The Outline

Adrianne Jeffries

Adrianne Jeffries
Power Jan 18

Newsweek’s headquarters just got a visit from the police

Cops came to the headquarters of Newsweek and IBT Media at 7 Hanover Square this morning.

The Future Jan 15

The popularity of Microsoft’s Surface is the least realistic thing on TV

The hybrid tablet/laptop device has seemingly replaced all computers in the alternate universe of Hollywood.

The Future Jan 12

Google is jeopardizing African-American literature sites

The search engine keeps making websites redundant by providing answers to queries directly on Google.com.

The Future Jan 02

Why did Google think LaVar Ball founded the NBA?

The search engine continues to produce errors in its attempt to provide quick and easy answers to queries.

The Future Dec 28

This is the best list of cybersecurity predictions for 2018

If you want to know what cyber threats we will face in the next year, look no further.

The Future Dec 20

The fight for net neutrality is a test of our broken democracy

Americans overwhelmingly support net neutrality. We are watching the telecom lobby overrule them.


But it’s not over yet.

The Future Dec 08

Bitcoin is none of the things it was supposed to be

The cryptocurrency was supposed to replace the finance industry. Instead, it has replicated it.

The Future Nov 30

Uber’s disastrous head of security will probably get another awesome job soon

Joe Sullivan paid off hackers to cover up a data breach rather than disclose it to regulators and the public. What else has he been up to?

The Future Nov 27

Strangers are looking at your data for pennies

A bunch of apps are uploading detailed receipts for transcription by remote workers.

The Future Nov 17

YouTube just took down the creepy kids’ channel Toy Freaks

Toy Freaks, formerly a YouTube-verified channel that had more than 7 million subscribers, “has been terminated for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”

The Future Nov 15

Why is this company tracking where you are on Thanksgiving?

A data collection service called SafeGraph collected 17 trillion location markers for 10 million smartphones during the holiday last year.

The Future Nov 03

Going rogue in Silicon Valley

Tech companies have a history of giving low-level employees high-level access.

The Future Oct 30

WikiTribune is already biased

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is launching a “neutral news service.”

The Future Oct 27

Facebook exec: ‘Just not true’ that we listen to your phone’s mic

The social network is still beating back the rumor that it eavesdrops in order to serve more personal ads.

The Future Oct 25

The IRS is basically ignoring the equity crowdfunding boom

Startup investment on crowdfunding platforms largely goes untaxed.

The Future Oct 18

Why is Google hiding view counts for Google Doodles?

View counts are public for everything on YouTube with one prominent exception.

The Future Oct 09

Google asks the dumbest questions

The new Pixel 2 ad asks whether the Earth is flat — a question the search engine flubbed not too long ago.

The Future Oct 06

The Daily Stormer just lost its new .cat domain

The white nationalist website tried to align itself with the Catalonian independence movement and got rejected.

Power Oct 03

It’s worse than you think

The Equifax breach shows the dystopian gap between wealth and competence in America.

The Future Sep 22

For the love of god, not everything is about cats

The foundation that administers the .cat domain for Catalonians just got raided by the Spanish police, but all the media wants to talk about is cats.

The Future Sep 21

Netflix, Microsoft, and Google just quietly changed how the web works

The organization that sets standards for the web just failed to beat back a stupid, greedy technology.

The Future Sep 11

That study on artificially intelligent “gaydar” is now under ethical review

The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology is reviewing a controversial study after a backlash from scientists and LGBTQ advocates.

Power Sep 08

No mercy for Equifax

The Equifax breach that affected 143 million Americans is a reminder of the shadowy power wielded by the big three credit bureaus.

The Future Aug 31

I now have equity in an alt-right Twitter clone

What now?

Power Aug 22

Mic’s drop

How Mic.com exploited social justice for clicks, and then abandoned a staff that believed in it.

Power Aug 16

Squarespace is dropping Richard Spencer’s think tank and other “alt-right” websites

The hosting service has given multiple sites 48 hours to find a new hosting provider.

