Linking ideas with the world
[…]thanks to cosmic geometry, a major chapter in world history has just now come to a close. As first highlighted last year on Reddit, the spring equinox on March 20 marked the sun’s passage over the celestial equator, kicking off half a year of darkness around the South Pole. And given last year’s deal with Read more about The sun has literally set on the British Empire[…]
Much of foreign aid is spent on goods that are shipped overseas: food supplies, medicines, or humanitarian assistance in emergency situations.1 But a surprising amount of what’s reported as foreign aid is not sent abroad; it’s spent domestically. Foreign aid budgets in rich countries can include the costs of hosting refugees, some scholarships to foreign Read more about How much foreign aid is spent domestically rather than overseas?[…]
[…]The IT break-in occurred between April 20 and April 22, last year, according to a notification filed this month with the US state’s attorney general’s office. California Cryobank spotted unauthorized activity on certain computers on April 21, isolated the affected machines, and launched an investigation. The sperm bank hasn’t disclosed how many individuals were affected, Read more about Personal info feared stolen from sperm bank California Crybank[…]
The Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) says a July 2024 “security incident” exposed sensitive personal data on more than half a million individuals, including financial and health info. The nonprofit, which represents more than 178,000 education professionals in the US state of Pennsylvania, confirmed data was stolen during a July 6 attack. According to The Read more about Cyberattack on nonprofit affects over 500k PA school workers[…]
HP Inc. has settled a class action lawsuit in which it was accused of unlawfully blocking customers from using third-party toner cartridges – a practice that left some with useless printers – but won’t pay a cent to make the case go away. One of the named plaintiffs in the case is called Mobile Emergency Read more about HP settles lawsuit for $0 after bricking printers that don’t use HP ink[…]
Users of Microsoft’s email service might be feeling a distinct sense of déjà vu after the web version of Outlook last night blocked access to Exchange Online mailboxes. According to Microsoft, the problem was due to “a recent change made to a portion of Outlook on the web infrastructure, that may have resulted in impact.” Read more about Microsoft blames Outlook outage on another dodgy code change[…]
What if you could listen to music or a podcast without headphones or earbuds and without disturbing anyone around you? Or have a private conversation in public without other people hearing you? Our newly published research introduces a way to create audible enclaves – localized pockets of sound that are isolated from their surroundings. In Read more about No Headphones, No Problem: This Acoustic Trick Bends Sound Through Space to Find You[…]
In a moment of clarity after initially moving forward a deeply flawed piece of legislation, the French National Assembly has done the right thing: it rejected a dangerous proposal that would have gutted end-to-end encryption in the name of fighting drug trafficking. Despite heavy pressure from the Interior Ministry, lawmakers voted Thursday night (article in Read more about A Win for human rights: France Rejects Backdoor Mandate[…]
The data was stored in Google Maps’ Timeline feature, which – for those of you who let Google track you around the world – preserves a record of locations you visit. That sounds creepy and perhaps creepier still once you realize Google makes it possible for photos to appear on the Timeline too, so that Read more about ‘Technical issue’ at Google deletes some customer maps timeline data[…]
China’s Cyberspace Administration and Ministry of Public Security has outlawed the use of facial recognition without consent. The two orgs last Friday published new rules on facial recognition and an explainer that spell out how orgs that want to use facial recognition must first conduct a “personal information protection impact assessment” that considers whether using Read more about China bans facial recognition without consent and in all public places. And it needs to be encrypted.[…]
23andMe has capped off a challenging few years by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today. Given the uncertainty around the future of the DNA testing company and what will happen to all of the genetic data it has collected, now is a critical time for customers to protect their privacy. California Attorney General Rob Bonta Read more about 23andMe files for bankruptcy: How to delete your data before it’s sold off[…]
In the biggest development for U.S. Air Force tactical air power in more than two decades, Boeing has been announced as the winner of the service’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) ‘fighter’ initiative. As the centerpiece of the NGAD effort, the new crewed sixth-generation stealth combat jet, now designated the F-47, is set to change Read more about Boeing Wins F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance Fighter Contract[…]
