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Enlarge / Vials of undiluted Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. (credit: Getty | BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI )

Pfizer has planned to privately brief US health officials on its case for COVID-19 booster shots, but US and global public health officials have not hesitated to publicly blast the idea, calling booster shots unnecessary at this time and unethical in the face of vast inequity in the global vaccine supply.

Pfizer and its vaccine partner BioNTech made headlines last Thursday with the announcement that it would seek authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks for a booster shot to its two-shot regimen. The companies suggest that a third shot will be necessary between six and 12 months after the second dose. During this window, immunity to the pandemic coronavirus declines, the companies say, particularly in the elderly. A third shot, they say, can boost antibody levels five to 10 times what is seen after the first two.

But health officials were quick to push back on the booster talk last week, and the responses have only grown more intense in the days since.

Enlarge / The ball is the latest consoles. The player in blue is EA. The player in red is the PC. (credit: EA)

The PC version of the upcoming FIFA 22 will be missing certain features available on the latest generation of consoles and Google's Stadia streaming platform. The PC version will be comparable to the "last-generation" console versions on PS4/Xbox One.

Promotional materials for the newly announced game highlight "groundbreaking new HyperMotion gameplay technology," which purportedly "combines Advanced 11v11 Match Capture and proprietary machine learning technology to deliver the most realistic, fluid, and responsive football experience... unlocking the raw emotion, passion, and physicality of the world's game." Unfortunately for PC players, though, that AI-powered animation is available "only on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Stadia," publisher EA says.

The missing features for PC players are somewhat reminiscent of last year's FIFA 21. For that release, console players got a free update on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S that added advanced features like ball deformation and special camera angles. Those updates never came to the PC version of the game, though, a situation Executive Producer Aaron McHardy told Eurogamer was part of an effort to keep the PC minimum specs down "so that we can open the doors and be inclusive to everybody who wants to play FIFA."

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Every living thing on the planet plays host to viruses, and bacteria are no exception. Bacteriophages—or just “phages” to those in the know—are the viruses that attack bacteria. And we are in dire need of things that attack bacteria, since many pathogenic bacterial species have developed resistance to the antibiotics we’ve been throwing at them for decades.

Phage therapy is attractive not only because of the issue of antibiotic use yielding antibiotic resistance, but also because it can be targeted specifically to the bacteria that are causing an infection. Most antibiotics currently in use are rather broad spectrum, so they obliterate many of the bacteria they encounter, including the ones we need that are happily residing in our guts, minding their own business and not causing anyone any problems. Phages can be more precise.

But is phage therapy actually effective? A new study suggests it may end up being undercut by our own immune systems, which treat the therapies like a hostile invader.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Kittichai Boonpong | EyeEm)

The Federal Communications Commission broadband standard that was implemented under then-Chairman Tom Wheeler in 2015 and never updated by Ajit Pai is now "likely too slow," according to a government report issued last week.

The Wheeler-led FCC in January 2015 updated the agency's broadband standard from 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream to 25Mbps downloads/3Mbps uploads. The increase was opposed by broadband-industry lobbyists and Republicans, including Ajit Pai, who was then a commissioner and later served as FCC chairman throughout the Trump administration.

Pai never updated the 25Mbps/3Mbps standard in his four years as chair. In his last annual broadband-deployment report issued in January 2021, Pai concluded that "fixed services with speeds of 25/3Mbps continue to meet the statutory definition of advanced telecommunications capability."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

SolarWinds, the company at the center of a supply chain attack that compromised nine US agencies and 100 private companies, is scrambling to contain a new security threat: a critical zero-day vulnerability in its Serv-U product line.

Microsoft discovered the exploits and privately reported them to SolarWinds, the latter company said in an advisory published on Friday. SolarWinds said the attacks are completely unrelated to the supply chain attack discovered in December.

“Microsoft has provided evidence of limited, targeted customer impact, though SolarWinds does not currently have an estimate of how many customers may be directly affected by the vulnerability,” company officials wrote. “SolarWinds is unaware of the identity of the potentially affected customers.”

Enlarge / Beneath the AfterShokz Air headset itself are an accessory bag, printed user manual, and a pair of included (but strictly optional) foam earplugs. (credit: Jim Salter)

In March 2021, we tested Lucyd Lyte Bluetooth sunglasses, a pair of shades with built-in off-ear headphones. Lucyd Lyte didn't quite impress—mostly because their tiny built-in speakers are nearly as audible to everyone around you as they are to you. Today, we'll take a look at two models of bone-conduction headphones suggested to us in that review's comment section—the AfterShokz Titanium and AfterShokz Air.

I purchased one each of the Titanium and Air in early March and have used them regularly in the months since. Bone-conduction headphones are definitely not for everyone—but they're fantastic for people who need the particular mix of comfort, awareness of surroundings, and improved hygiene they offer.

Open, comfortable ears

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  Aftershokz headphones disappear pretty effectively on most users' heads—despite hair ranging from quite short (pictured) to outright crew cut (current), my family rarely notices when mine are on. [credit: Jim Salter ]