The Baltimore Orioles should be good, but they are not good. At 15-24, they are one of the worst teams in all of Major League Baseball this season, an outcome thus far that fans, experts, and the team itself will tell you are either statistically improbable or nearing statistically impossible based on thousands upon thousands…
Somewhere in Warsaw, Poland, two actors are pretending to have sex. It’s not the most intimate of environments. The mood lighting, if you can call it that, is fluorescent bulbs burning overhead, making the sterile, white walls look even brighter than they actually are. In lieu of a bed or couch, the actors fit tightly…
This morning I cruised through the streets of a scenic Maine town while classic country music played on the radio. Several of the 900 people in the backseat of the car on the day I hopped in counted pride flags as we passed them. Every time we came across an intersection, several of them would…
Republican Senator of Utah Mike Lee introduced a bill that would effectively ban porn at the federal level in the United States. The Interstate Obscenity Definition Act (IODA), introduced by Lee and Illinois Republican Rep. Mary Miller on Thursday, aims to change the Supreme Court’s 1973 “Miller Test” for determining what qualifies as obscene. “Obscenity…
Late last night, House Republicans introduced new language to the Budget Reconciliation bill that will immiserate the lives of millions of Americans by cutting their access to Medicaid, and making life much more difficult for millions more by making them pay higher fees when they seek medical care. While a lot of attention will be…
In April, Coca-Cola proudly launched a new ad campaign it called “Classic,” celebrating famous authors and the sugary drink’s omnipresence in culture by highlighting classic literary works that mention the brand. The firm that produced the ad campaign said it used AI to scan books for mentions of Coca-Cola, and then put viewers in the…
Welcome back to the Abstract! First, a quick housekeeping note. We’ve been getting really positive feedback on The Abstract, so we are spinning it up as its own newsletter that we’ll continue to send every Saturday. If you are reading this, we hope you continue to want to receive The Abstract! But if you don’t…
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss the death of Mr. Deepfakes, introducing kids to the Manosphere, and working on big, difficult, high-brain-power scoops. SAM: I’m gonna use my time to give a huge…
Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan man whose family says he was “disappeared” and who wasn’t included on a previously leaked government list of people sent to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador, was included on a private airline’s flight manifest to the country, according to hacked airline data obtained and analyzed by 404 Media. …
On Wednesday, The Information reported that Meta is working on facial recognition for the company’s Ray-Ban glasses. This sort of technology—combining facial recognition with a camera feed—is something that big tech including Meta has been able to technically pull off, but has previously decided to not release. There are serious, inherent risks with the idea…