Having the information shown on the display of a digital multimeter also recorded off-screen can be incredibly useful, but unless the device exposes something like SCPI on a network interface, you will have to get creative. In the case of the budget ANENG AN870 digital multimeter (DMM), [Bits und Bolts] really wanted to show its display clearly as an overlay in OBS instead of just the camera view, but with said DMM not offering an easy way he had to resort to just copying the data sent to its multiplexed LCD.

The GitHub project page contains the background information, as well as the instructions if you too have this DMM. It might of course also be useful as the jumping off point for your own DMM modification. In total the project requires three modules: an RP2040 Zero and HC-12 433 MHz transceiver on the DMM side, and another HC-12 plus ESP32-C3 module on the receiving side. A boost module is also added to generate 3.3 V out of the 2.4 V – 3 V provided by the meter’s two AA cells.

To be able to read the LCD signal lines, a custom PCB was created that is installed inside the DMM. With the LCD’s segments mapped, this meant being able to send a perfect copy of the display’s state to the ESP32-C3 and from there making it available via WiFi.

from the two-sides-to-every-schwartz dept

There’s a lot of health news going on in the country right now, in no small part to the absolutely pitiful and pathetic job RFK Jr. is doing heading up HHS. It is a near certainty that by the end of this week, the CDC will have published an updated case count for measles that is greater than last year’s total case count, which was itself the largest since the 90s. Pertussis is also surging. There’s that new outbreak going around where you apparently just shit your pants constantly, like some kind of minor South Park character or something.

And so it was something of a breath of fresh air when the Trump administration nominated Erica Schwartz to lead the CDC, all because she appeared to be well qualified for the role and hadn’t said anything crazy-pants about things like vaccines. That this has become the standard for a feel-good HHS story is telling, but it was welcome news all the same.

Commenting on the nomination, Kennedy said he wouldn’t commit to taking CDC advice on vaccines, nor would he commit to not directly interfering with CDC operations and policy making.

Kennedy’s response Tuesday suggested Schwartz could face an equally short tenure. His answer came amid an exchange with Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) in a hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Ruiz asked Kennedy: “If Dr. Schwartz is confirmed, will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues without interference?”

Kennedy replied without hesitation: “I’m not going to make that kind of commitment.”

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Which is part of what informed senators to ask Schwartz about resisting Kennedy’s fuckery in her confirmation hearings. Sadly, it appears that Schwartz refused to demonstrate that she in fact has a backbone.

[D]uring a hearing sometimes marked by heated exchanges, Dr. Erica Schwartz repeatedly declined to say whether she would resist political pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.

Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., repeatedly questioned Schwartz about whether she would have authority to make personnel and policy decisions without political interference from the Health and Human Services Department. Schwartz did not directly answer whether she could hire and dismiss CDC employees independently or whether she would refuse directives from Kennedy that conflicted with scientific evidence.

Asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., whether she would carry out an order to discontinue a public campaign encouraging influenza vaccination, Schwartz replied, “I don’t speak in hypotheticals.”

And so, once again, the country will get to wonder whether the CDC really does have an actual director, or just some figurehead placed there to give Kennedy’s insanity the veneer of consensus. This is a very real problem given our current context and, frankly, these questions should not be terribly difficult to answer. For someone with integrity, at least, the answer should be something like, “As CDC’s Director, it would be my responsibility to refuse any order that would make the country less healthy, no matter who it comes from. And as CDC Director, I would have that authority by the nature of the position.”

All of that being said, Schwartz did at least reaffirm her sanity on the topic of vaccines.

Ranking Member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked Schwartz if she would remove a webpage updated last November on the CDC’s website on autism and vaccines. The webpage states that a link between the two has been ignored despite many studies finding no such link.

Schwartz said she accepted there is “overwhelming evidence” vaccines don’t cause autism, but did not commit to removing the webpage.

“Senator, I have been in situations where I have had to go to my superiors in the military to have conversations, very difficult conversations, about things that may have been concerning to the troops or to the military personnel, and I will do the same with [Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.],” she replied.

