4.
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Spotify competitor Tidal built a reputation by collaborating with musicians and focusing on audio quality. How will it handle the era of AI-generated slop?
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min )
Reporting from Microsoft Gardens, next to Salesforce Beach, Amazon Port, and the Canva Creative Cabana.
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Which teams don’t need asterisks by their title?
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Recordings of laughter from humans and other great apes suggest that the distinctive rhythm of "ha ha ha" emerged in a common ancestor that lived at least 15 million years ago.
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An easy cheese, peas and egg dish, enhanced with leeks and greens, makes a crowdpleasing summer meal
Whenever I think of cheese and peas together, I think of “Cheesy peas!”, a fictional food advertised to “northern types” by Paul Whitehouse as part of a comedy sketch on The Fast Show, a television series broadcast in the UK in the 1990s. The advert went like this: “Think cheese! Think peas! Think cheesy peas! They’re great for your teas. It’s easy-peasy with cheesy peas, please!” I couldn’t agree more, and I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce today’s recipe for a simple, summery frittata, except to say: think about eggs and spinach too.
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A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 25
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Nine years after a lawsuit spurred a reckoning around literacy education in the Berkeley Unified School District, a new curriculum and culture have taken hold.
( 27
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Kai Wang, a seventh grader at Longfellow Middle School, is also a multi-sport athlete and talented musician who co-designed a nature lab at the California Academy of Sciences.
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From a Coast Miwok site dating back to 6,000 BC to Jack London’s former cottage in Sonoma County, the pass offers free admission for a year to 33 historic state parks.
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min )
This week, we discuss talking aloud to computers, Cannes, and “Engineering Creativity: Guac Is Extra."
( 4
min )
Decades ago, Paul Erdős used randomness to illuminate the vast and weird world of networks. Now mathematicians are making his technique even more powerful.
The post After 80 Years, Mathematicians Give Famed ‘Erdős Method’ an Upgrade first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Also: A man was in critical condition after a motorcycle crash at Channing and Fulton Sunday night.
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Victims, including 399 Alameda County households, have lost more than $211,000 so far this year.
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Alumni of the collective gathered at the Berkeley Hillside Club to share wild and surprising stories of the influential shop’s founding and evolution.
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It’s part of a suite of changes to the corner of Adeline and MLK, including a new Miyawaki micro-forest, decorative fencing, boulders and benches.
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For 18 years, the Oakland clinic has provided medical care — more than 62,000 office visits — free of cost.
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Other events include a clothing swap meet at BAMPFA, Disaster Preparedness Family Game Day and a Midsummer Market at Donkey and Goat Winery.
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min )
She was a leading voice in community school development, helping craft legislation behind a $4.1 billion state grant program funding a vision of public schools as community hubs.
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Dear applicant,
After five rounds of interviews, three personality evaluations, a lie-detector test, electroshock therapy, and a metaphysical ascension into the unconscious plane, we’ve decided to go with a candidate whose experience more closely aligns with the listed position.
To be honest, the job you applied for was what we in the HR section of Dante’s third circle of hell (Gluttony Division) would refer to as a “ghost posting.” Not in the sense that the job you applied for wasn’t real, but that we would prefer a candidate who is willing to dedicate not only their living flesh vessel to the position but also at least five to ten years of their ethereal form in purgatory limbo towards furthering our business’s growth. Per your question about benefits and upward mobility, there was a p…
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min )
Lauren Williams tells 'The Joy of Why' how studying a fundamental object in algebraic combinatorics led to a career full of surprises.
The post What Is the Positive Grassmannian and Why Does It Show Up Everywhere? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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We spoke to Darren Blanchard, the man arrested while speaking out against data centers at a community meeting. He's sharing the bodycam footage of his arrest for the first time with 404 Media.
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min )
The post How AI Will Change Us appeared first on NOEMA.
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Mow a series of lawns as efficiently as you can. We will publish the analysis in a few weeks.
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Twenty city workers face layoffs, and more than 100 vacant positions will be eliminated.
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The Arab street food restaurant with California sensibility returns to Oakland after its first restaurant in Fruitvale closed in 2021.
