As NASA’s Artemis II crew made history today by traveling farther from Earth than any humans ever have, another unexpected passenger quietly drifted into frame: a jar of Nutella. During NASA’s livestream of the mission, the hazelnut spread could be seen floating around the Orion spacecraft cabin just minutes before Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor…
For the first time in decades, astronauts are heading back toward the moon. And for the first time ever, they are doing it with their iPhones. NASA’s Artemis II crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen — are not only documenting one of the most…
There’s a moment, familiar to anyone who has spent time in basketball corners of the internet, where someone drops a name into the chat — Kosta Koufos, Sundiata Gaines, Jamario Moon — and the room either goes electric or shakes its head in disappointment. On social media, this is called “ball knowledge.” The term has…
The problem with announcing any kind of news on April 1 is that absolutely nobody will believe you. Case in point: On Wednesday morning, KitKat announced that customers could use a special online tracking tool to figure out if their purchased confectionery goods were part of the massive 12-ton KitKat heist that’s gotten the internet’s…
Maybe it says something profound about the human condition that a series of AI-generated talking fruits ripping off reality TV can rack up tens of millions of views. Or maybe it says nothing at all, and we just have to sit with that. What I’m talking about is Fruit Love Island — a series of…
Mere days after Bluesky announced its new AI product, Attie, the coding helper has already become the second most blocked account on the platform. The Attie profile was given the cold shoulder by 125,000 users already, TechCrunch reported. With just 1,500 followers, that means 83 times more users blocked Attie than followed it — that…
I don’t remember much of my life before social media. It took over in seventh grade and my individual style started bending toward whatever the algorithm pushed to the top. My wants were no longer my own but reflections of what Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube algorithmically advertised as desirable. Sleepovers that used to be…
Less than 4 months ago, Australia banned social media for kids under 16, sparking a wave of similar proposals from governments around the world. The latest effort to ban social media for children now comes from Austria. In a press release, the Austrian government announced that a bill will be introduced by the end of June to ban social…
Among passionate TikTok communities, BookTok, may be the most influential. BookTok is where book lovers and e-reader obsessives to come together to discuss their favorite books and device hacks. For readers who use e-readers, Kindle, Kobo, and Boox lead the charge as the most popular devices, so it’s notable when a new device goes viral.…
Thirty-five years ago, British author J.K. Rowling was commuting from Manchester to London when she was struck by divine creativity: She imagined the tale of a young, orphaned wizard who was key to unraveling a magically violent authoritarian uprising. In what would become Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (for American readers), the young mother…