Matt Willemsen @Nonog@fedibird.com

A Tricky New Way to Sneak Past Repressive Internet Censorship
With the number of internet blackouts on the rise, cybersecurity firm eQualitie figured out how to hide censored online news in satellite TV signals.
https://www.wired.com/story/equalitie-trojan-horse-internet-censorship/ #Sneak #Past #Repressive #Internet #Censorship
#cybersecurity #eQualitie figured #hide #censored #online #news #satellite #TV #signals

Biden aims to wrest influence from China in Pacific islands
U.S. President Joe Biden is set to host leaders of Pacific island nations with an aim of countering China's ever-growing influence, proffering goodies ranging from an American soccer experience to shiny new embassies.
https://japantoday.com/category/world/biden-aims-to-wrest-influence-from-china-in-pacific-islands #Biden #china #influence #pacific #islands

One specific goal: “Buy ads for op-eds/editorials/stories in African American and Latino media.

TurboTax Parent Company's Latest Argument Against Free Tax Filing: It Will Harm Black Taxpayers
Articles published around the country repeat Intuit’s assertion — sometimes almost word for word — that the upcoming IRS pilot program would hurt Black Americans. A researcher whose work is cited by Intuit says the company is misstating her findings.
https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-intuit-black-taxpayers-irs-free-file-marketing#propublicas #turbotax #intuit ##black #taxpayers #misinformation

What's the highest temperature water can freeze, and the lowest it can boil on Earth?
Ice can form on Earth at temperatures above 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius), and water can boil below 212 F (100 C). Here's how.
https://www.livescience.com/chemistry/whats-the-highest-temperature-water-can-freeze-and-the-lowest-it-can-boil-on-earth #water #ice #freeze #boil #high #low #Temperature

Visualizing Global Gold Production Over 200 Years
Although the practice of gold mining has been around for thousands of years, it’s estimated that roughly 86% of all above-ground gold was extracted in the last 200 years.
With modern mining techniques making large-scale production possible, global gold production has grown exponentially since the 1800s.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/200-years-of-global-gold-production-by-country/#infographic #Visualizing #Global #Gold #Production #200Years

The shadowy Chinese firm that owns chunks of Cambodia
China's economic footprint in Cambodia now dwarfs that of any other country. It provides half of all direct investment and most of its foreign aid.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66851049?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA #Cambodia #china #investment #aid #development

Elevated Beauty: Peru’s Tropical Glaciers and Majestic Rainbow Mountains
The icy landscape high in the Andes is dotted with colorful glacial lakes and weathered rock.
https://scitechdaily.com/elevated-beauty-perus-tropical-glaciers-and-majestic-rainbow-mountains/ #Andes #mountains #satellite #photographs #ISS

Johns Hopkins Study: Early Treatment With Plasma May Reduce Long COVID Risk
Johns Hopkins-led research finds early treatment with plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients reduces “long COVID” risks, with inflammation-inducing interleukin-6 (IL6) playing a key role in symptom development.
https://scitechdaily.com/johns-hopkins-study-early-treatment-with-plasma-may-reduce-long-covid-risk/ #Early #Treatment #Plasma #Reduce #LongCOVID #Risk

The basic idea of a benevolent patent extension is straightforward. An inventor who applies to patent a ‘benevolent discovery’ — one that targets LMICs’ needs — is given the opportunity to offset the R&D costs by extending another patent, for a ‘non-essential’ product. The condition is that the benevolent discovery be offered to the public for unrestricted, non-exclusive, global use, royalty-free for the duration of its patent.

‘Benevolent’ patent extensions could raise billions for R&D in poorer countries
Research into vaccines, crop seeds and other innovations for low- or middle-income nations could be rewarded by offering longer patent coverage for profitable, non-essential inventions.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02998-4 #IPLaw #benevolent #patent #extensions #investment #BenevolentDiscovery

New Study: Older Adults Who Participate in This Leisure Activity Have the Memory of a 20-Year-Old
New research found that older adults playing digital puzzle games maintain memory abilities comparable to those in their 20s and have enhanced abilities to ignore distractions.
https://scitechdaily.com/new-study-older-adults-who-participate-in-this-leisure-activity-have-the-memory-of-a-20-year-old/ #aging #memory #digital #puzzle #games

California workers who cut countertops are dying of an incurable disease
Pale dust rose around them as they worked. Many went without masks. Some had water spurting from their machines, but others had nothing to tamp down the powder rising in the air.
“Nobody uses water,” one man in a Dodgers cap said in Spanish when Maria Cabrera approached, holding flyers about silicosis, an incurable and suffocating disease that has devastated dozens of workers across the state and killed men who have barely reached middle age.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-24/silicosis-countertop-workers-engineered-stone #silicosis

100x Efficiency: MIT’s Machine-Learning System Based on Light Could Yield More Powerful Large Language Models
MIT system demonstrates greater than 100-fold improvement in energy efficiency and a 25-fold improvement in compute density compared with current systems.
https://scitechdaily.com/100x-efficiency-mits-machine-learning-system-based-on-light-could-yield-more-powerful-large-language-models/#LLM #LargeLanguageModel #efficiency #MIT #light #compute #density

We found an underground Kyoto vending machine that sells multi-course French meals
https://soranews24.com/2023/09/24/we-found-an-underground-kyoto-vending-machine-that-sells-multi-course-french-meals/ #kyoto #undergound #vending #machine #french #meals

Some of the world’s biggest tech firms have built rival for Bluetooth AND Wi-Fi – here’s why you should be worried
With the backing of 300 mostly Chinese companies, Nearlink could be a game-changer
https://www.techradar.com/pro/some-of-the-worlds-biggest-tech-firms-have-built-rival-for-bluetooth-and-wi-fi-heres-why-you-should-be-worried #bluetooth #wifi #rival #nearlink #china

A brief history of abortion—from ancient Egyptian herbs to fighting stigma today
You might be forgiven for thinking of abortion as a particularly modern phenomenon. But there's plenty of evidence to suggest that abortion has been a constant feature of social life for thousands of years.
https://phys.org/news/2023-09-history-abortionfrom-ancient-egyptian-herbs.html #abortion #history #AncientEgypt #modern #fertility #abortifacients #personhood

A New Dinosaur Discovery Challenges ‘Everything We Think We Know’
If dinosaurs loved the heat, why are their footprints all over Alaska?
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/09/alaska-yukon-river-dinosaur-footprints/675429/ #dinosaurs #alaska #footprints #Yukon #cretaceous

The history of syphilis is being rewritten by a medieval skeleton
Columbus may not have brought syphilis back to the Old World after all.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/09/the-history-of-syphilis-is-being-rewritten-by-a-medieval-skeleton/ #syphilis #medieval #skeleton #mercenary #soldiers #Treponema #ColumbianH ypothesis #paleopathology