Recent Posts

Bird Flu Reaches the Antarctic for the First Time

This story originally appeared in The Guardian and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.Avian flu has reached the Antarctic, raising concerns for isolated populations of penguins and seals that have never been exposed to the deadly H5N1 virus before. The full impact of the virus’s arrival is not yet …

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This Cryptomining Tool Is Stealing Secrets

As the Israel-Hamas war raged on this week and Israel expanded its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, the territory's compromised internet infrastructure and access to connectivity went fully dark on Friday, leaving Palestinians without access to ground or mobile data connections. Meanwhile, researchers are bracing for the fallout if …

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The Destruction of Gaza’s Internet Is Complete

For more than three weeks, Gaza has faced an almost total internet blackout. The cables, cell towers, and infrastructure needed to keep people online have been damaged or destroyed as Israel launched thousands of missiles in response to Hamas attacking Israel and taking hundreds of hostages on October 7. Then, …

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Here's a New Plan to Rein In the Gilded Tech Bros

When I first heard in 2013 that Barack Obama had chosen Tom Wheeler to head the crucial tech regulator that is the US Federal Communications Commission, my first thought was … what a sell-out! The new FCC boss had previously been head lobbyist for not one, but two industries: cable …

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The Physics of Faraday Cages

The world relies on electromagnetic waves for communications: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 5G, even radio waves. But suppose you want to prevent a device from communicating—or interfering—with the rest of the world. You can't block EM waves, but you can cancel them by surrounding the device with an electrically conducting material. We …

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How to Customize Your Contact Poster in iOS 17

If you've updated your iPhone to iOS 17, you now have access to Contact Posters—a feature that allows you to personalize how you appear on other people's devices when contacting them. It works within the Contacts app, Phone app, FaceTime, Messages, and AirDrop, as well as third-party calling apps. You …

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