2026-03-14 00:41:54
Iran is starting to deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz. For the New York Times, Samuel Granados, John Ismay, and Agnes Chang illustrate how four types of naval mines work to damage tankers.
The geography of the strait and the surrounding waters works to Iran’s advantage. A long southern coastline affords ample opportunity for small boats to dart out with mines.
Tight shipping lanes leave little room to navigate. And the water at the strait’s narrowest point is only about 200 feet deep — shallow enough to lay minefields.
As one might expect, clearing mines with potential attacks from above is not as straightforward as clicking on a Minesweeper game grid.
Tags: Iran, mines, New York Times, Strait of Hormuz
2026-03-13 15:40:06
You’re probably familiar with the song “Africa” by Toto. This version, by There I Ruined It, uses all the country names in Africa instead of the actual lyrics. There’s a useful geography lesson somewhere in here.
2026-03-12 21:10:01
There was a total lunar eclipse on March 3, 2026. From Michala Garrison mapping for NASA Earth Observatory, shows the shades before, after, and during.
When the satellite passed over western Alaska and the Bering Strait, at 13:00 Universal Time (4:00 a.m. Alaska Standard Time), the eclipse was in the partial phase. The scene is noticeably brighter than the earlier one, and light from the partially shaded Moon illuminates snow-covered topography and offshore clouds. The brightest swaths on the far right and left sides were acquired before and after the eclipse, respectively, with light from the full Moon.
2026-03-12 21:06:58
Hi everyone. This is No. 379 of the Process, where we navigate towards data and charts beyond defaults. I’m Nathan Yau. This week is about fake charts and keeping ourselves in the feedback loop.
Become a member for access to this — plus tutorials, courses, and guides.
2026-03-12 16:00:41
After backlash over their tool that pretends to provide expert editing advice, Grammarly shut down the AI feature. Now they face a class action lawsuit. Miles Klee reports for Wired:
Julia Angwin, an award-winning investigative journalist who founded The Markup, a nonprofit news organization that covers the impact of technology on society, is the only named plaintiff in the suit, which does not call for a specific amount in damages but argues that damages across the plaintiff class are in excess of $5 million. She was among the many individuals, alongside Stephen King and Neil deGrasse Tyson, offered up via Grammarly’s “Expert Review” tool as a kind of virtual editor for users.
The federal suit, filed Wednesday afternoon in the Southern District of New York, states that Angwin, on behalf of herself and others similarly situated, “challenges Grammarly’s misappropriation of the names and identities of hundreds of journalists, authors, writers, and editors to earn profits for Grammarly and its owner, Superhuman.”
2026-03-12 15:44:28
Upon finding out that Grammarly uses AI-generated editing, supposedly driven by real authors, Casey Newton for Platformer kicked the tires on the fakery.
And there, hovering near the top of the draft, was John Carreyrou, the investigative journalist and bestselling author who took down Theranos. I’d pay good money for advice from the real Carreyrou, whose dogged pursuit of the truth behind Elizabeth Holmes’ company in the face of overwhelming legal threats is the stuff of legend. Alas, the fake Carreyrou conjured by Grammarly offered only the most anodyne of advice.
As Newton points out, plenty (or all) LLMs are driven by data that was slurped up from any available resource. So any generated writing is based on someone else’s, but Grammarly took the extra step of putting real author and writer names against the generated output without asking.
Update Grammarly is now facing a class action lawsuit and shutdown the feature.
Tags: authors, Grammarly, likeness, Platformer
