Category: Uncategorized

Elena Schneider / Politico: A look at FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s range of US political contributions, including $10M+ to back Biden in 2020, and uncertainty about his goals and leanings  —  NASSAU, Bahamas — One of the biggest donors in Democratic politics this year isn’t sure if he really wants to be a Democratic megadonor […]

Sam Kim / Bloomberg: Market data: global chip sales growth has decelerated for six straight months, up 13.3% YoY in June 2022, below May’s 18% gain, the longest slowdown since 2018  —  World chip sales growth has decelerated for six straight months — yet another sign the global economy is straining under …

News of a $190 million cryptocurrency theft emerged this week, despite cryptocurrencies being designed to be unhackable. Here’s the low-down on what is going on and how safe bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are

Smart finger uses sensors to detect substances such as glass, silicon and wood with more than 90 per cent accuracy, which could be useful for robotic manufacturing tasks

Six actions to ensure you’re actually promoting gender equality at work.

Sponsor content from Chase.

Implantable devices that release insulin into the body hold promise as an alternative way to treat diabetes without insulin injections or cannula insertions. However, one obstacle that has prevented their use so far is that the immune system attacks them after implantation, forming a thick layer of scar tissue that blocks insulin release. This phenomenon, […]

It can feel hard in the early days of a new job, but your first request will set the tone for future asks.

Turns out muting other people’s impulsive sharing can do wonders for your mental health.

The epidemiologist who helped quash smallpox talks about what we’re doing wrong on monkeypox, vaccines, and antigen tests.

Raising your computer screen is a simple fix for healthier posture.

Financial Times: Sources: Didi fears further retribution and sanctions by Chinese regulators; its app remains unavailable two weeks after CAC’s fine was expected to lift the ban  —  Insiders at ride-hailing group hit by $1.18bn fine are fearful of more punishment in Beijing’s tech crackdown

Nikkei Asia: After Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan, sources say shipments to Pegatron’s factory, used by Microsoft, Tesla, and others, were being held by Chinese customs  —  Suppliers spooked as Beijing wields rule against ‘Taiwan’ label on goods  —  TAIPEI — Shipments to iPhone assembler Pegatron’s factory …

Brian Heater / TechCrunch: Amazon plans to acquire Roomba maker iRobot for $1.7B in an all-cash deal; Colin Angle will remain as iRobot CEO  —  Amazon this morning announced plans to acquire Roomba maker iRobot for an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion.  —  “Since we started iRobot, our team has been on a mission […]

Growing up on a farm in Texas, there was always something for siblings Gia Schneider ’99 and Abe Schneider ’02, SM ’03 to do. But every Saturday at 2 p.m., no matter what, the family would go down to a local creek to fish, build rock dams and rope swings, and enjoy nature. Eventually the […]

After news of a “pointless” pay increase spread, workers at three warehouses stopped work to demand higher wages as inflation and interest rates surge.

The conspiracy theorist’s breathtakingly silly blunder underscores the urgent need to revamp ediscovery in US law.

A Tehran-linked hack of a NATO member marks a significant escalation against the backdrop of US-Iran nuclear talks.

Wallace Witkowski / MarketWatch: Cloudflare reports Q2 revenue up 54% YoY to $234.5M, vs. $227.3M est., a $63.5M net loss, and forecast for both Q3 and 2022 above estimates; stock is up 21%+  —  Cloudflare Inc. shares surged in the extended session Thursday after the cybersecurity company reported results …

Nelson Wang / CoinDesk: Block reports Q2 revenue down 6.6% YoY to $4.4B, $2.62B net revenue excluding bitcoin, and Cash App bitcoin revenue down 34% YoY to $1.79B; stock is down 5%+  —  Despite beating projections, the payments company said its overall revenue fell because of a decrease in bitcoin revenue.

Emma Roth / The Verge: Microsoft is testing a Game Pass widget on Windows 11, which makes it easier to see the latest additions, games leaving soon, highlighted categories, and more  —  Microsoft’s first new Windows 11 widget  —  Microsoft’s first new Windows 11 widget should make it even easier to find out which games […]

One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is a reduction in the firing of some neurons in the brain, which contributes to the cognitive decline that patients experience. A new study from MIT shows how a type of cells called microglia contribute to this slowdown of neuron activity. The study found that microglia that express […]

As MIT prepares for the fall — its fifth full semester since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic — the Institute is continuing to evolve from its initial stance of strong institutional responsibility for managing Covid to an approach rooted in individual responsibility. Throughout the pandemic, MIT has taken an “always be prepared to pivot” […]

Giving our hardware sight has empowered a host of applications in self-driving cars, object detection, and crop monitoring. But unlike animals, synthetic vision systems can’t simply evolve under natural habitats. Dynamic visual systems that can navigate both land and water, therefore, have yet to power our machines — leading researchers from MIT, the Gwangju Institute of […]

Four strategies for leaders.