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min )
When prosecutors were found to have wrongfully excluded Black and Jewish people from juries, several men were freed from prison. Now the county faces a costly legal reckoning.
( 28
min )
The post Trump’s Iran War: The Midwife To A Renewable Energy Future appeared first on NOEMA.
( 10
min )
Physicists have discovered that the dark matter structures that scaffold the universe—known as the “cosmic web”—are far larger and more persistent than expected, challenging a core assumption about the universe.
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The new policy, which forbids "noise infusion" as a technique for anonymizing data, will "handcuff" the Census Bureau and limit what information becomes public, data experts say.
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Snap's AR Specs glasses are indeed very heavy, very dorky.
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min )
A surreal but compelling LLM experiment with Age of Empires II; how a Texas city sold land meant for a park to a data center company; and the Madison Square Garden hack.
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min )
Hackers stole more than 45GB of data from Madison Square Garden, including data related to “talent” and the Knicks. Clues in the data point to how the hackers got in.
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min )
Leaked audio from Accenture says a big source of AI token ‘chewing’ is people just converting PDFs to presentation slides.
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From tangy jollof rice to gooey, vegan cinnamon rolls, 15 food vendors spiced up the annual celebration.
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The board is opting not to hold a special election as Vasudeo leaves next week for a seat she ran unopposed for on the Alameda County Board of Education.
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A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
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min )
KoBold Metals, headquartered above a downtown tattoo shop, is boosted by Trump’s admin as it prowls the world for critical minerals, and is funded by a who’s who of tech titans.
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At 81, the multi-media artist, best known in Berkeley for her public sculpture in tribute to her mother’s fight to underground BART, is in the spotlight like never before.
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The post What Comes After The Refugee Camp appeared first on NOEMA.
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“All he has done is try to start a right-wing/conservative pressure group within Wikipedia.”
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min )
Public records show dozens of libraries have self-censored to avoid attracting negative attention.
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The document, titled “Facial Recognition Activists.docx,” includes specific activists’ comments about MSG's facial recognition program and tweets criticizing it.
( 4
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Explore the Buttolph Collection from the New York Public Library's archive of historic menus
What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us about America?
What is it like to live in a world you believe is about to end?
( 11
min )
The new shop on Ashby Avenue, where vendors sell goods during the week, is part of a broader effort to bring more attention to South Berkeley's long-running weekend market.
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min )
Tenants who have lived at a Sacramento Street apartment complex for decades fear what might happen as their property goes on the market. Mayor Adena Ishii wants to put $1.3 million toward a program that could turn it into permanently affordable housing.
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Herndon's boutique firm takes a limited number of cases each year, putting a great deal of research into each one.
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In a moment, I will activate your baby’s cochlear implants. For the first time since she was born, she will be able to hear the world around her. You’ve probably thought a lot about the first thing you’d like to say to her. Maybe it’s her name, or that you love her very much. And there’ll be time for that later. First, I need to show her this YouTube video of the band Angine de Poitrine playing in France in 2025.
Seriously, have you seen this yet? It just came on my TikTok one day. It’s fucking sick.
They’re these two dudes, and they wear these wild polka-dot outfits and these weird masks with floppy noses, and it’s all instrumental music, but it’s, like, microtonal or whatever. I’m not doing it justice. It sounds like it’ll suck big time, but somehow it absolutely slaps.
Now, it can be…
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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and a proposed nuclear weapons AI data center in Michigan have earned the ire of community leaders.
( 7
min )
Joseph speaks to Jake Hanrahan all about Patreon, YouTube, and getting journalism in front of people.
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min )
Books written for younger audiences are being relocated to adult sections at alarming rates. We asked experts to predict what that means for the rest of us.
( 9
min )
Recent observations suggest that dark energy is changing over time. Theorists wonder if dark matter is, too.
The post A Dark Dimension Could Link Two of the Universe’s Great Unknowns first appeared on Quanta Magazine
( 11
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The AI buildout is bottlenecked by energy. But America has the electricity to power its data centers; the problem is getting it to them.
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A seismic wave from the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake bounced off the Earth’s core and hit Japan from below, shifting the entire mainland a quarter-inch eastward.
