New York and the surrounding areas are under a flash flood warning, and the city and state have issued emergency declarations. Parts of Brooklyn received more than 5 inches of rain this morning; Central Park and Midtown Manhattan had around 4 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Trains were stalled or suspended. Students were… Continue reading New York City Is Drowning
Author: Wired Magazine
The Animated TV Show You Never See
Animated comedies told from a Black perspective have an uncomfortable relationship with TV. The Boondocks relied on sharp observational humor as proof of its genius. The PJs portrayed The Black Struggle as a clownish depiction of daily life in a housing project. A character like Tolkien Black on South Park (first introduced into the series… Continue reading The Animated TV Show You Never See
X Fires Its Election Team Before a Huge Election Year
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has fired its head of threat intelligence, Aaron Rodericks, and four other members of the team responsible for combating disinformation and misinformation, just months before the US Republican primaries mark the beginning of the 2024 American election cycle—and a year in which more than 50 countries around the… Continue reading X Fires Its Election Team Before a Huge Election Year
An Epic Fight Over What Really Killed the Dinosaurs
Think back to any dinosaur illustration you saw as a kid. The background was almost certainly one of two things: an asteroid streaking across the sky or a volcano blowing its top. (If the illustrator was feeling extra dramatic, maybe both.) A 6-mile-wide asteroid, which hit the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years… Continue reading An Epic Fight Over What Really Killed the Dinosaurs
US Justice Department Urged to Investigate Gunshot Detector Purchases
The United States Justice Department (DOJ) is being asked to investigate whether a gunshot-detection system widely in use across the US is being selectively deployed to justify the over-policing of mainly Black neighborhoods, as critics of the technology claim. Attorneys for the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center—a leading US-based civil liberties group—argue that “substantial evidence”… Continue reading US Justice Department Urged to Investigate Gunshot Detector Purchases
Hollywood Writers Reached an AI Deal That Will Rewrite History
The deal is not without its quandaries. Enforcement is an overriding one, says Daniel Gervais, a professor of intellectual property and AI law at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Figuring that out will likely set another precedent. Gervais agrees that this deal gives writers some leverage with studios, but it might not be able to… Continue reading Hollywood Writers Reached an AI Deal That Will Rewrite History
Meta’s Quest 3 VR Headset and Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Now Serve Up a Bigger Dose of Reality
Ben Bajarin, chief executive and principal analyst at Creative Strategies, said that in a recent survey he conducted, most respondents said they were willing to spend between $250 and $499 on a headset, and the next-largest group were only willing to spend $100 to $249. Of the people he surveyed, 20 percent were open to… Continue reading Meta’s Quest 3 VR Headset and Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Now Serve Up a Bigger Dose of Reality
SoundThinking, Maker of ShotSpotter, Is Buying Parts of PredPol Creator Geolitica
SoundThinking, the company behind the gunshot-detection system ShotSpotter, is quietly acquiring staff, patents, and customers of the firm that created the notorious predictive policing software PredPol, WIRED has learned. In an August earnings call, SoundThinking CEO Ralph Clark announced to investors that the company was negotiating an agreement to acquire parts of Geolitica—formerly called PredPol—and… Continue reading SoundThinking, Maker of ShotSpotter, Is Buying Parts of PredPol Creator Geolitica
Amazon’s All-Powerful ‘Buy Box’ Is at the Heart of Its New Antitrust Troubles
Anyone who has shopped on Amazon will have seen the Buy Box with its peppy yellow and orange Add to Cart and Buy Now buttons. The US Federal Trade Commission has seen it too, and made it central to an antitrust case filed against Amazon today. The long-anticipated government complaint, joined by 17 state attorneys… Continue reading Amazon’s All-Powerful ‘Buy Box’ Is at the Heart of Its New Antitrust Troubles
The 7 Best Conspiracies About Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce
First thing’s first: Misinformation and disinformation are bad. False tweets that go viral, government conspiracy theories, lies about vaccines—these are all huge problems online, and they’re poised to get worse thanks to generative AI. There are a few exceptions, though. The best of these came to light over the weekend when Taylor Swift showed up… Continue reading The 7 Best Conspiracies About Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce