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Fortnite Servers Go Down, Millions Of Gamers And Their Parents At Wit’s End

4 years 9 months ago

 


The tragedy today hit millions of houses around the world, as one of the most popular online games in the world was offline several hours.

Fortnite, which has more than 350 million players worldwide, was offline for several hours due to an unknown technical issue.
The time for parents, whose play-obsessed offspring is at home during the winter holidays and devoting themselves to their passion for hours, couldn't have been worse.
Developer Epic Games posted on Twitter that their team is investigating an issue with the game's servers: “Fortnite is currently unavailable and players will not be able to log in while we are investigating an issue.
We will provide more information when we have a solution to get the services back. "." The problem has  been fixed and the game is back to working.
"Fortnite game servers are back online and  Winterfest continues! The problem occurred when Players were unable to log into the game. Several reported receiving a warning: "You are not authorized to play Fortnite.

We’re continuing to work on a fix that will bring Fortnite back online and appreciate everyone’s patience.

Fortnite game servers are currently offline while we investigate a solution to stability issues, and we’ll provide another update as more info is available. pic.twitter.com/aRTnawTJgE

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) December 29, 2021 Epic Games was also having problems.Of course, the large player base had time.
Pro Fortnite player Sypher PK joked that he could potentially run for president since his favorite time has gone.

It's been 10 minutes since Fortnite servers have been down. I now have touched grass, got jacked, made a billion dollars, and will be running for President.

— SypherPK (@SypherPK) December 29, 2021
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Tumblr is at war with Apple over ‘mature’ content on its app again

4 years 9 months ago


 Tumblr users looking to view adult content on the platform must avoid the iOS app as the company says it hides "sensitive content" so as not to violate Apple's sensitivities.

 "In order to remain available in the Apple App Store," says Tumblr, "we need to expand the definition of  sensitive content and access to it in order to meet its guidelines." Apple are available. 

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The company says it will display the above overlay on blogs "marked as explicit" and when "you see search results or tags for specific words or phrases". 

However, users will have to guess what has leaked as Tumblr will not "currently" reveal this information.


It probably won't be  hard to guess what leaked, but the new definition of "sensitive content" goes beyond what some would expect. 

Tumblr says  users "may also notice" that:

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  •  Images they receive through blog direct messages that they don't follow can't be viewed in the app. 
  • Explicitly marked blog likes and reblogs  are hidden from notes. 
  • The images of the  reblogs that appear in the post notes are blurry unless you follow the Tumblr that added the image.
  •  Your dashboard (the "Next" and the "Materials For You" tab), search results, and tag results will no longer display content that contains certain words or phrases. 
  • Certain words and phrases have been removed from  search (sometimes called search suggestions). 
  • We have excluded blogs from search results and tags that may contain or create sensitive content.

 These changes were implemented with the release of Tumblr version 22.1 in the App Store.

The company says  it won't display this overlay to users of its Android app or mobile website. it merely extends its restrictions on sensitive content to comply with Apple guidelines.


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The Rock Rejects Vin Diesel's Plea For Him To Join Fast & Furious 10

4 years 9 months ago

Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel in 2011 (Image via Getty Images/Buda Mendes)

 It's safe to say that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will not be returning to the Fast and Furious franchise.

 In a new interview with CNN released on Wednesday, December 29, the young rock actor explicitly stated that he was not interested in repeating his role. as Luke Hobbs, even after Vin Diesel launched a public petition in November.

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 For those who haven't followed the saga, Diesel wrote on Instagram last month, “My little brother Dwayne ... it's time. F&F 10 finals As you know, in my house you refer to my children  as Uncle Dwayne. 

There is no public holiday on which you and you do not send good wishes ... but the time has come.Diesel moved on to his expense, the deceased Pablo Walker, for his nickname Paul.

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"I was firm but warm in my words and said that I would always support the cast and  the franchise always to make it successful, but that there was no chance it would return." Johnson added that he had also informed Universal Pictures of his decision and "who were all very supportive of their understanding of the issue."

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Elon Musk says SpaceX will land humans on Mars in 10 years in the worst-case scenario

4 years 9 months ago

 


Elon Musk said that in the worst case scenario, SpaceX would bring humans to Mars in 10 years.

 Spaceship engineering and cost reduction are the determining factors. "No amount of money can get  a ticket to Mars,"  added in  Lex Fridman. 

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Elon Musk said that SpaceX will bring people to Mars in 10 years with its Starship rocket, in the worst case break, the billionaire replied: “The best case is about five years, the worst case 10 years.

