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Captured carbon dioxide could be used to help recycle batteries

We have to capture carbon dioxide to slow climate change, but instead of simply burying it we could first use it to extract useful metals from old electrical equipment




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SIM swapping and poor web security may put millions of people at risk

A review of two-factor authentication methods, which involve websites sending confirmation texts to your phone, has found that millions of people may risk having their online accounts hacked




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UK government approves Huawei 5G deal despite security fears

Chinese telecomms firm Huawei will be allowed to provide technology for key parts of the UK's super-fast 5G infrastructure, prime minister Boris Johnson has said, despite opposition from the US




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People will sell access to their fingerprints for just $7.56 a month

We are increasingly aware that our personal data is a valuable commodity – but just how valuable? A survey has revealed how much people are willing to sell their data for




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How a flawed mentality led to Silicon Valley’s meteoric rise

In the memoir Uncanny Valley, Anna Wiener examines the collective hyperconfidence that has enabled the tech sector’s meteoric growth




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Hunt through satellite images of Earth with an AI search engine

An AI search engine takes one-tenth of a second to search more than 2 billion satellite images, identifying natural or built features that look alike, such as forests or military bases




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Surprise contender Honeywell enters the quantum computing race

Honeywell, the same company that might make your humidifier or home security system, is unveiling a powerful quantum computer that will be available to the public




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Gamifying hate: How alt-right extremists recruit and mobilise online

Julia Ebner infiltrated the hidden forums that extremists use. Her experiences lay bare how they hijack social media and video games to spread hate – and how to beat them




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Westworld season 3 review: Five-star TV where nothing is what it seems

Westworld is soon to return with season three. Four episodes in to the impossibly glamorous, highly urbanised future, I can't wait to find out what's going on, writes Emily Wilson




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AI hotel assistant persuades guests to use less water and electricity

An artificially intelligent eco-assistant can persuade hotel guests and staff to reduce their electricity use by up to a third




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Death researcher on pandemics and our fascination with dying

Pandemics of the past can teach us about the current one, says John Troyer, who studies how we use technology to alter the experience of death




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World’s most essential open-source code to be stored in Arctic vault

Inside a mountain in the Arctic, Microsoft is building a backup of open-source software that it says will keep the code safe for 1000 years




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Resident Evil 3 review: A glimpse into post-pandemic fiction

The video game Resident Evil 3 was in development long before the coronavirus outbreak, but it holds up a mirror to the strange times we live in today




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AI can distinguish between bots and humans based on Twitter activity

Artificial intelligence can tell whether a human or a bot is posting on Twitter based on how regularly they post and how much they reply to others, which could help identify fake accounts




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The US Navy patented a device to make laser ‘ghost planes’ in mid-air

The US Navy is researching how to use lasers to form plasma into 2D or 3D infrared images of aeroplanes that can distract heat-seeking missiles




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AI can search satellite data to find plastic floating in the sea

AI can check satellite images of the ocean and distinguish between floating materials such as seaweed or plastics, which could help clean-up efforts




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Microwaved bamboo could be used to build super-strong skyscrapers

Bamboo is a renewable material that when microwaved becomes stronger by weight than steel or concrete – which could make it ideal for constructing buildings, cars and planes




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I help people who are addicted to the internet wean themselves off

Can you really be addicted to your smartphone? Daria Kuss has shown that it is only a problem for a small number of people - and she knows how to help




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How to Watch the Xbox Series X First Look Stream This Afternoon

Watch everything unfold in real time, rather than reading about it later.




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Zoom Backgrounds Now Include a Selection From TfL - That's Not a Reference to Star Wars

TfL as in Transport for London. Greeeeeaaat.




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Andy Serkis to Live-Read all of The Hobbit Online

On bank holiday... Friday. For NHS charities.




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Axl Rose and the U.S. Treasury Secretary are Fighting on Twitter About the Trump Regime's Coronavirus Death Toll

Why? Because that’s our reality here in the year 2020.




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Ban Cruises

In addition to being a hotbed for pandemics, the cruise industry is an ethical and ecological abomination.




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Sony’s New Noise-Cancelling Workout Earbuds Have the Best Sound You Can Buy

Sony has managed to best its top-of-the-line noise cancelling earbuds with a new, improved, and best of all, cheaper model.




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Amazon Sued for Acting Like Users Own "Purchased" Movies (Spoiler Alert: You Don't)

Because Amazon movie purchases are really just long-term rentals that can disappear from your library at any time.




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How Self-Driving Telescopes Could Transform Astronomy

Perhaps astronomers need help from something that thinks a bit less like a human.




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Lyft, Like Uber, Will Also Now Require Drivers and Passengers Wear Face Coverings

Up until now mask-wearing had only been an unenforced suggestion by the company.




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Zens Comes Closest to Delivering the Wireless Charger Apple AirPower Promised to Be

It delivers almost all the functionality Apple promised, with a steep Apple-like price tag to match.




