Russia’s Cold War–era “Doomsday Radio” has broken from its usual pattern, transmitting an unusual volume of coded messages in December. The activity echoes previous moments of heightened tension and has drawn scrutiny as Russia–NATO relations deteriorate. While the broadcasts are real and carefully logged, their purpose remains unclear, leaving analysts…

A viral Reddit post claimed a smart fridge advert triggered a psychotic episode, prompting hospitalisation and legal questions. The story spread quickly across social media and tabloids, amplifying concerns about advertising inside the home. Closer scrutiny revealed the advert was real but traced back to an earlier, unrelated Reddit post,…

A viral Reddit post claimed a smart fridge advert triggered a psychotic episode, prompting hospitalisation and legal questions. The story spread quickly across social media and tabloids, amplifying concerns about advertising inside the home. Closer scrutiny revealed the advert was real but traced back to an earlier, unrelated Reddit post,…

The new X/Twitter algorithim is hard to predict, but I’ve had one go viral with over a million views now, a quote-tweet of a cool demo video of Apple’s website builder from 2009, with themes and blog support and everything. Interesting to compare its interface to Gutenberg and WordPress today.…

A seemingly innocuous comment about a hackathon’s “smell” ignited a firestorm on X, exposing a racist meme targeting Indians and South Asians. Despite the commenter’s claims of harmless intent, the phrase carries a long history of demeaning stereotypes. The incident highlights the crucial difference between intent and impact, urging a…

Elon Musk has publicly criticized Governor Gavin Newsom. This followed a comment from Newsom’s office about Musk’s transgender child. Musk accused Newsom of pushing a ‘woke mind virus’ on children. The dispute highlights a political clash over transgender rights and parental involvement. Musk’s child has publicly distanced herself from him.

A computational biologist’s planned postdoctoral position at Harvard was halted by a new US travel ban, which expanded restrictions to 19 countries including Iran and removed student/scholar visa exemptions. This policy has impacted thousands of prospective students and scholars, forcing many to reroute their careers to Canada or Europe.

The colors here have now gone blue for winter, and snow has started, thanks to the excellent Snow Fall plugin. I also wanted to congratulate Wealthfront on their IPO. Many on their team have been friends or advisors over the years, from David Fortunato responding to my email about their…