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Meta Pays Out $725M Settlement in Cambridge Analytica Scandal

2025-09-14

Meta Pays Out $725M Settlement in Cambridge Analytica Scandal

Meta has begun distributing a $725 million settlement to Facebook users affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The class-action lawsuit, stemming from the 2018 revelation that up to 87 million users' data was improperly accessed, concluded in December 2022. Eligible users – those with active accounts between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022 – had until August 25, 2023, to file a claim. Approximately 18 million claims were validated. Payments are based on the length of time users had a Facebook account and will be sent via bank account, PayPal, virtual prepaid Mastercard, Venmo, or Zelle. Distribution began recently and is expected to last 10 weeks.

(www.cnn.com)

Tech

Unraveling Rust's Functions and Closures: A Deep Dive

2025-09-14

Unraveling Rust's Functions and Closures: A Deep Dive

Rust's functions and closures are a source of confusion for many beginners. This post delves into the underlying mechanisms of Rust's function and closure system, explaining the relationships between function items, function pointers, and the three closure traits: Fn, FnMut, and FnOnce. It reveals how the compiler transforms closures into anonymous structs and the compiler optimizations behind seemingly simple function calls. Understanding these underlying mechanisms empowers developers to write more efficient and error-free Rust code by grasping how different closure capture modes impact behavior.

(blog.cuongle.dev)

Development

Fukushima's Radioactive Legacy: Studying Insect Cognition

2025-09-14

Fukushima's Radioactive Legacy: Studying Insect Cognition

Scientists are investigating the impact of radiation on pollinating insects in the Fukushima exclusion zone. Using automated mazes, researchers are testing the learning and memory abilities of honeybees and giant hornets. Preliminary findings suggest a decline in cognitive function in insects from contaminated areas, correlating with the cesium-137 contamination gradient. While a direct causal link to radiation hasn't been definitively established, the uninhabited nature of the zone minimizes other contributing factors like pesticides, hinting at a potential detrimental effect of radiation on insect cognition and ecosystem health.

(news.cnrs.fr)

Tech Fukushima insect cognition radiation effects

Aquariums for Cats: Mental Stimulation and Stress Relief

2025-09-14

Aquariums for Cats: Mental Stimulation and Stress Relief

An aquarium isn't just a pretty addition to your home; it's a fantastic tool for improving your cat's mental and physical well-being. The calming movement and visual stimulation of the fish provide endless entertainment, engaging your cat's senses and reducing stress. Watching the fish encourages curiosity and exploration, enhancing cognitive function and preventing destructive behaviors. The soothing aquatic environment promotes relaxation, improves sleep quality, and offers a natural stress reliever. Discover the perfect blend of feline playfulness and aquatic serenity.

(cataquariums.com)

Misc aquarium pet wellbeing

A Tooth for an Eye: The Remarkable Success of OOKP Surgery

2025-09-14

Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP), or "tooth-in-eye" surgery, offers a groundbreaking solution for patients with severe corneal damage. This procedure uses a patient's own tooth (or a donor tooth) to create a biocompatible corneal implant, restoring vision where other methods fail. While risks like laminar resorption and glaucoma exist, long-term studies show remarkable success rates. Pioneered by Italian ophthalmologist Professor Benedetto Strampelli in the 1960s, OOKP represents a significant advancement in ophthalmic surgery, providing a lifeline for those suffering from irreversible corneal damage.

(en.wikipedia.org)

Tech Ophthalmic Surgery Corneal Transplant Biomaterials

Gemini: A Simpler, More Private Internet Alternative

2025-09-14

Gemini is a new way to use the internet, distinct from the World Wide Web. It prioritizes simplicity, featuring text-based pages with minimal formatting, avoiding complex programs and distracting ads. Gemini emphasizes human scale, encouraging individual and small-team development, and offers enhanced privacy protection with independent and encrypted requests. The article details installing Gemini clients on various platforms, finding content (blogs, directories, search engines), and publishing content (using third-party apps and shared hosting). Gemini aims for a purer, less distracting online experience.

(geminiquickst.art)

Tech

IBM's PC: An Open Secret to its Downfall?

2025-09-14

IBM's PC: An Open Secret to its Downfall?