Power Aug 14

Six states have introduced bills to shield drivers who hit protestors

None of them have passed. Swipe or scroll for more.

 
The Future Aug 11

You can’t boycott Google

Trying to pressure Google by boycotting its products is futile.

The Future Aug 08

I finally got an iPhone and I hate it

Why does Tim Cook want to treat me like a child?

The Future Aug 07

The app where Silicon Valley talks shit

It’s called Blind.

Power Aug 04

How to prank the rich and powerful without really trying

The so-called “Email Prankster” has fooled the likes of Eric Trump and Anthony Scaramucci.

The Future Aug 01

Voting machines are frighteningly easy to hack

Hackers at DEF CON cracked into electronic voting machines that are being used in elections today.

The Future Jul 31

This guy hunted Wi-Fi hackers using a giant backpack made out of radios

It’s an extreme version of what hackers call wardriving.

The Future Jul 31

“Worse than death:” The far-future dystopia of genome hacking

This scientist’s thought experiment will give you nightmares.

The Future Jul 29

Ethereum hacking continues to be extremely lucrative

Only in the cryptocurrency world could you steal $32 million and never get caught.

Power Jul 26

Trump just barred transgender people from military service

The president’s tweets shifted the news cycle from the GOP health care bill failure.

The Future Jul 25

These workers are signing up to get a microchip implant for their company

The technology will allow for contactless logins and purchases at the office.

Power Jul 25

Who will own the n-word?

People are rushing to file offensive trademark applications, but for different reasons.

Power Jul 24

Health care CEOs get paid so much it will make you sick

The country’s most influential health executives have no incentive to change the status quo.

The Future Jul 21

How a VC-funded company is undermining the open-source community

A San Francisco startup called Kite is being accused of underhanded tactics.

Culture Jul 20

Here’s what 26 publicists said when asked about BuzzFeed’s story asking publicists about R. Kelly

A meaningless journalistic exercise.

Power Jul 19

We probably waste billions of dollars throwing out “expired” prescription drugs

An investigation from ProPublica shows how wasteful expiration dates can be.

Power Jul 18

The top ethics official in the U.S. has resigned because of Trump

Walter Shaub says the Trump administration is trampling on ethics rules.

The Future Jul 17

Why are all my friends buying an overhyped digital currency?

My friends are investing in Ethereum and it’s stressing me out.

The Future Jul 14

Can small businesses survive on the internet?

Hype Machine, a small but beloved music streaming site, attempts a comeback without selling out.

The Future Jul 11

Pandora is melting down

The internet radio pioneer hasn’t turned a profit in 17 years.

The Future Jun 27

Apple’s ‘Planet of the Apps’ is even worse than you thought

Here is what you get when you watch a reality show made by the world’s most valuable tech company.

The Future Jun 20

How A p p l e stops l e a k s

The most valuable company on Earth is serious about stopping leaks, according to a recording of an internal presentation titled “Stopping Leakers - Keeping Confidential at Apple” obtained by The Outline.

 
The Future Jun 14

The Travis Trap

Venture capitalists want to invest in manic, headstrong sociopaths. Uber’s Travis Kalanick did not disappoint.

The Future Jun 12

Google is perpetuating a very bad definition of ‘eugenics’

Eugenics was ‘perverted’ by the Nazis, according to Oxford Dictionaries and by extension, Google.

The Future Jun 09

Why the latest NSA leak didn’t make a dent

Russia hacking U.S. election infrastructure seems like it would be a big deal.

Culture Jun 06

The NYT crossword is old and kind of racist

Who is the New York Times crossword talking to?

The Future Jun 01

This scientist is afraid her gene-editing invention will be used for evil

Microbiologist Jennifer Doudna is credited with pioneering a precise gene editing technique.

Power May 25

Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian, needs new glasses

Three newspapers withdrew their endorsements after a Republican candidate attacked a reporter in Montana

The Future May 22

Dubai has a robot cop now

The emirate’s first law enforcement android will start patrolling the streets this week.

