ABC News: Vicious friends and buried undies win at 2026 Ig Nobel prizes The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded outside the US for the first time in 36 years, in Zurich. One prize went to research on why we want friends who can be vicious on our behalf when it counts. Another was for a precise scientific […]
links: 01.09.2026
Sveriges Radio: TikTok and Meta paid by racist account to promote posts A Sveriges Radio P3 News investigation found that openly Nazi and far-right accounts operate freely on TikTok despite violating both EU law and the platform’s own rules. Reporters found the accounts behind them were able to buy paid ads from both TikTok and Meta. TikTok’s Nordic […]
links: 03.08.2026
The New York Times: What Are Companies Getting for All That A.I. Spending? The New York Times reports on a new field of economics — “tokenomics” — that studies what companies are actually paying for AI use and what they’re getting for it. There’s still no standard way to compare cost and value, so some firms are inventing […]
links: 02.08.2026
The New York Times: How China Keeps Tabs on Foreigners The New York Times describes an unsecured Chinese police surveillance platform in Zhangjiakou, found openly accessible online by cybersecurity researcher Marc Hofer — who spotted his own photo and passport number in it. The system tracked more than 700 foreign residents of the city, but held nearly 12,000 […]
links: 29.07.2026
Axios: Anthropic’s lonely island Axios writes that Anthropic, guided by its company values and principles, has become something of a rare bird. It was the only major AI lab not to sign the Nvidia-led letter against restricting open-weight models, the Pentagon blacklisted it in February, and this summer export controls forced its newest models offline for almost three […]
links: 28.07.2026
TechCrunch: Satya Nadella says companies that trust one AI for everything may not survive TechCrunch writes that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is warning businesses not to entrust all their AI work to a single model provider. He advises companies to keep their data and usage records so they could one day train a model of their own, and […]
links: 27.07.2026
Le Monde: Searching for Ingmar Bergman’s soul on Sweden’s Fårö island Le Monde writes about Fårö, the Baltic island where Ingmar Bergman shot six of his films and spent the last years of his life. On his 60th birthday he gathered all nine of his children there for the first time; most of them did not share a […]
links: 04.07.2026
PBS News: Lured by Russia, African soldiers end up on deadly front lines of Ukraine war A PBS News segment on men from African countries whom Russia lures into its war against Ukraine with promises of jobs, hefty bonuses and citizenship. Ukrainian authorities estimate that Russia has recruited 27,000 foreign nationals from 130 countries since 2022. African soldiers […]
links: 03.07.2026
The Athletic: There are 99 French-born players at this World Cup. Welcome to the beating heart of global football The Athletic reports that 99 players at this year’s World Cup were born in France — more than in any other country (the Netherlands is a distant second with 67) — and many of them represent other national teams: […]
links: 02.07.2026
PBS News: Defying Pope Leo XIV, traditionalists go ahead with bishop consecrations in Switzerland PBS News reports that the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, in open defiance of Pope Leo XIV, consecrated four bishops without papal consent in Écône, Switzerland — an act that under church law brings automatic excommunication for both the new bishops and the […]