Opposing ICE Might Save the Country. It Could Also Ruin Your Life For months, lone vibe coder Rafael Concepcion has obsessively built tools to counter the federal immigration crackdown—pivoting as he’s been outmatched. He’s also lost his job and become a target.

I spent six months reporting and writing my latest @wired.com story about a Syracuse man who has become laser-focused on countering ICE—no matter the personal cost.

A kind Reddit user offers up two boxes of Newport 100s that he accidentally threw away.

Sometimes the generosity of a fellow human is too beautiful for me to bear.

Sitting on a late-night commuter train, vibing out to the “Tax Problems” section of Paul Hogan’s Wikipedia article. Life can be so magical sometimes.

One Vigilante, 22 Cell Tower Fires, and a World of Conspiracies Inside the mind of the most prolific anti-5G arsonist in the world—and the incoherent, very online political violence of our era.

“You’ve got Groypers running Department of Homeland Security Twitter accounts” www.wired.com/story/22-cel...

One Vigilante, 22 Cell Tower Fires, and a World of Conspiracies Inside the mind of the most prolific anti-5G arsonist in the world—and the incoherent, very online political violence of our era.

"It all started when a videoclip from episode 1,308 of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' popped up in Smith’s Instagram feed..."

Great reporting from @brendankoerner.bsky.social here.

www.wired.com/story/22-cel...

One Vigilante, 22 Cell Towers, and a World of Conspiracies Inside the mind of the most prolific anti-5G arsonist in the world—and the incoherent, very online political violence of our era.

Could not be more timely: @brendankoerner.bsky.social goes inside the world of the most prolific destroyer of US tech infrastructure, a guy whose vague internet 5G brainrot put him in prison-and he still clings to conspiracy. This is the shape of political violence now www.wired.com/story/22-cel...

Another day farther away from my one true dream of watching "Bad Lietutenant" with Darryl Strawberry.

I have distinct memories of going inside a Naga bamboo hut and being stunned they had a giant tapestry of Jesus holding a lamb on the wall.

Those were the days...

his song always transports me back to a specific moment in time many years ago when I was a teenager trying to find my way. Me holding a girl I was deeply in love with, I felt that she was smarter than me, out of my league, and had a family that was far more stable than mine. I remember the night when we were laying in her bed and holding each other, she told me that she loved me for the first time and my heart never felt so goddamn full. We never worked out, but that feeling I once knew still exists thanks to this song. Edit: 4 months after making this comment... I added her on Facebook. We reconnected and began to talk again. I flied from NYC to South Florida to visit my family during the holidays and we made time to see eachother (She still lives in Florida). We went to the beach and watched the sunrise on my final day of my holiday visit. All of the feelings we had as teenagers came gushing out again. It was truly electrifying. 2 extra flights back to Florida just to see her later... I broke my work contract and apartment lease early and am moving closer to her so we can let this blossom. I'm so goddamn excited.

Final Update: The relationship lasted 2 weeks. She left me on Valentine's Day because she said she wasn't in the right mind set for a relationship. As she was saying this I had a bouquet of flowers in my backpack ready to give her. So here I am... sitting in my new apartment, partly furnished, unemployed, and not knowing what to do next. FINAL FINAL UPDATE: I moved in with my uncle, he let me work for his construction business for 4 months to save up some and get my feet on the ground. I saved up a few thousand, got in contact with my previous job in NYC, and they were happy to have me back (with a salary bump). The work contract has been signed, I arrive back in NYC today and will be working in a few days, final housing is still getting sorted. I feel good, I learned a hell of a ton... here's to the future

This YouTube comment from Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You" is the best novel I've read this year.

John Elway > Bin Laden

Takes like this are why I keep using the internet.

Longform Profiles Interview #31: Brendan I. Koerner In this interview, Brendan I. Koerner reflects on the hidden world of OnlyFans chatters and the ethical and emotional challenges of his undercover reporting.

Grateful for this chance to chat about my OnlyFans story, the nuts and bolts of reporting, and my radical pro-puppy agenda.

Above all, I’m just glad I got to know him—and, as always, constantly humbled to have the opportunity to affect people whose lived experiences are so unlike my own. Rest in peace, Jerry.

And though I understand McHale might never make the Hall, I contend he deserves at least a small display in which his mighty contribution to the sport is acknowledged. Your favorite player might’ve missed dozens more games without McHale’s ingenuity.

When we said goodbye, of course, I knew it would be the last time we’d ever speak. He passed away yesterday, surrounded by loved ones. But I’ll always think of him whenever I see a wounded basketball player with their face smooshed behind a face mask.

With a shaky voice, McHale managed to update me on his Hall of Fame campaign. He said he’d reached out to Isiah Thomas in the hopes he’d lobby for his posthumous candidacy. And he told me a story about a cool prosthetic arm he’d jury-rigged for a soldier in Alaska.

Then about two weeks ago, I got an email from McHale’s nephew. Jerry had just entered hospice and he wanted to speak to me on the phone. Of course I said yes.

But the Hall wasn’t all we’d discuss. He’d let me know how his family was doing, and he’d inquire after my own. He’d tell me how proud he was of his son who is an accomplished documentary filmmaker. And he’d share yarns about all the artificial limbs he’d designed over his long career.

Every so often over the two decades that followed, McHale would drop me a note about his continuing efforts to be elected to the Hall. Using my story as Exhibit A in his case, he managed to make the preliminary ballot a few times. But he could never muster enough votes to break through.

Back then I rarely gave my stories a second thought after hitting “send” on the final draft. But this one was different: McHale was quite taken with the idea of making the Hall, and he reached out to express his gratitude for my advocacy. And then we…just kept talking. For years and years and years.

Who Invented the Plastic Basketball Face Mask? During Sunday night’s All-Star Game, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant suffered a broken nose and a concussion thanks to hard foul from Miami’s...

I decided to write a brief piece for @slate.com in which I argued that McHale deserved enshrinement in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Think of how much viewing enjoyment his invention preserved for us peons!

McHale never patented the mask he designed for Laimbeer, so he never profited from the proliferation of the device in the NBA in the years to come. But he was delighted to have played a small-yet-vital role in basketball history.

A little more digging led me to the inventor of Laimbeer’s mask, a Michigan-based orthotist named Gerald “Jerry” McHale. I called him up and we chatted at length about his work, which had enabled untold hundreds of basketball players to play through grievous facial injuries.

Bill Laimbeer Breaks His Face (ft. Isiah earning some Rec Specs) YouTube video by Ryan Van Dusen

James’s triumph over adversity made me curious about the history of plastic face masks in basketball. It turned out that the first player to wear one was Bill Laimbeer, who started doing so after getting his cheek shattered in 1990.

LeBron James on the 2004-05 Cavs wearing a plastic face mask.

But James missed almost zero time, largely thanks to the plastic face mask he started wearing to protect his broken cheekbone. He scored 26 versus the Hornets just days after getting thwacked with an elbow that would’ve killed you or I.

LeBron James Suffers Broken Cheekbone After Hard Elbow From Dikembe Mutombo (2004) YouTube video by BBall Vault

I want to tell a little story about the beauty of unexpected human connections. It starts around twenty years ago, when Dikembe Mutombo (intentionally?) fractured LeBron James’s face.

The woman who leads the juror orientation session at the Poughkeepsie courthouse is maybe the best public speaker I've ever seen.

Sad to report that it’s time to put “the golden age of…” on an ice floe.