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Scientists Cry Foul After Government Redacts Criticism of Its Response in Key Coronavirus Report

"This government has failed to show any self-criticism whatsoever, when it is glaringly obvious to everybody that big mistakes have been made."




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Calculator Hacked for Cheating Includes a Secret OLED Screen, Wifi, and Even a Chat Function

But can you still write "BOOBS" on it?




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These Physicists Cannot Rest Until They Understand the Motions of Drunk Worms

While this experiment may sound odd, it could represent the start of a whole new field of research.




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Hi-Res View of Ryugu Asteroid Suggests It Had a Close Encounter With the Sun

This solar contact could provide a potential explanation for the asteroid's weird, two-tone surface.




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Teenager Accused of Leading Ring of 'Evil Geniuses' on £19.3 Million 'Cybercrime Spree'

The hacker in question hasn't even graduated high school yet.




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Top-Secret Space Plane Set to Launch on Not-So-Secret Science Mission

X-37B? Sorry, I thought you said your name was X Æ A-12.




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QAnon Nuts Euphoric Over Latest Turn in Michael Flynn’s Legal Case

Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Getty

Roy “Captain Roy D” Davis has devoted much of the last three years to the QAnon conspiracy theory, writing books pitching the concept to new fans and getting his car repainted with an enormous “Q” on the hood. Through it all, he’s been utterly convinced that former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn—a central figure to much of the Q community—was the victim of an anti-Trump cabal orchestrated by the leaders of the deep state. He corresponded with other Flynn supporters following his legal case, and donated proceeds from one of his books to Flynn’s legal fund. 

So when Davis saw on Thursday that the Justice Department would drop its charges against Flynn for lying to the FBI, Davis was euphoric.

“He’s a hero of mine,” Davis said. “I wouldn’t do all of these things just out of the blue.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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One Family’s Frantic Search to Get the Drugs to Combat COVID-19

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty

Marissa Guale is like all too many Americans right now. Her husband and father of her two children, Raul, is on a ventilator in a hospital on Long Island, fighting for his life while sick with COVID-19. Raul, a 34-year-old nurse, likely caught the disease while working in a nursing home. When the National Institutes of Health announced an emergency use authorization for the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir, Marissa scrambled friends and family on Facebook to figure out how to get access for Raul, emailing hospital administrators, senators, and doctors. They pressed the Guale family’s case for a potentially lifesaving treatment on social media to anyone who would listen.

Her confusion about where and how to get access to the drug isn’t unique. All over the country, families, doctors, and hospitals are wondering how to get the drug and on what basis it’s being distributed. The Trump administration, which is in charge of allocation, hasn’t published any guidance on how it’s making decisions about the scarce supplies of the drug.

So who decides which hospitals get remdesivir? And what’s the most ethical way to prioritize access?

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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Bored in The House? Try Making Some Jam

It seems like during quarantine, everyone has taken up cooking. Some people have been baking bread. Others have been perfecting their pie crust. Even my brother, who I’ve never seen cook a thing in his life, made a chicken pot pie the other day. But berry season is almost upon us and so, I have been prepping my jam making skills. 

While jelly is translucent and made from the juice of fruits, and marmalade is made from citrus fruits and can be overly complicated, jam is fairly easy to make. It’s made with whole or cut fruit and cooked with sugar, and can end up either chunky or completely smooth, depending on how you like yours. 

Jam is all about being assertive, about testing out different add-ins and sugars. To help you get the most out of the berry season, we’ve rounded up everything you need to make ideal jam.

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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Prepare for Sex and Dating to Get Even More Complicated Once the Lockdown Lifts

Mario Tama/Getty

For the past two months, Katie Holliday has been cooped up alone in her Brooklyn apartment thinking longingly about an unlikely erogenous zone: the lower half of a stranger’s face. 

“I remember joking to my friend before all of this started, ‘Imagine if someone’s face becomes their most coveted body part?’” Holliday, who is 31, told The Daily Beast. “‘When someone removes their mask, is it a sign of trust? Is it like letting someone see you naked?’ I was kidding back then, but now it’s reality.”

Holliday doesn’t know exactly when it will be safe to start seeing people like she did before the pandemic began, but she’ll return to a singles scene unlike any other in history. “I’m picturing walking into a bar where everyone’s wearing masks,” she said. “I’ll meet someone whose face is covered. Are they cute or not? I don’t know!” 

Read more at The Daily Beast.



  • Arts and Culture

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Jim Bakker’s Prepper Village Is Having the Worst Apocalypse Ever

Ben Broadwater via Wikimedia Commons

Morningside USA was supposed to be apocalypse-proof. 

A gated, stucco fortress in the southwest corner of Missouri’s Ozark mountains, Morningside is an evangelical Christian community built to rent condos right through the end of the world.