 Musk told Fridman that the determining factors included  the design of the vehicle, adding that “Starship is the most complex and advanced rocket  ever built. 

"The basic optimization of Starship is to minimize the cost per ton for orbit and ultimately the cost per ton for the Martian surface," Musk told Fridman on the podcast. Millions of dollars, Musk told Fridman.

 "No amount of money can get  a ticket to Mars," he said on the podcast.The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has predicted multiple dates for his company's arrival and landing on the Red Planet.

 Musk said in an interview with the Clubhouse audio app  in February that it will be "five and a half years" before a manned SpaceX spacecraft mission takes place. 

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Missile could land on the red planet. Musk tweeted in March that his aerospace company would land its Starship missiles "long before" 2030 on Mars.

SpaceX will be landing Starships on Mars well before 2030. The really hard threshold is making Mars Base Alpha self-sustaining.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2021


Experts say it could take longer than they predict if things don't go exactly according to plan during the three remaining launch opportunities before 2026.

 Musk is finally planning to build 1,000 Starship missiles, launching three of them a day, to bring a million people to the Red Planet.

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TikTok replaces Google as world's most popular website

4 years 9 months ago

 


TikTok become the  most popular domain on the internet by 2021 on Tuesday, by replacing Google  according to  cybersecurity company Cloudflare.

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TikTok is a video-focused social media site from the Chinese company ByteDance.

“It was  February 17, 2021 when TikTok took first place for one day,” write Joao Tome and Sofia Cardita  in a blog post for Cloudfare.
“TikTok got a few more days in March and May too, but  after August 10, TikTok took over most of the days.” There were a few days that Google was number one, but October and November were mostly TikTok days, including Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
Facebook fell back from second place. in 3rd place, followed by Microsoft in 4th place, Apple in 5th place, and Amazon 6th  and Netflix on No 7.
YouTube, who belongs to Google Parent Alphabet, was eight, Twitter was ninth and Whatsapp Lasth.Instagram gave up the top 10 of  this year.

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Cloudfare added that even though TikTok receives more traffic, Facebook still has more  users on social websites around the world.

In 2020, TikTok and ByteDance opposed a print campaign by former President Donald Trump's administration to sell their US business  over alleged national security threats.

A federal judge eventually prevented the White House from banning the TikTok app for US users.

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Elon Musk Sells Another $1 Billion in Tesla Shares to Prep for Largest Tax Bill in History

4 years 9 months ago

 

Patrick Pleul | picture alliance | Getty Images

According to financial documents released Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold 934,090 company shares valued at around $ 1.02 billion not to fund a McMansion on Mars.Musk said he is preparing to pay the biggest tax bill in history.

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With an estimated value of more than $ 275 billion, Musk is the richest person in the world.
As ProPublica revealed in a report earlier this year, Musk has not yet paid large sums of money in personal taxes, given that they alone pay taxpayers' income or share taxes as soon as they do.
After exercising options to purchase nearly 1.6 million Tesla shares at an exercise price of $ 6.24 per share (given to him in his 2012 compensation package), Musk's stake in Tesla rose to more than 177 million shares.

Now Musk is expected to face the largest  individual tax bill in US history, with state and California income taxes estimated at $ 11 billion, according to CNBC
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After Musk was named  "Person of the Year" by Time Magazine, Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted that the government should "amend the rigged tax code so that the person of the year actually pays taxes and stops taking advantage of everyone else."

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Elon Musk sells another $1 billion in Tesla shares, nearing 10% target

4 years 9 months ago

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, stands in the foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory during a press event.Patrick Pleul | picture alliance | Getty Images

Elon Musk sold another $ 1.02 billion in Tesla Inc. stock, moving closer to his goal of reducing his stake in the electric car maker by 10 percent. US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Musk has been selling Tesla shares since asking his Twitter followers in November if he should sell some of his stake. Musk said in a tweet last week that he was "almost done" cutting his Tesla stake by 10 percent. The latest sale brings Musk's total number to about 15.6 million shares, for about $ 16.4 billion. 

You would have to sell around 17 million shares to get rid of 10 percent of your stake, provided your exposure excludes exercisable options.

>Tesla gained 2.3 percent in pre-market trading in the United States. The stock has gained 54 percent this year. It's unclear whether the November poll  had anything to do with Musk's plans. Options towards the end of the year and drew up a business plan for selling stocks ahead of his tweet. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk has net worth of $ 278.9 billion, up nearly 80% this year.

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Elon Musk reveals who bitcoin's creator Satoshi Nakamoto might be

4 years 9 months ago

 

Musk.MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images

Elon Musk seems to agree with many that hyper-secret cryptocurrency expert Nick Szabo could be Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of the digital currency Bitcoin. 

