Joker

You ever wake up feeling not like yourself? Let everyone know by changing your head as easily as you would change your shirt. Put on your happy face! Or your sad face. Or your uh... upside down face?

In Detached, we meet a man who's woken up on the smug side of the bed. His self-satisfaction is challenged by all of the unique personalities he bumps into on his way to work.

Detached was inspired by all those days that I woke up in an awful mood and just didn’t care about anyone else’s feelings. Those days when I barked at people who didn’t deserve it. Those days that made people ask, “What’s up with you today?” I felt different, but I looked the same. People can dress differently depending on their mood, can’t they? So wouldn’t it be great if we could switch our heads to match?

Ukrainian officials reported damage Thursday to an industrial site in the Dnipropetrovsk region after a series of Russian attacks.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said the attacks hit the city of Dnipro and also caused several fires.

Volodymyr Artiukh, governor of Ukraine’s Sumy region, said on Telegram that Russian forces shelled areas along the border between the two countries and attacked with an aerial drone.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses destroyed two Ukrainian drones over the Rostov region and two drones over Volgograd.

Yuri Slyusar, the acting governor of Rostov, said on Telegram there were no casualties and no damage as a result of the Ukrainian attack.

Source.

Abstract

This study evaluates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers in Argentina, during the second wave in 2021.

The aim is to assess stress and burnout, incorporating the assessment of hair cortisol levels as a biomarker of chronic stress. A total of 496 healthcare workers from three different hospitals were included in this study. Two of these hospitals depend on the Buenos Aires City Ministry of Health and the third hospital belongs to Buenos Aires University.

Hair samples were obtained using scissors from the posterior vertex, as close to the scalp as possible. Each sample was weighed, and cortisol was extracted and then measured using an automated chemiluminescent method.

Notably, 10% of the population exhibited hair cortisol levels above 128 pg/mg. Associations were found between high hair cortisol levels and age, workload, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization. In addition, burnout, identified in 11% of participants, correlated with higher perceived stress and lower social support.

Binary logistic regression revealed associations between burnout and perceived stress, and age. Finally, mediation analysis showed depersonalization as a mediating variable in the relationship between hair cortisol concentration and emotional exhaustion.

In conclusion, this study highlights the complex relationships between stress, cortisol levels, and burnout. Prioritizing interventions and research is essential to support the well-being of frontline healthcare professionals, ensuring their resilience during challenging times.

Google: DOJ’s staggering proposal would hurt consumers and America’s global technological leadership.

The Justice Department reasserted its position that Google should be forced to divest key parts of its business, such as Google Chrome and its Android operating system, to remedy its illegal monopoly over internet search in a filing Wednesday night.

BianLian group actors have affected organizations in multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors since June 2022. They have also targeted Australian critical infrastructure sectors in addition to professional services and property development. The group gains access to victim systems through valid Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials, uses open-source tools and command-line scripting for discovery and credential harvesting, and exfiltrates victim data via File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Rclone, or Mega. BianLian then extorts money by threatening to release data if payment is not made. BianLian group originally employed a double-extortion model in which they encrypted victims’ systems after exfiltrating the data; however, they shifted primarily to exfiltration-based extortion around January 2023 and shifted to exclusively exfiltration-based extortion around January 2024.

According to records filed in the case, Achtemeier conspired with mechanics in garages and operators of truck fleets to disable the anti-pollution software installed on diesel trucks.

Coconspirators who wanted to disable their trucks’ pollution control hardware system—a process commonly known as “deleting”—sought Achtemeier’s help to trick the truck’s software into believing the emissions control systems were still functional, a process known as “tuning.”

Monitoring software on a deleted truck will detect that the pollution control hardware is not functioning and will prevent the truck from running. Achtemeier disabled the monitoring software on his client’s trucks by connecting to laptops he had provided to various coconspirators. Some of the coconspirators would pass the laptop on to others seeking to have the anti-pollution software disabled on their trucks. Once the laptop was hooked up to the truck’s onboard computer, Achtemeier could access it from his computer and tune the software designed to slow the truck if the pollution control device was missing or malfunctioning. Achtemeier could “tune” trucks remotely, which enabled him to maximize his environmental impact and personal profit.

Breach date: 18 November 2024

Compromised accounts: 892,854

Compromised data: Dates of birth, Email addresses, Geographic locations, Names

Pennsylvania officials gathered at the Capitol in Harrisburg on Wednesday to mark the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It was a means of memorializing transgender Americans and Pennsylvanians who died by violence or suicide in the past year.