About: blatcho

Thought for decades to be extinct, the tiny animal has stayed hidden in a former subterranean speakeasy.

Vincent Manancourt / Politico: Despite many of CJEU’s rulings saying mass surveillance is banned in the EU, member states have been exploiting loopholes in them to collect and keep the data  —  Jack Murphy* was suspicious.  His ex-girlfriend, Eve Doherty, seemed to know a lot about who he was calling.  —  His suspicions were merited.

Matt Levine / Bloomberg: Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter likely was a joke, since he previously pretended he would take Tesla private, but he may not be able to get out of the deal  —  Programming note: Ugh, here we are again, huh?  —  Oh Elon  —  I think it is helpful to start […]

Kellen Browning / New York Times: A look at the quirky geography game GeoGuessr, in which the world’s best players can pinpoint in seconds where a Google Street View image has been taken  —  In a game called GeoGuessr, competitors try to pinpoint where in the world a Google Street View image has been taken.  […]

The #GentleMinions and the #minionscult have overrun TikTok, taking the franchise’s impact to all-new levels.

Taika Waititi’s Ragnarok follow-up is full of inside jokes that make it almost impenetrable to outsiders. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not great either.

Need a new 4K screen? Some of our top picks are on sale right now.

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg: CIRP: the number of Amazon Prime members in the US remained at 172M as of June 30, the same as six months earlier, after Amazon raised prices in February 2022  —  Amazon.com Inc.’s number of Prime members in the US stagnated in the first half of the year, suggesting a $20 […]

Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo: Interview with NIST’s Dustin Moody on the agency’s recently selected encryption algorithms and why they’re designed to withstand future quantum hacking threats  —  The NIST’s “quantum-resistant” encryption standards, picked via contest, were designed to keep everybody one step ahead of hacking by quantum computers.

Kate Clark / The Information: As tech stocks fall, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, GGV, and other VC firms are buying publicly traded stocks of companies whose prospects they deem to be strong  —  Plunging shares of tech stocks have prompted venture capital firms to take an unusual step: buying publicly traded stocks.

If you prefer Google Assistant and the Nest ecosystem, there’s a discount here for you.

One of our favorite coffee subscriptions is on sale for new subscribers through July 14.

From TVs and fitness trackers to laptops, we found great discounts on some of our favorite products ahead of the retailer’s big sales event.

Financial Times: Sources: the US called on Japan to urge the country’s crypto miners in Siberia and some licensed crypto exchanges still in Russia to sever ties with Russia  —  Washington’s request aimed at further financially isolating Moscow  —  The US has called on Japan to step up pressure …

Axios: Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor says it plans to pursue legal action to enforce the deal and is committed to closing it on the price and terms agreed upon  —  Elon Musk is bailing on his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter, claiming that the social media company hasn’t met its contractual obligations …

Lauren Feiner / CNBC: SEC filing: Elon Musk notified Twitter he wants to end the merger agreement, claiming it didn’t provide him the info he requested; stock is down 6%+ after hours  —  Billionaire Elon Musk wants to end his deal to buy Twitter, according to a letter sent by a lawyer on his behalf […]

Five current graduate students and recent alumni have been awarded 2022 Hertz Fellowships in applied science, engineering, and mathematics. They are among 13 doctoral-level scholars chosen by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation who demonstrate “deep, interconnecting knowledge and the extraordinary creativity to tackle problems that others can’t solve,” according to the foundation’s announcement. This […]

When it comes to graphene, it appears that superconductivity runs in the family. Graphene is a single-atom-thin material that can be exfoliated from the same graphite that is found in pencil lead. The ultrathin material is made entirely from carbon atoms that are arranged in a simple hexagonal pattern, similar to that of chicken wire. […]

It is summertime once again, which means that many of us will find ourselves with new opportunities to dive into books. The following titles represent a selection of offerings published in the past year from MIT faculty and staff. Links are provided to each book from its publisher, and the MIT Libraries has compiled a […]

What to do before, during, and after the meeting.

Contractors, who are more likely to be women of color, often aren’t eligible for employer-sponsored coverage.

A recent study suggests that gains during the summer breeding season are making up for losses during migration. But the insects’ fate is far from assured.

This relatively lightweight escooter gets nearly everything right.

The company’s warehouses demand a fast pace of workers, and have higher injury rates than at competing firms.

