Tech
Software used by MA District Attorneys in the year of our Lord 2026
Nasser Eledroos found that the Massachusetts District Attorneys are still using software from the early 2000s for case management.
Anthropic found that simple positive encouragement was effective at pushing Claude to continue to attempt to solve previously unsolved math problems, resulting in further progress.
US House Democrats wrote a letter to Anthropic and OpenAI pressing for answers related to recent cybersecurity incidents.
An Australian man used OpenClaw to book a gym appointment and it autonomously hacked the gym’s API.
Meta released an open model called Muse Glimmer and a very long essay about their position on AI superintelligence.
A dumb DEFCON attendee hacked the wi-fi on the flight he was sitting on.
Non-dumb researchers found they could hack a Boeing 737 within 60 seconds using a small prototype device.
FlightAware sued Kalshi for allegedly using their data to allow users to bet on flight cancellations and then quickly withdrew their suit.
Amazon changed their notification emails to be annoyingly vague and are claiming it’s a security feature.
Twitch released an opt-out option for using your content to train Amazon’s AI models—which should have been opt-in to begin with.
My favorite visual bookmarking service, Are.na, turned 15! (Follow me here.)
Culture
An Axios reporter shared with the world that he uses an AI agent as a “reading buddy” in a way that I find rather terrifying and worrying re: what even is the definition of reading anymore?
A gas station in Upstate New York offered a discount on gas to customers who danced for them. Grim as hell.
Mark Zuckerberg’s superyacht either did not hear or ignored another ship’s request for assistance.
Music
From the music video for “The Peace” by Underscores
Books
The NYT released its list of The 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century.
McKenzie Scott announced a new novel, which she’ll release serially on her Substack.
PNW Local News
60 cats were found on a drifting boat in Tacoma. The boat owner has yet to be located.