Palantir doing supervillain monologuing sure does, deliberately or not, distract from its actual business being almost extravagantly boring:

NEW: A PR company is operating a bizarre fake news site that's plagiarizing original journalism at a massive scale -- all while spewing misinformation, publishing hallucinated quotes, and replacing real people’s names with “Jane Doe.” Also: it misquotes the Pope. futurism.com/artificial-i...

Anything I say about this @noahshachtman.bsky.social and @robertsilverman.bsky.social story might get me put in a dossier, so I will say nothing and just strongly suggest you read it:

"Sheets spent 4 years with the White Sox, has really found new life with the Padres ... career high in 2Bs last year for the Padres." "(PLAYER_NAME) spent (NUMBER) years with the White Sox, has really found new life with the (NEW_TEAM) ... career high in (COUNTING_STAT) last year for (NEW_TEAM)"

You go through life thinking you more or less know the score and then you listen to James Dolan’s song about Harvey Weinstein.

New: This morning, 34 members of congress sent an inquiry to DHS and ICE demanding detailed and specific information about how they use Palantir and surveillance technology like facial recognition: www.wired.com/story/congre...

A lot of people don’t know this, but doctrinally, all you have to do is allude to the existence of just war theory to a) make the war in question just and b) checkmate the Vicar of Christ.

I wrote about Dianna Russini, the constant pressure female reporters face to prove they aren't sleeping with sources (plus the pressure we do get from sources to get involved with them), and why all of this is so uncomfortable to talk about. Gift link:

GOOD IDEA: The Energy Information Administration is making plans for a mandatory survey of data centers covering their actual energy use, on which we have surprisingly solid little information. @mollytaft.com with the news:

The British should start posting sausage egg and cheese sandwiches from US gas stations and calling for military intervention. (This country gets pretty full of itself considering its support of the Arby's Meat & 3 box.)

This is so stupid

This is horrific. A U.S. citizen describes the facility in Arizona that her husband was brought to while he waited to be put on a deportation flight. Dozens of people were crammed into tiny cells, there was a "chain of people vomiting" from filthy toilets, no medical care, and only one meal per day.

NEW: Deepfake abuse incidents have been documented at schools in 88 countries, according to research by @wired.com and @indicator.media. One conclusion experts draw is that this is like other types of sexual violence: “Increasingly, the intent is humiliation, denigration, and social control.”

“They always spend a lot of time carrying on like, ‘No one's forcing you to pray, these are voluntary,’” says one Department of Labor employee. “But it's happening in the middle of a government workplace.”

I’m going to disagree with the apparent consensus and say “Democrats shouldn’t have run a candidate in 2020 if they wanted to truly defeat Trump” is the kind of thermonuclear take sports fans have long enjoyed and that politics enthusiasts should also get to enjoy.

NEW: A large swath of civil society is warning Meta against rolling out a face recognition service that will predictably be used by sexual predators.

NEW: Before you turn to your pile of Jack T. Chick comics, read @makenakelly.bsky.social and @davidgilbert.bsky.social to catch up on what's going on in the discourse

Happy birthday, Al Green!

Journalists know that losing the Wayback Machine would be a nightmare: www.wired.com/story/the-in...

“Wait, so now you’re telling me there’s no constituency for this shit literally anywhere in the world outside a couple dozen guys at Stanford who were radicalized by weird academics, and if I want to push it I should probably try to become a famous game show host?”

Nixon actually ordered a nuclear strike on North Korea.

Another “operation”-themed challenge coin circulating within DHS, this time at the Whipple Federal Building in Minnesota:

Bought a tv for the first time since I bought one with a W.-era stimulus check and spent 40 minutes turning off surveillance and AI, culminating in having to change the basic picture setting to even get the option to turn off motion smoothing. This shit sucks!

I’d love to have been there when they invented the leaf blower. “Whoa, it burns as much gas as an airplane AND you can destroy an entire neighborhood’s peace and quiet with it?” “Yeah, and get this—it’s incredibly shitty at what it’s designed for. Way worse than a rake or a broom.” “At last!”

I’d love to have been there when they invented the leaf blower. “Whoa, it burns as much gas as an airplane AND you can destroy an entire neighborhood’s peace and quiet with it?” “Yeah, and get this—it’s incredibly shitty at what it’s designed for. Way worse than a rake or a broom.” “At last!”

Retire the national debt by auctioning off the chance to fire RPGs at it.