Once again, great that she is sane when it comes to vaccines, less great that she won’t commit to actually doing the right thing and removing the nonsense from CDC’s website.

I’m still relatively optimistic about Schwartz leading CDC. It may be that she didn’t want to publicly embarrass what would be her new boss if confirmed. It may be that she ends up pushing back hard on Kennedy’s attempts at interfering with her agency if confirmed, which will probably end up with her being fired. Even that would be fine by me, since it would be one more glaring data point of chaos at HHS under Kennedy.

If that led to Kennedy’s firing, it would be worth it.

Filed Under: autism, cdc, erica schwartz, health & human services, rfk jr., vaccines

A proposed class action is trying to turn Apple’s unresolved Hide My Email flaw into a nationwide payout without alleging that the vulnerability was used in an attack or that the plaintiff’s email address was exposed.

Anthony Alvarez filed the lawsuit against Apple on July 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint accuses the company of false advertising, fraud, breach of contract, and other violations tied to its marketing of Hide My Email.

The filing argues that Apple sold customers privacy it couldn’t provide. The claims cover the full version included with paid iCloud+ plans and the more limited relay addresses generated through Sign in with Apple.

Alvarez seeks to represent four proposed classes covering U.S. Apple customers, including two California subclasses. The lawsuit seeks damages and an order requiring Apple to fix Hide My Email or clearly disclose its limitations.

The allegations haven’t been tested in court, and no class has been certified.

A real flaw, but no alleged attack

Security researcher Tyler Murphy discovered the flaw and reported it to Apple in June 2025. The vulnerability became public on July 1 after the problem remained unresolved for more than a year.

Apple said in March 2026 that a system change had addressed the issue, but Murphy’s testing showed that the vulnerability remained. Apple later told Murphy that it planned to address the problem through a future security update.

404 Media independently confirmed on June 29 that the vulnerability could connect a Hide My Email relay address with the real email account behind it. The publication withheld the technical details because the flaw could still be exploited.

Apple deserves criticism for apparently leaving the problem unresolved while continuing to advertise Hide My Email as a privacy feature included with iCloud+. A feature designed to conceal a personal address loses much of its value when another person can trace the relay address back to the account behind it.

However, neither the complaint nor the public reports identify a known malicious attack using the flaw. Alvarez doesn’t allege that anyone uncovered or misused his email address, sent him unwanted messages, or otherwise exploited the vulnerability against him.

Alvarez’s claimed injury is financial. The complaint says he bought an iPhone and subscribed to the 200GB iCloud+ tier on or around March 15, 2025, and that he wouldn’t have paid as much had he known Hide My Email could fail.

The lawsuit extends that overpayment theory to four proposed classes, including people who bought Apple hardware and used the bundled version through Sign in with Apple.

A narrow flaw becomes a sweeping damages claim

The iCloud+ theory is relatively straightforward because Apple explicitly includes Hide My Email with a paid subscription. Customers paying for that subscription can expect the feature to perform the function Apple advertises.

The hardware claim is more ambitious. The complaint, first reported by MacRumors, tries to attribute part of an iPhone or Mac‘s price to Hide My Email without explaining what the feature was worth or how a court could separate that value from everything else included with the device.

Apple markets privacy as a reason to choose its products, so a prominent privacy failure can damage customer trust even without a documented attack. However, the Hide My Email flaw doesn’t automatically prove that every affected customer overpaid for an entire Apple device.

The lawsuit arrived 14 days after the vulnerability became public. The broad proposed classes and the absence of any alleged attack against Alvarez make the case look like ambulance chasing.

Apple mishandled a real privacy flaw, and customers shouldn’t have to wait for an attack before the company fixes it. Still, the lawsuit looks more like an attempt to monetize a newly publicized risk than compensation for proven misuse.

In 1675, while transporting a barometer by night, the astronomer Jean Picard noticed a glow inside its glass tube, just above the mercury. As the mercury sloshed and splashed across the surface of the glass, a static electric charge had built up, which was discharging by ionizing the residual gas molecules inside the evacuated tube. [Styropyro] recreated this effect, and found that the dim glow could be made much stronger by adding some noble gas to the tube.

