Behind the Curtain: SEC’s Comedy of FTX Execs & the Great Crypto Cover-up

On Friday, the SEC rolled out the big guns-proposed final consent judgments in a New York court, which basically means they’re about to tell these guys, “You’re guilty, but let’s make it official.” The charges against Ellison and Wang actually first appeared around Christmas 2022 (cheerful holiday news!), while Singh’s got his name in the mix since February 2023. Santa definitely dropped the bad news this year. 🎅🕵️‍♂️

Your Bank Just Got Hacked 😱

Now, they’re offering $400,000 to make it all better. $400,000. That’s…something. It works out to roughly the cost of a small island if you ignore the buying part, or, you know, a slightly above-average luxury watch. They’re calling it a settlement, which is a polite way of saying “we messed up, but aren’t taking full responsibility.” 😇

When Disaster Strikes, Migrants Send Help

Following a disaster affecting 10% of a country’s population, an individual’s propensity to send remittances-quantified as a “remittance score” $\theta$-exhibits a discernible trajectory over 12 months, while the probability of continued remittance sending in the four months following the event is significantly modulated by the individual’s pre-disaster sending behavior.

New research reveals a significant surge in international remittances following natural disasters, demonstrating a critical yet often overlooked role in immediate disaster relief.

Zcash Zooms Past $440: Privacy Coins or Just Coin-cidence? 🚀💸

Zcash, the Beyoncé of privacy coins, hit a high of $440, making its market cap a cool $7.3 billion. That’s a lot of shielded transactions, folks. Or, as I like to call it, “financial invisibility cloaks.” Meanwhile, the 24-hour trading volume hit $763 million, which is basically the crypto world saying, “We see you, Zcash, and we’re into it.” 👀

Alexander Ludwig and AJ Michalka Check Into The White Lotus

Season four of The White Lotus is starting to come together with the casting of Alexander Ludwig (from Heels) and musician AJ Michalka, according to The Hollywood Reporter. While no other actors have been announced yet, fans are hoping to see some returning characters. The new season will take place in France, but not at … Read more

Unlocking AI’s Hidden Skills

Programmatically Constructed Machine Learning (PCML) successfully discovered salient capabilities within diverse benchmark environments-including Overcooked, Saycan, Blocksworld, and Minigrid-demonstrating its ability to extract meaningful behaviors across a spectrum of task complexities.

New research details a method for systematically discovering and modeling what artificial intelligence systems can actually do, even when their inner workings are opaque.