About: blatcho

Alex Heath / The Verge: Sources: at an all-hands, Elon Musk said Twitter is done with layoffs and actively recruiting for roles in engineering and sales; Twitter has 2,700+ employees  —  After purging nearly two-thirds of Twitter’s 7,500-person workforce in three weeks, Elon Musk is hiring again.

A simulated version of Paris where universities and telecommunication hubs are connected by a quantum communication network suggests that existing technology is already nearing the ability to create functional “quantum cities”

The performance of image-generating AIs drops when trained using images previously created by other AIs, which may create problems for them given the proliferation of these images

The first trial of the ‘SharkGuard’ technology reduced the bycatch of blue sharks and pelagic rays by as much as 91 per cent, but didn’t impact the tuna that fishers were targeting

The room was abuzz with lively conversations as nearly 70 students came together to take part in the “Heritage Meets Heritage” event on Oct. 27, organized by MIT Global Studies and Languages and co-sponsored by the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) and Hermanas Unidas.    Students participated in small group conversations on a […]

A team of scientists at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has systematically evaluated the functions of over 5,000 essential human genes using a novel, pooled, imaged-based screening method. Their analysis harnesses CRISPR-Cas9 to knock out gene activity and forms a first-of-its-kind resource for understanding and visualizing […]

In Mai Hassan’s studies of Kenya, she documented the emergence of a sprawling administrative network officially billed as encouraging economic development, overseeing the population, and bolstering democracy. But Hassan’s field interviews and archival research revealed a more sinister purpose for the hundreds of administrative and security offices dotting the nation: “They were there to do […]

The people and planning you’ll need to set yourselves up for success.

Go beyond the generic thank-you note.

Myth #1: School and childcare are back to normal.

Algorithms that create art, text, and code are spreading fast—but legal challenges could throw a wrench in the works.

The retailer has a price match guarantee for anything bought until December 24, so get ahead of your holiday shopping list without worry.

Fossil fuels are rapidly heating the planet, but their aerosols also help cool it. Just how much, though, is a major uncertainty in climate science.

Stephanie Murray / The Block: DCG’s Grayscale refuses to share proof of reserves, citing “security concerns”, as Grayscale Bitcoin Trust reaches new lows and DCG’s Genesis halts withdrawals  —  Grayscale will not show proof of reserves due to “security concerns,” after its bitcoin and ether products fell to all-time lows this week.

David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times: A look at Gary Gensler’s plan to regulate most crypto as securities and questions over the SEC’s handling of FTX, which met the regulator before its implosion  —  Gary Gensler, the chair of the S.E.C., is at the center of a reckoning over the future of cryptocurrency after the […]

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab: A look at things journalism could lose if Twitter dies: real-time feedback on stories, news outlets being publicly called out, DMs as a reporting tool, and more  —  Goodbye to screenshotted best bits, DMs, “that tweet should be a story”…  “If Twitter goes away my job would actually be […]

Investment that the UK government started in quantum technologies in 2013 seems to have paid off by enabling the existence of companies at the cutting edge of research

When you use self-checkout machines in supermarkets and drugstores, you are probably not — with all due respect — doing a better job of bagging your purchases than checkout clerks once did. Automation just makes bagging less expensive for large retail chains. “If you introduce self-checkout kiosks, it’s not going to change productivity all that […]

Tidy up your phone and get back to basics.

These frontline birth workers already know how to assist during floods, fires, and earthquakes. They could be doing more.

These high-end headphones bring fantastic fidelity everywhere.

Adam Smith / Code Faster with Kite: Kite, a startup that used AI to help devs code, shuts down, saying state-of-the-art ML models don’t understand the structure of code and too few devs would pay  —  From 2014 to 2021, Kite was a startup using AI to help developers write code.  We have stopped working […]

TechCrunch: A look at Unstable Diffusion, which is trying to monetize AI porn generators; the group migrated from a subreddit to Discord, where it has over 45,000 members  —  Of course, it’s an ethical minefield  —  When Stable Diffusion, the text-to-image AI developed by startup Stability AI …

Bloomberg: Court documents: FTX owes $3.1B to its 50 biggest unsecured creditors, with claims ranging from $21M to $226M; ten claims are over $100M each  —  Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt crypto empire owes its 50 biggest unsecured creditors a total of $3.1 billion, new court papers show, with a pair of customers owed more than $200 […]

This handheld digital instrument invites you to press its buttons, tilt its body, and whack its face to create sounds and build songs.

The project allows users to suggest short notes that add missing context to viral tweets. It could change how social platforms operate.

Keep it in your trunk, and you’ll never have to wait around for a kind stranger with jumper cables again.

