Don’t fly with your Explody MacBook!

Following an Apple notice that a “limited number” of 15-inch MacBook Pros may have faulty batteries that could potentially create a fire safety risk, multiple airlines have barred transporting Apple laptops in their checked luggage—in some cases, regardless of whether they fall under the recall. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia had Read more about Don’t fly with your Explody MacBook![…]

MIT Researchers Build Functional Carbon Nanotube Microprocessor

Scientists at MIT built a 16-bit microprocessor out of carbon nanotubes and even ran a program on it, a new paper reports. Silicon-based computer processors seem to be approaching a limit to how small they can be scaled, so researchers are looking for other materials that might make for useful processors. It appears that transistors Read more about MIT Researchers Build Functional Carbon Nanotube Microprocessor[…]

MIT Researchers Design Robotic Thread that navigates Human Brains to clear clots

Robotics engineers at MIT have built a threadlike robot worm that can be magnetically steered to deftly navigate the extremely narrow and winding arterial pathways of the human brain. One day it could be used to quickly clear blockages and clots that contribute to strokes and aneurysms […] Strokes are a leading cause of death Read more about MIT Researchers Design Robotic Thread that navigates Human Brains to clear clots[…]

Irish Teen Wins 2019 Google Science Fair For Removing Microplastics From Water

An Irish teenager just won $50,000 for his project focusing on extracting micros-plastics from water. Google launched the Google Science Fair in 2011 where students ages 13 through 18 can submit experiments and their results in front of a panel of judges. The winner receives $50,000. The competition is also sponsored by Lego, Virgin Galactic, Read more about Irish Teen Wins 2019 Google Science Fair For Removing Microplastics From Water[…]

Electric Dump Truck Produces More Energy Than It Uses

Electric vehicles are everywhere now. It’s more than just Leafs, Teslas, and a wide variety of electric bikes. It’s also trains, busses, and in this case, gigantic dump trucks. This truck in particular is being put to work at a mine in Switzerland, and as a consequence of having an electric drivetrain is actually able Read more about Electric Dump Truck Produces More Energy Than It Uses[…]

IBM open sources Adverserial Robustness 360 toolbox for AI

This is a library dedicated to adversarial machine learning. Its purpose is to allow rapid crafting and analysis of attacks and defense methods for machine learning models. ART provides an implementation for many state-of-the-art methods for attacking and defending classifiers. Documentation for ART: https://adversarial-robustness-toolbox.readthedocs.io https://github.com/IBM/adversarial-robustness-toolbox

IBM releases AI Fairness 360 tool open source

The AI Fairness 360 toolkit is an open-source library to help detect and remove bias in machine learning models. The AI Fairness 360 Python package includes a comprehensive set of metrics for datasets and models to test for biases, explanations for these metrics, and algorithms to mitigate bias in datasets and models. The AI Fairness Read more about IBM releases AI Fairness 360 tool open source[…]

IBM releases AI Explainability tools

The AI Explainability 360 toolkit is an open-source library that supports interpretability and explainability of datasets and machine learning models. The AI Explainability 360 Python package includes a comprehensive set of algorithms that cover different dimensions of explanations along with proxy explainability metrics. The AI Explainability 360 interactive experience provides a gentle introduction to the Read more about IBM releases AI Explainability tools[…]

ITER is making a mini sun to power the earth

In southern France, 35 nations are collaborating to build the world’s largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars. The experimental campaign that will be carried out at ITER Read more about ITER is making a mini sun to power the earth[…]

Lenovo Solution Centre can turn users into Admins – Lenovo changes end of life for LSC until before the last release in response.

Not only has a vulnerability been found in Lenovo Solution Centre (LSC), but the laptop maker fiddled with end-of-life dates to make it seem less important – and is now telling the world it EOL’d the vulnerable monitoring software before its final version was released. The LSC privilege-escalation vuln (CVE-2019-6177) was found by Pen Test Read more about Lenovo Solution Centre can turn users into Admins – Lenovo changes end of life for LSC until before the last release in response.[…]

Complex quantum teleportation achieved for the first time

Researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna have experimentally demonstrated what was previously only a theoretical possibility. Together with quantum physicists from the University of Science and Technology of China, they have succeeded in teleporting complex high-dimensional quantum states. The research teams report this international first in the journal Physical Read more about Complex quantum teleportation achieved for the first time[…]

Quantum radar has been demonstrated for  – MIT Technology Review

thanks to the work of Shabir Barzanjeh at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria and a few colleagues. This team has used entangled microwaves to create the world’s first quantum radar. Their device, which can detect objects at a distance using only a few photons, raises the prospect of stealthy radar systems that emit Read more about Quantum radar has been demonstrated for  – MIT Technology Review[…]

Russia’s floating nuclear plant sails to its destination

Russia’s first floating nuclear power plant sailed Friday to its destination on the nation’s Arctic coast, a project that environmentalists have criticized as unsafe. The Akademik Lomonosov is a 140-meter (459-foot) long towed platform that carries two 35-megawatt nuclear reactors. On Friday, it set out from the Arctic port of Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula Read more about Russia’s floating nuclear plant sails to its destination[…]