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This cool summer dish can be easily enhanced with a range of store-cupboard staples
What’s your favourite hot weather food? Mine’s gazpacho. I’m joking – gazpacho’s lovely, but cold noodles are my top pick because, in the summer, they meet me exactly where I am in both the cooking and the eating. They don’t need much by way of cooking, and they can be dressed and paired with many a store-cupboard ingredient – in today’s case, tahini, miso and sesame oil. Best of all, cooling the noodles shocks the starches, which makes them firmer and gorgeously “QQ”, a Taiwanese term used to describe food that’s delightfully bouncy and springy. Which personally, is how I’d like to feel all summer long.
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This week, we discuss questionable analysis, mysterious parcels, and the Knicks (sorta).
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There are 348 students still on the waitlist for LEARNS, the district-run aftercare program. Officials outlined steps to increase access.
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The chef-owner of alaMar and Sobre Mesa co-authored the recently released "Caribbean Cocktails" which includes small bite recipes in addition to drinks inspired by the Afro-Latino diaspora.
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Other events include free lunch for kids and teens, a mini music festival and a gathering to learn more about and watch the summer solstice.
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For 150 years, paleontologists assumed that the first vertebrates to leave the sea for land evolved a tadpole phase, similar to modern frogs. Immaculately-preserved fossils disprove that, scientists say.
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“The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily."
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The leaderboard, sorted by executive and the teams underneath them, has a feature that shows users which employees have not earned the badges. “click to see who 👀,” the leaderboard says.
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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.
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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…
( 34
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Childbirth may be the most painful thing a person can experience, but we have the technology to numb the pain.
( 7
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In 1688, England swept away the encrusted vetocracy that had held back economic growth for centuries. Could we do the same today?
( 18
min )
Our genetic heritage is not a blueprint or an algorithm, as many biologists have imagined, but something else entirely.
The post Why the Human Genome’s Tangled Physicality May Confound AI first appeared on Quanta Magazine
( 17
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The post The Mars Delusion appeared first on NOEMA.
( 52
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There is no magic wand
( 108
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Also: A 21-year-old Cal student is dead after being swept to sea in Santa Cruz County, and a UC Berkeley alum has been arrested in China and accused of spying.
( 25
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Peter Taraba’s dog was taken from him and brought to the shelter the day before he was captured on video starting the fire, police say.
( 26
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A judge agreed Tuesday to admit him to a mental health diversion program, which could see his charges thrown out, and ordered him released into in-patient treatment and GPS monitoring.
( 26
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The 0.5% sales tax increase would patch a $9 million hole in the city’s budget, while the bond could be used to renovate the 911 dispatch center, prepare for sea level rise and more.
( 27
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The East Bay’s first point-to-point endurance race began in the hills, then circled through Tilden, Lake Chabot and Redwood regional parks. It ended at Oakland's Skyline High.
( 33
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The post The Warfare Of The Future Is Already Here appeared first on NOEMA.
( 14
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All right, here we go. I’m so bad at these icebreakers, and you all had such interesting facts.
First one: I’m a Beyoncé superfan, and I’ve seen her in concert seven times. One time, my friends and I waited behind the venue for like two hours after the show, and she signed my T-shirt before getting on her tour bus.
Second: I went to middle school with a guy named Dennis Schröder. He plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers now. I’m not a big NBA fan, so I don’t know how much he plays, but I shared a few classes with an NBA champion.
And the third one: When I was twenty-two, I visited my sister in Louisiana. We were heading to some party and must’ve gotten turned around because suddenly we were out in the middle of nowhere. The sun was going down, there were no street lights, and, of course, he…
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A decades-old proof showed that seven shuffles are enough to mix up a deck of cards. But it requires you to cut the deck with the precision of a professional magician. A new proof gets around that obstacle.
The post Seven Perfect Shuffles Randomize a Deck of Cards. But How Many Sloppy Ones? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
( 11
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A $10 million procurement reviewed by 404 Media indicates ICE is buying records related to immigrants’ tax identifiers. “It looks for all the world like Trump is trying to skirt the law and a court order to fuel his mass-deportation campaign,” Senator Ron Wyden said.
( 4
min )
The FCC's proposed changes to getting a phone plan; cops keep stalking with Flock; and a software update changes the AC in Amazon vans.
