Tech

Free Speech Experts: Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Panic Is As Old As Democracy Itself

Published

2 days ago

1 April 2026

from the moral-panics-are-profitable dept

We’ve been saying for years now that Jonathan Haidt’s crusade against social media and kids is a moral panic dressed up in academic robes, and that the evidence simply does not support the sweeping claims he’s been making. A new piece in the Wall Street Journal by Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff drives that point home with a framing that cuts straight to the absurdity of it all: this fear of new ideas “corrupting the youth” is literally as old as democracy itself.

In 399 BCE, Socrates was put on trial before a jury of some 500 of his fellow Athenians. The indictment accused him of impiety and added, “Socrates is…also guilty of corrupting the youth.” Despite the Athenian democracy’s commitment to free and equal speech, Socrates was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Two and a half millennia later, democracies are still deeply concerned about dangerous ideas corrupting the youth. This time, the target isn’t dangerous philosophy but an increase in teen mental-health issues blamed on social media.

Mchangama and Kosseff are particularly well-positioned to make this argument (and are both former Techdirt podcast guests). Mchangama’s prior book, Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, traced the full arc of free speech battles across civilizations, and the two of them have a forthcoming co-authored book, The Future of Free Speech, on the global decline of free speech protections. Meanwhile Kosseff’s three previous books all cover related free speech territory: The Twenty-Six Words that Created the Internet, Liar in a Crowded Theater, and The United States of Anonymous. These are people who have spent their careers studying exactly these patterns — the recurring cycle of moral panic, political opportunism, and the quiet erosion of rights that tends to follow.

Their piece walks through the problems with both the evidence and the policy responses that have sprung from Haidt’s work. On the evidence:

In 2024, a review of the scientific literature by a committee at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine had found that despite some “potential harms,” the review “did not support the conclusion that social media causes changes in adolescent health at the population level.” A 2026 longitudinal study in the Journal of Public Health reached a similar conclusion.

We covered these studies at the time, noting that they were far from the only such studies to go hunting for the alleged evidence of inherent harms to children using social media — and coming up empty. It is amazing how little attention these studies get compared to Haidt’s book. So it’s good to see Mchangama and Kosseff call them out.

They also highlight what gets lost when you reduce this to a simple “social media = bad” story:

“Social media has the potential to connect friends and family. It may also be valuable to teens who otherwise feel excluded or lack offline support,” according to the National Academies of Science report. It also highlights the possible benefits of online access for “young people coping with serious illness, bereavement, and mental health problems” as well as opportunities for learning and developing interests.
That point is especially important for vulnerable teenagers whose offline environments may be isolating or hostile. This is why comparing social media to tobacco is questionable: The scientific consensus on smoking’s harms is unanimous and no one claims smoking has benefits. Neither is true for social media.

This is consistent with what experts told TES Magazine last fall — actual researchers in the field described Haidt’s work as “fear” rather than science, said they couldn’t believe a fellow academic wrote it, and pointed out basic logical flaws in his causal claims. It’s also consistent with what I found in my own detailed review of the book when it came out two years ago, where the cherry-picked data, the ignored contrary evidence, and the policy proposals based on gut feelings rather than research were all on full display.

What makes this even worse than a standard “well-meaning but wrong” situation is a study we wrote about earlier this year showing that the social media “addiction” narrative itself may be more harmful than social media. Researchers found that very few people show signs consistent with actual addiction, but every time the media amplifies stories about social media addiction, more people claim they’re addicted. And that belief makes them feel helpless — convincing them they have a pathological condition rather than habits they could simply change.

In other words, the moral panic is doing the exact same thing it accuses social media of doing: making people anxious, helpless, and convinced they can’t control their own behavior.

The cost of being wrong here is that parents, politicians, and schools ignore the real causes of teen mental health struggles: poverty, the closure of youth services, reduced access to mental health care, and the erasure of community support systems. And the cost is that kids who genuinely rely on online communities — LGBTQ+ youth, kids with chronic illnesses, kids in hostile home environments — lose a lifeline. Mchangama and Kosseff make the same point, and now we can see the policy consequences playing out in real time.