"You can watch ideas evolve before Bitcoin was launched and see who wrote about those ideas," Musk told artificial intelligence researcher Lex Fridman on a podcast posted Tuesday when asked what he thought about the real ones Identity of Nakamoto thinks. 

The Tesla billionaire said that while he "obviously" doesn't know exactly who created Bitcoin, Szabo's theories seem central to the creation of cryptocurrency. "It seems that Nick Szabo is probably responsible for developing these ideas more than anyone," he said. “He says he's not  Nakamoto, but I'm not sure it's neither here nor there. 

But he seems to be  responsible for the ideas behind Bitcoin more than anyone. Bitcoin was first proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto in October 2008. , a pseudonym for what people thought it could be. 

In 2014, a team of linguists examined Nakamoto's bitcoin whitepaper along with the writings of Szabo and 10 other potential creators. They found the results undeniable. "It's mind-boggling," said the researchers, adding that none of the other possible writers were anywhere near as good.

A 2015 New York Times report also identifies the invention of bitcoin in Szabo, who has spoken publicly about the history of bitcoin and blockchain technology but  repeatedly  claims that he is the anonymous inventor of the digital asset. Another reason it is associated with Bitcoin is because of its origins. of the  cryptocurrency "Bit Gold" in 1998.

Source:Yahoo News

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New Flagpro malware linked to Chinese state-backed hackers

4 years 9 months ago


 The cyber espionage group APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) Blackwell has been targeting Japanese companies with a new type of malware that researchers call "Flag pro". Second level malware and run it. 

Breaching corporate networks

The chain of infection begins with a phishing e-mail that was developed for the target organization and pretends to be a message from a trusted partner.

 The e-mail contains a password-protected ZIP or RAR attachment with a Microsoft Excel file [.XLSM] linked to a malicious macro. Running this code creates an executable file in the Flag pro home directory. 

When it first runs, Flagpro connects to the C2 server over HTTP and sends the system identification details obtained by executing hard-coded operating system commands. 

In response, the C2 can send additional commands or a second-level payload that Flag pro can execute. 

An example of a sent command Source: NTT Security

Communication between the two is base64 encoded, and there is also a configurable delay between connections to avoid creating an identifiable operating model.

Communication between Flagpro and the C2 Source: NTT Security

 Flagpro has been used against Japanese companies for more than a year, at the latest since October 2020, according to a report by NTT Security. 

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The most recent samples the researchers were able to obtain are from July 2021. The target companies are from a variety of industries, including defense, media and communications technology. 

Flagpro v2.0

At some point in their analysis, NTT researchers noticed a new version of Flag pro that can automatically close relevant dialog boxes to make external connections that could reveal their presence to the victim. 

"In the Flag pro v1.0 implementation, if a dialog box titled 'Windows セ キ ュ リ テ ィ' appears when Flagpro is accessing an external site, Flagpro will automatically click the OK button to close the dialog box" explains NTT Security report. “This handling also works if the dialog is written in Chinese or English  indicates destinations are in Japan, Taiwan, and English-speaking countries.

Inserted code serving as obfuscation in Flagpro v2.0 Source: NTT Security

 Blackwell APT is a lesser known player discovered by Trendier researchers in the summer of 2017 and has partnered with China. His typical targets are in Taiwan, although he has occasionally targeted companies in Japan and Hong Kong to steal technology.

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 In February  2021, a report from Unit 42 linked  Blackwell to Waterbear Flag pro, another cyber espionage group believed to have the backing of the Chinese government like Apt, Black tech, Knowledge and Refinement to adapt their tools to new reports like this one, Flag pro is likely to be modified for more stealth use.

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As the NTT report concludes, “Recently they (Blackwell) started using another new malware called Selfsame Loader and Spider RAT. “That means they are actively developing new malware. Defenders should be aware of the new indicators of exposure to new malware and follow all security best practices to maintain a strong defense against sophisticated threats like Blackwell.

Source: Bleeping Computer

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Watch out for ‘child in need’ Whatsapp scams as parents get duped out of £50,000

4 years 9 months ago


 Another WhatsApp scam is circulating, this time aimed at parents. WhatsApp scammers pretend to be desperate children who need money right away.

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 People in the UK have reportedly been defrauded of nearly £ 50,000 for this type of scam. 25 cases of fraud were reported between August and October, with victims losing pounds 48,356. 

A Bedford mom shared her WhatsApp exchange with a Bedford Facebook group to warn others.