Launched in 1981, the IBM PC quickly set the standard for personal computing. However, the PC wasn't entirely an IBM creation; key components like the CPU and OS came from Intel and Microsoft respectively. This openness fueled the PC's success, but also sowed the seeds of IBM's downfall. While IBM controlled the BIOS and manufacturing, it lacked control over the PC ecosystem. Ultimately, IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2005. This article argues that IBM's failure wasn't due to its open approach, but rather a strategic underestimation and internal cultural resistance towards the PC, coupled with a failure to leverage its strengths, leading to the loss of market dominance.

(thechipletter.substack.com)

Tech

Efficient Backpropagation: Simplifying Linear Transformation Derivatives with Einsum

2025-09-14

This post presents a clever backpropagation trick that simplifies the derivation of any einsum expression through a simple letter swap. Einsum is a concise way to express linear transformations such as matrix multiplication, dot products, Hadamard products, and more. The article uses matrix multiplication as an example, showing how to perform forward and backward propagation using einsum and verifying the results with JAX. This method avoids complex derivations, significantly simplifying backpropagation calculations in deep learning.

(tripplyons.com)

Development backpropagation linear transformations

SpikingBrain: A Brain-Inspired, Highly Efficient Large Language Model

2025-09-14

SpikingBrain: A Brain-Inspired, Highly Efficient Large Language Model

SpikingBrain is a 7B parameter large language model inspired by brain mechanisms. It integrates hybrid efficient attention, MoE modules, and spike encoding, supported by a universal conversion pipeline compatible with the open-source model ecosystem. This allows for continual pre-training with less than 2% of the data while achieving performance comparable to mainstream open-source models. Furthermore, the framework, operators, parallel strategies, and communication primitives are adapted for non-NVIDIA (MetaX) clusters, ensuring stable large-scale training and inference. SpikingBrain achieves over 100x speedup in TTFT for 4M-token sequences, while spiking delivers over 69% sparsity at the micro level. Combined with macro-level MoE sparsity, these advancements provide valuable guidance for designing next-generation neuromorphic chips. The repository provides the full implementation and weights of SpikingBrain-7B, including HuggingFace, vLLM inference, and quantized versions, enabling flexible deployment and research across various scenarios.

(github.com)

AI Neuromorphic Computing

Observability Query Builder: A Four-Year Iteration Focused on User Experience

2025-09-14

Observability Query Builder: A Four-Year Iteration Focused on User Experience

A company iterated three times on their query builder over four years. Initial versions were based on flawed assumptions, leading to usability issues even for senior engineers. V3 and V4 oversimplified, lacking complex boolean expressions and effective log support. Through extensive user support and feedback, they recognized the importance of user experience and released V5. V5's core principle: 'Stop making decisions for users.' It empowers users with more control and a more intuitive interface, featuring powerful capabilities like arbitrary nesting, precedence rules, and cross-data-type queries. V5 received overwhelmingly positive feedback; users even abandoned raw SQL in favor of the builder. Future plans involve incremental updates adding subqueries and joins, continuously enhancing the user experience.

(signoz.io)

Development query builder

Hacker Uncovers Massive International Cell Phone Theft Ring

2025-09-14

Hacker Uncovers Massive International Cell Phone Theft Ring

A stolen iPhone led hacker Martín Vigo on a weeks-long investigation, uncovering a massive two-year operation spanning six countries and resulting in 17 arrests. The criminal ring stole high-end phones, attempting to unlock them using phishing SMS messages to obtain PIN codes for accessing banking apps. Unsuccessful unlocks resulted in phones being sent to China for IMEI modification and resale. This case highlights the sophisticated and international nature of cell phone theft and underscores the critical importance of PIN security.

(english.elpais.com)

Tech

ChatGPT Saves the Day: AI Diagnosis Prevents Stroke

2025-09-14

ChatGPT Saves the Day: AI Diagnosis Prevents Stroke

The author, experiencing headaches, eyelid drooping, and other symptoms, consulted ChatGPT. Initially, ChatGPT suggested benign causes, but as symptoms worsened, it prompted the author to check pupil size. Unequal pupils led ChatGPT to urgently recommend an ER visit. A carotid artery dissection was diagnosed, and timely treatment prevented a stroke. The article highlights AI's potential in medical diagnosis while raising concerns about its future impact.

