Scams and scandals that make national headlines get all the attention. I’ve long been fascinated by small-town crimes; I think they deserve more attention. After all, the vast majority of us will never have occasion to meet a Bernie Madoff. A bad actor with a nice office in your charming [Keep reading]
I paid $12.50 for an average burrito from a big chain the other day, at a place where, in recent memory, that burrito cost was less than $10. It was smaller, too. The fajita veggies were doled out as if they were gold-plated, and by a man in a nicely [Keep reading]
Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades…and AI. Hear me out. Read a paper written by AI, and you are likely to think, “This sounds really stiff and something is just a bit off,” like a cut-and-paste job from a student who was watching Netflix at 2 a.m. while [Keep reading]
The first crisp Fall day means many things to many people — light jackets, tall boots, football, the harvest Moon. But if you’ve been involved with Wall Street for any decent stretch of time, it means something else. Fear. And if you don’t feel it, you should. It’s smart to [Keep reading]
When Facebook parent Meta had agreed to a $17 billion settlement in August, you couldn’t blame consumers for shrugging. Facebook has faced big fines before, with little impact. But last year’s Flo Health period tracking app case is different. It went to trial. Victims testified. Experts exposed Meta’s misbehaviors. A [Keep reading]
A quick mental exercise: Imagine electricity were just discovered, and during the residential rollout, there were no rules. No fire safety measures, no voltage standards, no common size for outlets. I imagine there’s one image that comes to mind. FIRE! Everywhere. That’s kinda what we’re hearing from some quarters about [Keep reading]
The Debugger miniseries ‘Sugar High’ examines the impact Big Tech and AI will have on the music industry. In this conclusion, folk musician Tift Merritt and Duke Professor David Hoffman discuss all the tools society has to encourage both innovation and art. And we learn a bit more about Tift’s [Keep reading]
I sat down at his table and he had probably 100 cards and letters and gifts and boxes and he said, ‘I bet there’s at least 500 …. This isn’t nearly all of it.’ And he really lost count. There were just stacks of love letters and gifts and cards, [Keep reading]
We just learned that Waymo is recalling about 4,000 self-driving cars because they can’t read highway construction signs. According to Road & Track, some Waymo cars “failed to recognize and drove past ramp closure signs into pre-planned freeway construction zones; Waymo recorded six of these events in April 2026 in [Keep reading]
In our world of black and white, it’s difficult to be a tech skeptic without being labeled a Luddite. The Holy Grail is progress, so the thinking goes, and any pesky question asking threatens to stifle innovation. Do you want us to lose to the Chinese!?!? It’s ok, I’ve been [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan