Science

• New York Times ☛ These Tiny Worms Account for at Least 4 Nobel Prizes

  A staple in laboratories worldwide, C. elegans is “an experimental dream,” said one scientist.

• Science Alert ☛ Secret Tomb Discovered in One of Archaeology's Most Famous Wonders

  "The discovery is of international significance."

• Science Alert ☛ Human Babies Have a 1:1 Sex Ratio, Unlike Many Animals. But Why?

  Scientists are unraveling the mystery.

• Science Alert ☛ Your IQ in High School Can Predict Your Alcohol Use Later in Life

  Wait, what?

• Science Alert ☛ October's Supermoon Is The Largest of 2024 – Here's When to See It

  The brightest one all year too!

• Science Alert ☛ It's Official: NASA Declares The Solar Maximum Is Happening Now

  For years we've been building to this.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

• Jamie Zawinski ☛ "I'm clicking a cow!"

  My score was around 200 before I gave up.

• Federal News Network ☛ Breaking down government hacks: The rise of the modern kill chain

  Mobile devices are the authentication tool used to access government’s cloud data, much like a key to a vault. However, they’re not always secure. With mobile devices blurring the line between work and personal life, security gaps have appeared that threat actors may exploit and are difficult for organizations to identify and close.

Education

• New York Times ☛ ‘A Rip-Off’: Students Secure a Final Settlement Against Walden University

  A $28.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit against the university helped create a fresh precedent for prosecuting predatory advertising in for-profit education.

Hardware

• Silicon Angle ☛ TSMC shares jump on expectation-topping third-quarter results

  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. today posted third-quarter earnings and revenue that easily topped analyst expectations. TSMC’s shares rose more than 9% on the results. The world’s largest contract chipmaker generated a net profit of 325.3 billion New Taiwan dollars, or $10.1 billion, in the three months ended September.

• Hackaday ☛ Ubiquitous Successful Bus: Version 2

  I’ve talked a fair bit about USB-C before, explaining how it all works, from many different angles. That said, USB-C is just the physical connector standard, plus the PD part that takes care of voltages and altmodes – things like data transfer are still delegated to the two interfaces you invariably end up using on USB-C ports, USB 2, and USB 3.

• Hackaday ☛ Access The Information Superhighway With A Mac Plus

  For some time now, Apple has developed a reputation for manufacturing computers and phones that are not particularly repairable or upgradable. While this reputation is somewhat deserved, especially in recent years, it seems less true for their older machines. With the second and perhaps most influential computer, the Apple II, being so upgradable that the machine had a production run of nearly two decades. Similarly, the Macintosh Plus of 1986 was surprisingly upgradable and repairable and [Hunter] demonstrates its capabilities by bringing one onto the modern Internet, albeit with a few tricks to adapt the old hardware and software to the modern era.

• Hackaday ☛ The FNIRSI HRM-10 Internal Resistance Meter

  Occasionally, we find fun new electronic instruments in the wild and can’t resist sharing them with our readers. The item in question is the FNIRSI HRM-10 Internal resistance meter, which we show here being reviewed by [JohnAudioTech].

• Hackaday ☛ Building A ZX Spectrum Using Only New Parts

  Ah, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. A popular computer in Britain and beyond, but now rather thin on the ground. If you can’t find one, fear not, for now—you can apparently build a new one with new parts! [TME Retro] is here to demonstrate how.

• Hackaday ☛ Laser Painting Explained

  If you get an inexpensive diode laser cutter, you might have been disappointed to find it won’t work well with transparent acrylic. The material just passes most of the light at that wavelength, so there’s not much you can do with it. So how did [Rich] make a good-looking sign using a cheap laser? He used a simple paint and mask technique that will work with nearly any clear material, and it produces great-looking results, as you can see in the video below.

• Tom's Hardware ☛ TSMC is not interested in buying Intel's fabs

  TSMC is not interested in buying Intel's fabs 'at all.'

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• New York Times ☛ Sperm Can’t Unlock an Egg Without This Ancient Molecular Key

  Using Google’s AlphaFold, researchers identified the bundle of three sperm proteins that seem to make sexual reproduction possible.

• New York Times ☛ This $350 Oura Ring 4 Tracks Your Sleep. Is It Worth the Splurge?

