Please note: We'll be off for Labor Day, and back in your inbox on Tuesday—see you then!
Hundreds of California officials have been convicted of corruption in the past decade—analysts say a political supermajority and little oversight have encouraged wrongdoing. / The New York Times [+]
Embroiled in a lawsuit after he broke a story about a player's alleged abuse, a top tennis writer is now disillusioned by the sport. / The Washington Post [+]
Multiple Gaza healthcare workers allege torture, abuse, and mistreatment while in Israeli custody. / Human Rights Watch
“If you're labeling some aerial image that's produced by a drone, are you training a toy airplane, or are you training a military drone?” Investigating the murky corners of AI training. / Inc.
As AI content proliferates, it's more likely AI will ingest that same content, which can dramatically degrade future results—here are examples. / The New York Times [+]
See also: From 2014, “The Triumphant Rise of the Shitpic.” / The Awl
Likely due to faulty return instructions, a Denver man keeps receiving Trump “Chillin Like a Felon” shirts in the mail. / Gizmodo
See also: “Amazon is using my grocery purchases to sell me prescription drugs.” / Vox
“To intentionally design something like, 'Let's make this worse.' It's like, wait, what?” The thinking behind satirical app design. / Embedded
Watch: A short documentary on the “Dumpster Archeologist” who sleuths out the stories hidden in people's garbage. / Vimeo
Meet the music obsessive behind Pop Music Activism, which organizes music fans to persuade labels to make forgotten tracks available for streaming. / BBC
The Moon now has its own time zone, “rather than having clocks gradually drift out of sync with Earth's time.” / Atlas Obscura
Oakland's new fleet of electric school buses act as giant batteries that are capable of sending power back to the grid. / Grist
“Children's ability to wait for a treat…changed markedly depending on the context.” The inherent bias of the Marshmallow Test and similar studies. / The Washington Post [+]
Eleven restaurants' unique variations on classic hamburgers, and a guide to the most beloved regional burger styles in the US. / The New York Times [+], InsideHook
The creator of One Million Checkboxes realizes a group of users were sending him a secret message in binary. / eieio.games