All posts tagged: Pipe

John Oliver Just Took the AI Industry Behind a Shed and Beat It With a Pipe Wrench

John Oliver Just Took the AI Industry Behind a Shed and Beat It With a Pipe Wrench

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech John Oliver just did what he did best: demolished a harmful industry piece by piece. On the latest episode of his HBO show “Last Week Tonight,” Oliver tore into AI chatbots, those oh-so helpful tools that can sure save us “significant time writing emails,” he opened, with the small cost of “everything else on Earth.” “The more you look at chatbots, the more you realize that they were rushed to market with very little consideration for the consequences,” he warned, on a more serious note. Oliver pointed to Character.AI, an AI companion platform that’s facing multiple lawsuits after several teens who formed intense emotional connections with its chatbots died by suicide. He quoted the words of its CEO Noam Shazeer, who argued in 2023that it was fine to deploy an AI “friend” “really fast.” AI, Shazeer said, is “ready for an explosion like, right now, not like in five years when we solve all the problems.” Of course, those …

This pipe organ is playing a single, nonstop song until 2640

This pipe organ is playing a single, nonstop song until 2640

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. On September 5, 2001, a concert started inside a medieval church–and it continues to this day. If all goes as planned, the performance won’t finish for another 616 years. One may expect a composition like John Cage’s ORGAN²/ASLSP to encompass thousands, if not millions of pages of musical notation—but as its name implies, it’s the exact opposite. “ASLSP” is Cage’s shortening of “As Slow As Possible,” and so far, the custom-built, electric pipe organ has only issued nine chords. The current one started in February 2024, while the next chord won’t play until August 5, 2026. At that point, an A4 chord will ring out for 911 more days. John Cage died in 1992 at the age of 79, but both fans and detractors have continued discussing and performing his work. After discovering the I Ching in 1951, Cage incorporated the Chinese divination system’s philosophy into his art for the rest of his life, particularly on topics like sound, …

Judge refuses to release DC pipe bomb suspect

Judge refuses to release DC pipe bomb suspect

Published by Sam Flores

A federal judge has rejected a request to be released pending trial from the suspect accused of planting pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committees ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.   U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee of former President Biden, ruled Thursday that Brian Cole Jr. must remain locked up… Source link

New pipe organ signals rebirth for Episcopal parish after fire, flood and ‘plague’

New pipe organ signals rebirth for Episcopal parish after fire, flood and ‘plague’

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (RNS) — The organ arrived from Utah on a warm August morning. Greeted by holy water, incense and slide whistles, it came in a 53-foot-long truck that was double-parked on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The Church of the Epiphany’s priests clambered up on the truck’s loading dock, tossed on stoles and blessed the long-awaited instrument. Their prayers were punctuated by the sound of confetti cannons shot off by about 30 parishioners. Then, for hours, children, adults and elders into their 90s hoisted pipes and boxes up flights of stairs to the church’s second-floor sanctuary. The biggest spectacle was the entrance of the 600-pound organ console, which parishioners and organ builders spent over 30 minutes wrangling up an external staircase. “What has been the most beautiful part of this organ is the way it has brought our entire community together,” Denise Cruz, a  vestry member, speech pathologist and mother of two, told RNS. “It was all hands on deck.” Even with reports of declining worship attendance in the U.S. — and an overall reduction …

DC pipe bomb suspect to remain locked up ahead of trial, judge rules

DC pipe bomb suspect to remain locked up ahead of trial, judge rules

Published by Sam Flores

The man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican national committee offices on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot will remain locked up while awaiting trial, a federal magistrate judge ruled.  Judge Matthew Sharbaugh wrote in an order Friday that Brian Cole Jr.’s past alleged conduct demonstrates a “startling and significant capacity for dangerousness,”… Source link

J6 Pipe Bomber’s Motive Revealed In DOJ Pretrial Detention Memorandum

J6 Pipe Bomber’s Motive Revealed In DOJ Pretrial Detention Memorandum

Published by Jenni Sidey

Nearly five years after pipe bombs were planted outside the DNC and RNC headquarters on January 5, 2021, authorities arrested Brian Cole Jr. on December 4, 2025. The 30-year-old from Woodbridge, Virginia, now faces charges for allegedly planting those devices. Within hours of the arrest, major outlets rushed to frame Cole as a MAGA adherent. NBC News reported that Cole “believed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.” Politico ran with the headline, “Justice Department says Jan. 6 pipe bomb suspect believed election conspiracy theories.” However, the suspects’ own words belie that claim. The Department of Justice filed a memorandum on December 29 in support of pretrial detention for Cole. The document dismantles the narrative the media pushed following Cole’s arrest.  According to the filing, Cole initially denied assembling or planting the bombs during his videotaped interview. He claimed he drove his Nissan Sentra to Washington alone to attend a protest about the election outcome. Cole explained his reasoning: “I didn’t agree with what people were doing, like just telling half the country that they – …