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Aug 11, 2021

Norton and Avast are merging into an $8 billion antivirus empire

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

The deal combines decades of cyber security experience.


Norton and Avast are merging in a big anti-virus deal. The combined companies will focus on consumer offerings for cyber security, just as ransomware is becoming a big issue.

Aug 11, 2021

Hackers reportedly threaten to leak data from Gigabyte ransomware attack

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

The hackers claim to have confidential documents.


Gigabyte has been the victim of a cyberattack, which was reportedly the work of a ransomware outfit called RansomEXX. According to The Record, the attack didn’t have an impact on any of the company’s production systems, but it did affect some internal servers. Currently, some parts of Gigabyte’s website, including its support section, are down, giving customers issues when trying to access warranty repair information and updates. The hackers who claim to have carried out the attack are reportedly threatening to release data from the company, including confidential documents from Intel, AMD, and American Megatrends.

Gigabyte is mainly known for its PC components such as motherboards and graphics cards, but it also has a line of laptops and peripherals like gaming monitors, which are often branded with the Aorus name.

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Aug 11, 2021

Hackers Steal Over $600 Million Worth of Cryptocurrencies from Poly Network

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, finance

Hackers have siphoned $611 million worth of cryptocurrencies from a blockchain-based financial network in what’s believed to be one of the largest heists targeting the digital asset industry, putting it ahead of breaches targeting exchanges Coincheck and Mt. Gox in recent years.

Poly Network, a China-based cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) platform for swapping tokens across multiple blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, on Tuesday disclosed unidentified actors had exploited a vulnerability in its system to plunder thousands of digital tokens such as Ether.

“The hacker exploited a vulnerability between contract calls,” Poly Network said.

Aug 11, 2021

Insect-killing plant found by Australian highway is new to science

Posted by in category: transportation

A newly described species of wild tobacco that scientists found growing next to a highway truck stop in Western Australia is covered in sticky glands that trap and kill small insects, including gnats, aphids and flies.

While a range of carnivorous plants are known across the plant kingdom, this is the first wild tobacco plant discovered to kill insects. Dubbed Nicotiana insecticida, it was uncovered by a project looking for tobacco plants across Australia.

The team, which included Mark Chase of London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, collected seeds from the insecticidal plant at a truck stop on the Northwest Coastal Highway, and then cultivated them at Kew, where the plants went on to develop the same sticky glandular hairs and to kill insects inside the greenhouses.

Aug 11, 2021

Scientists find origin of asteroid that killed the dinosaurs

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

Astronomers believe that they have discovered the origin of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

The six mile-wide asteroid which struck the Earth 66 million years ago and ended the 180 million year-long reign of the dinosaurs, was the cause of what is known as a Chicxulub events. It landed in what is now the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and formed the Chicxulub crater.

Scientists had examined the remains of the ancient rock through the samples on the Earth and within drill cores, which revealed that the debris came from a carbonaceous chondrite class of meteorites – some of the most pristine material in the entire solar system.

Aug 11, 2021

Meet the Two Scientists Who Implanted a False Memory Into a Mouse

Posted by in categories: innovation, neuroscience

Circa 2014 😗 mind uploading soon.


In a neuroscience breakthrough, the duo pioneered a real-life version of Inception.

Aug 11, 2021

Origin of dinosaur-ending asteroid possibly found. And it’s dark

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

Scientists figured out what slammed into Earth and killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago: a giant dark primitive asteroid from the outer reaches of the solar system’s main asteroid belt.

Aug 11, 2021

The End of the Dinosaurs | SpaceTime S24E91 | Astronomy & Space Science News Podcast

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, biotech/medical, existential risks, government, quantum physics, science

The Astronomy, Technology, and Space Science News Podcast.
SpaceTime Series 24 Episode 91
*Astronomers zero in on source of the impactor that wiped out the dinosaurs.
A new study claims the impactor believed to have wiped out and 75 percent of all life on Earth 66 million years ago including all the non-avian dinosaurs — likely came from the outer half of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
*Producing matter out of pure energy.
Scientists have directly converted pure light energy into matter in a single process for the first time.
The findings reported in the journal Physical Review Letters involved the creation of Electrons and their antimatter counter parts positrons — by colliding quantum packets of photons – light particles.
*Discovery of a galactic stream of galaxy clusters.
Astronomers have discovered a never-before-seen galaxy cluster with a black hole at its centre, travelling at high speed along an intergalactic road of matter.
*Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo making space history with double flyby of Venus.
As we go to air tonight the European Space Agency is making space history with two of its space craft6 undertaking almost simultaneous flybys of the planet Venus.
*The Science Report.
New US congressional report says COVID-19 leaked out of Chinese Government Wuhan Lab.
Wearing masks and social distancing even when vaccinated key to combat new COVID strains.
Rising sea levels may mean fewer eruptions from volcanic islands.
How slowing of the planet’s rotation could have paved the way for life on Earth.
Skeptic’s guide to low vaccination and low IQ.
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Aug 11, 2021

Cutting-Edge Physics: Exotic Matter Is in Our Sights

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

A new way to probe exotic matter aids the study of atomic and particle physics.

Physicists have created a new way to observe details about the structure and composition of materials that improves upon previous methods. Conventional spectroscopy changes the frequency of light shining on a sample over time to reveal details about them. The new technique, Rabi-oscillation spectroscopy, does not need to explore a wide frequency range so can operate much more quickly. This method could be used to interrogate our best theories of matter in order to form a better understanding of the material universe.

Though we cannot see them with the naked eye, we are all familiar with the atoms that make up everything we see around us. Collections of positive protons, neutral neutrons and negative electrons give rise to all the matter we interact with. However, there are some more exotic forms of matter, including exotic atoms, which are not made from these three basic components. Muonium, for example, is like hydrogen, which typically has one electron in orbit around one proton, but has a positively charged muon particle in place of the proton.

Aug 10, 2021

Mutation-mapping tool could yield stronger COVID boosters, universal vaccines

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, chemistry

Researchers at CU Boulder have developed a platform which can quickly identify common mutations on the SARS-CoV-2 virus that allow it to escape antibodies and infect cells.

Published today in Cell Reports, the research marks a major step toward successfully developing a universal vaccine for not only COVID-19, but also potentially for influenza, HIV and other deadly global viruses.

“We’ve developed a predictive tool that can tell you ahead of time which antibodies are going to be effective against circulating strains of virus,” said lead author Timothy Whitehead, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering. “But the implications for this technology are more profound: If you can predict what the variants will be in a given season, you could get vaccinated to match the sequence that will occur and short-circuit this seasonal variation.”

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