Does Amazon illegally price fix? “Yesterday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed for an immediate halt to what he says is a widespread price-fixing scheme run by the largest online retailer in America, Amazon.” The piece argues Amazon leverages the […]
AI customer service on United. “haha no ma’am but I get that a lot” Grace called United after a snowstorm cancellation and got rebooked in about 20 minutes by a voice that sounded very AI, down to doing a quick […]
End the winter cold. “A single nasal spray vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds and flus” by keeping lung macrophages on “amber alert” for about three months in animal tests. The idea is a “radical departure” from how vaccines […]
Saudi Arabia’s ordeal. This is an education on Arabian history that I needed. “He has to transition the biggest conservative petrostate in the world into a modern, diversified economy. The odds are stacked impossibly against him. To understand why, and […]
Iceland: Where one in 10 people will publish a book. “There is a phrase in Icelandic, “ad ganga med bok I maganum”, everyone gives birth to a book.” Iceland has 300,000 people, and “One in 10 Icelanders will publish one.” […]
Ice made modern cities possible. “On the morning of February 13th, 1806, Tudor departed Boston Harbor, carrying with him over 80 metric tonnes of ice, the first shipment of its kind. The Boston Gazette ran an article that read, “No […]
Blue photons ricochet around. “But blue photons have a tendency to ricochet around a lot.” They get dispersed throughout the atmosphere, so on a clear afternoon you can look almost anywhere and still get blue light coming straight into your […]
A CTA world record. “Despite the well-chronicled chaos, the group became the official Guinness World Record holders when the men hit every ‘L’ stop in 8 hours, 58 minutes and 55 seconds on Nov. 10.” A Chicago trio pulled it […]
Is there not a single reasonable person in charge over here? “In 2023, Austin police did $23k in damage to an innocent house while SWAT raided the neighbor.” The city refused to pay, and now wants approval to hire an […]
The Anthropic hive mind. “Anthropic is unusually impenetrable as a company. Employees there all know they just need to keep their mouths shut and heads down and they’ll be billionaires and beyond, so they have lots of incentive to do […]