There could be one more step required before creating an account and posting on Reddit in the future. According to Reddit’s CEO, Steve Huffman, the social media platform is exploring different ways to verify a user is human and not a bot. When asked by the TBPN podcast how to confirm that it’s a human using Reddit, Huffman responded with several verification methods with varying degrees of heavy-handedness.

“The most lightweight way is with something like Face ID or Touch ID,” Huffman said during the interview. “They actually require a human presence, like a human has to touch, or do or look at something, so that actually just proves there’s a person there or gets you pretty far.”

Besides these passkey methods that use biometrics data, Huffman said there are other options like relying on third-party services that are decentralized or don’t require ID. On the other end of the spectrum, Huffman also mentioned more burdensome options, like ID-checking services.

Recent years have brought a rise in bots flooding social media platforms including Reddit, where they’ve even been used to conduct secret experiments. It doesn’t sound like Reddit has landed on how to verify its users’ human identity yet, but Huffman did emphasize that the platform still wants to prioritize anonymity for its users. However, verifying humanity through identifiable and personal data could end up as a dealbreaker for Reddit users who value the anonymity of the platform.

“Part of our promise for our users is we don’t know your name but we do want to know you’re a person,” Huffman said. “It’ll be an evolution for us for a while, and probably every platform to find the right middle ground here.”

Reddit co-founder and former executive chair, Alexis Ohanian, said on X that Reddit requiring Face ID wasn’t something he expected but agreed that something had to be done about the fake content from bots, adding that, “I just don’t know how to sell face-scanning to Redditors or even lurkers.” We reached out to Reddit’s communications team and will update the story when we hear back.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle isn’t too tough, though the first letter is one I rarely ever guess. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Read more: New Study Reveals Wordle’s Top 10 Toughest Words of 2025

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has two vowels.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with B.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with L.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to an aromatic herb in the mint family.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is BASIL.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, March 21, No. 1736, was SLICK.

Recent Wordle answers

March 17, No. 1732: CLASP

March 18, No. 1733: AMPLY

March 19, No. 1734: REHAB

March 20, No. 1735: OASIS

Patrick Fitzgerald bridges the often unaddressed gap in helping people adopt accessibility tools.

The Disrupt Disability Arts Festival was well underway by the time I reached Projects Arts Centre in Temple Bar. A sunny evening had added to the day’s apparent success, with many milling about the building as a sold-out 5pm theatre performance on life as a non-speaker begins.

In the busy foyer, a volunteer from the centre approaches me with a box of surgical masks, asking if I need one. I catch a small table with snacks and Palestine cola from the corner of my eye.

I’m here to meet Patrick Fitzgerald: a coach, not a teacher. He is persistent about that distinction. He approaches me, walking behind his colleague Sarah Boland, who would be facilitating our conversation.

Fitzgerald needs to use assistive technology (AT). During our chat, he describes screen readers and AI tools such as ChatGPT as essential to his day-to-day life (note how AI presents as a ‘tool of a lifetime’ for people with disabilities).

His Meta Ray-Ban glasses are a new addition to his arsenal. They bleep when I put them on, and after a few quick instructions, the glasses are able to recite text from a poster in front of me. It also translates speech in real-time on command. I concur that these might feel somewhat liberating to an AT user.

Still not a prerequisite

People who, like Fitzgerald, live with disabilities make up around 22pc of Ireland’s population, amounting to around 1.1m.

This population – perhaps still invisible to many – might require AT and other accessibility supports to thrive in their everyday lives. But such supports are still outside the grasp of many. Boland explains that it is likely that “hundreds of thousands” in Ireland could be without the AT support that they need.

And despite the significant disabled population in Ireland, other basic necessities such as internet accessibility (as mandated by law in the EU) are also not a given.

The National Disability Authority finds that websites in Ireland only have an average accessibility score of around 55.2pc when evaluated for features such as colour contrasts, text alternatives and file types. Around 96pc of all websites across the globe fail to meet basic accessibility standards.

