Los Angeles Fire in Pictures
On the morning of January 7, the first wildfire in Los Angeles broke out in a wooded area near Topanga State Park in the northwest corner of the city. Conditions allowed the fire to spread very quickly: 100 mph winds, extreme humidity, and a landscape that could burn after months without rain combined to send the fire ripping through...
Elon Musk’s Quest for Domination Has Gone Global
Most recently, Musk spread conspiracy theories about Muslim "grooming gangs" in Britain, and called for Tommy Robinson, a right-wing activist, to be released from prison. Musk's support for Robinson, who has a history of posting racist and Islamophobic content, initially saw British Reform leader Nigel Farage back down against the owner of X. But in a TV show hosted...
How the US TikTok Ban Really Works
The law says it will be "illegal" for an entity to "distribute, maintain or update" the application including its source code, or by "providing a service" that allows it to run as it is. This distribution, maintenance, or update may be, by law, through a mobile application store accessible in the US or by "providing internet hosting services." app...
‘All Hands on Deck’: How Mandatory Watch Continues With California Wildfires
Like, download Watch Duty and get results there. If not, have at it, man. Have it on the internet and hope it makes you better. I feel bad for him, honestly, you know? I have experienced this before. But the way I want to do it is to build Watch Duty, not by shouting it into the ether. We...
Rumblings among 15 Targets of Texas Attorney General’s Child Privacy Investigation
A privacy expert who spoke to WIRED described Rumble, Quora, and WeChat as unusual suspects but declined to speculate on the reasons for being included in the investigation. Josh Golin, executive director of the non-profit Fairplay, which advocates for digital safety for children, said concerns are not always clear-cut. Some advocacy groups are concerned about Pinterest, for example, until...
Meta Secretly Trained AI on Notorious Hacking Database, Unexpected Court Documents
"Meta has treated the so-called 'public availability' of shadow datasets as a get-out-of-jail-free card, even though internal Meta records show every relevant decision-maker at Meta, up to and including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, knows LibGen is the 'dataset we know. will be hijacked,'" the plaintiffs said in the motion. (Originally filed at the end of 2024, the motion is a...
The Waves Can Finally Fight the LA Fire
"With the wind being very calm this morning, I believe we can make some progress, turn the corner, and start building some fire on this fire," Brent Pascua, Cal Fire battalion chief, told The Today Show on Friday. Until now, disaster response has been marred by disinformation and controversy. After several fire hydrants ran dry, president-elect Donald Trump baselessly...
Nintendo Switch 2 Rumors And Leaks Won’t Change A Thing
If the rumors are to be believed, the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement has (allegedly) leaked more than an old apartment faucet. Over the past few weeks, information about console docks, retailer accessory SKUs, mockups, Joy-Cons, and more, have been found online; The sheer volume of alleged photos and information suggests that the announcement could be right around the corner....
These Newly Identified Cells Could Change the Face of Plastic Surgery
So how did this new cell elude scientists and doctors for so long? In a way, it is not. Investigators and graduate students scoured centuries of scientific papers for any missing trace of cartilage fat. He found a clue in a German book from 1854 by Franz Leydig, a contemporary of Charles Darwin. "Anything and everything he could put...
Elon Musk and Far-Right German Leaders Agree ‘Hitler Was a Communist’
On Thursday, Elon Musk agreed with the leaders of far-right German political parties that Adolf Hitler was a communist and that left-wing groups that support the Palestinian cause are more similar to the Nazis than to his own party. -filled conversation between Musk and Alice Weidel, leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), took place in X. It came...
