About: blatcho

Searching clerks’ phones to find out who leaked the Dobbs opinion sets a dangerous precedent of exploiting digital rights.

CoinDesk: NY state senate passes bill that would ban crypto-mining operations powered by carbon-based sources for two years; governor now needs to sign bill or veto it  —  The state Assembly already passed the bill, which would bar new mining operations powered by carbon-based energy sources for two years.

Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE: Masayoshi Son used SoftBank’s Vision Fund to build a society mediated by AI, but failed as he invested in firms with exploitative technology, not explorative  —  Masayoshi Son used SoftBank and its $100 billion Vision Fund to remake the world in its image.  It’s not a pleasant picture.

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post: Influencers who focused on the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial made thousands of dollars through platform incentives, shaping public opinion in the process  —  Influencers discovered there’s money and clout to be made in covering breaking news  —  When the verdict came …

A recent survey found that only 34% of consumers trust the brands they use.

It’s not the weekend yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start planning a backyard bash with these discounted projectors, grills, and speakers.

Kate Park / TechCrunch: South Korea-based Rebellions, which builds chips designed for AI applications, raises a $50M Series A from Pavilion Capital and others at a ~$283M valuation  —  Global venture capital firms are pouring money into the semiconductor startups developing the next generation of chips.

Adnan Bhat / Rest of World: Indian edtech firms are struggling post-pandemic; Byju’s-owned WhiteHat Jr. reportedly had ~800 educators quit, Lido shuttered and let go of 1,200 staff  —  The pandemic drove a boom in online education startups.  Now they’re laying off employees by the hundreds.  —  • NEW DELHI, INDIA

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: Apple plans to improve working hours for retail staff, including more hours between shifts, no work for more than five days in a row, and more  —  Apple Inc. has agreed to make work schedules at its retail stores more flexible, according to employees with knowledge of the plans …

Most people wouldn’t put the words “MIT” and “lawyer” in the same sentence. In fact, only 1,393 alumni — about 1 percent — are lawyers, according to the MIT Alumni Association. But a contingent of MIT undergraduates is steadily earning a reputation for its prowess in “fake lawyering.” That’s how head coach Brian Pilchik describes […]

Data visualizations on the web are largely inaccessible for blind and low-vision individuals who use screen readers, an assistive technology that reads on-screen elements as text-to-speech. This excludes millions of people from the opportunity to probe and interpret insights that are often presented through charts, such as election results, health statistics, and economic indicators.  When […]

As the old adage has it, all politics is local. That might seem a quaint idea in an age of social media and global connectivity. And yet, as a study co-led by an MIT political scientist finds, it may describe Middle East politics more accurately than many people realize. More specifically, sectarian identity in the […]

Short-term pivots are unavoidable. But if they don’t align with your big-picture plan, they’ll likely fail.

Four questions hiring managers need to ask themselves.

Offer more comprehensive health insurance, provide paid parental leave, and redesign the workplace.

This week, we think of ways to fix the anxiety-inducing mess known as mobile messaging.

A new generation of reactors promises a nuclear energy renaissance, but critics say the US needs to figure out what to do about its radioactive garbage first.

ROG’s slim tablet and keyboard combo is (mostly) a success, but its high price may put you off.

Arun Padmanabhan / The Economic Times: ExpressVPN says it is pulling its servers out of India, citing the impossibility of complying with an upcoming mandate to record users’ names and activities  —  New Delhi: Virtual private network (VPN) operator ExpressVPN is pulling its servers out of India, citing the impossibility of complying …

Brenda Goh / Reuters: Amazon plans to stop supplying Chinese retailers with Kindles, will close the e-bookstore in China on June 30, 2023, and remove the Kindle app in 2024  —  Amazon.com (AMZN.O) said it will stop supplying retailers in China with its Kindle e-readers from Thursday and will shut its Kindle e-bookstore …

Parmy Olson / Bloomberg: Sheryl Sandberg’s departure comes as Meta faces a challenging post-ATT ad market, a drastic pivot to the metaverse, and increasing EU scrutiny  —  Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Meta Platforms Inc., is resigning after 14 years of running the company alongside Mark Zuckerberg.

In the quiet hall outside of Hayden Library, Zoe Levitt’s soft, musical voice fills the room. The acoustics are perfect for amplifying her words and her innate passion for geology. Or, more specifically, paleomagnetism — using magnetism to study the geological history of the Earth — which is the focus of her senior thesis. “The […]

The guitarist’s music spread in his native Niger thanks to fans sharing it phone to phone.

Raven Software’s vote to unionize its QA team is historic, but getting Activision Blizzard to actually listen will require a lot more work.

Mobile games are designed to hook you, and I’ve fallen for it.

