This all started like four or five days ago. How many followers have you gathered in that amount of time? I went from, let’s see, I haven’t honestly been on TikTok in hours. I went from 6,000 to 576,000, so I’ve gained 570,000 followers. [Eds. note: As of this writing, …
Read More »Europe Votes to Slap China-Made EVs With Tariffs—but Tesla Gets Off Easy
“I think you can envision this playing out pretty well for BYD, actually,” says Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And also, they’re going to have less competition from other Chinese automakers.” BYD is known for its ability to control production costs, so …
Read More »The Black List Upended the Film Industry. The Book World Is Next
Fifty-four Academy Awards and 267 nominations. That’s the sort of concrete impact the Black List has had since launching in 2005 as Hollywood insiders’ go-to index of emerging screenwriters. The Social Network, Edge of Tomorrow, Selma, Don’t Worry Darling—each one started as a submission on the Black List. “I knew …
Read More »We Tested All of Amazon’s Fire Tablets So You Don’t Have To. Here Are the Ones You Should Get
WIRED A faucet for Amazon content: If you subscribe to Amazon’s Prime service, you can consume all the included movies, music, TV, and books, shop for all the items you can get with its free two-day shipping, and browse your free Amazon photo storage. You can do most of the …
Read More »Meta’s Movie Gen Makes Convincing AI Video Clips
Meta just announced its own media-focused AI model, called Movie Gen, that can be used to generate realistic video and audioclips. The company shared multiple 10-second clips generated with Movie Gen, including a Moo Deng-esque baby hippo swimming around, to demonstrate its capabilities. While the tool is not yet available …
Read More »So You Can 3D Print a Steak Now—but Why on Earth Would You?
Most of us don’t know how our food is made. We don’t know much about what our burger ate when it was part of a cow, where that cow lived, or how it died. Ditto for the wheat in our bread, or the leaves in our salad. The food system …
Read More »The Trolling of the ‘Minecraft Movie’ Trailer Isn’t Exactly What You Think
In early September, Warner Bros. released a teaser for A Minecraft Movie, the studio’s new film based on Mojang’s nearly 15-year-old sandbox game. Directed by Napoleon Dynamite helmer Jared Hess, it was, frankly, very goofy. Jack Black was Steve; Jason Momoa was sporting maybe the worst hairdo he’s ever had. …
Read More »Neo-Nazis Are Fleeing Telegram for Encrypted App SimpleX Chat
Dozens of neo-Nazis are fleeing Telegram and moving to a relatively unknown secret chat app that has received funding from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. In a report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue published on Friday morning, researchers found that in the wake of the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel …
Read More »The Secret Alchemy of Making Ice Cream
To make the perfect scoop of ice cream, you first need a dairy base—its natural proteins, fat, and sugar provide the rich, distinct mouthfeel. Heavy cream is added, further smoothing the texture. The introduction of sugar isn’t just for sweetness: like scattering salt on snow, it lowers the freezing point, …
Read More »159 employees are leaving Automattic as CEO’s fight with WP Engine escalates
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said on Thursday that 159 employees (roughly 8.4% of staff) accepted a severance package that the company had offered to those who disagreed with his direction of WordPress and his handling of tussle with web hosting provider WP Engine. In a blog post, Mullenweg said the …
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