January 2026

Are Top Stablecoins Fallible? – They’ve Crashed in the Past

⋅

The crypto world seems to have a calm, stable center: stablecoins. These are digital assets created to have a stable value (typically $1) and mimic the price of a traditional (real-world) asset, often the U.S. dollar. Stablecoins are typically created in two ways: by backing each token with a traditional asset (fiat-backed) and by programming a stablecoin’s price via code (algorithmic). This combination is what makes them both powerful and fragile in different ways. They have proven in […]

Ver mais

Liked Liked
Even Linus Torvalds is trying his hand at vibe coding (but just a little)

Even Linus Torvalds is trying his hand at vibe coding (but just a little)

⋅

Linux and Git creator Linus Torvalds’ latest project contains code that was “basically written by vibe coding,” but you shouldn’t read that to mean that Torvalds is embracing that approach for anything and everything. Torvalds sometimes works on small hobby projects over holiday breaks. Last year, he made guitar pedals. This year, he did some work on AudioNoise, which he calls “another silly guitar-pedal-related repo.” It creates random digital audio effects. Torvalds revealed that he had used an […]

Ver mais

Liked Liked

Superhuman AI Exfiltrates Emails

⋅

Superhuman AI Exfiltrates Emails Classic prompt injection attack: When asked to summarize the user’s recent mail, a prompt injection in an untrusted email manipulated Superhuman AI to submit content from dozens of other sensitive emails (including financial, legal, and medical information) in the user’s inbox to an attacker’s Google Form. To Superhuman’s credit they treated this as the high priority incident it is and issued a fix. The root cause was a CSP rule that allowed markdown images […]

Ver mais

Liked Liked
Verizon to stop automatic unlocking of phones as FCC ends 60-day unlock rule

Verizon to stop automatic unlocking of phones as FCC ends 60-day unlock rule

⋅

The Federal Communications Commission is letting Verizon lock phones to its network for longer periods, eliminating a requirement to unlock handsets 60 days after they are activated on its network. The change will make it harder for people to switch from Verizon to other carriers. The FCC today granted Verizon’s petition for a waiver of the 60-day unlocking requirement. While the waiver is in effect, Verizon only has to comply with the CTIA trade group’s voluntary unlocking policy. […]

Ver mais

Liked Liked
Google removes some AI health summaries after investigation finds “dangerous” flaws

Google removes some AI health summaries after investigation finds “dangerous” flaws

⋅

On Sunday, Google removed some of its AI Overviews health summaries after a Guardian investigation found people were being put at risk by false and misleading information. The removals came after the newspaper found that Google’s generative AI feature delivered inaccurate health information at the top of search results, potentially leading seriously ill patients to mistakenly conclude they are in good health. Google disabled specific queries, such as “what is the normal range for liver blood tests,” after […]

Ver mais

Liked Liked
First impressions of Claude Cowork, Anthropic's general agent

First impressions of Claude Cowork, Anthropic’s general agent

⋅

New from Anthropic today is Claude Cowork, a “research preview” that they describe as “Claude Code for the rest of your work”. It’s currently available only to Max subscribers ($100 or $200 per month plans) as part of the updated Claude Desktop macOS application. I’ve been saying for a while now that Claude Code is a “general agent” disguised as a developer tool. It can help you with any computer task that can be achieved by executing code […]

Ver mais

Liked Liked
Judge: Trump violated Fifth Amendment by ending energy grants in only blue states

Judge: Trump violated Fifth Amendment by ending energy grants in only blue states

⋅

The Trump administration violated the Fifth Amendment when canceling billions of dollars in environmental grants for projects in “blue states” that didn’t vote for him in the last election, a judge ruled Monday. Trump’s blatant discrimination came on the same day as the government shut down last fall. In total, 315 grants were terminated in October, ending support for 223 projects worth approximately $7.5 billion, the Department of Energy confirmed. All the awardees, except for one, were based […]

Ver mais

Liked Liked

Operator learning for models of tear film breakup

⋅

Tear film (TF) breakup is a key driver of understanding dry eye disease, yet estimating TF thickness and osmolarity from fluorescence (FL) imaging typically requires solving computationally expensive inverse problems. We propose an operator learning framework that replaces traditional inverse solvers with neural operators trained on simulated TF dynamics. This approach offers a scalable path toward rapid, data-driven analysis of tear film dynamics.

Ver mais

Liked Liked

In My Misanthropy Era

⋅

Published on January 4, 2026 6:34 PM GMT For the past year I’ve been sinking into the Great Books via the Penguin Great Ideas series, because I wanted to be conversant in the Great Conversation. I am occasionally frustrated by this endeavour, but overall, it’s been fun! I’m learning a lot about my civilization and the various curmudgeons who shaped it. But one dismaying side effect is that it’s also been quite empowering for my inner 13 year […]

Ver mais

Liked Liked
Switching water sources improved hygiene of Pompeii’s public baths

Switching water sources improved hygiene of Pompeii’s public baths

⋅

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE released thermal energy roughly equivalent to 100,000 times the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, spewing molten rock, pumice, and hot ash over Pompeii. Pompeii’s public baths, aqueduct, and water towers were among the preserved structures frozen in time. A new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed calcium carbonate deposits from those structures to learn more […]

Ver mais

Liked Liked

Load More

↑

Digitado © 2026