Linking ideas with the world
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Google Tuesday, accusing the tech giant of using its market power to create a monopoly in the digital advertising business over the course of 15 years. Google “corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide Read more about Google Accused of Creating Digital Ad Monopoly in New Justice Dept. Suit[…]
Secondhand MacBooks that retailed for as much as $3,000 are being turned into parts because recyclers have no way to login and factory reset the machines, which are often just a couple years old. “How many of you out there would like a 2-year-old M1 MacBook? Well, too bad, because your local recycler just took Read more about Perfectly Good MacBooks From 2020 Are Being Sold for Scrap Because of Activation Lock[…]
Android users in India will soon have more control over their devices, thanks to a court ruling. Beginning next month, Indian Android wielders can choose a different billing system when paying for apps and in-app smartphone purchases rather than default to going through the Play Store. Google will also allow Indian users to select a Read more about Indian Android Users Can Finally Use Alternate Search and Payment Methods and forked Google apps[…]
how to completely own an airline in 3 easy steps and grab the TSA nofly list along the way note: this is a slightly more technical* and comedic write up of the story covered by my friends over at dailydot, which you can read here *i say slightly since there isnt a whole lot of Read more about Airline owned through open Jenkins and hardcoded AWS – TSA NoFly List found and exposed[…]
Your international money transfers might not be as discreet as you think. Senator Ron Wyden and The Wall Street Journal have learned that US law enforcement can access details of money transfers without a warrant through an obscure surveillance program the Arizona attorney general’s office created in 2014. A database stored at a nonprofit, the Read more about US law enforcement has warrantless access to many money transfers[…]
[…]In a study published Monday in the journal Biosensor and Bioelectronics, a group of researchers from Tel Aviv University (via Neuroscience News) said they recently created a robot that can identify a handful of smells with 10,000 times more sensitivity than some specialized electronics. They describe their robot as a bio-hybrid platform (read: cyborg). It Read more about Locust antenna / AI driven cyborg can identify scents[…]
[…]The research team working with Airbus at the University of Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute claims its nano-coating, referred to as a Multifunctional Nanobarrier Structure (MFNS), can be applied to the surfaces of equipment, including antennas, and it has been shown to be able to reduce the operating temperature of such surfaces from 120°C to 60°C Read more about Coating to protect spacecraft from heat and harvest sun energy developed[…]
Chemical flame retardants can make us safer by preventing or slowing fires, but they’re linked to a range of unsettling health effects. To get around that concern, researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture have bred a new population of cotton that can self-extinguish after encountering a flame. The team of scientists from the USDA’s Read more about Researchers Breed Naturally Flame-Resistant Cotton[…]
The forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading provider and used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations are largely worthless and could make global heating worse, according to a new investigation. The research into Verra, the world’s leading carbon standard for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has found that, Read more about Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider Verra are worthless, may be damaging, analysis shows[…]
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has moved into the next phase of its Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors program, or CRANE. The project is centered on an experimental uncrewed aircraft, which Aurora Flight Sciences is developing, that does not have traditional moving surfaces to control the aircraft in flight. Aurora Flight Sciences’ Read more about DARPA’s New X-Plane Aims To Maneuver With Nothing But Bursts Of Air[…]
Ammaar Reshi wrote and illustrated a children’s book in 72 hours using ChatGPT and Midjourney. The book went viral on Twitter after it was met with intense backlash from artists. Reshi said he respected the artists’ concerns but felt some of the anger was misdirected. Ammaar Reshi was reading a bedtime story to his friend’s Read more about This man used AI to write and illustrate a children’s book in one weekend. He wasn’t prepared for the backlash.[…]
[…] European researchers have successfully tested a system that uses terawatt-level laser pulses to steer lighting toward a 26-foot rod. It’s not limited by its physical height, and can cover much wider areas — in this case, 590 feet — while penetrating clouds and fog. The design ionizes nitrogen and oxygen molecules, releasing electrons and Read more about High-powered lasers can be used to steer lightning strikes[…]
[…] Nanosys, a company whose quantum dot technology is in millions of TVs, offered to show me a top-secret prototype of a next-generation display. Not just any next-gen display, but one I’ve been writing about for years and which has the potential to dethrone OLED as the king of displays. […] Electroluminescent quantum dots. These are Read more about Quantum Dots / NanoLED Is the Next-Generation Display Technology[…]