( 4
min )
The counselor, who is 27, is facing eight felony counts. University officials said the camp was run by a third party but did not identify which program.
( 25
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Guinness still needs to verify before awarding Holly Reese — also known as the Lavender Legend — the women’s record she's held twice before.
( 28
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The shooter fled toward the South Berkeley transit station, police said. Officials are seeking leads from the public.
( 23
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WriterCoach Connection, launched at Berkeley High in 2000 and spread to schools from Oakland to El Sobrante. Former volunteers are working toward a revival.
( 28
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Young actors journey through Grimms' fairy tales in Sondheim classic.
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June 23, 1988 is when we launched Version 1.0 of Mathematica. Today—almost 38 years later—we’re launching Version 15 of what—in recognition of how far it’s expanded beyond “math”—we now call Wolfram Language. It’s an impressive release, with a lot of new core functionality. It might perhaps seem surprising that after 38 years there’d still be more to add. But it’s like the typical arc of intellectual history: the more one’s figured out, the further one can see, and the more one becomes able to do. And for all of us working on it, it’s been a very satisfying process: year after year building an ever taller tower of ideas and technology, with which we can reach ever further—today to all the functionality of Version 15.
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Vaccinating wild animals can protect human health, and spare animals from extinction and suffering.
( 10
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The post AI & Drones: Eric Schmidt On The Biggest Revolution In The History Of Warfare appeared first on NOEMA.
( 17
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The data contains a list of "talent," including former Knicks players and coaches, and whether other celebrities are considered "Low Risk" or "High Risk." The data also contains emails between customers and MSG.
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Several prominent restaurants recently shuttered in the East Bay, as did a plant-based meal service.
( 27
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The arts-focused community space for people with mental health challenges is one of seven wellness centers in Alameda County that are shutting their doors.
( 25
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Investigations into fatal shootings by California police now take so long that officers often can’t be decertified or prosecuted.
( 29
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The only plausible response to videos of aliens on television, at this point, would be cries of “that’s AI,” “fake,” and propaganda flowing in all directions.
( 7
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The judge found that Meta’s attempt to blame the pirating of thousands of Vixen.com and Tushy.com porn videos on rogue employees “strains credulity.”
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"We show that a tiny snippet—just 13 words—of retrieved text on a UGC website like Reddit, Wikipedia, Quora, or Facebook can change AI agents to output spam / scam content pretty consistently."
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Plausible answers range from 17 to — in all seriousness — 995.5.
The post How Many Elementary Particles Are There, Really? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
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Rats have conquered nearly every place on earth where humans live. Only Alberta soldiers on.
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A massive whale graveyard in the Indian Ocean contains the remains of hundreds of extinct whales dating back more than five million years, along with recent carcasses that support hotspots of seafloor life.
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Ever since Stanley Tucci got me into fried courgettes, I’ve been obsessed. And, of all the ways I’ve used them since, this is by far my favourite
I had my head turned by fried courgettes while watching Stanley Tucci eat spaghetti alla Nerano (on Searching for Italy). So much so, in fact, that I went so far as to book a table at Lo Scoglio da Tommaso in Nerano while I was in Italy last year, only to be thwarted by a broken-down car. Still in search of the pleasure, my husband, Hugh, made that pasta when we got back home, and we slapped our thighs in amazement that so much flavour and pleasure could be achieved by frying courgettes until bronzed. I’ve been using them in all sorts of ways ever since and this is hands down my favourite.
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A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 25
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More than 1,400 University of California faculty have signed an open letter calling on the system to reinstate the exams as an admissions requirement for STEM students.
( 28
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Mark di Suvero's "Mamma Mobius" joins a collection of large-scale public sculptures on campus.
( 26
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Comedian Simona Ruzer is expertly parodying the archetype of the hippie-dippie, secretly wealthy Berkeley mom — even though her own mother would never say, “Take the credit card and go get Gordo’s.”
( 29
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A queer film series at BAMPFA. Mortifying stories read aloud from teen journals. Heated Rivalry trivia. Quilt making. And Berkeley’s Pride festival, now in Civic Center Park.