Meanwhile, a global survey from 2025 reported that 84pc of its more than 1,500 participants (comprising software developers, engineers, user experience and legal professionals) said digital accessibility is a key priority for their company. Reality seems to be far different.

As an AT user-turned-coach, Fitzgerald uses his lived experience to encourage others and help bridge the AT adoption gap.

Among his many roles, Fitzgerald helps co-design websites and apps alongside developers to ensure accessibility is ingrained in tools from the get-go. Last year, he took part in the Carlow Arts Festival as a co-designer, where he also facilitated a workshop to discuss accessibility barriers.

Meanwhile, St John of God Services – Liffey – where Fitzgerald once learned how to use AT, and now works as a ‘digi-coach’ – has been co-designing websites with Technological University Dublin’s computer science students for a decade now.

In 2023, Boland and Fitzgerald bagged the only Irish win for the annual Zero Project at the UN for their co-designed toolkit for St John of God, which has nine digi-coaches working across its services in Dublin and Kerry. These coaches go into schools to work with students and staff to improve AT adoption.

The disability service also works in collaboration with the Dublin-based Fighting Blindness, which employs six digi-coaches to help with their cause. These coaches run workshops, including for those who don’t need AT in their daily lives.

Among the many tools available to him, Fitzgerald tells me about Osmo, a hands-on learning tool that he uses in his coaching lessons with young school students. Osmo uses computer vision to interact with physical objects. The platform helps with literacy and problem-solving. Other apps such as Book Creator and TD Snap are also in his day-to-day rotation for work.

Wary of technology

Despite the many wins, the stats are still worrying. The Disability Federation of Ireland notes that 14.4pc of disabled people over 15 who have ceased their education only ever completed primary level education. The number is nearly halved – at 7.4pc – for the general population. Boland tells me that a majority of those that St John of God supports don’t have literacy.

Meanwhile, only 12.4pc of new entrants to higher education in 2020 were students with disabilities. Plus, the disability employment rate in Ireland is just upwards of 32pc, nearly 20pc lower than the EU average of 51.3pc.

There is no standalone budget for digital assistive technology in Ireland, which makes it challenging to assert exactly how much is allocated towards improving digital inclusion.

However, the Government has several different schemes to help support AT pick-up, including the HSE Aids and Appliances Scheme, the Disability Services Budget, the Fund for Students with Disabilities, and the Assistive Technology Grant for schools.

Still, AT inaccessibility is a systemic issue, as availability of supports does not automatically translate into adoption. “The gap isn’t just about access, it’s about awareness, confidence, training and whether technology is designed with different types of people and needs in mind,” Boland says.

People can be hesitant to use new technology because of a lack of support when it comes to learning to use it safely and confidently. Fitzgerald notes that some staff members are “terrified that something will come up [in new tools]”. He tells me that some are still wary of commonly used tools such as Microsoft Teams despite the many accessibility supports available in the platform.

“No one knows about these tools so that’s why we get trained up,” Fitzgerald says.

“Looking back, it was very hard for me to communicate [without AT],” Fitzgerald adds. “It was hard with no technology and skills … no one there to support me [with] reading or writing [or] speech”.

He says he picked up AT in his late teens and got completely “caught out” by the tech. A Dublin native from Walkinstown, Fitzgerald went to the St John of God School Islandbridge before joining the charity’s day services.

As he sits up – still with his Meta glasses on – Fitzgerald, now 30, says he wasn’t wary of AT. “I wanted [to] kind of challenge myself and then I kind of got used to it, and then I want[ed] to show other people [including] friends and family.”

While he does much more than just show people how to use accessibility features on their devices, it is undeniable that this simple lesson is enough to begin changing lives.

“Patrick is demystifying [technology], because he’s going in and showing staff [that] this is easy [and] it’s a really great way to communicate,” Boland says.

