Crooked Bough News Round-up

+ A British redcoat’s lost memoir resurfaces—Shadrack Byfield lost his left arm in the War of 1812; his life sheds ...

+ Scientists sequence a woolly rhino genome from a 14,400-year-old wolf’s stomach—Fortunately for paleogeneticists, wolf puppies don't chew their food t...

+ EPA makes it harder for states, tribes to block pipelines—A new rule aims to speed up and streamline the permitting process. [Ca...

+ EPA moves to stop considering economic benefits of cleaner air—New language criticizes “uncertainties” in longstanding EPA practice. ...

+ Switching water sources improved hygiene of Pompeii’s public baths—Scientists analyzed carbonate deposits from baths, aqueduct to learn m...

+ NASA launches new mission to get the most out of the James Webb Space Telescope—"It was not recognized how serious a problem that is until... about 20...

+ That time Will Smith helped discover new species of anaconda—Footage of the 2024 discovery appears in NatGeo's new documentary seri...

+ The oceans just keep getting hotter—For the eighth year in a row, the world’s oceans absorbed a record-bre...

+ These 60,000-year-old poison arrows are oldest yet found—Hunter-gatherers probably derived the poison from the milky bulb extra...

+ NASA orders “controlled medical evacuation” from the International Space Station—"The crew is highly trained, and they came to the aid of their colleag...

+ These dogs eavesdrop on their owners to learn new words—“Under the right conditions, some dogs present behaviors strikingly si...

+ Trump withdraws US from world’s most important climate treaty—US also pulling out of pacts promoting development, democracy, and hum...

+ NASA considers evacuating ailing crew member from International Space Station—"The matter involved a single crew member who is stable," NASA said in...

+ Japanese nuclear plant operator fabricated seismic risk data—Company staff were very selective about how they modeled earthquake da...

+ New battery idea gets lots of power out of unusual sulfur chemistry—Rather than being used as a storage material, the sulfur gives up elec...

+ We have a fossil closer to our split with Neanderthals and Denisovans—A recent study suggests that North Africa may be a key place to look. ...

+ Here are the launches and landings we’re most excited about in 2026—A lot could happen in space this year, but let's get real about what a...

+ Appeals court agrees that Congress blocked cuts to research costs—The Trump admin can't arbitrarily set university reimbursements to a l...

+ Ørsted seeks injunction against US government over project freeze—Trump administration had suspended Danish group’s work on major wind f...

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As of 1/15/26 1:54pm. Last new 1/14/26 6:46pm.

+ Wikipedia signs AI training deals with Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon—Wikimedia Enterprise signs Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mi...

+ Wikipedia will share content with AI firms in new licensing deals—Wikimedia Enterprise signs Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mi...

+ A single click mounted a covert, multistage attack against Copilot—Exploit exfiltrating data from chat histories worked even after users ...

+ Bandcamp bans purely AI-generated music from its platform—Indie music store says it wants fans to have confidence music was larg...

+ The RAM shortage’s silver lining: Less talk about “AI PCs”—“General interest in AI PCs has been wavering for a while..." [Categor...

+ Never-before-seen Linux malware is “far more advanced than typical”—VoidLink includes an unusually broad and advanced array of capabilitie...

+ Hegseth wants to integrate Musk’s Grok AI into military networks this month—US defense secretary announces plans for integration despite recent co...

+ Microsoft vows to cover full power costs for energy-hungry AI data centers—Company responds to community concerns over electricity bills and wate...

+ Google removes some AI health summaries after investigation finds “dangerous” flaws—AI Overviews provided false liver test information experts called alar...

+ ChatGPT Health lets you connect medical records to an AI that makes things up—New feature will allow users to link medical and wellness records to A...

+ ChatGPT falls to new data-pilfering attack as a vicious cycle in AI continues—Will LLMs ever be able to stamp out the root cause of these attacks? P...

+ The nation’s strictest privacy law just took effect, to data brokers’ chagrin—Californians can now submit demands requiring 500 brokers to delete th...

