Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: Ireland’s DPC and France’s CNIL are investigating Peiter Zatko’s allegations about Twitter, following his complaint that referenced EU regulators — The explosive Twitter whistleblower complaint that was made public yesterday — detailing a raft of damning allegations across security …
Snowflake reports Q2 revenue of $497M vs. $467M est., up 83% YoY, and anticipates product revenue to be between $500M and $505M in Q3; stock up 17%+ after hours (Ashley Capoot/CNBC)
Ashley Capoot / CNBC: Snowflake reports Q2 revenue of $497M vs. $467M est., up 83% YoY, and anticipates product revenue to be between $500M and $505M in Q3; stock up 17%+ after hours — – Shares of the cloud data platform provider Snowflake popped more than 17% in extended trading on Wednesday.
At an all-hands, Twitter’s executives pushed back against Peiter Zatko’s complaint, with CEO Parag Agrawal saying a “false narrative” has been created (CNN)
CNN: At an all-hands, Twitter’s executives pushed back against Peiter Zatko’s complaint, with CEO Parag Agrawal saying a “false narrative” has been created — Twitter whistleblower alleges the company has reckless and negligent cybersecurity policies that pose a national security risk
Short animations could ‘inoculate’ YouTube users against fake news
Having short pre-video animations on YouTube about the tactics used to spread misinformation could help stop the proliferation of conspiracy theories
Squishable computer runs calculations depending on how you squish it
A computer made using blocks of rubber with streaks of a rubber-silver compound performs simple calculations when squished
Nanocrystals help water act like sponge to hold more oxygen than blood
Water laced with nanocrystals containing small pores can carry 100 times more oxygen than normal, which could help it act as an oxygen source to preserve organs and tissues
When Alzheimer’s degrades cells that cross hemispheres, visual memory suffers
A new MIT study finds that Alzheimer’s disease disrupts at least one form of visual memory by degrading a newly identified circuit that connects the vision processing centers of each brain hemisphere. The results of the study, published in Neuron by a research team based at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, come from […]
Designing zeolites, porous materials made to trap molecules
Zeolites are a class of minerals used in everything from industrial catalysts and chemical filters to laundry detergents and cat litter. They are mostly composed of silicon and aluminum — two abundant, inexpensive elements — plus oxygen; they have a crystalline structure; and most significantly, they are porous. Among the regularly repeating atomic patterns in […]
Taking a magnifying glass to data center operations
When the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Supercomputing Center (LLSC) unveiled its TX-GAIA supercomputer in 2019, it provided the MIT community a powerful new resource for applying artificial intelligence to their research. Anyone at MIT can submit a job to the system, which churns through trillions of operations per second to train models for diverse applications, such as spotting tumors in […]
Managing Up When Leadership Is Stuck in the Weeds
How to reset the conversation and start getting things done.
In Uncertain Times, the Best Strategy Is Adaptability
To cope with volatility, companies should rethink how they approach strategic planning.
When Staying Neutral Backfires
Research shows that “staying out of it” might make you seem more suspicious and untrustworthy than outright disagreement.
Boycotting Russian Scientists Is a Hollow Victory
Science agencies around the world halted partnerships with Russia after it invaded Ukraine. But such actions are shortsighted and do more harm than good.
The Biggest Threat to Humanity? Black Goo
Seen most recently in sci-fi shows like Westworld and Severance, the sinister substance also exists in the real world—where it may control us all.
Email Doesn’t Suck. It’s Email Clients That Need Improving
Don’t hate the technology, hate the implementation.
A look at Intel’s challenges in building its $20B Ohio chip fabs, set to open in 2025, including finding 7,000 construction workers during a local building boom (Andrew Welsh-Huggins/Associated Press)
Andrew Welsh-Huggins / Associated Press: A look at Intel’s challenges in building its $20B Ohio chip fabs, set to open in 2025, including finding 7,000 construction workers during a local building boom — Ohio’s largest-ever economic development project comes with a big employment challenge: how to find 7,000 construction workers …
Dune Analytics: so far, Tether is not blocking Tornado Cash accounts, potentially violating US Treasury sanctions; Tether says it has not received a request (Washington Post)
Washington Post: Dune Analytics: so far, Tether is not blocking Tornado Cash accounts, potentially violating US Treasury sanctions; Tether says it has not received a request — The decision by Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, signals broader industry resistance to the Treasury Department’s sanctioning of Tornado Cash
Internal memo: Twitter plans to combine its platform health experience team, working on reducing toxic content, and Twitter service team, working on spam bots (Sheila Dang/Reuters)
Sheila Dang / Reuters: Internal memo: Twitter plans to combine its platform health experience team, working on reducing toxic content, and Twitter service team, working on spam bots — Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) is combining teams that work on reducing toxic content and spam bots, according to a staff memo on Tuesday seen by Reuters …
Building better batteries, faster
To help combat climate change, many car manufacturers are racing to add more electric vehicles in their lineups. But to convince prospective buyers, manufacturers need to improve how far these cars can go on a single charge. One of their main challenges? Figuring out how to make extremely powerful but lightweight batteries. Typically, however, it […]
The Most Damning Allegation in the Twitter Whistleblower’s Report
Peiter “Mudge” Zatko’s claims about the company’s lax security are all bad. But one clearly captures the extent of systemic issues.
