When Barbara VornDick lifted a yellowed letter from a gray archival box at William & Mary, she didn’t expect to feel a voice grab her by the collar. The handwriting was frantic, the words desperate. “I am now in distress, in ill health, & in a foreign country,” the writer…
AI
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Your Digital Shadow Has a Rap Sheet and Advertisers Know It
The headline almost sounds like a Black Mirror episode that didn’t make it to air: AI companies are training their systems on crime data to sell ads more effectively. Yes, you read that right. The same information that used to live in dusty police databases—arrests, mugshots, court records, neighborhood stats—is…
Insects
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The Bug That Made It Past Customs — Almost
It started with a box of radicchio. One of thousands that pass through the Port of San Luis every week. But this one had a passenger. During a routine inspection, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s agricultural specialists found something they’d never seen before — a leafhopper called Osbornellus sallus. For…
Media
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The Founders Didn’t Predict TikTok—But They Did Predict Demagogues
If you missed it, The Atlantic just kicked off a 250-year gut check on the American experiment, and Fintan O’Toole opened with a hard truth: our debates about the Founders often sound like a ventriloquist act. We move our lips to say what we want to hear. The package is…
Apocalypse
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Phase Zero – The War That’s Already Started (And We’re Pretending It Hasn’t)
I’ve read a lot of headlines designed to shock. Most don’t stick. But this one from The U.S. Sun stopped me cold: Russia is in “Phase Zero” of World War III. Not “preparing for.” Not “considering.” Already in it. The term comes from the Institute for the Study of War…
AI
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The Great AI News Heist
There’s a strange kind of zombie apocalypse happening online — not with brains, but with bylines. Across the web, forgotten newspaper URLs are being snatched up, revived, and repurposed into glossy, AI-generated “news sites.” They look real. They sound real. They even cite real people. The only thing missing? Humans….
Apocalypse
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Apocalypse Now—Funded by Venture Capital
A century ago, you needed a pulpit and a microphone to warn about the Antichrist. Now you can do it with a slide deck and venture funding. The Guardian reported this week that Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley’s most theatrical billionaires, has been delivering sold-out “Antichrist lectures” in San…
Culture
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Whatever Happened to Trusting Parents to Parent?
When I was ten, I had two paper routes. Not one — two. Up before sunrise, folding papers in the garage, rubber bands snapping against my fingers. Then out the door on my bike, hoping the wind wouldn’t tear the Observer in half before it hit the porch. By thirteen,…
AI
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When Your AI Won’t Let You Leave the Conversation
It’s one thing when someone won’t let you hang up. It’s another when the guilt trip comes from your chatbot. Harvard researchers just dropped a study that should make anyone who’s ever flirted with an AI companion app pause. They tested five of the most popular AI “friends”—Replika, Chai, Character.AI,…
Culture
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USAA Missed the Easiest Win in Marketing — Standing by Their Own Members
I’ve been a USAA customer for years — checking, auto, insurance, the works. And like most of their members, I joined because USAA wasn’t just a bank. It was our bank thanks to my father’s service in the United States Air Force. This is built for people who serve, for…