James' World 2

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If cold and flu season seems to be hitting your household harder this year, you’re not alone. This is the year when common viruses that took a backseat to Covid-19 finally return. Positive tests for the flu in the United States stood at 25 percent in late November, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared to 8 percent at the same time of year in 2019. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has pushed some children’s hospitals to capacity. And Covid hospitalizations are rising again. It’s the tripledemic that epidemiologists feared—those viruses, with the help of a few other seasonal recurring ones, are working together to fuel weeks of coughing, runny noses, and fevers. So if your kids, your coworkers, and everyone you know has been feeling sick, that’s why.

“This season is truly unprecedented,” says Katelyn Jetelina, who writes Your Local Epidemiologist, a newsletter about infectious disease spread. The high rates of flu-like illness could be an early peak or an early warning of a monumentally bad season. “How high it will go, and how severe it will be, is, unfortunately, something we have to wait and see,” she says. “We’re at the mercy of time.”

The problem goes beyond making everyone feel sluggish and icky. CDC director Rochelle Walensky has confirmed that the flu, RSV, and Covid are putting stress on US hospital systems. It’s the unintended consequence of measures that sought to save lives—social distancing and mask-wearing curbed the spread of flu and RSV in 2020 and 2021. (Although there was a warning sign in 2021 when RSV cases in the US had an out-of-season uptick over the summer, an indicator that things were shifting in the wake of Covid.) Now, these viruses are roaring back and hitting a burned-out healthcare system that’s spent three years treating Covid infections. 

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While Google develops its open-source Android mobile operating system, the “original equipment manufacturers” who make Android smartphones, like Samsung, play a large role in tailoring and securing the OS for their devices. But a new finding that Google made public on Thursday​ reveals that a number of digital certificates used by vendors to validate vital system applications were recently compromised and have already been abused to put a stamp of approval on malicious Android apps.As with almost any computer operating system, Google’s Android is designed with a “privilege” model, so different software running on your Android phone, from third-party apps to the operating system itself, are restricted as much as possible and only allowed system access based on their needs. This keeps the latest game you’re playing from quietly collecting all your passwords while allowing your photo editing app to access your camera roll, and the whole structure is enforced by digital certificates signed with cryptographic keys. If the keys are compromised, attackers can grant their own software permissions it shouldn’t have. 

Google said in a statement on Thursday that Android device manufacturers had rolled out mitigations, rotating keys, and pushing out the fixes to users’ phones automatically. And the company has added scanner detections for any malware attempting to abuse the compromised certificates. Google said it has not found evidence that the malware snuck into the Google Play Store, meaning that it was making the rounds via third-party distribution. Disclosure and coordination to address the threat happened through a consortium known as the Android Partner Vulnerability Initiative.

“While this attack is quite bad, we got lucky this time, as OEMs can quickly rotate the affected keys by shipping over-the-air device updates,” says Zack Newman, a researcher at the software supply-chain security firm Chainguard, which did some analysis of the incident. 

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Photograph: Thiago Prudencio/Getty Images

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DuckDuckGo released a new privacy tool for Android Wednesday that will help protect you from the companies harvesting personal data through your apps. The new App Tracking Protection feature, now available in beta in the DuckDuckGo for Android app, will let users take advantage of some of the privacy protections already enjoyed by iPhone users.

The company’s App Tracking Protection tool doesn’t just block the data collection, it also gives you a firsthand look at what information apps are trying to harvest and where they’re trying to send it. DuckDuckGo spent the last year testing the feature with real users. The feature is easy to use. All you have to do is install the DuckDuckGo app, open Settings, select “App Tracking Protection,” and follow the onscreen instructions.

According to Peter Dolanjski, director of product at DuckDuckGo, people had no idea how bad the data collection really was. “People were absolutely baffled, not just at the number of requests apps are making but also the kind of data involved,” he said.

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Adria Malcolm for The New York Times

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For context: this is someone whose job involves a fair bit of futzing around with databases but who I wouldn’t describe as particularly tech-minded. He works in higher education, studied English at university, and never formally learned to code. But here he was, not only playing around with an experimental AI chatbot but using it to do his job faster after only a few days’ access.

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The effect of exercise on health is profound. It can protect you from a range of conditions, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. But the type and amount of exercise you should do changes as you age. To ensure that you are doing the right type of exercise for your age, follow this simple guide.

Childhood and Adolescence

In childhood, exercise helps control body weight, builds healthy bones, and promotes self-confidence and healthy sleep patterns. The government recommends that children should get at least one hour of exercise a day.

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Photo by zhu difeng/Shutterstock.

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There are a ton of decisions that come with new parenthood. Cloth diapers or disposable? Breastfeeding or formula? One parent’s last name, or something hyphenated? Scheduled feeding or on-demand? A family name, or something more unique? The gravity of these decisions vary, but few will have as long-lasting and regular impact as choosing your baby’s name. Here’s how to choose a good one.

Finding a baby name that’s unique, has long-term appeal, and goes well with your last name isn’t easy. If you’ve combed all the baby name books and tried all the name generators and are still stuck, consider finding inspiration in an Indian baby name. If your background is Indian, choosing an Indian baby name for your boy or girl is a great way to signify your baby’s heritage. But even if you have no relation to Indian culture, choosing a modern Indian baby name will ensure your child’s name is as unique and beautiful as they are

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There are many sides to the beloved figure of Santa Claus – a giant of pop culture, he also has “miraculous” powers and ties to the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Santa’s blend of religion and popular culture is, however, not modern at all. Several of Santa’s modern features, such as his generosity, miracle-working, and focus on morality (being “naughty or nice”), were part of his image from the very beginning. Others, like the reindeer, came later.

The original Santa, Saint Nicholas, was a fourth-century CE bishop of Myra (in modern Turkey) with a reputation for generosity and wonder-working. St Nicholas became an important figure in eighth-century Byzantium before hitting pan-European stardom around the 11th century.

He became a focus, not just for religious devotion, but Medieval dramas and popular festivals – some popular enough to be suppressed during the Reformation

The naughty list

St Nicholas had his own version of the naughty list, including the fourth-century “arch-heretic” Arius, whose views annoyed the saint so much he supposedly smacked Arius in the face in front of Emperor Constantine and assembled bishops at Nicaea.

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