secretive

In the realm of TikTok trends turned into mass cultural reality shows, few have captured attention quite like Alabama rush. For weeks in August 2021, TikTok was awash in content about the intense, highly scrutinized and anticipated process of sorority recruitment: daily “OOTDs” (outfits of the day), rush recap videos from freshly tanned and coiffed prospective new members (PNMs), and reactions to 18-year-old girls either elated or devastated by the high-stakes game of likability that is rush.The same process in August…

One of my stops in China was Shenzhen, the southern city that’s home to many Chinese tech companies, like Tencent, Huawei, and DJI. I had several reasons to go to Shenzhen, but there was one that made me nervous: I wanted to go to Tencent’s mysterious customer service center to get my 15-year-old social media account back. If you didn’t know, the first software that launched Tencent’s empire was QQ, the go-to instant messaging platform in China during the desktop internet era. From there, Tencent grew into a powerful…

When the trial’s results were published in November 2021, BioViva boasted that it had done just that. “Despite decades of effort and billions of dollars devoted to dementia research, we have seen very little progress … until now,” founder CEO Liz Parrish declared in a press release. Working at the fringes of medicine, she claimed her company had succeeded where countless others had failed—by reversing the effects of aging.Gene therapies, which modify a patient’s cells, are at the forefront of medical research. Testing is…

In late March, when Tim Cook made his first public appearance in China since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Apple Inc.'s chief executive officer approached it with all the delicacy of a high-stakes diplomatic visit. Cook took colleagues to an Apple retail store in Beijing and met privately with high-ranking government officials to discuss the company's operations. “This has been a symbiotic kind of relationship that I think we both enjoyed,” he told the audience at a state-sponsored technology conference, in an…

A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 379, Issue 6638.Download PDF For decades, Chinese-born U.S. faculty members were applauded for working with colleagues in China, and their universities cited the rich payoff from closer ties to the emerging scientific giant. But those institutions did an about-face after they began to receive emails in late 2018 from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The emails asked some 100…

Google has made security on your Android phone while browsing on Google Chrome Incognito Mode even safer. Do you like to browse in Google Chrome incognito mode? Then here is some good news for you! Your browsing experience in incognito mode on your Android smartphone will get even more safer. A report suggests that Chrome developers are working on a new and important feature which will make your browsing a lot more secure in the incognito mode. GizChina says that this will be possible by the addition of a fingerprint…

The Los Angeles Police Department and its multibillion-dollar budget were under intense public scrutiny in the spring of 2020.The COVID-19 pandemic had greatly reduced city revenue amid some of the largest and most destructive street protests in decades. The LAPD was being accused of exacerbating the unrest and bungling its response. Activists and politicians were calling for the department’s funding to be slashed in favor of social services for the homeless, mentally ill and poor.Behind closed doors, the money from…

A Silicon Valley laser startup that went public in February had a surprising investor: a Russian billionaire.The deal, routed through a series of offshore companies and a venture fund, let the oligarch, Alisher Usmanov, move more of his vast wealth into the West. The fund’s stake at the IPO was valued at $175 million. Days later, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the U.S. sanctioned Mr. Usmanov as part of its effort to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin.…

Apple has revealed the release date for season two of Slow Horses.Apple TV+ took to Twitter to announce that the second season of the spy/thriller/drama series will premiere on the streaming service on Friday, December 2.They're back and worse than ever. Season 2 of #SlowHorses premieres December 2.Catch up on Season 1 on Apple TV+https://t.co/Pip2yp9RTP pic.twitter.com/tXWrdpS1N4September 29, 2022See moreAs previously reported, Apple has already renewed Slow Horses for a second and even third season. The company made…

The campaign for gnarly, mostly one-location horror Barbarian has been scarily subdued. Just the one trailer – light on plot, heavy on mystery – and that punchy one-word title, a rare example of restraint, crafty less-is-more marketing we don’t see often enough in the exhausting era of trailer teases, teaser trailers, trailer countdowns, digital trailers, extended trailers and final trailers.I’m going to remain as tight-lipped about the specifics, and not just because a strictly worded pre-screening email insisted upon…