Deebster

A severed mosquito proboscis can be turned into an extremely fine nozzle for 3D printing, and this could help create replacement tissues and organs for transplants.

I've linked to a decent write-up on Tom's Hardware, but New Scientist covered it last week too.

Source paper: 3D necroprinting: Leveraging biotic material as the nozzle for 3D printing (science.org)

My personal domain has hundreds of aliases - one for each site I deal with. This is great for identifying the source of spam, and I retire any aliases that get spam.

haveibeenpwned.com lets me add a domain, but wants 3912 USD a year to actually tell me which addresses leaked. This is obviously an insane price for a nice-to-have.

Is there an alternative for free or very cheap? A self-hosted tool that would pull down lists would be great, but I suppose those lists aren't public.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/34906055

A study in Current Biology reports that some “gifted word learner” dogs can learn category words that refer to how toys are used (such as tugging versus fetching) and extend those labels to new objects that serve the same function. In tests, these dogs chose the correct toy by function even when it looked different, a pattern reminiscent of how human infants group objects by purpose during early language learning.

Study: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01079-6

Other articles:

• https://nautil.us/some-dogs-can-learn-new-linguistic-tricks-1238106/
• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dogs-with-large-vocabularies-can-understand-category-words-not-just-names/

A study in Current Biology reports that some “gifted word learner” dogs can learn category words that refer to how toys are used (such as tugging versus fetching) and extend those labels to new objects that serve the same function. In tests, these dogs chose the correct toy by function even when it looked different, a pattern reminiscent of how human infants group objects by purpose during early language learning.

Study: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01079-6

Other articles:

• https://nautil.us/some-dogs-can-learn-new-linguistic-tricks-1238106/
• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dogs-with-large-vocabularies-can-understand-category-words-not-just-names/

When the postie comes, I'll be building a PC for the first time in years. What are the do's, don'ts and tips nowadays?

Obviously classics like RTFM, plan ahead and retrieve any dropped screws are evergreen.

Things I believe are true: tighten your CPU cooler screws evenly (like putting on a car tyre), all screws should be no more than finger tight, build in a dust-free environment.

What about grounding yourself? I remember reading that the danger of this was way overstated and e.g. anti-static wrist straps were a waste of money. Is building in a case that's plugged in (but powered off) enough?

I've seen recommendations to build outside of the case first to test components - is this good advice?

Anything else?

sync-on-luma is obsessed with Akira-style diagonal freight lifts and has made a video about their appearance in computer games. No sponsors or anything, just an unnecessarily deep dive into his favourite examples.

Archived link: https://archive.ph/Vjl1M

Here’s a nice little distraction from your workday: Head to Google, type in any made-up phrase, add the word “meaning,” and search. Behold! Google’s AI Overviews will not only confirm that your gibberish is a real saying, it will also tell you what it means and how it was derived.

This is genuinely fun, and you can find lots of examples on social media. In the world of AI Overviews, “a loose dog won't surf” is “a playful way of saying that something is not likely to happen or that something is not going to work out.” The invented phrase “wired is as wired does” is an idiom that means “someone's behavior or characteristics are a direct result of their inherent nature or ‘wiring,’ much like a computer's function is determined by its physical connections.”

It all sounds perfectly plausible, delivered with unwavering confidence. Google even provides reference links in some cases, giving the response an added sheen of authority. It’s also wrong, at least in the sense that the overview creates the impression that these are common phrases and not a bunch of random words thrown together. And while it’s silly that AI Overviews thinks “never throw a poodle at a pig” is a proverb with a biblical derivation, it’s also a tidy encapsulation of where generative AI still falls short.

Bum Farto was a real person, with a life as ridiculous as his name.

Title text:

If only my ancestors had been fortunate enough to marry into the branch of the bacteria family that could photosynthesize, like all my little green cousins here.

Transcript:

[Cueball and Beret Guy, seen from afar in silhouette, are walking up a grassy hill.]

[They continue walking up the hill, reaching its grassy summit. Now with normal lighting. Beret Guy is a bit ahead of Cueball.]
Beret Guy: I learned something today.
Beret Guy: I went on one of those family tree sites and kept clicking back, and it turns out I'm related to stromatolites!

[Closeup on Cueball. Beret Guy's reply comes off-panel from a starburst on the right edge of the panel.]
Cueball: The bacterial mats?
Beret Guy [off-panel]: Yeah! A few billion years back, on my mitochondria's side.

[Cueball and Beret Guy standing on the top of the grassy hill facing each other. Berety Guy holding a hand out towards Cueball.]
Beret Guy: My Archaean ancestors absorbed some bacteria that were cousins of stromatolites. That's how I got mitochondria.
Beret Guy: Cell nuclei, too.

[Cueball is standing behind Beret Guy who is now sitting down in the grass leaning back on one arm with the other arm resting on his bent knee.]
Cueball: I think there are still living stromatolites. You could get in touch.
Beret Guy: Nah, they're probably busy. I don't want to bother them.

[Cueball is sitting behind Beret Guy who is now lying down, both again shown in silhouette from a far, revealing they are on the top of the grassy hill.]
Cueball: So what are you going to do with this knowledge? Nothing?
Beret Guy: Lying on a hill in the warm sun is an old family tradition.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3046/

explainxkcd for #3046

Title text:

They're continuing to search for a square with the same area as the circle, as efforts to construct one have run into difficulties.

Transcript:

[In a single panel, White Hat, Ponytail, Miss Lenhart, Cueball, and Megan are standing in a field. Ponytail is holding a notebook and taking notes, Miss Lenhart is kneeling and holding her hands on a circular object with the radius marked on it, Cueball is holding a large caliper-like measuring instrument, and Megan is taking a photo with her phone sideways.]

[Caption below the panel:]
Math breakthrough: Dimensional analysts have discovered a real unit circle. Once they measure it, units can finally be added to all our geometry textbooks.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3041

explainxkcd for #3041

Archive Today mirror: https://archive.ph/JTLIU

AI summary

The webpage discusses leaked documents revealing the capabilities of Graykey, a phone unlocking and forensics tool utilized by law enforcement globally. According to the documents obtained by 404 Media, Graykey can retrieve only partial data from modern iPhones running iOS 18 and iOS 18.0.1. There is no information on its functionality with the recently released iOS 18.1. This leak is significant for Grayshift, the company behind Graykey, especially since it has been acquired by Magnet Forensics, another player in the digital forensics field. Unlike its competitor Cellebrite, which has experienced similar leaks, this is the first detailed disclosure of the specific phones Graykey can and cannot access. The documents also provide insights into Graykey's capabilities with Android devices. Overall, this situation highlights the ongoing struggle between forensics tools and phone manufacturers like Apple and Google. The information indicates a complex interplay in the evolving landscape of mobile device security and law enforcement access.