Highlights • SARS-CoV-2 spike protein persists in the skull-meninges-brain axis in COVID-19 patients • Spike protein is sufficient to induce brain pathological and behavioral changes in mice • Spike protein enhances brain vulnerability and exacerbates neurological damage in mice • mRNA vaccines…

Welcome to the Pandemic Roundup: an inclusive, curated selection of new information and fresh perspectives on Covid-19 published every Thursday. This is a free, reader-supported resource and newsletter: Become a patron to ensure its continuation. Main post art Wear a Mask! by Lucia. Top Stories:…

HUMBOLDT COUNTY – A large earthquake struck off the coast of Humboldt County on Thursday morning, prompting a tsunami warning for part of the North Coast. According to the US Geological Survey, the quake struck around 10:44 a.m., west of Petrolia, California in the Pacific Ocean. A Tsunami Warning…

An authentic picture of Elon Musk. Getty Images Artificial intelligence has so much to offer to society, but AI deepfakes are creating a multi-billion dollar criminal industry. AI-generated deepfakes, especially those featuring Elon Musk, are being used to trick consumers out of savings and more,…

Towns in south-west France roasted in “completely extreme” heat in the early hours of Tuesday, with overnight temperatures hitting 26.9C (80.42F). “It’s very exceptional temperatures – even for the summer, let alone late November,” said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Météo France. Climate…

The bird flu outbreak has affected more than 650 dairy herds. Dozens of people have been infected from contact with infected cattle and poultry. Charlie Neibergall/AP Scientists believe it was roughly a year ago that an influenza virus sickening and killing birds happened upon a new and surprisingly…

New Data: The Most Promising Treatments for Long COVID

The internet is in the midst of undergoing the biggest change since its inception. It's huge. And there is no going back. The web is changing into the Zero Click Internet, and it will change everything about how you do everything. Zero Click Internet means you'll no longer click on links to find the…

Germany is developing an app to help people locate the nearest bunker in the event of attack. Sweden is distributing a 32-page pamphlet titled If Crisis or War Comes. Half a million Finns have already downloaded an emergency preparedness guide. If the prospect of a broader conflict in Europe seems…

Elon Musk’s X is trying to block the transfer of the platform’s InfoWars accounts to the Onion after filing a legal objection stating that it owns users’ accounts. The social network has filed a “limited objection” to the sale of InfoWars, a media platform run by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones,…

The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said the Baltic sea is now a “high risk” zone as he met Nordic and Baltic leaders days after a suspected sabotage attack on undersea cables. The Swedish prime minister declined to speculate on who may have been responsible for the severing of two…

I receive numerous messages each week asking how to get started with bug bounty hunting because of my experience and active involvement in the bug bounty space. However, after speaking with people, it becomes clear that many have internalised the notion of bug bounty hunting as a way to escape their…

Summary Tariffs could lead to produce shortages as well as price hikes, experts warnMexico and Canada are top suppliers of US agricultural importsTariffs may disrupt cattle and pork trade between US, Mexico, and Canada WASHINGTON/REGINA, Saskatchewan, Nov 26 (Reuters) - U.S. prices may rise next…

Amazon’s total investment in the AI company now totals $8bn, with its AWS unit as Anthropic’s cloud provider The artificial intelligence startup Anthropic said on Friday it had raised an additional $4bn investment from its longtime backer Amazon.com, bringing the e-commerce giant’s total investment…

When better to hold a conference on artificial intelligence and the countless ways it is advancing science than in those brief days between the first Nobel prizes being awarded in the field and the winners heading to Stockholm for the lavish white tie ceremony? It was fortuitous timing for Google…

The episode could have just been another footnote in the fast-unfolding history of artificial intelligence. But in hindsight, the release of Llama 2 marked a crucial crossroads for Meta and Zuckerberg—the beginning of a remarkable comeback, all thanks to tech named after a furry camelid. By the time…

In 2016, back when it still had a robust newsroom staffed with journalists, Buzzfeed published a feature article about empty nose syndrome, a rare condition that makes people feel like they are suffocating despite having a clear airway. The article opens with the heart-wrenching of Brett Helling,…

