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PS Placeable: The adorable mod that turns a PlayStation Portable into a console
The labor-of-love mod project sold out quickly, but more will be made.
When Sony launched the PlayStation Portable almost exactly 20 years ago, the value proposition was right there in the name: a PlayStation, but portable. But now modders have flipped that, introducing a PSP that can be played on a TV, console-style, and they’ve dubbed it the PS Placeable.
It’s a non-destructive mod to PSP-2000 and PSP-3000 systems that allows you to play PSP games on the TV off the original UMD physical media format, with a wireless controller like the PlayStation 4’s DualShock 4—all wrapped in a miniature, PlayStation 2-like enclosure.
Let’s be frank: One of the main reasons this thing gets special attention here is that its look is both clever and, well, kind of adorable. The miniaturization of the retro styling of the PlayStation 2 is a nice touch.
Hackers seek ransom after getting SSNs, banking info from state gov’t portal
Rhode Island said it’s being extorted after hack of Deloitte-run benefits system.
Hackers trying to extort the Rhode Island government infiltrated the state’s public benefits system, causing state officials to shut down online services that let residents apply for Medicaid and other assistance programs.
“As part of this investigation today, we discovered that within the Rhode Island Bridges system, a cybercriminal had installed dangerous malware that constituted an urgent threat,” Governor Dan McKee said at a Friday night press conference, according to The Providence Journal. “That is why tonight we have shut down the system. That means customers will temporarily not be able to access any customer portal related to the services on Rhode Island Bridges.”
The vendor “Deloitte confirmed that there is a high probability that a cybercriminal has obtained files with personally identifiable information from RIBridges,” McKee’s office said in a press release. Rhode Island has “proactively taken the system offline so that the State and Deloitte can work to address the threat and restore the system as quickly as possible.”
Bernie Sanders’ probe finds Amazon hid worker injuries to prioritize profits
Amazon ignores strike threats, denies claims of “uniquely dangerous warehouses.”
Just as Amazon warehouse workers are threatening to launch the “first large-scale” unfair labor practices strike at Amazon in US history, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released a report accusing Amazon of operating “uniquely dangerous warehouses” that allegedly put profits over worker safety.
As chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Sanders started investigating Amazon in June 2023. His goal was “to uncover why Amazon’s injury rates far exceed those of its competitors and to understand what happens to Amazon workers when they are injured on the job.”
According to Sanders, Amazon “sometimes ignored” the committee’s requests and ultimately only supplied 285 documents requested. The e-commerce giant was mostly only willing to hand over “training materials given to on-site first aid staff,” Sanders noted, rather than “information on how it tracks workers, the quotas it imposes on workers, and the disciplinary actions it takes when workers cannot meet those quotas, internal studies on the connection between speed and injury rates, and the company’s treatment of injured workers.”
T-Mobile users can try Starlink-enabled phone service for free during beta
Beta registration opened today, will enable texting in dead zones in early 2025.
T-Mobile today said it opened registration for the “T-Mobile Starlink” beta service that will enable text messaging via satellites in dead zones not covered by cell towers.
T-Mobile’s announcement said the service using Starlink’s low-Earth orbit satellites will “provid[e] coverage for the 500,000 square miles of land in the United States not covered by earth-bound cell towers.” Starlink parent SpaceX has so far launched over 300 satellites with direct-to-cell capabilities, T-Mobile noted.
A registration page says, “We expect the beta to begin in early 2025, starting with texting and expanding to data and voice over time. The beta is open to all T-Mobile postpaid customers for free, but capacity is limited.”
On Trump’s chopping block: EVs, charger funding, California’s emissions
Trump’s attack on clean vehicles to be bigger than thought, says report.
The incoming Trump administration has even more plans to delay electric vehicle adoption than previously thought. According to Reuters, which has seen transition team documents, the Trump team wants to abolish EV subsidies, claw back federal funding meant for EV charging infrastructure, block EV battery imports on national security grounds, and prevent the federal government and the US military from purchasing more EVs.
During the campaign, candidate Trump made repeated references to ending a supposed EV mandate. In fact, policies put in place by current US President Joe Biden only call for 50 percent of all new vehicles to be electrified by 2032 under EPA rules meant to cut emissions by 56 percent from 2026 levels.
More pollution
Instead, the new regime will be far more friendly to gas guzzling, as it intends to roll back EPA fuel efficiency standards to those in effect in 2019. This would increase the allowable level of emissions from cars by about 25 percent relative to the current rule set. US new vehicle efficiency stalled between 2008 and 2019, and it was only once the Biden administration began in 2021 that the EPA started instituting stricter rules on allowable limits of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from vehicle tailpipes.
Researchers home in on headache-causing compounds in red wine
It’s not the tannins or sulfites after all.
Medical accounts of red wine headaches go back to Roman times, but the experience is likely as old as winemaking—something like 10,000 years. As chemists specializing in winemaking, we wanted to try to figure out the source of these headaches.
Many components of red wine have been accused of causing this misery—sulfites, biogenic amines, and tannin are the most popular. Our research suggests the most likely culprit is one you may not have considered.
