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"These Final Acts incorporate International Telecommunication Regulations. The purpose of these Regulations is to establish general principles which relate to the provision and operation of international telecommunication services offered to the public as well as to the underlying international telecommunication transport means used to provide such services. These Regulations are also established with a view to facilitating global interconnection and interoperability of telecommunication facilities and to promoting the harmonious development and efficient operation of technical facilities, as well as the efficiency, usefulness and availability to the public of international telecommunication services. "

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ITU-T X.1242 - Supplement on guidelines on countermeasures against short message service phishing and smishing attacks

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DNA-testing company 23andMe (Nasdaq: ME), once an industry leader that attracted millions of customers, including rapper Snoop Dogg and investor Warren Buffett, has announced significant cuts to its operations, with plans to lay off 200 employees or roughly 40% of its workforce. The company also said it will discontinue development of its therapeutic programs. Here’s what to know about the latest development and what led up to it.

Board exodus

The latest move comes as the company looks to stabilize after facing significant challenges, including the resignation of all seven independent board members in October.

Data breach

Last year, 23andMe suffered a massive data breach when hackers accessed the personal information of 6.9 million users. The incident led to a class-action lawsuit, which, in September, 23andMe agreed to settle for $30 million.

The problem with SPACs

In 2021, 23andMe went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. It later expanded into drug-discovery and weight-loss sectors. However, as DNA test kit sales declined, so did its financial health. By fiscal 2023, it reported a $312 million net loss, with its stock down 98% since going public, currently at about $4 after a reverse stock split in October 2024.

Separate reports have found that things have often not ended well for companies that took advantage of the pandemic-era SPAC boom, which led to billions in losses for investors and a number of bankruptcies for companies.

What’s next for 23andMe and its employees?

The layoffs are expected to result in $12 million in severance, termination, and transition-related costs and are part of a broader plan to streamline the business and achieve annual cost savings of $35 million.

The company says it is exploring various strategic options for its therapeutic programs, including potential licensing agreements and the sale of assets in its development pipeline.

“We are taking these difficult but necessary actions as we restructure 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships,” said Anne Wojcicki, cofounder, CEO, and chair of the board, in a statement.

Shares of 23andMe were up almost 6% to $4.87 on the news, which was announced late yesterday. The stock is down more than 73% year to date.

Something bad is happening in Oz.

Last week, fans of Wicked, the musical-soon-to-be-movie, headed to retailers including Target, Walmart, and Macy’s to pick up Mattel’s limited-edition Wicked Barbie dolls ahead of the film’s release on November 22. At first, it seemed like any other Mattel collaboration—until a few fans started searching the URL printed on the back of the box, which led not to the Wicked movie website, as intended, but to a parody porn site of the same name. 

Mattel has apologized for the mix-up and promised to “remedy” the error, but that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating about how such an egregious typo could’ve made its way to the box in the first place. One popular theory, which has garnered more than 62,000 likes on X, is that the mistake had something to do with AI.

In an email to Fast Company, Mattel’s Barbie & Dolls director of global brand communications wrote, “I can confirm AI was not used on packaging for Mattel Wicked collection dolls.”

Though AI has been the culprit of plenty of misguided marketing snafus, the tweet demonstrates a misunderstanding of how Mattel is actually using AI tools in its packaging development process—and shows that, even as AI gains popularity with creative teams as a production tool, human error is alive and well.

The official Mattel Wicked dolls link to a porn site on the box ???????? pic.twitter.com/iW4mNVAlPE

— just2good (Sarah Genao) (@just2goodYT) November 9, 2024

Can we blame a chatbot for this?

In June, Fast Company covered Mattel’s announcement that it planned to use Adobe Firefly, a generative AI software, as part of its packaging development process. At the time, Mattel’s chief design officer Chris Down clarified that the tech would be used to help visualize fantastical new concepts and speed up time-consuming processes, like fine-tuning a background in Photoshop. The company’s guidelines around generative AI tools specified that Firefly could not be used to generate subject matter itself, like the actual doll (or, in this case, the accompanying text). 

Nevertheless, an X user shared Fast Company’s original headline alongside the news of the Wicked typo with the caption “Smash cut to four months later.” One commenter under the post wrote, “how did I know this mistake happened bc they’re using AI.” Another added, “The future is so, so dumb.”

Mattel has previously been open about how it’s used AI for doll packaging. In early October, the first Mattel packaging featuring input from Adobe Firefly hit shelves. The company explained to AdAge at the time that its new Holiday Barbie and Sue Bird Barbie packages incorporated backgrounds generated by Firefly, which had then been touched up by human designers. It’s important to note that, for a brand as wide-reaching as Mattel, AI is not being used in the design process without guardrails around both IP and image quality. Any visuals provided by Firefly are vetted and edited by multiple human designers before they ever reach the actual box.