  The $350 Oura Ring 4 looks sleek and cool, and it may be useful for data-hungry health enthusiasts. But it failed this sleep-deprived parent.

• New Yorker ☛ Should Political Violence Be Addressed Like a Threat to Public Health?

  Treating political violence as a contagion could help safeguard the future of American democracy.

• JURIST ☛ HRW: racial inequities persist in South Florida maternal health care

  Inequities in birth and maternal health between Black and white people persist in the South Florida medical system, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday.

• Science Alert ☛ Alzheimer's Disease Harms The Brain in 2 Distinct Phases, Study Reveals

  This fundamentally alters our understanding.

• Science Alert ☛ Scientists Detected Microplastics in Air Exhaled by Wild Dolphins

  It's everywhere now.

• Science Alert ☛ Cannabis Can Leave a Distinct Mark on Your DNA, Study Reveals

  There's still so much we don't know.

• ACLU ☛ Why the Abortion Rights Fight is About More Than Just Who Wins the White House

  This year, the presidential race has been all consuming. Less than 20 days before Election Day, practically everyone has something to say about the candidates. The ACLU has also spent time analyzing the policies and actions both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris might take if they win the White House. But, the presidential race isn’t the only important election on the ballot. That’s particularly true when it comes to abortion rights.

• New York Times ☛ The U.K. Will Debate Legalizing Assisted Dying. Here’s What to Know.

  A bill introduced in the House of Commons could legalize assisted dying for the terminally ill, under strict conditions. A similar proposal was rejected in 2015.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Digit.in ☛ ‘It’s doesn’t work or deliver value’: Salesforce CEO slams Microsoft’s Copilot for doing disservice to AI industry

  In the ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence, major players like Microsoft and Salesforce are fighting for dominance. As businesses increasingly rely on AI to streamline operations, competition is fierce. Recently, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff shared his views on Microsoft’s AI trajectory during an episode of the Rapid Response podcast.

  While many analysts see Microsoft as a future leader in AI, Marc Benioff has a different perspective. During the podcast, he expressed scepticism about Microsoft’s Copilot, highlighting that it fails to meet the needs of businesses.

• MIT Technology Review ☛ AI could help people find common ground during deliberations

  Reaching a consensus in a democracy is difficult because people hold such different ideological, political, and social views.  Perhaps an Hey Hi (AI) tool could help.

• Medevel ☛ Vocode - Build Voice-enabled Hey Hi (AI) Apps with this Amazing Open-source Python Framework

  Vocode is an open-source library that simplifies building voice-enabled applications powered by large language models (LLMs). It allows developers to create real-time, voice-based conversations with LLMs and deploy them to phone calls, Zoom meetings, and beyond.

• Silicon Angle ☛ AMD’s Hey Hi (AI) networking solutions aim to enhance performance and scalability in Hey Hi (AI) environments

  Advanced Micro Devices Inc. last week introduced its next-generation Hey Hi (AI) networking components — the Pensando Salina data processing unit and the Pensando Pollara 400 Hey Hi (AI) network interface card, both of which are core components in the artificial intelligence infrastructure landscape.

• EFF ☛ Prosecutors in Washington State Warn Police: Don’t Use Gen [LLMs] to Write Reports

  Chief Deputy Prosecutor Daniel J. Clark said in a memo about AI-based tools to write narrative police reports based on body camera audio that the technology as it exists is “one we are not ready to accept.” The memo continues,“We do not fear advances in technology – but we do have legitimate concerns about some of the products on the market now... AI continues to develop and we are hopeful that we will reach a point in the near future where these reports can be relied on. For now, our office has made the decision not to accept any police narratives that were produced with the assistance of AI.” We would add that, while EFF embraces advances in technology, we doubt genAI in the near future will be able to help police write reliable reports.We agree with Chief Deputy Clark that: “While an officer is required to edit the narrative and assert under penalty of perjury that it is accurate, some of the [genAI] errors are so small that they will be missed in review.”

Privacy/Surveillance

• LRT ☛ Lithuania’s intelligence agency says proposed funding inadequate for its needs

  The State Security Department (VSD), Lithuania’s intelligence agency, says that the funding proposed for the department in the 2025 budget bill does not correspond to the needs of maintaining and developing its critical capabilities.