Power May 17

Chelsea Manning is being released today

The whistleblower leaked video of a U.S. military strike that killed two Reuters journalists to WikiLeaks.

The Future May 15

UK tabloids doxxed the ‘hero’ hacker who stopped a global cyberattack

The 22-year-old is now an unwilling celebrity.

The Future May 09

A crime livestreaming app is the latest to rip off Snapchat

The much-maligned Citizen, formerly known as Vigilante, is producing live true crime television.

Power May 05

Republicans are here to disabuse you of the notion that elected representatives actually read bills

“That’s why we have staff.”

Power May 04

A YouTube family accused of child abuse has hired a crisis PR firm

The couple behind the DaddyOfive channel is in damage control mode.

Power Apr 28

Wired’s fake trend story failed on so many levels

A pointless article in ridiculous packaging shows the publication is out of touch with tech.

The Future Apr 27

Machine learning is racist because the internet is racist

Deep learning algorithms are often trained on data from the web, and their biases are getting hard to ignore

The Future Apr 26

Chipotle got hacked!

Federal law hasn’t caught up with the increase in big data breaches.

The Future Apr 25

Google finally realized that racist search results are a problem

And did something about it.

The Future Apr 24

Hawaii’s online gaming curse

The island’s physical isolation adds milliseconds of latency to an internet connection. In competitive eSports, milliseconds matter.

The Future Apr 17

How Google eats a business whole

Google’s Featured Snippets are not only often wrong, they’re also damaging to small businesses that depend on search traffic.

The Future Apr 14

This film about Facebook porn and violence moderators is dark

These are the real people keeping the internet nice and clean for you.

Culture Apr 05

We found out what camera Kendrick Lamar used to make a tiny planet

It’s expensive, but not wildly so.

Power Mar 30

Cartoonists are making art to support a refugee cartoonist

An award-winning Iranian cartoonist who goes by Eaten Fish has been detained since 2013.

The Future Mar 28

This artist programmed a computer to tell her what art to make

It's done by an algorithm, so you know it's good.

The Future Mar 27

Mark Zuckerberg will meet you soon

The billionaire CEO is keeping his promise to visit real America, with dispatches from seven states so far.

Power Mar 22

The Republican Party is dying in Hawaii

Beth Fukumoto was a leader in the GOP. Now because of Trump, she’s becoming a Democrat.

The Future Mar 07

Google’s featured snippets credit a scam artist with inventing email

A litigious opportunist is on a campaign to convince the world he invented email, and Google got duped.

The Future Mar 06

What’s better than a Nokia 3310? A gold Nokia 3310 with Vladimir Putin’s face on it

$1,700 to play “Snake” and honor the Russian president

The Future Mar 05

Google’s featured snippets are worse than fake news

The highlighted answers given prime placement over search results are often shockingly bad.

The Future Feb 28

J.C. Penney’s troubles are reflected in satellite images of its parking lots

One satellite data startup shows how the company’s traffic has decreased along with its stock price.

The Future Feb 28

Programmers are confessing their coding sins to protest a broken job interview process

“Whiteboard” interviews are widely hated. They also discriminate against people who are already underrepresented in the field.

Power Feb 27

This is not a story about a man who walks to work

It’s about the living wage in America.

Culture Feb 23

A list of absurd newspaper slogans

Pick your favorite.

The Future Feb 22

Owning a cat won’t make you crazy

New research shows that having a pet cat is not correlated with psychotic symptoms, contradicting previous findings.

The Future Feb 22

Researchers are trying to map the dark web economy to the real world

Two academics at the Oxford Internet Institute are gearing up to find out where the dark web trade physically happens.

The Future Feb 20

So far, internet-connected kids’ toys are a privacy disaster

Does that doll really need Bluetooth?

The Future Feb 19

New Zealand may be the tip of a submerged continent

Some geologists are pushing for Zealandia to be recognized as the youngest geological continent.

The Future Feb 19

Fake news means something different in the realm of science

But here are some things that could help.