It starts with a simple recreation: he took a volumetric flask, attached a narrow glass stem to the mouth, added some mercury to the flask, evacuated it with a vacuum pump, and sealed off the glass stem. This produced a faint glow when shaken, but it was only really visible under very low light. When [Styropyro] brought it near a Tesla coil, however, it did glow much more brightly.

Backfilling an identical flask with neon to about 40 millitorr produced a much more spectacular result (a low pressure in the tube is necessary, but moderate pressure variations don’t significantly alter the effect). When shaken even slightly, this neon-containing flask produced a bright orange-red glow just above the surface of the mercury. Points of obstruction, such as those in a zig-zag tube, produced a brighter glow. A krypton-containing tube glowed blue, but less brightly than the neon tube.

Since this is, essentially, a triboelectric effect, other materials besides mercury should work; [Styropyro] tested several materials, and found that pieces of Teflon produced a faint glow, and copper beads a somewhat brighter glow. Unfortunately, Galinstan, the obvious replacement for mercury, wets and coats glass, preventing a charge buildup.

Without an added noble gas, the standard glow of barometric light comes from the excitation of mercury vapors, a glow which can also be seen in mercury rectifiers, and which excites the phosphors of fluorescent light bulbs.

Thanks to [Vik Olliver] for the tip!

On social media, videos show people clearing out their fridges, swearing off salads and debating whether it’s safe to eat cilantro. You might dub it “produce paranoia.” 

It’s the frantic but expected internet response to the surge in cases of a diarrhea-causing parasite that’s rapidly spreading across the US, as health officials investigate what type of produce is contributing to the outbreak.

The gastrointestinal illness is caused by cyclospora, a foodborne pathogen that’s difficult to trace but has historically been linked to fresh produce such as berries and lettuce. For several weeks, no specific food, brand, grower or supplier was conclusively identified as the source of the outbreak, which has led to panicking and a whole lot of dark memes.

The CDC reported late Thursday that officials are investigating a link to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. The agency advised consumers to avoid eating shredded lettuce from Taco Bell locations in those states. The CDC said Taco Bell is working to remove the contaminated produce from its locations and is also working with the supplier to determine whether any was sent to other locations.

Earlier this week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had received reports of 1,645 laboratory-confirmed domestic cases of cyclosporiasis and was investigating 5,100 additional reports. Cases of the “explosive diarrhea parasite” have been reported across 34 states, with Michigan among the hardest-hit regions. 

With any health scare, bad advice and myths spread just as fast as the actual illness. So we turned to health care experts to learn the facts. 

“I wouldn’t necessarily suggest that people avoid produce,” said Dr. John Openshaw, an infectious disease physician and medical epidemiologist at Stanford University. “Even though the number of people involved in the current outbreak or outbreaks seems large, overall the risk remains very low to most people.” 

What is cyclosporiasis?

Cyclosporiasis is caused by cyclospora cayetanensis, a microscopic parasite transmitted through fecal matter that infects the small intestine. According to infectious disease experts at Johns Hopkins, it takes only a few microscopic cyclospora eggs to hijack your gastrointestinal tract. 

In the US, previous cyclospora outbreaks have frequently been associated with fresh produce, including bagged salad mixes, cilantro, basil, raspberries, snow peas and green onions. Any food that’s contaminated and eaten uncooked can theoretically transmit cyclospora. 

Unlike some stomach illnesses, such as the norovirus, cyclosporiasis is unlikely to spread directly from one person to another. After the parasite leaves an infected person’s body, it generally needs at least one to two weeks in the environment before it becomes infectious.

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What are the symptoms of cyclosporiasis?

The most common symptom is watery diarrhea that can be frequent and, according to the CDC, sometimes “explosive.” Other unpleasant symptoms can include stomach cramps, nausea, loss of appetite, bloating and gas, fatigue, vomiting and a low-grade fever. 

Unlike deadlier foodborne illnesses such as listeria or E. coli, cyclosporiasis isn’t usually life-threatening. The biggest risk right now during the hot summer months is dehydration. “People who are sick and are having trouble keeping hydrated should talk to a doctor,” Openshaw said. 