And it goes even further. As Mchangama and Kosseff note, authoritarian governments are already using the “protect the children” framework as cover for broader censorship:

Authoritarian and illiberal states provide a grim window into how the protection of children can be weaponized to suppress dissent. In 2012, Russia enacted an internet blacklist law, with the stated intention of protecting children from harmful content. The law laid the groundwork for Russia’s heavily censored “Red Web” that now entirely prohibits many foreign social-media platforms.
The same goes in Indonesia which this month announced a ban on social media for those under 16. But Indonesia is also a country that has used the pretext of child protection to block and censor gay social networking apps and content.

It’s a remarkable blind spot for those pushing Haidt’s arguments. They never seem to consider that these are the exact same tools authoritarian governments use to silence marginalized voices. You would think that politicians championing this book — particularly Democrats who claim to care about civil liberties and LGBTQ rights — might pause when they see Russia and Indonesia deploying identical justifications.

And yet politicians across the spectrum continue to treat Haidt’s book like scripture, despite an overwhelming expert consensus that his claims don’t hold up.

Mchangama and Kosseff close with what should be obvious, but apparently still needs to be said:

Democracies have always worried about dangerous ideas corrupting the young. Intellectuals and lawmakers should absolutely be concerned about how and when our children navigate social media. But they should also be concerned about whether, in our rush to protect our children, we are building an infrastructure of surveillance and censorship that will ultimately threaten the hard-won freedoms we want future generations to enjoy.

Speech is powerful. Ideas have consequences. But we protect such speech from legal liability for that very reason. The power of speech to change minds and influence people is exactly why those in power are so often afraid of it and looking to tamp it down. It’s also why Mchangama and Kosseff can tie the urge back all the way to Socrates.

Every generation gets its moral panic. Every time, someone insists “this time it’s different.” Every time, the evidence eventually catches up and the panic looks ridiculous in retrospect. The tragedy is how much damage gets done in the meantime — to kids who lose a real lifeline, to free expression, to privacy, and to the actual causes of teen suffering that never get addressed because everyone was too busy blaming the latest app.

The verdict from the people who actually study this stuff has been clear for a while now. Maybe it’s time for politicians to put down Haidt’s book and pick up the actual research.

Filed Under: free speech, jacob mchangama, jeff kosseff, jonathan haidt, moral panic

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Xteink’s X3 E-Reader Snaps Onto Your iPhone and Ready for Any Spare Moment

Published

4 minutes ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Xteink X3 E-Reader
Slapping the Xteink X3 onto an iPhone takes only a few seconds. This is owing in part to its built-in magnets, which exactly align with MagSafe and allow it to be easily snapped into place. You get a thin black or white slab that sits flush against the phone’s back without adding any bulk. Anyone who is continually reaching for their phone dozens of times per day would appreciate having a book right at their fingertips, all from the same move.

At only 58 grams, this device is easy to forget about until you need it, and then, as if by magic, it appears. Its overall size is a modest 100mm long and 60mm wide, so it goes unnoticed in a pocket until reading time beckons. Commuters and individuals waiting in lines can just pull out their phones and start reading a chapter without having to dig through their bags for another device.

XTEINK X4 E-Book Reader, 4.3″ Portable Pocket E-Ink eReader with Physical Page-Turn Buttons, Ultra-Thin…

Pocket-Size Mini eReader for Reading Anywhere: Ultra-light at just 0.23 inch and only 2.72 oz, Xteink X4 is designed for true portability. Slip it…
4.3″ Paper-Like E-Ink Display: The 4.3-inch E-Ink screen delivers a natural paper-like reading experience that’s gentle on the eyes. Enjoy clear…
Magnetic-Ready Design for Quick Access: Includes magnetic stick-on rings, so you can attach Xteink X4 to the back of your phone or other magnetic…

The 3.7-inch E Ink screen displays clear text, with over 250 pixels per inch. You can easily change the font size with a few simple adjustments, so even the smallest pages provide a comfortable reading experience. With adequate lighting, the characters simply pop, and there is no eye strain to contend with, as opposed to phone screens. You also have real buttons on the sides and bottom for turning pages and accessing menus. One-handed operation feels perfectly normal, whether you’re on a train or confined in bed. The gyroscope within detects even the tiniest shake and flips pages forward, allowing you to maintain a solid grip during those rapid reading periods.