+ Supply chains, AI, and the cloud: The biggest failures (and one success) of 2025—The past year has seen plenty of hacks and outages. Here are the ones ...

+ From prophet to product: How AI came back down to earth in 2025—In a year where lofty promises collided with inconvenient research, wo...

+ Condé Nast user database reportedly breached, Ars unaffected—A serious data breach has occurred, but Ars users have nothing to worr...

+ GPS is vulnerable to jamming—here’s how we might fix it—GPS jamming has gotten cheap and easy, but there are potential solutio...

+ How AI coding agents work—and what to remember if you use them—From compression tricks to multi-agent teamwork, here's what makes the...

+ OpenAI’s new ChatGPT image generator makes faking photos easy—New GPT Image 1.5 allows more detailed conversational image editing, f...

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As of 1/15/26 1:54pm. Last new 1/15/26 11:00am.

+ Cyber body ISC2 signs on as UK software security ambassador—Professional cyber association ISC2 pledges support to UK government’s...

+ Texas judge throws out second lawsuit over CrowdStrike outage—A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by CrowdStrike shareholders o...

+ Microsoft DCU uses UK courts to hunt down cyber criminals—Microsoft has taken down the RedDVS cyber crime-as-a-service network a...

+ UK government backtracks on plans for mandatory digital ID—The proposed national digital identity app will no longer be compulsor...

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As of 1/15/26 1:54pm. Last new 1/15/26 10:28am.

+ Building a Carousel Autosampler—A common task in a laboratory setting is that of sampling, where a bit...

+ The Random Laser—When we first heard the term random laser, we did a double-take. After...

+ AC Motor Converted into DC eBike Powerplant—AC induction motors are everywhere, from ceiling fans to vehicles. The...

+ ISS Medical Emergency: An Orbital Ambulance Ride—Over the course of its nearly 30 years in orbit, the International Spa...

+ Looking at a Real Fake Raspberry Pi RP2040 Board—Since the RP2040 microcontroller is available as a stand-alone compone...

+ Windows? Linux? Browser? Same Executable—Weve been aware of projects like Cosmopolitan that allow you to crank ...

+ Philips Kid’s Kit Revisited—[Anthony Francis-Jones], like us, has a soft spot for the educational ...

+ Making Code a Hundred Times Slower With False Sharing—Writing good, performant code depends strongly on an understanding of ...

+ Dad Makes Kid’s Balance Bike Into Electric Snow Trike Like a Boss—The balance bikes toddlers are rocking these days look like great fun,...

+ A New Life For An Old Amplifier—An audio amplifier was once a fairly simple analogue device, but in re...

+ FLOSS Weekly Episode 860: Elixir Origin Story—This week Jonathan and Randal chat with Jose Valim about Elixir! What ...

+ Genetic Therapy Aims To Bring Hearing To Those Born Deaf—For those born with certain types of congenital deafness, the cochlear...

+ ESP32-P4 Powers Retro Handheld after a Transplant—The ESP32-P4 is the new hotness on the microcontroller market. With RI...

+ Clone Wars: IBM Edition—If you search the Internet for Clone Wars, youll get a lot of Star War...

+ Pushing China’s EAST Tokamak Past the Greenwald Density Limit—Getting a significant energy return from tokamak-based nuclear fusion ...

+ An Open Source Electromagnetic Resonance Tablet—Drawing tablets have been a favorite computer peripheral of artists si...

+ Atari Brings the Computer Age Home—[The 8-Bit Guy] tells us how 8-bit Atari computers work. The first Ata...

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As of 1/15/26 1:54pm. Last new 1/15/26 1:17pm.

+ DHS Expands Immigration Ban, Ensuring The Only Way An African Can Come To The US Is If We Bring Slavery Back—Ever since Trump took office and turned over immigration enforcement t...

