Yields on U.S. junk-rated bonds have fallen below 3 percent, making it cheap and easy for companies tilting toward insolvency to borrow money. Centene Corporation, a health insurance company, sold a $2.2-billion bond last week at an interest rate of 2.5 percent, saving it an estimated $40 million a year in interest payments. Last month,...
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SCIENTISTS FOOL DEEPFAKE DETECTORS
Deepfakes – doctored videos that show persons saying things they never actually said or, often, would say – have become a growing scourge of social media. Computer engineers quickly put together “deepfake detector” software to alert viewers whether a video is phony. Now researchers at the University of California at San Diego have shown how...
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NEW KIND OF ANTIBIOTIC KILLS GERMS & BOOSTS IMMUNITY
The growing army of bacteria able to resist conventional antibiotics is one of the top ten threats to human health, according to the World Health Organization, and, by 2050, will kill ten million people a year and drain $100 million annually from the global economy. But not if researchers at Pennsylvania’s Wistar Institute can help...
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DENMARK PLANS WORLD’S FIRST “ENERGY ISLANDS”
The Danish government has unveiled plans to build an artificial island about 50 miles off the Jutland peninsula in the North Sea that will become an energy hub, directing green energy to millions of onshore consumers. A similar installation is planned for the existing island of Bornholm. In its first phase, the human-made island –...
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EFFECTIVE WAYS TO KEEP YOUR RESPIRATORY SYSTEM HEALTHY
By Dr. Gary Null and Richard Gale A hallmark of the COVID-19 is that it first infects the upper respiratory tract accompanied by shortness of breath and a chronic cough and frequently chills, fever, and fatigue. These are symptoms, however, similar but not limited to about 200 known respiratory viral infections, including other strains of...
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BLOCKCHAIN IS FAST BECOMING A STANDARD TECHNOLOGY
Blockchain isn’t just for cryptocurrencies, and more industries are developing ways to use the technology. Data validation, ID protection, payments, supply chain management, land registry are just some of the areas where blockchain is being utilized. IBM and Hyperledger currently offer onboarding and validation via blockchain, though their solutions are geared for large international enterprises...
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NORWAY’S TOP BANK WENT DIGITAL BEFORE THE REST
Norway’s biggest bank took an early initiative in digitizing services that are now paying off, as rivals fall behind. Stig B Fiksdal DNB, Norway’s biggest bank, underwent an overhaul of its business model, and also focused on cost control. Among other things, it developed technology for simple mobile payments and loan decisions and closed 70...
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THIS WEEK IN SURVEILLANCE
While the pandemic has severely impacted travel, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has used the downtime to ramp up biometric spying technology at 76 airports around the country. Those efforts are detailed in a recently released the “CBP Trade and Travel Report.” The report details measures by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to...
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THE FACEBOOK-APPLE WAR HEATS UP
“Inflict pain.” That’s the word from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, talking about rival Apple in a war waged around end-user privacy. Reports suggest Facebook is planning an antitrust legal suit over Apple’s iOS privacy features. According to its claims, Apple “abused its power in the smartphone market by forcing app developers to abide by App...
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DRAGHI: ITALY’S NEW BANKSTER PM
Mario Draghi, the former leader of the European Central Bank who has been credited with saving the euro in 2012, has been tapped by Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella to be the new Prime Minister to help the country emerge from economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. Now in charge of the EU’s third-largest economy, Draghi...