(benorenstein.substack.com)

Tech Medical Diagnosis Stroke Prevention

Groundbreaking Study: Myocardial Infarction May Be Infectious

2025-09-14

Groundbreaking Study: Myocardial Infarction May Be Infectious

A groundbreaking study from Finland and the UK reveals that myocardial infarction (heart attack) may be an infectious disease. Researchers discovered that bacterial biofilms within atherosclerotic plaques can be activated by viral infections or other triggers, leading to inflammation, plaque rupture, and ultimately, a heart attack. This challenges the conventional understanding of heart attack pathogenesis and opens doors for new treatments, diagnostics, and even vaccines. The study found bacterial DNA in plaques and developed antibodies confirming bacterial involvement. The findings offer novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies and the potential for preventing heart attacks through vaccination.

(www.sciencedaily.com)

Tech Myocardial Infarction Infectious Disease Atherosclerosis

UAE's K2 Think: A New Open-Source Model Challenging US and China's AI Hegemony

2025-09-14

UAE's K2 Think: A New Open-Source Model Challenging US and China's AI Hegemony

G42, an Emirati AI company, in collaboration with the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, unveiled K2 Think, an open-source AI model that rivals OpenAI's ChatGPT and China's DeepSeek in standard benchmark tests. With only 32 billion parameters, K2 Think outperforms flagship reasoning models 20 times larger and leads all open-source models in math performance. The UAE's massive investment in AI aims for economic diversification, reducing oil dependence, and actively participating in the global AI race, mirroring similar moves by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. However, the UAE's partnership with the US on AI data centers faces national security scrutiny.

(gizmodo.com)

AI

Hollow Knight: Silksong's $20 Price Tag Sparks Controversy in Indie Dev World

2025-09-14

Hollow Knight: Silksong's $20 Price Tag Sparks Controversy in Indie Dev World

Hollow Knight: Silksong's surprisingly low price of $19.99 has been a massive success, but it's also stirred up controversy within the indie game development community. While players rejoice at the value, many developers worry it will skew player expectations, making it harder to price their own games. Team Cherry's ability to set such a low price is attributed to their established IP and the success of the previous game. Other indie devs lack this luxury, facing challenges in justifying similar prices for their shorter, less-hyped titles. However, this low price point could have a positive ripple effect, potentially influencing the pricing strategy of major titles like GTA 6, encouraging a lower price point to increase overall sales.

(screenrant.com)

Game hollow knight

NASA's Dragonfly: Key Development Milestones Achieved

2025-09-14

NASA's Dragonfly: Key Development Milestones Achieved

NASA's Dragonfly mission, a car-sized rotorcraft designed to explore Saturn's moon Titan, is progressing smoothly. Recent tests have included aerodynamic analyses of its rotors, durability trials of its insulation in Titan-like conditions, and key science payload component testing. The Goddard Space Flight Center completed testing of a crucial component of the Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer, while APL engineers completed thermal testing of the lander's insulation and its communications systems. Lockheed Martin also passed key milestones for the aeroshell, ensuring a safe entry into Titan's atmosphere. These tests pave the way for Dragonfly's launch in July 2028, ensuring its ability to withstand Titan's extreme environment and successfully conduct its scientific investigations.

(science.nasa.gov)

Tech Dragonfly

Perl's Surprise Return to the TIOBE Top 10: A Legacy Language's Resurgence

2025-09-14

Perl's recent re-entry into the TIOBE index's top 10 after a period of relative quiet has sparked considerable discussion. This resurgence isn't solely due to technical advancements, but rather a confluence of factors. The sheer volume of Perl books available on Amazon, exceeding those for languages like PHP and Rust, provides a significant learning resource base. Furthermore, the ongoing development of Perl 5, coupled with the fading of Perl 6 (Raku), has resolved long-standing community uncertainty. Crucially, Perl retains its strengths in text processing, seamless Linux/shell integration, and expressive syntax, maintaining its relevance in data manipulation and system administration. While criticized for its sometimes obscure syntax, Perl's flexibility and power continue to resonate in niche areas.

(www.i-programmer.info)

Development

LinHT: Amateur Radio's Software Defined Transceiver Revolution

2025-09-14

LinHT, an open-source hardware software-defined transceiver, successfully booted for the first time! Praised by industry veteran Bruce Perens as the most important hardware project in amateur radio today, LinHT achieved a 5dBm output power in the 420-450MHz UHF band despite initial skepticism. The project owes its success to Vlastimil OK5VAS and Andreas OE3ANC, and the PCB design is publicly available. Prototype production cost approximately $190 per unit (based on a 5-unit run). LinHT signals a revolution in amateur radio, driven by software-defined transceivers.