The common suspects
Sulfites have been a popular scapegoat for all sorts of ailments since it became mandatory in the 1990s to label them on wines in the U.S. However, not much evidence links sulfites directly to headaches, and other foods contain comparable levels to wine without the same effects. White wines also contain the same amount of sulfites as red wines.
Bird flu jumps from birds to human in Louisiana; patient hospitalized
This is the first human case of bird flu in Louisiana.
A person in Louisiana is hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu after having contact with sick and dying birds suspected of carrying the virus, state health officials announced Friday.
It is the first human H5N1 case detected in Louisiana. For now, the case is considered a “presumptive” positive until testing is confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials say that the risk to the public is low but caution people to stay away from any sick or dead birds.
Although the person has been hospitalized, their condition was not immediately reported. It’s also unclear what kind of birds the person had contact with—wild, backyard, or commercial birds. Ars has reached out to Louisiana’s health department and will update this piece with any additional information.
Yearlong supply-chain attack targeting security pros steals 390K credentials
Multifaceted, high-precision campaign targets malicious and benevolent hackers alike.
A sophisticated and ongoing supply-chain attack operating for the past year has been stealing sensitive login credentials from both malicious and benevolent security personnel by infecting them with Trojanized versions of open source software from GitHub and NPM, researchers said.
The campaign, first reported three weeks ago by security firm Checkmarx and again on Friday by Datadog Security Labs, uses multiple avenues to infect the devices of researchers in security and other technical fields. One is through packages that have been available on open source repositories for over a year. They install a professionally developed backdoor that takes pains to conceal its presence. The unknown threat actors behind the campaign have also employed spear phishing that targets thousands of researchers who publish papers on the arXiv platform.
Unusual longevity
The objectives of the threat actors are also multifaceted. One is the collection of SSH private keys, Amazon Web Services access keys, command histories, and other sensitive information from infected devices every 12 hours. When this post went live, dozens of machines remained infected, and an online account on Dropbox contained some 390,000 credentials for WordPress websites taken by the attackers, most likely by stealing them from fellow malicious threat actors. The malware used in the campaign also installs cryptomining software that was present on at least 68 machines as of last month.
Werner Herzog muses on mysteries of the brain in Theater of Thought
Auteur director’s latest documentary runs the gamut from BCIs and how we construct reality to whether fish can dream.
Werner Herzog has made more than 60 films over his illustrious career. His documentaries alone span an impressive topical range, from the life and death of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly Man) to people who choose to live and work in Antarctica (the Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World) or a haunting exploration of the oldest human paintings in France’s Chauvet Cave (Cave of Forgotten Dreams). His latest offering, Theater of Thought, tackles what might be his most ambitious subject yet: the mysterious inner workings of the brain.
Theater of Thought premiered in 2022 at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado and is now getting a theatrical release. Herzog’s inspiration grew out of his conversations with Rafael Yuste, a Columbia University neurobiologist who also served as scientific advisor on the film. “How can we read thoughts?” he writes in his director’s statement. “Can you implant a chip in your brain and in my brain, and see my new film without a camera? Why is it that some young people immerse themselves in video games and become addicted to completely artificial worlds? Sometimes mice even prefer invented cartoon worlds, so who is the ghost writer of our mind, of our reality?”
The topic might be scientific in nature, but Theater of Thought is not really a science documentary, despite Herzog’s use of the classic talking head format. It’s more of a personal, almost quixotic quest, with plenty of random branching digressions along the way. “It was like a road movie, one Monument Valley and one Grand Canyon, then one Mount Everest after the other,” Herzog told Ars. “You just couldn’t stop wondering and enjoying.” For the viewer, it’s as much a journey through the eccentric workings of Herzog’s endlessly curious, nimble mind.
Elon Musk slams SEC as agency threatens charges in Twitter stock probe
SEC offered settlement in stock probe and is investigating Neuralink, Musk says.
Elon Musk has at least one more battle to wage against Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who will be leaving the agency when President-elect Trump takes over in January.
Musk yesterday posted a copy of a letter sent to Gensler by Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro. The letter dated December 12 says the SEC issued a settlement demand in its investigation into whether Musk violated federal securities laws in connection with 2022 purchases of Twitter stock, and that the SEC is investigating Neuralink. The Spiro letter said:
Yesterday the Commission Staff issued a settlement demand that required Mr. Musk agree within 48 hours to either accept a monetary payment or face charges on numerous counts. They indicated that this demand was the result of a directive from their superiors and that charges would be brought imminently unless Mr. Musk acquiesced. This demand follows a multi-year investigation and more than six years of harassment of Mr. Musk by the Commission and its Staff. More recently, the Staff subpoenaed me, Mr. Musk’s attorney, for testimony and threatened to send a process server if I did not immediately cooperate. I categorically refused. This week, the Commission has also reopened an investigation into Neuralink.
Spiro accused the SEC of “an improperly motivated campaign” against Musk, his companies, and people associated with him. “We demand to know who directed these actions—whether it was you or the White House,” Spiro wrote. “These tactics and misguided scheme will not intimidate us. We reserve all rights.”