The Future Feb 17

Why the notion of “race” persists in science

A call for the profession to “move past the use of race as a tool for classification in both laboratory and clinical research” is making slow progress.

The Future Feb 15

There are people who want to make gene editing a human right

Biohackers push back as the scientific establishment charts a course through the ethics of genetic interference.

The Future Feb 14

Stalkscan makes it easy to do highly specific searches on Facebook

A Belgian white hat hacker made the site to show how much of your Facebook activity is actually public.

The Future Feb 13

Scientists are squabbling over the best way to protest

Scientists are getting their helixes in a twist over the details of a planned march.

The Future Feb 10

Tesla employee who spoke out about working conditions: “Elon Musk is a visionary”

Tesla’s CEO accused a worker who called for unionization of being on the UAW’s payroll. Jose Moran says he just wants to improve working conditions at the plant.

The Future Feb 09

Tesla workers are talking about unionizing

An employee cited injuries and low pay as reasons.

The Future Feb 09

Maybe it’s time for Jack Dorsey to pick a company

And it should probably be Square.

Culture Feb 08

Grey Gardens is for sale for $19.995 million

A piece of film history is on the market.

Power Feb 08

Internal documents show TSA has no scientific basis for its behavior detection program

Documents obtained by the ACLU show that the agency knew its $1.5 billion program was pseudoscience.

Power Feb 08

Listen to judges grill a Justice Department attorney over Trump’s travel ban

A hearing in an appellate court did not appear to go well for the White House.

Culture Feb 02

How many solidarity safety pins have been sold on Etsy?

The social justice movement has expanded from safety pin jewelry to decals and shirts.

Power Feb 01

Some things you should know about refugees...

The answers aren’t as obvious as they might seem.

Power Feb 01

Where the refugees go

America’s refugee cities are now in Middle America.

The Future Jan 28

How hyper-targeted psychometric data may have helped Trump win

Granular personality data might have been the key to the candidate's unexpected victory.

Power Jan 27

Why we exclude prisoners from the unemployment rate

It gives an incomplete picture of the economy, but it’s tradition.

The Future Jan 26

The Whitehouse.gov reset broke Wikipedia links en masse

Here’s what editors are doing about it.

Power Jan 25

USDA research arm rescinded a gag order after public criticism

Confusion in transition

Power Jan 25

Prisoners aren’t counted in the unemployment rate

Here’s how they would impact the economic measure.

 
Power Jan 25

What is the unemployment rate?

More than 14 million Americans aren’t working when they want to be.

Power Jan 24

Trump appears to be muzzling scientists just like Canada did

It’s starting with the USDA.

Culture Jan 23

People keep falling for this murder-for-hire dark web scam

Don’t hire an assassin on a darknet market. It’s immoral, and also fake.

Power Jan 17

Will Julian Assange keep his promise?

The WikiLeaks founder said he would agree to extradition if Chelsea Manning were granted clemency.

Power Jan 12

The big Inauguration Day protest has no clear message

Being incoherent makes it easier for the incoming administration to dismiss protesters as losers.

The Future Jan 11

The Music Genome Project isn’t done

Pandora is still betting that humans know music better than machines. How’s that working out?

The Future Jan 11

A microbiologist is injecting himself for DIY gene therapy

The scientist couldn't get a trial sponsored, so he made himself the guinea pig.

 
Power Jan 08

An NYPD captain made stupid comments about rape

The police department and city are now scrambling to do damage control.

Power Jan 08

Who is Michael Fish and why are Brexiters suddenly talking about him?

The weather forecaster is a very old meme.

Power Jan 06

Everyone in the bitcoin media probably owns bitcoin

Reporters traditionally aren’t supposed to have a financial stake in their subject.

Power Jan 04

Why did it take 40 years for this morning sickness drug study to be published?

One doctor is questioning whether Diclegis, the only drug approved for morning sickness by the FDA, actually works.