Xteink X3 E-Reader
Navigation is straightforward, with a grid of icons instead of swipes or touches. Choose a book or change the settings with a few presses, and it remains dependable even when your fingers are clumsy. The strategy minimizes distractions and allows you to concentrate on the words themselves. You can load books onto the device using either the 16GB microSD card included in the box or a companion app on your phone. Transferring EPUB files is quick and easy over Wi-Fi or by inserting the card into your computer, and storage increases up to 512 gigabytes, allowing you to carry thousands of titles without running out of space.

Xteink X3 E-Reader
The battery will last you 10 to 14 days on a single charge, even if you only read for an hour or two every day, and charging is simple; simply insert the special cable with magnetic pogo pins into the gadget and it will clip right into place. Okay, there is one little flaw: there is no built-in front light (yet), but you can get a separate clip-on version for only $9.99 if you plan on reading late into the evening. If you need more connectivity, there are Bluetooth and NFC connections available, as well as Wi-Fi for the occasional update or transfer. It’s available now on the official Xteink website and can be purchased for $79.
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'The Bonfire of the Vanities' series headed to Apple TV

Published

18 minutes ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Maybe the third time is the charm. Writer/producer David E. Kelley is adapting Tom Wolfe’s “The Bonfire of the Vanities” novel into a series for Apple TV, with “The Batman” director Matt Reeves.

Apple TV is dramatizing “The Bonfire of the Vanities” — image credit: Apple

David E. Kelley is still best known for “The Practice” and “Ally McBeal” shows, but he’s also the writer of Apple TV’s “Presumed Innocent” and “Margo’s Got Money Troubles.” Now according to Deadline, he’s dramatizing Tom Wolfe’s famous 1987 novel of greed and Wall Street money.
Not to spoil the story, but as excellent as it is, Wolfe’s novel feels as if it fades out rather than have a big finish, which has made it difficult to successfully adapt. It was filmed in 1990, with Tom Hanks starring and Brian DePalma directing from a screenplay by Michael Cristofer, but that was a flop.
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The leadership dilemma: Governing the “Agentic AI” workforce

Published

32 minutes ago

3 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Artificial intelligence is no longer a back office enabler or a set of isolated automation software tools. It is becoming a core component of how organizations operate, compete, and deliver value.

As businesses accelerate their adoption of increasingly autonomous systems, often referred to as agentic AI, a significant leadership dilemma is emerging. The workforce is no longer exclusively human.

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Peter Connolly

This shift represents far more than a technological upgrade. It is a structural transformation that puts business leaders in uncharted territory.

The World Economic Forum’s Four Futures framework warns of rising technological fragmentation, declining trust, and widening governance gaps.

In this context, the question for leaders is no longer whether to deploy autonomous AI, but how to govern a hybrid workforce of humans and digital agents without introducing systemic risk.

For many organizations, this is becoming one of the defining leadership challenges of the decade.

employees, triaging customer requests, optimizing supply chains, generating code, or even making financial recommendations.

The productivity gains are undeniable, but so is the complexity. When digital agents act with autonomy, they also introduce new forms of organizational risk. Decisions may be opaque, accountability may be unclear, and the potential for unintended consequences increases dramatically.

Leaders must now grapple with a workforce that does not think, behave, or act like humans, and who cannot be governed through traditional management structure. This is where structured identity, access, and behavioral governance become essential.

