Author Archives: Robin Edgar

About Robin Edgar

Organisational Structures | Technology and Science | Military, IT and Lifestyle consultancy | Social, Broadcast & Cross Media | Flying aircraft

Roomba Maker iRobot sells out to Amazon for $1.7 Billion cash – now your vacuum will be spying on you too

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Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -1.73% is buying Roomba maker iRobot Corp. IRBT +19.23% for $1.7 billion, giving the online retailer another connected-home product that deepens its ties to consumers’ homes.

Amazon agreed to pay $61 a share for iRobot in an all-cash deal. The price, which includes a small amount of debt, represents a 22% premium to iRobot’s closing price of $49.99 on Thursday.

iRobot shares rose 19% to $59.54 in recent trading. They are off 9.7% year to date. Amazon shares fell 0.8% to $141.41.

iRobot introduced its Roomba vacuum in 2002 and has sold more than 40 million units since. The wireless, smart-vacuum learns and maps spaces to clean dust and messes. It is a staple of Amazon’s Prime Day shopping bonanza, having been a featured product for eight straight years.

iRobot in May had projected reaching sales of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion this year. It withdrew that guidance on Friday in light of the deal and other challenges.

Roomba would join other Amazon-owned products like the Alexa virtual assistant speaker and Ring video doorbell that together give the retailer more ways to power smart homes.

[…]

Source: Amazon Buying Roomba Maker iRobot for $1.7 Billion – WSJ

SpaceX shows that it too can shower the Earth with debris

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Australian media has reported that space debris found in New South Wales was indeed junk from a SpaceX mission, including one piece measuring nearly three meters in length.

The black shard, found sticking out of the ground, is presumed to be Elon Musk’s take on 2001’s Monolith. The Register asked SpaceX to clarify, but we have yet to receive a response.

The debris fell to Earth earlier in July, and the three-meter long component was found on July 25. Australian authorities had been awaiting confirmation that the pieces were indeed from a SpaceX mission and, according to ABC South East NSW, that confirmation has now been received.

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell noted that the July 8 reentry path for the leftover SpaceX Crew-1 trunk was close to the Dalgety area (slightly inland, halfway between Melbourne and Sydney) where the debris was found. The lengthy shard also bears a distinct resemblance to the attach point of one of the trunk’s four fins. Additional debris was also found.

As well as a reusable capsule, the SpaceX Crew Dragon has an unpressurized trunk, which features solar panels and fins. The trunk is jettisoned prior to reentry for disposal. However, it appears that some components survived to land in Australia.

SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission was the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon, ferrying four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS.) It launched on November 16, 2020 and returned to Earth on May 2, 2021. The trunk, it appears, made its own return somewhat later.

[…]

Source: SpaceX shows that it too can shower the Earth with debris • The Register

Visa, Mastercard Cancel Ad Pornhub Payments Amid Lawsuit – suspicion is enough apparently

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Visa and Mastercard, two of the world’s largest payment processors, said Thursday that they will suspend payments for ad purchases on Pornhub. The move comes on the heels of a judge allowing a lawsuit to proceed that accuses Visa of knowingly facilitating the spread of child pornography, also known as child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

A federal judge denied Visa’s motion to dismiss last week, allowing the case to move forward against the payment processor for alleged involvement in a “criminal agreement” to profit off the videos. In a statement released Thursday, Visa CEO Alfred Kelly said that, while the company strongly disagreed with the court’s ruling it had created “new uncertainty” around the role of TrafficJunky, MindGeek’s advertising arm. (MindGeek is Pornhub’s parent company). Citing that uncertainty, Kelly said Visa would suspend any relationship with TraficJunky until further notice. That means customers will no longer be able to use Visa cards to purchase advertising on MindGeek sites, which includes Pornhub, for the duration of the suspension. Visa’s decision came just two days after Bill Ackman, an influential hedge fund manager, called on the credit card company to pressure Pornhub to remove CSAM content.

[…]

In a statement sent to Gizmodo, a MindGeek said that none of its platforms, including Pornhub, have ever tolerates CSAM or other illicit material.

“Despite today’s suspension of payment acceptance for our advertising platform, we are extremely confident in our policies and the fact that we have instituted trust and safety measures that far surpass those of any other major platform on the internet,” the company’s statement reads.

MindGeek went on to describe the recent allegation accusing the company of knowingly allowing and monetizing off CSAM material on its platform as “reckless,” and “false.”

[…]

“At this point in the lawsuit, the court has not yet ruled on the veracity of any allegations, and is required to assume all of the plaintiff’s allegations are true and accurate. When the court can actually consider the facts, we are confident the plaintiff’s claims will be dismissed for lack of merit.”

[…]

Source: Visa, Mastercard Suspend Ad Pornhub Payments Amid Lawsuit

Riot Blockchain Made More in Power Credits Than Mining Bitcoin

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At least one big bitcoin mining operation in Texas that was not actually mining much bitcoin during this season’s record-breaking heat netted millions of dollars in profits—more than they would have if they just kept on mining without any shutdowns. It’s thanks to power purchase agreements signed with the local grid, allowing them to sell electricity they purchased earlier back to the provider for a tidy sum.

Riot Blockchain itself announced it had made an estimated $9.5 million in power credits thanks to the multiple times it shut down its mining rigs. This was even more than the amount the company gained in selling bitcoin that month. The company’s page said it sold 275 bitcoin, with net proceeds equalling just $5.6 million. This is compared to last year when the company said it produced 444 bitcoin, worth approximately $16 million just before the price of BTC really spiked toward the tail end of 2021.

[…]

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas—AKA ERCOT—had asked businesses to routinely power down in order to conserve electricity throughout July. Riot and its massive 750-megawatt bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas reduced power multiple times during times of peak demand. Of course, many of the dozens of large-scale bitcoin mining operations also cut activity during the past month to not over-stress the often overtaxed grid, but Riot remains the largest token miner in the Lone Star State.

The amount of bitcoin produced during this past month was 318, 28% less than the same month last year. While the companies did publicly agree to shutdowns in order to preserve the grid, they were also avoiding scaling electricity prices during peak loads.

ERCOT provides power purchase agreements that are usually termed for one year, but Lee Bratcher, the president of the Texas Blockchain Council, told Gizmodo in a phone interview that only a handful of the biggest bitcoin miners actually have these PPAs. The ones that do, like Riot, can take advantage of the need to curtail power, while other miners simply have to make do.

The Texas Blockchain Council networks and promotes the many crypto mining operations in the state. Bratcher called these PPAs “a good deal” for ERCOT, since it can regain the power needed for the rest of its grid during peak times.

At the same time, the massive draw of these mining operations is only expected to increase. Texas’ grid system has said that Texas crypto miners will put a six gigawatt-demand on the grid by next year. Congressional Democrats have warned the seven largest mining rigs in the U.S. draw power equivalent to all the residential homes in the city of Houston. These crypto miners are only expected to get bigger over time.