EFF ☛ California Attorney General Issues New Guidance on Military Equipment to Law Enforcement

The bulletin emphasizes that law enforcement agencies must seek permission from governing bodies like city councils or boards of supervisors before buying any military equipment, or even applying for grants or soliciting donations to procure that equipment. The bulletin also reminds all California law enforcement agencies and state agencies with law enforcement divisions of their transparency obligations: they must post on their website a military equipment use policy that describes, among other details, the capabilities, purposes and authorized uses, and financial impacts of the equipment, as well as oversight and enforcement mechanisms for violations of the policy. Law enforcement agencies must also publish an annual military equipment report that provides information on how the equipment was used the previous year and the associated costs.

New York Times ☛ How Israeli Military Trainees Found and Killed Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza

A unit from the Israeli military encountered Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, while on an operation in southern Gaza, Israeli defense officials said.

Tom's Hardware ☛ Arm wants to sell directly to Chinese customers, sidestep Arm China

Arm may rival its own Arm China joint venture and sell directly to customers in China.

RFA ☛ Joint exercise Sama Sama in South China Sea enters key phase

US and Philippine navies conducted advanced drills as China held exercises around Taiwan.

RFA ☛ Hong Kong plans patriotic events to boost nationalism

The city authorities will celebrate the 1945 victory over Japan, step up ‘patriotic education’ in schools.

RFA ☛ Did Chinese helicopters fly over Taiwan during recent military exercises?

Verdict: False

Atlantic Council ☛ In a war against China, the US could quickly exhaust its weapons. A new Indo-Pacific defense initiative might be the answer.

The new Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience could enable faster provisioning of resources to Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, or even the United States if a war breaks out. 

The Strategist ☛ From the bookshelf: ‘The Red Emperor’

Xi Jinping’s life, like the lives of all China’s top leaders, is hidden behind a wall of secrecy. Pooh-tin has been in power for twelve years, but we know little about him beyond what we ...

The Strategist ☛ Space: an opportunity for South Korea and Australian defence cooperation

Australia and South Korea should collaborate on space technology by building and launching small surveillance satellites from Australian space launch facilities.

JURIST ☛ China sanctions two ‘Taiwanese separatists’ after military drills around island

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced on Monday sanctions against Taiwanese businessman Robert Tsao and lawmaker Puma Shen, banning them from entering mainland China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. The two are accused of promoting Taiwanese independence and engaging in separatist activities.

Defence Web ☛ As M23 conflict grinds on in eastern DRC, calls mount for nonmilitary solution

The seemingly intractable conflict between the M23 rebel group and security forces in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has some observers pressing for an alternative solution to avoid a regional war in the heart of Africa.

New York Times ☛ U.S. Bombs Weapons Caches of Iran-Backed Houthis in Yemen

Air Force B-2 bombers struck five underground weapons facilities in what may be a signal from the Biden administration to Iran.

The Kent Stater ☛ US officials have long looked to Sinwar’s eventual death as a key opportunity to end the Israel-Hamas war

US officials were mum in the immediate moments after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced it was investigating whether a strike in Gaza had taken out Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. If Sinwar is in fact confirmed dead, the ramifications for the Biden administration would be momentous.

Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

• New York Times ☛ In Rambling Interview, Trump Blames Zelensky, Not Putin, for Ukraine War

  The war began when Russia invaded Ukraine, but Donald J. Trump said on a podcast that the Ukrainian president “should never have let that war start.”

Federal News Network ☛ Payroll Protection Plan fraud revealed through a chorus of whistleblowers

"I think the two biggest cases, one of which was a case that we filed, were both for $9 million," said Jason Marcus.

Energy/Transportation

• DeSmog ☛ Toronto and Montreal Move Ahead with Fossil Fuel Ad Restrictions on Transit

• DeSmog ☛ Oil Companies Insist Carbon Capture Is Safe – So Why Are Albertans Saddled with the Risks?

BIA Net ☛ Turkey’s interest rate surpasses inflation for the first time in three years

The Central Bank kept the policy rate unchanged at 50% while the official inflation rate dropped below this rate for the first time in 14 months.

