Ways to get rich

Samsung is under fire for a recent ad depicting a woman wearing a Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Buds running alone in the middle of a city at 2AM. Critics have called the ad both “unrealistic” and “tone-deaf” in the wake of the murder of Ashling Murphy , a 23-year-old who was killed while running in January in Dublin, Ireland. The ad is oblivious to the dangers of nighttime running, but that makes sense since many smartwatch makers don’t seem to understand how their limited safety features may fail runners. Samsung has since apologized for the ad, telling BBC Radio 1 that it hadn’t intended to “be insensitive to ongoing conversations around women’s safety” and that “the ‘Night Owls’ campaign was designed with a positive message in mind: to celebrate individuality and freedom to exercise at all hours.” Samsung’s intent is understandable. The ad is meant to highlight how easy it is to use Galaxy devices together and “empower” users to leave their phones at home. For many people … [Read more...] about ‘Tone-deaf’ Samsung ad is a reminder that smartwatch safety still has a ways to go

Lithium-based batteries are great , with different electrode chemistries allowing them to be slotted into a variety of uses. The problem with them has nothing to do with their performance. The challenge we face is that we want to make a lot of batteries; if all of them use lithium, we're undoubtedly going to face supply crunches. One potential solution to that is to simply replace lithium with a different ion. Alternative batteries may not be as good as lithium variants in all the different places we currently use them. They just have to be good enough at one task to take away some of the need to stick lithium everywhere. That's the reasoning behind some interest in sodium-based batteries. Sodium is very plentiful and correspondingly cheap and can be made to behave a bit like lithium when used in a battery. But sodium batteries always carry risks associated with sodium's tendency to react explosively. But a recently developed solid electrolyte suggests that at least some of the … [Read more...] about Researchers seem to stumble across an electrolyte for a sodium battery

Censoring peaceful protesters isn’t the only reason governments have deliberately shut down the Internet in 2022, but researchers say it is the primary objective and is costing the most to the global economy. According to a report from Top10VPN, the cost of government-ordered Internet shutdowns in 2022 has cost the global economy more than $10 billion. That figure nearly doubles 2021 costs, and it’s only halfway through the year. At a cost of $8.77 billion, the biggest drain on the global economy is Russia. That country’s ongoing social media blackouts began shortly after the Ukraine invasion and are designed to limit peaceful protest and press freedoms by preventing access to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. So far this year, Top10VPN has tracked government shutdowns in 16 countries, measuring costs per day of shutdowns specifically preventing protests that range from hundreds of thousands in Pakistan to hundreds of millions in Russia. Other reasons for government … [Read more...] about Internet shutdowns cost global economy $10B so far in 2022, VPN report says

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox . Following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, advocates for privacy and reproductive health have expressed fears that data from period-tracking apps could be used to find people who’ve had abortions. They have a point. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the federal patient privacy law known as HIPAA, does not apply to most apps that track menstrual cycles, just as it doesn’t apply to many health care apps and at-home test kits. In 2015, ProPublica reported how HIPAA, passed in 1996, has not kept up with changes in technology and does not cover at-home paternity tests, fitness trackers, or health apps. The story featured a woman who purchased an at-home paternity test at a local pharmacy and went online to get the results. A part of the lab’s website address caught her attention as … [Read more...] about Federal patient privacy law doesn’t cover most period-tracking apps

Officials in Florida are again battling a highly invasive, extraordinarily destructive giant snail species that also happens to be capable of spreading parasitic worms that invade human brains. The giant African land snail (GALS)—aka Lissachatina fulica —can grow up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) long and is considered " one of the most invasive pests on the planet ," according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. It ravenously feasts on over 500 plant species—including many valuable fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals—while prolifically spawning, pushing out several thousand eggs in its multiyear life span. In late June, Florida state officials confirmed the presence of GALS on a property in Pasco County, on the west-central coast of the state, just north of Tampa. They have since set up a quarantine zone around the property and began snail-killing pesticide treatments last week. While the snails are a grave threat to agriculture and natural … [Read more...] about Florida once again has giant calamitous snails that spew parasitic brain worms