[…]

Source: Riot Blockchain Made More in Power Credits Than Bitcoin

The Environmental Impact of Solar Panels

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“Switch to solar panels to help save the planet,” they say.

And they’re (mostly) right. Solar panels are a great source of clean energy because, unlike fossil fuels, solar energy doesn’t produce harmful carbon emissions while creating electricity. But how “clean” is the process of creating solar panels?

Ironically enough, solar panel production is reliant on fossil fuels. It also involves mining for precious metals, which contributes to greenhouse gasses and pollution.

Before we explore the extent of it, we want to be clear that we’re not here to tear down the use of solar panels. EcoWatch is a huge fan of solar energy and has helped hundreds of homeowners reduce their carbon emissions by going solar. But we want to be transparent about the impact that solar panels have on the environment — both good and bad.

The Carbon Footprint of a Solar Panel

While solar panels are an environmentally friendly energy solution, the materials and manufacturing process used to create them do have a decent-sized carbon footprint, as they involve mining, melting and cooling to be used.

Environmental Impact of Mining for Solar Panel Materials

Most solar cells are made up of silicon semiconductors and glass, as well as metals like silver, copper, indium and tellurium. And if we’re including solar batteries, add lithium to the list.

When it comes to environmental impact, gathering silicon and glass are both non-issues, as they’re abundant and non-toxic. However, the process of mining for those metals creates greenhouse gas emissions and can lead to soil, water and air pollution.1

Environmental Impact of Solar Panel Facilities

First thing to consider: Solar facilities are massive. It’s safe to assume that, in most cases, some wildlife and recreation land has been cleared to create solar panel production facilities.

Solar panel facilities also require a lot of energy to keep up and running, and unfortunately, a lot of the energy used for melting down silicon comes from coal burning, especially in China where pollution emissions are already high.2

There’s also a great need for water for the cooling process, which can be an environmental strain in more arid areas where water isn’t as available. And like any big production facility, solar panel production facilities cause air pollution.

Environmental Impact of Solar Panel Manufacturing

There are three different types of solar panels — monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin-film — and each are manufactured differently, meaning they each leave a different sized carbon footprint.

Manufacturing Monocrystalline Panels

Monocrystalline panels are the most common and have the highest energy conversion efficiency, typically ranging between 19 and 22%. Monocrystalline solar panels are made of pure, single-cell silicon crystals wedged between thin glass.

To make a monocrystalline solar panel, a huge piece of silicon is molded into a block, then cut into small wafers to be affixed onto a solar panel. It’s a complex process and, therefore, produces the highest emissions compared to any other solar panel manufacturing method.3

Manufacturing Polycrystalline Panels

Polycrystalline solar panels are also made of silicon, but instead of coming from a block, the silicon crystals are melted together and then placed onto the panel. Because of the melting process, polycrystalline solar panels do require a bit of electricity to create, although not as much as monocrystalline.4

Manufacturing Thin-Film Panels

Lastly, you have thin-film solar panels, which can be made from several different types of materials, like amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride (a type of silicon) or copper indium gallium selenide. T

ypically, thin-film solar panels are going to leave a smaller carbon footprint compared to their more popular counterparts.5 But on the downside, they’re created from extremely toxic materials that can lead to both human and environmental harm if not handled properly.6

Environmental Impact of Transporting Solar Panels

Emissions from solar panel transportation present another challenge. Solar panels are produced all over the world, but primarily in China, followed by the U.S. and Europe. And solar panels that are produced in one country may require shipments of parts from another.

To be honest, it’s hard to say exactly how big the carbon footprint is for each stage of making a solar panel — no matter which type. There hasn’t been much research or data released on the environmental impact of solar panel production. However, the Coalition on Materials Research Transparency is reportedly working to measure and report the carbon impacts associated with mining, producing and transporting solar panels.

It’s important to note that the amount of carbon emissions produced to create solar panels is still nowhere near that of traditional energy facilities, and it is quite small when compared to oil drilling, fracking or coal mining.7

But production aside, another common challenge surrounding solar panels is what happens after their average 25-year lifespan.

A Larger Issue: Solar Panel Recycling

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) set a target for solar energy to account for 30% of energy generation in the U.S. by 2030.8 If that target is hit, more than 1 billion solar panels will be actively collecting solar energy throughout the U.S. alone over the next decade.

While this is great news for reducing carbon emissions, it brings up a larger issue the solar industry hasn’t quite nailed down yet: solar panel recycling.

Scientists have been working on a better solution, but as of now, there isn’t a flushed-out system to recycle old solar panels. And there certainly aren’t enough places to do it.

As mentioned earlier, solar panels are made up of a lot of precious metals, and the carbon footprint of producing solar panels could be reduced if these materials could be recycled and repurposed instead of having to mine for more. Instead, lack of solar panel recycling availability is only creating more e-waste, which could eventually lead to solar panel material scarcity.

How Much Better is Solar for the Environment?

We’ve discussed all the ways in which solar panels can be harmful to the environment, but let’s not forget that they’re still a far better option than non-renewable energy alternatives.

Taking the carbon footprint of solar panels into account, one study still found that coal generates a footprint 18 times the size, while natural gas creates an emissions footprint 13 times the size of solar.9 It’s also worth repeating that solar energy produces zero emissions after production. For that reason alone, studies have revealed solar to be an essential solution to slowing climate change.10

But if solar continues to grow as the SEIA predicts it will, technology will also need to improve to minimize the effects that solar panel production will have on the environment, and proper solar panel recycling methods must be created.

Source: The Environmental Impact of Solar Panels – EcoWatch

Pull jet fuel from thin air? We can do that, say scientists

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The aviation industry’s attempts to go green are getting a boost from an unlikely place: carbon-neutral jet fuel pulled from thin air.

That may seem far-fetched, but it’s a concept that engineers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) have not only proved experimentally, but apparently proven again at scale. Even better, the fuel created by the process is allegedly a drop-in alternative to fossil-derived aviation fuel that can be used without changes to storage or distribution infrastructure.

Here’s how the system works:

Synthesizing kerosene pure enough to be used as jet fuel from thin air isn’t even a new concept. We know it can be formed from something called synthesis gas, or syngas, which is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

Crucially, the goal of this particular project is to produce a clean, carbon-neutral form of syngas that doesn’t create additional emissions. According to the researchers, the best way to do that is with solar energy.

For their test-scale unit, the researchers built an array of 169 sun-tracking reflectors that focus approximately 15kW of solar energy at a 16-inch aperture on a tower-mounted solar reactor. According to the researchers, the solar energy directed at the reactor “corresponds to an average solar concentration ratio of approximately 2,500 suns, with a peak above 4,000 suns.”

