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Article cover: The power grid jolts every minute: now we know why, and I simulated itNewsThe power grid jolts every minute: now we know why, and I simulated itPower grid frequency dips for an instant exactly every 60 seconds across grids on several continents, and it was a mystery for years. A study by Forschungszentrum Jülich, the University of Cologne and KIT, published in Nature Energy in October 2026, identified the main culprit: large backup batteries that check their state of charge at the start of every minute, all at once (the authors do not rule out contributions from other clock-synchronized devices). In Ireland the signal quadrupled between 2016 and 2021. Here: what was reported, how the effect works and a simulation of my own with 2,000 batteries showing how far the peak drops if each one checks itself at a random second.#Energy#Power grid#BatteriesArticle cover: «SMS of Death»: an invisible text message can knock your Android off calls, even emergency onesNews«SMS of Death»: an invisible text message can knock your Android off calls, even emergency onesOn 29 October 2026 a flaw was disclosed, nicknamed «SMS of Death» (CVE-2026-58882) and rated critical by Google: a special text message that never shows up in your inbox and hides who sent it can knock the call service off Android phones running 12 to 17, drop calls in progress including emergency calls, and, with a handful of messages, leave the phone rebooting every minute and a half. Google fixed it in the October security update for Android 14 to 17; versions 12 and 13 will likely stay unpatched. Here: who is affected, how to check your patch level (I checked it on a real phone) and what to do if yours no longer gets updates.#Android#Security#SMS