~wired | Bookmarks (56)

Civil War is a big and loud and visually arresting film, but its politics are confused and potentially radicalizing.

Taylor Swift has seemingly reached a deal with TikTok to get her music back on the platform, just in time for the release of The Tortured Poets Department.

A new study found that song lyrics are now angrier, more repetitive, and vain. Consensus wavers, but what remains incontestable is social media’s impact on the music we hear most.

Where’s the last place you want to be during an earthquake? For Justin Allen, it was the urology clinic.

When Vera Drew set out to make The People’s Joker her goal was to tell a trans coming-of-age story using characters that had inspired her since Batman Forever. When she was done, things got weird.

WIRED investigates how artificial intelligence tools, like OpenAI’s Sora, currently portray members of the LGBTQ community. Hint: It’s a lot of purple hair.

The release of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter exposes the tenor of online fandom today—and the fiction of a shared internet.

The Soledar Salt Mine in eastern Ukraine shut down in early 2022 amidst the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian government recreated it in Minecraft to raise funds to restore a school hit during the war.

For their next trick, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are tackling a complex piece of Chinese science fiction. This time, they know how it ends.

Before he used AI tools to make his movies, Willonius Hatcher couldn’t get noticed. Now his AI-generated shorts are going viral and Hollywood is calling.

Montreal-based Sweet Baby employs just 16 people. They now find themselves the targets of gaming’s latest harassment campaign.

Blurry hair, meandering zippers—we asked WIRED’s design department to explain the editing errors in Kate Middleton’s controversial Mother’s Day photo.

Extreme Dishwasher Loading encourages members to “think quality, not quantity” when inviting new people to the 29,000-strong group. Also: Don't talk about washing machines.

The game’s ending prompts heated discussion online about whether it does justice to its most iconic moment.

Following in the footsteps of Netflix and Disney+, streaming service Max plans to start restricting password-sharing later this year.

More Universal Music songs are disappearing from TikTok as the two companies fail to reach new agreements. Sound clips are ready for their big break.

Paul Connell, who portrayed “Willy McDuff” at Willy’s Chocolate Experience, talks to WIRED about the Unknown, jelly beans, and an impossible vacuum cleaner trick.

Next year, SenLinYu’s Harry Potter fic Manacled will disappear from Archive of Our Own. They don’t want to take it down, but it’s the only way to keep others from profiting off of the work.

If you’ve ever seen a lightsaber at a Disney park or marveled at BB-8, you’ve seen Lanny Smoot’s work. Now, the man with over 100 patents wants you to be able to walk in VR.

Beyoncé’s new single seems tailor-made for viral dance crazes. It also comes at a time when Universal Music Group artists are still muted on the platform.

The X competitor is now open to the public—but until the platform establishes an identity, it will be more of the same.