"Hello mom, it's me. I have a new number, you can delete the old one, ”read the scammer's input text. 

Toni Parker, 53, thought her son had dropped his phone down the toilet and had a new phone number (Picture: Caters News)

When the woman asked who the unknown messenger was, they replied: “Your oldest and sweetest son xx. The scammer then stated that he had  a new phone and was "transferring everything", claiming that his banking app had banned him for 48 hours. 

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“Very annoying because there is nothing I can do  about it. Can you possibly pay  me and I will get it back to you asap? I'm sorry to bother you with this, '' read the scammer's text message. However, instead of sending the money immediately, the woman called her daughter, who confirmed that she was not sending the messages.

When the woman realized she was being attacked by a conspiratorial impostor, she immediately warned others about the deception.


 This is not the first time such a tactic has been used to commit fraud on WhatsApp. In August, a nurse was cheated of £ 2,500 after a scammer impersonated her son. In September, WhatsApp users were warned of the scam that could see criminals steal thousands of them.

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 'WhatsApp protects our users' personal messages with end-to-end encryption, but we want to remind people that we all have one.' We advise all users never to share their six-digit PIN code with anyone, not even with friends or family, and we recommend  all users configure two-step verification for added security.

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A Weird Paper Tests The Limits of Science by Claiming Octopuses Came From Space

4 years 9 months ago


 A round-up of decades of research into a fairly "external" idea with viruses from space begs the question of how scientific we can be when it comes to speculating about the history of life on earth. and nonconformist in describing the scientific fringes, but then articles like this one from 2018 pop up and make us blink like owls not knowing where to start.

In this review, which by. was published, a total of 33 names were listed as authors Advances in Biophysics and Molecular Biology (as of August 2018) The journal is peer-reviewed and fairly well cited.

 So not exactly a small or paid niche source for publication. Science writer Stephen Fleischfresser delves into  the backgrounds of two of the most famous scientists involved: Edward Steele and Chandra Wickramasinghe. Well worth reading.

 For a tl version; Dr. Steele is an immunologist known for his views on evolution based on the acquisition of genetic changes determined by the influence of the environment rather than random mutations in what he calls metalamarckism.

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Wickramasinghe, on the other hand, has had a slightly less controversial career known for empirically confirming Sir Fred Hoyle's hypothesis that describes the production of complex carbon molecules in interstellar dust. Wickramasinghe and Hoyle were also  responsible for further space biology work. one is based on more than just the origins of organic chemistry. 

Hoyle Wickramasinghes (HW) thesis of cometary biology (cosmic biology) makes the rather simple claim that the direction of evolution was significantly influenced by biochemistry that did not begin on our planet. In Wickramasinghe's own words: “Comets are the carriers and distributors of life in the cosmos, and life on earth originated and developed as a result of input from comets.

 These inputs, argued Wickramasinghe, are not limited to a generous pinch of  amino acids that have been branded into the world. Neither do acids. Rather, they include viruses that infiltrate organisms and drive their evolution in completely new directions.

The report, entitled “Cause of the Cambrian Explosion: Terrestrial or Cosmic? and other viruses  to be released in meteoric debris may potentially add new DNA sequences to terrestrial genomes and cause further mutagenic changes within the germline and somatic genomes, ”the authors wrote.

 Before going any further, because that was the docile part during this period, a group of mollusks known as cephalopods first stretched  their tentacles under their shells and branched into an amazing variety of sizes and shapes in an amazingly short amount of time  and octopuses are as strange as the animals themselves,  in part because of their ability to manipulate their DNA in the blink of an eye.

 The authors of the article make the rather bold claim that these genetic oddities could be a sign of life from space, this time not from space viruses  but from the arrival of enter genomes frozen in stasis before they thaw in our warm waters.

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"Thus the possibility that cryopreserved squid and/or octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted," they wrote.

In his review of the article, University of Eastern Finland medical researcher Keith Baverstock admitted that there is much evidence  plausibly in line with HW's thesis, such as the strange timeline of virus emergence, but that is not how science comes Ahead. 

"I believe this paper justifies skepticism of the scientific value of stand alone theories of the origin of life," Baverstock argued at the time.

"The weight of plausible, but non-definitive, evidence, great though that might be, is not the point."

Although the idea is as new and exciting as it is provocative, nothing in the summary helps us better understand the history of life on earth than existing assumptions that give little  value to our evolutionary model.

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 Perhaps science can handle a generous dose of madness from time to time. The magazine's editor, Denis Noble, admits that "more research is needed", which is a bit of an understatement.