As several major publishers sell their authors’ works to tech giants for large language model fodder, MIT Press is asking authors for their input before any training deals are made, and claims that it’s been approached by AI companies to do so. On November 7, MIT Press emailed its authors with the…

A vigilante militia notorious for its patrols on America’s border with Mexico has threatened to take on the US military in recent weeks, with its founder baselessly claiming that Hurricane Helene was deliberately caused by a government energy weapon that needs to be destroyed, according to private…

By Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows The following piece is a short synopsis of Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. The full length book is available at Chelsea Green’s website. The signs are everywhere around us: Sea level has risen 10–20 cm since 1900. Most non-polar glaciers…

Consumer and digital rights activists are calling on the US Federal Trade Commission to stop device-makers using software to reduce product functionality, bricking unloved kit, or adding surprise fees post-purchase. In an eight-page letter [PDF] to the Commission (FTC), the activists mentioned the…

Alejandra Palma lives in perpetual fear of the next storm. “We are constantly checking the weather,” said Palma, who co-owns Root Hill Cafe in Brooklyn’s low-lying Gowanus neighborhood. “If we see that there’s a hurricane in Florida, it’s like, oh my God, please let it not come here.” Last…

Investment giant Goldman Sachs published a research paper about the economic viability of generative AI which notes that there is “little to show for” the huge amount of spending on generative AI infrastructure and questions “whether this large spend will ever pay off in terms of AI benefits and…

Maxwell Tabarrok is an economics researcher at Dartmouth College and the author of the Maximum Progress substack. Maximum Progress is a blog about the economics, history, science, philosophy, and culture surrounding a single graph: World GDP Over the Last Two Millennia, The Great Fact, The Hockey…

For most of us, the word “medium” means “a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment”. For a biologist, though, the term means something rather different: “the nutrient solutio

Opinion June 18, 2024 5 min read We’ve Hit Peak Denial. Here’s Why We Can’t Turn Away from Reality We are living through a terrible time in humanity. Here’s why we tend to stick our head in the sand and why we need to pull it out, fast Donna Grethen Objectively speaking, we are living through a…

NOTE 1: for reasons explained in my previous essay, I’ll replace the common use of the term ‘ransomware’ with ‘extortion’ in this essay. NOTE 2: Also, Allan Alford was kind enough to interview me on this topic on the excellent Cyber Ranch Podcast. I will be blunt because I don’t know how much time…

Watch China’s military drills surrounding Taiwan 00:48 • Source: CNN Watch China’s military drills surrounding Taiwan 00:48 CNN — China’s military drills around Taiwan are designed to test its ability to “seize power” over the island, the People’s Liberation Army said Friday as its forces kicked off…

Microsoft's announcement of the new AI-powered Windows 11 Recall feature has sparked a lot of concern, with many thinking that it has created massive privacy risks and a new attack vector that threat actors can exploit to steal data. Revealed during a Monday AI event, the feature is designed to help…

The Covid-19 pandemic will “look minor” compared with what humanity faces from the growing number of superbugs resistant to current drugs, Prof Dame Sally Davies, England’s former chief medical officer, has warned. Davies, who is now the UK’s special envoy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), lost her…

Microsoft is overhauling its security processes after a series of high-profile attacks in recent years. Security is now Microsoft’s “top priority,” the company outlined today in response to ongoing questions about its security practices and the US Cyber Safety Review Board’s labeling of Microsoft’s…

There’s a global shortage of blood supplies needed for life-saving transfusions due to factors that include an aging population with a higher demand for it and a lack of volunteer donors. However, even if there was an ample blood supply, it’s not as simple as just giving blood when it’s needed. Each…

What if luck was a skill? The proposition sounds absurd, and yet we all know people who seem to be good at being lucky. They don’t try that hard and nice things just keep coming: they meet the right people at the right time, narrowly catch all trains and never get pooped on by birds. If we’re are…

10 years ago, I started my freshman year of college. This is the advice I needed to hear, not the advice you need to hear. In fact, some of it may be actively bad for you. See Should you reverse any advice you hear? You are overly obedient. You not only do what people tell you to do, but find it…