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Embedded in Clippy&#39;s Source Code: Letters &#39;TFC&#39;
Embedded in Clippy's
Source Code: Letters 'TFC'
longform
Aug 30, 2022 8:47 AM CDT

Embedded in Clippy's Source Code: Letters 'TFC'

It's a reference to a NSFW nickname within Microsoft during its development

(Newser) - Poor Clippy. The much-maligned paper-clip icon that Microsoft rolled out in the 1990s didn't get much love within the company itself during development. As an entertaining story at Seattle Met recounts, the internal nickname for the animated helper was "the f---ing clown." It stemmed in no small...

Competitive Lifesaving Is a Sport. A Pretty Hard One

The 200-meter super lifesaver race is ... involved

(Newser) - The men's world record for the 200-meter freestyle is 1 minute, 42 seconds. But there's a much more complicated 200-meter race that has been done in a best time only slightly longer: 2 minutes, 4 seconds. It's the 200-meter super lifesaver, and it's one of the...

Cops Interviewed Him in 1974, but Let Him Go
Cops Interviewed
Him in 1974,
but Let Him Go
longform
Aug 20, 2022 10:50 AM CDT

Cops Interviewed Him in 1974, but Let Him Go

Glen McCurley of Fort Worth killed a teen decades ago. The fear is he had more victims

(Newser) - Texas Monthly digs into an infamous 1974 cold case out of Fort Worth, one that has a wrenching detail: Police interviewed the killer of the 17-year-old Carla Walker soon after she was murdered but quickly dismissed him as a suspect. Carla was abducted from her boyfriend's car in...

Historian Pulls Back the Veil on Nuclear Power's Safety

Government historian's book about nuclear risks does not instill confidence

(Newser) - At the moment, the world is wondering what will happen if/when an artillery round hits the wrong part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. But that’s not the only reason nuclear power is a hot topic. Some Europeans are counting on it as an alternative to Russian energy, and...

Confident Russian Spies Had Lined Up Housing in Kyiv

'Washington Post' details the failures of the FSB in the lead-up to invasion of Ukraine

(Newser) - The Washington Post is out with a series of in-depth stories about the war in Ukraine, and the main one focuses on just how badly Russia's spy agency—the FSB—misread the lead-up to the war. Maybe the most tangible sign of this in the story by Greg Miller...

Uranium Mining&#39;s Toxic Legacy in the West
Uranium Mining's Toxic
Legacy in the West
longform
Aug 14, 2022 2:30 PM CDT

Uranium Mining's Toxic Legacy in the West

ProPublica looks at example of Grants, New Mexico

(Newser) - The city of Grants, New Mexico, was once considered the “carrot capital” of America. That changed in 1958 when Homestake Mining Company opened a uranium mill on the outskirts of town. Today, Homestake is still in business, but the mill is closed, and Grants will soon be a ghost...

There&#39;s a &#39;Sad Irony&#39; in Bruce Willis&#39; Final Roles
There's a 'Sad Irony' in
Bruce Willis' Final Roles
analysis
Aug 13, 2022 10:15 AM CDT

There's a 'Sad Irony' in Bruce Willis' Final Roles

He had few lines, making his cognitive decline hard to detect, writes Matt Zoller Seitz

(Newser) - Bruce Willis is out of the acting game , with the brain disorder aphasia making it impossible for him to remember lines. By the end of his career, he had been reduced to making what amounted to cameos—very lucrative cameos—in mindless, direct-to-video action movies. Willis had little dialogue in...

Every 144 Listerine Bottles Sold Is Good News for This Group

Unusual 1881 royalties deal still pays off for those who own shares in the trust

(Newser) - Investors have all kinds of investment vehicles to choose from, but the Hustle takes a deep dive into one that is obscure, lucrative, and legally strange—Listerine royalties. Shares of this royalty trust become available through private auction every now and then, but deep pockets are required. A partial share...

This Book-Banning Campaign Gets Unusually Personal
This Book-Banning Campaign
Gets Unusually Personal
longform
Aug 11, 2022 11:40 AM CDT

This Book-Banning Campaign Gets Unusually Personal

ProPublica looks at how woman's high-profile push in Texas has caused rift with her gay son

(Newser) - While book-banning campaigns aren't all that unusual, ProPublica takes a look at one such campaign in Texas that's uncommon on two fronts. First, 51-year-old Monica Brown filed a police report earlier this year in Granbury, Texas, accusing school district librarians of peddling pornography. Second, one of the most...

