As a ‘late bloomer’ in digital culture the smartphone is a bad intruder in our 44-year-old marriage
The smartphone is a bad intruder in our home. We talk far less than ever before, yet talking and laughing together have in the past has glued us together, sharing our ups and downs. We hardly watch television together because of the smartphone. The smart phone consumes a lot of time that would go to keep the old people talking to one another. Worse still, when our children and their children visit us, each one has a smart phone.
Why modern farmers and scientists are keen on growing more crops for cows and cars, not food for humans
To see the yield gap in action, compare two important corn producers: the US and Kenya. In the US, the average yield is around 10.8 tonnes per hectare, while in Kenya it’s 1.5 tonnes. While the US is very close to its maximum theoretical corn yields, Kenya – taking into account its different climate – is way below its theoretical maximum. In other words, the US barely has a corn yield gap at all, while Kenya has a yield gap of about 2.7 tonnes per hectare below its theoretical maximum.
Researchers at Washington University create ‘meat-rice’ they say is fleshier, has more protein
According to the study, it’s essentially the same as eating 100 grams of rice with one gram of beef brisket – less than half a teaspoon. That’s because the beef-cell content is low and the cells probably form just a film over the rice, says John Yuen, a tissue engineer and molecular biologist at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. He says the nutritional content could be boosted by increasing the number of bovine cells on the rice grains.
While digital money apps are now a lifeline for war-affected Sudanese, rural areas are still on leeside
Bankak, developed by the Bank of Khartoum in 2014, is one of Sudan’s largest fintech services. It allows bill payments and money transfers at a daily limit of three million Sudanese pounds ($5,000) per customer.
Revenge: US border crisis gives Russia fodder to push Texas ‘Civil War’ narrative with echoes of USSR breakup loud
Last week, the Russian Telegram channels and state media also began to boost the ‘Take Our Border Back’ convoy led by far-right extremists, sovereign citizens, QAnon adherents, and anti-vaccine conspiracists who travelled from Virginia to the border in Texas in support of Abbott. “Fears of FBI Spying on ‘Take Our Border Back’ Convoy Show US Democracy Dying,” one Sputnik headline read last week.
Iran-made Shahed-136 is the ‘loitering munition’ of choice Houthis use to attack merchant ships
The Shahed-136 , which has been extensively used by Russian forces in Ukraine, can be fired from truck-mounted containers at a slightly upward angle. A small rocket booster helps propel the drone into the air before being jettisoned. Its main piston engine then takes over to power the flight.
How Houthi militants in Yemen attack ships in one of world’s busiest maritime trade routes
Houthi attacks have targeted ships in the southern Red Sea and the neighbouring Gulf of Aden, which are joined by the Bab al-Mandab strait, a chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.
Changed character of how countries go to war: In Russia’s conflict in Ukraine robots are fighting robots
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, small aerial drones have played an outsize role in the war in Ukraine – with thousands of drones being used to monitor the battlefield, watch enemy movements, and carry explosives.
Revealed: Pentagon tried to hide that it bought Americans’ data without a warrant
Ron Wyden, the US senator from Oregon, informed the nation’s intelligence chief, Avril Haines, on Thursday that the Pentagon only agreed to release details about the data purchases, which had always been unclassified, after Wyden hindered the Senate’s efforts to appoint a new director of the National Security Agency.
Revealed: Covid engineering plans were shared as coded messages between Wuhan lab and US scientists
The documents show that the scientists behind DEFUSE proposed a strategy to stitch SARS-related viral genomes together using six pieces.