Meanwhile, outside of the charity landscape, Ireland has a number of upcoming start-ups that focus on providing digital inclusion.

Last year, SiliconRepublic.com interviewed Nexus Inclusion’s Kyran O’Mahoney, whose start-up works alongside businesses to improve digital accessibility. O’Mahoney recently took home an award for his work.

Similarly, accessibility start-up DevAlly enables businesses to audit and fix accessibility issues without requiring specialised expertise or outsourcing.

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

• XpertStation WS300 supports trillion-parameter models without relying on cloud infrastructure
• Dual 400GbE LAN ports enable high-speed distributed multi-node AI workloads
• Unified HBM3e GPU and LPDDR5X CPU memory maximizes bandwidth for AI

MSI has officially launched the XpertStation WS300, a deskside AI workstation based on Nvidia’s DGX Station architecture.

This system is designed to handle demanding large language models, generative AI, and advanced data science workloads.

from the fifth-circus dept

Last June, the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court upheld a lower court’s ruling declaring a Louisiana law mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools to be a violation of the Constitution.

This decision made immediate sense, given that courts elsewhere in the nation (including the US Supreme Court) had repeatedly ruled that laws like these destroyed the separation of church and state. These laws were extremely obvious violations of the First Amendment that elevated one particular religion to a position of prominence with the backing of government power.

That hasn’t stopped MAGA legislators from creating similarly unconstitutional laws around the nation. These opportunists are hoping to convert their Trump coattail-riding into local iterations of Trump’s white Christian nationalist efforts.

Last June may as well be a lifetime ago. In that ruling, the Fifth Circuit made it clear the law was nothing more than an unconstitutional way for the state government to shove its preferred deity down students’ throats.

The statute does not require that the Ten Commandments be integrated into a curriculum of study. On the contrary, under the statute’s minimum requirements, the posters must be indiscriminately displayed in every public school classroom in Louisiana regardless of class subject-matter. See La. R.S. § 17:2124(B)(1). Louisiana insists, however, that unlike Kentucky, its Legislature has a valid “secular historical and educational purpose” for displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms, which is reflected in the statute.

[…]

Louisiana’s purported legislative purpose states:
It is the Legislature’s intent to apply the decision set forth by the Supreme Court of the United States in Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677 (2005), to continue the rich tradition [of including the Ten Commandments in the education of our children] and ensure that the students in our public schools may understand and appreciate the foundational documents of our state and national government.

[…]

It is also unclear how H.B. 71 ensures that students in Louisiana public schools “understand and appreciate the foundational documents of [its] state and national government” when it makes displaying those “foundational” documents optional, and does not require that they also be printed in a large, easily readable font. La. R.S. § 17:2124(A)(9). When the Ten Commandments must be posted prominently and legibly, while the other “contextual” materials need not be visible at all, the disparity lays bare the pretext.

That was the court refusing to let Louisiana lawmakers have their cake and eat it too by pretending the Ten Commandments were both “optional” and essential to students’ instruction.

The en banc opinion [PDF] — released in late February — goes in a completely different direction. The majority somehow reaches the conclusion that the lawsuit is premature. It lifts the injunction preventing the law from taking effect. The court contorts itself to give Louisiana a free pass to post the Ten Commandments prominently in public schools by pretending it doesn’t know how this mandate will actually look in practice.

While H.B. 71 sets certain “minimum requirement[s]” regarding the text, size, and accompanying “context statement” of the displays, it leaves “[t]he nature of the display” entirely to the discretion of local school boards. La. Rev. Stat. § 17:2124(B)(1)–(3). That delegation and those minimum requirements—necessarily leave numerous essential questions unanswered. We do not know, for example, how prominently the displays will appear, what other materials might accompany them, or how—if at all— teachers will reference them during instruction. More fundamentally, we do not even know the full content of the displays themselves. Although the statute requires inclusion of the Commandments and a context statement, it expressly permits additional content—such as “the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the Northwest Ordinance”—to appear alongside them. Id. § 2124(B)(4).

