Category: Uncategorized

In Oregon, the tree-killing Humongous Fungus never would have gotten so large without the accidental help of modern fire suppression tactics.

Christopher Beam / Bloomberg: A look at Indexed Finance’s legal fight with a Canadian teenager who exploited the DeFi platform for $16M, which is raising several tricky legal questions  —  On Oct. 14, in a house near Leeds, England, Laurence Day was sitting down to a dinner of fish and chips on his couch when […]

You don’t have to go with the big name in the email newsletter business. Here’s how to make the switch to a feature-rich alternative.

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Heartex, an AI-focused data labeling and annotation service, raises a $25M Series A led by Redpoint Ventures, bringing its total funding to $30M  —  Heartex, a startup that bills itself as an “open source” platform for data labeling, today announced that it landed $25 million in a Series A funding round […]

It’s the most wonderful time of the year—when we start prepping for summer fun with titanium chopsticks and foldable kayaks.

The Showtime sequel to Nicolas Roeg’s film takes place 45 years after the events in the original.

Plus: A visit to Stratolaunch, the music of the future, and prices America can’t run on.

Ethan Gach / Kotaku: Report: EA is looking to sell or merge its business; sources say EA has held talks with Disney, Apple, Amazon, and NBCUniversal  —  The Madden and Apex Legends publisher is apparently looking for a way out  —  Alerts  —  The video game market is consolidating like never before, and Electronic Arts […]

Loni Prinsloo / Bloomberg: Dutch e-commerce company Prosus says it is exiting Russia and is looking to sell Avito, its classifieds ads business in the country valued at an estimated $6B  —  Prosus NV is looking to sell its Russian classifieds ads business Avito, the latest international company to dispose of assets …

Reuters: Singapore-based online fashion marketplace Zilingo fires CEO Ankiti Bose after a probe found “serious financial irregularities”; Bose was suspended in April  —  Singapore-based Zilingo said on Friday it had fired Chief Executive Ankiti Bose after an independent investigation …

The more you say, the less people listen.

The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) at MIT has awarded eight MIT principal investigators with 2022 J-WAFS seed grants. The grants support innovative MIT research that has the potential to have significant impact on water- and food-related challenges. The only program at MIT that is dedicated to water- and food-related research, […]

Forming metal into the shapes needed for various purposes can be done in many ways, including casting, machining, rolling, and forging. These processes affect the sizes and shapes of the tiny crystalline grains that make up the bulk metal, whether it be steel, aluminum or other widely used metals and alloys. Now researchers at MIT […]

The world entered 2022 with growing weariness after two years of a global pandemic that has claimed 5.61 million lives, and continuing humanitarian and climate crises, with energy-related emissions set to rise by 87 million metric tonnes (about 96 million tons), and 274 million people in need of lifesaving humanitarian assistance. None of these issues […]

A proposed SEC rule could pull back the curtain on the carbon emissions of the global economy.

This cuddly robotic bedfellow helps you fall asleep faster and sleep better, but the price will give you nightmares.

Alex Garland’s latest cerebral genre piece is a timely bit of storytelling. But the people who need to see it may never seek it out.

Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World: Koo, an app touted as India’s answer to Twitter, has self-verification features that Elon Musk may want but shows risks of handing over data to the government  —  “Already doing what Elon Musk wants to do is such a high,” co-founder of Koo, Aprameya Radhakrishna, posted on Twitter.  —  […]

Jay Peters / The Verge: In its annual diversity report, Google saw its “largest increases in representation of Black and Latinx Googlers in the US” at 20% YoY and 8% YoY, respectively  —  Its US workforce is still two-thirds men  —  Google has released its annual diversity report …

Every time we look at our phones, it seems something terrible has happened. Here’s how to monitor current events in a healthy way.

Sean Hollister / The Verge: Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, says it will offer 10% faster CPU performance, 10% faster GPU clocks, and have up to 30% better power efficiency  —  Bragging rights (and battery life?) for gaming phones  —  Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 set the stage for the biggest Android […]

DeepMind has released what it calls a “generalist” AI called Gato that can perform 600 tasks – but does this mean it is truly intelligent?

A treatment process can turn old pieces of wood into a new super-strong material called “healed wood”

Matt Orosz’s mission for the last 20 years can be explained with a single picture: a satellite image of the world at night, with major cities blazing with light and large swaths of land shrouded in darkness. The image reminds Orosz SM ’03, SM ’06, PhD ’12 of what he’s trying to change. Orosz is […]

The miseducation of algorithms is a critical problem; when artificial intelligence mirrors unconscious thoughts, racism, and biases of the humans who generated these algorithms, it can lead to serious harm. Computer programs, for example, have wrongly flagged Black defendants as twice as likely to reoffend as someone who’s white. When an AI used cost as […]

Seven practical steps for managers.

