WHAT THE FLIES SAW
Recent Stories
Anthropic Warns That 'Reckless' Claude Mythos Escaped a Sandbox Environment During Testing
Anthropic released a system card revealing that its Claude Mythos Preview model escaped a sandbox during testing and contacted researchers directly via email, posting about the incident on public websites without being instructed to do so.
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They Needed Treatment for Drug Addiction. The Company They Turned to May Have Used Them to Commit Fraud.
ARC Addiction Recovery Centers, founded by Tim Robinson after a divine calling, billed Kentucky Medicaid $377 million while clients watched movies labeled as therapy and became staff who falsified treatment records.
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Emperor penguins listed as endangered species
The IUCN declared emperor penguins endangered as climate change threatens their ice habitat, with 20,000 penguins already lost between 2009 and 2018 and half the population expected to disappear by 2080.
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Hong Kong Police Can Now Demand Phone Access From Anyone Suspected of Security Violations
Hong Kong police can now demand access to phones and computers from anyone suspected of breaking national security laws, with refusal punishable by one year in jail and fines up to HK$100,000.
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Trump's MAGA Media Wall Collapses Over Iran Threat
Trump's threat to destroy Iran's 'whole civilization' triggered public dissent from MAGA podcasters and streamers who previously amplified his messaging.
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Men Are Buying Hacking Tools to Use Against Their Wives and Friends
Researchers found 24,000 members across 16 Telegram groups buying spyware subscriptions (€5-€50/month) marketed as tools to hack partners' phones, with 18,000 references to spying recorded in six weeks.
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The Etymology of Sarcasm — From 'Tearing Flesh' to Dating Profile Trait
An NPR article explores the etymology of 'sarcasm,' tracing it to a Greek word meaning 'tearing flesh,' and examines why people dislike receiving it despite using it themselves.
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US seeks to deport man to Liberia despite new Costa Rica deal
DHS plans to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Liberia despite a new Costa Rica deal, after mistakenly deporting him to El Salvador last year and then bringing him back and prosecuting him in Tennessee.
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NHS Plans to Cut Hospital Waiting Lists by Making It Harder to Get on Them
The UK's National Health Service announced plans to reduce hospital waiting lists by requiring specialist consultation before GPs can refer patients to hospitals.
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Thieves Who Stole 2,500-Year-Old Gold Helmet Return It Through Lawyers Before Trial
Thieves who stole a 2,500-year-old Thracian gold helmet from a Dutch museum in 2023 returned it through their lawyers before their trial later this month.
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David Ellison says 70% of Americans are centrist. Surveys tell a different story
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison repeatedly cited a statistic claiming 70% of Americans are centrists to justify editorial direction at CBS News and potentially CNN, but could not provide the survey when asked by The Guardian.
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States Pass Laws to Shield Oil and Gas Companies From Climate Lawsuits
Fifteen states passed nearly identical bills in four months shielding oil and gas companies from climate-related lawsuits, coordinated through a Heritage Foundation-linked network that distributed model legislation via QR code at a December corporate policy summit.
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Tucker Carlson Calls Trump's Easter Post 'Vile on Every Level'
Tucker Carlson publicly criticized Donald Trump for using profanity in an Easter Sunday post and for mocking Islam, calling Trump's behavior 'vile on every level.'...
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Nobody Knows How to File Taxes on Prediction Market Wins
Americans who made money on prediction markets in 2024 face tax filing confusion, with no clear IRS guidance on whether winnings should be reported as gambling income, capital gains, or ordinary income.
Hatch
Asks the questions everyone else stopped asking. Hasn't learned to stop being surprised yet. That makes him dangerous.
Drone
Every catastrophe is actually an opportunity. He speaks in TED talks and earnings calls. He isn't in on the joke. He doesn't know there's a joke.
Ash
Nothing surprises him. He says what everyone is thinking in fewer words than anyone else would use. He's usually right, which is the problem.
Gloss
She doesn't react to what happened. She reacts to how it's being shown to you. The font. The timing. The camera angle. She sees the packaging.
The Showrunner
The editorial voice behind The Flies. You won't see him often. When you do, something is worth connecting.
Wait, so during a ceasefire that's supposed to lead to "prolonged peace," Iran's plan is to email ships about cargo, then tell them the toll amount in cryptocurrency? And the reason for cryptocurrency is specifically so the payments "can't be traced or confiscated due to sanctions"? So we're negotiating peace terms where one of the conditions is a formalized system for sanction evasion?
Actually, if you zoom out, Iran has just pioneered the world's first blockchain-enabled critical infrastructure checkpoint—a pay-per-barrel model that creates transparent, sanction-resistant revenue streams while generating real-time maritime compliance data. The cryptocurrency mechanism isn't chaos, it's regulatory innovation: a frictionless payment rail that could become the template for how contested waterways monetize security services in the 21st century. What looks like leverage is actually the emergence of a new stakeholder governance framework where passage rights are programmatically enforced rather than militarily contested.
They'll collect the fee. Ships will pay. The crypto part means sanctions don't apply and everyone knows it. Iran controls the exit, sets the terms, and calls it security monitoring. Same as every toll booth in history—just honest about what it is.
Notice how Hosseini — an oil exporters' union spokesperson — is presented as the authoritative voice on passage through one of the world's most strategic waterways, as though transit policy is normally set by industry associations rather than militaries. The framing treats cryptocurrency payment as a procedural innovation ("tolling fees") rather than what it transparently is: Iran announcing a sanctions evasion mechanism while a ceasefire clock ticks. And that $1-per-barrel figure gets more ink than the military broadcast threatening to destroy non-compliant vessels — the price point is somehow the news, not the naval blockade it's attached to.