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QAnon, adrift after Trump’s defeat, finds new life in Elon Musk’s Twitter

QAnon, adrift after Trump’s defeat, finds new life in Elon Musk’s Twitter

The Washington Post reports: Twitter owner Elon Musk’s boosting of far-right memes and grievances has injected new energy into the jumbled set of conspiracy theories known as QAnon, a fringe movement that Twitter and other social networks once banned as too extreme. The billionaire has spread bogus theories about the violent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband to his 120 million followers, and he called for the criminal prosecution of infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci. He has thrown around…

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Inside the jury room for the Trump Organization criminal trial

Inside the jury room for the Trump Organization criminal trial

The Daily Beast reports: To avoid letting their personal feelings toward Donald Trump cloud their judgment, jurors for the criminal tax fraud case against the Trump Organization had a novel strategy: They referred to the former president as “Joe Smith.” “I constantly fought my knee-jerk belief that of course anything with the name Trump on it is crooked,” one juror told The Daily Beast this week. “I shocked myself in mid-November when I realized that I wasn’t sure I could…

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James Block helped take down crypto exchange, FTX, in his spare time

James Block helped take down crypto exchange, FTX, in his spare time

Charlie Warzel writes: The world of cryptocurrency is rich with eccentric characters and anonymous Twitter personalities. So perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that one of the early figures who called attention to the problems with Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, is a 30-year-old Michigan psychiatrist who investigates financial crimes as a hobby. James Block, who runs a crypto newsletter called Dirty Bubble Media, has gotten overlooked in the swift and spectacular collapse of FTX. On November 2, a report…

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The supply chain that keeps tech flowing to Russia

The supply chain that keeps tech flowing to Russia

Reuters reports: In March this year, a new firm appeared in Turkey’s corporate registry. Azu International Ltd Sti described itself as a wholesale trader of IT products, and a week later began shipping U.S. computer parts to Russia. Business was brisk, Russian customs records show. The United States and the EU had recently restricted sales of sensitive technology to Russia because of its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, and many Western tech companies had suspended all dealings with Moscow. Co-founded…

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New research upends conventional wisdom about how we burn calories

New research upends conventional wisdom about how we burn calories

Herman Pontzer writes: We’re often told our metabolism speeds up at puberty and slows down in middle age, particularly with menopause, and that men have faster metabolisms than women. None of these claims is based on real science. My colleagues and I have begun to fill that gap in scientific understanding. In 2014 John Speakman, a researcher in metabolism with laboratories at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenzhen, organized an international effort…

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Grant Wahl’s wife: There was ‘nothing nefarious’ about his death

Grant Wahl’s wife: There was ‘nothing nefarious’ about his death

Dr Céline Gounder writes: First and foremost, on behalf of myself and our family, I want to express our deepest gratitude for the outpouring of support, love, and sympathy from around the world. This continues to be a very difficult and painful time as we grieve a beloved husband, brother, and friend. It is some comfort to know that so many people Grant reached—countless colleagues, readers, athletes, coaches, friends, and fans—are grieving alongside us. Grant arrived home Monday, December 12,…

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Why we need to be seen and not herded

Why we need to be seen and not herded

Costica Bradatan writes: Have you noticed how, when crossing a busy road, you feel a sudden urge to speed up and melt into the crowd? Whether you are in Rio de Janeiro or Bangkok, New Delhi or New York City, your animal instinct tells you that it is safer to venture as part of a herd than on your own. Fear brings us closer together. The evidence is not just anecdotal. When we are herding, neuroimaging experiments show increased activation…

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After fusion energy breakthrough, ‘a few decades of research’ before commercial application

After fusion energy breakthrough, ‘a few decades of research’ before commercial application

Inside Climate News reports: By training 192 lasers onto a capsule the size of a peppercorn, U.S. government scientists last week were able to ignite fusion with a net energy gain—a long-sought milestone in the quest for a carbon-free energy future. But emphasis was on the word “future,” as the team at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California on Tuesday announced the breakthrough in replicating the energy that powers the sun. The successful experiment, which built on generations of prior…

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Iranian soccer player sentenced to death after protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini

Iranian soccer player sentenced to death after protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini

Insider reports: An Iranian professional soccer player has been sentenced to death after protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini, according to Iran Wire. Amir Nasr-Azadani, 26, was arrested in November in relation to the killing of a police colonel and two volunteer militia members. He has been accused of “waging war against God” and will be hanged, according to Iran Wire. FIFPRO, the international soccer players union, said in a statement on Monday that it was “shocked and sickened”…

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U.S. finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine

U.S. finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine

CNN reports: The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine that could be announced as soon as this week, according to two US officials and a senior administration official. The Pentagon’s plan still needs to be approved by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before it is sent to President Joe Biden for his signature. The three officials told CNN that approval is expected. Ukraine has been calling for the US to send the advanced…

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For Elon Musk, cutting costs includes reneging on debts

For Elon Musk, cutting costs includes reneging on debts

The New York Times reports: Over the past two weeks, Elon Musk has shaken up Twitter’s legal department, disbanded a council that advised the social media company on safety issues and is continuing to take drastic steps to cut costs. Mr. Musk appears to be gearing up for legal battles at Twitter, which he purchased in October for $44 billion, according to seven people familiar with internal conversations. He and his team have revamped Twitter’s legal department and pushed out…

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How right-wing information warfare works

How right-wing information warfare works

Greg Sargent writes: By now it should be obvious that for large swaths of the right-wing media ecosystem, the Triggering of the Libs has become an end in itself. In the brutal competition of the so-called attention economy, provoking large-scale outrage and loathing is not an incidental feature of making controversial arguments. It has become a key marker of success. Over the weekend, Elon Musk called for the prosecution of Anthony S. Fauci, the leading infectious-disease expert in the Biden…

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An intel analyst tried to prevent the January 6 attack. DHS failed to act

An intel analyst tried to prevent the January 6 attack. DHS failed to act

Jana Winter reports: On Dec. 20, 2020, a 21-year-old intelligence analyst went online to search for local Washington, D.C., fishing holes and stumbled upon the blueprint of a plot to storm the Capitol and execute members of Congress and law enforcement officers to prevent the certification of electoral votes to make Joe Biden the next president. The domestic terrorism analyst with the Department of Homeland Security saw a link to a website where people “actively at that moment were discussing…

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An ancient ‘horizon calendar’ comes into view over Mexico City

An ancient ‘horizon calendar’ comes into view over Mexico City

The New York Times reports: Long before Europeans colonized North America, the Indigenous peoples in the valley where Mexico City would later arise may have followed a natural solar calendar that was so accurate it accounted for leap years. The “horizon calendar,” proposed in a new study, relied on natural landmarks in the valley’s rugged eastern mountains, and was kept in sync with the astronomical year by a temple atop a sacred volcano. The system may have been used by…

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