Inside the reactor, temperatures reach approximately 1,500°C (2,732°F), which is hot enough to split captured carbon dioxide and atmospheric water vapor to form syngas. As it cools, the syngas flows out of the reactor to a gas-to-liquid unit that processes it into kerosene.

According to the researchers, the syngas produced by the reactor has selectivity, purity, and quality high enough to make it suitable for Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, which turns liquid syngas made from hydrogen and carbon monoxide into hydrocarbons we can use to fly planes.

The system isn’t the most efficient – only managing a 4.1 percent solar-to-syngas efficiency. Still, project lead and ETH engineering professor Aldo Steinfeld told IEEE, 4.1 percent is a record for thermochemical fuel production.

The test-scale project didn’t use any heat capture technology, meaning that 4.1 percent record should be easily beaten. If heat capture technology were added to a future iteration of the facility, efficiency rates could reach as high as 20 percent, the researchers claimed.

Jet fuel that begins life as air and captured carbon, the researchers explained, is completely carbon-neutral because the fuel only produces as much carbon dioxide as went into its manufacturing.

[…]

Source: Pull jet fuel from thin air? We can do that, say scientists • The Register

EU Digital Markets App (DMA) approved for new rules for fair competition online

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[…] New rules for gatekeepers

The DMA defines new rules for large online platforms (“gatekeepers”). They now have to:

  • ensure that unsubscribing from core platform services is just as easy as subscribing
  • ensure that the basic functionalities of instant messaging services are interoperable, i.e. enable users to exchange messages, send voice messages or files across messaging apps
  • give business users access to their marketing or advertising performance data on the platform
  • inform the European Commission of their acquisitions and mergers

But they can no longer:

  • rank their own products or services higher than those of others (self-preferencing)
  • pre-install certain apps or software, or prevent users from easily un-installing these apps or software
  • require the most important software (e.g. web browsers) to be installed by default when installing an operating system
  • prevent developers from using third-party payment platforms for app sales
  • reuse private data collected during a service for the purposes of another service

If a large online platform is identified as a gatekeeper, it will have to comply with the rules of the DMA within six months.

If a gatekeeper violates the rules laid down in the DMA, it risks a fine of up to 10% of its total worldwide turnover. For a repeat offence, a fine of up to 20% of its worldwide turnover may be imposed.

If a gatekeeper systematically fails to comply with the DMA, i.e. it violates the rules at least three times in eight years, the European Commission can open a market investigation and, if necessary, impose behavioural or structural remedies.

[…]

Source: DMA: Council gives final approval to new rules for fair competition online – Consilium

AMTD Digital / $HKD massive pump and dump squeeze, Reddit shocked but figuring out who dun it

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HKD, a spinoff IPO with 51 employees within the space of a few days had a stock price explosion up to around $2555 per stock from around $75 starting on 28th July. No buy button was disabled (as was the case with Gamestop / $GME) and within a few days the rug was pulled on 3rd of August leading to a (current) value of around $1000. This is around the time of the very confusing $GME stock dividend split (splividend) which has caused chaos with brokers not issuing the split shares or dividend to clients with $GME stock. Redditors were caught completely flat footed by this, but the media has been blaming Reddit with headlines like the following

Newly minted meme stock darling AMTD slides after eye-popping surge – Reuters

AMTD Digital stock, HKD, is up more than 14,000% since its IPO. Is it a new meme stock? – USA Today

How a little-known stock soared 21,000% to overtake Costco – (CNN Business)The Reddit retail army is back.

As for Redditors, they are looking for the culprits

HKD, a Chinese ticker ($2m/month “revenue”, no history, and no products), fresh IPO’d on July 15th, same week as $GME’s record date. Only during GME’s Splividend volume suppression did HKD arbitrarily grow from $1B to $.15 TRILLION in market cap. Wut doin Ken? Buying Like-Kind FTD Settlement?

AMTD Digital $HKD the 25th Largest Company in the world in 2 weeks. Larger than Pfizer, Coca Cola, Bank of America, Shell or McDonald and you never heard of it. Meet their gifted managment team and comprehensive webpage.

If you’re wondering why HKD is up 4500% in two weeks, it’s because the Rothschilds are involved

They are trying to frame HKD as the next GME, claiming WSB is behind it. Smells very much like mayo.

Even CNN says that WSB pushed up HKD. Really? I feel like all of us knew about this stock only when it was too late.

Here is proof WSB did not have anything to do with HKD. Look at which line does up first. Do your research media

r/wallstreetbets - Here is proof WSB did not have anything to do with HKD. Look at which line does up first. Do your research media

Redditors are affronted that this stock is being treated differently from $GME – a stock that was being short squeezed for no reason apart from monetary gains for huge institutional investors such as Ken Griffin and Citadel and many more.

13 & Change to $2,555.30 per share. No systemic risk to market. No one freaked out at RobinHood or any other brokers, or clearing firms, or HedgeFunds… no buy button taken away to “Protect clients from risk!”. This tweet is 1,000% correct. What’s up?! 💎🙌🦍

They are also trying to figure out what it actually is that HKD actually does

You asked what HKD actually does? Ok, but this is gonna be painful…

TLDR: They took over an insurer in HK (Hong Kong) when China took over. They also bought up a couple insurers in Singapore. They may offer some fintech services and possibly a small media platform for some SE Asia internet celebs. Their “SpiderNet” is, according to them, their most profitable system. It appears to just be a business network that you have to pay to be a part of. It all sounds like a corporate crime syndicate straight out of a comic book.

They mention a “controlling shareholder” a few times, which I assume is AMTD Idea Group, a holding company. They’ve been investigated for some very fradulastic crap, which I will be writing up next. (https://hindenburgresearch.com/ebang/)

HKD, AMTD, WTF? The stock you haven’t heard of that’s up 30,000% in 2 weeks

This stock just IPO’d, is based in a foreign country, and has run 30,000% in two weeks on very low volume. Translation: Please do not read this and conclude, “Wow, what a great stock that I should definitely buy!” — That is absolutely NOT what we’re saying here

the website’s explanation of SpiderNet is extremely vague.

What can be gleaned from the website is:

  • AMTD provides investment banking and asset management services to clients on an international basis
  • AMTD Digital raised $125M in its New York IPO — the largest listing by a Chinese company in 2022
  • It owns the SpiderNet platform

That’s really all the website explains. After digging through a few press releases, we were able to determine that the SpiderNet platform intends to provide capital and technology to digital startups, as well as provide networking services to other digital startups. In turn, SpiderNet collects a fee from its members, which is where it gets almost all of its revenue.

In short: AMTD Digital is a Hong Kong based fintech play which essentially provides loans and services to startups in exchange for fees.