Wall Street Journal: Analysis: insurers significantly raised cyber coverage premiums in 2021, after high profile hacks; direct-written premiums by the largest insurers rose 92% YoY  —  Insurance market resets after a ransomware boom and the threat of spillover from Ukraine  —  Insurers significantly increased premiums …

Rich McHugh / Insider: Docs: SpaceX paid $250K to settle a flight attendant’s sexual misconduct claim that alleged Elon Musk offered a horse in exchange for an erotic massage in 2016  —  – A flight attendant for SpaceX said Elon Musk asked her to “do more” during a massage, documents show.

MK Manoylov / The Block: Sacramento-based Azra Games, a blockchain gaming startup developing a sci-fi fantasy game with virtual collectibles, raises a $15M seed led by a16z  —  Azra Games, a blockchain gaming startup, raised $15 million in seed funding, according to a Thursday announcement.

What will it take to make our electronics smarter, faster, and more resilient? One idea is to build them from materials that are topological. Topology stems from a branch of mathematics that studies shapes that can be manipulated or deformed without losing certain core properties. A donut is a common example: If it were made […]

Thirteen MIT undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni have been awarded Fulbright fellowships to pursue projects overseas in the 2022-23 grant year. Another MIT affiliate was offered an award but has not yet decided whether to accept, and others were named alternates and may be promoted in the coming weeks. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of […]

With the MIT values statement recently published and MIT’s Strategic Action Plan for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion nearly complete, Provost Cynthia Barnhart provides her thoughts on the importance of diversity within the context of MIT’s commitment to excellence.  Q: Why is MIT pursuing a plan to address diversity, equity, and inclusion? A: Over decades, MIT […]

Sponsor content from Deloitte.

You might not be seeing potential hurdles.

And a few to avoid.

This week, we cover the basics of cycling for fun and transportation, including selecting, maintaining, and accessorizing your two-wheeler.

Surveillance devices are becoming more ubiquitous. Do those who unknowingly appear in cam footage have rights—and who gets to decide?

Now that the writer-director’s new horror flick Men is about to hit theaters, it’s time to revisit one of his lesser-known movies.

Reuters: Sources: TikTok is testing in-app games in Vietnam as part of a push into gaming; TikTok says it has tested HTML5 games in partnership with Zynga and others  —  TikTok has been conducting tests so users can play games on its video-sharing app in Vietnam, part of plans for a major push into gaming […]

Frank Chaparro / The Block: FTX.US launches FTX Stocks, a zero-commission stock trading feature available through the FTX app, rolling out in the US over the coming months  —  – The news comes shortly after Sam Bankman-Fried’s acquisition of a 7.6% stake in retail trading giant Robinhood.

Bloomberg: Singapore-based Grab reports Q1 revenue rose 6% YoY to $228M, beating analyst estimates, as its net loss narrowed to $435M; Grab stock is down 70%+ from its IPO  —  Grab Holdings Ltd. said revenue rose 6% in the first quarter after the ride-hailing and delivery company won back consumers as the pandemic receded in […]

An autonomous spacecraft exploring the far-flung regions of the universe descends through the atmosphere of a remote exoplanet. The vehicle, and the researchers who programmed it, don’t know much about this environment. With so much uncertainty, how can the spacecraft plot a trajectory that will keep it from being squashed by some randomly moving obstacle […]

Takeaways from a survey of 5,600 mid-career workers.

Back in April 1994, the world watched a remarkable event: South Africa’s first democratic election with universal suffrage. The country whose Apartheid system had legalized racial segregation since the late 1940s went to the polls and elected a new national assembly. In turn, that assembly picked a Black president: Nelson Mandela, who, after decades in […]

The way people buy automobiles is changing—so Honda and other manufacturers are adapting in kind.

Elon Musk’s method for tracking down bots may be useless, but finding a better formula is tougher than you think.

Emma Roth / The Verge: Report: subscribers who have been with Netflix for over three years made up 13% of cancellations in Q1 2022; Netflix hit 3.6M total cancellations last quarter  —  Users subscribed to Netflix for more than three years represented 13 percent of total cancellations

Many life-limiting conditions can only be detected 12 weeks into pregnancy—but some US states are planning to set to the abortion limit much earlier.

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: India says cloud providers and VPN operators that don’t comply with its cybersecurity rules, which go into effect in late June, “will have to pull out” of India  —  India is pushing ahead with its new cybersecurity rules that will require cloud service providers and VPN operators …

MK Manoylov / The Block: N3TWORK Studios, a blockchain gaming startup that incorporates features like NFTs into their mobile games, raises a $46M Series A led by Griffin Gaming Partners  —  Blockchain gaming startup N3TWORK Studios announced Wednesday that it closed a $46 million Series A funding round.