Matt Berg / Politico: Secret Service Director James Murray steps down and will join Snap as chief security officer, reporting directly to Evan Spiegel  —  U.S. Secret Service Director James Murray will retire after serving in the high-ranking post for three years, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden said in a statement on […]

Caitlin Harrington / Wired: Tech companies’ offer to help employees sidestep abortion bans does not cover gig workers, temporary workers, and subcontractors, deepening the workplace divide  —  Google, Amazon, and others will help permanent staff seek out-of-state care.  But their many contractors remain shut out.

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters: A former manager sues Celsius for fraud, saying that the crypto lender ran a Ponzi scheme by using customer deposits to rig the price of its own crypto token  —  A former investment manager at Celsius Network sued the crypto lender on Thursday, saying it used customer deposits to rig the […]

Start by recognizing that Muslims are not a single, homogenous group.

Corin Faife / The Verge: CertiK: Web3 projects lost $2B+ to hacks and exploits in H1 2022, more than all of 2021 combined; $308M was lost across 27 flash loan attacks in Q2 2022  —  A new report from CertiK flags major losses and a growing threat from flash loan attacks  —  In the first […]

Immanual John Milton / Bloomberg: Glassnode: bitcoin blockchain activity has dropped 13% from November 2021 to July 2022; balances at exchanges are down 20%+ from a January 20 peak  —  As the crypto winter deepens, only the staunchest Bitcoin investors are still holding onto their tokens — but not on the exchanges.

CNBC: GameStop fires CFO Mike Recupero and is laying off staff across departments; a source says chairman Ryan Cohen pushed out Recupero  —  – GameStop has fired its Chief Financial Officer, Mike Recupero.  — It’s making staff cuts across departments as part of an effort to turn around the videogame retailer.

A cheap and easily manufactured material can act as a thermal conductor at low temperatures and an insulator at high temperatures, which may help prevent dramatic battery fires and explosions

Researchers have built a logic gate – a basic computing building block – that uses vibrations for information processing instead of electrons, making it very energy efficient

A computer algorithm can use a technique called “ghost imaging” to reconstruct objects from a person’s brainwaves that the person themselves can’t see

Octavian-Eugen Ganea, a gifted postdoctoral artificial intelligence researcher at the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (Jameel Clinic) and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) passed away during a hike in French Polynesia on May 26. He was 34. Born and raised in Romania, Ganea joined MIT in 2019 after receiving […]

Around 4.4 billion years ago, the early solar system resembled a game of space rock dodgeball, as massive asteroids and comets, and, later, smaller rocks and galactic debris pummeled the moon and other infant terrestrial bodies. This period ended around 3.8 billion years ago. On the moon, this tumultuous time left behind a heavily cratered […]

It’s about creating a balance of grant types, categorized by operations, growth, and risk.

Technology offers new ways of sharing information and assets, meaning managers will have to rethink their relationships with suppliers and competitors.

Six ways to get ahead of it.

The esports entertainment company can sell just about anything, but a recession may derail its business trajectory.

Dubious design and inefficient operations are just some of the reasons why shared scooters’ eco-credentials are thin.

Known as ALPRs, this surveillance tech is pervasive across the US—and could soon be used by police and anti-abortion groups alike.

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: Reddit launches an NFT-based avatar marketplace with 90 profile pictures available for purchase at a fixed rate, expanding on support for Ethereum-based NFTs  —  Reddit is launching a new NFT-based avatar marketplace today that allows you to purchase blockchain-based profile pictures for a fixed rate.

Bloomberg: Sources: SoftBank’s Rajeev Misra is stepping back from the organization but will remain CEO of Vision Fund 1; Misra has secured $6B+ for his own fund  —  Rajeev Misra is stepping back from his main roles at SoftBank Group Corp., marking the exit of one of the key architects …

Dave Lee / Financial Times: A look at Amazon’s plans to crack livestream shopping, including hosting four events to attract influencers, offering generous bonuses, and more  —  Amazon has stepped up plans to crack the QVC-style livestream shopping market as the $1tn ecommerce giant aims to replicate the success …

Using a novel fabrication process, MIT researchers have produced smart textiles that snugly conform to the body so they can sense the wearer’s posture and motions. By incorporating a special type of plastic yarn and using heat to slightly melt it — a process called thermoforming — the researchers were able to greatly improve the […]

Starting with iOS 16, people who are at risk of being targeted with spyware will have some much-needed help.

If you prefer Google Assistant and the Nest ecosystem, there’s a discount here for you.

Digital tools are not always superior. Here are the good old-fashioned notebooks our team uses to keep on track.

Jillian Deutsch / Bloomberg: A look at Intel’s plan to spend €17B building a chipmaking factory in Magdeburg, Germany, and what it means to the city, which has struggled after reunification  —  This article is the fourth in an occasional series about the New Geography of Technology.