Internet of Things: tech firms have become our digital landlords - but people are starting to fight back

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Internet of Things: tech firms have become our digital landlords - but people are starting to fight back     From smart toasters to fitness collars for dogs, we live in a world where everything around us is gradually being connected to the internet and fitted with sensors so that we can interact with them online. Many people worry about the privacy risks of using these devices because they may allow hackers to listen to our conversations at home. But the contracts for using them are so long we don’t understand which other rights we might be signing away. Continued here

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More than one journalist per day is dying in the Israel-Gaza conflict. This has to stop     According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Gaza-Israel war has been the deadliest conflict for media workers since the organisation began counting statistics in 1992. At the time of writing, the committee said at least 39 journalists and media workers had been killed in the month since the war began. Reporters Without Borders put the number slightly higher at 41. But the rate of fatalities is so high – more than one per day – it is likely there will be more dead by the time you read this. Continued here

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Breast cancer prevention drug approved for post-menopausal women in the UK - here's how it works     A drug that can halve the risk of developing breast cancer in post-menopausal women has been approved for use in the UK. This drug, called anastrozole, could benefit an estimated 289,000 women in the UK who are at increased risk of breast cancer. Anastrozole was already approved for use in the UK as a breast cancer treatment. It belongs to a group of drugs called aromatase inhibitors that were first developed to treat breast cancer in women who had undergone menopause. Continued here

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Is drug testing in the workplace effective or necessary?     Alcohol and other drug use is a major problem in Australian workplaces costing more than A$4 billion a year. Of this, $3.6 billion is due to absenteeism.While testing is legal to ensure the health and safety of workers, companies must have explicit policies telling employees their objectives and the consequences of being drug affected at work. Continued here

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Heurigen: Vienna's hyper-local wine taverns     Come warm weather, Vienna's residents flock to the city's bucolic outskirts with the determination of migrating birds. Their destinations? Heurigen, the rustic winery-run taverns showing off their aromatic white wines around wooden tables set under grape arbors and laden with traditional Austrian fare that might include schnitzel and blood sausage, always potato salad and ham and a variety of savory cheesy spreads to go with dark sourdough bread.Paris might have its bars du vin, Rome its enotecas. But Vienna's relationship to wine (and wine-friendly food) is unique. The Austrian capital is the only major European metropolis with a designated wine-growing area within its city limits, counting more than 600 producers on some 1,700 acres of vineyards. Continued here

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Optus said it didn't have the 'soundbite' to explain the crisis. We should expect better     Asked on Wednesday to explain why Optus broadband and mobile services had been simultaneously knocked out for five hours, its chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin blamed a “technical network fault”, and then added:There is no soundbite that is going to do it justice, so we want to really bottom-out the root cause, and when we have that very clear and in a digestible form, we will be forthcoming. Continued here

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Heat, cold, pollution, noise and insects: too many apartment blocks aren't up to the challenge     The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the impacts of air quality on high-rise living. However, apartments face a range of atmospheric challenges. These include air and noise pollution, temperature and weather extremes, bushfire smoke and insects.Our study involved residents of apartments in Liverpool CBD in New South Wales. They are exposed to particulate pollution from heavy truck movements tied to the Moorebank freight terminal, smoke from increasingly severe bushfires and a rising number of days of extreme heat each year. Continued here

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We blurred the gender of soccer players and had people rate their performances - with surprising results     During the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the telecommunications company Orange ran a powerful TV ad. It depicts the graceful agility and dramatic goal-scoring shots from French national players such as Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappé and Olivier Giroud. Then comes the catch. After about a minute, the viewer sees that the highlights had been artifically modified: All of the players were actually from the French women’s national team. Continued here

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Yerba Mate: South America's 'beverage of champions'     It's 10:30 in the calm, wide streets of La Paternal in Buenos Aires, a neighbourhood of low-rise residential buildings, warehouses and art studios. Marcela Coll is climbing and twirling on a black aerial silk hanging from the eaves at her circus school Circodromo. Coll slides gracefully down onto the mats and heads for the thermos of hot water and a drinking vessel filled with dried yerba mate leaves, pours some water over the leaves, sips the resulting hot, light-green liquid through a metal bombilla (straw), and then pours more water over the leaves. With the thermos cradled in her elbow and drinking vessel in her hand, she watches a student pull herself up the silk.Consumed mostly in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil – as well as in Syria and Lebanon – traditional mate (pronounced MAH-tay) is a hot, bitter, caffeinated tea made by steeping the dried leaves of the yerba mate plant. The leaves are placed inside a bowl- or cup-shaped drinking vessel, also called a "mate", which can be made from a variety of materials: a dried, hollowed-out gourd called a calabaza, wood, metal, leather-covered glass or silicone. Continued here

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Do you like snakes, lizards and frogs? Why herpetology might be the career for you     PhD candidate: School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA. Continued here