 Room for discussion. "As space chemistry and biology grow in importance, it is appropriate for a journal devoted to the interface between physics and biology to stimulate discussion," said Noble.

"In the future, the ideas will surely become testable."

Just in case those tests confirm speculations, we recommend being well prepared for the return of our cephalopod overlords. Who knows when they'll want those eggs back?

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Elon Musk’s ex Grimes sparks new pregnancy rumours with cryptic post: See here

4 years 9 months ago

 Elon Musk’s ex, singer Grimes, has sent rumour mills in overdrive with her latest Instagram 

Elon Musk's ex-singer Grimes got the rumors going with her latest Instagram post showing her with a prominent belly.
Grimes fans continued to speculate on Tuesday after the Player of Games singer's new photo showing an animated form of her. At one stroke, she repeated her first pregnancy announcement with Musk's chid.

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Comments on the post ranged from "The Queen is Pregnant" to "OMG, pregnant again?" However, Grimes has yet to respond to speculation. in May 2020 after  two years of dating.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ☘︎𝔊𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰࿎ (@grimes)


The couple has since split and the Tesla CEO confirmed the split to Page Six in September 2021.
We're half apart, but we still love each other, see each other often, and have a very good relationship, "said Musk.


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Omicron symptoms: how they differ from Delta, the flu and a cold, and how quickly they’ll show up

4 years 9 months ago

 Image Credit:CIPhotos via Getty Images

With the Omicron variant of Covid, it extends along the city and abroad, many people felt this week as the hope that their end of the pandemic had been plagued.

Omicron symptoms can mimic the common cold


Although experts say that the widely recognized COVID-19 symptoms, coughing, fever or taste of smell or taste are still indicators for a possible infection, the researchers have found that the symptoms of Omicron can also be similar to those of a cold similarities.

The symptoms of the Delta variant were also compared to those of a cold, but some doctors said the cases of Omicron seen so far were particularly mild. A US study of around 750,000 people recently found that the five most common symptoms for both the Delta and Omicron variants currently are runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing, and sore throat.

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However, in many people, Omicron also causes atypical symptoms that were not seen with previous variants. In a popular TikTok video this weekend, people currently suffering from the Omicron variant weighed down on their unusual symptoms, including nausea, less back pain, muscle pain, and even eye pain.

Omicron appears to be more contagious with symptoms that show up faster, but questions about severity remain

While coughs, headaches, and fever manifest themselves after four to five days of infection with older COVID strains, the incubation time of Omicron can be even shorter. Data on the latest variant of COVID, first spotted in Botswana and South Africa in mid-November, is still limited, but a recent study in Norway suggests an average three-day window between exposure to the Omicron variant and symptoms, which means that Omicron could spread faster, reports Jessica Mathews of Fortune.

Preliminary studies of the Omicron variant have shown that infections may be less severe than the Delta variant. However, it spreads faster. Last week, the World Health Organization announced that Omicron is spreading faster than any other strain before and that the variant is likely to be found in most countries, even if it has not yet been detected.

An analysis published last week by South African researchers found that the risk of hospitalization among adults with COVID19 was 29% lower in people with the Omicron variant compared to the first wave of infections in 2020, the fastest increase since May last year . Another study from Imperial College London found that the infection in the Omicron cases analyzed was no less severe than in the Delta variant.

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Johnson and Johnson, Sputnik, and Sinopharm vaccines have also proven largely ineffective at protecting against Omicron, as studies have shown, and due to the large number of mutations in the variant, which health experts say can be significantly resistant to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as well.

U.S. cities should expect a winter surge in cases


Experts say COVID infections experience a "winter surge" even without Omicron. There are currently an average of 83,000 new cases of COVID in the US every day, even with 61% of the population being vaccinated. On Friday, the seven-day national average of new daily cases topped 197,000, a 65% increase over the past 14 days, the New York Times reported. Deaths also increased by 3% during this period. The highest national average of daily falls was set in January 2021 at 251,232 in the days after the holidays.

Reasons for the increase in cases include people roaming the country as they did before the pandemic, spending more time indoors due to the cold outside temperatures, wearing fewer masks, and falling protection from vaccines and previous infections, Ali Mokdad,  professor of health sciences . from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, he told NPR. With more and more people wanting to return to life as they were before the pandemic and the new variant is extremely contagious and vaccine resistant, the risk of infection is very real.

