barefootstache @barefootstache@qoto.org

Imagine using your garden and/or house plants as a battery

https://newatlas.com/electronics/watering-plants-oligomers-roots-electronic/

Mainly used by anecdote hunters:

IDIOT (internet derived information obstructing treatment) Syndrom

Android Mobile OS Snooping By Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei and Realme Handsets

"We find that even when minimally configured and the handset is idle these vendor-customized Android variants transmit substantial amounts of information to the OS developer and also to third-parties (Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Facebook etc) that have pre-installed system apps. While occasional communication with OS servers is to be
expected, the observed data transmission goes well beyond this and raises a number of privacy concerns. There is no opt out from this data collection."

https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/Android_privacy_report.pdf

Something to contemplate

"Here we document 47,381 individuals from 38 species, including 31 protected species sold between May 2017 and November 2019 in Wuhan’s markets. We note that no pangolins (or bats) were traded, supporting reformed opinion that pangolins were not likely the spillover host at the source of the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While we caution against the misattribution of COVID-19’s origins, the wild animals on sale in Wuhan suffered poor welfare and hygiene conditions and we detail a range of other zoonotic infections they can potentially vector. Nevertheless, in a precautionary response to COVID-19, China’s Ministries temporarily banned all wildlife trade on 26th Jan 2020 until the COVID-19 pandemic concludes, and permanently banned eating and trading terrestrial wild (non-livestock) animals for food on 24th Feb 2020. These interventions, intended to protect human health, redress previous trading and enforcement inconsistencies, and will have collateral benefits for global biodiversity conservation and animal welfare."

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-91470-2

#science #nature #covid19 #china #wetmarkets

A nice tool for sharing/receiving files, hosting a static website, and anonymous chatting; all based on the Tor network.

https://onionshare.org/

(Currently no mobile app, though can be accessed through the Tor browser.)

"Conservatives are less able to distinguish political truths from falsehoods than liberals, mainly because of a glut of right-leaning misinformation, a new national study conducted over six months shows.

Researchers found that liberals and conservatives in the United States both tended to believe claims that promoted their political views, but that this more often led conservatives to accept falsehoods while rejecting truths.

One of the main drivers of the findings appeared to be the American media and information environment."

https://news.osu.edu/conservatives-more-susceptible-to-believing-falsehoods/

Checkout this website to see how normal you are

https://www.hownormalami.eu/

Finally found a good excuse not to use predominantly video calls:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/coronavirus-zoom-fatigue-is-taxing-the-brain-here-is-why-that-happens

TL;DR the act of scrolling is enough to cause nausea. This can be triggered faster when on a phone in a dark room. It seems scrolling slower and/or in a dim lit room can help mitigate nausea, because of "stable frames", which in return could be the reason why nausea is not proned to happen in augmented reality in contrast to virtual reality.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/endless-scrolling-through-social-media-can-literally-make-you-sick-cybersickness