Wave Swell Blowhole Wave Energy Generator Exceeds Expectations In 12-Month Test

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Wave Swell Energy’s remarkable UniWave 200 is a sea platform that uses an artificial blowhole formation to create air pressure changes that drive a turbine and feed energy back to shore. After a year of testing, the company reports excellent results. New Atlas reports: As we’ve discussed before, the UniWave system is a floating device that can be towed to any coastal location and connected to the local energy grid. It’s designed so that wave swells force water into a specially designed concrete chamber, pressurizing the air in the chamber and forcing it through an outlet valve. Then as the water recedes, it generates a powerful vacuum, which sucks air in through a turbine at the top and generates electricity that’s fed into the grid via a cable. As a result, it draws energy from the entire column of water that enters its chamber, a fact the team says makes it more efficient than wave energy devices that only harvest energy from the surface or the sea floor.

[…] A 200-kW test platform was installed last year off King Island, facing the notoriously rough seas of Bass Strait, which separates the island state of Tasmania from the mainland of Australia. There, it’s been contributing reliable clean energy to the island’s microgrid around the clock for a full 12 months. The WSE team has made a few live tweaks to the design during operation, improving its performance beyond original expectations. “We set out to prove that Wave Swell’s wave energy converter technology could supply electricity to a grid in a range of wave conditions, and we have done that,” said WSE CEO Paul Geason in a press release. “One key achievement has been to deliver real-world results in Tasmanian ocean conditions to complement the AMC test modeling. In some instances, the performance of our technology in the ocean has exceeded expectations due to the lessons we’ve learnt through the project, technological improvements and the refinements we have made over the course of the year.” “Our team is excited to have achieved a rate of conversion from wave power to electricity at an average of 45 to 50% in a wide range of wave conditions,” he continues. “This is a vast improvement on past devices and shows that the moment has arrived for wave power to sit alongside wind, solar and energy storage as part of a modern energy mix.”

The King Island platform will remain in place at least until the end of 2022, and the company is now gearing up to go into production. “Having proven our device can survive the toughest conditions the Southern Ocean and Bass Strait can throw at it, and deliver grid compliant electricity, our priority now shifts to commercializing the technology,” said Gleason. “For Wave Swell this means ensuring the market embraces the WSE technology and units are deployed to deliver utility scale clean electricity to mainland grids around the world.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD5fXCW-yKc

Source: Blowhole Wave Energy Generator Exceeds Expectations In 12-Month Test – Slashdot

Toyota and Woven Planet Have Developed a New Portable Hydrogen Cartridge Prototype

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TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (“Toyota”) and its subsidiary, Woven Planet Holdings, Inc. (“Woven Planet”), have developed a working prototype of its portable hydrogen cartridge. This cartridge design will facilitate the everyday transport and supply of hydrogen energy to power a broad range of daily life applications in and outside of the home. Toyota and Woven Planet will conduct Proof of Concept (“PoC”) trials in various places, including Woven City, a human-centered smart city of the future currently being constructed in Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Portable Hydrogen Cartridge (Prototype)
Portable Hydrogen Cartridge (Prototype)*1

[…]

Together with ENEOS Corporation, Toyota and Woven Planet are working to build a comprehensive hydrogen-based supply chain aimed at expediting and simplifying production, transport, and daily usage. These trials will focus on meeting the energy needs of Woven City residents and those living in its surrounding communities.

Benefits of Using Hydrogen Cartridges

  • Portable, affordable, and convenient energy that makes it possible to bring hydrogen to where people live, work, and play without the use of pipes
    • Prototype dimensions
      400 mm (16″) in length x 180 mm (7″) in diameter
    • Target weight
      5 kg (11 lbs)
  • Swappable for easy replacement and quick recharging
  • Volume flexibility allows for a broad variety of daily use applications*2
  • Small-scale infrastructure can meet energy needs in remote and non-electrified areas and be swiftly dispatched in the case of a disaster

Next Steps for the Hydrogen Cartridge

[…]

Our goal is to help hydrogen become commonplace by making this clean form of energy safe, convenient, and affordable. By establishing the underlying supply chain, we hope to facilitate the flow of a larger volume of hydrogen and fuel more applications. Woven City will explore and test an array of energy applications using hydrogen cartridges including mobility, household applications, and many future possibilities we have yet to imagine. Together with inventors and those living within and around Woven City, we will continue to advance mobility over time by constantly developing more practical applications for hydrogen cartridges. In future Woven City demonstrations, we will continue to improve the hydrogen cartridge itself, making it increasingly easy to use and improving the energy density.

Hydrogen Cartridge Applications (Image)
Hydrogen Cartridge Applications (Image)

The ultimate goal of this project is to realize a carbon-neutral society where everyone can access clean energy, first in Japan and then throughout the world. Toyota and Woven Planet aim to develop best practices for incorporating clean hydrogen energy into daily life by conducting human-centered demonstrations in and around Woven City. These real-life experiences will help us learn how to best transform hydrogen into a familiar, well-used, and well-loved form of energy.

The portable hydrogen cartridge prototype will be showcased at Super Taikyu Series 2022 Round 2 at Fuji SpeedWay from June 3 to 5, 2022*3. Our showcase is geared toward teaching people about how hydrogen energy works and helping them imagine the countless ways hydrogen can become a useful part of their daily lives.

Source: Toyota and Woven Planet Have Developed a New Portable Hydrogen Cartridge Prototype | Corporate | Global Newsroom | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website

Solana ‘hot’ wallets are being drained in multi-million dollar attack

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An unknown actor has drained over 8,000 internet-connected wallets in an ongoing attack on the Solana blockchain ecosystem. According to Blockchain auditor OtterSec, the attacks were still ongoing when it posted an update in the evening of August 2nd and that they had affected multiple wallets, including Phantom, Slope, Solflare and TrustWallet, across a wide variety of platforms.

As TechCrunch notes, the bad actor seems to have stolen both Solana tokens and USDC stablecoins, with the estimated losses so far amounting to around $8 million. OtterSec is now encouraging users to move all their assets to a hardware wallet, and the Solana Status Twitter account echoed that advice, adding that there’s no evidence “cold” wallets have been impacted.

The Solana Status account has also revealed that an exploit allowed a malicious actor to drain funds from the compromised wallets and that it seems to have affected both their mobile versions and extensions. Engineers from multiple ecosystems have already banded together to work with security researchers to identify the root cause of the exploit, which is yet to be discovered.

[…]

Source: Solana ‘hot’ wallets are being drained in multi-million dollar attack | Engadget

WhatsApp boss says no to AI filters policing encrypted chat

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Will Cathcart, who has been at parent company Meta for more than 12 years and head of WhatsApp since 2019, told the BBC that the popular communications service wouldn’t downgrade or bypass its end-to-end encryption (EE2E) just for British snoops, saying it would be “foolish” to do so and that WhatsApp needs to offer a consistent set of standards around the globe.

“If we had to lower security for the world, to accommodate the requirement in one country, that … would be very foolish for us to accept, making our product less desirable to 98 percent of our users because of the requirements from 2 percent,” Cathcart told the broadcaster. “What’s being proposed is that we – either directly or indirectly through software – read everyone’s messages. I don’t think people want that.”

