Monday 1/24/22
Celebrate National Beer Can Appreciation, Compliment, Peanut Butter, Belly Laugh, Macintosh Computer, Just Do It, Lobster Thermidor, and Talk Like a Grizzled Prospector Day.
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Beyond Omicron and gold medal tallies, athletes arriving in China’s capital for the Winter Games next month may have one more thing to worry about: is it safe to access the internet? Beijing has promised the world’s top athletes access to a partially unfettered internet during the Olympics starting February 4, dropping the Great Firewall that blocks services like Facebook and YouTube at official venues and hotels. But security experts say there are reasons to exercise caution.
… Chinese companies that specialize in data collection, surveillance, and artificial intelligence are among the official sponsors and suppliers for the Winter Olympics. But experts are concerned that the Chinese government or the country’s cyber-crooks could use the designated Wi-Fi bubbles to snoop on private communications or even install malware onto personal devices. That could in turn open up contacts to subsequent attack.
… Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Canada are among the countries that are advising athletes to keep their devices off Wi-Fi networks and use burner phones if possible. And the U.S. has issued a warning to American athletes that their devices may also be compromised with malicious software, with unknown consequences for future use.
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The world’s oldest man died in Spain on Tuesday at the age of 112 years and 341 days. Saturnino de la Fuente García, of León, Spain, was named the oldest living man just four months earlier in September when he was 112 years and 211 days old.
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Regardless of what you may have heard, opposites actually don’t attract. A study found that despite what most people say about seeking a wider circle of friendship (say, in a large college setting, where there are a lot of different types of people available), they typically befriend only those most similar to themselves. Researchers found that students at a huge state school tended to spend time with people who were much more similar to them than students at the small, rural colleges.
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The California Highway Patrol responded to a report of an animal wandering down a road in Fresno on Monday. It was caught with an assist from a neighbor and returned safely home. The animal was a water buffalo. After calling in and reporting the water buffalo, a resident and an officer managed to steer the fully-grown bovid into a fenced-in area and alerted its owner.
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All loose monkeys were accounted for Saturday night after three escaped following a crash Friday in rural Pennsylvania, authorities said.
The crash occurred in Montour County’s Valley Township when a pickup towing a trailer with the primates turned in front of an oncoming truck and was hit. The trailer separated from the truck and three monkeys escaped, according to the crash report.
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Andrea Pelachick said Friday that the vehicle was carrying "a hundred monkeys."
The shipment of monkeys was en route to a CDC-approved quarantine facility after arriving Friday morning at New York’s Kennedy Airport from Mauritius, the agency said.
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Eternals didn’t see the success that Marvel Studios hoped for during its worldwide theater run in late 2021. On top of premiering during a global pandemic, the film was also hammered with mixed reviews from both critics and fans. Eternals is now available to stream on Disney+ and set a record for the streaming service: it was streamed by 2 million households during its first five days, breaking a record for most streams by a Marvel movie in the first five days of release.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - You spray 2.5 drops of saliva per word.
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