oh, chicago
Not the best list to be on
“A list Of Chicago aldermen indicted, raided or implicated by the feds, criminally charged or convicted since 2019.” | learn more
fun facts
Throwing a rave in Chernobyl’s exclusion zone
“The village of Hubyn was never officially evacuated—but over the last 30 years so many people have left that the effect is the same. Of a few dozen houses, most stand empty. A single multipurpose shop caters to an aging […]
fun facts
Applying for a job with a ransomware gang
“Back in June 2020, while gathering intelligence on a popular hacker forum, we stumbled upon a peculiar recruitment ad seemingly posted by a ransomware group. To glean valuable insights into the ransomware operators’ perspective, we decided to pose as a […]
on the blockchain
The Ponzi career
From Bowie Bonds to blockchain tokens, this is a scenario that may indeed play out. “In such a scenario, every career becomes a pyramid scheme.” | learn more
on the blockchain
A brazen hack of that $69 M Beeple
“In the opening days of April, an artist operating under the pseudonym Monsieur Personne (“Mr. Nobody”) tried to short-circuit the NFT hype machine by unleashing “sleepminting,” a process that complicates, if not corrodes, one of the value propositions underlying non-fungible […]
big ideas
Is plastic recycling a lie?
Short answer: yes. “Rogue, like most recycling companies, had been sending plastic trash to China, but when China shut its doors two years ago, Leebrick scoured the U.S. for buyers. She could find only someone who wanted white milk jugs. […]
thoughts of food
What’s on the menu?
“We’re transcribing our historical restaurant menus, dish by dish, so that they can be searched by what people were eating back in the day.” | learn more
under the microscope
First head-to-head trial pits psychedelic therapy against antidepressant
“The results, recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are decidedly mixed with the primary depression measure revealing no significant difference between the two treatments, but a number of secondary measures notably favoring psilocybin.” | learn more
under the microscope
Special diets might boost the power of drugs to vanquish cancers
Two new clinical trials are taking “food as medicine” to the next level. “The researchers hope the diet will render tumors more vulnerable to the drug, which blocks a growth-promoting pathway in cells. “It’s very outside of the mainstream thinking,” […]
better doing
Advice from the CEO Jeff Bezos called his teacher
“[Jeff Wilke] built Amazon alongside Jeff Bezos for 22 years. Now he is analyzing the operations playbooks and early decisions that made Amazon so powerful.” | learn more