#eyebrow:culture
AI companies are buying old books—and feeding them into shredders
AI companies are cutting apart old and sometimes rare books, scanning their pages and destroying the originals—all to build private libraries of their own.
ARTICLES
BRIEFLY
#eyebrow: government at work
In San Francisco, the City Gets Robbed—and You Get the Bill.
The 3 a.m. thefts aren't the weirdest part of the story.
#eyebrow:NEW YORK
Mamdani Has a Good Idea. Yes, Really.
Zohran Mamdani wants to eliminate dozens of pointless regulations burdening New York City’s small businesses. Yes, he actually has a good idea.
#eyebrow:1000 TAXES
Heads, You Pay the Tax. Tails, You Pay the Fee.
Oakridge, OR. residents can approve a new property tax. If they reject it, they’ll keep paying the mandatory fee already attached to their water bills.
#eyebrow:higher education
U. of Chicago is Treating AI Like a Learning Multiplier Instead of a Cheating Machine.
For the past two years, much of higher education has treated artificial intelligence like contraband. Perhaps that's beginning to change.
#eyebrow:opinion
Of Course the Rent is 'Too Damn High'. Government Made Sure of It.
Government creates a problem—or takes an existing one and makes it worse. Then, when the damage becomes impossible to ignore, we ask government to fix what government broke. It responds by doing even more—and makes the problem worse again.
#eyebrow:higher education
Four in Ten Professors Admit They Would Discriminate Against a Trump-Supporting Job Candidate.
Universities preach diversity—until it comes to politics. A survey found 40 percent of academics would discriminate against a known Trump supporter.
#eyebrow:culture
This Date is Being Recorded. AI Will Grade It Later.
Your next first date may be recorded, transcribed and graded by AI—without your knowledge. Dating was complicated enough when only two people were involved. Now there's a third at the table.
Someone Turned All 18 greens at University of Michigan’s Golf Course Orange.
Whoever sabotaged the University of Michigan’s golf course was either terribly bored or had one hell of an axe to grind. Either way, they made sure no green was left behind.
ChatGPT Gets Asked How to Make Biological Weapons. Sometimes It Answers.
AI isn’t creating dangerous people. But it may be removing the friction that once stood between a terrible idea and the ability to carry it out.
Tech Wealth is Fueling Record Prices—for Dinosaur Bones.
A T. rex skeleton just sold for a record $50.1 million. When people become richer than entire towns, eventually somebody puts a dinosaur in their living room.
First El Salvador Locked Up the Gangs. Now the People Reap the Reward. Enter the 'Aerocable'.
El Salvador got serious about crime. Now, with the country dramatically safer, it’s building the kind of public transportation system many cities would envy.