At this stage, it’s highly unlikely that Mattel would trust an AI software to write the final copy for their packaging. It appears that the Wicked Barbie typo was a plain old instance of human error—if a somewhat inconceivable one. As of this writing, Mattel hasn’t responded to Fast Company‘s request for comment on how the mistake may have been made during the design process.

The fallout

In a statement on the Wicked packaging misprint, Mattel shared, “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children. Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information.” 

While it’s unclear exactly what steps Mattel plans to take to “remedy” the issue, retailers including Target, Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and Macy’s had already pulled the dolls from shelves as of midday Monday. 

Meanwhile, there are a few parties benefitting from the unfortunate situation. Variety reports that the mistakenly shared porn site has seen a 12-year surge in traffic after the incident, and several eBay users have taken this opportunity to massively mark up their Wicked dolls in original packaging. One pack of seven different dolls, advertised as “IN MISPRINT ERROR BOX,” is currently going for $3,500. 

Mattel is sure to take a financial and reputational hit from this incident. Still, the news pick-up, social media speculation, and pricey eBay reselling demonstrate how a simple mistake can turn a run-of-the-mill product drop into something fans will remember—for better or worse.

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Sodium-ion batteries are cheaper than lithium-ion batteries — and they're also more environmentally friendly. And "In the past few years, sodium-ion battery production has increased in the United States," reports the Washington Post, with a new factory planned to manufacture them "in the same way as lithium-ion batteries, just with different ingredients. Instead of using expensive materials like lithium, nickel and cobalt, these will be made of sodium, iron and manganese..." Last month, sodium-ion battery manufacturer Natron Energy announced it would open a "gigafactory" in North Carolina that would produce 24 gigawatt hours of batteries annually, enough energy to charge 24,000 electric vehicles. But sodium-ion batteries are still early in their development compared with lithium-ion, and they have yet to hit the market on a massive scale. "It's unlikely sodium-ion could displace lithium-ion anytime soon," said Keith Beers, polymer science and materials chemistry principal engineer at technical consultancy firm Exponent... The biggest limitation of sodium-ion batteries is their weight. Sodium weighs nearly three times as much as lithium, and it cannot store the same amount of energy. As a result, sodium-ion batteries tend to be larger. Jens Peters, an economics professor at the University of Alcalá in Madrid, said the energy density could be improved over time in sodium-ion batteries. But, he added, "what we found out so far in our assessments is that it is not a game changer." Sodium-ion batteries are touted to be the environmentally friendly alternative to their lithium-ion counterparts, thanks to their raw materials. Sodium, iron and manganese are all abundant elements on the planet, so they require less energy to extract and cost less... Sodium-ion batteries also last longer than lithium-ion ones because they can withstand more charge cycles, said Wendell Brooks, co-CEO of Natron Energy. "Our product can have millions of cycles," said Brooks, "where lithium-ion would have three to five thousand cycles and wear out a lot faster...." Sodium-ion batteries aren't the best fit for smartphones or electric vehicles, which need to store lots of energy. However, one advantage is their low cost. And they could be a good candidate in situations where the size of the battery isn't a concern, like energy storage. "When something is built out to support grid or backup storage, it doesn't need to be very dense. It's staying put," Beers said. Natron will invest nearly $1.4 billion in the factory "to meet the rapidly expanding demand for critical power, industrial and grid energy storage solutions," according to their announcement. "Natron's high-performance sodium-ion batteries outperform lithium-ion batteries in power density and recharging speed, do not require lithium, cobalt, copper, or nickel, and are non-flammable... Natron's batteries are the only UL-listed sodium-ion batteries on the market today, and will be delivered to a wide range of customer end markets in the industrial power space, including data centers, mobility, EV fast charging, microgrids, and telecom, among others."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In 1991, Sony brought the first rechargeable lithium-ion battery to market. The unique chemistry proved a game-changer in energy storage. Today everything from EVs to smartphones depends on it, with demand skyrocketing.  But lithium is rare, most of it comes from unstable markets outside Europe, and its extraction can cause extensive pollution. We need more lithium to enable the green transition and yet, currently, its use is unsustainable — both environmentally and economically. We’re stuck in a paradox. Munich-based startup Tozero believes that battery recycling offers a way out. Recycling batteries is far from a new concept, but the German venture…

This story continues at The Next Web

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