While Europe still battles the Delta variant, Omicron is spreading at a “ferocious pace”

While Europe is still fighting the Delta variant, Omicron is spreading at a "rapid pace", European leaders are fighting to get the majority of their populations vaccinated and amplified as Omicron and COVID cases rise. of COVID19 cases with 121,371 infections in 24 hours. “[Omicron] is spreading at high speed and may be in danger of at least partially escaping our vaccines.

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We know that our health  systems are currently overloaded, "said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to reporters last week.

Shortly before the holidays, Cornell University closed his campus after he discovered 900 positive Covid cases, after the Bloomberg.stanford University, also his decision to return to online classes in the first two weeks of his winter quarters, because of the concern of the Omicron

Several major league sports have cut their seasons after the outbreaks, and many Broadway shows have closed, some even permanently. And companies continue to postpone their plans to return to the office indefinitely for fear of the new variant.
It gets worse when we move into the dead of winter, "said Anthony Fauci, senior medical advisor to the president, last week for the University of California Chamber of Commerce Foundation, especially for the unvaccinated.

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130-year-old time capsule found in base of statue of Confederate general

4 years 9 months ago

 The box will be opened on Tuesday,
 said Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Twitter

WASHINGTON: Workers dismantling a Confederate general's statue pedestal discovered a copper box believed to be buried 130 years ago, the second apparent time capsule unearthed at the site.

site.

 Virginia Governor Ralph Northam tweeted along with pictures of the box. 

"This is probably the time capsule everyone has been looking for. According to an 1887 newspaper article, a time capsule hidden at the foot of the statue of General Robert E.Lee of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War contained relics such as buttons and balls, Confederate currency, cards, a rare picture of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in his coffin and other items, the box will open at 1:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) Tuesday, Northam said in a subsequent tweet, adding that it was "Experts believe there could be coins, books, buttons and even ammunition from the Civil War," he said. 

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The statue's base was opened by Conservatives last week, but it clearly wasn't the capsule in that time the 1887 newspaper article because it contained three soaked books, a photo in a soaked cloth cover, and a coin.

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 The items appeared to be memorabilia left for posterity by some of the workers who erected the statue. The time capsule found on Monday is roughly twice as big. Lee's statue in Richmond, the city of Virginia, which was the southern capital during the bloody conflict of 1861-65, was overthrown in September, one of several memorials the Pro-Slavery Confederation has seen in recent months. The statue became the focus of protests against racial justice last year after the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white Minnesota police officer. During the Civil War, the Confederate southern states separated from the United States and fought to maintain slavery, which the rest of the country had abolished.

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“Squid Game” Director Reveals Season 2’s Core Plotline + Netflix Comments On Possibility Of Season 3

4 years 9 months ago

 


Both Squid Game director Hwang Dong Hyuk and Netflix have discussed their plans for future seasons of the hit series.

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On December 28th, Hwang Dong Hyuk participated in an interview with KBS in which he spoke about it “I’m currently in the midst of discussions with Netflix about Season 2 and Season 3 [of ‘Squid Game’].”
“I think we’ll be reaching some sort of conclusion [to our discussions] soon,” continued the director. “We know that many people are waiting, so everyone is working hard to prepare for the next season with a positive outlook.”

Hwang Dong Hyuk also revealed what will be the main storyline for Season 2. “The focus [of the season] will be the story of [Lee Jung Jae's character] Seong Gi Hun, who unravels [the secrets of the organization behind the game]." Split. "The overall story of season two will be the story of the people who have favourited Gi Hun and the people he chases.

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Later that day, Netflix officially addressed the possibility of a third season of Squid Game, making it clear, "It is true that we are discussing a variety of possibilities for Squid Game, including producing a third season, but has nothing happens, but it's set in stone.
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Are you excited for season 3 of 'Squid Game'?

Source: Soompi


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After 375 years, scientists discover eighth continent

4 years 9 months ago




Key Points
  • Geologists made headlines in 2017 after their announcement of the discovery of Zealandia.
  • It is a vast continent of 1.89 million sq miles (4.9 million sq km) and is around six times the size of Madagascar.
  • Zealandia is a continent because of the kinds of rocks found there, despite that it is thin and is submerged.
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In 1642, Abel Tasman, a skilled Dutch seaman who loved tough justice, was confident that there was a vast continent in the southern hemisphere  and  determined to find it.

He believed  he had discovered the great southern continent, obviously it was hardly a commercial utopia that he imagined and then never returned.
BBC reported that Tasman was just thankful, actually there was an undiscovered continent.

A group of geologists made headlines in 2017 when they announced the discovery of Zealandia - Te RiuaMāui in the Maori language. It's a vast continent measuring 1.89 million square miles (4.9 million square kilometers) and about six times the size of Madagascar, the announcer reported.