James B. Stewart / New York Times: Interviews with more than 24 people involved in the AT&T/Time Warner merger, including Jeff Bewkes and Randall Stephenson, detail how it went disastrously awry  —  At Time Warner, executives saw AT&T as just a “big phone company from Texas.”  At AT&T, they thought Hollywood would play by their […]

Financial Times: Altive: Xiaohongshu, considered as a Chinese equivalent to Instagram, has been valued at $10B-$16B in private markets in 2022, down from $20B in November 2021  —  China’s answer to Instagram gained a $20bn valuation last year.  Then the tide turned for the country’s start-ups

Reuters: Blackstone to acquire a 52% stake in R Systems, a publicly traded Indian IT services company, for $359M  —  U.S. investment fund Blackstone Inc (BX.N) said on Thursday it would buy a 52% stake in India’s R Systems International (RSYS.NS) from the IT services company’s promoters for $359 million.

Every MSCHF puzzle offers a potential cash prize for players. It’s infuriating—and 100 percent worth it.

Forget camping out on the sofa all winter. Discover the great outdoors with these daypacks, hiking shoes, and more.

It’s a long shot, but hear us out: The stars are beginning to align for the much-maligned technology.

Wall Street Journal: A look at the dispute between FTX’s new management and Bahamian regulators over who should control the company’s assets, and how the fight may affect customers  —  Liquidators in the Bahamas are embroiled in a dispute with FTX over who has control over crypto assets held in the country

John Herrman / New York Magazine: FTX users flock to Telegram to reckon with their potential losses, where some say they believed FTX’s links to the US made it unusually safe  —  The losers — and scammers — are flooding Telegram.  —  It’s early November.  You’re into crypto.  It has probably been a rough few […]

Emma Roth / The Verge: Wickr Me, the free encrypted messaging app acquired by AWS in 2021, will shut down on December 31, 2023 and stop accepting new users at the end of 2022  —  Wickr Me, the free encrypted messaging app owned by Amazon Web Services, is shutting down on December 31st, 2023.

The big sale isn’t here quite yet, but you can already get killer deals on laptops, office chairs, phones, and even Instant Pots.

From generative AI to outer space, here’s how to find a community on the social platform that discusses topics you actually find engaging.

If you also struggle to find the balance between toastiness and coziness, this set is cool, comfortable, and really, really cute.

New York Times: A look at South Korean conglomerate Naver’s experiments with a fleet of ~100 office robots, including efforts to make employees comfortable with their presence  —  Naver, a South Korean internet firm, is trying to introduce robots into the world of cubicles and conference rooms without making employees uncomfortable.

James Vincent / The Verge: Interviews with lawyers, analysts, and employees at AI startups on unresolved questions concerning copyright and fair use shaping the future of generative AI  —  The last year has seen a boom in AI models that create art, music, and code by learning from others’ work.

TechCrunch: India’s new draft data protection bill proposes allowing cross-border data transfer with certain countries, unlike an earlier version which imposed restrictions  —  India has proposed a new comprehensive data privacy law that will mandate how companies handle data of its citizens …

The moniker, which honors a former agency administrator accused of enforcing anti-LGBTQ policies, has long been controversial.

The former Theranos CEO’s fall is a cautionary tale for eccentric founders and the investors who blindly throw money at their inventions.

The company faces scrutiny after botching sales for the artist’s Eras Tour. But people have complained about its grip on the ticketing industry for years.

Alex Harring / CNBC: LGBTQ dating app Grindr closed up 213.84% at $36.50 per share in its NYSE debut under the new ticker GRND following its SPAC merger  —  – Grindr surged in trading Friday in its first day under a new ticker following its merger with blank-check company Tiga.

Tim Culpan / Bloomberg: Apple’s plan to use TSMC plants in the US and possibly Europe, a PR victory, buries the truth: capacity will be tiny and the chips will use an older 5nm process  —  You can just picture it now.  It’s 2025 and Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has just taken […]

Kathryn Hardison / Wall Street Journal: Carvana says it will lay off about 1,500 people, or ~8% of its workforce, adding to the ~2,500 workers it laid off in May 2022  —  Planned workforce reductions come as demand from consumers remains under pressure  —  How Carvana’s Stock Crashed: What Went Wrong  —  Created with sketchtool.

An artificial intelligence from Facebook owner Meta that is designed to write scientific research papers and Wikipedia articles has attracted criticism over its accuracy and public access has been removed

The inaugural MIT Prize for Open Data, which included a $2,500 cash prize, was recently awarded to 10 individual and group research projects. Presented jointly by the School of Science and the MIT Libraries, the prize recognizes MIT-affiliated researchers who make their data openly accessible and reusable by others. The prize winners and 16 honorable […]