The most significant challenge is not the technology itself, but the governance vacuum surrounding it. Many organizations deploy autonomous systems faster than they establish the controls and guardrails required to manage them. This creates a widening gap between capability and oversight.

Several risks are already becoming visible:

1. Accountability gaps: When an AI agent makes a decision that leads to financial loss, regulatory exposure, or reputational harm, who is responsible? Without clear lines of accountability, organizations face legal and ethical uncertainty.

customers. If misconfigured or compromised, they can behave like highly privileged insider threats, an issue we frequently encounter when assessing digital identity posture.

3. Fragmentation and drift: As organizations deploy multiple AI agents across different functions, the risk of inconsistent behavior, configuration drift, and misaligned objectives increases. Without centralized governance, autonomous systems can evolve in ways that diverge from organizational intent.

4. Erosion of trust: Employees, customers, and regulators are increasingly concerned about how AI systems make decisions. A lack of transparency and explainability can undermine confidence and impede adoption.

AI adoption alone is no longer sufficient. Governance has become the true leadership mandate.

business leaders must adopt a governance first mindset that aligns with the World Economic Forum’s call for Digital Trust and systemic resilience. This requires treating agentic AI not as a standalone technology, but as a governed member of the workforce.

Several principles should guide this shift:

Establish Clear Accountability Structures

Every AI agent must have an identified human owner responsible for its actions, performance, and outcomes. This includes defining escalation paths, decision boundaries, and audit requirements. Without explicit accountability, organizations risk regulatory exposure and operational ambiguity.

Apply Identity and Access Controls to Digital Agents

Just as employees have identities, permissions, and access levels, so too must AI agents. Leaders should ensure that digital agents are integrated into identity management frameworks with least privilege access, continuous monitoring, and lifecycle management. This reduces the risk of insider threat like behavior and prevents privilege creep, these are key principles central to our approach to digital workforce governance.

Implement Behavioral Guardrails

Autonomous systems require constraints that define acceptable behavior. These guardrails may include ethical guidelines, operational limits, safety checks, and real time monitoring. Guardrails ensure that AI agents act within organizational intent and do not drift into unsafe or unintended territory.

Build Oversight and Auditability into the System

Transparency is essential for trust. AI agents must be auditable, explainable, and observable. This includes maintaining logs of decisions, enabling post incident analysis, and ensuring that humans can intervene when necessary. Oversight is foundational to responsible autonomy.

Foster a Culture of Digital Trust

Governance is more than a technical challenge, it is a cultural one. Leaders must champion a culture that values transparency, accountability, and responsible innovation. This includes educating employees about how AI agents operate, how decisions are made, and how risks are managed. Organizations that succeed here tend to be those that treat governance as a strategic capability, not a compliance burden.

From Liability to Advantage: Building the Hybrid Workforce of the Future

When governed effectively, agentic AI can become a powerful force multiplier. It can enhance productivity, accelerate innovation, and enable organizations to operate with greater agility and precision. But without governance, the same systems can introduce systemic vulnerabilities that undermine resilience.

The role of business leaders is to ensure that autonomy does not outpace oversight. By reframing agentic AI as part of the workforce, subject to the same expectations, controls, and accountability as human employees, leaders can transform a potential liability into a strategic advantage.

The future of work will be hybrid. The organizations that continue to evolve in 2026 will be those that recognize that governing AI is not a technical task delegated to IT, but a core leadership responsibility.

Leaders who embrace this governance first approach will not only mitigate risk, but they will also build resilient, high performing organizations that define the future of the workplace and how businesses function.

Read our list of the best employee management software.

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How CIOs can create a strong foundation for an AI-enabled workplace

Published
1 hour ago
on
3 April 2026

By
NewsAdmin

As with any new tech, there’s a scale for AI adoption among businesses leaving some are ahead of the curve and others much further behind as they continue to resist and delay.
But what’s clear is that adoption is happening with or without formal strategy because nearly two-thirds (65%) of employees now say they intentionally use AI for work.