Symptoms typically begin about one week after exposure, although they can appear anywhere from two days to two weeks or longer afterward. Dr. Timothy Henrich, professor of medicine at UCSF, said it’s typical for people to have “waxing and waning symptoms” over weeks to months. Others who are infected might have minimal or even no symptoms, he said. 

Because symptoms can come and go, it’s important to get tested for cycolosporasis and talk with a doctor about treatment, which is generally well-tolerated and “may reduce the chances of further local fecal-oral spread,” Henrich said. 

How high is the risk?

While cyclosporasis cases span a lot of the country, the outbreak’s highest concentration is in a small cluster of states, mostly in the Midwest. Jessica Steier, a public health scientist and CEO of Unbiased Science, said the risk remains low outside those areas, but that anyone who is “pregnant or immunocompromised might consider erring on the side of caution.” 

The CDC says that only about 9% of people who contract the parasite require hospitalization, but the risk of severe illness and lasting complications is significantly higher for seniors, young children and others with weakened immune systems. The CDC said Tuesday that it had received no reports of deaths linked to the outbreak.

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How can you reduce your risk?

As of Tuesday, there was no nationwide recommendation to throw away lettuce. However, Michigan health officials have issued more specific guidance for lettuce during the current investigation, including buying whole heads of lettuce instead of bagged lettuce or premixed salad kits (then discarding the outer three layers of leaves) and cooking leafy greens when practical. 

Though washing fresh produce might reduce your exposure to cyclospora and other foodborne contaminants, it can’t guarantee the parasite will be completely removed.

“Washing produce does not meaningfully decrease the risk of cyclospora, and heat remains the gold standard for risk reduction,” Steier said. Cooking vegetables at an internal temperature of 158 degrees Fahrenheit or higher is the only surefire way to kill the parasite.

Experts also warn against using soap, bleach or household disinfectants on produce. Fruits and vegetables can absorb soap and detergent, which may make you sick, and the CDC says routine chemical disinfection is unlikely to kill cyclospora.

Household tools or countertop items such as UV produce washers, ultrasonic cleaners or ozone devices won’t make contaminated food safe to consume, either. Steier confirmed that none of those methods have sufficient real-world evidence to support their use in killing the parasite.

What should you do if you have symptoms?

Experts advise contacting a health care provider if you develop persistent watery diarrhea, especially if it is severe, lasts longer than a week or goes away and then returns. Drinking fluids is also important because prolonged diarrhea can cause dehydration. 

Diagnosing cyclospora requires special lab testing, and the parasite isn’t included in routine stool testing. The CDC says patients sometimes need to provide multiple samples because cyclospora can be difficult to detect.

The standard treatment is the prescription antibiotic combination trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, commonly sold under the brand names Bactrim and Septra. People who are allergic to sulfa drugs should discuss other options with a medical professional. 

Why is it so hard to identify the source of an outbreak? 

It often takes weeks or longer to identify the source of a parasitic outbreak because investigators have to compare what sick people ate, then trace the foods back through the supply chain. For cyclospora, that process is especially difficult because symptoms often begin days after exposure. 

Public health agencies have also faced staffing cuts and funding reductions in recent years, making it harder to identify outbreaks quickly and to tell people which foods to avoid. A recent study found that states with more CDC support reported more outbreaks than those without those programs, suggesting that federal funding improves detection and management. 

“Tracing any outbreak like this requires trained staff and resources — any cut to those elements of a public health response would impede efforts to trace an outbreak to a specific food item and identify how a pathogen like cyclospora got into the food supply,” Openshaw said. 

It’s a mammoth task to bring a beloved IP like Heartstopper to a close, but creator Alice Oseman has done an incredible job with the new Netflix movie, Heartstopper Forever.

If you’re bummed out because we’re not getting a full fourth season, don’t be. As Nick (Kit Connor), Charlie (Joe Locke), and the gang all brace before going their separate ways to university, a feature film actually reflects their growing maturity and crises of confidence much more fittingly.

Build starts limited alpha testing later this month.