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Market manipulation in the cryptocurrency world is rampantand fewer than 500 people are responsible for as much as $250 million a year in profits and over $3.2 trillion in artificial trading, according to a new study published on Cornell Universitys preprint server arXiv. Honglin Fu and colleagues at University College London have developed a tool that can track the coordination of pump-and-dump schemes, where crypto coin holders artificially inflate the price of a cryptocurrency by touting fake recommendations and generating nonexistent hype, making ordinary people intrigued enough to buy into a cryptocurrency before the owners then pull their stake and crash the price. Telegram, a popular encrypted messaging platform widely used by cryptocurrency investors, has become a favored tool for coordinating these schemes. Perseus, the tool Fu and his colleagues developed, identified more than 400 so-called masterminds that helped seed fake hype for crypto coins through millions of Telegram messages. By eavesdropping on Telegram chats where pump-and-dump schemes are discussed, then training Perseus on what happens, the team were able to identify nearly 750,000 messages organizing such scams. There is one kind of bad actor, we call a mastermind in the paper. Theyre the main distributor, you can think of them as, of the pump-and-dump method, says Fu. Then they have followers: what they do is the mastermind will distribute messages to the others, and theyll spread the message further to attract as many investors as possible. The accomplices are crucial to carrying out the scam, Fu says, because theyre the ones that convince people at scale that a cryptocurrency is worth investing in. The ease with which the scammers are able to organize their activities and bank profits is a concern to Fu, who hopes that more awareness of the way the scams work, thanks to Perseus, will help raise awareness and push an impetus to action. The crypto market is not really regulated, and it should be regulated to ensure that there are at least some safety measures for the public, Fu says. Right now, the crypto market has so many scams out there. Its like a Wild West.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Severance is a set design wonderland. From a massive mirrored corporate monolith in New Jersey to a classical train station in upstate New York, the show’s distinctive visual languagewhich has captivated audiences and critics alikerelies on actual places that have been carefully chosen to mess with your head. These aren’t just random pretty buildings. They’re psychological weapons that connect the dots in the same way the writers weave the tapestry of the tale. Severance follows a group of humans that go through a procedure to separate their (outie) real lives from their (innie) corporate bees working for a mysterious industrial conglomerate call Lumon, effectively turning four people (Mark, Helly, Irving, and Dylan) into eight, each with distinct personalities and circumstances. In the same way, the show divides its architecture, confronting an inner corporate hellscape to an outside world that, in its own way, is also its own hellscape. In its second season, Severance has expanded way beyond the creepy white corridors in the severed underground floor of Lumon Industries’s of the first season. The show ventures into a more diverse architectural playground that deepens its exploration of corporate control and our fractured modern psyche. The show’s filming locations now span from New Jersey to upstate New York to Newfoundland, each chosen not just because they look cool on camera, but because of the subliminal messages their architectural features convey. [Image: Apple TV+] The Lumon headquarters The most iconic location in Severance is Lumon Industries’s headquartersa massive, imposing structure that looms over the landscape like some corporate Death Star. In reality, this architectural marvel is the Bell Labs Holmdel Complex (now known as Bell Works) in New Jersey, a building whose real-world significance perfectly aligns with its fictional role. [Image: Apple TV+] All those companies in the ’50s and ’60s, they had so much style, they had the most beautiful spaces, and they were proud of what they were doing, explains Jeremy Hindle, Severances production designer, in an interview with Variety. These corporate spaces are designed to dominate you and make sure that you know the rules. No kidding. That’s exactly what makes Severance so viscerally disturbingand so visually compelling. The architecture isn’t just pretty. It’s predatory. [Photo: Lee Beaumont/Flickr] Designed by renowned architect Eero Saarinen in 1958 and completed in the early 1960s, the Bell Labs complex stands as one of the most significant examples of mid-century corporate modernism in America. Its vast mirrored glass façade earned it the nickname “The World’s Largest Mirror” in architectural circlesa fitting metaphor for a show about reflection and duality. The building spans 2 million square feet with a central open-atrium scheme extending a quarter-mile. ca. 1987 [Photo: Gerard Garcia/Getty Images] When Saarinen designed the complex for Bell Telephone/AT&T researchers, it was conceived as a utopian workplace meant to foster community and collaboration. The central atrium was designed to encourage chance encounters between researchers from different departmentsa physical manifestation of the cross-pollination of ideas, a concept that has been reproduced in many other corporate buildings, like Pixars and, most recently, Legos new HQs.
Category:
E-Commerce
Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest, has shut down today, following a fire last night at a nearby electrical substation that caused a major power outage. The closure has disrupted at least 1,350 flights, according to Flightradar24, with some aircraft diverted to alternate airports like Gatwick, Amsterdams Schiphol, and Pariss Charles de Gaulle. What caused the fire? While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, British officials have stated that there is no evidence of foul play. According to the London Fire Brigade, the fire broke out at an electrical substation around 11:20 p.m. on Thursday, involving a transformer containing 25,000 liters of cooling oil “that was fully alight.” The blaze posed a serious risk due to “live high-voltage equipment and the nature of an oil-fueled fire,” the brigade said. Around 70 firefighters responded to the incident. As of the latest update, about 10% of the fire remains burning. The incident left 67,000 homes without power, with 5,000 still affected. Both Heathrow Terminals 2 and 4 are without power. Additionally, around 150 people were evacuated to a rest center for safety. Firefighters and emergency services are continuing to address the situation. “This was a very visible and significant incident, and our firefighters worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible, Pat Goulbourne, assistant commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said in a statement. What should I do if I have a flight from Heathrow Airport today? Heathrow Airport confirmed that it would remain closed until at least 11:59 p.m. on Friday, warning passengers not to attempt to travel. Authorities have warned of continued disruptions and advised travelers to check with their airlines for updates. The U.K.’s Department for Transport travel guide includes a detailed breakdown of passenger rights covered by law when something goes wrong at a U.K. airport.
Category:
E-Commerce
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