Scientists bioprint living tissue in a matter of seconds

Scientists at EPFL and University Medical Center Utrecht have developed an optical system that can bioprint complex, highly viable living tissue in “just a few seconds.” It would represent a breakthrough compared to the clunky, layer-based processes of today. The approach, volumetric bioprinting, forms tissue by projecting a laser down a spinning tube containing hydrogel Read more about Scientists bioprint living tissue in a matter of seconds[…]

Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say

Ultimately, the rider paid $65 for the half-hour trip, according to a receipt viewed by Jalopnik. But Dave made only $15 (the fares have been rounded to anonymize the transaction). Uber kept the rest, meaning the multibillion-dollar corporation kept more than 75 percent of the fare, more than triple the average so-called “take-rate” it claims Read more about Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say[…]

Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $572 Million in Landmark Opioid Trial

A judge in Oklahoma on Monday ruled that Johnson & Johnson had intentionally played down the dangers and oversold the benefits of opioids, and ordered it to pay the state $572 million in the first trial of a drug manufacturer for the destruction wrought by prescription painkillers. The amount fell far short of the $17 Read more about Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $572 Million in Landmark Opioid Trial[…]

London Transport asked people to write down their Oyster passwords – but don’t worry

London-dwelling Alfie Fresta wanted a National Rail travelcard discount added to his London Oyster card so the discount would work automatically with his pay-as-you-go smartcard. He was startled when London Overground staff at New Cross Gate station handed him a paper form with a box on it asking for his online Oyster account password. “I Read more about London Transport asked people to write down their Oyster passwords – but don’t worry[…]

Indonesia unveils site of new capital on Borneo island

The capital of the world’s fourth most populous country, on the island of Java, is now home to 10 million people and is prone to floods, traffic gridlock and faces the risk of earthquakes. The as-yet unnamed new capital will straddle the regions of North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara in Indonesia’s province of East Read more about Indonesia unveils site of new capital on Borneo island[…]

PowerShell 7 ups the telemetry but… hey… is that an off switch?

Microsoft emitted a fresh preview of command-line darling PowerShell 7 last night, highlighting some additional slurping – and how to shut it off. PowerShell 7 Preview 3, which is built on .NET Core 3.0 Preview 8, is the latest step on the way to final release at the end of 2019 and a potential replacement Read more about PowerShell 7 ups the telemetry but… hey… is that an off switch?[…]

Here’s a top tip: Don’t trust the new guy – block web domains less than a month old. They are bound to be dodgy

IT admins could go a long way towards protecting their users from malware and other dodgy stuff on the internet if they ban access to any web domain less than a month old. This advice comes from Unit 42, the security branch of networking house Palo Alto Networks. To be exact, the recommendation is that Read more about Here’s a top tip: Don’t trust the new guy – block web domains less than a month old. They are bound to be dodgy[…]

Microsoft Contractors Listened to Xbox Owners (mainly kids) in Their Homes – since 2013

Contractors working for Microsoft have listened to audio of Xbox users speaking in their homes in order to improve the console’s voice command features, Motherboard has learned. The audio was supposed to be captured following a voice command like “Xbox” or “Hey Cortana,” but contractors said that recordings were sometimes triggered and recorded by mistake. Read more about Microsoft Contractors Listened to Xbox Owners (mainly kids) in Their Homes – since 2013[…]

Moscow’s blockchain voting system cracked a month before election, will be fixed due to responsible disclosure, open source and bug bounties

A French security researcher has found a critical vulnerability in the blockchain-based voting system Russian officials plan to use next month for the 2019 Moscow City Duma election. Pierrick Gaudry, an academic at Lorraine University and a researcher for INRIA, the French research institute for digital sciences, found that he could compute the voting system’s Read more about Moscow’s blockchain voting system cracked a month before election, will be fixed due to responsible disclosure, open source and bug bounties[…]

Google, Apple, Mozilla end Kazakhstan internet by blocking root CA

On Wednesday, Google, Apple, and Mozilla said their web browsers will block the Kazakhstan root Certificate Authority (CA) certificate – following reports that ISPs in the country have required customers to install a government-issued certificate that enables online spying. According to the University of Michigan’s Censored Planet project, the country’s snoops “recently began using a Read more about Google, Apple, Mozilla end Kazakhstan internet by blocking root CA[…]

Bug-hunter finds local privilege escalation in Steam. Valve refuses to acknowledge and so he’s dropped it on the internet.

The way Kravets tells is (Valve did not respond to a request for comment), the whole saga started earlier this month when he went to report a separate elevation of privilege flaw in Steam Client, the software gamers use to purchase and run games from the games service. Valve declined to recognize and pay out Read more about Bug-hunter finds local privilege escalation in Steam. Valve refuses to acknowledge and so he’s dropped it on the internet.[…]