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Polished sounding, in-depth output can now be generated in minutes, meaning everyone has the ability at their fingertips to produce more in less time.
As managers and organizations increasingly realize that this doesn’t always lead to good work, the differentiator that defines what good really is, is becoming less about speed and more about who can work alongside AI well.
That means having the ability to analyze and assess its output and use it to make better human decisions – not replace them.
This marks a turning point for CIOs especially. The role that used to center simply on identifying and providing access to new tools to improve efficiency, is now increasingly responsible for shaping an environment in which AI tools truly raise the bar.
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documents and analysing data to summarizing meetings and generating code. At first, many employees approached these tools with caution. AI made them faster, but they still treated its output as something to sense-check and refine.
Now, as AI becomes more normalized and trusted, that caution can slip. In some cases, speed is no longer paired with scrutiny and teams rely on confident-sounding outputs that may be incomplete, biased or wrong if they haven’t been properly reviewed. So, while managers are getting used to quicker turnaround and coming to expect it, they may also be receiving work that looks finished but hasn’t been validated.
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If work is easier to produce across the board, then volume alone becomes a much less reliable indicator of value. It’s more about the ability to work with AI’s output, interpreting and analysing it in context and feeding it into final outputs and decisions rather than relying on it to do that for you.

What to read next

Because of this, every role becomes more technical by default. This new expectation means employees need to be able to use AI tools but also use them well and understand their outputs. That includes framing prompts effectively, challenging assumptions, identifying bias and translating outputs within the right commercial and organizational context.
Without leaders prioritizing AI and how to use it correctly, this shift can create divergence. Some teams build confidence quickly, while others feel nervous and hesitate or over-rely on automation which can result in uneven standards and unnecessary risk. The responsibility for avoiding that fragmentation sits with the CIO.
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business. Rather than experimenting everywhere at once, organizations need to identify the areas where AI can improve outcomes, whether that’s speeding up analysis, reducing manual work or improving decision-making.
Leadership teams play an important role here by setting priorities and making sure AI initiatives stay focused on solving real business challenges rather than chasing the latest trend.
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But introducing tools alone aren’t enough. Employees need practical training on how to use AI well and how to check and interpret its outputs. Without that support, AI risks becoming either underused or over-relied on.
In many cases, the most effective approach is building confidence and competence over time through hands-on learning in the flow of work. When employees can experiment, feedback on what’s working and refine how they use AI in real situations, organizations create a much stronger foundation for long-term progress.
large language models are approved for work, when enterprise or paid versions must be used and what kinds of data can or cannot be entered into these systems.
It also means making sure teams understand how to handle sensitive information and comply with local regulations. When these boundaries are clear, employees can innovate confidently and leadership can better trust their employees, tools and the outputs that the two together are able to produce. Without governance, the risk is unchecked, low-value outputs that affect results and increase exposure.
The CIO has the power to connect aligning technology, ethics and responsibility. Embedding review mechanisms, defining who owns what and making sure human judgement sits firmly at the center of it all.

Conclusion

AI is raising the bar across the workplace. The organizations that approach it in the right way build in clear direction on where it should be applied, practical support that helps people use it well and a governance model that protects the integrity of decisions.
For CIOs, the aim is to create an environment where experimentation is encouraged while standards stay high and accountability is clear. When capability and trust are built in tandem, AI becomes a lever for stronger outcomes over time, not just quicker output in the short term.
Technology may be redefining how work is produced, but it is leadership that determines whether those higher standards translate into long-term advantage.
Read our list of the best employee experience tools.
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OpenAI purchases online tech talk show TBPN

