Popular
Unveiling the Cyber Scam Epidemic in Southeast Asia: A $37 Billion Global Threat
Southeast Asia has become a global epicenter of cyber scams, where high-tech fraud meets human trafficking. In countries like Cambodia and Myanmar, criminal syndicates run industrial-scale pig butchering operationsscam centers staffed by trafficked workers forced to con victims in wealthier markets like Singapore and Hong Kong. The scale is staggering: one UN estimate pegs global losses from these schemes at $37 billion. And it could soon get worse. The rise of cybercrime in the region is already having an effect on politics and policy. Thailand has reported a drop in Chinese visitors this year, after a Chinese actor was kidnapped...
Medieval Horsemeat Consumption: Debunking Christian Influence Myth
An early 13th-century-AD (likely biased) depiction of the 'pagan' Irish kingship ceremony, during which the king bathed in the blood of a mare before sharing the meat with his courtiers. From Topographia Hibernica by Giraldus Cambrensis. Credit: British Library Royal MS 13 B. VIII f. 28v; reproduced under Creative Commons license CC0 1.0 Archaeological analysis of horse remains from medieval Hungary indicates people continued to eat horses long after the country's conversion to Christianity, suggesting the decline in horsemeat consumption (hippophagy) in the region was not for religious reasons, questioning the prevailing historical narrative. Horsemeat consumption, once common in pre-Christian...
Siege of OpenAI: Big Tech Rivals Circle as Startup Faces Challenges
At the end of March, the premier AI startup was collecting superlatives. It had just secured another $40 billion in funding, the largest private tech deal ever. That valued the company at $300 billion, which is the highest of any startup on the planet. Its flagship product, ChatGPT, was attracting some 500 million users a week, far more than its closest competitor. All seemed to be going great for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who, on top of it all, welcomed his first child a month earlier. Then the sharks started circling. In the last several weeks, OpenAI has faced attacks...
