*The place looks great – better than I've ever seen it – but connectivity may be a little spotty this month. In fact I'm deliberately seeking out some spotty connectivity in order to get some fiction done.
WIRED Ghost Stories
Five hauntings from the other side of technology.
People Are Creating ‘Survival Guides’ to Cope With the ‘AO3 Apocalypse’
The fanfic site could be down for weeks due to a “security incident.” Users are not taking it well.
Ej Dickson
Spend Elon Musk’s Money
What’s it like to be the richest man in the world? Find out for yourself.
Neal Agarwal
The Atlantic’s Near-Record Hurricane Drought Is About to End
Tropical Storm Isaias is set to become the basin’s first hurricane of the season, bringing life-threatening rain and storm surge to the Gulf Coast.
Brian Kahn
Please Let the Internet Die
Online spaces are captured by oligarchs and saturated with slop—and they’re exacerbating humanity’s worst impulses. It’s time to start over.
Miles Klee
You Probably Aren’t Going to Get the Plague
The death of a lab worker in Russia has authorities looking at whether plague played a role. Even if it did, though, the odds of it spreading are very low.
Emily Mullin
What the US Movement Against Data Centers Can Learn From Everywhere Else
Paris Marx, author of Hyperscale, has been tracking global data center development for years. The US has a lot to learn from what’s happened everywhere from Ireland to New Zealand.
Molly Taft
Rural Data Centers Are in for a Big Federal Tax Break
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, data center projects in rural areas could be eligible for major tax benefits starting next year. Some hyperscalers do not seem eager to take the free cash.
Molly Taft
These Midterm Races Will Decide Data Centers’ Political Fate
From the Senate to governors’ mansions, candidates are trying to outcompete each other to be the most anti–data center in races across the US.
Molly Taft
Demi Adejuyigbe Thinks You Should Only Post 3 Times a Day
The comedian sees being online as similar to visiting the zoo. “I don’t need to interact with that,” he says. “It’s just a thing that I enjoy, and then I walk away.”
Miles Klee
The Man Behind a West Bank Telegram Channel Trying to Keep Palestinian Drivers Safe
With no accurate Big Tech mapping app to help him, Anas Hattab launched a Telegram group to get himself home at night. Now nearly 350,000 Palestinians rely on it to navigate the occupied West Bank.
Lama Rabah
Jensen Huang’s Vision for Europe Runs on Plug-In Data Centers
At Nvidia’s GTC in Berlin, Huang unveiled the company’s new plug-in data center—the DSX Pod—as the key to unlocking Europe’s AI infrastructure lag. Oh, and autonomous humanoid robotics.
Tom Bristow