YouTube told ASMR artists including Bunnii, Slight Sounds, Rose, and others that their content broke the platform's sex and nudity policy. Creators say these bans are unfair and potentially life-altering.

Citing backlash, ISBNdb removed its webpages about training AI, denied ever buying, scanning, or selling a book for AI training, and said the site was a "test of market interest."

The nature of dark matter and dark energy are among the biggest mysteries in science. Scientists think an extra “dark dimension” could explain both, and they are putting the idea to the test.

My small town in South Carolina will soon have more Flock cameras than police officers.

"For the time being, if you or someone on your crew has availability to secure black plastic bags (or something else) over the cameras, that would be great."

How cops are using Flock to look for specific people; the company buying mountains of books for AI companies; and the big Suno hack.

Here's how your personal address travels from your credit card provider, through middlemen companies, and ends up with ICE.

Do you have to show ID to get unlimited pasta at Olive Garden? Yes. Is this the same as secure voting? Definitely not.

For a year, Apple knew that an issue in its Hide My Email feature was exposing customers’ real email addresses. Apple only fixed the issue after 404 Media covered it.

ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”

Cops and drone companies seem increasingly eager to put weapons on their drones.

George and Washy enjoying the garden

Here’s a reminder about one of the most important results of the past fourteen years of ancient DNA research. Northern Europe was overrun by plague-spreading steppe nomads less than 5000 years ago, causing an almost complete population replacement.

It’s a 1492 event. Everybody knows that us Northern Europeans aren’t the original inhabitants of North America. But we aren’t even the original inhabitants of Northern Europe.

#archaeology #dna #migration

The mummified remains of 4,000-year-old Egyptian royals suggest that they were buried with weapons because they could use them, not for symbolic reasons.

Yesterday I got a covid booster. Today you get a corvid booster (photo by Sardaka, CC BY-SA 3.0).
#CovidIsNotOver #birds #corvids

We're celebrating with TWO NIGHTS of good times: A live taping of the podcast, and a party the following night! Paid 404 Media subscribers get free and discounted access. Details below.

This week, we discuss AI music, slop bowls, and the endless quest for optimization.

A new procurement record says ICE wants access to personal data, including names, Social Security numbers, and ethnicity, to investigate in part what the agency calls “voters fraud.” It also plans to use the data to investigate immigration fraud.

For the first time, scientists found that a rocky planet in the habitable zone of its star has an atmosphere. It’s the best place to look for alien biosignatures, scientists say.

I guess the good thing is we’ve finally answered the unvoiced question “who even uses SJW in 2026”

it’s these motherfuckers. linus isn’t even cool enough to like video games but he and his inner circle sure as fuck miss gamergate