Strong EE2E ensures that only the intended sender and receiver of a message can read it, and not even the provider of the communications channel nor anyone eavesdropping on the encrypted chatter. The UK government is proposing that app builders add an automated AI-powered scanner in the pipeline – ideally in the client app – to detect and report illegal content, in this case child sex abuse material (CSAM).

[…]

Source: WhatsApp boss says no to AI filters policing encrypted chat • The Register

They always trot out sex abuse and children when they want to impair your freedoms.

Nomad Bridge Hack Allowed ‘Mob’ to Drain $190m in Crypto

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As evidenced by its namesake, apparently there wasn’t much security stopping a hoard of wandering strangers from breaking into the Nomad DeFi project’s token bridge, allowing hundreds of unknown hackers and some users to walk away with over $190 million crypto, leaving behind a bare pittance in the project’s wallet.

Late on Monday, users started noticing tokens being extracted from Nomad’s accounts “in million-dollar increments.” Crypto security company CertiK confirmed in a Tuesday analysis that the bridge protocol, which allows users to send tokens between separate blockchains, had been breached thanks to a routine upgrade that allowed bad actors to skip verification messages. CoinTelegraph reported that the first transaction, likely the initial hacker, managed to remove about $2.3 million in crypto from the bridge.

Apparently, this breach further allowed other users to exploit the bridge, turning it essentially into a Black Friday-esque free-for-all. CertiK’s analysis further said the vulnerability was in the token bridge’s initialization process, introduced in the flawed upgrade, allowing users to copy and paste the original hackers transaction number and replace it with a personal one. Researchers said in just four hours, other hackers, bots, and even community members drained the protocol in a “frenzied mob.”

The crypto developer who goes by Foobar on Twitter wrote that this attack was “the first decentralized crowd-looting of a 9-figure bridge in history.” There are hundreds of addresses that show they’ve received tokens from the bridge during the exploit.

Some users have actually gone back to the protocol, hanging their heads in shame and offering to return the stolen funds. Some claimed it was “an accident,” while others said they were trying to protect their friend’s assets, according to screenshots posted by Foobar. DefiLlama shows that the current value of the blockchain is sitting at just a little under $16,000.

[…]

Source: Nomad Bridge Hack Allowed ‘Mob’ to Drain Millions in Crypto

NASA Is Changing Its Rules for Private Astronauts

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As more private astronauts venture out into space, NASA is seeking to better regulate their journeys to Earth orbit. The space agency recently announced some updates to the set of rules required for upcoming private astronaut missions, including the stipulation that all future missions be led by a former NASA astronaut.

NASA released the list of updated rules on Monday, which will be documented as part of the Private Astronaut Mission Authorization, Coordination, and Execution (PACE) Annex 1. The updates are “lessons learned” from the first private astronaut mission to the ISS, in which Axiom space sent four astronauts to the ISS in April. Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) was led by former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, but the new requirements now call for all future missions to be led by a former NASA astronaut. For these missions, the NASA astronaut will serve as the mission commander and provide guidance “during pre-flight preparation through mission execution.”

Axiom Space was planning on sending future missions without a NASA astronaut and have four paying customers instead of three, according to SpaceNews. It’s not yet clear how the new rules will affect the private space company’s original plan to launch private missions without a NASA astronaut in command.

[…]

Source: NASA Is Changing Its Rules for Private Astronauts

AI-friendly patent law needed for ‘national security’ argued in US Chamber of Commerce

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America urgently needs to rewrite its patent laws to recognize modern artificial intelligence technologies, business and IP leaders have said.

This sentiment emerged from a series of hearings organized by the US Chamber of Commerce, during which experts from academia, industry, and government were invited to speak. The meetings, held last month, raised important questions plaguing the development of state-of-the-art AI models: should AI algorithms be patentable? And, separately, should these systems be granted patent rights for inventions they help create?

Today’s IP laws are outdated, it was argued. The rules dictating what types of innovations can be patented have stayed largely untouched since the historic Patent Act of 1793. Although the law is broad and states “any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement on any art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter” is potentially patentable, there other conditions that make it difficult to patent things like machine-learning models.

Patents are only useful if they provide clear scientific and economic benefits to the country, the group argues. It’s why the Patent Act states that descriptions of the inventions should “enable any person skilled in the art or science, of which it is a branch, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make, compound, and use the same.” That means someone suitably skilled should be able to take a patent text and diagrams, understand what’s going on, and reproduce the technology themselves.

But take a system with a trained neural network. That collection of weights and values that mysteriously turns input data into output predictions is opaque and hard to interpret: experts often don’t quite know why a model behaves the way it does, which makes explaining its inner workings in a patent difficult.

Well, OK, let’s just say the patent explains how to train the neural network to produce the same results, thus allowing the invention to be recreated. But reproducibility is notoriously difficult in machine learning. You need access to the training data and other settings to recreate it. That becomes problematic if the data is medical or personal info, or proprietary, because it would need to be made public as part of the patent filing, and not all the necessary settings and tweaks may be disclosed in an application.

Patent examiners, therefore, may struggle with patent applications of AI technology, and reject submissions, if they find the text is confusing, or not interpretable or reproducible. Thus, changes are needed in the law to allow machine-learning systems to be accepted as novel inventions, it was argued. And being able to patent and protect these inventions encourages businesses to build commercial products, we’re further told. Everyone gets to see the progression of tech and science, and inventors are granted rights to their specific part of it.

It is absolutely crucial, and it is a matter of immediate national security

“The patent code that [our founders] put in place was fantastic, however they did not anticipate DNA processing, artificial intelligence, cryptography, software code, and all of the modern technologies of the next industrial revolution,” Andrei Iancu, former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and ex-Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), said in a Chamber of Commerce statement on Monday.

Rejecting AI patents, however, we’re told, will keep knowledge of the latest commercial applications of the technology from the public and hamper innovation.

“So, to say that the patent system, at least from that perspective, needs to modernize is an understatement. It is absolutely crucial, and it is a matter of immediate national security,” Iancu added.

The chamber noted China has surpassed the US in the number of international patent filings in 2019 and in 2020. If America is to hold a leadership position in AI, its leaders need to treat IP, such as machine learning breakthroughs, as a national asset, Brian Drake, federal chief technology officer at Accrete AI Government, a company focused on building enterprise-level AI applications, asserted.

Because for one thing, he said, rival nations are pouring all their energies into developing machine-learning technology to use against the United States of America.

“I’m talking about all the instruments of national power from our adversaries being directed at all of our national security instruments and economic power centers. That means their intelligence apparatuses, that means their direct and indirect funding apparatuses, that means their commercial military integration activities. All of those are being directed toward artificial intelligence. And make no mistake, it is about winning the future war,” Drake said.

