Zeros

Are Raccoons Domesticating Themselves? A Backyard Mystery For decades, we were told there were two kinds of animals: pets and wildlife . Dogs slept on the couch. Raccoons stole garbage. The arrangement seemed pretty straightforward . But lately, something strange appears to be happening in America's backyards. Raccoons are acting less like wild animals and more like slightly delinquent neighbors . Scientists have observed that animals living in close proximity to humans often develop traits that resemble those of domesticated animals. Not full domestication, of course. Nobody is taking their raccoon to obedience school . However, certain behavioral changes are emerging. Urban raccoons tend to be less fearful, more curious, and remarkably comfortable around humans. Some have even learned to recognize individual people— the same way your dog recognizes the person most likely to drop food . If this sounds familiar, that's because something similar may have happened ...

What in the Monkey Heck Is Happening at Ichikawa Zoo? Let us take a moment — a long, bewildered, slack-jawed moment — to absorb what has transpired at the Ichikawa City Zoo in Chiba Prefecture, just outside Tokyo , because the facts of this story read like a fever dream generated by a group chat that has lost all contact with civilization . You know Punch . If you've been anywhere near the internet this spring, you've likely heard of Punch . The baby Japanese macaque was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth at Ichikawa City Zoo, and zookeepers, after experimenting with rolled-up towels and other substitutes, settled on an IKEA orangutan plushie as his emotional support companion . The internet collectively shattered. Zoo attendance jumped more than 100,000 visitors year-over-year, reaching the highest annual total since the park opened in 1987 . Punch became a global phenomenon — a small, abandoned primate clutching a stuffed toy while the rest of his tro...

Summer Is Here Whether You're Ready or Not Camping, hiking, woodland horror, and the gentle obligation of someone else's happiness The news does not deserve summer . It has been relentless, exhausting, and frankly offensive. Concerts are being canceled. Plans evaporate. The general vibe of the world in 2026 is that you should lower your expectations and keep your receipt . But summer doesn't care about any of that. The fireflies still light up. The days are still long. The woods are still there, waiting — which brings us to the good news and the gently ominous news, depending on your plans! If you are the outdoors type, this season, camping and hiking are having a quiet renaissance among people who want to feel something that isn't a push notification . It's called: touch_grass . You don't have to go far. A state park within driving distance, a trail you've been meaning to try since 2019, a hammock strung between two trees with a pape...

The Wrench Problem:  When Digital Violence Looks Like the Drug Trade The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie — 84-year-old mother of NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie , reported missing from her Tucson -area home in early February — has pulled an uncomfortable term into mainstream news coverage. Former FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer floated the theory publicly: investigators may be dealing with a wrench attack , a growing form of violent crime in which victims are physically coerced into surrendering access to their digital currency holdings . [ The Sunday Guardian ] Whether or not that theory holds in this specific case, the term itself deserves scrutiny from anyone who holds digital assets and has ever posted about it anywhere. The name comes from a thought experiment. Wrench attacks are named after a hypothetical scenario in which an assailant uses a wrench to force someone to reveal their private keys. [ Newsweek ] The irony embedded in that origin story has never quite ...

There was a time when street art meant a stenciled rat on a brick wall or a mysterious little girl holding an umbrella. Simple. Elegant. Easy for city councils to pretend they hated it before installing security cameras around it, as if it were the Crown Jewels . But now Banksy appears to have entered his Found Footage era, and honestly, it was inevitable. Because apparently regular graffiti is no longer enough. No, now it needs more cowbell : “What if  The Blair Witch Project had a merchandising department?” You’ve probably already seen these new pieces. A grainy childlike silhouette. A figure watching a balloon drift into the background,  that somehow looks exactly like the Morton Salt girl, after surviving three nights in an abandoned asylum . And a smiling cartoon face peeking through the corridors of time and space, like the last frame of a cursed VHS tape somebody found in a drainage tunnel beneath Cleveland . And the art critics get it . “...

Monero, Terror Financing, and the Faucet Question Nobody's Asking If you follow digital currency news at any depth, you've probably caught wind of intelligence reports linking Monero (XMR) to terrorism financing. It sounds alarming on its surface . But when you pull the thread a little, the picture gets more complicated — and honestly, more interesting — than the headlines suggest. Islamic State Khorasan (ISK) has reportedly shifted away from Bitcoin and Tether, and is increasingly soliciting donations in Monero through its flagship magazine,  Voice of Khurasan , drawn to the coin's privacy-focused design, which obscures transaction amounts, senders, and receivers . TRM Labs has also identified Monero fundraising campaigns linked to ISIS affiliates in India and the Philippines . So yes — this is documented, not merely rumor. But here's where it gets curious: is Monero actually working for them? Despite the growing interest, stablecoins remain the ...