Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

OpenAI has committed to a number of security and guardrail improvements in the wake of an incident last month where cutting edge models inadvertently breached AI application store Hugging Face during a cyber capability benchmark exercise. Yet many of the newly announced controls appear less like groundbreaking safeguards and more like measures that should already have been in place for testing models with advanced cyber capabilities.In response to this incident in which a model went rogue, OpenAI implemented sweeping changes. But it’s not just the Hugging Face incident; OpenAI noted in an Aug. 18 blog post that preliminary evidence suggests…

Coinkite released a new security upgrade to strengthen seed phrase generation by requiring user-supplied entropy mixed with improved device randomness.Coinkite announced firmware 5.6.1 for Coldcard Mk4 and Mk5 devices and 1.5.1Q for the Coldcard Q in a Thursday blog post.The release requires newly generated seeds to include user-supplied entropy through at least 65 keypresses with unpredictable timing, 50 rolls of a six-sided die or 128 coin flips. That input is combined with randomness from multiple device sources, including its secure elements and hardware random-number generator (RNG).The combined randomness is used to create the wallet’s seed phrase and is intended to…

Just three minutes of sprinting may produce a molecular response that looks very different from what happens after 90 minutes of moderate exercise. Researchers at Rockefeller University compared how the body responds to exercise performed at different intensities. They found that six 30-second, all-out sprints changed nearly one-quarter of the proteins measured in the blood immediately after exercise. By comparison, 90 minutes of continuous moderate cycling altered less than one-quarter of one percent. Moderate treadmill running affected more proteins than cycling, but still far fewer than the brief sprint session. Sprinting Triggers a Rapid Molecular Surge The sprint workout also…

Seabirds are the most threatened group of birds, with more than 30% at risk of extinction. Migratory seabirds are especially vulnerable.Researchers have described six marine flyways used by migratory pelagic seabirds, aerial corridors that cross the national waters of 56 countries; the high seas are used by at least 151 species.In March, the U.N. Convention on Migratory Species adopted a resolution on marine flyways, creating a structure for international cooperation on protections.Researchers are using seabird tracking data to identify key sites along marine flyways that need protection or mitigation measures against threats.See All Key Ideas Arctic terns make…

A consortium – consisting of AF Offshore Decom, part of AF Gruppen, and Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) – has won a new assignment for offshore platform decommissioning activities on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), representing its third contract from the same North Sea operator in the past year. Illustration; Source: Heerema Marine Contractors AF Offshore Decom and Heerema Marine Contractors’ consortium has been awarded a contract by an undisclosed North Sea operator for the engineering, preparation, removal and disposal (EPRD) of one of its platforms in the UK sector of the North Sea. The facility features a steel structure, with…

Reading Time: 6 minutes This story is part of The uprising in Sherman Park: 10 years later, a Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service series examining resilience, collective action and ongoing efforts to address the inequities that sparked a pivotal moment in Milwaukee’s history. Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell remembers hearing the pain of community members who felt unheard and disenfranchised during the Sherman Park uprising of 2016. The unrest occurred after Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown shot and killed 23-year-old Sylville Smith. Heaggan-Brown was acquitted of Smith’s killing but was later sentenced to prison on unrelated sex crimes…

Wednesday night brought an absolute cloudburst of psychic rain for our parched land, as it emerged that Prince Harry and Meghan were reversing their self-styled “freedom flight” to California and returning to live in the UK. Nature is healing! Is that … is that how the expression goes? Either way, all humans in Britain have taken the announcement brilliantly, while fatted calf prices climbed steeply at the news that the reverse Megxit is imminent, with only an adequate headline soubriquet yet to be found. Megain? Megraine?Inevitably, thoughts turned swiftly to what it all meant. One of the funniest aspects of…

C-SPAN. “Senate Budget Committee Examines Social Security Solvency.” C-SPAN.Org, C-SPAN, 25 Mar. 2026, https://www.c-span.org/program/senate-committee/senate-budget-committee-examines-social-security-solvency/676234. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026.—. “Stakeholders Testify on Medicaid and Health Care Costs.” C-SPAN.Org, C-SPAN, 4 Aug. 2026, https://www.c-span.org/program/senate-committee/stakeholders-testify-on-medicaid-and-health-care-costs/683669. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026.—. “Stakeholders Testify on Social Security Solvency.” C-SPAN.Org, C-SPAN, 5 Aug. 2026, https://www.c-span.org/program/senate-committee/stakeholders-testify-on-social-security-solvency/683716. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026.”Chairmen Rick Scott and Ron Johnson Pen Letter to Social Security Administration on Steps to Stop Fraud and Protect Benefits for Aging Americans | United States Senate Special Committee on Aging.” Senate.Gov, Senate Committee On Aging, 8 Apr. 2025, https://www.aging.senate.gov/press-releases/chairmen-rick-scott-and-ron-johnson-pen-letter-to-social-security-administration-on-steps-to-stop-fraud-and-protect-benefits-for-aging-americans. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026.”Congressional Chronicle – Members of Congress,…

The Ebola outbreak raging in DR Congo is growing “exponentially”, with more than 2,500 deaths now recorded, with half in the last 20 days, the United Nations’ senior Ebola coordinator said Friday. The Ebola outbreak is already the biggest in the country’s history and is spreading faster than any outbreak on record. According to the latest figures, the virus eruption is “growing exponentially”, Julien Harneis told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Bunia, at the epicentre of the outbreak. He said that in the last three months, “more than 2,500 people” had died, “and half of those in the last 20…

The Home Office could be blocked from deporting many young male trafficking victims to Albania after a major court ruling.Thousands of Albanian males have been identified as potential trafficking victims in the UK in recent years. Many are sent back to their country even if they are potential or confirmed victims of trafficking, as the Home Office contends they will be safe there.The ruling is likely to come as a significant blow to the government, which is trying to increase the number of people it removes.Albanians have been the most common nationality forcibly removed from the UK in the last…