(m17project.org)

Hardware Software Defined Transceiver

Ancient DNA Cracks the Case of the Plague of Justinian

2025-09-14

Ancient DNA Cracks the Case of the Plague of Justinian

For the first time, researchers have found direct genomic evidence of *Yersinia pestis*, the bacterium behind the Plague of Justinian—history's first recorded pandemic—in a mass grave at the ancient city of Jerash, Jordan. This discovery definitively links the pathogen to the devastating outbreak (AD 541–750), solving a long-standing historical mystery. Analysis of ancient DNA from eight teeth revealed nearly identical strains of *Y. pestis*, confirming its presence within the Byzantine Empire and suggesting a rapid, widespread outbreak. The research highlights the enduring threat of plague, which continues to circulate globally, underscoring the cyclical nature of pandemics and the importance of understanding their origins.

(phys.org)

Tech Justinian Plague

Alaska Rivers Turn Orange: Permafrost Thaw Unleashes Toxic Metals

2025-09-14

Alaska Rivers Turn Orange: Permafrost Thaw Unleashes Toxic Metals

Rivers in Alaska's Brooks Range, once pristine, now run orange and murky with toxic metals due to thawing permafrost. Global warming is releasing iron, cadmium, and aluminum into waterways, poisoning fish and devastating ecosystems. Researchers warn similar transformations are underway across the Arctic. This isn't from mining; it's a climate change-driven, irreversible ecological disaster, posing a severe threat to indigenous communities and the Arctic ecosystem.

(news.ucr.edu)

Tech permafrost

UltraPlot: A Succinct Matplotlib Wrapper for Stunning Graphics

2025-09-14

UltraPlot: A Succinct Matplotlib Wrapper for Stunning Graphics

UltraPlot is a concise Matplotlib wrapper designed for creating beautiful, publication-quality graphics. Building upon ProPlot and updated for modern matplotlib (3.9.0+), it simplifies the creation of complex multi-panel layouts, Cartesian plots, projections and maps, colorbars and legends, insets and panels, and visually appealing colormaps. Easily installable via pip or conda, with comprehensive documentation available.

(github.com)

Development

Visual Programming's Future: Beyond Nodes and Wires

2025-09-14

Visual Programming's Future: Beyond Nodes and Wires

This article explores the limitations of visual programming, arguing that it has long been trapped in the node-and-wire paradigm, neglecting the principle of "form follows function." Using CellPond as an example, the author highlights that its success lies in defining the underlying function (only four operations) first, with the form emerging naturally. The author further elaborates on the threefold meaning of "function": intrinsic nature, rationality, and algebra, and argues that visual programming should focus on leveraging the human visual cortex's pattern recognition capabilities to model problems, rather than simply mimicking textual programming. The article proposes modeling problems as entities and relationships, and utilizing visual elements (color, grouping, motion) to represent state changes, thus breaking through the limitations of existing visual programming and creating more powerful programming tools.

(interjectedfuture.com)

Development

Safe C++ Proposal Abandoned: C++ Committee Prioritizes Profiles Instead

2025-09-14

A year ago, the Safe C++ proposal aimed to add a safe subset to C++, offering strong guarantees like Rust without breaking existing code. However, the proposal was ultimately rejected by the C++ committee in favor of the Profiles approach. Profiles define constrained modes of C++ to ensure safety properties. It's a more pragmatic and adoptable solution than Safe C++, though it might offer less comprehensive safety guarantees. Ultimately, it's deemed a more realistic path forward.

(sibellavia.lol)

Development

Chesterton's Shaw: A Biography Unveiling a Complex Genius

2025-09-14

Chesterton's Shaw: A Biography Unveiling a Complex Genius

G. K. Chesterton's biographical study, "George Bernard Shaw," explores the multifaceted personality and influences of the renowned playwright. The book delves into Shaw's Irish identity, Puritan upbringing, and progressive spirit, highlighting how these shaped his impact on theatre and society. Chesterton challenges common misconceptions about Shaw, presenting him not as a simple enigma, but as a product of complex interwoven forces. This insightful biography sets the stage for a deeper understanding of one of literature's most provocative figures.

