About: blatcho

Police in the Indian state of Telangana have found a novel way to help people avoid getting swindled online: grassroots education.

Activision-Blizzard’s ambitious, much-hyped initiative has stalled. Recent upheavals reveal the instability of esports—and a murky future for the league.

Josh Ye / Reuters: A look at Tencent’s short-video service WeChat Channels, called “the hope of the company” by founder Pony Ma, as the tech giant tries to build its own TikTok  —  On a hot summer’s day last year, the 90’s boy band Backstreet Boys clambered on to a stage in Pennsylvania and belted […]

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google: Twitter users say Tweetbot, Twitterrific, and other third-party apps are broken, possibly due to Twitter’s API being down; Twitter has offered no explanation  —  The past several weeks since Elon Musk’s takeover have seen Twitter in turmoil as rapid changes hit the platform …

Reuters: Sources: Chinese authorities plan to allow Didi’s ride-hailing and other apps back on app stores as soon as next week, another sign of the loosening crackdown  —  Chinese authorities are set to allow Didi Global’s ride-hailing and other apps back on domestic app stores as soon as next week …

In the future, the energy needed to run the powerful computers on board a global fleet of autonomous vehicles could generate as many greenhouse gas emissions as all the data centers in the world today. That is one key finding of a new study from MIT researchers that explored the potential energy consumption and related […]

US politicians are battling over banning the appliance. Around the globe, gas stoves are emitting chemicals that harm the environment and people’s health.

Last year was one of the warmest measured, say NASA and NOAA. It would have been even more sweltering if not for La Niña, which will soon fade away.

Losing your internet for a few hours? Here’s how to keep watching media from the likes of YouTube, Netflix, and Prime to pass the time.

The Guardian: Meta sues to ban Voyager Labs from using Facebook and Instagram, alleging the investigative software firm created 38K+ fake accounts to scrape 600K+ users’ data  —  The social media giant launched an investigation into Voyager’s use of fake accounts after a Guardian investigation

Sarah Wynn / The Block: The SEC charges Genesis and Gemini with the unregistered offering and sale of securities to retail investors through a Gemini crypto lending program  —  – The SEC charged both Gemini and Genesis with unregistered offering and sale of securities to retail investors, some of who were in the U.S.

Bloomberg: Sources: Google and Nvidia told the FTC that the Activision Blizzard deal could give Microsoft an unfair advantage in cloud, subscription, and mobile gaming  —  Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Nvidia Corp. have expressed concerns to the Federal Trade Commission about Microsoft Corp.’s acquisition …

School districts and universities are banning the ChatGPT AI that writes in a human-like fashion, but some teachers say a better approach may be to incorporate it into the curriculum

The MIT-Takeda Program, a collaboration between MIT’s School of Engineering and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company, fuels the development and application of artificial intelligence capabilities to benefit human health and drug development. Part of the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health, the program coalesces disparate disciplines, merges theory and practical implementation, combines algorithm and […]

Between the time you read the Wi-Fi password off of a café’s menu board and the time you can get back to your laptop to enter it, you have to hold it in mind. If you’ve ever wondered how your brain does that, you are asking a question about working memory that researchers have striven […]

About two years ago, a group of medical students at Ege University Faculty of Medicine in Turkey began meeting to study single variable calculus. None of the students had taken a course in this subject before. But with the guidance of lectures, slides, and other freely available resources on MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), they soon advanced […]

Four strategies to keep you from unintentionally sabotaging your team’s productivity.

Three myths that impede their proper use — and three strategies to help your team make the most of the practice.

Takeaways from an analysis of millions of consumer data points.

Rosie Perper / CoinDesk: Yuga Labs announces a skill-based game, Dookey Dash, accessed via a free mint for BAYC holders called Sewer Passes, running between January 18 and February 15  —  The gamified expansion of its Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem involves minting a free Sewer Pass to play a game called Dookey Dash.

Tim Reynolds / Associated Press: A federal judge terminates FTX’s 19-year, $135M naming rights deal with Miami-Dade County’s Heat arena, a massive undertaking involving the roof and more  —  The naming rights deal between FTX and Miami-Dade County was terminated Wednesday by a federal bankruptcy court …

Andrew Romero / 9to5Google: A set of allegedly official Samsung Galaxy S23 marketing images leak, showing four colors, a refined design, and more; S23 Ultra’s camera is rumored to be 200MP  —  The Galaxy S23 from Samsung is set to be announced on the first day of February.  Even though that’s a given …

Gloria Mark has studied distraction since 2004. Her first book is a valuable guide to how to balance work and well-being in a world increasingly dependent on tech

Extreme temperatures make people less likely to pursue outdoor activities they would otherwise make part of their daily routine, a new study led by MIT researchers has confirmed. The data-rich study, set in China, shows that when hourly temperatures reach 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), people are 5 percent less likely to go to […]

How does an ensemble play music together while apart? This was the question facing Frederick Ajisafe and the rest of the MIT Wind Ensemble (MITWE) at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. One method was to individually record tracks that were later mixed together to sound like a full ensemble. “It was a strange experience,” […]

Data from Sweden and the US suggests cash incentives increase uptake without denting people’s trust in vaccines or future willingness to get them.