Simply put, we cannot evaluate “how the text is used,” Van Orden, 545 U.S. at 701 (Breyer, J., concurring in the judgment) (emphasis omitted), because we do not yet know—and cannot yet know—how the text will be used.

But we do actually know all of these things. And the Court does too, even if it has conveniently chosen to ignore the law to give the GOP what it wants yet again. (See also: this, this, this, this, etc.) As Rachel Lager — one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in this case — points out in her article for The Hill, the state’s lawyers and the bill’s proponents have already answered the questions the Fifth Circuit is now pretending are in need of further examination.

This law intends for the government (public schools) to convey that the words of the Ten Commandments — including “I AM the LORD thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” and “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” — are mandates for all children, regardless of whether they and their families are Hindu and believe in many gods or nonreligious and believe in none.

Lest there be any doubt that this law was written to proselytize students, state Rep. Dodie Horton (R), the law’s sponsor, told us so when she proposed the bill: “I’m not concerned with an atheist. I’m not concerned with a Muslim, I’m concerned with our children looking and seeing what God’s law is.” Judge James Dennis was on point in his dissent when he called the court’s reasoning “procedural artifice.”

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That vast gap between the Fifth Circuit’s “narrow” holding and the facts on the ground likely explain why there’s only a single published concurrence and several dissents. The sole concurrence was written by Judge James Ho, who boldly, baldly declares Supreme Court precedent on the subject is “no longer good law,” despite the Supreme Court never having said so itself. Ho also says the lawsuit isn’t just premature, but entirely without merit.

Multiple dissents disagree. The first, written by James Dennis and co-signed by three other judges — says James Ho and the rest of the majority are wrong. Pretending Supreme Court precedent regarding the mandated posting of the Ten Commandments (via a Kentucky state law) is no longer relevant because the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a coach who was fired for engaging in post-game prayers with his players is deliberately ignoring the difference between state action and personal action in order to reach the conclusion these pro-Bible-down-your-throat judges had already decided was the correct ruling.

Bound by Stone v. Graham and its progeny, and mindful that we are not the Supreme Court, I conclude that permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, without curricular incorporation and with compulsory attendance, violates the Establishment Clause. Our court avoids confronting that conclusion only through procedural artifice. I dissent.

Another dissent points out what the state, its legislators, and the majority of Fifth Circuit judges have also chosen to ignore: that religious leaders don’t even want the state to do what it’s doing.

Indeed, every faith-based organization before us—on behalf of thousands of members—and every clergy and devout plaintiff agree that Louisiana must not pick and post specific scripture that the state commands will confront children in state classrooms. All religious voices submitted to us, barring one individual, oppose Louisiana’s attempt to select, inculcate, and enforce this version of gospel text in compulsory public education.

The only people left arguing for this are arguing in bad faith. Parents and religious leaders who pretend any instruction in anything they’re opposed to (gender issues, evolution, socialism, etc.) is a form of indoctrination are more than willing to sign off on literal government indoctrination so long as it’s the sort of indoctrination they like.

Even if the en banc court felt this might need more discussion, it should have erred on the side of plaintiffs. In choosing to do otherwise, it’s basically telling plaintiffs in the Fifth Circuit that their rights need to be violated first because they can start questioning the constitutionality of enacted laws. That’s insane. But it’s the sort of insane the Fifth Circuit is known for. The only question now is whether the Supreme Court still has enough honest justices left to reverse this obviously unconstitutional decision by the Fifth.

Filed Under: 10 commandments, 1st amendment, 5th circuit, church and state, establishment clause, freedom of religion, james ho, louisiana

Apple loyalists hoping to snap shut their foldable iPhone by autumn may need to exercise a little more patience. The iPhone Fold, initially expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at Apple’s September event, might not ship with these iPhones. 

According to Apple analyst Tim Long, the iPhone Fold will likely begin shipping in December, rather than in September. This contradicts previous reports suggesting a September release (via MacRumors).

