Month: July 2020

Enlarge (credit: David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

There are still a significant number of unknowns about the coronavirus—we're struggling to understand what influences the severity of some cases, why other people remain asymptomatic, and why most people experience only a subset of its total symptoms list. But one thing has been crystal clear in the data: the elderly are most at risk from COVID-19. A disproportionate number of the fatalities have come in those over 65.

As such, many countries have implemented strategies focused on minimizing the risks for the elderly, and appeals to the public have been made centered around protecting older family members. But are the elderly doing their part to protect themselves? Not really, according to a study that analyzed survey data from dozens of countries.

Following advice?

The work was done by Jean-François Daoust, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh. Daoust took advantage of a huge collection of survey data obtained by YouGov and Imperial College London. The dataset is enormous. While Daoust had to exclude India and China, where the population surveyed wasn't representative of the country's demographics, he was still left with over 72,000 people in 27 countries (Africa is notably unrepresented, and the only South American country is Brazil.) While his main conclusions are drawn from the data as a whole, Daoust also did country- and region-level analyses to look for differences in attitudes.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Jena Ardell)

Adults and children in the United States have been blinded, hospitalized, and, in some cases, even died after drinking hand sanitizers contaminated with the extremely toxic alcohol methanol, the Food and Drug Administration reports.

In an updated safety warning, the agency identified five more brands of hand sanitizer that contain methanol, a simple alcohol often linked to incorrectly distilled liquor that is poisonous if ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin.

The newly identified products are in addition to nine methanol-containing sanitizers the FDA identified last month, which are all made by the Mexico-based manufacturer Eskbiochem SA de CV. According to FDA testing, one of the products contained 81 percent methanol and no ethanol, a safe alcohol typically used in hand sanitizers. At the time, the agency reported that it was “not aware of any reports of adverse events associated with these hand sanitizer products.”

Enlarge / Ray "Hushpuppi" Abbas poses in front of a private jet in a 2019 Instagram photo. "It’s a different type of GLOW and STANDARD when you start hopping out of Rolls Royces to catch a Jet just to attend fashion shows in a different continent," he wrote. "Your smile begin to be bright just as the sun." (credit: Ramon Abbas)

The US government has gained custody of a Nigerian man who is accused of participating in a massive fraud and money laundering operation. The defendant, Ray "Hushpuppi" Abbas, has amassed 2.4 million followers on Instagram, where he flaunts his access to luxury cars, designer clothing, and private jets. The feds say that he gained this wealth by defrauding banks, law firms, and other businesses out of millions of dollars. He was arrested last month by authorities in the United Arab Emirates, where he had been living.

The FBI's criminal complaint details how the government obtained a wealth of information tying Abbas to his alleged crimes. Abbas was an avid user of American technology platforms, including Instagram, Gmail, iCloud, and Snapchat. Accounts on these platforms were all registered using a handful of common email addresses and phone numbers. Abbas's main email account—rayhushpuppi@gmail.com—included a copy of Abbas's lease at a luxury hotel in Dubai and scans of various government-issued photo IDs under Abbas' name.

Abbas is accused of participating in a number of "business email compromise" scams. By posing as trusted employees or customers of a target organization, Abbas and his fellow fraudsters allegedly tricked employees into sending large sums to bank accounts they controlled.

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  OnePlus' event invitation. [credit: OnePlus ]

OnePlus appears to have picked a date for the launch of its midrange smartphone: July 21. Invites for the event were posted early to Amazon India (a major launch country for the device) and first spotted by leaker Ishan Agarwal (the actual tweet has been deleted, but XDA has a backup). Amazon pulled the page down, too, but a Google cache copy still exists.

OnePlus has been slowly dripping out information on its next smartphone, which will see a return to a cheaper price tag. Early rumors called the phone the "OnePlus 8 Lite" or "OnePlus Z," but the company confirmed the phone will go with the odd moniker of "OnePlus Nord," a word that means "north" in several languages. We might not know all the specs, but OnePlus has already confirmed the price will be "under $500."

OnePlus says the phone will come with a Snapdragon 765G and will sport a "flagship camera." Sadly, North America does not seem to be in the first wave of countries for this release, with OnePlus CEO Pete Lau saying "we are going to start relatively small with this new product line by first introducing it in Europe and India. But don't worry, we're also looking to bring more affordable smartphones to North America in the near future as well."