Category: Uncategorized

In 2022, U.S. workers voted to form more unions than they have in nearly 20 years.

ClientEarth helps shape new laws and enforce old ones to protect the planet and its most vulnerable inhabitants.

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch: Stellantis announces Mobilisights, a business unit focused on selling software using connected vehicle data to enterprises, utilities, and other organizations  —  Stellantis is launching a new business unit dedicated to turning all that vehicle data into marketable products — and revenue.

Varsha Bansal / Rest of World: A profile of Shaik Salauddin, an Uber driver turned union leader, who has become a quasi-celebrity in India after fighting for gig worker rights in the country  —  Shaik Salauddin: the Indian driver-turned-union leader who is brushing shoulders with top politicians and giving ride-hailing firms a run for their […]

Companies trialing the metaverse space say it’s kind of fun, but only in small doses.

The January 6 Committee’s 841-page report will go down as one of the most important documents in US history. These key details stand out.

Learning the significance of data points allows artificial intelligence models to make better predictions, which will help us tell when hurricanes or disease outbreaks are imminent

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Snap plans to shut down its Camera app for Mac and PC on January 25, 2023; launched in October 2018, the app let users apply face filters while on video calls  —  On January 25th, Snap will be shutting down its camera app for Mac and PCs.  If that name […]

Kate Clark / The Information: Memo: Genesis parent company DCG shut its wealth management division HQ on January 2; filing: HQ had more than $3.5B under management as of December 2022  —  Digital Currency Group, the parent company of crypto broker Genesis and the publication CoinDesk, has shut down its wealth management …

From Iran’s reigning master of cinema to wolf-eating witches, these are the best films you didn’t see last year.

The infamous, FSB-connected Turla group took over other hackers’ servers, exploiting their USB drive malware for targeted espionage.

A European Union ruling against Meta marks the beginning of the end of targeted ads.

Bloomberg: Alibaba, Tencent, and other Chinese tech giants have struck a truce with the government, accepting lower growth and more controls as China eases its crackdown  —  In China, 2022 was the year Big Tech changed.  Succumbing to a government crackdown and a pandemic that refused to go away …

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon Satellite, to let phones with a Gen 2 SoC and X70 modem connect to Iridium’s satellites for off-grid texting, available in H2 2023  —  Android phones will soon be getting a feature similar to — and perhaps even more powerful than — Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite.

It has long been known that one day quantum computers will probably be able to crack the RSA encryption method we use to keep data safe, but a team of researchers is now claiming it is already possible, while others say the results require more scrutiny

Have you ever been advised to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes?” Considering another person’s perspective can be a challenging endeavor — but recognizing our errors and biases is key to building understanding across communities. By challenging our preconceptions, we confront prejudice, such as racism and xenophobia, and potentially develop a more inclusive perspective […]

With new support from the Office of the Associate Provost for International Activities, MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) and the MIT-Africa program are expanding internship opportunities for MIT students at universities and leading academic research centers in Africa. This past summer, MISTI supported 10 MIT student interns at African universities, significantly more than […]

“For me, this project is about making science visible in society,” says Herlinde Koelbl, a renowned German photo artist whose portrait series, “Fascination of Science,” is now on display at MIT.  Koelbl set herself the goal to photograph scientists and to show their motivation, influences, and ways of thinking — through the eyes of an […]

Part of the disconnect hinges on how productivity is measured.

Berhalter says he’s saddened that his public life has affected his family as he addresses an accusation of violence from 30 years ago.

It’s time for a more rational, disciplined, value-oriented framework.

David Benoit / Wall Street Journal: US bank Silvergate, which caters to crypto clients, reports liquidating debt to cover $8.1B in withdrawals as FTX collapsed and laying off 40% of its staff  —  Bank sold assets at a loss to cover withdrawals and cut 40% of its staff but remains committed to crypto

Researchers are applying digital listening technology to the natural world. It turns out it has quite a lot to say to us—and not all of it sounds good.

A network of trading platforms is restructuring the seafood industry and tackling waste.

Abdulrahman Khalid was forced to flee his country because of his outspoken atheism. Now, he’s helping others in the same position—for profit.

Tom Warren / The Verge: Philips Hue owner Signify launches a Philips Hue Sync TV app for Samsung TVs, available for $130, effectively a software version of the $250M Play HDMI Sync Box  —  Signify, owner of the Philips Hue brand, is launching a Philips Hue Sync TV app for Samsung TVs.