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Dear United States,
Please accept these civil and cautiously optimistic congratulations on achieving a quarter millennium as a nation. We hope this reaches you in time for the celebrations. We didn’t realize that a “semiquincentennial” was an actual thing. Sorry. It’s become really hard to tell when you’re trolling and when you’re being sincere with an alarming amount of confidence.
Our invitation was addressed to the “51st state,” so we assumed it was some kind of Trojan-horse-style scheme and threw it away without opening it. We were sure it was just another excuse for your president to put his image on something. It’s only now that we’re discovering there are too many multisyllabic synonyms for this unpronounceable milestone to be completely fictitious. Our bad. As usual, you are olde…
( 9
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"I’ve spoken. I’m not debating this."
( 6
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This week, we discuss Trump fucking up the World Cup, some thoughts on ICE coverage, and movies.
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This Cajun tofu salad is modelled after my absolute favourite salad from TGI Fridays, but it’s vegan-friendly. I've spent years perfecting it and as a Jamaican who grow up eating tons of seasoned and flavourful meals, this salad is SURE to satisfy! Loaded with crunchy veggies and topped with crispy Cajun fried tofu and creamy, tangy dressing, it’s a must make.
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Also: Some UC Berkeley humanities professors say they're cutting down the amount of reading they assign to students.
( 24
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The Society of Features Journalism honored Richmondside reporting intern Thomas Lyons for his piece on the pre-dawn hours at the Richmond institution.
( 23
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Police said they identified the man via surveillance footage and arrested him Thursday around downtown. They are also investigating a flood at the shelter.
( 26
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Despite its spread from the Northwest Berkeley camp where the outbreak began, health officials say the risk to the general public remains low. Here’s what to know about symptoms, transmission and treatment.
( 29
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Skip the trip to Levi's Stadium. Here are the spots where soccer fans can catch every match and cheer on their team.
( 30
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Other events include a container garden workshop, the Brower Center's exhibition "Flow State" and La Peña Cultural Center's annual tianguis.
( 28
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The city of Berkeley awarded a proclamation to the project she co-created preserving 40 years of disabled lesbian herstory in the Bay Area.
( 29
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A new software update is turning off the AC in Amazon delivery vans after 10 minutes or 30 seconds under certain conditions.
( 5
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Three Amazon data centers aren't even open yet, but local residents are already paying at least $10.60 extra per month for them, according to a new study.
( 8
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Flock, the automatic license plate reader (ALPR) company, exposed some of the license plate cops were looking for and the reason for doing so.
( 5
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LLMs including ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are obsessed with telling stories about lighthouse keepers and clockmakers, and one character named 'Elias Thorne' has made his way from chatbots to Amazon books. Researchers are trying to discover why.
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The post Heritage Exists Beyond Humankind appeared first on NOEMA.
( 22
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The two people, who city officials said were breeding rats while living in an RV, represent the first known human cases of leptospirosis in Berkeley in a decade.
( 25
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The City Council approved the extended meter hours and increased parking ticket fines, looking to bring in a projected $5 million more per year.
( 27
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Impact Justice, a leading expert in prison food, is championing innovative improvements. Its work is captured in the 2026 James Beard Award-nominated book "Eating Behind Bars."
( 27
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The position leading the district’s groundbreaking climate literacy program is on the chopping block as BUSD faces a budget deficit and talk of climate change disappears from state and national politics.
( 29
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The post Democracy Needs Friction To Function appeared first on NOEMA.
( 23
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An ancient lineage of cyanobacteria is helping biologists uncover an early evolutionary stage of the mind-boggling process that turns light into life.
The post An Early Step on the Long, Strange Road to Photosynthesis first appeared on Quanta Magazine
( 13
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Researchers report a "serendipitous" discovery while watching videos of crowds: an inexplicable bias toward counterclockwise turning that may be rooted in biology.
( 5
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Memes at Google; Microsoft wants to make its new AI assistant addictive; and manipulating Reddit.
( 4
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There have been more than a dozen cases around the country where police use Flock to obsessively and illegally stalk people.
( 4
min )
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Nearly a year after laying off its entire staff and going dark, the nonprofit Berkeley theater that was housed downtown says it will return for a 2027-28 season.
