Category: Uncategorized

A confluence of factors is leading people in the nation to gravitate toward extremist views.

Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk: A look at what went wrong at decentralized lending protocol Maple Finance, as $54M in loans, or 66% of its lending pools, turn bad and what could happen next  —  Maple Finance, the largest unsecured crypto lending platform, is grappling with a debt crisis while gearing up for a major system […]

André Beganski / Decrypt: Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao acknowledges temporarily suspending accounts over “abnormal” altcoin trading, following a spat with a high-profile crypto trader  —  The company says the observed activity had nothing to do with compromised accounts or leaked API keys.

Jordan Middler / Video Games Chronicle: Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says Sony opposes the Activision Blizzard acquisition to “protect its dominance” and grows by “making Xbox smaller”  —  THE EXEC CONTINUED  In the latest war of words over its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard …

MIT researchers have identified molecules found in mucus that can block cholera infection by interfering with the genes that cause the microbe to switch into a harmful state. These protective molecules, known as glycans, are a major constituent of mucins, the gel-forming polymers that make up mucus. The MIT team identified a specific type of […]

With Google’s latest update, content is more accessible, and you’re able to concentrate on the text rather than anything else. Here’s how to get set up.

Keep your phone, tablet, laptop, and other electronics running with these handheld power banks.

Kit Rees / Bloomberg: The subpar performance of FAANG stocks, which account for more than 10% of the S&P 500 weighting, will be a big drag on the market in the coming years  —  For some investors, this year’s rout in high-flying technology stocks is more than a bear market: It’s the end of an […]

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget: Twitter’s Community Notes, the crowd-powered feature to fact check tweets previously known as Birdwatch, starts rolling out to all users globally  —  Twitter has begun rolling out Community Notes to all of its users globally, the company announced on Saturday.

To sharpen its command over precise maneuvers, the brain uses comparisons between control signals—not the signals themselves.

Adam Rawnsley / Rolling Stone: Ex-staffers say Twitter’s mass firing of security staff and growing reliance on automation will help China and other authoritarian regimes in silencing critics  —  Elon’s mass firing of security staff and increased reliance on automation is going to make it easier for tyrants to shout …

Eri Sugiura / Financial Times: Sony’s CTO and NEC’s CEO say US chip export controls may temporarily impact China’s ability to procure chips but question the sanctions’ long-term effectiveness  —  Sony and NEC executives say progress may be slowed but China will remain a force in AI and other areas

Just drag this conveniently inflatable half-doughnut out to the nearest lake.

Washington Post: A look at some early-adopters using ChatGPT, GPT-3, and other text generator bots to write business emails, find creative inspiration, and more  —  The latest AI sensation, ChatGPT, is easy to talk to, bad at math and often deceptively, confidently wrong.  Some people are finding real-world value in it, anyway.

Cade Metz / New York Times: Experts warn of a “hallucination” problem with ChatGPT and LaMDA, as these chatbots take what they have learned and reshape it without regard for what is true  —  Siri, Google Search, online marketing and your child’s homework will never be the same.  Then there’s the misinformation problem.

You shouldn’t have to look at your phone for navigation. In-ear directions from the Cardo Freecom 2X offer a smarter, safer way to hit the road.

Plus: Apple expands its repair program in Europe, Google Chrome becomes less of a resource hog, and the FTC objects to Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard.

Plus: Chinese hackers stealing US Covid relief funds, a cyberattack on the Met Opera website, and more.

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine: With “Twitter Files”, Elon Musk shows himself as an egregious example of what he wanted to expose: managers leveraging their social platforms for partisan ends  —  But it is actually a tool of progressive power.  While you were hypnotized by viral memes, a cabal …

Karen Hao / Wall Street Journal: How AI-based natural language processing algorithms can be applied to biological data to create protein-language models and cut drug discovery time to months  —  Natural language processing algorithms like the ones used in Google searches and OpenAI’s ChatGPT promise to slash the time required to bring medications to market

Best Buy is running a killer sale event on all kinds of tech, including tablets and smartwatches, but it ends December 11.

In my 10 years as a Gear editor at WIRED, Filson’s Ballistic Nylon Duffle Pack is hands down my favorite gear item.

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch: Despite Elon Musk’s opaque approach, the “Twitter Files” give a peek at moderation at scale and are a win for transparency, while failing to prove systemic bias  —  Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, is feverishly promoting his “Twitter Files”: selected internal communications from the company …

CNBC: A profile of Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek, who was involved in several failed ventures before founding the exchange, including an e-commerce company  —  – Before founding Crypto.com, Kris Marszalek was involved in multiple ventures that ended in collapse, including one where suppliers claimed they were unable to access their earnings.

Despite mitigation, one of the worst bugs in internet history is still prevalent—and being exploited.

