Recent Posts

How the ‘Slamming Door’ Sound Became Embedded in Hip-Hop History

“Grindin’,” a song performed by legendary Virginia Beach group the Clipse, was the national anthem in 2002. The song’s sparse beat—which would be recognizable even without any accompanying lyrics or melody—was created by the hit factory duo known as the Neptunes, made up of producers Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams. …

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No, the Seine Cleanup Wasn’t a Failure

When Olympic triathletes plunged into the Seine river close to the Alexandre III bridge in Paris on July 31, they were making history—and not just by going for gold. The event, which also saw the competitors cycle and run along the Champs-Elysées and past the Grand Palais, was far more …

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Sensitive Illinois Voter Data Exposed by Contractor’s Unsecured Databases

Databases containing sensitive voter information from multiple counties in Illinois were openly accessible on the internet, revealing 4.6 million records that included driver's license numbers as well as full and partial Social Security Numbers and documents like death certificates. Longtime security researcher Jeremiah Fowler stumbled upon one of the databases …

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Welcome to the Weird Era

Y’all are weird. In a matter of days, this has become the go-to response in internet discussion. As with all things online, it’s hard to pinpoint where weird started. It may have been Minnesota governor Tim Walz on MSNBC saying “[Republicans] come across as weird.” Or maybe it was the …

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Kamala Harris and the Paradox of Progress

Inside the belly of the Georgia State Convocation Center Tuesday night, electric over the prospect of a Kamala Harris presidency—or perhaps dead set on wanting to ward off another Trump White House—a crowd that cut across generations erupted into a 10,000-person swag surf. There was no mistaking the pandemonium. In …

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You Won’t Believe What Car Headlights Have in Store

Sure, duh: Vehicle lights serve the important and vital safety function of allowing drivers to see where they’re going, and everyone else to see when they’re coming. But for decades, car designers have clocked headlamps and tail lights as an opportunity for creativity, to build a distinctive brand that says, …

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A New Trick Could Block the Misuse of Open Source AI

When Meta released its large language model Llama 3 for free this April, it took outside developers just a couple days to create a version without the safety restrictions that prevent it from spouting hateful jokes, offering instructions for cooking meth, or misbehaving in other ways. A new training technique …

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