( 26
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All animals were evacuated and the facility will be closed for weeks, if not months, officials said. Berkeley police have opened an arson investigation.
( 25
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Berkeley was included in a Red Flag Warning for dangerous fire weather, but a meteorologist said our side of the hills was not likely to see those conditions.
( 24
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A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 24
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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
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Europe’s housing shortages are even worse than America’s. So why does nobody there talk about zoning?
( 8
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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
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Amazon employees have a Slack channel for memes where the mock and commiserate about the company’s faulty AI coding product.
( 3
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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
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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
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Emanuel talks to Devindra Hardawar about AI in Hollywood and the state of the movie industry.
( 4
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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
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Dumpling Day, Sightglass, Hinodeya, El Trompudo, and Glom are just a few of the recent East Bay restaurant openings.
( 29
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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
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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.
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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
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The fire burned through the pet supply donation area under the stairs. No animals appear to have been injured.
( 25
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The north-south albedo symmetry may be fading as both hemispheres get darker.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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A running list of restaurants that have recently closed in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 24
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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
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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
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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
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Also: Looking Glass Photo moves again and Black Sheep Theater Company, a new youth musical theater, opens.
( 29
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“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
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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
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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
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With some fans making sexualized AI-generated images and videos of idols, the rest of the fandom is standing up against the behavior.
( 6
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The post What Might The Next Axial Age Look Like? appeared first on NOEMA.
( 11
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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
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Most flags used to be ugly. They were probably better that way.
( 7
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Multiple myeloma is brutal. We may finally have a cure, but American regulatory inertia means that it was discovered abroad.
( 13
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Microsoft's CEO seems unaware of what's going on at his own company.
( 5
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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
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“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
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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
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The killing wasn’t discovered for days, and Damarcus David Jones admitted to taking extensive measures to conceal it, police said.
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Fuel your treasure hunt through Northern California's largest antiques show with lumpia, sausages, donuts and killer ceviche.
( 26
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Critics called the campaign a “farce” aimed at thwarting an effort underway to add housing along the wealthy neighborhood’s shopping strip.
( 29
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Other events include art studios across the East Bay opening their doors, the play "A Few Good Men" and Pride in the Park.
( 28
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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
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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…
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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
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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
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The post Why Conflict Feels Constant Now appeared first on NOEMA.
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The new Grand Avenue watering hole offers an extensive rum and mezcal selection, pool table, and games.
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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.
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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
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"There is consumer pressure to back away from technology that is unnecessary to perform everyday tasks."
( 5
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The insane Meta AI hack; Amazon's internal AI leaderboard; and our lawsuit against ICE.
( 3
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Peptide companies have been doing AI-engine optimization by spamming the biohackers subreddit to manipulate ChatGPT and Google.
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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
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Google is trying to buy code from some Android developers as part of a "confidential" program.
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Planning documents for "Scout" say the plan is to "make people addicted" to the tool before adding new features.
( 6
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The researchers compared AI to the near-sighted cartoon character Mr. Magoo, who can’t see he’s stumbling through dangerous situations.
( 7
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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
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For health hackers, the risk is not experimenting.
( 15
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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
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A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
( 24
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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
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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
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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…
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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
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The post ‘This Is Not Financial Advice’ appeared first on NOEMA.
( 45
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Employees admitted to 404 Media they had cheated to climb the leaderboard's ranks.
( 5
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The exploit shows the extreme risk of offloading technical support to AI.
( 4
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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
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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.
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Born in Tehran, he earned a Ph.D. in city planning and lived many years in Berkeley.
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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
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A new study suggests that bacteria dispersed through space on dust grains could potentially arrive intact and alive on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
( 8
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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
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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
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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 )
This week, we discuss going deeper and Google's search changes.
( 4
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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
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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
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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
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Xavier Becerra, Tom Steyer, Katie Porter, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco are running for governor. Two will advance to the November 2026 election.
( 28
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Contra Costa County warns consumers to contact them immediately if they bought grapevines from a number of Costco locations after April 21.
( 23
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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
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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 )
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 )
In the 1940s, scientists made a discovery now fundamental to biology: genes are encoded in DNA. The story involves bacteria, dead mice, and a kitchen cream separator.