(www.gutenberg.org)

Misc George Bernard Shaw G.K. Chesterton

Babylon's Rebirth: Ancient City Rises From the Ashes

2025-09-14

Babylon's Rebirth: Ancient City Rises From the Ashes

The ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon, mentioned in the sacred texts of all three Abrahamic faiths, is experiencing a remarkable revival. Two World Monuments Fund (WMF) projects, the restoration of the Temple of Ninmakh and the mitigation of groundwater damage to the Ishtar Gate's retaining wall, are nearing completion. This resurgence coincides with a boom in tourism, with record visitor numbers. Despite years of war, looting, and environmental challenges, Babylon is reclaiming its place as a cultural hub, showcasing the resilience of the Iraqi people and their rich heritage. The successful use of traditional mud-brick techniques in the temple restoration highlights a commitment to preserving authentic methods.

(www.theartnewspaper.com)

Misc Cultural Heritage Iraq

Lexy: A C++ Parser Library Rivaling PEG Parsers

2025-09-14

Lexy: A C++ Parser Library Rivaling PEG Parsers

Lexy is a high-performance C++ parser library that strikes a balance between performance and control. Compared to other PEG parsers like Boost.Spirit and PEGTL, Lexy avoids implicit backtracking by controlling branch conditions, improving performance and simplifying error handling. Lexy supports advanced features like error recovery, operator precedence parsing, and allows zero-copy parsing directly into your own data structures. While Lexy's grammar is more verbose than Boost.Spirit's, it's better suited for larger grammars. Compilation times are reasonable, and modular design helps optimize build speed.

(github.com)

Development

Generative AI: Next Big Thing or Another Shipping Container?

2025-09-14

Generative AI: Next Big Thing or Another Shipping Container?

This article analyzes the investment landscape of generative AI, comparing it to the microprocessor and containerization revolutions. The author argues that unlike the microprocessor, generative AI hasn't created widespread wealth, instead being largely controlled by established tech giants. Similar to containerization, the value of generative AI is captured more by consumers than its creators. The article suggests investors focus on industries leveraging AI for efficiency gains, such as professional services, healthcare, and education, rather than directly investing in AI model companies due to intense competition and consolidation. Ultimately, consumers will be the biggest beneficiaries of AI, gaining access to a wider variety of affordable knowledge-intensive products and services.

(joincolossus.com)

Tech Tech Investment

Two Slice: A 2px High, Surprisingly Readable Font

2025-09-14

Two Slice is a font that's only 2 pixels tall, yet surprisingly readable! It includes uppercase and lowercase letters (with slight variations), numbers (of sorts), and some punctuation. You can probably read this, even if you wish you couldn't. It's especially readable at smaller sizes. The font is licensed under CC BY-SA, allowing commercial use with attribution.

(joefatula.com)

Design

AMD RDNA4: Efficiency Reigns Supreme in New GPU Architecture

2025-09-14

AMD RDNA4: Efficiency Reigns Supreme in New GPU Architecture

AMD's latest RDNA4 architecture prioritizes efficiency over raw performance. The RX 9000 series GPUs featuring RDNA4 boast significant efficiency improvements in ray tracing and machine learning, while also enhancing rasterization. Improvements include enhanced compression, a faster media engine (supporting H.264, H.265, and AV1 codecs with reduced latency), and an upgraded display engine (integrating Radeon Image Sharpening). RDNA4 excels in power consumption, particularly multi-monitor idle power. Further performance and efficiency gains come from an improved workgroup processor, larger L2 cache, and optimized Infinity Fabric architecture. In short, RDNA4 marks a significant leap in AMD's GPU design, prioritizing efficiency to deliver a more balanced and power-efficient experience for gamers and professionals alike.

(chipsandcheese.com)

Hardware

High Altitude Living Linked to Lower Heart Disease Mortality

2025-09-14

High Altitude Living Linked to Lower Heart Disease Mortality

Research shows that people living at higher altitudes have a lower risk of dying from heart disease and tend to live longer. Low oxygen levels may trigger genes to produce more blood vessels. The authors, residing at 8,400 feet, share advice for visitors from lower elevations, warning of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). They recommend acclimatizing at 5,000 feet for three days before ascending, stressing the importance of hydration and rest. Additionally, they highlight the intense UV radiation at high altitude, emphasizing the need for sun protection, hydration, and appropriate clothing.

(studioq.com)

Misc high altitude acute mountain sickness

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