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: Gemini Trust COO Noah Perlman leaves the company, as founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss struggle to regain $900M in customer funds lent to DCG’s Genesis  —  Gemini Trust Co. Chief Operating Officer Noah Perlman has left the cryptocurrency firm founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss …

Nelson Wang / CoinDesk: The US SEC files a limited objection to Binance.US’ $1.02B bid for crypto lender Voyager’s assets, asking for sufficient details on how Binance plans to pay  —  The agency is asking for more details how the crypto exchange can afford the deal.  —  Join the most important conversation …

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Amazon plans to lay off 17,000+ staff, more than the company’s initial target of 10,000 in November 2022; the added cuts will hit over the coming weeks  —  New figure would be the largest number of cuts revealed so far at a major tech company  —  Amazon AMZN -0.79%decrease …

Including its 130-metre-long legs, the Voltaire wind turbine installation vessel is 336 metres high. It is on its way from China to the North Sea, where it will install huge new turbines at Dogger Bank

Monica Chin / The Verge: Asus unveils its Vivobook Pro 16X and ProArt Studiobook 16 laptops with 3.2K, 120Hz glasses-free 3D OLED 16-inch displays  —  For some companies that sell gaming and creator-oriented laptops, glasses-free 3D has become a bit of a dream.  Acer first tried it back in 2021.

In February, an AI from DoNotPay is set to tell a defendant exactly what to say and when during an entire court case. It is likely to be the first ever case defended by an artificial intelligence

Ordinary folks gazing at the night sky can readily spot Earth’s close neighbors and the light of distant stars. But when Ian Hutchinson scans the cosmos, he takes in a great deal more. There is, for instance, the constant rush of plasma — highly charged ionized gases — from the sun. As this plasma flows by solid […]

Iceland is developing a suite of technologies to help it reach carbon neutrality by 2040 – and its research could help other countries go green too

You don’t have to stay in a bad situation.

The way electrons interact with photons of light is a key part of many modern technologies, from lasers to solar panels to LEDs. But the interaction is inherently a weak one because of a major mismatch in scale: A wavelength of visible light is about 1,000 times larger than an electron, so the way the […]

Paying for stolen data — even when it’s your own — comes with substantial legal and reputational risks.

Talented employees may feel demoralized by slow career advancement. These interim strategies can help ensure their underlying needs are met.

Chris Welch / The Verge: A look at Samsung’s TV updates in 2023: Neo QLEDs converting SDR to HDR, futuristic MicroLED TVs, improvements to The Frame, and software and AI updates  —  Last year, Samsung radically shook up the TV market with the introduction of its first OLED model in many years.

Nivedita Balu / Reuters: Memo: Salesforce plans to lay off around 10% of its staff and close some offices, expecting to incur $1.4B to $2.1B in charges for the restructuring  —  Salesforce Inc (CRM.N) said on Wednesday it would lay off about 10% of its employees and close some offices as a part of its […]

Matt Levine / Bloomberg: The US case against alleged Mango Markets manipulator Avraham Eisenberg highlights traders treating crypto as a game, forgetting the real-world consequences  —  Mango  —  So here’s a trade.  — You open two accounts on a commodity futures exchange, Account A and Account B.

A typical bacterial genome contains more than 4,000 genes, which encode all of the proteins that the cells need to survive. How do cells know just how much of each protein they need for their everyday functions? Gene-Wei Li, an MIT associate professor of biology, is trying to answer that question. A physicist by training, […]

Sabela Ojea / Wall Street Journal: Foxconn partners with Nvidia to produce electronic control units based on Nvidia’s Drive Orin SoC for intelligent vehicles and use them in Foxconn’s own EVs  —  Foxconn will produce, use Nvidia’s chips that help enable autonomous driving  —  Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. NVDA -1.91%decrease …

Zuck promised his “metaverse” could bring people together. All I got were glitches and disappointment.

These are our favorite Windows notebooks, MacBooks, and Chromebooks.

We tested the latest and greatest gaming notebooks to sort the god-rolls from the vendor fodder.

Axios: Sources: crypto payments startup Wyre told its staff that it’s shutting down; Bolt planned to acquire Wyre for ~$1.5B but canceled the deal in September 2022  —  Wyre, a crypto payments company founded in 2013, has told employees that it is shutting down amid layoffs, Axios has learned.

Twitter Safety: [Thread] Twitter relaxes its policy for cause-based ads in the US and plans to expand the political advertising the company permits in the coming weeks  —  We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics. Today, we’re relaxing our ads policy for cause-based ads in the US. We also plan […]

Our hosts’ picks for the best conversations of 2022.

U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu serves as the Department of Defense’s chief technology officer. In a recent talk at MIT, she spoke about the DoD’s initiatives to build a stronger U.S. manufacturing base and to tackle the country’s “toughest challenges.” President Biden nominated Shyu as under secretary in April […]