( 9
min )
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 )
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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min )
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 )
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 )
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 )
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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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...
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“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 )
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 )
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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 )
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
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“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
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*-“Paramount Is Rolling Back DEI Initiatives to Align With Trump Mandates.” — Variety
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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.
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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…
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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min )
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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 )
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…
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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…
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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 )
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 )
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 )
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 )
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.
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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 )
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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.
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( 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 )
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 )
The post There Is A Soul, But Not A Transcendent One appeared first on NOEMA.
( 9
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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( 1
min )
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 )
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 )
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 )
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
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min )
A disease that was once a death sentence is increasingly treatable.
( 9
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 )
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 )
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 )
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!"
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min )
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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 )
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 )
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 )
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.
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min )
This week, we discuss storage, RSS, and a big reporting project.
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min )
Messages could include "medical circumstances, accessibility accommodations, disputes, sexual assault allegations," and more.
( 5
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
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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.
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( 1
min )
‘Artificial’ didn’t scare Americans in the 19th century. Why does it scare them now?
( 5
min )
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 )
The post There Is No ‘Hard Problem Of Consciousness’ appeared first on NOEMA.
( 22
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
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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.
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Berkeley commissions will weigh in on the hotly debated proposal to raise height limits along portions of College, Solano and northern Shattuck avenues.
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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.
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Berkeley welcomed a variety of new food businesses in April.
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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.
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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
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Why do manure spreaders have life cycles?
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Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, mayors and fire officials announced the funding Tuesday. A site for a new facility has not been selected yet.
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A running list of restaurants that have recently opened in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and beyond.
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It’s a painful spillover effect as the Berkeley school district’s TK program has nearly tripled its enrollment since 2017.
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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.
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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 …
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“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
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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…
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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…
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The post How To Protect Human Autonomy In An Age Of AI appeared first on NOEMA.
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The Internet Archive, Wikimedia, academics, and hobby archivists are having trouble finding hard drives or are having to pay extremely high prices for them.
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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…
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Pamela Price is trying to stage a comeback after being recalled in 2024. Prosecutors are financially backing her rival.
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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.
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A longtime Berkeley pediatrician volunteers his time booking musicians for Spats. He says music has helped him overcome "rough times."
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“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.”
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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.
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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.
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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
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"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
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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…
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An analysis of 200,000 similes from popular fiction.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Mary Beard uncovers the spectacle of the Ancient Roman parade, the Roman Triumph. Simultaneously a declaration of Roman supremacy and an admission that conquest may be theft at scale, these Roman propaganda events were so terrifying that Cleopatra famously chose death over appearing in one.
This video Rome’s triumph was the ancient world’s most effective piece of propaganda is featured on Big Think.
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Most people chasing excellence are chasing the wrong thing entirely. Brad Stulberg argues that the 4am routines, optimization stacks, and recovery scores are just elaborate performance passed off as “excellence.”
Stulberg breaks down the biology, philosophy, and psychology behind genuine excellence and how to reach it.
This video Over-optimizing your life is making you fragile, not better is featured on Big Think.
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Trauma doesn’t end when the danger does, and for decades, science couldn’t explain why.
Rachel Yehuda, a leading PTSD researcher, has spent her career inside that question, uncovering the way that trauma can leave impressions on our genes, sometimes passing biological echoes of those events to the next generation.
Now, she’s focused on MDMA therapy, which could actually break the chain.
This video This isn’t a trip, it’s the most challenging therapy session of your life is featured on Big Think.
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Most people spend years searching for a mentor who will change their life, never realizing the most valuable lessons are already happening around them.
Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec breaks down why the traditional idea of mentorship is not only outdated, but actively getting in the way of your growth.
This video The hidden reason smart people stop growing is featured on Big Think.
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Neuroscientist David Linden sheds light on the biology behind phenomena that medicine has long struggled to explain, from voodoo death and broken heart syndrome to the placebo effect, and why grief shows up in autopsy results.
Linden also explores the rising GLP-1 drugs, their effects on addiction, and why they don’t work forever.
This video The science behind the strangest biological phenomena is featured on Big Think.
