A Genetic Snapshot Could Predict Preterm Birth

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A Genetic Snapshot Could Predict Preterm Birth     Doctors are trying out a simple blood test to screen for some common pregnancy complications.For expectant parents, pregnancy can be a time filled with joyful anticipation: hearing the beating of a tiny heart, watching the fetus wiggling through the black-and-white blur of an ultrasound, feeling the jostling of a little being in the belly as it swells. Continued here

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The mystery of why some people develop ALS     This month, the world received the news that Bryan Randall had died. He was a professional photographer and the partner of the actor Sandra Bullock, who met him on the job while he was taking portraits at a family party. Sadly, three years ago, at the age of 54, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic-lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehring disease after the American baseball player who developed the condition in 1939. Despite claiming numerous high-profile victims over the years – including young, otherwise healthy people – the mystery of what causes ALS remains. However, recent research has uncovered some clues. Could we finally be on track to decoding this devastating condition? Continued here

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This Tool Lets Hackers Dox Almost Anyone in the US     On Wednesday, August 23, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner Group, was killed after his plane exploded and fell from the sky. While the details of exactly what happened are still scarce, open source information has helped to fill in the gaps.To investigate technology, you need to be able to inspect it. Researchers and journalists have found clever ways to scrutinize Big Tech in the past, but these kinds of digital investigations are becoming increasingly more difficult. Surya Mattu, a data journalist who leads Princeton University’s Digital Witness Lab, makes the case for an inspectability API. Continued here

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The Low-Stakes Race to Crack an Encrypted German U-Boat Message     On a balmy Saturday in July, at approximately 15:30 hours, the first signals come in over the radio receiver. Its faint dip dip dip is barely detectable as a small team of engineers and scientists scramble to their stations and listen, trying to decipher the message, delivered through Morse code. They have 72 hours and time is ticking. What was once an auxiliary room above a garage in suburban Maryland is now command central.In what sounds like a scene ripped from the movie Oppenheimer, which coincidentally had its premiere the day before, is instead part of the Maritime Radio Historical Society’s Crypto Event. From their own radio station, KPH in Inverness, California, MRHS crypto coordinator Kevin McGrath is transmitting a message based on one sent 81 years ago, by Kapitänleutnant Hartwig Looks, commander of the German submarine U-264. That message was intercepted by the British destroyer HMS Hurricane in the North Atlantic in 1942. Continued here

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Share Your Memories With Our Favorite Digital Photo Frames     If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDMost of us have hundreds, if not thousands, of photos just sitting on our phones and computers that we rarely get to revisit in a polished way. There are too many to print and frame, and more keep piling up. That's why I love digital photo frames. Continued here

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The Best Car Phone Mounts and Chargers     If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDGetting ready for a drive? Whether you use your phone for navigation, music, or podcasts—or are just bringing it along for the ride—the right accessories can make it the perfect passenger. A good car mount will keep it within easy reach and in view, so you don't need to dangerously fumble for your handset and take your eyes off the road. You’ll also want to keep your device charged. Add a dashcam to document your trip. We have tested a range of mounts, chargers, dashcams, and other accessories that might be useful for your daily commute. Continued here

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The Cheap Radio Hack That Disrupted Poland's Railway System     Since war first broke out between Ukraine and Russia in 2014, Russian hackers have at times used some of the most sophisticated hacking techniques ever seen in the wild to destroy Ukrainian networks, disrupt the country's satellite communications, and even trigger blackouts for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens. But the mysterious saboteurs who have, over the last two days, disrupted Poland's railway system—a major piece of transit infrastructure for NATO's support of Ukraine—appear to have used a far less impressive form of technical mischief: Spoof a simple radio command to the trains that triggers their emergency stop function.On Friday and Saturday, more than 20 of Poland's trains carrying both freight and passengers were brought to a halt across the country through what Polish media and the BBC have described as a “cyberattack.” Polish intelligence services are investigating the sabotage incidents, which appear to have been carried out in support of Russia. The saboteurs reportedly interspersed the commands they used to stop the trains with the Russian national anthem and parts of a speech by Russian president Vladimir Putin. Continued here

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"Biocentrism": A scientific answer to the meaning of life     A Universe without life is a dead Universe. A Universe without minds has no memory. A Universe without memory has no history. The dawn of humanity marked the dawn of a mindful Universe, a Universe that after 13.8 billion years of quiet expansion found a voice to tell its story. Before life existed, the Universe was confined to physics and chemistry, stars forging chemical elements within their entrails and spreading them across space. There was no purpose to any of this, no grand plan of Creation. Through the unfolding of time, matter interacted with itself, as gravity sculpted galaxies and their stars. The emergence of life on Earth changed everything. Living matter doesn’t simply undergo passive transformations. Life is “animated” matter, matter with purpose, the purpose of surviving. Ecotheologian Thomas Berry wrote, “The term animal will forever indicate an ensouled being.” Life is a blending of elements that manifests as purpose. This sense of purpose, this autonomous drive to survive, is what defines life at its most general.And in our world, the mountains, rivers, oceans, and air sustain every living being. Life elsewhere may be very different from life here. But if it exists, it must share the same urge to survive, to perpetuate itself in deep communion with its environment. The alternative, of course, is extinction. When life exists, it will struggle to remain existing. Life is matter with intentionality. Continued here

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New Moon map reveals structures hidden beneath the lunar surface     Scientists have used recordings from a first-of-its-kind rover to create a new moon map that reveals structures hidden deep beneath the lunar surface. The background: In 2019, China made history as the first nation to soft land a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, giving the world its first up-close look at the moon’s more rugged hemisphere. Continued here

