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io9More Rumors About the Future of Legendary’s Monsterverse
Plus, more casting rumors for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
James Whitbrook & Gordon Jackson -
Tech NewsGoogleGoogle Is Experimenting With Removing Some News Sites From Search
In a disturbing move, Google is apparently experimenting with hiding links to some news sites from search results in Australia. The change was initially reported by the Australian Financial Review, and was confirmed by Google to AFR as well as The Guardian. Some of the affected outlets include the Guardian Australia, the Australian, and the … Continued
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ScienceHealthAustralia Scraps Homegrown Covid-19 Vaccine After Trial Participants Get ‘False Positive’ Test Results For HIV
The Australian government canceled its homegrown covid-19 vaccine development plans with the University of Queensland on Friday after vaccine trial participants showed “false positives” in tests for HIV. The Australian vaccine was developed using a protein fragment of HIV called Gp41 that’s used to stabilize the inoculation. The Australian vaccine was still in Phase 1 … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsNewsAustralia Scraps Plan to Ban Cash For Large Purchases But Idea Isn’t Going Away
Australia’s Senate has scrapped a plan that would have banned cash transactions on all purchases over $10,000. The cash ban proposal was set in motion back in 2017 after a government report suggested the idea as a way to crack down on organized crime and tax cheats. Businesses faced heavy fines and up to two … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsNewsFood Delivery Worker Dies in Australia, Becoming Fifth Gig Economy Death Since September
Another Uber Eats delivery worker in Sydney died on Monday evening, local time, after his bike was hit by a truck, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The unnamed man is the fifth death of an app-based delivery worker in Australia over the past two months, prompting questions about the safety of gig economy workers … Continued
By Matt Novak -
ScienceHealthDentist Gets Two Months in Jail for Treating Patients During Self-Quarantine in Australia
A dentist in Perth, Australia has received two months in jail for treating 41 patients while she was supposed to be in two weeks of mandatory self-quarantine to prevent the spread of covid-19. The judge’s sentence is the harshest covid-related punishment passed down in Australia since the pandemic began earlier this year, with most people … Continued
By Matt Novak -
ScienceHealthU.S. Breaks Record With Over 100,000 New Covid-19 Cases in Single Day
The U.S. recorded over 100,000 new cases of covid-19 on Wednesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. The shockingly high daily case count is a grim milestone that public health experts warn may be surpassed in the coming days and weeks. The country tallied 103,087 new cases of coronavirus and 1,116 deaths from the disease … Continued
By Matt Novak -
ScienceHealthCovid-19 Can Live on Smartphone Screens for Up to 28 Days, Researchers Find
Back in March, as the covid-19 pandemic took over the planet, Apple finally told users that it’s okay to use some disinfecting wipes on their iPhones. At the time, transmission risks were opaque and it was better to be safe than sorry. In the meantime, we’ve learned that saliva droplets in the air pose the … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
ScienceHealthWatching My Home Country Fall Apart From Lockdown on the Other Side of the World
A few years ago, I read Michel Faber’s novel The Book of Strange New Things. It’s a sci-fi story about a priest who leaves his wife on Earth to travel as a missionary to the distant planet of Oasis. As the novel progresses, the protagonist’s wife sends him a series of dispatches that relate the … Continued
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EartherTasmanian Devils Are Back in Australia for the First Time in 3,000 Years
On Monday, wildlife managers announced that they had brought Tasmanian devils back into the (relative) wilds of the Australian mainland, the first time these creatures will be living there in 3,000 years. It’s an attempt at a two-for-one bank shot to save the ferocious marsupials as well as creatures under assault from feral cats. The … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
ScienceHealthAustralian Regulators: If You Want to Vape, Get a Prescription
Australia’s muddled laws on vaping are emerging from a dank cloud of confusion: According to a Wednesday report in the Guardian, the country’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has ruled that nicotine will be reclassified as a prescription-only medication in June 2021. Sales of nicotine e-cigarettes and fluids (whether nicotine juices or salts) are already prohibited … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsAustralia Has Venomous Snakes, Spiders, and… Trees
Notorious stinging trees from Australia cause agonizing pain that can linger for weeks and even months. New research suggests this nettle relative is actually venomous, producing a toxin not unlike the venom of spiders. From snakes and spiders to jellyfish and cone snails, Australia has no shortage of venomous animals. As new research published in … Continued
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EartherThe Australian Bushfires Stuck the Country With a $1.5 Billion Medical Bill
Smoke from Australia’s record-breaking 2019-20 bushfire season wasn’t just a disaster for wildlife. The fires and smoke also killed hundreds of people and sent thousands more to the hospital for urgent cardiovascular and respiratory issues, costing the country nearly $1.4 billion in healthcare costs, a new study found. The findings come as the West burns, … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherMining Firm CEO Resigns After Razing an Australian Indigenous Site
Three executives from the mining company that detonated a 46,000-year-old Indigenous Australian heritage site to expand an iron ore mine—and later insisted that it did nothing wrong—are leaving the company. Rio Tinto destroyed the Juukan 1 and Juukan 2 rock shelters in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in May 2020, blasting out of existence … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy and SecurityWoman Arrested For Facebook Post Promoting Anti-Lockdown Protest in Australia
Police in Australia arrested a 28-year-old woman on Wednesday for publishing a Facebook post that promotes an anti-lockdown protest in the country’s state of Victoria. Footage of the arrest was captured by her partner and shows police officers handcuffing the woman and saying that she’s being charged with “incitement.” The woman’s phone and computers were … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsFacebookFacebook Threatens to Ban Australian Users From Posting Any News Content
Facebook has threatened to ban all news content for users in Australia if a law proposed by the Australian government moves forward, according to a press release published by the social media company late Monday. Facebook’s ban on news would apply to both news organizations and individual users in Australia and is intended to be … Continued
By Matt Novak -
EartherNew Report Reveals the Shocking Toll Bushfires Took on Australia’s Wildlife
Almost 3 billion animals were killed or displaced by the devastating Australia bushfires of 2019 and 2020, new research shows. That’s roughly triple earlier estimates. That staggering figure includes 143 million mammals, 180 million birds, and 51 million frogs, and most shockingly, 2.46 billion reptiles, according to a new world-first analysis commissioned by the World … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherA 23-Year-Old Filed A World-First Climate Lawsuit in Australia
Looks like Gen Z is at it again with the climate lawsuits, this time in Australia. Kathleen “Katta” O’Donnell, a 23-year-old college student in Melbourne, launched a world-first lawsuit against the Australian government on Tuesday, alleging that it has misled investors in sovereign bonds by failing to disclose climate-related risks. In the suit filed in … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Tech NewsNewsU.S. Breaks Record With Over 77,000 New Coronavirus Cases in Single Day
The U.S. recorded 77,255 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, setting a depressing new world record. The U.S. has the worst outbreak on the planet right now, but it’s probably more accurate to say this new record was broken last week. Why? The largest private testing lab in the country is currently averaging more than … Continued
By Matt Novak
