170262467
submission
wired_parrot writes:
In 2017, John Griffin, a professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin, noticed something peculiar. The amount of Tether tokens, which were supposed to be tied to the dollar, were getting printed in large batches tied to jumps in the price of Bitcoin. In a paper published in 2018, he laid out the case how a single whale was manipulating the price of bitcoin for profit, using Tether.
Although the unknown entities manipulating the price of Bitcoin have never been identified, dr. Griffin now sees evidence that the same malicious actors are now propping up bitcoin. Despite the crypto crash and myriad other negative forces, every time Bitcoin briefly breached the $16,000 floor, it bounced above that level and kept stubbornly trading between $16,000 and $17,000. Almost unbelievably, as the crypto market has continued to unravel into 2023, Bitcoin has gone in the opposite direction, trading up 35% since Jan. 7 to $23,000. The suspicion is that a small clubby group of crypto-investors are coordinating to establish a floor price for bitcoin.
161814534
submission
wired_parrot writes:
As a range of new manufactures are preparing to bring to market new mass air mobility vehicles in the form of eVTOLs, concerns growing about the safe certification of these new aircraft types has led the FAA to shift gear on certifying eVTOLS by revising it certification requirements for eVTOLS from small aircraft to a powered-lift category.
With the growing number of issues to resolve before eVTOLS are able to fly, so to do concerns about the viability of the eVTOL market.
160695806
submission
wired_parrot writes:
After the Ukrainian army captured one of Russia's Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicles, they decided to do a teardown of it. Their findings show a remarkable amount of jerry rigged installations using off the shelf components, including the use of a Canon DSLR camera as the main image capturing sensor.
The Ukranian army posted a video of its teardown on Youtube for those interested.
115929106
submission
wired_parrot writes:
Released in 1982, Entombed was far from a best-seller and today it’s largely forgotten. But recently, a computer scientist and a digital archaeologist decided to pull apart the game’s source code to investigate how it was made. An early maze-navigating game, Entombed intrigued the researchers for how early programmers solved the problem of drawing a solvable maze that is drawn procedurally.
But they got more than they bargained for: they found a mystery bit of code they couldn’t explain (Link to full paper). The fundamental logic that the determines how the maze is drawn is locked in a table of possible values written in the games code. However, it seems the logic behind the table has been lost forever.
93685079
submission
wired_parrot writes:
The credit report provider Equifax has been accused of a fresh data security breach, this time affecting its Argentine operations. The breach was revealed after security researchers discovered that an online employee tool used by Equifax Argentina was accessible using the "admin/admin" password combination
75636687
submission
wired_parrot writes:
Toronto police are reporting that 2 unconfirmed suicides have been linked to the data breach. This follows pleas from other users of the site for the hackers to not release the data before it was exposed- an anonymous gay Reddit user from Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is illegal, pleaded for the data to be kept private: "I am about to be killed, tortured, or exiled," he wrote. "And I did nothing". And when The Intercept published a piece condemning the puritanical glee over the data dump, one user whocommented on the article said she's been "a long term member" of the site because her spouse's medical condition has affected their intimate life. Her spouse knows she's engaged with other Ashley Madison members, she says, but now fears she will likely lose friends and have to find a new job now that her association with the site is out there.
73348637
submission
wired_parrot writes:
An Egyptian repairman found unexpected fame when typing google into Google within Egypt turned up his name instead. The unassuming repairman managed to unexpectedly outrank Google in search results, a finding that surprised even him, who was unaware of his high search ranking when contacted.
71091633
submission
70738559
submission
wired_parrot writes:
Canadian customs official charged a 38-year old man with obstruction of justice after he refused to give up his Blackberry phone password while crossing the US-Canada border. As this a question that has not yet been litigated in Canadian courts, it may establish a legal precedent for future cases.
70707789
submission
wired_parrot writes:
Ubisoft, in partnership with McGill university, has developed a game designed to treat lazy eye. The game works as a treatment by training both eyes using different levels of contrast of red and blue that the patient sees through stereoscopic glasses. It is hopeful that the new treatment will bring a more effective way of addressing a condition that affects 1-5% of the population.
66439577
submission
wired_parrot writes:
Jonathan Nolan, writer of Interstellar and The Dark Knight, and producer of the "Person of Interest", is teaming up with HBO to bring to screen a new series based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of books. This would be the first adaptation of the Hugo award winning series of novels to the screen.
65517159
submission
wired_parrot writes:
After being criticized for being slow to respond to Marvel's string of blockbuster superhero movies, Warner Brothers finally announced their plan for DC comic universe movie franchise. Yesterday at their annual shareholder meeting, WB announced 10 DC comics movies. The studio has unveiled an ambitious schedule that features two Justice League films, plus standalone titles for Wonder Woman, Flash, Shazam (Captain Marvel), Green Lantern, Cyborg and even Aquaman. Also announced were plans for 3 Lego movies and a three-part Harry Potter spinoff.
65396613
submission
wired_parrot writes:
Nearly fifty years after the first spacewalk by soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, he's given a rare interview to the BBC revealing how the mission very nearly ended in disaster. Minutes after he stepped into space, Leonov realised his suit had inflated like a balloon, preventing him from getting back inside. Later on, the cosmonauts narrowly avoided being obliterated in a huge fireball when oxygen levels soared inside the craft. And on the way back to Earth, the crew was exposed to enormous G-forces, landing hundreds of kilometres off target in a remote corner of Siberia populated by wolves and bears.
63339373
submission
wired_parrot writes:
In a presentation to be shown Thursday at the Black Hat conference, cybersecurity consultant Ruben Santamarta is expected to outline how planes can be hacked via inflight wi-fi. Representatives of in-flight communication systems confirmed his findings but downplayed the risks, noting that physical access to the hardware would still be needed and only the communication system would be affected.
60914007
submission
wired_parrot writes:
After a leading protester of the recent military coup in Thailand made several critical posts in Facebook criticizing the military takeover, Thailand's Technology Crime Suppression Division tracked his location through his IP address and promptly arrested him.. The arrested was meant to send a message to Thailand's online community. Said the police: "I want to tell any offenders on social media that police will come get you".