Alexander Martin / Sky News: US Cyber Command head Paul Nakasone confirms that US military hackers have carried out cyberattacks in support of Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion  —  In an exclusive interview with Sky News, General Paul Nakasone confirmed for the first time that the US had “conducted a series of operations” …

Brody Ford / Bloomberg: Oracle receives all regulatory clearances needed for its $28.3B acquisition of digital medical records company Cerner; the deal is expected to close on June 6  —  Oracle Corp. said it has received all regulatory clearances needed to complete its $28.3 billion purchase of digital medical …

Inti Pacheco / Wall Street Journal: Analysis of S&P 500 companies: Alphabet and Meta had the highest median pay for workers in 2021 at nearly $300K; Apple’s median pay was ~$68K, Amazon’s ~$32K  —  With a booming economy and a tight job market, median pay rose last year for most S&P 500 companies, according to […]

A computer capable of achieving quantum advantage – a demonstration of supremacy over conventional machines – is the first that anyone can use over the internet

On a chilly Monday in May, MIT’s Killian Court was transformed into a festival of fun. Over 1,200 members of the community enjoyed hot dogs, fried dough, and bouncy castles before cozying up on picnic blankets to watch the main event. First-year students took to the stage to perform skits — or “PLAYsentations” — demonstrating […]

Despite its below-freezing temperatures, the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. As Arctic sea ice melts, fewer bright surfaces are available to reflect sunlight back into space. When fractures open in the ice cover, the water underneath gets exposed. Dark, ice-free water absorbs the sun’s energy, heating the ocean […]

The first annual Day of AI on Friday, May 13 introduced artificial intelligence literacy to classrooms all over the world. An initiative of MIT Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE), Day of AI is an opportunity for teachers to introduce K-12 students of all backgrounds to artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in […]

Using nature to heal nature: one company’s journey to commercialize bacteria that can recycle carbon dioxide.

Two years into the pandemic, she was itching to change up her lifestyle.

Virtual tools allow for learning to be integrated into executives’ daily work.

Graphic images have long been tools of campaigns against smoking and STDs. Researchers want to know if can they work for infectious diseases like Covid.

The internet’s fandom-generating culture creates fantasies of the powerful that imprison us in their delusions.

Apps and sensor-laden gadgets are helping farmers shift from the fields to indoor food-growing operations. But these innovations still don’t make it easy.

Lauren Goode / Wired: Messaging apps should consider reviving AIM’s Away Message to create better social boundaries around people’s time, as people treat the apps like live chats  —  The live chats of the past are now in our pockets and inescapable.  We need better boundaries.  —  In the beginning, there was AOL Instant Messenger.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Israel-based Coralogix, which offers real-time insights for logs, metrics, and security data, raises a $142M Series D, bringing its total funding to $238M  —  We’ve long documented the challenges that DevOps and operations teams in specific areas like security face these days when it comes …

Zoe Kleinman / BBC: Ofcom survey of 6,600+ UK adults: women are more likely than men to face abuse or harmful content online; 42% of women felt comfortable speaking freely online  —  The head of media regulator Ofcom says tech firms must do more to protect women online, after its report revealed they were more […]

The Omni-Roach robot moves like a cockroach to scale bumps, dodge pillars and wobble through bendy bars, and may become a Mars explorer in the future

When the stakes are high, machine-learning models are sometimes used to aid human decision-makers. For instance, a model could predict which law school applicants are most likely to pass the bar exam to help an admissions officer determine which students should be accepted. These models often have millions of parameters, so how they make predictions […]

Start by diagnosing the source of the problem.

The live chats of the past are now in our pockets and inescapable. We need better boundaries.

If you go mega-vi, there are ways to make money off of your content. But be warned: It relies on going viral often, and consistently.

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg: Sources: the FTC has revamped its Amazon antitrust probe, shaking up the investigative team, re-interviewing potential witnesses, and asking about the MGM deal  —  The US Federal Trade Commission has revamped its antitrust probe of Amazon.com Inc., shaking up the investigative team …

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: TikTok is testing a “clear mode” feature that removes usernames, captions, audio information, and more for a distraction-free scrolling experience  —  TikTok is testing a new feature that would allow for a distraction-free scrolling experience on the app, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg Law: SCOTUS blocks Texas’ social media content moderation law in a 5-4 vote, putting the measure on hold while a constitutional challenge proceeds in a lower court  —  The US Supreme Court blocked a Texas law that critics say would fundamentally transform Twitter Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook …

Researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, have identified a critical quality attribute (CQA) that potentially allows the development of a rapid and sensitive process analytical technology for sterility. Specifically, this technology enables the detection of early-stage microbial contamination in human cell therapy products (CTPs). Cell therapy […]