+ Daily Deal: The Ultimate Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows License + Windows 11 Pro Bundle—Microsoft Office 2021 Professional is the perfect choice for any profe...

+ State Department Threatens UK Over Grok Investigation, Because Only The US Is Allowed To Ban Foreign Apps—So let me get this straight. The United States government spent years ...

+ Trump, Ellison Wage War On ‘Woke Netflix’ In Effort To Scuttle Warner Brothers Deal, Dominate U.S. Media—The Trump empire is nothing if not predictable. Last year we noted rep...

+ New Year, But The Same Measles Crises Rages On—Meet the new year, same as the old year, at least as far as Americas m...

+ We Found More Than 40 Cases Of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds And Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing—This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a...

+ ICE Is Going On A Surveillance Shopping Spree—U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a new budget under ...

+ Bari Weiss Is Sad That People Aren’t Enjoying Her Clumsy Destruction Of CBS News—If you missed it, Trump-allied billionaire Larry Ellison and his nepob...

+ Daily Deal: The Complete CompTIA And IT Exam Prep Bundle—The Complete CompTIA and IT Exam Prep Bundle has a variety of courses,...

+ Prosecutors Flee DOJ After Being Told To Investigate The Murdered Woman, Not The Murderer—Last week, we wrote about how ICE agent Jonathan Ross murdered Renee N...

+ DHS Wants To Harvest Biometric Data From Anyone Helping A Foreigner Stay In This Country Legally—Weve always known the ultimate goal was to subject everyone to biometr...

+ Trump Tries To Disappear Impeachment References At Smithsonian—Donald Trump is the only president in American history to have been im...

+ Online Gaming’s Final Boss: The Copyright Bully—Since earliest days of computer games, people have tinkered with the s...

+ Elon Musk Plays Disinfo Telephone: How Oregon’s Mundane Voter Roll Cleanup Is Turned Into False Claim Of ‘Fake Voters’—I made the mistake of opening up X yesterday to look something up, and...

+ Trump’s Loyalist Prosecutors Continue To Get Kicked Off Cases Because They’re Not Legally Appointed—Trumps binge-and-purge approach to handling the DOJ definitely isnt wo...

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As of 1/15/26 1:54pm. Last new 1/15/26 1:54pm.

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As of 1/15/26 1:54pm. Last new 1/3/26 5:01am.

+ U.S. billionaire backs first binational park between Uruguay, Argentina—U.S. philanthropist Gilbert Butler has financed purchase and donation ...

+ U.S. seizes 6th sanctioned oil tanker carrying Venezuelan oil—U.S. Southern Command forces seized a sixth sanctioned oil tanker earl...

+ Argentina lists Muslim Brotherhood branches as terrorist entities—Argentina's president said the government has designated branches of t...

+ Appeals court ruling opens path to rearrest of Mahmoud Khalil—A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that a lower court didn't have ...

+ Iran says it won't execute protester Efran Soltani—Iran's judiciary has denied reports that it planned to execute protest...

+ Chile stock market posts region’s best performance in 2025—Chile's stock market delivered its strongest performance in 32 years i...

+ Venezuela claims drug trafficking logistics routes dismantled—The Venezuelan government said it dismantled the country's main drug t...

+ Education Department investigating 15 K-12 schools over trans athletes—The Department of Education has opened investigations into 15 K-12 sch...

+ European countries begin sending troops to Greenland—Several European countries have sent troops to Greenland after Wednesd...

+ President Donald Trump threatens to invoke Insurrection Act amid Minnesota protests—President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to st...

+ Two people killed in Thailand in second crane collapse in as many days—A crane collapsed on an expressway in Bangkok, Thailand Thursday killi...

+ Russia ejects diplomat it says was spying for British intelligence—Russia's Foreign Ministry expelled a British diplomat from the country...

+ U.K. Palestine Action protesters end hunger strike over government contract—An MOD decision not to use a Israeli defense contractor was cited as o...

