When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. The Wikimedia Foundation revealed the most popular Wikipedia pages of 2025. American politics topped the list. Yesterday, the Wikimedia Foundation revealed the most read Wikipedia articles of 2025 . American politics dominated the top of the list, with the late political activist Charlie Kirk taking the top (#1) spot.

In 1982, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott Fahlman suggested using:-) for humorous comments after his colleagues took a joke about mercury seriously. On September 19, 1982, Carnegie Mellon University computer science research assistant professor Scott Fahlman posted a message to the university's bulletin board software that would later come to shape how people communicate online. His proposal: use:-) and:-( as markers to distinguish jokes from serious comments. While Fahlman describes himself as "the inventor or at least one of the inventors" of what would later be called the smiley face emoticon, the full story reveals something more interesting than a lone genius moment. The whole episode started three days earlier when computer scientist Neil Swartz posed a physics problem to colleagues on Carnegie Mellon's "bboard," which was an early online message board.

The'Great Meme Reset' Is Coming From Jack Dorsey to Gen Alpha, everyone seemingly wants to go back to the internet of a decade ago. But is it possible to reverse AI slop and brain rot? Memes are getting a reboot. The Great Meme Reset of 2026, as it's being called on TikTok, demands that on January 1 all memes revert to their 2010s glory days. Bland " brain rot " and AI -looking memes are out; Big Chungus is in.

Blood Tests for Alzheimer's Are Here New diagnostic kits aim to revolutionize early screening of the disease, potentially allowing patients to receive treatments--such as monoclonal antibodies--sooner. Last month, The US Food and Drug Administration approved a new blood test for assisting the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Tau is one of two proteins, the other being amyloid, that become malformed and accumulate in the brains of patients with certain types of dementia. It is believed that the buildup of these proteins interferes with the communication of brain cells, leading to these patients' symptoms. The test had already received authorization in July for marketing in Europe and is thus the first early screening system for Alzheimer's for use in primary care settings approved in the planet's two major pharmaceutical markets.

Robby Starbuck speaks in an interview in New York in March. Robby Starbuck speaks in an interview in New York in March. Critics condemn Robby Starbuck, appointed in lawsuit settlement, for'peddling lies and pushing extremism' A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent the weeks since his appointment spreading disinformation about shootings, transgender people, vaccines, crime, and protests. Robby Starbuck, 36, of Nashville, was appointed in August as an adviser by Meta - owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other tech platforms - in an August lawsuit settlement. Since his appointment, Starbuck has baselessly claimed that individual shooters in the US were motivated by leftist ideology, described faith-based protest groups as communists, and without evidence tied Democratic lawmakers to murders.

WIRED Roundup: Are We In an AI Bubble? In this episode of, we talk about what you need to know this week, from one Antifa author's journey to flee the US to a recent Open AI announcement that rippled across the market. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. In today's episode, Zoë Schiffer is joined by senior politics editor Leah Feiger to run through five stories that you need to know about this week--from the Antifa professor who's fleeing to Europe for safety, to how some chatbots are manipulating users to avoid saying goodbye. Then, Zoë and Leah break down why a recent announcement from OpenAI rattled the markets and answer the question everyone is wondering--are we in an AI bubble? He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . Today on the show, we're bringing you five stories that you need to know about this week, including why a seemingly minor announcement from OpenAI ended up rippling across several companies and what it says about the current state of the technology industry. I'm joined today by our senior politics editor, Leah Feiger.

The Trump Administration Is Coming for Nonprofits. As the Trump administration threatens them, liberal nonprofits have been quietly preparing to do everything from surrendering 501(c)(3) status to relocating outside the US. President Donald Trump listens as White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller speaks on April 29, 2025, in Warren, Michigan. Within hours of the murder of conservative podcaster and activist Charlie Kirk--and in the absence of a suspect--high-profile figures on the right, from vice president JD Vance to deputy White House chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, already had a different culprit in mind: nonprofit organizations. On September 11, a day after Kirk's murder, US representative Chip Roy, a Republican of Texas, sent a letter to request the formation of a select committee on "the money, influence, and power behind the radical left's assault on America and the rule of law."

Thirty years ago, a peace-loving Austrian theologian spoke to Peter Thiel about the apocalyptic theories of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt. They've been a road map for the billionaire ever since. For a full two years now, the billionaire has been on the circuit, spreading his biblically inflected ideas about doomsday through a set of variably and sometimes visibly perplexed interviewers. He has chatted onstage with the economist podcaster Tyler Cowen about the (the scriptural term for "that which withholds" the end times); traded some very awkward on-camera silences with the New York Times columnist Ross Douthat; and is, at this very moment, in the midst of delivering a four-part, off-the-record lecture series about the Antichrist in San Francisco. Depending on who you are, you may find it hilarious, fascinating, insufferable, or horrifying that one of the world's most powerful men is obsessing over a figure from sermons and horror movies. But the ideas and influences behind these talks are key to understanding how Thiel sees his own massive role in the world--in politics, technology, and the fate of the species. And to really grasp Thiel's katechon-and-Antichrist schtick, you need to go back to the first major lecture of his doomsday road show--which took place on an unusually hot day in Paris in 2023. No video cameras recorded the event, and no reporters wrote about it, but I've been able to reconstruct it by talking to people who were there. The venue was a yearly conference of scholars devoted to Thiel's chief intellectual influence, the late French-American theorist René Girard. On the evening of the unpublicized lecture, dozens of Girardian philosophers and theologians from around the world filed into a modest lecture hall at the Catholic University of Paris. And from the dais, Thiel delivered a nearly hourlong account of his thoughts on Armageddon--and all the things he believed were "not enough" to prevent it. By Thiel's telling, the modern world is scared, way too scared, of its own technology. Our "listless" and "zombie" age, he said, is marked by a growing hostility to innovation, plummeting fertility rates, too much yoga, and a culture mired in the "endless Groundhog Day of the worldwide web." But in its neurotic desperation to avoid technological Armageddon--the real threats of nuclear war, environmental catastrophe, runaway AI--modern civilization has become susceptible to something even more dangerous: the Antichrist. According to some Christian traditions, the Antichrist is a figure that will unify humanity under one rule before delivering us to the apocalypse. For Thiel, its evil is pretty much synonymous with any attempt to unite the world. "How might such an Antichrist rise to power?" Thiel asked.

Legal experts analyze the challenging defense strategy for Tyler Robinson, who allegedly shot Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, as prosecutors prepare evidence for trial.

Harry Jackson went into Kathmandu as a tourist. He ended up being one of the main international sources of news on Nepal's Gen Z protests. When Harry Jackson pulled his small motorcycle into Kathmandu on September 8, he had no idea the city was exploding in protests. He didn't even know there was a curfew. People in Nepal, largely driven by Gen Z youth, had taken to the streets, and that day riots broke out when nearly two dozen people were shot and killed by authorities.