Category: Feature Stories

The Fairphone 4 was unveiled on Thursday. Like its predecessors, the Dutch manufacturer’s 4th generation smartphone stands for modular design and easy repairability. If a component inside is broken, such as the battery, users can replace it themselves. This saves expensive repairs and the user does not have to replace the entire device. This circumstance, coupled with a 5-year warranty and years of updates for the Android operating system, should lead to the Fairphone 4 being used for as long as possible. According to the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), smartphones…

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Stagnant vaccination coverage and increased indoor contacts will lead to more Covid 19 cases in the cold season. The prognosis is grim. Germany’s Robert Koch Institute expects Corona infection numbers to rise in the fall and winter. Reasons cited include, in particular, a “still large number” of unvaccinated people and an increase in indoor contacts. The EU health authority ECDC also warns of a worsened Corona situation in Europe this fall in view of partly insufficient vaccination rates between Portugal and Bulgaria. Slight increase expected for AustriaThis is exactly how…

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Energy prices for Austrian households were 15.2 percent higher in August than a year earlier. Fuels and heating oil in particular were more expensive. Super cost 24.8 percent more, diesel 21.4 percent more, according to the Energy Price Index (EPI) calculated by the Austrian Energy Agency. There was a price increase of around 7 percent for electricity and gas. Compared with the previous month of July, energy prices rose by 1.4 percent. Although prices for heating oil were 30.1 percent higher year-on-year, the price increases of recent months came to…

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U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer has begun a large clinical trial of a drug to prevent covid-19. In it, the drug will be tested on up to 2,660 healthy adults living in the same household as a person infected with Corona. BioNTech and Pfizer plan to file for approval quicklyBioNTech/Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective in children-The drug is being taken orally along with a low dose of Pfizer’s HIV drug in the phase 2/3 trial. In the U.S., Gilead’s Remdesivir, which is administered intravenously, is the only antiviral drug approved…

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The new Vienna ordinance on future Covid measures from October 1 is limited until the beginning of November and once again differs from the federal regulations. For example, tests are no longer valid as proof in some places, and only vaccinated or recovered persons will have access (“2G rule”). The 2.5G rule also comes into play with the new regulation. The 2G rule applies to after-hours catering and events with more than 500 people, although it does not matter here whether the event takes place indoors or outdoors. Children under…

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If you’ve ever heard anything about electrosmog and electromagnetic fields, the information probably falls into one of two categories. Either electromagnetic radiation is harmful and causes cancer, or it’s completely harmless and the opponents are just trying to scare us. Like most issues related to your health, the truth is a little more nuanced than that. Finally, there’s a lot we don’t yet know about the issues of electrosmog, protection from electrosmog, and shielding from electromagnetic radiation. Read on to find out what all that radiation is actually doing to…

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The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending a drug for the first time as a preventive treatment for severe covid 19 disease in infected high-risk patients. It points to studies showing that the antibody combination of casirivimab and imdevimab from U.S. company Regeneron and Swiss company Roche can improve their chances of survival. The WHO published its new recommendation Friday in the British Medical Journal. In Germany, this antibody combination is already used in special cases for corona patients. However, many countries that cannot make risk assessments themselves are waiting…

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The EU Commission wants European households to use only one cable to charge cell phones, tablets and headphones in the future. The Brussels authority presented a legislative proposal on Thursday, according to which the charging sockets in electrical devices are to be standardized. The USB-C port, which many companies such as Samsung and Motorola already use, is to become the common standard. For Apple in particular, the standardization would be a nuisance. “European consumers have been annoyed long enough with incompatible chargers piling up in their drawers,” said EU Commission…

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At noon Wednesday, the six-billion mark of corona vaccine doses administered worldwide was cracked. Only three countries are not vaccinating at all so far.Six billion Corona vaccine doses have now been administered worldwide. The mark was reached at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to AFP news agency statistics based on official data. Most vaccine doses administered in China, India and U.S.The vaccination pace has steadied, according to the report: It took 29 days to reach the sixth billion, with the fourth and fifth taking 30 and 26 days, respectively. Nearly 40…

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