Why it’s funnier when you’re not allowed to laugh

michaelheim/Shutterstock.com I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder than during a church service, when something faintly ridiculous caught my eye. My friend saw it too, and once she started laughing, it became impossible to stop. Years later I’ve tried to explain what was so hilarious, but it seems you had to be there. What was […]

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The Dimension of Tech Dollars: World Labs Secures $1 Billion to Bridge AI and Reality with a Focus on Spatial Intelligence

SAN FRANCISCO — In a move that signals the next major pivot in the artificial intelligence arms race, World Labs, the startup founded by “Godmother of AI” Dr. Fei-Fei Li, announced on February 18, 2026, that it has raised $1 billion in a transformative funding round. The capital injection, which includes a strategic $200 million […]

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Fish use more energy to stay still than previously thought

Wonderful Nature/Shutterstock Many fish appear to hang effortlessly in the water while they wait for prey, defend a nest or pause between bursts of activity. But our research shows that this quiet stillness is anything but effortless. Hovering, the behaviour that allows a fish to remain suspended in one place, is far more energetically demanding […]

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The Passwordless Portal: One Billion Identities Exposed in Massive IDMerit Leak

In an era of sophisticated hackers and complex cyber-warfare, one of the largest data exposures in recent history didn’t require a single line of malicious code. Instead, a simple oversight has left one billion personal records from 26 countries twisting in the wind. The discovery, made by the research team at Cybernews, highlights a jarring […]

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Can psychopaths change?

Ormalternative/Shutterstock Psychopaths might account for only about 1% of the general population, but they account for a disproportionate share of violent crime. Distinct from other conditions like sociopathy and antisocial personality disorder, psychopaths tend to show traits such as an absence of remorse or guilt, a lack of empathy and a charming and manipulative interpersonal […]

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Deep sea landscapes are a new frontier of human exploration – here’s what we may find

Lillac/Shutterstock When we dream of landscapes, we might imagine rolling valleys or rugged mountains. But there is a whole landscape hidden from human view: the secret world of the seafloor. Half of Earth’s oceans are more than 3.2km deep. Beneath them lie cavernous plains untouched by sunlight, vast gaping trenches made by Earth’s tectonic plates […]

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EFF to Wisconsin Legislature: VPN Bans Are Still a Terrible Idea

Wisconsin’s S.B. 130 / A.B. 105 is a spectacularly bad idea. It’s an age-verification bill that effectively bans VPN access to certain websites for Wisconsinites and censors lawful speech. We wrote about it last November in our blog “Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They’re Doing,” but since then, the bill […]

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San Jose Can Protect Immigrants by Ending Flock Surveillance System

(This appeared as an op-ed published February 12, 2026 in the San Jose Spotlight, written by Huy Tran (SIREN), Jeffrey Wang (CAIR-SFBA), and Jennifer Pinsof.) As ICE and other federal agencies continue their assault on civil liberties, local leaders are stepping up to protect their communities. This includes pushing back against automated license plate readers, […]

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New Report Helps Journalists Dig Deeper Into Police Surveillance Technology

Report from EFF, Center for Just Journalism, and IPVM Helps Cut Through Sales Hype SAN FRANCISCO — A new report released today offers journalists tips on cutting through the sales hype about police surveillance technology and report accurately on costs, benefits, privacy, and accountability as these invasive and often ineffective tools come to communities across […]

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Moon sighting is a key part of Muslim life – how the lunar cycle determines the start of Ramadan and Eid

Each year as Ramadan approaches, more than 2 billion Muslims around the world prepare for a month of fasting, prayer and communality. But Ramadan does not begin on the same day everywhere in the world. This year, some countries will commence the month of fasting on Thursday, February 19, whereas other countries may begin it […]

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