A glitch in the so-called NOTAM system caused the agency to ground flights across the US. But its problems go back years.

Now that the holiday craze is over, here are some discounts on a variety of gadgets to help ease you into the new year.

Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal: Alphabet’s life sciences unit Verily lays off about 15% of its staff, or more than 200 employees, and discontinues work on several products  —  Created with sketchtool.

Financial Times: Sources: Apple promises investors to disclose details about its App Store removals, including the number of removal requests by country and their legal basis  —  Activists had raised concerns about how iPhone maker’s decision-making process affected freedom of expression

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: Apple is working on Macs with a touchscreen; the first model may be a MacBook Pro with an OLED display supporting gestures, set to be released in 2025  —  Apple Inc. is working on adding touch screens to its Mac computers, a move that would defy long-held company orthodoxy and […]

One of the most important classes of human enzymes are protein kinases — signaling molecules that regulate nearly all cellular activities, including growth, cell division, and metabolism. Dysfunction in these cellular pathways can lead to a variety of diseases, particularly cancer. Identifying the protein kinases involved in cellular dysfunction and cancer development could yield many […]

As a river cuts through a landscape, it can operate like a conveyer belt, moving truckloads of sediment over time. Knowing how quickly or slowly this sediment flows can help engineers plan for the downstream impact of restoring a river or removing a dam. But the models currently used to estimate sediment flow can be […]

Shifting mindsets create new risks — and new opportunities.

People appreciate authenticity more than the illusion of perfection.

The proliferation of fraud, scams, and meltdowns suggest that they don’t — but price isn’t the only way to measure real-world value.

Nilay Patel / The Verge: Cory Doctorow and law professor Rebecca Giblin on their new book, Chokepoint Capitalism, and how tech platforms monetize creators via distribution bottlenecks  —  It’s a book about artists and technology and platforms and how different kinds of distribution and creation tools create chokepoints …

Financial Times: Court documents: Sam Bankman-Fried invested $20M in Paradigm’s $2.5B Paradigm One fund in late 2021, before the fund then invested in FTX and FTX US  —  Court documents shed light on Sam Bankman-Fried’s circular transactions  —  Sam Bankman-Fried invested $20mn in a large venture capital fund …

Abhijith Ganapavaram / Reuters: The FAA is “working to restore” its Notice to Air Missions system, which has failed, causing mass disruption; FlightAware shows 400+ flights have been delayed  —  The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) system that alerts pilots and other flight personnel about hazards …

A new academic program developed at MIT aims to teach U.S. Air and Space Forces personnel to understand and utilize artificial intelligence technologies. In a recent peer-reviewed study, the program researchers found that this approach was effective and well-received by employees with diverse backgrounds and professional roles. The project, which was funded by the Department […]

Aviva Intveld, an MIT senior majoring in Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences, is accustomed to city life. But despite hailing from metropolitan Los Angeles, she has always maintained a love for the outdoors. “Growing up in L.A., you just have a wealth of resources when it comes to beautiful environments,” she says, “but you’re also […]

The tractor maker is accused of blocking farmers from fixing their own equipment. A new agreement offers concessions—but campaigners say it’s not enough.

NASA’s new JWST space telescope has revealed some cosmic surprises, including galaxies that might have assembled earlier than previously thought.

More than 120 models of Siemens’ S7-1500 PLCs contain a serious vulnerability—and no fix is on the way.

Makena Kelly / The Verge: Sources: Parler’s parent company laid off most of its staff and chief executives over the last few weeks, leaving the company with approximately 20 employees  —  Parlement Technologies, the parent company of “censorship-free” social media platform Parler, has laid off a majority of its staff …

Steven Church / Bloomberg: A US bankruptcy judge approves Voyager’s request to sell its crypto platform to Binance.US for $20M, overruling objections by federal regulators and some states  —  Voyager Digital Ltd. won court approval to sell its crypto platform to Binance.US for $20 million as part of Voyager’s plan to liquidate in bankruptcy.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Oxbotica, an Oxford-based autonomous vehicle software developer for enterprise customers, raised a $140M Series C, bringing its total funding to $225M  —  Activity in the self-driving car industry, frenetic for years, has somewhat stalled in more recent times; but a handful of the most promising companies …

A tool built using the AI behind ChatGPT can help extract information from scientific paper abstracts. It could help researchers identify important information across thousands of articles

Removing polymers from wood, leaving tiny cavities, can drastically improve the material’s insulating properties without removing too much of its strength, which might make it useful in buildings

The following is a joint announcement from the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT and the University of Chicago’s Behavioral Insights Parenting Lab. J-PAL North America and the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab (BIP Lab) at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy have announced a collaboration on an innovative […]