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Ketamine can rapidly reduce symptoms of PTSD and depression, new study finds     The drug ketamine can reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and symptoms of depression in patients as early as a day after injection. That is the key finding of my team’s new meta-analysis, just published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy. Ketamine is an anesthetic that is sometimes used as a substance of abuse but is increasingly being explored as a treatment for a range of mental health conditions. Continued here

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Is capitalism dead? Yanis Varoufakis thinks it is - and he knows who killed it     Yanis Varoufakis grew up during the Greek dictatorship of 1967-1974. He later became an economics professor and was briefly Greek finance minister in 2015.His late father, a chemical engineer in a steel plant, instilled in his son a critical appreciation of how technology drives social change. He also instilled him with a belief that capitalism and genuine freedom were antithetical – a leftist politics that made his father a political prisoner for several years during the “junta”, as they called it. Continued here

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Three images that show wartime photographs can have greater impact than the written word     “Images are worth a thousand words. These images may be worth a million.” US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s response to being shown graphic images of the victims of Hamas’s recent massacre raises an important question about whether photographs are more powerful than words in conveying the brutality of war. Since the announcement of its invention in 1839, photography has been imagined as a form of “writing with light” (referring to the meanings of the Greek words phos and graphe from which it is derived). Continued here

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If NZ's new government wants a simple fix to improve child poverty, here's what it should do     With a National-led coalition government taking shape (how long it takes is another matter), the nation’s “squeezed middle” awaits the financial relief promised during the election campaign.As the lead party, National’s policies should be central to negotiations. For those without children, its proposed payment of the full Independent Earner Tax Credit for incomes between NZ$24,000 and $66,000 would kick in from April 1 next year. Continued here

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The kids are alright: Aspiring political staffers are altruistically motivated     Young people who work as political staffers in Canada have long been derogatorily labelled by politicians and pundits as “the kids in short pants,” a comment about their age and perceived inexperience coined by an adviser to former prime minister Stephen Harper.Despite the important roles political staffers fill in our democracy, their work is often overlooked and undervalued by the politicians and voters that they serve. Continued here

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Why The Conversation lifted the (eye) mask on insomnia     Insomnia is an ancient preoccupation and modern obsession. Its effect on our mental health and wellbeing can be dramatic.In Australia, the financial cost of poor sleep is an estimated A$26 billion a year, mainly through lost productivity or accidents. Continued here

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Can HIV be cured using gene editing? We will soon find out     HIV, the virus that causes Aids, was first identified in 1983. To catch this virus was initially a death sentence, but today, thanks to antiretroviral drugs, it can be kept in check. However, there is still no cure. A small biotech company in San Francisco called Excision BioTherapeutics is trying to change that with its infusion, called EBT-101. The company recently reported positive results on the one-off gene-editing treatment – but only regarding safety. There were no severe side-effects in the three patients given the experimental drug. Continued here

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Football fans fighting food poverty: how a 'lifesaving' mobile pantry scheme spread across the country     It’s 9am in December on Tiber Square, a community space at the centre of one of Liverpool’s most diverse postcodes. The temperature is -5°C. Braving the cold, a small crowd is forming, sharing jokes amid anxious glances at the square’s frozen floor. Their concern is warranted. Given the icy surface, it is unlikely the community food pantry will be going ahead as normal.Anticipation builds as the mobile pantry arrives, a purple van embossed with the logo of Fans Supporting Foodbanks (FSF) – a red and blue hand clasped to indicate the unity of rival Everton (blue) and Liverpool (red) fans – alongside slogans, including: “Hunger doesn’t wear club colours.” Continued here

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Hockey organizations need to address the psychological impacts of team trauma, not just the physical ones     Hockey player Adam Johnson’s death from an on-ice skate blade incident was jarring and tragic. Johnson passed away on Oct. 28 after being cut in the neck by another player’s skate blade during a professional hockey game in Sheffield, England.Understandably, a vigorous debate has ensued about whether neck guards should be made mandatory beyond the minor hockey league level. Some leagues quickly responded by implementing neck guard policies and others might follow once the issue has been filtered through the proper channels. Continued here

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When do kids learn to read? How do you know if your child is falling behind?     Learning to read is one of the most important parts of early schooling. But there is ongoing and arguably increasing concern too many Australian children are falling behind in reading. This year’s NAPLAN results alarmingly show almost one in three Australian children don’t meet the expected standard in Year 3. Continued here

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The fall of the Berlin Wall: The moment that reshaped Europe     On the evening of 9 November 1989, the BBC's Brian Hanrahan stood amid scenes of jubilation witnessing a moment of history, the fall of the Berlin Wall.- Remarkable photos of the fall of the Wall- The 1968 image that shook the world- An inside look at the real Rupert Murdoch Continued here

