Author: wildgreenquest@gmail.com

Few could have predicted that they would one day also double as nodes for surveillance.In thousands of towns and cities across the U.S., automatic license plate readers have been installed at major intersections, bridges and highway off-ramps.These camera-based systems capture the license plate data of passing vehicles, along with images of the vehicle and time stamps. More recently, these systems are using artificial intelligence to create a vast, searchable database that can be integrated with other law enforcement data repositories.As a scholar of technology policy and data governance, I see the expansion of automatic license plate readers as a source…

With the world struggling to get oil supplies moving from the Middle East, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich raised eyebrows with a social media post highlighting a radical idea: Use nuclear bombs to cut a new channel along a route that would avoid Iranian threats in the Strait of Hormuz.Gingrich’s March 15, 2026, post linked to an article that labeled itself as satire. Gingrich has not clarified whether his endorsement was serious. But he is old enough to remember when ideas like this were not only taken seriously but actually pursued by the U.S. and Soviet governments.As I discuss in…

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. When your computer is holding you back…If you’re on a PC, it might be time to upgrade your operating systemA sluggish PC can quietly drain hours from your week, especially when multitasking or running modern apps. Upgrading to Windows 11 Pro can help streamline workflows with better performance, security, and built-in productivity tools designed for professional use.Modern interface with improved multitasking features like…

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. Running a business successfully requires balancing speed with accuracy—making decisions quickly without sacrificing quality. ChatOn AI Assistant is designed to support that balance by bringing multiple AI capabilities into a single, easy-to-use platform.You can get a 5-year subscription to ChatOn AI Assistant for a one-time $139.99 (MSRP $199.99) for a limited time.Instead of relying on separate tools for writing, research, and content creation,…

An author and freelance journalist has admitted to using AI to help him write a book review for The New York Times.Alex Preston’s review of Jean-Baptiste Andrea’s novel Watching Over Her, published by The New York Times in January 2026, draws phrases and full paragraphs from Christobel Kent’s review in The Guardian. The “error” was brought to light by a reader, who alerted The New York Times to the similarities.Preston told The Guardian he is “hugely embarassed” and “made a huge mistake.”The Times promptly dropped Preston, calling his “reliance on A.I. and his use of unattributed work by another writer”…

When we talk about travel apps, we typically talk about the types of tools that help you organize your itineraries, find worthwhile stops along your way, or maybe even just find flights (and/or fuel!) in the first place.Those types of tools are important—but there’s another travel resource I recently ran into that might be even more invaluable.It’s a free website that gives you unprecedented insight into exactly how much turbulence you can expect on any given flight, before you take off—as well as what the wind and overall weather conditions may mean for your odds of an on-time (or, if…

Published April 4, 2026 06:05AMOfficials at Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) issued a stark warning for visitors planning to explore America’s most popular park.In an April 2 press release, the National Park Service (NPS) reported that park rangers received a whopping 38 emergency calls inside the park throughout March, including 18 in the backcountry. Half a dozen of these calls required either technical rope rescues or helicopter extractions. Not all the victims made it out alive. Just last week, a woman died after falling from a popular hiking trail—the fifth death this year. “Great Smoky Mountains National Park saw a…

Managers are rushing to deploy AI for efficiency gains. Employees have to figure out how to make it work—and that’s sometimes harder than it seems.Half of organizations piloted general-purpose AI tools last year, according to MIT research. But adoption and readiness aren’t the same thing. According to Rumman Chowdhury, former U.S. Science Envoy for AI and CEO and cofounder of Humane Intelligence, the burden is likely to fall on workers.“There’s a lot of FOMO among C-suites and high-level execs on pressure to build AI, and then they’re also incentivized to pretend like it works really well,” she says. “If and when…

Published April 4, 2026 03:30AMIn early December I flew to Palm Springs, California, to rendezvous with Rickey and Ian, my co-authors“Fifty Classic Trails”, for our book’s capstone run, the Joshua Tree Traverse. This 37-mile point-to-point crosses the entire national park, winding its way through the Mojave Desert past spiny cholla cactus, Creosote bush scrub, and, of course, iconic Joshua trees.To make the run a celestial celebration instead of a sunny sufferfest, we decided to run at night, under a full moon. Although I packed a headlamp and spare batteries, I ended up never turning it on. With no clouds between…

At first, he appeared in the top corner of a multi-slide TikTok post. Then he was spotted demurely relaxing in a lawn chair on a livestream. Finally, on March 30, Apple’s new mascot, nicknamed “Finder Guy,” made his debut—and the internet has instantly become enamored with him.Finder Guy appeared as part of the rollout for Apple’s MacBook Neo, a colorful, affordable laptop marketed to younger consumers. For the Neo campaign, Apple introduced an entirely new TikTok brand persona on March 4, clearly making a play to capture Gen Z and Gen Alpha viewers by combining trending aesthetics with Apple’s high-design…