Pro Publica ☛ Exeter Finance Execs Came from Bank Charged With Predatory Lending

In the spring of 2020, attorneys general from nearly three dozen states announced a landmark legal settlement with the nation’s largest auto lender for risky borrowers.

Santander Consumer USA had for years made high-interest loans to people it knew couldn’t afford them, the officials alleged. When those borrowers got into financial trouble, it allowed them to delay making payments — without disclosing the steep costs of doing so. Because of those extensions, customers ended up owing thousands of dollars in surprise interest charges, and in many cases, they lost their cars.

New York Times ☛ Trump’s Rambling Speeches Focus His Critics and Worry His Allies

Some advisers and allies of former President Donald J. Trump are concerned about his scattershot style on the campaign trail as he continues to veer off script.

New York Times ☛ Trump Picked the Wrong Moment to Complain About a Language Barrier

But his description of the problems he sees with Haitian immigrants helps explain his monochrome vision of American life.

RFA ☛ Viral party video shot inside Cambodian prison prompts leadership reshuffle

Prime minister orders an investigation after a Facebook (Farcebook) video showed inmates dancing at a Phnom Penh prison.

Mexico News Daily ☛ Former President Calderón responds to García Luna’s drug trafficking sentence

The former Mexican commander-in-chief denied knowledge of his top security official's side hustle with the Sinaloa Cartel.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

• TwinCities Pioneer Press ☛ TikTok let through disinformation in political ads despite its own ban, Global Witness finds

  The group, which did a similar investigation two years ago, did find that the companies — especially Facebook (Farcebook) — have improved their content-moderation systems since then.

New York Times ☛ Fan Bingbing, Once China’s Top Actress, Returns to Film Years After Tax Scandal

Fan was a megastar until 2018, when she was fined tens of millions of dollars over unpaid taxes and her career tanked. “Green Night” is her first film since the scandal.

Press Gazette ☛ Phone-hacker Glenn Mulcaire loses bid to appeal against convictions

Judges said Mulcaire's request to challenge his second set of convictions had "no prospect of success".

LRT ☛ Is this the implosion of Lithuania’s pro-LGBT Freedom Party?

In 2020, Lithuania’s Freedom Party successfully rallied a young electorate by promising to legalise same-sex civil partnership and decriminalise soft drugs. But after four years in government, there is little to show for it, observers say. Is this the end of the hip party?

JURIST ☛ Human rights organizations issue complaint against risk-scoring algorithmic system in France

Amnesty International, along with 14 other organizations, issued a complaint on Wednesday demanding the French Social Security Agency’s National Family Allowance Fund (CNAF) stop using a risk-scoring algorithmic system. The algorithm is used by the CNAF to flag overpayments and errors in benefit payments.

New York Times ☛ Indian Doctors Go on Hunger Strike to Protest Killing of Colleague

Six were subsisting only on water and were admitted into the hospital after a multiday fast to demand justice for the brutal rape and killing of a medical resident.

Pro Publica ☛ Charleston Adds Historical Marker to Remember Largest Known U.S. Slave Sale

On a brilliant mid-October morning, Harold Singletary stood before a teal shroud hanging from a building along one of the most famed architectural stretches in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. A Black businessman, he never imagined he would be standing here, for this purpose, along a street he had walked countless times, not knowing.

He prepared to address a group gathered to unveil a historical marker that announced to anyone walking by that the finely restored antebellum structure behind him once housed an auction firm that in 1835 “conducted the largest known domestic slave sale in United States history.”

Digital Music News ☛ YouTube Premium Lite Resurrected Amid Ad Block Crackdown

Google debuted a YouTube Premium Lite plan in 2021 for limited testing in some countries. Last year, it axed that plan—but now it looks like a version of it is coming back for more testing. Surveillance Giant Google has confirmed it is testing a ‘different version’ of YouTube Premium Lite in Australia, Germany, and Thailand.

Hackaday ☛ Redbox Is Dead, But The Machines Are Kind Of Hanging On

Redbox was a service for renting DVDs from automated kiosks. The business was going well until it wasn’t anymore, and then the company went bankrupt in July this year. And yet… the machines live on. At least, that’s according to YouTuber [Smokin’ Silicon], who spotted some remaining Redbox kiosks out and about. Including at his local Walmart!