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Turkana stone beads tell a story of herder life in a drying east Africa 5,000 years ago     On the shores of Lake Turkana in east Africa, about 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, pastoralists buried their dead in communal cemeteries that were marked by stone circles and pillars. The north-west Kenya “pillar sites” were built around the same time as Stonehenge in the UK. But these places have a different story to tell: about how mortuary traditions reflect people’s environments, behaviours and reactions to change.The burial sites appeared at a time of major environmental and economic change in the region. The Sahara, which received enough rainfall 9,000-7,000 years ago to sustain populations of fisher-hunter-gatherers and pastoralists, was drying, causing groups of people to move east and south. Even in eastern Africa, lake levels were dropping dramatically; grassy plains were expanding. Around Lake Turkana, people began herding animals in addition to fishing and foraging. Continued here

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Campus tensions and the Mideast crisis: Will Ontario and Alberta's 'Chicago Principles' on university free expression stand?     Peacock Postdoctoral Fellow in Pedagogy, Department of Political Studies, Queen's University, Ontario Our tolerance for expression that we value often exceeds our tolerance for expression we find distasteful. Nonetheless, if there’s a place in society where the high ground on free expression should be consistently held, surely it’s on university campuses. Continued here

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Want a healthier lawn? Instead of bagging fall leaves, take the lazy way out and get a more environmentally friendly yard     Autumn is the season to gaze at gorgeous leaves of gold, yellow and orange as they flutter from the trees and fall on our yards – but then, of course, comes the tedious task of raking them up and trying to decide what to do with them. SciLine interviewed Susan Barton, a professor of plant and soil sciences at the University of Delaware, who says taking a lazy approach is actually a win for your garden and the critters that live there.Below are some highlights from the interview. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity. Continued here

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Fresh water is a hidden challenge - and opportunity - for global supply chains     Reports of lengthy shipping delays for vessels traveling through the Panama Canal this year have highlighted the critical but often overlooked role that fresh water plays across global supply chains. Drier than normal conditions in Panama, brought on by El Niño, have left the region drought-stricken and water levels in the locks that feed the canal lower than normal. This has led to fewer ships being able to pass through the canal each day: only 31 ships currently, compared with 36 to 38 under normal conditions. This means longer waits to move products through the canal and onto store shelves. The slowdown at the Panama Canal shows how access to fresh water is key to the way goods are made and shipped, affecting everything from the price of groceries to retail forecasts for the upcoming holiday shopping season. As a professor of supply chain management, I think businesses would be wise to pay closer attention to this issue. Continued here

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How animals get their skin patterns is a matter of physics - new research clarifying how could improve medical diagnostics and synthetic materials     Patterns on animal skin, such as zebra stripes and poison frog color patches, serve various biological functions, including temperature regulation, camouflage and warning signals. The colors making up these patterns must be distinct and well separated to be effective. For instance, as a warning signal, distinct colors make them clearly visible to other animals. And as camouflage, well-separated colors allow animals to better blend into their surroundings.A thought experiment can help visualize the challenge of achieving distinctive color patterns. Imagine gently adding a drop of blue and red dye to a cup of water. The drops will slowly disperse throughout the water due to the process of diffusion, where molecules move from an area of higher concentration to lower concentration. Eventually, the water will have an even concentration of blue and red dyes and become purple. Thus, diffusion tends to create color uniformity. Continued here

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In Gaza, the underground war between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters in the tunnels is set to begin     The Israel Defense Forces have announced that they have reached the outskirts of Gaza City and are expecting to enter the city soon. When that happens, Israeli troops will begin a dangerous new phase of the military campaign against Hamas fighters in a densely populated urban terrain that includes closely packed buildings above ground and a troubling maze of tunnels below. Continued here

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Explainer: what is the 'core network' that was crucial to the Optus outage?     This week’s Optus outage affected 10 million people and hundreds of businesses. One of the early reasons given for the failure was a fault in the “core network”. The latest statement from the company points to “a network event” that caused the “cascading failure”.The internet is complex, so most carriers, including Optus, use the concept of the “three layer network architecture” to explain it. This abstraction splits the entire network into layers. Continued here

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41 US states are suing Meta for getting teens hooked on social media. Here's what to expect next     In the United States, 41 states have filed lawsuits against Meta for allegedly driving social media addiction in its young users (under the age of 18), amid growing concerns about the negative effects of platforms.The lawsuits allege Meta has been harvesting young users’ data, deploying features to promote compulsive use of both Facebook and Instagram, and misleading the public about the negative effects of these features. Continued here

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Concrete versus asphalt for Nigeria's roads: which is better?     Nigeria’s new works minister, David Umahi, is pushing for the use of rigid pavement in road construction, as against the flexible pavement predominantly in use. This, as the minister noted, is due to the precarious state of flexible pavements in the country. A rigid pavement is a road surface overlaid with reinforced concrete, while a flexible or asphalt one has a bituminous (tar) overlay. Continued here