Published
1 hour ago
on
3 April 2026

By
NewsAdmin

OpenAI said the purchase will be part of its strategy to further the conversation on the changes brought about by artificial intelligence.
OpenAI, in what is being described as an unusual move, is set to purchase the Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN), a daily, live tech talk show hosted by Jordi Hays and John Coogan, that often features high-profile tech leaders and entrepreneurs. OpenAI
OpenAI’s chief executive officer of applications Fidji Simo said: “As I’ve been thinking about the future of how we communicate at OpenAI, one thing that’s become clear is that the standard communications playbook just doesn’t apply to us. We’re not a typical company.
“We’re driving a really big technological shift. And with our mission to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity comes a responsibility to help create a space for a real, constructive conversation about the changes AI creates, with builders and people using the technology at the centre.”
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While the full details of the deal have yet to be disclosed, OpenAI said the TBPN team will maintain editorial independence and make decisions on their guests and programming. According to the Wall Street Journal, TBPN stated that it generated $5m in advertising revenue last year and is on track to exceed $30m in revenue in 2026.
However, an OpenAI spokesperson told Bloomberg that the platform is not aiming to make TBPN a money-making enterprise.
In a statement, Hays expressed excitement at the venture, while making note of the importance of a strong partnership where both parties work as a team to communicate change and innovation in the AI and tech spaces.
He said: “While we’ve been critical of the industry at times, after getting to know Sam and the OpenAI team, what stood out most was their openness to feedback and commitment to getting this right. Moving from commentary to real impact in how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us.”
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Earlier this week OpenAI closed a larger than expected funding round in which it raised $122bn, exceeding the projected figure of $110bn. Part of that funding is expected to be put towards the scale and growth of the platform’s AI technologies and research, in line with current global demands.
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This State Has Costco’s First Stand Alone Gas Station

Published
1 hour ago
on
3 April 2026

By
NewsAdmin

Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

The best thing about retail warehouse stores is obviously the selection. After all, where else can you buy a new T-shirt, birthday cake, and a set of tires on the same day? But the ability to fill up with gas before leaving the parking lot is a plus as well. That’s why stores like Costco, where you can use these tips to save time at the pump, are so convenient. But now the company is moving forward with standalone gas stations, and the company’s first in California is members-only.
Members will need to insert or scan their membership card to refuel, just as they would at Costco’s attached gas stations. However, non-members may be able to access the pumps using a Costco Shop card, as they currently can at on-site locations. Costco’s new gas station is located in Mission Viejo, California, and it’s a 17,000 square foot facility operated by company employees. It has 40 pumps covered by a large canopy, and it will run from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, Sunday through Saturday.
The station is expected to open by the end of June 2026. But if you don’t live in California, you may not have to wait long. Costco is planning to build more standalone gas stations, beginning in Honolulu, Hawaii. As of this writing, the company hasn’t publicly addressed this new program. But the belief is that stand alone stations can help reduce the heavy traffic flow that currently plagues many on-site locations.
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Costco’s gas boom and competitive pricing strategy

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Costco’s first standalone gas station (which will also strategically stay cheaper than most) was initially announced in the summer of 2025. The facility is located off Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo, California, at the site where a Bed Bath & Beyond once stood. At the time of the announcement, the company’s gas stations were experiencing a boom in business, thanks mostly to extended operating hours. The decision to move forward with a new test store may have been influenced by this positive reaction.
Costco members get access to gas prices that can often beat other competitors by anywhere from 10 to 25 cents per gallon. This is possible because of the company’s warehouse approach, which includes buying fuel in large quantities. Costco also works directly with suppliers to get the best cost and then passes that savings on to its members.
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Costco’s first gas station opened in 1995 and since then, their fuel business has grown. The company currently has over 700 stations around the world, serving millions of paid members every day. Those members can use the Costco app to check fuel prices in real time, as well as store hours, and locations near them.

