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Winter virus season so far is not too bad, but doctors worry about suffering to come

It may feel like you are surrounded by sniffles and coughs, but flu season activity is still low in many parts of the U.S.

New government data posted Friday shows that as of last week, flu activity was high in four states—Colorado, Louisiana, New Jersey and New York—and minimal or low in most others. Severity indicators are increasing but are still within the boundaries of a “mild” season, said officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A number of diseases tend to peak in the winter, thanks to indoor gatherings that help germs spread. The list includes not only colds and flu but also norovirus—a highly infectious cause of vomiting and diarrhea. Norovirus cases have generally been trending up in the last month.

Nvidia can sell the more advanced H200 AI chip to China — but will Beijing want them?

Nvidia has approval from the U.S. government to sell its more advanced H200 AI chips to China. But the question is whether Beijing wants it or will let companies buy it.

The company can now ship its H200 chip to “approved customers”, provided the U.S. government gets a 25% cut of those sales. It had been effectively banned from selling any semiconductors to China earlier this year, but since July sought to resume H20 sales, a less advanced chip designed specifically to comply with export restrictions.

Reports had suggested Beijing prohibited local companies from buying the H20. Nvidia is not baking in huge China sales into its forecasts as a result. After the ban was lifted, the Financial Times reported China would “limit access” to the H200, citing unidentified sources.

Contractors with hacking records accused of wiping 96 govt databases

U.S. prosecutors have charged two Virginia brothers arrested on Wednesday with allegedly conspiring to steal sensitive information and destroy government databases after being fired from their jobs as federal contractors.

Twin brothers Muneeb and Sohaib Akhter, both 34, were also sentenced to several years in prison in June 2015, after pleading guilty to accessing U.S. State Department systems without authorization and stealing personal information belonging to dozens of co-workers and a federal law enforcement agent who was investigating their crimes.

Muneeb Akhter also hacked a private data aggregation company in November 2013 and the website of a cosmetics company in March 2014.

#Quantumcomputing #Innovation #Quantumtechpr #Iyq2025

Navigating The Deep Tech Industrial Revolution with Chuck Brooks.

Link.

Chuck Brooks got his start in cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, as one of the organization’s first hires. He has worked in Congress and other agencies, as well as large companies and cybersecurity firms. He uses experiences to teach students at Georgetown University how to manage change, including the kind posed by quantum tech. In this podcast episode, Chuck and host Veronica Combs discuss digital security threats and how to use AI.

🎧 Tune in here: https://lnkd.in/gMkTjuE6

DARPA moves to decentralize critical nitric acid production

A top-secret US government body called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a new solicitation seeking proposals for a high-rate, energy-efficient method of producing nitric acid directly from air and water.

The initiative, known as the High-Efficiency Nitrogen Oxidation, or HNO3 program, is aimed at protecting critical U.S. defense-industrial supply chains and reshaping how energetics are produced in contested environments.

According to DARPA, the agency is requesting “innovative proposals in the foundational technologies to enable high-rate, energy efficient, decentralized nitric acid manufacturing to protect critical supply chains in the defense industrial base.”

U.S government awards Gelsinger-backed EUV developer xLight with $150 million in federal incentives

XLight, a U.S.-based startup developing an EUV light source based on a particle accelerator, on Tuesday signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the U.S. Department of Commerce for $150 million in proposed federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act. xLight came out of the blue earlier this year when it hired Pat Gelsinger, former chief executive of Intel, as executive chairman. The money, if awarded, will be used to bring xLight’s free-electron laser (FEL) based light source closer to reality once it is built in Albany and its viability is proven in practice.

“With the support from the [Department of] Commerce, our investors, and development partners, xLight is building its first free-electron laser system at the Albany Nanotech Complex, where the world’s best lithography capabilities will enable the research and development that will define the future of chip manufacturing,” said Nicholas Kelez, CEO and CTO of xLight.

Mexico Reveals 314-Petaflop Supercomputer Named After Aztec Goddess

The Mexican government will build a supercomputer with a processing capacity seven times greater than the current most powerful computer in Latin America, officials responsible for the project said Wednesday.

Named Coatlicue, after a goddess in Aztec mythology representing the source of power and life, the computer will have a processing capacity of 314 petaflops.

“We want it to be a public supercomputer, a supercomputer for the people,” President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters.

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