If you wanted to play some tunes on your iPhone this afternoon, but found nothing would play, it’s not just you: As of Tuesday afternoon ET, Apple Music is down. Apple’s System Status website currently confirms Apple Music’s downtime. As of this piece, the site shows the following status for Apple Music: Apple Music – Outage Today, Read more about Apple Music Is Down, you can’t listen to your music because cloud[…]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has removed over 300 blog posts published during the agency’s leadership under former chair Lina Khan, Wired reports. These include posts that are critical of companies like Amazon and Microsoft for their handling of customer data. The FTC did not respond to a request for comment. As FTC chair during Read more about FTC removes posts critical of Big Tech from its website[…]
Even by Amazon standards, this is extraordinarily sleazy: starting March 28, each Amazon Echo device will cease processing audio on-device and instead upload all the audio it captures to Amazon’s cloud for processing, even if you have previously opted out of cloud-based processing: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/ It’s easy to flap your hands at this bit of thievery Read more about Amazon annihilates Alexa privacy settings, turns on continuous, nonconsensual audio uploading[…]
Walled Culture has been following closely Italy’s poorly-designed Piracy Shield system. Back in December we reported how copyright companies used their access to the Piracy Shield system to order Italian Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to all of Google Drive for the entire country, and how malicious actors could similarly use that unchecked Read more about Massive expansion of Italy’s Piracy Shield underway despite growing criticism of its flaws and EU illegality[…]
Has your printer suddenly started spouting gibberish? A faulty Windows 11 23H2 update from Microsoft – rather than a ghost in the machine – could be the cause. The update in question is KB5050092, a preview released at the end of January. There were several known issues with this update, including problems with some Citrix Read more about Printers start randomly speaking in tongues after Windows 11 update[…]
According to a new report from the Cato CTRL team, the Ballista botnet exploits a remote code execution vulnerability that directly impacts the TP-Link Archer AX-21 router. The botnet can lead to command injection which then makes remote code execution (RCE) possible so that the malware can spread itself across the internet automatically. This high Read more about Thousands of TP-Link routers have been infected by a botnet to spread malware[…]
[…] Claims that the Joint Strike Fighter has a remote disabling feature are not new, but have resurfaced following the U.S. government’s abrupt decision to cut off military aid and intelligence assistance to Ukraine and new questions about America’s support for NATO under President Donald Trump. Outlets across Europe, including in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and Read more about How The Kill Switch On Exported F-35s Works[…]
[…] They call their technique MINJA, which stands for Memory INJection Attack. “Nowadays, AI agents typically incorporate a memory bank which stores task queries and executions based on human feedback for future reference,” Zhen Xiang, assistant professor in the school of computing at the University of Georgia, told The Register. “For example, after each session Read more about MINJA sneak attack poisons AI models for other chatbot users[…]
Shortly after dawn on March 27, 2001, NASA pilot Bill Rieke took off from an airfield just outside of Phoenix in NASA’s blue-and-white Learjet 25 and flew low over a series of microphones for the first flight test of a groundbreaking NASA technology. On one of the plane’s engines was an experimental jagged-edged nozzle that Read more about NASA’s Chevron Technology Has Quieted the Skies[…]
REGENT Craft, the Rhode Island-based developer and manufacturer of all-electric seagliders, revealed today the world’s first full-scale crewed seaglider and completed the first on-water tests, showcasing the successful technical validation of the novel maritime vessel with humans on board and marking a pivotal moment in transportation history. The 12-passenger Viceroy seaglider prototype, at 55ft long Read more about REGENT Begins Sea Trials of First Passenger-Carrying Electric Seaglider[…]
HP, along with other printer brands, is infamous for issuing firmware updates that brick already-purchased printers that have tried to use third-party ink. In a new form of frustration, HP is now being accused of issuing a firmware update that broke customers’ laser printers—even though the devices are loaded with HP-brand toner. The firmware update Read more about Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges[…]
Earth’s atmosphere is shrinking due to climate change and one of the possible negative impacts is that space junk will stay in orbit for longer, bonk into other bits of space junk, and make so much mess that low Earth orbits become less useful. That miserable set of predictions appeared on Monday in a Nature Read more about Bad news for Starlink: Earth’s atmosphere is shrinking[…]
[…] researchers in Ohio have developed a small battery powered by nuclear waste. They exposed scintillator crystals—a material that emits light when it absorbs radiation—to gamma radiation, which is produced by nuclear waste. The crystals’ light then powered a solar battery. The study, published January 29 in the journal Optical Materials: X, demonstrates that background Read more about New Battery Harvests Energy From Radioactive Nuclear Waste[…]