Recommended Reading: Telegram is playing with fire

Telegram’s dangerous game

Casey Newton, Platformer

Telegram was almost banned in Brazil because it missed some emails from the local authorities. In his newsletter, Newton explains why this is the latest in a series of troubling decisions from a platform with over 500 million users. “When you’re providing critical communications infrastructure to tens of millions of people, though, you have more responsibility,” he writes.

Here’s how an algorithm guides a medical decision

Nicole Wetsman, The Verge

Artificial intelligence is being used for all sorts of things in medicine, one of which is predicting if a patient is at risk for conditions like diabetes or cardiovascular issues. However, it can be difficult for us as members of the public to understand how these algorithms work. The Verge guides us through one called Sepsis Watch, a system that monitors patients for a potentially deadly condition following an infection.

Ukraine’s engineers battle to keep the internet running while Russian bombs fall around them

Thomas Brewster, Forbes

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites are helping to provide internet access in Ukraine in the midst of the ongoing Russian invasion, but crews on the ground are venturing into dangerous areas to fix equipment that was already in place that’s being damaged by bombings. 

Gene losses allow vampire bats to live solely on a diet of blood

While bats have been closely associated with vampires for centuries, there are actually only three species of bats that drink blood. Most of them eat fruits, insects, nectar and small animals, like frogs and fish, instead. Blood is low in calories, while being rich in iron, protein and little else, making it a terrible, terrible food source. Now, a team of scientists has figured out how and why those vampire bat species are the only mammals that can live solely on a diet of blood.

Upon comparing the genome of common vampire bats to 26 other species, the scientists found 13 genes in the blood-sucking mammals that either no longer work or are missing. Three of those losses had been reported in another study published in 2014, with all of them indicating a reduced sense of taste reception in vampire bats. The remaining 10 gene losses are new discoveries, according to the team.

The loss of a gene called REP15 indicates enhanced iron uptake in the animals’ gastrointestinal cells, which they also shed and excrete quickly. This prevents iron overload that can have severe detrimental effects. The absence of two other genes allow glucose to remain longer in the bats’ bodies and prevent hypoglycemia, since blood contains minimal carbohydrates. Another absent gene might also be the consequence of the “extensive morphological and physiological modifications” in the stomach of common vampire bats. Instead of being a muscular organ, their stomachs are expandable structures used to store large amounts of liquid and serve as a major site of fluid absorption. 

The loss of one gene even contributed “to the evolution of vampire bats’ exceptional social behaviors.” Since they can’t survive too long without feeding, seeing as blood is very low in calories, vampire bats can regurgitate their meals and share with others. They can also keep track of who shared with them in the past and will extend extend help to them in the future if needed. Hannah Kim Frank, a bat researcher at Tulane University, told AP: “It’s totally bizarre and amazing that vampire bats can survive on blood — they are really weird, even among bats.”

The study revealing the loss of genes that allow them to live off blood doesn’t make vampire bats any less weird, or intriguing. You can read the whole study in the Science Advances journal.

Amazon新生活セールで最大20％オフ！ Shokzの骨伝導イヤホンで在宅ワークを快適に

Shokz（旧 Aftershokz）の骨伝導イヤホンが最大20％オフとお買い得価格になっています。耳をふさがずに音楽を楽しんだりオンライン会議に参加できて、長時間の使用でも疲れにくいのが最大のメリット。このチャンスをお見逃しなく！…

内蔵/外付けのSSDやHDD、microSDカードなどストレージ製品が安い！｜Amazon新生活セール

内蔵/外付けのSSDやHDD、microSDカードなどのストレージ製品がお買い得価格になっています。ビジネス用途はもちろん、スマホやゲーム機、テレビ録画用など、なにかと使い道の多い製品ジャンルです。この機会に購入しておいてはいかがでしょうか？…

FAA extends environmental review of SpaceX Boca Chica launch site (again)

SpaceX has to wait even longer to find out if it can launch Starship flights out of its Boca Chica facility in Texas. The US Federal Aviation Administration has delayed its decision on the environmental review of the launch site yet again, pushing back its target date of completion to April 29th. SpaceX must secure the FAA’s approval, along with a vehicle operator license, before it can launch Starship missions out of Boca Chica as planned. 

Specifically, the agency is looking into whether launching the massive reusable vehicle out of the facility will have a significant environmental impact on the area and will be a public safety threat. Its original target date for completion was December 21st, 2021, but it pushed the date back to February 28th, 2022 and then again to March 28th. On the official page for the environmental assessment, the FAA said it’s updating its target date to April 29th “to account for further comment review and ongoing interagency consultations.” The FAA received 19,000 comments for the draft version of the review published last year.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk recently revealed that the company hopes to send Starship into orbit for the first time in May. If the FAA finishes its review on time, and with a favorable result for the company, then there’s a chance the launch could happen in a couple of months. It’s worth noting that Musk’s timeline could be too optimistic.

In case the Boca Chica site fails the FAA’s environmental review or if the agency issues an environmental impact statement (EIS) to dig deeper into the company’s plans over the next few years, then SpaceX could shift to its backup plan. During a Starship presentation earlier this year, Musk said SpaceX already has approval to launch the Starship from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The move would delay the vehicle’s first flight by six to eight months since the company has to build a launch tower at the site, but at least the wait wouldn’t last for years. 

Wi-Fi 6対応の無線LANルーターでネット環境をアップグレード！｜Amazon新生活セール

最新規格「Wi-Fi 6」対応の無線LANルーターがお買い得価格になっています。在宅ワークやオンライン授業などで、自宅のネット環境の重要性は増しています。最新モデルに買い替えて、ネット環境をアップグレードしてみては？…

雪上で通話ができる・音楽が聴ける。進化した骨伝導＆インカム搭載スノーゴーグル「bONE IceBRKR 2.0」

【bONE】IceBRKR 2.0(ビーワン アイスブレーカー2.0)はBluetooth 5.0 インカムテクノロジーと骨伝導オーディオを搭載。 極上のパウダーを滑りながら仲間との会話を楽しむ、ターンを刻む音と一緒に音楽を聞く。 いつものスノーボード、スキーに、新たなエンタテイメントをプラス、革新的な至高体験ができるスノーゴーグルです。 世界初となる骨伝導オーディオ＆インカム機能を搭載した革新的なスノーゴーグルとして2020年に誕生したIceBRKR。日本のクラウドファンディングでも多くの注目を集…