Most experts agree AI algorithms should be patentable, but whether patent authorship or ownership rights should be given to machines that produce technologies, however, is debatable. Current IP laws do not recognize non-human entities as inventors, meaning machine-learning systems cannot be recognized as such.

Stephen Thaler, founder of Imagination Engines, a company in Missouri, who applied in 2019 for two US patents which listed his machine named DABUS as the inventor, found this out the hard way when his applications were rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Thaler believes there is good reason to give machines at least authorship rights, as it would discourage humans from stealing computers’ ideas and profiting from them – the originator would be on record in the patent office – he previously told The Register. But it’s not clear that there is any practical use in recognizing software as inventors yet, considering they have no agency or capabilities to sue for infringement unlike humans.

“To summarize, we cannot sustain innovation around AI without robust and reliable IP rights, which are essential to the prosperity of our innovative nation,” Christian Hannon, a patent attorney serving in the Office of Policy and International Affairs at USPTO, said. “To grow our economy and stay globally competitive, we must promote invention and patenting more than ever.”

The US Chamber of Commerce, one of the largest largest lobbying organizations in America, is planning to publish later this year a final report from its hearings, issuing recommendations for policy changes the US government can enact

VMware patches critical admin authentication bypass bug

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VMware has fixed a critical authentication bypass vulnerability that hits 9.8 out of 10 on the CVSS severity scale and is present in multiple products.

That flaw is tracked as CVE-2022-31656, and affects VMware’s Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager, and vRealize Automation. It was addressed along with nine other security holes in this patch batch, published Tuesday.

Here’s the bottom line of the ‘31656 bug, according to VMware: “A malicious actor with network access to the UI may be able to obtain administrative access without the need to authenticate.” Quite a nice way to get admin-level control over a remote system.

The critical vulnerability is similar to, or perhaps even a variant or patch bypass of, an earlier critical authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2022-22972) that also rated 9.8 in severity and VMware fixed back in May. Shortly after that update was issued, CISA demanded US government agencies pull the plug on affected VMware products if patches can’t be applied.

While the virtualization giant isn’t aware of any in-the-wild exploits (so far at least) of the newer vulnerability, “it is extremely important that you quickly take steps to patch or mitigate these issues in on-premises deployments,” VMware warned in an advisory. “If your organization uses ITIL methodologies for change management, this would be considered an ’emergency’ change.”

In addition to the software titan and third-party security researchers urging organizations to patch immediately, Petrus Viet, the bug hunter who found and reported the flaw, said he’ll soon release a proof-of-concept exploit for the bug. So to be perfectly clear: stop what you are doing and immediately assess and if necessary patch this flaw before miscreants find and exploit it, which they are wont to do with VMware vulns.

Tenable’s Claire Tills, a senior research engineer with the firm’s security response team, noted that CVE-2022-31656 is especially worrisome in that a miscreant could use it to exploit other bugs that VMware disclosed in this week’s security push.

“It is crucial to note that the authentication bypass achieved with CVE-2022-31656 would allow attackers to exploit the authenticated remote code execution flaws addressed in this release,” she wrote.

She’s referring to two remote code execution (RCE) flaws, CVE-2022-31658 and CVE-2022-31659, also discovered by Petrus Viet that would allow an attacker with admin-level network access to remotely deploy malicious code on a victim’s machine. Thus someone could use the ‘31656 to login with administrative powers, and then exploit the other bugs to pwn a device.

Both of these, ‘31658 and ‘31659, are dubbed “important” by VMware and ranked with a CVSS score of 8.0. And similar to the critical vuln that can be used in tandem with these two RCE, both affect VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager and vRealize Automation products.

In other patching news, the rsync project released updates to fix a vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-29154, that could allow miscreants to write arbitrary files inside directories of connecting peers.

Rsync is a tool for transferring and syncing files between remote and local machines, and exploiting this vulnerability could allow “a malicious rysnc server (or Man-in-The-Middle attacker) [to] overwrite arbitrary files in the rsync client target directory and subdirectories,” according to researchers Ege Balci and Taha Hamad, who discovered the bug.

That means a malicious server or MITM could overwrite, say, a victim’s ssh/authorized_keys file.

While these three VMware vulns deserve top patching priority, there are some other nasty bugs in the bunch. This includes three local privilege-escalation vulnerabilities (CVE-2022-31660, CVE-2022-31661 and CVE-2022-31664) in VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager, and vRealize Automation.

All three received CVSS scores of 7.8 and successful exploits would allow criminals with local access to escalate privileges to root — and from there, pretty much do whatever they want, such as steal information, install a backdoor, inject a trojan, or shut down the system entirely.

[…]

Source: VMware patches critical admin authentication bypass bug • The Register

New Gmail Attack Bypasses Passwords And 2FA To Read All Email in browser extension

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According to cyber security firm Volexity, the threat research team has found the North Korean ‘SharpTongue’ group, which appears to be part of, or related to, the Kimsuky advanced persistent threat group, deploying malware called SHARPEXT that doesn’t need your Gmail login credentials at all.

Instead, it “directly inspects and exfiltrates data” from a Gmail account as the victim browses it. This quickly evolving threat, Volexity says it is already on version 3.0 according to the malware’s internal versioning, can steal email from both Gmail and AOL webmail accounts, and works across three browsers: Google GOOG +1.9% Chrome, Microsoft MSFT +1.5% Edge, and a South Korean client called Whale.

CISA says Kimsuky hackers ‘most likely tasked by North Korean regime’

The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, reports that Kimsuky has been operating since 2012, and is “most likely tasked by the North Korean regime with a global intelligence gathering mission.”

While CISA sees Kimsuky most often targeting individuals and organizations in South Korea, Japan, and the U. S., Volexity says that the SharpTongue group has frequently been seen targeting South Korea, the U. S. and Europe. The common denominator between them is that the victims often ” work on topics involving North Korea, nuclear issues, weapons systems, and other matters of strategic interest to North Korea.”

The report says that SHARPEXT differs from previous browser extensions deployed by these hacking espionage groups in that it doesn’t attempt to grab login credentials but bypasses the need for these and can grab email data as the user reads it.

The good news is that your system needs to be compromised by some means before this malicious extension can be deployed. Unfortunately, we know all too well that system compromise is not as difficult as it should be.

[…]

Source: New Gmail Attack Bypasses Passwords And 2FA To Read All Email

map: How far can you go by train in 5h?

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This map shows you how far you can travel from each station in Europe in less than 5 hours.

It is inspired by the great Direkt Bahn Guru. The data is based off of this site, which sources it from the Deutsch Bahn.

Hover your mouse over a station to see the isochrones from that city.

This assumes interchanges are 20 minutes, and transit between stations is a little over walking speed. Therefore, these should be interpreted as optimal travel times. The journeys might not exist when taking into account real interchange times.