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New York Is Full     Since last spring, roughly 100,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City. This is a city of immigrants, welcoming to immigrants, built by immigrants. People who were born abroad make up a third of New York’s population and own more than half of its businesses. Yet the city has struggled to accommodate this wave of new arrivals. Migrants are selling candy on the subways, sleeping on the streets in Midtown, waiting for spots in homeless shelters. Families are struggling to access public schools, legal aid, and health care. They are vulnerable to predation and violence.It is a humanitarian crisis. The city has scrambled to accommodate these new residents, but Mayor Eric Adams says that New York is officially overwhelmed. “We have reached full capacity,” he said bluntly at a press conference last month. “We have no more room in the city.” Continued here

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Where Donald Trump Meets Bernie Sanders     A hit country artist offended progressives who couldn’t recognize his song as a primal cry of pain.The future of progressive politics in America just might revolve around whether someone like Chris Murphy, a U.S. senator from a prosperous New England state, can find common ground culturally and politically with a man like Oliver Anthony. Earlier this month, Anthony, a young country singer, dropped his song “Rich Men North of Richmond” into the nation’s political-cultural stew pot. A red-bearded high-school dropout, former factory hand, and virtual unknown, he strummed a guitar in the Virginia woods and sang with an urgent twang about the despair of working-class life: Continued here

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The 'Transcendent Tastelessness' of MySpace     A new oral history explores how the platform pushed a generation of teens to find their loudest selves.During the years when the social-media platform MySpace ruled the internet—roughly 2005 to 2008—it fueled a cultural phenomenon known as the “Scene.” The term encompassed young people who liked to flat iron and dye their hair until their bangs resembled sheafs of carbon fiber. They wore skinny jeans and vampiric eyeshadow; they listened to energetic rock possessed with strident vulnerability (signature bands: Fall Out Boy, Dashboard Confessional, Panic! at the Disco). This movement of disaffected youths was as recognizable, visually and sonically, as the flannel-clad grunge crews of 1990s Seattle, or the two-toned punks of 1970s Britain. But its social construction was unprecedented, a true 21st-century invention. Continued here

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America Is Finally Spilling Its Shipwreck Secrets     Historic shipwrecks are under threat from scallop nets. The first step is telling fishermen where they are.The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is a busy place. Roughly 21 miles offshore from Boston’s harbor, the waters are a rich fishing ground, a whale migration route, a shipping channel, and a diving locale. Overseeing the sanctuary, which sits at the mouth of Massachusetts Bay, falls to Deputy Superintendent Ben Haskell, along with Superintendent Pete DeCola, 14 support staff, and two boats. Access to MarineTraffic.com also helps. One day in late April 2017, Haskell was checking the website and noticed 70 boats crammed into the northwestern corner of the sanctuary, moving back and forth in a tight configuration. What the hell is going on? he wondered. Continued here

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The Source of TV as We Now Know It     This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Good morning, and welcome to The Daily’s new Sunday culture edition. Every weekend, one Atlantic writer will reveal what’s keeping them entertained. Continued here

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Bertrande de Rols     It’s not that he scared me, exactly, just that he didn’t see me, back then. There were ghosts in the marriage and I learned to keep my distance. When he went, I left the windows open for weeks. I left the windows open and I was alone, keeping my own counsel, and company, the child, yes, but all grew toward a kind of freedom, there were the gardens, yes, and the animals, there was enough, and time, I grew rich with days, and, you see, I didn’t miss him at first, or then. Continued here

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The Jacksonville Killer Wanted Everyone to Know His Message of Hate     Much is already known about the gunman who killed three Black customers at a Dollar General shop in Jacksonville, Florida, yesterday. He was in possession of an AR-15-style weapon and a handgun; he left manifestos about his hatred toward African Americans; he was wearing a tactical-style uniform as if going to war. There are still questions about how he acquired the guns, his mental state, and whether he had accomplices. But the basic storyline is written. He made it easy. He wanted us to know.His actions yesterday were not just a hate crime. They were a performance for all the world to see. This is the age of mass shooting as production. And we misunderstand what is happening if we see this as a play with only one act at a time. Continued here

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The Key to Inclusive Leadership     Inclusive leadership is emerging as a unique and critical capability helping organisations adapt to diverse customers, markets, ideas and talent. For those working around a leader, such as a manager, direct report or peer, the single most important trait generating a sense of inclusiveness is a leader’s visible awareness of bias. But to fully capitalize on their cognizance of bias, leaders also must express both humility and empathy. This article describes organizational practices that can help leaders become more inclusive and enhance the performance of their teams.What makes people feel included in organizations? Feel that they are treated fairly and respectfully, are valued and belong? Many things of course, including an organization’s mission, policies, and practices, as well as co-worker behaviors. Continued here

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Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson made a suggestion during the 1963 March on Washington - and it changed a good speech to a majestic sermon on an American dream     Adjunct professor of Justice, Law and Criminology, American University School of Public Affairs Known around the world as the “Queen of Gospel,” Jackson used her powerful voice to work in the Civil Rights Movement. Starting in the 1950s, she traveled with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. throughout the South and heard him preach in Black churches about a vision that only he could see. Continued here

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Nigerians with HIV are stigmatised: study shows support from family and friends is crucial to well-being     University of Johannesburg provides support as an endorsing partner of The Conversation AFRICA.Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions most affected by HIV. In Nigeria alone, an estimated 1.8 million people are living with the virus. Continued here