The Future Jan 04

Figure 1, the Instagram for doctors, made a calendar

The social network of gross-out medical imagery has an official calendar of “visually striking images.”

The Future Jan 02

We were promised robot suitcases

The first widespread consumer robot may be the self-driving suitcase rather than the self-driving car.

Power Dec 30

There were only nine coal mining deaths in 2016 (so far)

The record low is due to better safety and fewer mining jobs.

The Future Dec 30

Artificial intelligence is creeping into the insurance industry

But what does that really mean?

Power Dec 30

North Korea has executed 340 people since 2011

Many of them in public.

Culture Dec 28

There could be 500,000 undiagnosed HIV cases in Russia

That's on top of the one million already diagnosed, according to one expert.

The Future Dec 28

Why Oakland said no to predictive policing software

The risk of racial bias and eroding community trust was too great.

Culture Dec 27

A violent passenger inspired Korean Air to add more male flight attendants

The airline is making changes after public criticism.

Culture Dec 26

Internet drugs may be no purer than street drugs, Dutch study says

A Netherlands study is the first to show that, contrary to popular belief, the internet’s drugs aren’t necessarily safer.

Culture Dec 26

Snopes in the spotlight

The fact-checking site has a lot of work to do.

Power Dec 22

There is now independent public evidence of Russia hacking the DNC

The government has been saying this for weeks. A cybersecurity firm now backs that up independently.

Power Dec 22

It’s hard to prove libel when everything’s a joke

Twitter’s reputation for tomfoolery makes it tougher to prove a tweet meets the legal standard.

The Future Dec 20

In which we try to rebrand the dongle

The computer pluggable is becoming unavoidable. Can we at least give it a better name?

The Future Dec 19

Fast food ads work really well on kids prone to obesity

A study measured the brain response in children with an obesity risk gene as they watched TV.

Culture Dec 19

Cannibalism book author felt pressure to eat a placenta

Bill Schutt doesn't want to spoil anything, but he really, really liked it.

Power Dec 18

Historian collects names of 20,000 people sterilized under California's eugenics program

Alex Stern estimates about 300 men and 500 women are still alive.

Power Dec 16

The nation is rapidly running out of whipped cream

A deadly explosion at a nitrous oxide plant put a major dent in supplies.

The Future Dec 15

12 percent of Americans are on antidepressants

And our mental health isn't getting any better.

Power Dec 15

How everyone is spinning Facebook’s fake news news

Find your truth.

The Future Dec 15

A computer scientist laid out the ethical risks of AI

And somehow didn’t mention Westworld.

Culture Dec 15

Jimmy Kimmel’s fee for hosting the Oscars is surprisingly low

But you can’t put a price on exposure to an audience of 34 million.

Culture Dec 14

Yale psychologist says America has too much empathy

Paul Bloom's new book is about the dark side of empathy.

Power Dec 14

Reasons to be skeptical of Silicon Valley’s "Never Again" pledge

The techie pledge against building a (hypothetical) Muslim registry is optimistic.

Power Dec 13

The Green Party’s recount campaign failed to change the election results

Only one of three states got a recount.

The Future Dec 13

Forget the cloud — it’s all about “the edge”

New trends like the Internet of Things are forcing internet infrastructure to change again.

The Future Dec 13

It’s really hard to make money off virtual reality

A developer wrote about the struggles of turning a profit on an indie VR game.

The Future Dec 12

Bill Gates founded a coalition around a big bet on clean energy

Breakthrough Energy Ventures has a 20-year time horizon.

The Future Dec 12

Reindeer are shrinking

Reindeer on the Arctic islands of Svalbard have gotten smaller on average due to climate change.

The Future Dec 12

The neural network that writes SEO-packed articles for Google

Spam is getting so advanced.

Power Dec 12

Reddit CEO reflects on why he edited user comments that criticized him

It didn't go well.

Power Dec 12

How the Venezuelan government gets into the Christmas spirit

The government has been cracking down on anything that looks like profit-seeking.