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A post shared by BBC News (@bbcnews)


According to the BBC report, the world's encyclopedias, maps and search engines have long been dictated by the fact that there are only seven continents, but the team confidently informed the world that this was wrong.

After all, there are eight, and the latest addition is breaking all records as the smallest, slimmest and youngest in the world. The problem is that 94% is underwater and only a handful of islands like New Zealand emerge from their sea depths. It had been hiding in sight the whole time, "reported the BBC.

Andy Tulloch, a geologist on the New Zealand Crown Research Institute GNS Science, who turned into a part of the group that determined Zealandia, said: "This is an instance of the way some thing very apparent can take some time to uncover." This all is simply the begging as 4 years on, and the continent is as enigmatic as ever, it's far guarded beneath6,560 ft (2km) of water, BBC reported.

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According to geologists, Zealandia is a continent due to the type of rock found there, although it is thin and underwater, the seabed consists more only of woody like basalt, while the continental crust consists more of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks like granite, slate and Limestone.
According to the report, geologists still find the eighth continent very intriguing, it is still unclear how Zealandia managed to hold together when it is so thin and doesn't break up into tiny micro-continents.

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Elon Musk criticised on Chinese social media over risk of 'collision' between Starlink satellites and space station

4 years 9 months ago

 


Elon Musk been criticized on social media after China complains that its space station was forced to avoid collisions with satellites launched by its Starlink Internet Services project.

China submitted a document earlier this month to the UN's space agency saying that satellites from the Starlink division of Mr Musk's SpaceX  company had two "close encounters" with the Chinese space station on 1 July and 21 October

The incidents behind the complaints filed with the UN space agency have yet to be independently verified.

Starlink is a satellite Internet network owned by Elon Musk SpaceX.

Elon Musk is known in China, even though his Tesla electric car manufacturer has a growing review of regulatory authorities.


Starlink and the US have been heavily criticized on China's Weibo microblogging platform Twitter.

As news of the filing spread, users of the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo piled on, with one user saying Starlink satellites were "just a heap of space junk" and another describing them as "American space warfare weapons".

"The risks of Starlink are being gradually exposed, the whole human race will pay for their business activities."

China also accused the United States to bring astronauts in danger by ignoring obligations under the spaces' contracts.

The spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, Lijian, said that China requested the United States to act responsibly.

Scientists have voiced worries about the dangers of collisions in space and referred to as on global governments to percentage statistics about the predicted 30,000 satellites and different area particles which can be orbiting Earth.

SpaceX has already launched nearly 1,900 satellites as a part of the Starlink network, and plans to install thousands more.

Last month, the US space agency Nasa abruptly postponed a space walk from the International Space Station due to concerns about space debris.

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Scientists Identify antibodies that can kill the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus

4 years 9 months ago

Image Credit:CIPhotos via Getty Image

A global team of scientists has discovered antibodies that can kill the variant responsible for the rise of Omicron around the world. In addition, the scientists claim that these antibodies can neutralize other variants of Covid19 as well.


New treatments may be explored

According to one of the study researchers, David Veesler of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Washington School of Medicine, the antibodies work by targeting areas of the virus spike protein that are unchanged by mutations. Protein, scientists can develop vaccines and antibody treatments that  work not only against the Omicron variant, but also against any mutation that may occur in the future.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has 37 mutations in its spike protein, which is considered an unusually high number for a virus. For this reason, countries like the US and UK are urging citizens to get a booster dose (a third vaccination) to increase the body's antibody response in the event of infection. Studies have shown that the variant, while  less fatal, is more transmissible and able to evade the protection offered by vaccines designed with previous variants in mind.

Why the virus keeps mutating

If the virus continues to mutate (which it won't if the vaccine inequality is not addressed), one day a more deadly and  transmissible variant could emerge that could spark another  wave of infections like the one seen during the Delta wave in India.

The team behind the antibody identification  believe that Omicron mutations could be due to a weakened immune system in a person infected with the variant. It is also possible that the virus jumped from humans to animals and then back to humans.

The researchers also found that the Moderna, Pfizer / BioNTech, and AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccines offered some  protection against Omicron, unlike Sputnik V, Sinopharm, and Johnson and Johnson, which did not show the ability of Omicron to penetrate cells prevent. 

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Watch Apple’s ‘Unleashed’ event live right here

4 years 11 months ago


Apple is set to announce new hardware today. The company is holding a (virtual) keynote at 10 AM PT (1 PM in New York, 6 PM in London, 7 PM in Paris). And you’ll be able to watch the event right here as the company is streaming it live.