New York Times: The FTC will face hurdles to block Microsoft’s Activision deal, as courts are skeptical of vertical merger challenges where two companies don’t compete directly  —  Ms. Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, has staked an ambitious trustbusting agenda on a case that may be difficult to win.

The retro gamer’s fave gets a screen-flipping upgrade, but not without some serious trade-offs.

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: Ireland’s privacy watchdog says it is engaging with Twitter about giving data access to outsiders, amid concerns that Twitter could be in violation of GDPR  —  Elon Musk’s desire to stir conspiratorial shit up by giving select outsiders aligned with his conservative agenda access to Twitter systems …

The AI chatbot was trained on text created by humans. Of course its writing is superficially impressive and lacking in substance.

A scathing decision from Facebook’s Oversight Board shows a better way to work through platform rules in public than via a billionaire’s late night tweets.

Sara Fischer / Axios: Sources: LLCs tied to the CEO of crypto news site The Block secretly received $43M in Alameda loans, used in part to buy and run the site; CEO has now resigned  —  The Block, a media company that says it covers crypto news independently, has been secretly funded for over a […]

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: Sources: EU antitrust regulators plan to open a full-scale investigation into Broadcom’s proposed $61B VMware acquisition  —  U.S. chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO.O) is set to face a setback in its $61 billion bid for cloud computing company VMware (VMW.N) with EU antitrust regulators poised to open …

In May 2022, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Transporter-5 mission into orbit. The mission contained a collection of micro and nanosatellites from both industry and government, including one from MIT Lincoln Laboratory called the Agile MicroSat (AMS). AMS’s primary mission is to test automated maneuvering capabilities in the tumultuous very low-Earth orbit (VLEO) […]

Launched in October 2020, the MIT and Accenture Convergence Initiative for Industry and Technology underscores the ways in which industry and technology can collaborate to spur innovation. The five-year initiative aims to achieve its mission through research, education, and fellowships. To that end, Accenture has once again awarded five annual fellowships to MIT graduate students […]

A computer that uses light rather than electricity to transmit and manipulate data could carry out the same tasks faster and using less power

A robot guided a flexible needle into the lungs of pigs, outperforming humans using straight needles

As the sun faded on a clear Thursday afternoon, the MIT community came together to enjoy excellent food, music, and company at the annual Winterfest celebration. Each year Winterfest kicks off the holiday season and all that comes with it for MIT’s community members, from final exams to a much-deserved year-end break to Independent Activities […]

Sponsor content from Broadcom.

Focus on what they need to hear — not on what you want to say.

An obsession with efficiency and low costs at the expense of workers is bad business — in any industry.

Big Data, drones, diagnostics—the United Nations and other groups hope to innovate the world out of a maternal and reproductive health crisis.

Remote and hybrid work has reshaped the typical seasonal rush. Airlines and hotels see dollar signs.

Physicists study starlight to find whether the fine structure constant, whose value makes our universe possible, really is the same everywhere.

Maggie Miller / Politico: A look at Estonia’s efforts to aid cybersecurity workers in Ukraine and coordinate with European and US allies to defend against Russia’s cyberattacks  —  TALLINN, Estonia — Ukraine has surprised the world with its ability to fend off major cyberattacks from Russia.

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg: Singapore-based Amber Group, one of Asia’s largest crypto exchanges, cuts 40% of its staff, scraps retail operations, and terminates its Chelsea FC sponsorship  —  Amber Group, one of Asia’s leading crypto trading and lending platforms, is cutting jobs, scrapping retail operations and terminating …

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg: As US prosecutors reportedly investigate FTX and Alameda’s role in orchestrating LUNA and UST’s collapse, a look at the timeline of events and evidence  —  The latest twist in the downfall of crypto maven Sam Bankman-Fried is prompting a reexamination of the implosion of the Terra algorithmic …

Combustion engines, propellors, and hydraulic pumps are examples of fluidic devices — instruments that utilize fluids to perform certain functions, such as generating power or transporting water. Because fluidic devices are so complex, they are typically developed by experienced engineers who manually design, prototype, and test each apparatus through an iterative process that is expensive, […]

MIT engineers have developed ultralight fabric solar cells that can quickly and easily turn any surface into a power source. These durable, flexible solar cells, which are much thinner than a human hair, are glued to a strong, lightweight fabric, making them easy to install on a fixed surface. They can provide energy on the […]

Clues to a black hole’s origins can be found in the way it spins. This is especially true for binaries, in which two black holes circle close together before merging. The spin and tilt of the respective black holes just before they merge can reveal whether the invisible giants arose from a quiet galactic disk […]

Emily Bary / MarketWatch: DocuSign reports Q3 revenue up 18% YoY to $645.5M, vs. $627M est., and billings up 17% YoY to $659.4M, vs. $588.6M est.; stock is up ~10% after hours  —  Company easily tops expectations on billings and other key metrics  —  Shares of DocuSign were flying higher in aftermarket action Thursday …