Contrails — the wispy ice clouds trailing behind flying jets — “are surprisingly bad for the environment,” reports CNN: A study that looked at aviation’s contribution to climate change between 2000 and 2018 concluded that contrails create 57% of the sector’s warming impact, significantly more than the CO2 emissions from burning fuel. They do so Read more about Contrails Cause 57% of a Plane’s Climate Impact. Can That Be Changed?[…]
Meta has filed a lawsuit against Voyager Labs, which it has accused of creating tens of thousands of fake accounts to scrape data from more than 600,000 Facebook users’ profiles. It says the surveillance company pulled information such as posts, likes, friend lists, photos, and comments, along with other details from groups and pages. Meta Read more about Meta sues surveillance company for allegedly scraping more than 600,000 accounts – pots and kettles[…]
YouTube is rethinking its approach to colorful language after an uproar. In a statement to The Verge, the Google brand says it’s “making some adjustments” to a profanity policy it unveiled in November after receiving blowback from creators. The rule limits or removes ads on videos where someone swears within the first 15 seconds or Read more about YouTube may fix controversial policy to demonetize videos with swearing – wait why can’t you swear on YouTube? US prudish sensibilities suck ass[…]
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have successfully demonstrated that autonomous methods can discover new materials. The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technique led to the discovery of three new nanostructures, including a first-of-its-kind nanoscale “ladder.” The research was published today in Science Advances.. The newly discovered structures were formed by a Read more about AI discovers new nanostructures, reduces experiment time from months to hours[…]
Hundreds of millions of light-years away in a distant galaxy, a star orbiting a supermassive black hole is being violently ripped apart under the black hole’s immense gravitational pull. As the star is shredded, its remnants are transformed into a stream of debris that rains back down onto the black hole to form a very Read more about A team of physicists devise a model that maps a star’s surprising orbit about a supermassive black hole[…]
After a week of silence amid intense backlash, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) has finally addressed its community’s concerns about changes to the open gaming license. The open gaming license (OGL) has existed since 2000 and has made it possible for a diverse ecosystem of third-party creators to publish virtual tabletop Read more about D&D Publisher In All kinds of trouble Over Controversial License changes – unsubscribes caused server crash, PR statement made[…]
A woman who released audio of her rapist’s confession said she wanted to show how “manipulative” abusers can be. Ellie Wilson, 25, secretly captured Daniel McFarlane admitting to his crimes by setting her phone to record in her handbag. McFarlane was found guilty of two rape charges and sentenced to five years in prison in Read more about Rape survivor secretly recorded her abuser’s confession – despite audio + written confessions, jury verdict not unanimous[…]
You may not realize it in your day-to-day life, but we are all enveloped by a giant “superbubble” that was blown into space by the explosive deaths of a dozen-odd stars. Known as the Local Bubble, this structure extends for about 1,000 light years around the solar system, and is one of countless similar bubbles Read more about We Exist Inside a Giant Space Bubble, And Scientists Have Finally Mapped the magnetic field around it[…]
Last year BMW took ample heat for its plans to turn heated seats into a costly $18 per month subscription in numerous countries. As we noted at the time, BMW is already including the hardware in new cars and adjusting the sale price accordingly. So it’s effectively charging users a new, recurring fee to enable Read more about BMW Further Embraces Making Basic Features A Costly Subscription Service – now it’s remote starting[…]
Moderna is considering raising the price of its COVID-19 vaccine by over 400 percent—from $26 per dose to between $110 and $130 per dose—according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Ars has reached out to Moderna for comment but has not yet received a response. The plan, if realized, would match the previously Read more about Moderna CEO: 400% price hike on COVID vaccine “consistent with the value”, Pfizer-BioNTech thinks so too[…]
People living near airports that service piston-engine aircraft are disproportionately exposed to lead, a dangerous neurotoxin. A study published this week in PNAS Nexus found that children living near the Reid-Hillview Airport in Santa Clara County, California, had elevated blood lead levels. They’ve pinpointed piston-engine aircrafts at airports like the one in California as a Read more about Kids Are Being Exposed to Lead From Aircraft at Airports using AVGAS[…]
Officials are still trying to figure out exactly what led to the Federal Aviation Administration system outage on Wednesday but have traced it to a corrupt file, which was first reported by CNN. In a statement late Wednesday, the FAA said it was continuing to investigate the outage and “take all needed steps to prevent Read more about Corrupt NOTAM database file and backup led to the FAA ground stoppage.[…]