Despite temperatures well below freezing, Antarctica's Deep Lake remains unfrozen thanks to its extremely high salt content. The lake was isolated from the oceans about 3,500 years ago, when the continent lifted up around it. As inhospitable territory goes, this is pretty high on the list, a lake both colder and more saline than most living things can survive. The extremophiles that inhabit these waters belong to a group called haloarchaea, microbes that actually require high salt concentrations. A team of Australian and American scientists who set out to study the genetic diversity of the lake's microbes discovered that the haloarchaea have responded to their extreme environment with extremely high rates of genetic exchange with other species, even other genera. The microbes use horizontal gene transfer—passing sections of genetic code to one another—to rapidly adopt any changes that help them adapt to this harsh environment. They found four distinct genera had adapted to life in … [Read more...] about In Antarctic lake, extreme conditions lead to extreme genetics

Arkham Horror is a board game played with over 700 pieces. You can play with up to eight players, all of you working together to beat one of the Ancient Ones and playing against the board itself. You see, the monsters get a turn, and the card pulled during that phase controls how they move, where the gates to the Other World appear, and how close you are to the Great Old One waking. If that happens, you have a choice: fight or be devoured. Although, if you fight, you will still probably be devoured. The last time my group played, the game lasted around five hours; brevity is not one of its strengths. And you can't get too upset if you lose, as the chances of victory are slim when still learning the rules. That being said, in our last session we closed the final gate with two turns left before our Great Old One awoke, narrowly winning. Sounds like a game for masochists? Well, it's not for the faint of heart, but Arkham Horror is a great board game for those with the time to … [Read more...] about 700 pieces, 5 hours, 1 Elder God: Hands-on with

Are you struggling to play Netflix on a 2Mbps Internet connection? A new cloud-connected router using the same type of multipath technology that Apple put in the iPhone might solve your problem. Launched this week on Indiegogo , the $199-$289 system from Multipath Networks in Ireland combines connections such as DSL, cable, 3G, and 4G into one pipe. Up to four connections can be used at once. The idea of aggregating mobile and wired signals in the home is an old one . But it certainly hasn't become commonplace, and Multipath Networks takes advantage of the new Multipath TCP protocol that's used in the iPhone to let Siri switch between Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE quickly and seamlessly. "Apple claims to be the first to deploy this, but actually we were; we've been doing this for over a year now," Multipath Networks CEO Justin Collery told Ars today. The company's debut product worked only with mobile networks and was intended for providing more reliable connectivity to … [Read more...] about New router combines your home and mobile networks into one faster pipe

Air fryers have made a whole lot of noise in the kitchen appliance space over these past few years. If you've become a little air fry-curious, there are some questions you might want to have answered before you invest in yet another small kitchen appliance. If starting from scratch, you'll want to know exactly what an air fryer does and how it's used. Does an air fryer actually fry? And are air fryers healthier than normal ovens? Also, what can you make in an air fryer, and which type of air fryer oven is best for your cooking habits? Most importantly, is an air fryer worth buying with so many other kitchen appliances available, or are these trendy countertop cookers just a bunch of hot air? Whether or not an air fryer is right for you is ultimately a decision you'll have to make. But as someone with the chance to try much of the latest kitchen gadgetry, I can say that the air fryer is one of my personal favorite small appliance additions. It's one I fire up at least a few times … [Read more...] about A Guide to Air Fryers: Everything to Know Before You Buy

Rating: 7/10 ? 1 - Absolute Hot Garbage 2 - Sorta Lukewarm Garbage 3 - Strongly Flawed Design 4 - Some Pros, Lots Of Cons 5 - Acceptably Imperfect 6 - Good Enough to Buy On Sale 7 - Great, But Not Best-In-Class 8 - Fantastic, with Some Footnotes 9 - Shut Up And Take My Money 10 - Absolute Design Nirvana Price: $80 If you’re in the market for fitness wearables, you may have come across Amazon’s Halo View . The affordable band is meant to compete with the likes of FitBit, so we tried one out to see how it measures up. Here's What We Like Simple interface Easy to start using Competitive price point And What We Don't Invasive extra features Subscription-locked functions No GPS The Halo View’s price point is comfortable compared to other fitness trackers , which combined with a generous one-year free trial of Amazon’s Halo subscription, makes for what appears to be a great deal. It sacrifices a few features that … [Read more...] about Amazon Halo View Review: Affordable, But a Little Creepy