So, what will Apple showcase in September 2026?

To me, it sounds like Apple could still showcase the iPhone Fold at the iPhone 18 Pro launch (as a teaser or brief preview of the technology that has gone into the smartphone), while clearly indicating that it will start shipping in a few months. 

The reason behind delaying the iPhone Fold’s shipments could be simple. By releasing the iPhone 18 Pro in September and the iPhone Fold in December, the Pro series gets two months of undivided attention from buyers. 

I know plenty of buyers in India who align their upgrade cycle with Apple’s September launches, and the staggered strategy could be to protect the iPhone 18 Pro’s early sales. Meanwhile, the iPhone Fold would get another two months of hype, with rumors and leaks coming in from all directions, keeping potential buyers on their toes. 

Historically, Apple has done the same thing with the iPhone X. It was available to purchase roughly 10 days after the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus went on sale. 

Apple might want to launch the iPhone Fold at the safest time

Now, the gap between the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Fold isn’t the same, but the iPhone Fold is going to be the most expensive model in Apple’s lineup so far. Apple might want to launch it when there’s no potential threat to its sales. Further, the foldable could also benefit from the holiday shopping season. 

Along with the iPhone Fold’s launch, the analyst also shared some information about the company’s future roadmap. First, the regular iPhone 18 could launch in March 2027 alongside an iPhone 18e. Second, these phones could be accompanied by either an iPhone 18 Plus or an iPhone Air 2. 

I am not sure about the iPhone 18 Plus, as there haven’t been any recent leaks or chatter about the handset since Apple killed it with the iPhone 17 lineup. The Air 2, on the other hand, could very well be a part of Apple’s March 2027 product list.

from the gaming-like-it’s-1930 dept

It’s finally time! Once again it took us a little while to get through all the entries this year, but we’ve now selected the winners in the latest installment of our public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1930!

As usual, we’ve got winners in six categories. Plus, at the end, we’ve got some honorable mentions for games that didn’t quite make the cut. Let’s get started!

Best Analog Game — Diary of a Provincial Lady by donnabooby

When E. M. Delafield published her semi-autobiographical comedy Diary of a Provincial Lady in 1930, it became an instant smash hit that has never been out of print to this day. With a little polish and expansion, we wouldn’t be surprised to see this party game of the same name achieve a similar status. It combines the gameplay of popular rotating-judge games like Apples to Apples, in which players compete to craft the funniest combinations from a set of cards, with the found-object art techniques of blackout poetry, in which creators turn existing text into a new work by subtraction. Players modify entries from the titular diary to suit randomly selected prompts, competing to collect cards featuring the book’s charming illustrations. It’s simple, fun, funny, and a fitting winner of this year’s Best Analog Game.

Best Digital Game — I Could Do That! by Geouug

Among the notable paintings to enter the public domain this year is Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, one of the most recognizable works from the abstract art pioneer’s series of geometric compositions in primary colors. Of course, like many deceptively simple works of abstract art, it is often met with the declaration: I Could Do That! So what better title for this game, which responds: prove it! Players are given a brief look at the painting then sent to a blank canvas with some simple drawing tools and challenged to reproduce it, after which their effort is compared pixel-by-pixel with the original and assigned a numerical score with a detailed breakdown of just how close they got. It’s a clever and somewhat cheeky rebuke to dismissive attitudes about abstract art, and this year’s Best Digital Game.

Best Adaptation — I am Sam Spade by Marshview Games

Dashiel Hammet’s 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon is one of the definitive early works of the “hardboiled” genre of detective stories, and its main character Sam Spade was a major inspiration for Raymond Chandler’s famous detective Philip Marlowe. I am Sam Spade is a TTRPG based on the novel that does something very interesting as an adaptation: it draws inspiration from Chandler’s stories, which explored Marlowe’s thoughts and inner life in a way that came to define the character and genre, to enrich Hammet’s story, which very much did not do the same for Spade. To accomplish this, it makes use of mechanics from the brilliant minimalist TTRPG Everyone is John, and has all the players taking turns as Sam Spade, each inhabiting and fleshing out a different aspect of his personality. It’s an intriguing and thoughtful way of reflecting on this seminal novel and character, making it this year’s Best Adaptation.

