Palantir once investigated a cyberattack on the Dalai Lama's computer

Palantir's software is widely speculated to have enabled Osama bin Laden's assassination

While Palantir has never publicly confirmed the use of its software in the 2011 assassination, its technology is widely speculated to have been a critical aspect of the operation. However, Palantir executives have never denied the claim, either, and have frequently commented on the software's important role in defending Western civilizations from terrorism.

In 2025, more than 10 former Palantir employees published a letter condemning the company's partnerships

Thirteen so-called "ex-Palantirians," condemned a $30M deal that gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement near real-time insights on migrants. The letter, named "The Scouring of the Shire" in a nod to "The Lord of the Rings," alleges that the company is violating its code of conduct by supporting this application of its service.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Read more about Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel's political beliefs and activity

At Stanford University, Thiel founded "The Stanford Review," a libertarian magazine dedicated to being against "political correctness." Since then, Thiel has railed against American universities as failing institutions, given lectures about the coming of the Antichrist, and donated money to high-profile political campaigns (including those of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance).

A timeline of how Claude Code was used to execute cyberespionage

In September 2025, a Chinese state-sponsored group targeted 30 large tech companies, financial institutions, chemical manufacturing companies, and government agencies by manipulating Claude Code, having succeeded in infiltrating a small subset. The cyberattack is believed to have been the first of its scale carried out without major human intervention.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

Burglars accessed the DNC once before their failed June 17 attempt

Long before the notorious June 17 intrusion, the burglars successfully accessed and planted listening devices in the DNC offices on May 28—showing how deeply premeditated the operation was and how the scandal's roots stretched back well before the arrests.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

Fancybear: The state-backed hacker cell

Fancy Bear (APT28) is a Russian-based hacker group that targets a variety of organizations across the globe. Learn how to prevent Fancy Bear.

Trick an LLM into revealing sensitive information

Even with robust training, large language models may be fooled into providing sensitive information if correctly prompted. In this game, a wizard withholds eight passwords, which you must prompt them to reveal with ever-increasing LLM safeguards.

Read an oral history of the Y2K panic

This oral history brings together programmers, engineers, and officials who first identified the date flaw and then spent years alerting the public to the danger and racing to repair millions of lines of code.

The dark side of museum collections

Using the example of a sacred Nepali religious object that was stolen from a village in the 1980s and which later appeared in the Met’s collection, this article looks at the controversies that have swirled around some of the museum’s pieces. In addition to the Nepali statue, the piece outlines decades of questionable collection practices––some of which are clear-cut cases of theft.

Spy balloons. UFOs. What else is up there?

The appearance and downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon brought the concept of high-altitude floating aircraft into the public consciousness. While sparking a diplomatic row, it also revealed how many objects—nefarious or benign—are...

Watch a cybersecurity expert answers questions about hacking

From firewalls and VPNs to ransomware and viruses, IBM Distinguished Engineer Jeff Crume has seen many changes in cybersecurity during his 40 years of IT experience. In this video, he explores some of the most significant hacking events in history and provides advice on protecting yourself online.

How to catch a TikTok thief

Someone took a 10-second clip of a parody video made by Hugh Clegg and posted it to TikTok, where it racked up millions of views. The uncredited clip meant viewers assumed it was owned by the uploader, an assumption Clegg was eager to rectify. His messages and comments had no real effect outside of earning him temporary bans for "spamming." So he decided to moonlight as a private eye.

Has your information been compromised on the internet?

Have I Been Pwned allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email address or phone number has been compromised.

Jimmy Zhong pulled off one of the biggest bitcoin heists in history

Jimmy Zhong performed a bitcoin heist—stealing more than 51,000 BTC from Silk Road in 2012. For years, he stayed under the radar, using crypto mixers to hide his tracks. But one small mistake in 2019 led investigators straight to him.

Ray Dalio credits much of his success to his transcendental meditation practice

Dalio took up transcendental meditation after learning that The Beatles practiced it on a trip to India in 1968. He says the practice allows him to clear his mind, be more creative, and unlock his subconscious.

Watch a tsunami warning system provide real-time alerts across the Pacific

This visualization of the GUARDIAN monitoring software depicts its detection and transmission of natural hazard signals from the magnitude 8.8 Kamchatka Peninsula earthquake on July 29, 2025. The first detections occurred 32 minutes before the earliest tidal impacts, demonstrating the system's potential to save lives by expanding response time windows.

Spikes in pizza orders near US government buildings are thought to be signs of international crises

Theorists have long believed that sudden increases in pizza deliveries near the Pentagon signal a major event is about to occur. Historical examples include the CIA ordering 21 pizzas the day before the beginning of the Gulf War, and another surge of deliveries before former President Bill Clinton's impeachment hearings. Citizens have since begun monitoring food orders in the area. See a tracker of Pentagon pizza orders here.

Brain wave-reading earbuds are being used by companies to study workplace performance

Limited safeguards prevent governments from accessing and companies from sharing brain data. Foreign governments may also be developing technology to spy on and potentially disrupt human thoughts.

A lunar probe’s crash landing may have spilled tardigrades onto the moon

In 2019, Israel’s Beresheet probe, which contained tardigrades in a cryptobiotic state, underwent a gyroscopic failure when attempting to land. If they survived the crash, the tardigrades may have spread across the lunar surface, raising ethical concerns about planetary contamination.

Tim Cook refused to give the FBI a backdoor into iPhones during a terrorism case

The Apple CEO's refusal to comply with the government's request was viewed as controversial, despite support from privacy advocates. The FBI would later back down, claiming to have gained access to the device without disclosing additional details.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Salvador Dalí had pet anteaters he (supposedly) took on walks

Known for his adept and weird public relations stunts, Dalí kept exotic pets, such as an ocelot named Babou, as well as anteaters. The insectivorous mammal accompanied him on walks (though it may have just been for a photo op) and on talk show appearances.

Computex Taipei is Asia’s premier computing and hardware trade show

Held annually in Taiwan, Computex Taipei brings together global tech leaders to debut innovations in processors, GPUs, AI, and next-gen computing—making it a key event for the IT and hardware industry.

Researchers once thought Stonehenge functioned as a precise astronomical computer

In the 1960s, scientists used early computers to analyze the stone layout at Stonehenge, arguing it could predict eclipses and other celestial events. This BBC Sky at Night Magazine piece explains how the theory arose—and why scholars now doubt it.

Help scientists at LIGO train AI to resolve glitches in observational data

Volunteers are provided with visual representations of signal abnormalities at various frequencies and tasked with categorizing them based on reference examples. Progressing through the tool unlocks more difficult images and additional features. Categorized images will be used to train machine learning algorithms for automated future classification.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people