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How To Know When It’s Time To Turn On Your Lawn Sprinklers This Spring

Published
2 hours ago
on
3 April 2026

By
NewsAdmin

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Getting a lush, green lawn sometimes requires a bit of help. This is where a lawn sprinkler system, be it an energy-saving smart sprinkler system or a more traditional setup, comes into the picture by providing a yard with sufficient moisture for sustained growth. Installing such a system is just the start, though, and it’s also crucial to know how to use it to the fullest. That means knowing the right time of year to power it up, which isn’t necessarily a specific day or month. Instead, it’s a decision that’s largely predicated on environmental factors that make it clear winter has come and gone, and that spring is finally in bloom.
First and foremost is the temperature. It’s recommended that a sprinkler system only be activated in spring once daily temperatures are higher than 40 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 days or longer. This way, you know for certain spring is here and you’re not experiencing a random warmer day within an overall cold period. In a similar vein, the ground itself should be completely thawed and free of frost, further indicating that sprinkler season has arrived. No matter where you live, you should also refer to previous years’ weather patterns to get a rough idea of when the final snowfalls and freezes usually happen. Some news outlets may also offer estimated dates for these, so be sure to check around.
If all else fails and you’re unsure whether it’s a good time to turn on your sprinklers, there’s no shame in playing it safe and waiting until temperatures are consistently warm and the last vestiges of winter are long gone. After all, erring on the side of caution is preferred to activating your system too early and suffering the consequences.
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Why lawn sprinkler timing is so important

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Turning on your lawn sprinkler system is anything but an arbitrary decision. It needs to happen when the environment is just right, or else there could be serious consequences. For one, it’s no secret that running and leaving water through unprepared pipes in freezing conditions can lead to damage. This water freezes, expands, and cracks pipes and fittings. If you manage to avoid pipe or sprinkler damage, you’re still at risk of shortening the lifespan of the system by running it when it’s not necessary. The longer you run your system, the more wear and tear it endures, potentially leading to it failing sooner than it should.
The consequences of activating a sprinkler system early go beyond the health of the system itself. Ice and snow melt takes time to soak into the ground, so any excess water from a sprinkler system may lead to sogginess and puddles at best, or leave your grass susceptible to disease at worst. Not to mention, running your sprinklers more than necessary will, of course, lead to a higher water bill. Thus, don’t be afraid to show some restraint, even if it looks like your lawn is in need of watering right out of winter.
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Lawn care can very easily go wrong. There are many mistakes everyone makes with lawn mowers, for instance, and homeowners can also turn on their lawn sprinklers at the wrong time of year. That’s why it’s key to keep an eye on the weather and sustained temperatures before officially beginning your spring watering.

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Maker 3D-Prints Shoes Layer by Layer, Successfully Goes from Printer to Pavement

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2 hours ago
on
3 April 2026

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NewsAdmin

People are constantly pushing the boundaries of 3D printing, but shoes have long been the holy grail, or rather the holy nightmare, of the technology. They must be able to bend with each step, provide traction on a variety of surfaces, and withstand regular use without falling apart at the seams. DaveRig Design took on this exact task in a recent project, resulting in a pair of casual shoes that look and feel right at home on the street.

He started with the CityStep casual everyday sneaker design, which you can get at MakerWorld. This design features a slip-on form with a contoured profile that wraps around your foot snugly at the back and sides, while leaving the top of the shoe open and breathable. The design features a dense infill pattern on top to give it a knit fabric look and feel; there are no separate parts or glue jobs necessary, and the greatest part is that each shoe prints upright in one piece with a tiny heel stand to protect it from tumbling over while printing. Print times on typical machines are roughly sixty-six hours each pair, so you’re looking at around seventy-six hours on some machines due to the fine details and support structures.

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The actual game changer was the material he chose. DaveRig chose BIQU MorPhlex filament, a flexible choice that handles like ordinary TPU out of the spool, with a hardness of roughly 90 A, which is rigid enough to keep the printer from stringing and jamming, which is a common problem with softer filaments. Once the print is completed and the material has cooled, it transitions to a considerably softer seventy-five A rubber-like feel that provides cushioning and traction without the need for any additional post-processing gimmicks. He was using a Snapmaker U1 tool changer, a machine designed to automatically swap between four separate extruders, which came in handy for a project that required over three thousand swaps to blend colors and hardness levels across different parts of the shoe, ensuring that the sole remained grippy, the midsection flexed naturally, and the upper remained light and airy all at once.