Best Remix — Lilac Song by Autumn Chen

Lilac Song is a rich piece of interactive fiction that casts the player as a servant in the household of Prussian Minister-President Otto Braun during the last few years of the Weimar Republic. In this charged historical setting, it explores heavy themes of gender, democracy, socialism, and the rise of the Nazis, and it does so with grace through its excellent writing. On top of this, the game mixes together a perfect selection of public domain works to anchor its story with a background aesthetic: the player guides the character as they admire 1930 paintings by Klee and Kandinsky and listen to a variety of early 20th century musical compositions. The use of these works is subtle and elegant, serving to enhance the game’s original story without overtaking it, and for that it’s this year’s Best Remix.

Best Deep Cut — CARAMENTRAN by RedSPINE and poymakes

In the Carnivals of Southern France, there is a tradition: parading an effigy representing the “King of Carnival” or Caramentran. He is scapegoated for all the past year’s misfortunes, placed on trial, and ultimately burned at the stake to conclude the festivities. In a dual entry for both this game jam and the Themed Horror Game Jam, CARAMENTRAN is a haunting video game in which the player is the effigy, trying desperately to extinguish the rising flames and repel the townspeople who hurl accusations and admonishments at you. This premise is unsettling enough, but it’s made all the moreso by the collage graphics that clip their elements from archive images, postcards, magazine advertisements, and other obscure 1930 sources that could easily be overlooked and forgotten. For that, it’s this year’s Best Deep Cut.

Best Visuals — As I Lay Flying by Geouug

There are no returning winners from past editions in this year’s selection, but there is a first for these game jams: a double winner! In addition to winning Best Digital Game, designer Geouug has locked down a second win with As I Lay Flying, which was in fact a strong contender for the former category as well. The game is based on William Faulkner’s 1930 novel As I Lay Dying, and transforms it into a rather silly and slapstick physics-based challenge while still carrying forth a surprising amount of the story and heart of the book. But on top of that, it looks great: it has a robust array of well-polished graphics including original character portraits, parallax backgrounds, and thematically appropriate interface elements. Check it out and you’ll quickly see why it’s this year’s winner for Best Visuals.

Honorable Mentions

It’s always hard to narrow things down to just six winners, and we always end up having to leave out a few that we still feel deserve recognition. Here are some of our other favorite entries:

The Agatha Effect by A.M.Homunculus and Matteo Ignesti — a very creative narrative game that has players jointly crafting a unique murder mystery then conducting a seance with the spirit of Agatha Christie in order to find the solution.

Early Sunday Morning by Nora Katz — a truly unique entry that involves neither a computer nor a tabletop, as it sends players out into the streets of their home city for a play session that combines hide-and-seek with an improvised scavenger hunt.

The House Hunter Mystery by Gwen C. Katz — a genuinely fun little object-finding video game based on Nancy Drew, in which the player must solve a series of riddles while exploring the rooms of a house.

Poetry Appreciator 2K26 by ZapJackson — a comedic exploration of T. S. Eliot’s Ash Wednesday that combines purposely-obtuse resource-management style mechanics with some funny and surprising twists as you click on words to “appreciate” the poem.

The winning designers will be contacted via their Itch pages to arrange their prizes, so if you see your game listed here, keep an eye on your incoming comments!

A huge thanks to all the designers who submitted games to this year’s jam! Stay tuned for our series of spotlight posts taking a closer look at each of the winning entries, and for an episode of the Techdirt Podcast where we’ll be discussing them. In the mean time, go check out all the other great entries on Itch!

Filed Under: game jam, games, gaming like it’s 1930, public domain