With an aggressive but thoughtful approach, it’s possible to survive a downturn — and even emerge stronger.

The labor market for jobs you can do on a laptop is expanding beyond major cities.

Chainalysis: Analysis: $2B in crypto has been stolen from cross-chain bridges across 13 hacks in 2022 so far, accounting for 69% of total funds stolen  —  Following last night’s exploit of the Nomad Bridge, Chainalysis estimates that $2 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen from cross-chain bridges across 13 separate hacks so far this year.

Elias Leight / Billboard: SoundCloud cuts its global workforce by ~20% “due to a significant company transformation and the challenging economic and financial environment”  —  CEO Michael Weissman announced the cuts in an email, blaming them on “the challenging economic climate and financial market headwinds.”

These wireless cans are a student musician’s dream.

Their bodies suppressed and surveilled, Hong Kongers maintain a creative and furtive resistance.

We love the design overhaul, but the internal upgrade delivers only modest gains.

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Axio, which helps companies model cybersecurity risk, raised a $23M Series B led by Temasek’s ISTARI, bringing its total funding to $30M  —  Axio, a platform for cybersecurity risk evaluation, today announced the closure of a $23 million Series B round led by Temasek’s ISTARI …

When users want to send data over the internet faster than the network can handle, congestion can occur — the same way traffic congestion snarls the morning commute into a big city. Computers and devices that transmit data over the internet break the data down into smaller packets and use a special algorithm to decide […]

In poorer countries, economic development projects tend to get built with the aid of partner countries and companies, and multilateral development organizations. One line of thought is that such projects work better when the outside partner is also from a lower-income country, what is often referred to as the “Global South.” Suppose the Brazilian cooperation […]

Bloomberg: Source: Activision Blizzard and NetEase scrapped a World of Warcraft mobile game after a financing dispute; sources: NetEase disbanded a team of 100+ developers  —  Activision Blizzard Inc. and NetEase Inc. have torpedoed a World of Warcraft smartphone game that had been in development for three years …

This Android phone is speedy in more ways than one, but the “T” in the name may as well stand for “trite.”

Ride off into the sunset with these awesome discounts on helmets, bells, and bicycle locks.

What’s it like to be responsible for a billion people’s digital security? Just ask the company’s Morse researchers.

An earbud uses artificial intelligence to interpret commands someone mouths without speaking by tracking changes in the shape of their ear canal

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Meta says it will shut down its Facebook Live Shopping feature on October 1 as it shifts its focus to Reels on Facebook and Instagram  —  Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature on October 1st to shift its focus to Reels, the company announced in a blog post.

Takashi Kawakami / Nikkei Asia: Chinese government data: China’s smartphone shipments sank 21.7% to 134M units in H1 2022; Canalys: shipments may fall below 300M in 2022, the lowest since 2012  —  Consumer shift toward thrift compounds structural weakness in demand  —  GUANGZHOU — Smartphone shipments in China are on track …

Signals, such as putting your hand over your heart to signify empathy or thumbs up to show you agree, seem to improve people’s experience of video calls more than typing words or using emojis

Using an innovative microscopy method, scientists at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT observed how newborn neurons struggle to reach their proper places in advanced human brain tissue models of Rett syndrome, producing new insight into how developmental deficits observed in the brains of patients with the devastating disorder may emerge. Rett […]

A hard copy makes a decision feel more real.

Multivariable calculus, differential equations, linear algebra — topics that many MIT students can ace without breaking a sweat — have consistently stumped machine learning models. The best models have only been able to answer elementary or high school-level math questions, and they don’t always find the correct solutions. Now, a multidisciplinary team of researchers from […]

It was just a piece of junk sitting in the back of a lab at the MIT Nuclear Reactor facility, ready to be disposed of. But it became the key to demonstrating a more comprehensive way of detecting atomic-level structural damage in materials — an approach that will aid the development of new materials, and […]

SIKE was a contender for post-quantum-computing encryption. It took researchers an hour and a single PC to break it.

Thomas Seal / Bloomberg: Textbook publisher Pearson plans to turn its e-books into NFTs so the company can profit from secondhand sales  —  The chief executive officer of Pearson Plc, one of the world’s largest textbook publishers, said he hopes technology like non-fungible tokens and the blockchain could help …

Some NFTs are frame-worthy, just like any other photo. What you’re actually framing is still a mystery.