the conversation
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Forget Spy Balloons, the World of Surveillance Has Tried Everything From Schoolchildren to Trained Cats
The Chinese “spy balloon” shot down over the United States has brought the seemingly strange methods of surveillance and espionage into news headlines. Balloons have long been used for espionage – and not just for surveillance, as appears to be the case with this one. In the 1950s, Soviet soldiers in East Germany often saw…
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The Rocket Industry Is Booming, at the Cost of the Ozone Layer
The ozone layer is on track to heal within four decades, according to a recent UN report, but this progress could be undone by an upsurge in rocket launches expected during the same period. The ozone layer protects life on Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays. Destruction of the ozone layer became a…
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What’s Driving the Mass Layoffs in Big Tech Right Now?
The numbers are less concerning when viewed in the bigger picture.
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Queue Jumpers: The Case for Letting Electric Car Buyers Import Them Directly
If Australia is to decarbonise our energy system by 2050, we need to start the transition to electric vehicles very soon. Cars sold in the 2030s will mostly still be on the road in 2050, so we have to make sure most of them are electric. But electric cars (including plug-in hybrids) currently account for…