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Around 1200 BC, the most sophisticated network of civilizations the ancient world had ever produced collapsed within a single generation.
Archaeologist Eric Cline has spent his career forensically reconstructing why, and the answer is far stranger and more unsettling than a single catastrophic event.
This video The real lesson from the first time globalization died is featured on Big Think.
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Within the span of a single generation, nearly every major civilization in the Mediterranean world collapsed simultaneously: the Hittites, the Mycenaeans, the Canaanites, the great palace cities of Cyprus and the Levant.
What is even more consequential than the age that preceeded it is what came next: a 400-year period that shaped the world as we know it today.
This video The collapse that accidentally built the modern world is featured on Big Think.
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What if space and time aren’t the backdrop of the universe,but rather, are a byproduct of it? NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller makes the case that quantum entanglement may be the underlying fabric from which spacetime itself emerges.
This idea would mean that distance, gravity, and the passage of time are consequences of the deep interconnectedness created from the Big Bang.
This video Why modern physics is forcing us to rethink existence is featured on Big Think.
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We would hope that the moment that we eternally live in, the “now,” would have a concrete scientific explanation. But the truth is far more complicated, says the relativity of simultaneity.
Jim Al-Khalili explains how the past and future are more fluid than we may think.
This video The present is a story your brain assembles after the fact is featured on Big Think.
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Around 1200 BC, the most sophisticated network of civilizations the ancient world had ever produced, spanning Egypt, Greece, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and beyond, came apart within a single generation.
Historian Eric Cline argues this collapse wasn’t the work of one invading force or one bad harvest, but something far harder to stop: An overly interdependent system that had no way to absorb multiple shocks at once.
This video The late Bronze Age was the last time our world was this connected is featured on Big Think.
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Jim Al-Khalili introduces the technologies emerging from the second quantum revolution: computers that exploit superposition to solve problems that would take today’s best supercomputers billions of years, sensors that read individual neurons firing inside your skull, and cameras that image biological tissue using light and not touch.
This video The idea so strange Einstein thought it broke quantum physics is featured on Big Think.
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Time feels obvious, but physics tells a stranger story about its existence: Theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili explores why our sense of time may be incredibly misleading, including the idea that past, present, and future might all exist at once.
This video The block universe: a theory where every moment already exists is featured on Big Think.
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What if humanity is the galaxy’s only advanced civilization?
Brian Cox examines why, despite billions of stars and trillions of planets, we have found no evidence of other intelligent life.
This video Why alien civilizations may bloom and die unseen is featured on Big Think.
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We tend to imagine ancient life in broad strokes. But daily existence was built out of small, sensory details. The taste of staple foods, the smell of living spaces, the feel of handmade tools in your hands — those experiences shaped the people of the past.
Sam Kean examines how recreating those details brings history into sharper focus, rebuilding the foods and practices of the past and what that reveals about human adaptability.
This video How experimental archaeologists are resurrecting our forgotten past is featured on Big Think.
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For most of human history, love was not a choice we made, love was a choice made for us. By our family, our class, or by means of survival.
Now that love has been liberated, it seems to have become more complicated and more illusive than ever. Alain de Botton explains.
This video Why relationships in 2026 carry impossible expectations is featured on Big Think.
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We want to believe that love is guided by instinct, and that following our heart will lead us to our ideal soulmate. Alain de Botton argues that our romantic lives are shaped more by the emotional patterns we learned in childhood than by destiny.
This video Why healthy love feels uncomfortable to so many people is featured on Big Think.
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Your brain isn’t broken, but it may seem like that because of how the screen age overwhelms your biology.
Neurologist Richard Cytowic argues that attention is a finite energy budget, not a virtue, and modern life is engineered to exhaust it.
This video The biological necessity of boredom in the age of screens is featured on Big Think.
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The story of the chip is a story about geopolitics and scarcity. From $20 billion fabrication plants to machines built by a single Dutch firm, the supply chain behind your devices is both miraculous and astonishingly fragile.
Chris Miller explains why the AI race, U.S.–China tensions, and the future of economic dominance, all rest on this tiny square of silicon.
This video The most important piece of technology in your lifetime is this tiny chip is featured on Big Think.
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shadow of the mind
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