Riley Walz, the Jester of Silicon Valley, Is Joining OpenAI

Riley Walz, a software engineer famous for his online stunts, is joining OpenAI to research and develop new ways for humans to interact with AI, WIRED has learned. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the hire. Walz built a reputation as Silicon Valley’s jester and has created a series of viral web projects that double as social…

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DHS Has Been Collecting US Citizens’ DNA for Years

The expansion has been driven by specific legal and bureaucratic levers. Foremost was an April 2020 Justice Department rule that revoked a long-standing waiver allowing DHS to skip DNA collection from immigration detainees, effectively green-lighting mass sampling. Later that summer, the FBI signed off on rules that let police booking stations run arrestee cheek swabs…

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Best Phone Cameras

To help with that, Consumer Reports tests the camera quality of every smartphone that comes through our labs, dutifully snapping photos and recording video in a studio environment under controlled lighting conditions, and then evaluating the results on a high-quality LCD display. Our expert testers review not only the rear cameras but also the front-facing…

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Chromebooks vs. PC: The Differences Between Chrome OS and Windows

The big limitation with Chromebook software is in downloading applications from the web. With Chromebooks, you just can’t. So that means you can’t download more advanced software like video editing, photo editing, or industry-specific applications. The only apps you can download are the Android apps you’ll find in the Google Play Store. This can be…

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Safest Car Brands Ranked by Consumer Reports’ Safety Verdict

Our exclusive safety verdict is based on straightforward criteria: Cars that score Basic meet the bare minimum federal safety standards but lack the protections that CR says should be available to all consumers. Cars that score Better have several criteria above the minimum, but may not come standard with some features, may not have undergone…

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Everyone Speaks Incel Now

At the beginning of the year, The Cut kicked off a brief discourse cycle by declaring a new lifestyle trend: “friction-maxxing.” The idea, in a nutshell, is that people have overconvenienced themselves with apps, AI, and other means of near-instant gratification—and would be better off with increased friction in their daily lives, which is to…

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Are Lip Balms and Oils Causing Discoloration on Your Lips?

Aegean H. Chan, MD, dual board-certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist, practicing in Santa Barbara and Solvang, Calif., notes that pigmented contact cheilitis is underrepresented in medical literature, with only a handful of published case reports. This makes its true prevalence unclear, but it is likely more common than reported. She adds that delayed diagnosis is common…

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Best Organic Mattresses (2025): Birch, Avocado, Naturepedic, More

Organic bedding brand Coyuchi recently launched its own organic mattress, combining cotton, wool, and Dunlop latex atop individually wrapped coils. While Coyuchi’s linen sheets are excellent, I was a little nervous to try the company’s first mattress effort. Bedding is not a mattress, after all, and expertise does not always transfer across endeavors. In this…

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