The Twitter Whistleblower Plays Right Into Elon Musk’s Hands
Damning accusations from Twitter’s former chief of security could have widespread consequences for Musk’s takeover.
The Best Cookbooks of Summer 2022
From earth-friendly barbecue to clever weeknight dinners, this season’s crop is especially bountiful.
Court filing: the FTC agrees to drop Mark Zuckerberg as a defendant in a suit to block Meta’s Within acquisition after Meta vowed he wouldn’t buy it personally (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)
Cecilia Kang / New York Times: Court filing: the FTC agrees to drop Mark Zuckerberg as a defendant in a suit to block Meta’s Within acquisition after Meta vowed he wouldn’t buy it personally — The agency said it made the decision after Meta promised Mr. Zuckerberg would not try to personally purchase the start-up […]
TikTok is testing a new “Nearby” feed with select users in Southeast Asia that displays local content to users, alongside a location tag feature for creators (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: TikTok is testing a new “Nearby” feed with select users in Southeast Asia that displays local content to users, alongside a location tag feature for creators — TikTok is testing a new ‘Nearby’ feed that is designed to display local content to users.
Yelp will add a note on crisis pregnancy center pages to distinguish them from clinics with abortion services, amid pressure on Google to clarify search results (Ina Fried/Axios)
Ina Fried / Axios: Yelp will add a note on crisis pregnancy center pages to distinguish them from clinics with abortion services, amid pressure on Google to clarify search results — Yelp is adding a prominent consumer notice to crisis pregnancy center listings to more clearly distinguish them from clinics …
AI-created lenses let camera ignore some objects when taking pictures
Camera lenses that ignore certain objects and only capture images they have been designed to recognise can be built in just hours from clear plastic with a 3D printer
Supercharging tweak could fill electric car batteries 90% in 10 mins
A modification to the way electric cars are charged could allow them to get 90 per cent battery from nothing in just 10 minutes. A standard approach would take half an hour
Watch flat 3D-printed wood twist into complex shapes as it dries
A new technique turns wood shavings into 3D printer ink to make objects that start off as damp, flat sheets and then twist and warp into shape as they dry
Craft a Measurable Company Purpose
Step one: Make sure your purpose statement includes key stakeholders. Step two: Make sure your KPIs align.
Why Companies Decide to Sell on Amazon—or Not
A conversation with HBS professor Ayelet Israeli weighing the pros and cons of the e-commerce platform.
Management Lessons from the Sinking of the SS El Faro
What can we learn about how leaders and their teams communicate under pressure from the sinking of a container ship?
How Does Queerness Fit Into the US Census?
The population tally, with its normative ideas of identity and household, counted queerness nearly a century ago—but it needs to go much further.
Egg and Sperm Donors Could Be Required to Share Medical Records
In much of the US, donors aren’t obliged to disclose potentially inheritable health conditions. A proposed law could change that.
The Joy of Playing the Same Sims Family for Years
Most people don’t stick with the just one in-game clan for very long. These players have stuck with the same lineage for half a decade—and counting.
Inworld, which helps developers create AI-based virtual characters for video games, raised a $50M Series A led by Section 32 and Intel Capital (Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat)
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Inworld, which helps developers create AI-based virtual characters for video games, raised a $50M Series A led by Section 32 and Intel Capital — Inworld AI has raised $50 million for its developer platform for creating AI-driven virtual characters in video games and the metaverse.
