Technology
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The inbox trust trap: how “thread hijacking” turns real email conversations into scams
TLDR: Attackers exploit email's design and protocols—threading that confers context-based trust and DKIM/DMARC that verify delivery, not identity—to slip payment changes and "quick favors" into real conversations. 2025 data shows thread hijacking in Vendor Email Compromise (VEC) attacks drives high engagement and big losses, amplified by AI-crafted, link-free emails that sail past filters (Darktrace, Aug… read more
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Built on water to walk on water
TLDR: Engineers at the University of Virginia figured out how to build tiny, soft robots directly on the surface of water, so they can walk on it right after being made. The real breakthrough isn't the water-walking demo—it's skipping the fragile transfer step that used to destroy these delicate films. This new "HydroSpread" method means… read more
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When the Answer Eats the Internet: How AI Search Summaries Starve the Open Web
TLDR: Google's AI Overviews deliver instant answers at the top of your search results—but this convenience quietly starves the open web. When these AI summaries appear, only 8% of users click through to source websites, compared to 15% without them (Pew Research Center, 2025). Publishers report traffic drops as high as 47% on affected queries… read more
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AI “invented” a material labs actually made — so why isn’t the hard part the AI?
TLDR: Microsoft's MatterGen generated a plausible crystal, and the team reports they made it in the lab with a measured property within about 20% of the AI's target—a useful proof of concept, not a finished product. The real work begins after generation: property predictors wobble when they encounter truly novel structures, the AI doesn't hand… read more