We found lots of math-filled and science-rich toys for tiny nerds to disassemble, set on fire, and then rebuild.

Plus: Hackers hit the Mormon Church, Signal plans to ditch SMS for Android, and a Fat Bear election erupts in scandal.

Osato Avan-Nomayo / The Block: Hacker behind the Mango Markets exploit keeps $47M and returns $67M to the DeFi platform after a Mango community vote; he claims his actions were legal  —  – Eisenberg called the exploit a “profitable trading strategy” and said his actions were legal.  — The Mango exploiter said the deal …

Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk: Binance’s mining service Binance Pool launches a $500M fund to provide 18-to-24-month loans for private and publicly listed Bitcoin miners  —  The entity is the latest to join the growing ranks of alternative lenders looking to provide capital to the distressed mining industry.

Ashley Capoot / CNBC: Elon Musk claims SpaceX will continue subsidizing Starlink in Ukraine “for free” even though the service is still losing money; SpaceX receives government funds  —  – Elon Musk said in a tweet Saturday that his company SpaceX would continue to fund Starlink satellite internet terminals …

City residents have long resorted to low-cost, do-it-yourself remedies that may be harmful to human health.

Here’s a guide to all the models—plus case recommendations and hidden software tricks to try.

There are many ways to make your internet faster, but the specifics depend on what you’re willing to spend right now.

Simon Owens / Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter: A look at Spotify’s podcast exclusivity strategy, which led to 75% audience drops for some Gimlet shows and caused others, like the Obamas, not to renew deals  —  The open podcast ecosystem isn’t dead yet.  —  Welcome!  I’m Simon Owens and this is my media newsletter.

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: Fewer than half of the US and European rapid delivery startups launched in the pandemic are still operating; they face huge losses, a funding drought, and more  —  As nervous consumers avoided supermarkets during the Covid-19 pandemic, tech entrepreneurs spied a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvent the humble grocery run.

Tim Keary / VentureBeat: New York City-based IronVest, which uses biometric authentication and AI to verify the identity of users online, raised a $23M seed led by Accomplice  —  The challenge of assuring identity is becoming more and more difficult.  According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) …

This video game lets you work as a salvager in low Earth orbit. Essentially, it is like building a Lego set in reverse, and, like Lego, it is a very satisfying experience, finds Jacob Aron

Social media provides a lot of discourse, but sometimes, a minor revolt over a coffee chain’s loyalty program is the best use of its tools.

Plus: How Mark Zuckerberg fell in love with VR, the fake future of documentaries, and Armageddon.

This easy-going little electric bike has a step-through frame so low that anyone can cruise it out.

George Simister / UKTN: Manchester-based Connex One, which provides customer engagement tools to contact centers, raised a £93M Series C  —  Manchester-based customer engagement platform Connex One has secured £93m in a Series C funding round.  —  Connex One’s software, used by the likes of O2 and Gousto …

The Information: Doc: a shareholders’ agreement from Elon Musk for Twitter investors gives him “sole discretion” on an IPO decision, “exclusive authority” on board changes, more  —  Elon Musk may be relying on outside investors to help finance his $44 billion purchase of Twitter.

Drew Harwell / Washington Post: A look at TikTok’s rise, as US viewers spend longer in the video app than Facebook and Instagram combined, and ongoing issues with its Chinese ownership  —  The world’s most popular app has pioneered a new age of instant attention.  Can we trust it?  —  On the night Shelby Renae […]

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the company can no longer pay for the Starlink satellites providing internet for Ukraine’s government and military. What you need to know

As more data centres are being built to meet growing demand, their water use is coming under scrutiny – particularly in regions of the US affected by the ongoing megadrought

A brain decoder can extract words and sentences from the brain recordings of people listening to stories or watching silent films

Thomas W. Eagar, professor of materials engineering and engineering systems, post-tenure, in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) and an internationally recognized expert in welding, died Oct. 9 at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts. He was 72. An outspoken scholar and admired teacher, Eagar had a reputation for saying, as he put it, […]

Daniel J. Riccio, an advisory board member for the School of Engineering’s Undergraduate Engineering Leadership Program, has made a gift of $10 million to expand MIT’s Graduate Engineering Leadership Program, which will be renamed in recognition of the support. The gift will allow the program to grow and sustain its operations for years to come […]

Sponsor content from Imperium Group.