DigitalOcean plans to acquire web hosting company Cloudways for $350M in cash; around half of Cloudways’ clients already use DigitalOcean (Brody Ford/Bloomberg)
Brody Ford / Bloomberg: DigitalOcean plans to acquire web hosting company Cloudways for $350M in cash; around half of Cloudways’ clients already use DigitalOcean — DigitalOcean Holdings Inc., a cloud services provider, agreed to acquire website-hosting firm Cloudways for $350 million in an all-cash deal.
Intel signs an unusual $30B agreement with Canadian asset manager Brookfield to help fund its factory expansion plans; the companies will split future revenue (Asa Fitch/Wall Street Journal)
Asa Fitch / Wall Street Journal: Intel signs an unusual $30B agreement with Canadian asset manager Brookfield to help fund its factory expansion plans; the companies will split future revenue — Funding arrangement could be first of many such partnerships as U.S. chip giant expands manufacturing, Intel CFO says
3D-printed wood could start flat then twist into furniture as it dries
A 3D printing method that uses ink made of wood pulp can be used to make flat objects that morph into 3D shapes as they dry
Bridging careers in aerospace manufacturing and fusion energy, with a focus on intentional inclusion
“A big theme of my life has been focusing on intentional inclusion and how I can create environments where people can really bring their whole authentic selves to work,” says Joy Dunn ’08. As the head of operations at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, an MIT spinout working to achieve commercial fusion energy, Dunn looks for solutions […]
Instagram is internally testing Candid Challenges, a BeReal-like feature that gives users two minutes to take and share a photo at a different time each day (Karissa Bell/Engadget)
Karissa Bell / Engadget: Instagram is internally testing Candid Challenges, a BeReal-like feature that gives users two minutes to take and share a photo at a different time each day — Instagram is testing a new feature called Candid Challenges, which bears a striking resemblance to BeReal, a photo sharing app popular among …
LockBit ransomware’s leak sites suffer a DDoS attack after it claimed responsibility for breaching Entrust in June; LockBit blames Entrust for the DDoS attack (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: LockBit ransomware’s leak sites suffer a DDoS attack after it claimed responsibility for breaching Entrust in June; LockBit blames Entrust for the DDoS attack — The LockBit ransomware operation’s data leak sites have been shut down over the weekend due to a DDoS attack telling them to remove Entrust’s allegedly stolen […]
Sources: in Q2 Instacart’s revenue rose 39% YoY to $621M, orders increased 25% YoY to 60M+, and order volume rose 21% YoY to $7.1B, as the company plans its IPO (Berber Jin/Wall Street Journal)
Berber Jin / Wall Street Journal: Sources: in Q2 Instacart’s revenue rose 39% YoY to $621M, orders increased 25% YoY to 60M+, and order volume rose 21% YoY to $7.1B, as the company plans its IPO — Grocery-delivery platform is one of the few Silicon Valley startups headed for a public listing soon
Banning anti-vaccine groups on Facebook may just move users to Twitter
People who were in Facebook groups shut down seemingly for violating vaccine misinformation rules went on to tweet more anti-vaccine content in the following month
Using seismology for groundwater management
As climate change increases the number of extreme weather events, such as megadroughts, groundwater management is key for sustaining water supply. But current groundwater monitoring tools are either costly or insufficient for deeper aquifers, limiting our ability to monitor and practice sustainable management in populated areas. Now, a new paper published in Nature Communications bridges […]
John Tirman, political theorist and executive director of the MIT Center for International Studies, dies at 72
John Tirman, an MIT scholar in political theory and expert on U.S.-Iran relations and human security, passed away on the morning of Aug. 19 after suffering cardiac arrest. He was 72. Since 2004, Tirman served as the executive director of and principal research scientist at the MIT Center for International Studies (CIS). During this […]
Artificial intelligence model can detect Parkinson’s from breathing patterns
Parkinson’s disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose as it relies primarily on the appearance of motor symptoms such as tremors, stiffness, and slowness, but these symptoms often appear several years after the disease onset. Now, Dina Katabi, the Thuan (1990) and Nicole Pham Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at […]
Survey: Have You Experienced Incivility at Work?
We want to hear about your experience with rude, angry, or even hostile customers or colleagues.
3 Types of Burnout, and How to Overcome Them
Are you feeling overloaded, under-challenged, or neglected?
To Make Better Hires, Learn What Predicts Success
Tracking the performance of people who are already succeeding at your company will help you identify high-potential candidates.
How to Spot Fake Reviews on Amazon
With fierce competition between third-party sellers, it can be tough to find genuinely good products. These tips can help.