+ Elon Musk's xAI to stop allowing Grok to undress images of real people—Elon Musk's xAI announced it will stop allowing Grok to undress real p...

+ ISS crew safely home after unprecedented medical evacuation—The four members of NASA's Crew-11 safely splashed down off southern C...

+ Asia’s foreign press clubs recalibrate amid regional political changes—Media correspondent clubs in Asia, storied institutions once synonymou...

+ BOK again holds key rate steady amid weak won, hints at prolonged pause—South Korea's central bank again left its benchmark interest rate unch...

+ Trump: Executions, killings 'stopped' in Iran—President Donald Trump on Wednesday night said Iran has called off sch...

+ 75% of registered S. Koreans separated from family in North have died, gov't says—More than three-quarters of South Koreans registered as members of fam...

+ On This Day, Jan. 15: Disabled US Airways flight lands in Hudson River—On Jan. 15, 2009, all 155 people aboard US Airways Flight 1549 escaped...

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As of 1/15/26 1:54pm. Last new 1/15/26 1:17pm.

+ Elon Musk's Grok ‘Undressing’ Problem Isn't Fixed—X has placed more restrictions on Grok's ability to generate explicit ...

+ Save $50 on the OnePlus Watch 3, Which Has Revolutionary Battery Tech—Save some cash on this Wear OS smartwatch with a revolutionary battery...

+ Why ICE Can Kill With Impunity—Over the past decade, US immigration agents have shot and killed more ...

+ OpenAI Invests in Sam Altman’s New Brain-Tech Startup Merge Labs—Merge Labs has emerged from stealth with $252 million in funding from ...

+ Minnesota Is Just the Beginning. California and New York Are ‘Next’—The Trump administration appears to be planning to leverage the same p...

+ Hands On With Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, an AI Agent That Actually Works—Cowork is a user-friendly version of Anthropic’s Claude Code AI-powere...

+ Best Packing Cubes for Every Kind of Trip (2026), Tested and Reviewed—Whether you’re a no-frills backpacker or a bag-checking fashionista, t...

+ 11 Best Smartwatches (2026): Apple, Wear OS, Hybrid & Kids’ Watches—These WIRED-tested wearables reduce your reliance on a phone while kee...

+ 9 Best Blind Boxes—Bag Charms, Plush Pendants, and More (2026)—In the market for a mystery treat? There’s more out there than Labubu....

+ Former CISA Director Jen Easterly Will Lead RSAC Conference—The longtime cybersecurity professional says she’s taking the helm of ...

+ Former CISA Director Jen Easterly Will Lead RSA Conference—The longtime cybersecurity professional says she’s taking the helm of ...

+ What Is VO2 Max? Here’s What You Need to Know About the Longevity Metric (2026)—VO2 max can predict cardiorespiratory health and longevity, but only i...

+ Livestream: Welcome to the Chinese Century—Join our livestream — and pose a question to WIRED’s panel of experts ...

+ Hundreds of Millions of Audio Devices Need a Patch to Prevent Wireless Hacking and Tracking—Flaws in how 17 models of headphones and speakers use Google’s one-tap...

+ The Tea App Is Back With a New Website—Months after major data leaks, the app where women leave Yelp-style re...

+ The Real AI Talent War Is for Plumbers and Electricians—The AI boom is driving an unprecedented wave of data center constructi...

+ Asus ROG Falcata Review: A Split Gaming Keyboard—With the looks and speed of a gaming keyboard and the comfort of an er...

+ Wikipedia’s Existential Threats Feel Greater Than Ever—As the free online encyclopedia turns 25, it’s facing political opposi...

+ Lizn Hearpieces Review: Affordable but Uncomfortable Hearing Aids—These odd-looking hearing aids double as solid earbuds, but comfort is...

+ Our Favorite Coway Air Purifiers Are on Sale (2026)—Breathe easier with these discounts on one of WIRED’s favorite air pur...

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As of 1/15/26 1:54pm. Last new 1/15/26 1:17pm.