Barbara Ortutay

While the website was processing my payment for plane tickets (like the circle going around and around) I got a notification that the price increased by $70. This is insanity. Has this happened to anyone else?

We Asked Roblox’s C.E.O. About Child Safety. It Got Tense.

We asked Roblox's CEO about child safety on the platform. It got tense www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/p...

Advocacy groups urge parents to avoid AI toys this holiday season Children’s and consumer advocacy groups are urging parents not to buy AI-powered toys during the holiday season.

Because the horror movies didn't warn us enough...

Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with 'suspicious' travel patterns The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious.

Read this investigation by @byrontau.bsky.social now:

apnews.com/article/immi...

Meta prevails in historic FTC antitrust case, won't have to break off WhatsApp, Instagram Meta has prevailed over an existential challenge to its business that could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp after a judge ruled that the company does not hold a monopoly ...

"Believing that the only constant in the world was change, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus posited that no man can ever step into the same river twice. In the online world of social media, the current runs fast, too." -- Judge James Boasberg, ruling in favor of Meta.

Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”

New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

Of course women don't like the Cybertruck.

Women only want one thing, and it's the Trabant 601.

László Krasznahorkai in conversation with Colm Tóibín | London Review Bookshop Our first Literary Friendships event brought together Colm Tóibín with his friend László Krasznahorkai. Described by the Guardian as a ‘visionary writer’,…

Krasznahorkai has said of his work: ‘You will never go wrong anticipating doom in my books, any more than you’ll go wrong in anticipating doom in ordinary life.’

In 2012, we recorded a 94-minute conversation with Colm Tóibín for our Bookshop podcast:

www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/podcasts-vid...

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The only LLM I need.

Marilyn Hagerty, Whose Column on Olive Garden Went Viral in 2012, Dies at 99 It was a simpler time online, her son recalls—and his no-nonsense mother broke through the noise for all the right reasons

"Way back in 2012, the internet wasn’t yet the angry, shrieking wasteland it has become. A simple story about a no-nonsense lady in North Dakota could break through the noise." www.wsj.com/us-news/mari...

The passing of Paul Newman (2008), Sean Connery (2020), Sidney Poitier (2022), and now Robert Redford (2025) signals the slow disappearance of a certain type of 20th century figure: men who embodied classic style in a way that reflected their taste, rather than a professional stylist.

PSA: If you do not wish to mistakenly see the graphic video of Charlie Kirk getting shot and have an iPhone best to turn off video autoplay. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion, and then disable "Auto-Play Video Previews." This is the default setting. A per-app setting is also on the menu.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”, released as a single 34 yrs ago today

“No one had any psychic foresight .. that the song would go on to do what it did,” said Grohl. “We just fuckin’ rocked it in a little rehearsal space that was like a barn. .. We just thought it was another cool song for the record.”

US tech companies enabled the surveillance and detention of hundreds of thousands in China U.S. technology firms such as IBM, Dell and Cisco largely designed and built China’s surveillance state, an AP investigation finds. The tech companies deny wrongdoing.

"Over the past quarter century, American tech companies to a large degree designed and built China’s surveillance state, playing a far greater role in enabling human rights abuses than previously known, an Associated Press investigation found."

I'm seeing a social media trend where people are sneaking pics of men reading books in public and making fun of them as "performative males"

And while I love a good dunk, I don't think you guys want men to be reading even less than they are now. Just saying

I have honestly many times thought about purchasing one of those bulletproof backpacks or whatever, but then I think about the burden of carrying that to school every day, putting that burden on our children, that physical and mental burden of having to remember why you are carrying that backpack.

Online age checks are proliferating, but so are concerns they curtail internet freedom Online age checks are on the rise in the U.S. and elsewhere, asking people for IDs or face scans to prove they are over 18 or 21 or even 13.

The trouble with age verification

Study says AI chatbots need to fix suicide response, as family sues over ChatGPT role in boy's death A study finds that AI chatbots often avoid answering high-risk suicide questions but are inconsistent with less direct prompts.

“If a tool can give suicide instructions to a child, its safety system is simply useless."

Here's a recent story (and photos) by Mariam Dagga, about children in Gaza:

Mariam Dagga, AP freelance journalist in Gaza, was killed by an Israeli strike Mariam Dagga, a visual freelance journalist in Gaza for The Associated Press, was killed by an Israeli strike on a hospital. She was 33.

"At her funeral Monday, relatives and colleagues caressed her cheeks through tears. Her body lay shrouded in white, a single red flower placed gently beside her face."

This is Tuffy. He is the only example of taking up the whole sidewalk that is not only justifiable, but encouraged. 14/10 (IG: mypittuffy)

I am sorry I will never be able to read a story about Uranus and not laugh. It's just how it is.

The Invention of “Sesame Street” Renata Adler’s 1972 review of the program that revolutionized children’s television.

“Small children from poor or middle-class families who watch ‘Sesame Street’ do better on cognitive tests and in first grade than children who do not watch it,” Renata Adler wrote, in 1972.

AOL is finally shutting down its dial-up internet service AOL’s dial-up internet is finally taking its last bow. Yes, while perhaps a dinosaur by today’s digital standards, dial-up is still around.

AOL’s dial-up internet is finally taking its last bow. Yes, while perhaps a dinosaur by today’s digital standards, dial-up is still around.

A CBP Agent Wore Meta Smart Glasses to an Immigration Raid in Los Angeles Video obtained and verified by 404 Media shows a CBP official wearing Meta's AI glasses, which are capable of recording and connecting with AI. “I think it should be seen in the context of an agency t...

this is wild

www.404media.co/a-cbp-agent-...

New study sheds light on ChatGPT's alarming interactions with teens New research from a watchdog group reveals ChatGPT can provide harmful advice to teens. The Associated Press reviewed interactions where the chatbot gave detailed plans for drug use, eating disorders,...

“We wanted to test the guardrails,” said Imran Ahmed, the group’s CEO. “The visceral initial response is, ‘Oh my Lord, there are no guardrails.’ The rails are completely ineffective. They’re barely there — if anything, a fig leaf.”

YouTube video by Road Less Marveled May 1, 1969: Fred Rogers testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKy7...

US childhood vaccination rates fall again as exemptions set another record U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates inched down again last year and the proportion of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high.

U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates inched down again last year and the share of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Thursday.