MIT engineers develop stickers that can see inside the body for 48 hours

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[…]

In a paper appearing today in Science, the engineers present the design for a new ultrasound sticker — a stamp-sized device that sticks to skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours.

The researchers applied the stickers to volunteers and showed the devices produced live, high-resolution images of major blood vessels and deeper organs such as the heart, lungs, and stomach. The stickers maintained a strong adhesion and captured changes in underlying organs as volunteers performed various activities, including sitting, standing, jogging, and biking.

The current design requires connecting the stickers to instruments that translate the reflected sound waves into images. The researchers point out that even in their current form, the stickers could have immediate applications: For instance, the devices could be applied to patients in the hospital, similar to heart-monitoring EKG stickers, and could continuously image internal organs without requiring a technician to hold a probe in place for long periods of time.

If the devices can be made to operate wirelessly — a goal the team is currently working toward — the ultrasound stickers could be made into wearable imaging products that patients could take home from a doctor’s office or even buy at a pharmacy.

“We envision a few patches adhered to different locations on the body, and the patches would communicate with your cellphone, where AI algorithms would analyze the images on demand,” says the study’s senior author, Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at MIT. “We believe we’ve opened a new era of wearable imaging: With a few patches on your body, you could see your internal organs.”

[…]

The MIT team’s new ultrasound sticker produces higher resolution images over a longer duration by pairing a stretchy adhesive layer with a rigid array of transducers. “This combination enables the device to conform to the skin while maintaining the relative location of transducers to generate clearer and more precise images.” Wang says.

The device’s adhesive layer is made from two thin layers of elastomer that encapsulate a middle layer of solid hydrogel, a mostly water-based material that easily transmits sound waves. Unlike traditional ultrasound gels, the MIT team’s hydrogel is elastic and stretchy.

“The elastomer prevents dehydration of hydrogel,” says Chen, an MIT postdoc. “Only when hydrogel is highly hydrated can acoustic waves penetrate effectively and give high-resolution imaging of internal organs.”

The bottom elastomer layer is designed to stick to skin, while the top layer adheres to a rigid array of transducers that the team also designed and fabricated. The entire ultrasound sticker measures about 2 square centimeters across, and 3 millimeters thick — about the area of a postage stamp.

The researchers ran the ultrasound sticker through a battery of tests with healthy volunteers, who wore the stickers on various parts of their bodies, including the neck, chest, abdomen, and arms. The stickers stayed attached to their skin, and produced clear images of underlying structures for up to 48 hours. During this time, volunteers performed a variety of activities in the lab, from sitting and standing, to jogging, biking, and lifting weights.

[…]

Source: MIT engineers develop stickers that can see inside the body | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Samsung adds ‘repair mode’ to smartphone

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When activated, repair mode prevents a range of behaviors – from casual snooping to outright lifting of personal data – by blocking access to photos, messages, and account information.

The mode provides technicians with the access they require to make a fix, including the apps a user employs. But repairers won’t see user data in apps, so content like photos, texts and emails remains secure.

When users enable repair mode their device reboots. To exit, the user reboots again after logging in their normal way and turning the setting off.

Samsung said it is rolling out repair mode via software update, initially on the Galaxy S21 series within South Korea, with more models, and perhaps locations, getting the functionality over time.

Samsung has not explained how the feature works. Android devices already offer the chance to establish accounts for different users, so perhaps Samsung has created a role for repair technicians and made that easier to access.

Most repair technicians won’t want to view or steal a customer’s personal data – but it does happen.

Apple was forced to pay millions last year after two iPhone repair contractors allegedly stole and posted a woman’s nudes to the internet. That fiasco was in no way an isolated incident. In 2019 a Genius Bar employee allegedly texted himself explicit images taken from an iPhone he repaired and was subsequently fired.

[…]

Source: Samsung adds ‘repair mode’ to South Korean smartphone • The Register

Indonesian Government Blocks Steam, Epic, Ubisoft, Nintendo and more for 270 million people

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Over the weekend, the Indonesian government began the task of blocking any website or service that had failed to register as part of new “internet control” laws. That ended up being a lot, including everything from Steam to the Epic Games Store to Nintendo Online to EA and Ubisoft’s platforms.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo) took the steps after the introduction of strict new laws, which the government says is part of a crackdown on anything appearing online that is “deemed unlawful,” and which would require any online service platform or provider hosting any such “unlawful” content to remove it within 24 hours (or four if it is deemed to be “urgent”).

In order to abide by those laws, international companies operating in Indonesia needed to have signed up by the weekend, and unsurprisingly given the sweeping powers at play, many have chosen not to, at least for now. As a response, non-participating services have been blocked to Indonesian IPs, which means alongside wider, more mainstream companies like PayPal and Yahoo, a host of gaming platforms have also been cut off.

While PayPal was temporarily reinstated (in order to allow customers to get their money off the platform), the gaming stores and platforms have remained dark since the weekend (the new law’s registration deadline passed on July 27).

As Global Voices sums up, these laws have been opposed both within and outside of Indonesia since they were first announced:

The mandatory registration of private electronic systems operators (ESOs) is stipulated in the Ministerial Regulation 5 (MR5) issued in December 2020. Its amended version, Ministerial Regulation 10 (MR10), was released in May 2021.

Both MR5 and MR10 have been consistently opposed by the media, civil society groups, and human rights advocates for containing provisions that pose a threat to freedom of expression.

Human Rights Watch have said of the laws:

MR5 is deeply problematic, granting government authorities overly broad powers to regulate online content, access user data, and penalize companies that fail to comply…Ministerial Regulation 5 is a human rights disaster that will devastate freedom of expression in Indonesia, and should not be used in its current form.

While this isn’t a market that’s normally in the headlines, this is important news, because with its large population (at 270 million it’s the fourth most-populous nation on Earth) Indonesia is a huge market for online services. As The Diplomat points out, “Indonesia remains one of the largest internet markets in the world, with the third-largest population of Facebook users and also comes in the top 10 for users of YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp.”

None of the services currently affected are banned; they’re technically just restricted until either they sign up to Kominfo or the law is modified (or repealed). Some of the companies that have signed up include Google, Roblox and Riot Games (League of Legends, Valorant). And while direct access to services like Steam are currently not available, Indonesian gamers are already reportedly getting around this by using a VPN.

Source: Indonesian Government Blocks Steam, Epic, Ubisoft & Nintendo

Hackers stole passwords for accessing 140,000 Wiseasy payment terminals

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Hackers had access to dashboards used to remotely manage and control thousands of credit card payment terminals manufactured by digital payments giant Wiseasy, a cybersecurity startup told TechCrunch.

Wiseasy is a brand you might not have heard of, but it’s a popular Android-based payment terminal maker used in restaurants, hotels, retail outlets and schools across the Asia-Pacific region. Through its Wisecloud cloud service, Wiseeasy can remotely manage, configure and update customer terminals over the internet.