NEW: Just because the most annoying people alive claim Mythos is a harbinger of the end of days doesn't mean it isn't a big deal; the nature of that big deal, though, isn't necessarily as the hype would have it. Level-headed @lhn.bsky.social reports:

FOIA scoop (no paywall): The day Renee Good was killed, a Minnesota state police official repeatedly texted a FBI agent. He wanted to co-manage the crime scene & ensure his agents were included in interviews. For at least 2 days, maybe longer, the FBI didn't respond: www.wired.com/story/the-fb...

NEW: Someone allegedly threw a molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's house then went to OpenAI headquarters to make threats at workers. @lmatsakis.bsky.social and Maxwell Zeff with the scoop: www.wired.com/story/sam-al...

Even by current standards, the Pentagon not exactly denying that it threatened to set up an American antipope is sticking with me as an unusually Judge Dredd-esque storyline.

I can say without hesitation that this is the HARDEST article I have ever written, but I am incredibly proud of it. If you have questions about Orion’s heat shield, given the issues with Artemis I, I hope I can provide some answers: www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...

There are many more important things going on, but let me recommend a tofu press. Pouring out all the yellow liquid that collects after 20 minutes and knowing you've made room for that much more marinade to soak in is incredibly satisfying.

NEW: Thousands of men are members of Telegram groups and channels that advertise and sell hacking and surveillance services that can be used to harass friends, wives and girlfriends, and former partners, new research has uncovered.

NEW: Iran-linked hackers are attacking US critical infrastructure around the country, according to a warning from federal agencies and confirmation from the company whose component is being exploited. @agreenberg.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/iran-l...

Speculating about another outlet's sourcing is usually pretty silly, but I do think we can be pretty sure the Times has been talking to either VD Jance or this guy

i ~predict~ this will cause a big mess: www.wired.com/story/nobody...

🎵Hail! to the victors valiant Hail! to the conq’ring heroes Hail! Hail! to Michigan The champions of the West! 🎵

I've had a lot of conversations with national security-focused colleagues in recent weeks, and come to believe we are wildly underestimating the chance Trump goes nuclear against Iran. I think it's about three percent — which is an astoundingly high chance. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/is-trump-a...

NEW: I found IRS paperwork for several nonprofits whose addresses matched Border Patrol stations. Some of the groups, named after the military's "morale, welfare, and recreation" program, were selling challenge coins commemorating last year's enforcement surges: www.wired.com/story/us-bor...

NEW: Border Patrol agents have been commemorating domestic anti-immigration operations by using federal resources to sell challenge coins featuring Charlotte's Web characters, Funko Pops, and the phrase "FAFO," potentially violating a variety of government rules. @regret.bsky.social has you covered:

Come work with me! @wired.com is hiring for a staff editor who will work across all of our coverage areas and with our international counterparts—an ideal job for a curious polymath. Details in the listing:

Ahahaha oh my fucking god you can't be serious

There’s a lot between here and there but I think this ends with the presidency having its power reduced to that of a lawn ornament.

The power of generative artificial intelligence, in this case warning people not to text in work zones, has been leveraged at a rest stop in West Virginia.

It’s bullshit that you can’t buy off the rack pants with an inseam below 30”. I’m 5’10” and normally proportioned and a 28.5” inseam generally just hits the top of my shoes. Since most men don’t hem, the greed and laziness of manufacturers has created a national crisis of slightly too long pants.

These numbers reflect a sad deficit of humorless scolding, angry posts announcing a refusal to open a private browser tab to circumvent a paywall, and incomprehensible crypto-Stalinist posturing. Let’s all do better.

NEW: Before Nick Shirley went to California this year, DOGE's Edward "Big Balls" Coristine was helping him "extract" info from a public dataset to identify targets for his YouTube "investigation" into fraud. w/ @telliotter.bsky.social More here: www.wired.com/story/edward...

NEW: It appears that security gate codes for a DHS facility in Texas were left exposed to the internet via … a set of Quizlet flashcards that were taken down after @sammysussman.bsky.social asked about them. (Read the story to learn all about what’s in apparent ICE training materials!)

The genesis of this investigation (w/@regret.bsky.social, @timmarchman.bsky.social , @couts.bsky.social, @hudsongiles.bsky.social & @samspengler.bsky.social) was the winged insignia worn by Greg Bovino & several camouflaged Border Patrol agents thruout At Large, Midway Blitz & Metro Surge - BORTAC

While I’m on vacation, my colleagues are doing incredible work