Power Dec 09

Obama orders report on Russian interference in 2016 election

It is unclear if the results will be made public.

Power Dec 09

Ronald B. Smith was executed in Alabama

The convicted murderer had appealed his sentence to the US Supreme Court.

 
Power Dec 08

After a temporary stay, Ronald Smith was executed in Alabama

His case opened up questions about methods of lethal injection and judicial override.

 
The Future Dec 08

New research into light therapy could be a breakthrough for Alzheimer’s treatment

The results of a study on mice are very promising.

The Future Dec 08

Passport photo checker insists Asian man’s eyes are closed

Facial recognition software is racist.

Power Dec 07

Activists want Wal-Mart to step up security

The retailer sees a violent crime a day.

Culture Dec 07

Hear people die

Meet the community that wants to hear death as it happens.

Culture Dec 07

Pizzagate conspiracy theorists feel camaraderie

A Washington Post story sums up the history of the faux controversy.

 
Culture Dec 06

Out West #8: Violent Ends

We made it.

The Future Dec 06

Samsung left no space for the Galaxy Note 7's battery to expand

Two engineers tore down the phone and found evidence of a "super-aggressive" manufacturing process.

 
Power Dec 05

What’s going on with Jill Stein’s recount campaign?

A recount is happening in Wisconsin and Michigan, but looking less likely in Pennsylvania.

Culture Dec 05

Born to die: The Teddy Flood story

Westworld’s Teddy Flood has died a thousand times.

 
The Future Dec 04

'Earth Observation' is a booming industry

Worth $3.5 billion by 2024.

 
Power Dec 04

Is it fair to ask tech companies if they would build a database of Muslims?

The Intercept's adversarial journalism is forcing Silicon Valley to take a stand.

The Future Dec 01

Four new elements were officially added to the periodic table

Meet Og, Ts, Mc, and Nh.

The Future Nov 29

Christmas music written and sung by a computer program

Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it. Listen to it.

Culture Nov 29

Out West #7: The Ribbon Cutting Theory

Who is dead, and who will die?

The Future Nov 26

Branded emoji are coming to your texts

A startup is launching a platform that lets brands design their own emoji.

The Future Nov 23

There is still no evidence that Russia hacked the election

The Russian hacker conspiracy theory is weak, but the case for paper ballots is strong.

Culture Nov 22

Out West #6: The Complete Timeline

It's all coming together.

The Future Nov 18

It would be very, very hard for Russia to hack the U.S. vote

Our chaotic system makes this kind of hack next to impossible — but we should still #AuditTheVote.

The Future Nov 17

How to die while taking a selfie

Researchers in India published a thorough look at "killfies."

 
The Future Nov 17

The fake organs surgeons use to practice on are getting really good

University of Rochester's Medical College has artificial kidneys that "bleed," and more.

 
Power Nov 15

Edward Snowden's mini-mea culpa for telling people to vote third party

The NSA whistleblower was taken in by the polls, just like the rest of us.

 
Culture Nov 15

Out West #5: The Real Brain Theory

Everyone is a host.

Culture Nov 08

Out West #4: Ford is a Host

People are hosts and hosts are people.

Culture Nov 01

Out West #3: The Maze

The one with the orgy scene

Culture Oct 30

Westworld is happening in multiple time periods

A video explainer to help you understand what's going on in the hit HBO show

Culture Oct 25

Out West #2: The No Arnold Theory

We know who the Man in Black is.

Culture Oct 21

Out West #1: The Multiple Theresas Theory

There's a new podcast in town.

The Future Oct 14

The Great Barrier Reef is 25 million years old and dying

Scientists called an obituary premature, but the reef is clearly not doing well.

The Future Oct 03

Land it on mars

Elon needs your help.

 
The Future Sep 30

Apparently everything that happens is good for bitcoin

Bitcoiners use Deutsche Bank troubles, and everything else, to proselytize for bitcoin.

 
Culture Sep 30

One Supreme brick costs $70 to $1,000, depending

The free market struggles to accommodate a novel good.