Before sending it to the printer, he spent some time in Blender fine-tuning the model, making subtle changes to get the layer bonding just perfect so the finished shoes wouldn’t split when stretched over your foot. Supports were made with a combination of flexible filament and conventional PLA to make them easy to remove when the print was completed, and he strengthened them to keep them from shifting around during the long print. To ensure perfect colour consistency, he ran both shoes side by side on the same build plate.

When the print was finally completed and the supports were removed without a hitch, the results were a pleasant surprise, nearly factory-fresh polished. The upper has a nice textured surface that smoothes over the layer lines so they are scarcely noticeable, and they appear to have come off a production line rather than a homemade work. The sole provides just enough traction, the MorPhlex’s post-print softness makes it easy to grab surfaces, and the heel cup keeps everything held in place without slipping around during normal walking.

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CFTC sues three states for trying to regulate prediction markets

Published
2 hours ago
on
3 April 2026

By
NewsAdmin

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is suing Illinois, Arizona and Connecticut for attempting to outlaw or regulate prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. The CFTC believes it has sole jurisdiction to regulate these platforms, and that states attempting to classify them as illegal gambling are overstepping their authority.
CFTC defines prediction markets as “designated contract markets” where futures contracts are traded, essentially letting people bet on the outcome of events (for example, who will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2028). And because futures contracts are financial instruments distinct from traditional bets, they arguably fall under the supervision of the CFTC rather than the sports gambling authorities of individual states.
Multiple states, including the three the CFTC is suing, have challenged that interpretation of what prediction markets are and how they operate. Nevada sued Kalshi in February for operating a sports gambling market without proper licenses, a lawsuit made possible because a federal appeals court declined to prevent Nevada from pursuing its case. Arizona’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against Kalshi in March along similar illegal sports gambling lines, and because the platform let people bet on Arizona elections, which violates state law. Both Illinois and Connecticut have also sent Kalshi and other prediction markets cease-and-desist letters, ordering them to stop advertising and offering their services in their respective states.
“The CFTC will continue to safeguard its exclusive regulatory authority over these markets and defend market participants against overzealous state regulators,” CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in a statement. “This is not the first time states have tried to impose inconsistent and contrary obligations on market participants, but Congress specifically rejected such a fragmented patchwork of state regulations because it resulted in poorer consumer protection and increased risk of fraud and manipulation.”
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Attempts to regulate, or in this case, stave off regulation of predication markets are complicated by the fact that President Donald Trump’s family has ties to the industry. Donald Trump Jr. is a paid advisor for Kalshi and investor in Polymarket. Major transactions made before recent US military actions in Iran have also suggested that people close to the government might be trading on prediction markets with insider knowledge. Some prediction markets have implemented new rules to prevent insider trading, but given the circumstances, it makes sense that states wouldn’t be satisfied with companies policing themselves.

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Shadow Lord’ season 2 confirmed

Published
2 hours ago
on
3 April 2026

By
NewsAdmin

Ahead of its premiere, Dave Filoni has revealed that the Star Wars animated series Maul: Shadow Lord will return for a second season. The Lucasfilm co-president revealed that season 2 is already in the works, telling Esquire that “at the end of the day, people like that character.”
Filoni didn’t reveal any other details about the plot or release date for season 2. However, the news isn’t a great surprise given Lucasfilm’s past history with its animated series — The Clone Wars ran seven seasons, Star Wars Rebels four seasons, Star Wars Resistance two seasons and Star Wars: The Bad Batch three seasons.
Maul: Shadow Lord explores the Zebrak Sith Lord’s story about a year after the time of the Clone Wars. Season 1’s 10 seasons will stream twice a week on Disney+ starting on April 6 and run through May 6. It covers Maul’s plot to rebuild his criminal syndicate “on a planet untouched by the Empire,” according to Lucasfilm. “There, he crosses paths with a disillusioned young Jedi Padawan who may just be the apprentice he is seeking to aid him in his relentless pursuit for revenge.”

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