We're Making a Mistake in Our View of Grasslands

'Atlantic': Trees get all the glory, but these ecosystems may be vital to fighting climate change

(Newser) - You're no doubt familiar with the phrase "old-growth forest." But "old-growth grassland?" For the uninitiated, Julia Rosen provides a big-picture overview in the Atlantic under the provocative headline, "Trees Are Overrated." That headline speaks to a widespread bias—even among ecologists—that forests are...

Big Plan in the Works to Reengineer Mississippi River

The project is ambitious and highly controversial, but something must be done

(Newser) - Work could soon begin on the great Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, considered the "largest ecosystem restoration project in US history," writes Boyce Upholt for Hakai Magazine. Aspects of the $2 billion engineering scheme have been in the works for decades, ever since people began noticing the alarming pace of...

Rhoden Family Massacre: The Allegations Are Stacking Up

Jake Wagner's brother is set to go on trial in late August

(Newser) - The 2016 murders of eight members of the Rhoden family sent shock waves through their rural southwest Ohio community. In late August, the first member of the Wagner family will go on trial for their deaths. In a lengthy piece for the Washington Post , Chris Graves writes that it's...

She Was Handed an Envelope, Broke a Staggering Story

How an AP reporter broke the Tuskegee syphilis story

(Newser) - Jean Heller was toiling away on the floor of the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami when an AP colleague from the opposite end of the country handed her a thin manila envelope. "I'm not an investigative reporter," Edith Lederer told the 29-year-old Heller. "But I...

In This Remote Part of US, Amazon Prime Is a Food Tool

Eater takes a look at meal planning in the Alaskan bush

(Newser) - Supply shortages and high prices since the start of the pandemic have forced many Americans to alter their spending and consumption habits. Those same economic forces also hit communities in the remote Alaskan Bush, but that’s nothing new up there. According to Bree Kessler, writing for Eater, people in...

It Was One of the First Viral Videos. Now, All the Answers

Brian Feldman at Defector digs in to a classic clip of a kid getting hit with a basketball

(Newser) - There's a decent chance you've seen the clip somewhere over the past quarter-century or so, given that it is, as Brian Feldman writes in the Defector , "a watershed moment in the history of the internet." Watch it here . It shows a high school basketball player launching...

2 Men Tried to Ascend Denali. Then It All Fell Apart
What Led to a
1K-Foot Fall on Denali
longform
Jul 30, 2022 8:20 AM CDT

What Led to a 1K-Foot Fall on Denali

Kelsey Vlamis explores the fateful ascent attempt in a piece for Insider

(Newser) - At Denali's 14 Camp, some climbers decide to call it quits. It's where the upper mountain begins, and where the already challenging journey to the Alaskan summit becomes even more treacherous. It's a decision made for safety's sake, but as Kelsey Vlamis explains in a lengthy...

Ex-Husband's Lawsuit Seen as New Front in Abortion Fight

Man sues Phoenix clinic, doctors over abortion his ex-wife had 4 years ago

(Newser) - As legal fights over access to abortion unfold in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, ProPublica highlights an unusual lawsuit out of Arizona that it sees as a potential new front in the debate. A man in 2020 filed a wrongful death lawsuit...

The Safe Was Gone, as Were the 120 &#39;Cherries&#39; Inside It
The Safe Was Gone,
as Were the 120
'Cherries' Inside It
in case you missed it
Jul 24, 2022 11:00 AM CDT

The Safe Was Gone, as Were the 120 'Cherries' Inside It

Inside the 2019 theft of an incredibly rare collection of video games

(Newser) - As Jason Brassard sped at 100mph toward Trade-N-Games before sunrise on August 16, 2019, he braced himself for what he would find at his video game store outside St. Louis. He had been alerted that the store's alarm system had activated. PlayStation 4s and all the latest games were...

A Nasty Text Helps Detectives Solve a Massive Burglary Case

How police tracked down 3 men who took Tamara Ecclestone's diamonds

(Newser) - That the $29 million theft of cash and jewelry from heiress Tamara Ecclestone's home was well investigated isn't too surprising. Somehow seeing it laid out step by step is. In a lengthy piece for the BBC , Thomas Mackintosh recounts how the case—"the biggest domestic burglary in...

Planting a Trillion Trees: Noble Goal or Fool's Errand?

It's touted as a way to save the planet ... maybe

(Newser) - It's a number that's hard to wrap your head around, but a concept that is easy to grasp: Let's save the planet by planting 1 trillion trees. In a lengthy piece for the New York Times Magazine , Zach St. George examines the noble goal—how it originated,...

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