“Where are you going to go when the world's on fire? Where are you going to go? This place is for God's people and this place, we need some farmers to move here,” Morningside’s founder, the disgraced doomsday televangelist Jim Bakker, said in a May 2018 sermon. “Did you know people from the government, from NASA, research from so many of them, they have said in their research, the safest place to live in troubled times is right here?”  

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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COVID Bailout Cash Goes to Big Players That Have Paid Millions To Settle Allegations Of Wrongdoing

Getty

By Rachana Pradhan and Fred Schulte | Kaiser Health News

The Trump administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic-related bailouts to health care providers with checkered histories, including a Florida-based cancer center that agreed to pay a $100 million criminal penalty as part of a federal antitrust investigation.

At least half of the top 10 recipients, part of a group that received $20 billion in emergency funding from the Department of Health and Human Services, have paid millions in recent years either in criminal penalties or to settle allegations related to improper billing and other practices, a Kaiser Health News review of government records shows.

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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‘Dead to Me’ Found a Brilliantly Soapy Way to Bring Back James Marsden in Season 2

Saeed Adyani / Netflix

This post contains spoilers for Dead to Me Season 2.

Maybe it’s the surreality of, well, everything lately—or maybe it’s just aged like the fine wines all of its characters toss back by the bottle. Whatever the reason, Dead to Me Season 2 hits even better than Season 1—fighting off a sophomore slump with a fresh batch of twists, dramatic ironies, and, most importantly, some more Christina Applegate angsting out to metal. Perhaps this season’s smartest move, however, is a trope pulled straight out of Soapy Dramas 101: Bringing James Marsden back to play his own twin.

Series creator Liz Feldman was sending the usual thank-you notes back and forth with cast and crew after Season 1 wrapped when she received a particularly amusing message from Marsden.

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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Second NY Child Dies From Rare Syndrome Linked to COVID-19

Lucas Jackson/Reuters

A 7-year-old boy from Westchester County is the second child in New York state to die from pediatric multi-symptom inflammatory syndrome tied to COVID-19 since the pandemic began. A 5-year-old boy died earlier in the week from the same syndrome at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital in New York City.

The childhood ailment has affected at least 73 children in New York state and authorities are now looking for other potential cases across the country. Cases have also been reported in Washington, D.C., California, Delaware, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington state and New Jersey, where a 4-year-old died with symptoms last month.

It has been previously thought that children are less likely to suffer any serious complications from the coronavirus.

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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Little Richard’s Raw Sexiness Inspired the Beatles, David Bowie and Prince

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

It’s not going out on much of a limb to say that the single greatest line in any rock and roll song—shall we double down and say all music ever?—is “A-wop-bom-a-loo-mop-a-lomp-bom-bom!!”

Surely that says it all.

As with any truly oracular pronouncement, it inspires consternation in the first-time listener, and the second-time listener, and the third, the fourth, and on and on. The mystery never diminishes.

Read more at The Daily Beast.




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Apple's iPhone SE Australian Review: It's Bloody Good

Last year, Google turned the mid-range phone market on its head by introducing the ludicrously-priced and well-specced Pixel 3a. A few other brands have followed suit since then, but none have been quite as exciting as the new iPhone SE. Now it truly seems like flagship inclusions at lower price points are here to stay - and it's about damn time. The trend of $1,500 - $2,000 becoming the norm for new phones over the last few years has been bad for buyers. A new middle ground has been long overdue and we welcome it. But is the resurrected iPhone SE actually a good phone to buy in 2020? More »
    




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9 Google Tricks For Better Search Results

Google is such a powerhouse search engine that it has not only injected itself into our everyday lives, it's even a verb now. But just because we Google things a lot doesn't mean that that we do it as effectively as possible. So here are some tips to help maximise and improve your Google search results. More »
    




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Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2: A Casual $500 In Australia

Sennheiser has just released its second generation of its noise cancelling earbuds in Australia - the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2. Here's what we know about them and how much they cost. Spoiler alert - they ain't cheap. More »
    




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Marley Spoon's V2food Plant-Based Meals Review

Over the past few years plant-based meat has become increasingly popular. Thanks to the popularity of brands such as Impossible, we;re now seeing increasingly more vegan-friendly meat alternatives in the supermarkets and even being sold by fast food chains. Meal kit delivery service Marley Spoon has even begun offering plant-based options, using v2food mince. This is what they taste like. More »
    




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Australian Scientists Discover 'Virgin' Bees That Don't Have Sex And Only Give Birth To Females

Researchers at a Sydney university have discovered how some female bees have managed to reproduce despite never doing the deed with another. More »
    




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State pension age changed this week – this is when the next rise will occur



STATE pension age is continually being reviewed and altered by the government. The latest change occurred earlier this week.




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FRENCHIC: eco paint maker sees 500 percent DIY sales surge



FRENCHIC, the British paint brand with eco-friendly formulas for breathing new life into furniture, homes and garden decor, has seen sales surge 500 percent recently as lockdown sends DIYers into overdrive.