But Wiseasy employee passwords used for accessing Wiseasy’s cloud dashboards — including an “admin” account — were found on a dark web marketplace actively used by cybercriminals, according to the startup.

Youssef Mohamed, chief technology officer at pen-testing and dark web monitoring startup Buguard, told TechCrunch that the passwords were stolen by malware on the employee’s computers. Mohamed said two cloud dashboards were exposed, but neither were protected with basic security features, like two-factor authentication, and allowed hackers to access nearly 140,000 Wiseasy payment terminals around the world.

[…]

Buguard said it first contacted Wiseasy about the compromised dashboards in early July, but efforts to disclose the compromise were met with meetings with executives that were later canceled without warning, and according to Mohamed, the company declined to say if or when the cloud dashboards would be secured.

Screenshots of the dashboards seen by TechCrunch show an “admin” user with remote access to Wiseasy payment terminals, including the ability to lock the device and remotely install and remove apps. The dashboard also allowed anyone to view names, phone numbers, email addresses and access permissions for Wiseasy dashboard users, including the ability to add new users.

Another dashboard view also shows the Wi-Fi name and plaintext password of the network that payment terminals are connected to.

Mohamed said anyone with access to the dashboards could control Wiseasy payment terminals and make configuration changes.

[…]

Source: Hackers stole passwords for accessing 140,000 payment terminals | TechCrunch

Visa Funded Alleged Pornhub / MindGeek Child Porn, Rules Judge

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In a setback for Visa in a case alleging the payment processor is liable for the distribution of child pornography on Pornhub and other sites operated by parent company MindGeek, a federal judge ruled that it was reasonable to conclude that Visa knowingly facilitated the criminal activity.

On Friday, July 29, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney of the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California issued a decision in the Fleites v. MindGeek case, denying Visa’s motion to dismiss the claim it violated California’s Unfair Competition Law — which prohibits unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business acts and practices — by processing payments for child porn. (A copy of the decision is available at this link.)

In the ruling, Carney held that the plaintiff “adequately alleged” that Visa engaged in a criminal conspiracy with MindGeek to monetize child pornography. Specifically, he wrote, “Visa knew that MindGeek’s websites were teeming with monetized child porn”; that there was a “criminal agreement to financially benefit from child porn that can be inferred from [Visa’s] decision to continue to recognize MindGeek as a merchant despite allegedly knowing that MindGeek monetized a substantial amount of child porn”; and that “the court can comfortably infer that Visa intended to help MindGeek monetize child porn” by “knowingly provid[ing] the tool used to complete the crime.”

 

 

“When MindGeek decides to monetize child porn, and Visa decides to continue to allow its payment network to be used for that goal despite knowledge of MindGeek’s monetization of child porn, it is entirely foreseeable that victims of child porn like plaintiff will suffer the harms that plaintiff alleges,” Carney wrote.

In a statement, a Visa spokesperson said: “Visa condemns sex trafficking, sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse materials as repugnant to our values and purpose as a company. This pre-trial ruling is disappointing and mischaracterizes Visa’s role and its policies and practices. Visa will not tolerate the use of our network for illegal activity. We continue to believe that Visa is an improper defendant in this case.”

A rep for MindGeek provided this statement: “At this point in the case, the court has not yet ruled on the veracity of the allegations, and is required to assume all of the plaintiff’s allegations are true and accurate. When the court can actually consider the facts, we are confident the plaintiff’s claims will be dismissed for lack of merit. MindGeek has zero tolerance for the posting of illegal content on its platforms, and has instituted the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history.”

The company’s statement continued, “We have banned uploads from anyone who has not submitted government-issued ID that passes third-party verification, eliminated the ability to download free content, integrated several leading technological platform and content moderation tools, instituted digital fingerprinting of all videos found to be in violation of our Non-Consensual Content and CSAM [child sexual abuse material] Policies to help protect against removed videos being reposted, expanded our moderation workforce and processes, and partnered with dozens of non-profit organizations around the world. Any insinuation that MindGeek does not take the elimination of illegal material seriously is categorically false.”

[…]

Source: Visa ‘Intended to Help’ Pornhub, MindGeek Monetize Child Porn: Ruling – Variety

Babel Finance Traded $280 Million of Users’ Crypto, Lost it All. Line not go up any more.

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Babel Finance, the Hong Kong-based crypto lender, apparently had other designs when its worldwide user base handed over their crypto to the company than just borrowing and lending. It seems to have been doing what everyone else does with crypto, rapidly speculating and trying to make “line go up.” Of course, all that changed when the line no longer went up.

The Block reported based on restructuring proposal documents that Babel Finance had lost 8,000 bitcoin and 56,000 ether in June, worth close to $280 million, though of course the price is constantly fluctuating. The company had apparently been conducting proprietary trading with customers’ funds. It remains unclear based on reporting if users were/are aware their crypto was/is being used in this way.

Source: Babel Traded $280 Million of Users’ Crypto, Lost it All

Sony’s racing car AI just destroyed its human competitors—by being fast – and having etiquette rules

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[…]

Built by Sony AI, a research lab launched by the company in 2020, Gran Turismo Sophy is a computer program trained to control racing cars inside the world of Gran Turismo, a video game known for its super-realistic simulations of real vehicles and tracks. In a series of events held behind closed doors last year, Sony put its program up against the best humans on the professional sim-racing circuit.

What they discovered during those racetrack battles—and the ones that followed—could help shape the future of machines that work alongside humans, or join us on the roads.

[…]

Sony soon learned that speed alone wasn’t enough to make GT Sophy a winner. The program outpaced all human drivers on an empty track, setting superhuman lap times on three different virtual courses. Yet when Sony tested GT Sophy in a race against multiple human drivers, where intelligence as well as speed is needed, GT Sophy lost. The program was at times too aggressive, racking up penalties for reckless driving, and at other times too timid, giving way when it didn’t need to.

Sony regrouped, retrained its AI, and set up a rematch in October. This time GT Sophy won with ease. What made the difference? It’s true that Sony came back with a larger neural network, giving its program more capabilities to draw from on the fly. But ultimately, the difference came down to giving GT Sophy something that Peter Wurman, head of Sony AI America, calls “etiquette”: the ability to balance its aggression and timidity, picking the most appropriate behavior for the situation at hand.

This is also what makes GT Sophy relevant beyond Gran Turismo. Etiquette between drivers on a track is a specific example of the kind of dynamic, context-aware behavior that robots will be expected to have when they interact with people, says Wurman.

An awareness of when to take risks and when to play it safe would be useful for AI that is better at interacting with people, whether it be on the manufacturing floor, in home robots, or in driverless cars.

“I don’t think we’ve learned general principles yet about how to deal with human norms that you have to respect,” says Wurman. “But it’s a start and hopefully gives us some insight into this problem in general.”

[…]

Source: Sony’s racing car AI just destroyed its human competitors—by being nice (and fast) | MIT Technology Review