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Israel, Palestine and the Labour party history that has made Keir Starmer's position so difficult     I said: “I found the British still very emotional about Palestine. Why?” And he said: “It’s associated, don’t you think with partisanship with one side or the other. I can’t think of any colony or mandate that was as demanding intellectually and emotionally as Palestine.These were the words of Harold Beeley, Middle East adviser to Labour foreign secretary Ernest Bevin, as described in an interview with author Hadara Lazar. Continued here

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How to never get a speeding fine again -- and maybe save a child's life     What if our cars didn’t allow us to speed? Or, at least, strongly encouraged us not to speed?We could help motorists avoid speeding — and therefore reduce emissions and fuel use, improve traffic flow, reduce crashes, lower insurance costs, make streets feel safer to walk and cycle – and totally avoid speeding fines. Continued here

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Russia's decision to ditch cold war arms limitation treaty raises tensions with Nato     Russia has pulled out of an important cold war-era treaty which limited categories of conventional military equipment that Nato and the then-Warsaw Pact could deploy. The 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was intended to use the warming of relations between east and west to minimise the risk of war in Europe.Announcing its intention to withdraw from the treaty, Russia’s foreign ministry said the push for enlargement of Nato had led to alliance countries “openly circumventing” the treaty’s group restrictions. It added that the admission of Finland into Nato and Sweden’s application meant the treaty was dead. Continued here

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'News overload': how a constant stream of violent images affects your brain     Profesor Titular departamento de Psicología Experimental, Universidad de Sevilla In May 1097, during the siege of Nicaea, crusaders catapulted the severed heads of prisoners over the walls surrounding the city, with the aim of terrorising their enemy. The strategy worked. On June 19 of the year the crusaders captured the city. Continued here

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Why Diwali spending is primed to rocket in the US     For many businesses, holiday spending is a major part of Q4 revenue – think Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Kwanzaa. Now, as it gains national recognition, US merchants are increasingly embracing Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, for its commercial potential.While every region in India has traditions for commemorating this holiday, most celebrants broadly see Diwali as the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness and wisdom over ignorance. Also marked by Jains and Sikhs, it is celebrated every year in October or November, precipitating a range of private and public celebrations. Continued here

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With Slut! Taylor Swift joins a long history of women fighting slut-shaming in their writing     One track stands out on the rereleased edition of Taylor Swift’s iconic album, 1989. In Slut!, Swift addresses her encounters with slut-shaming – behaviour that shames women who are judged to be promiscuous. “But if I’m all dressed up,” the singer muses, “they might as well be looking at us. And if they call me a slut, you know it might be worth it for once”. “Slut-shaming” is a relatively modern phrase – but the behaviour itself has scarcely evolved since the 1700s. Back then, the popular vernacular was rife with terms and phrases aimed at degrading women for their supposed sexual indiscretions, painting them as inherently untrustworthy beings ruled by carnal desires. Continued here

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The Songs That Shaped My Life     Joni Mitchell’s wisdom, Otis Redding’s invitation, and the Beatles’ schematic of loveI love other people’s songs. How much they’ve taught me about being human—how to think about myself and others. And, most important, how they absorb our experiences and store our memories. Continued here

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How Saudi Arabia's unchallenged 2034 World Cup bid could weaken Fifa's human rights demands     In 2010, Qatar was awarded the rights to host the 2022 Fifa men’s World Cup. It marked the culmination of the small, oil-rich gulf nation’s long-term strategy to diversify its economy and strengthen its international standing through investment in sport, culture and tourism.However, from the moment the hosting rights were awarded until the event’s conclusion in December 2022, the Qatar World Cup was marred by controversies. These controversies included allegations of bid bribery, violations of human rights, and what has come to be known as “sportswashing” – the strategic use of the positive image associated with sport to divert attention away from the less palatable aspects of a nation’s social and political culture. Continued here

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Hidden tunnels, ambushes and explosives in walls: the Israel-Hamas war enters a precarious new phase     With Israeli Defence Forces now reportedly surrounding Gaza City, the most densely packed part of the Gaza Strip, their fight against Hamas has entered a new phase focused primarily on urban warfare – some of it underground.Sappers are the soldiers who clear paths through obstacles with machines and explosives, enabling other troops to overwhelm the enemy. They also create such obstructions and lay traps and mines when trying to defend a position. Continued here

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Do you think you have a penicillin allergy? You might be wrong     Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest global threats to health, food security and development. This month, The Conversation’s experts explore how we got here and the potential solutions.Penicillins are the most prescribed class of antibiotics in Australia. Originally derived from a fungus, penicillin antibiotics such as amoxicillin are used to treat common infections, including chest, sinus, ear, urinary tract and skin infections. Continued here