Rumor has it that the company is set to announce some new Macs. Over the past year, Apple has updated its entry-level computers with new custom-designed M1 chips. And now, the company could bring its own chips to higher-end computers, such as a 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, a new Mac Mini and a 27-inch iMac.

Apple could use this opportunity to redesign its laptops from the ground up with new display technologies, a new array of ports and a new form factor in general. But that’s not all. Apple has also been working on an updated version of its entry-level AirPods.

You can watch the livestream directly on this page, as Apple is streaming its conference on YouTube.

If you have an Apple TV, you can open the TV app and look for the ‘Apple Special Event’ section. It lets you stream today’s event and rewatch old ones.

And if you don’t have an Apple TV and don’t want to use YouTube, the company also lets you livestream the event from the Apple Events section on its website. This video feed now works in all major browsers — Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome.

Source: Tech crunch

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China Could Be Exploiting Internet Security Process to Steal Data, Cyber Experts Warn

4 years 11 months ago

To access the data of unsuspecting users, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could take advantage of a universal authentication process that is believed to be secure but may not actually be, cybersecurity experts warned, although encryption is still the preferred method of protecting digital data and Protection of computers - in some cases, the same digital certificates used for internet authentication allow the Chinese regime to infiltrate and wreak havoc on various computer networks, they said. 

Digital certificates that verify the identity of a digital entity on the Internet. A digital certificate can be compared to a passport or driver's license, according to Andrew Jenkinson, CEO of cybersecurity company Cybersec Innovation Partners (CIP) and author of the book Stuxnet to Sunburst: 20 Years of Digital Exploitation and Cyber ​​Warfare. 

"Without it, the person or device you are using may not meet industry standards, and the encryption of critical data could be bypassed so that what should be encrypted remains in plain text," Jenkinson told The Epoch Times Used to Encrypt internal and external communications that prevent a hacker, for example, from intercepting and stealing data. But "fake certificates" or invalid certificates can tamper with any data. 

Sense of security, "said Jenkinson. Cybersecurity firm Global Cyber ​​Risk LLC said digital certificates are generally issued by trusted CAs and then the same level of trust is passed on to intermediaries However, there are opportunities for a communist entity, malicious actor, or other untrustworthy entity to issue certificates to other "hideous people" who appear trustworthy but are not, he said.

"If you issue a certificate from a trusted authority, you will trust it," said Duren. "But what the issuer could actually do is pass that trust on to someone who shouldn't be trusted. Duren said he would never trust." a Chinese certification authority for this reason, stating that it is aware of a number of companies that have banned Chinese certificates because they were issued to untrustworthy agencies. 

Jenkinson said that Chinese certification bodies make up a small portion of the overall industry and the certificates they issue are generally limited to Chinese companies and products.

Prince, a member of the hacking group Red Hacker Alliance who declined to give his real name, uses his computer at their office in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China, on Aug. 4, 2020. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images).

 In 2015, certificates from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the state agency overseeing domain name registration in China, were challenged. Mozilla revoked CNNIC certificates because it knew of unauthorized digital certificates associated with multiple domains. Both Internet companies opposed CNNIC delegating its authority to issue certificates to an Egyptian company that issued the unauthorized certificates. According to Jenkinson, CNNIC certificates were banned because they had "back doors". 

A back door means that [the Chinese certification body] could literally take administrative access and send data back to the mothership, ”he said. Since 2016, Mozilla, Google, Apple and Microsoft have also blocked the Chinese certification authorities WoSign and their subsidiary StartCom due to unacceptable security practices.Vulnerability Despite these bans on Chinese digital certificates in recent years, the CCP has not been deterred and has long-term gambling, Jenkinson said, referring to an alarming discovery by his cybersecurity firm two years ago that it was a multinational consulting firm. 

Digital certificates are typically valid for a few years depending on the certification authority, and a renewal is required to keep them valid and keep the data they are supposed to protect secure, he said. "But in 2019, CIP Chinese discovered certificates that had been valid for 999 years," Jenkinson said. His company made this discovery by researching the laptops of a leading global consulting firm. 

Jenkinson made the company aware of the vulnerability and offered, "They are either incredibly accommodating or complicit," he said, noting that the company's customers include government agencies.This multi-billion dollar company's failure to fix this problem means hundreds of thousands of people could be exposed to Chinese infiltration through the company's lax safeguards, Jenkinson said. The company engages its customers every time someone uses one of its laptops, he said. 

Companies or customers who use the company's services could be held for ransom, they have their intellectual advantages

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