Research shows that agendas often create the appearance of effective meetings — without actually improving how they’re run.

Insurers can take three steps to retain the benefits of copayments and avoid their downside.

Physicists just reconstructed a 19th-century paradox that seems to violate the second law of thermodynamics (but really doesn’t).

The ambient music pioneer is back with ForeverAndEverNoMore, an album that wants to get you in touch with your climate emergency feelings.

Angus Loten / Wall Street Journal: IT teams are hiring more freelancers and slowing recruiting full-time staff; Freelancer.com says software developer job postings rose 54.7% YoY in Q3 2022  —  New wave of IT freelancers prefer to tackle digital projects, then move on, recruiters say  —  Facing economic headwinds …

Coco Liu / Bloomberg: Study: Chinese netizens are permitted to air environmental concerns and criticize polluters on social media, resulting in lower emissions from some factories  —  In spite of China’s intensifying crackdown on political dissent, residents still have plenty of leeway to air their environmental concerns …

Financial Times: Chinese internet censors suspend thousands of WeChat accounts and remove posts after a rare protest in central Beijing against “dictator and traitor Xi Jinping”  —  Banners hung from bridge call for leader’s removal ahead of Communist party congress

The company pushed up the launch of its $6-per-month ad-supported tier, edging out competition from Disney+.

In an independent test, cathode components Redwood Materials made from reused metals matched the performance of those made from raw ones.

These phones remain unbeatable when it comes to sheer value.

Chris Baraniuk / BBC: How cosmic rays can alter computers’ memory, a phenomenon understood since at least the 1970s, and why it is hard to tie specific errors to ionizing radiation  —  The Earth is subjected to a hail of subatomic particles from the Sun and beyond our solar system which could be the cause […]

Tom Giles / Bloomberg: Filing: Twitter says Elon Musk is under a federal investigation related to his bid to acquire the company and asks for access to documents he gave authorities  —  Billionaire Elon Musk is being investigated by federal authorities related to his attempted acquisition of Twitter Inc. …

Ashley Gold / Axios: Meta files to dismiss the FTC’s attempt to block its acquisition of Within, arguing the FTC’s claims rely on “pure speculation of a hypothetical future state”  —  Meta filed to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to block its acquisition of virtual reality fitness startup Within …

Double-whammy approach uses chemical catalysts to break down mixed plastic waste so bacteria can convert what’s left into desirable compounds

Apps that create images based on text can deliver amazing results, but there are problems with the data sets some are trained on and the lack of compensation for artists, says Annalee Newitz

“My job is basically flooding Cambridge,” says Katerina “Katya” Boukin, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering at MIT and the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub’s resident expert on flood simulations.  You can often find her fine-tuning high-resolution flood risk models for the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, or talking about hurricanes with fellow researcher Ipek […]

Professor Michel DeGraff of MIT Linguistics has been elected as a fellow of the Linguistics Society of America (LSA), the highest academic honor within the field of linguistics, in recognition of his dynamic and impactful scholarship in Creole studies with a focus on Haitian Creole (or “Kreyòl,” as it’s called in Haiti). DeGraff’s scholarship into […]

Leon Villegas SM ’08, MBA ’08, a graduate of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, works on the cutting edge of autonomous aviation. At Wisk Aero, an advanced air mobility company dedicated to delivering safe, everyday flight for everyone, Villegas is responsible for the production of aircraft for a new market just coming into […]

A roundtable conversation takes stock of Clayton Christensen’s influential theory.

Sponsor content from Siemens Healthineers.

A look at the opportunities, risks, and mitigation strategies.

The latest additions to Hestan’s app-controlled countertop burner system show how this sector of the smart kitchen is progressing, and where it still lags.

This week, we discuss Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitions for growing virtual reality as a platform, and how the new Quest Pro headset fits into that vision.

A new study finds no correlation between research and development spending and outlandish drug prices.

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post: China’s central bank: e-CNY transactions totaled ~$14B from December 2019 to August 2022, up 14% from ~$12.2B in December 2021, signaling slowing growth  —  China’s central bank digital currency transactions totalled 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion) from the start of the e-CNY initiative …

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg: Numerator: during Amazon’s second Prime Day, the average US order size was $46.44, down 23% from the July Prime Day, mostly comprising household essentials  —  Amazon.com Inc. shoppers are largely skipping pricey purchases during the company’s Prime sale sequel — favoring pantry items …