content
stringlengths 94
1.84k
| headline
stringlengths 8
699
|
|---|---|
### Content:
DirecTV has asked the Federal Communications Commission for a rules waiver so it can move a broken Boeing satellite out of its standard orbit in order to limit the risk of an accidental explosion. The 15-year-old Spaceway-1 satellite is at risk of explosion due to damage to its batteries. DirecTV has already disabled the satellite's primary function. The satellite can still operate on power reserves from its solar panels, but not during the upcoming eclipse season starting at the end of February. Satellites usually discharge all of its fuel prior to being taken out of their normal orbits, but this isn't possible due to the explosion risk. Spaceway-1 will be moved to a graveyard orbit 300km above the geostationary arc.
### Headline:
|
DirecTV races to decommission broken Boeing satellite before it explodes
|
### Content:
Security Assertion Markup Language is a protocol for authenticating web applications, allowing linked apps and organizations to communicate and trust one another's users. The key to SAML is browser redirects. Many single sign-on services rely on SAML to manage user logins. At first, a user is provided with an identity token, which can be used by several parties to verify their access. There are different methods of verifying an identity, and sometimes they might even need several forms of identity, but the concept is the same. Once a user obtains their identity token, they can use it to access various services, all which check for the validity of the identity token. SAML is similar to other authentication protocols like WS-Fed and OAuth, but its main use is for businesses to access services that they pay for.
### Headline:
|
The Beer Drinker’s Guide to SAML (20 minute read)
|
### Content:
Elon Musk unveiled the Boring Company's first tunnel last night in Los Angeles. It's 1.14-miles long and took 18 months and $10 million to build. It's 20 to 40 feet underground, and doesn't come with fully autonomous cars yet like Musk had promised. Elon said "We kind of ran out of time...That's why it's just a little rough around the edges." He says that they have abandoned the original idea to have a sort of autonomous platform on skates, and are now working on guide wheels that attach to the front tires of cars that come into the tunnel. Musk says that his first ride in the tunnel was bumpy but "epic."
### Headline:
|
Elon Musk Unveils Loop, The Boring Company's First Rideable Prototype
|
### Content:
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a case against Kik for the sale of its kin token in 2017. According to the complaint, Kik opted to sell a cryptocurrency token to the public to fund its operations, after unsuccessfully trying to raise funds through investors. The kin token appears to be classified as a security, which means that Kik had violated law which required offerings to be registered. Kik had averaged losses of $30 million a year and attempts to be acquired by larger technology companies have failed. The kin token is used across a suite of mobile apps as currency, and Kik continues to develop new marketplaces for people to earn and spend the cryptocurrency. A full copy of the SEC filing is available for viewing.
### Headline:
|
The SEC Is Suing Kik for Its 2017 ICO
|
### Content:
Some of you may know Drew Devault through his excellent blog. Anyway, he's just launched a shockingly ambitious one man project, a fully open source alternative to Github. Basically, it manages git repo hosting, bug tracking, CI, wikis, etc. Each component is a standalone piece of software that integrates deeply with the rest of sr.ht and with the rest of the ecosystem outside of sr.ht, for example you can use sr.ht's continuous integration to compile Github pull requests. The flagship product is the continuous integration platform, which Drew claims is the only platform which can scale to the automation needs of an entire Linux distribution (he's working on getting a few distributions on board). Really cool stuff, definitely worth checking out if you're a developer.
### Headline:
|
sr.ht, the hacker's forge (Public Alpha)
|
### Content:
Agencies have set up houses around LA for those who want to be TikTok famous to move in and live together. The arrangement is similar to the world of content mansions and the old Hollywood studio system where artists sign on multi-year deals to work for companies. Stars can charge high prices for posts, making it a better alternative for some than entry-level or part-time jobs for people in the demographic. It is still a young industry, with many predatory agencies ready to make money off naive talent. Young teens who have just found fame may find it hard to identify legitimate agencies. Creator houses are an attempt to recreate reality TV for a chance at stardom. This article follows the experience of several teens who ended up in one of these TikTok creator houses.
### Headline:
|
How a TikTok house destroyed itself (26 minute read)
|
### Content:
Police in the UK and EU have arrested 746 suspects after infiltrating an encrypted chat platform where the suspects openly discussed murder and arranged hits, illegal drug purchases, gun sales, and other alleged crimes. 77 guns, two metric tons of drugs, 28 million pills, 55 high-value cars, and more than £54 million in cash was seized in the operation. Encrochat is an encrypted communications platform used widely in the European underground. Infiltrating the platform allowed law enforcement to essentially have an inside person in every top organized crime group. The platform itself was not compromised. Law enforcement installed malware on suspects' devices that allowed them to read messages before they were sent, record and alter lock screen passwords, and more.
### Headline:
|
Police infiltrate encrypted phones, arrest hundreds in organized crime bust
|
### Content:
As developers, it is quite easy to write your own programs to make your life easier. It is possible to automate many areas of your life, for example, a tool such as Home Assistant can be used to send custom notifications about the state of your home, turn on/off appliances/lights at certain times of day, monitor and control temperatures, send emails, and much more. Users have automated parts of their life such as dating (automatically swiping on Tinder), entire businesses (fulfillment processes, emails, inquiries), workflows (repetitive blocks of typing, processes, etc), and even shopping for groceries. This thread is full of anecdotes on ways developers have automated parts of their lives to increase efficiency and decrease effort.
### Headline:
|
Ask HN: What do you automate in your life and work? (Hacker News Thread)
|
### Content:
Apple has been rumored to be making its own over-ear headphones for over two years. More details about the project have been revealed in the last few weeks. The new headphones will be designed to complement the existing Beats and AirPods accessories. There will be a premium version with leather-like fabrics and a fitness-focused model with lighter, breathable materials with small perforations. The headphones will have a retro look with oval-shaped ear cups and touch controls for playback on the side. Users will be able to customize their headphones with a modular design, allowing them to swap out parts like the headband. The headphones will likely borrow the latest H1 chip from AirPods and will feature noise cancellation technology.
### Headline:
|
Everything we know so far about Apple’s rumored over-ear headphones
|
### Content:
Private businesses and homes are starting to link their cameras to police networks, increasing the overall public surveillance network and moving us closer to a future where our every move is filmed and interpreted using video analytics. Smart camera networks are an alarming development that threatens civil rights and liberties around the world. In the past, surveillance technology produced low-quality images and required a lot of hours and physical work to search through to find information. With advances in technology, image quality has improved, and image recognition and video analysis capabilities allow us to search through and extract more data from video faster than ever before. Advances in machine learning mean that we are moving towards the possibility of predictive policing, where data can be used to predict crimes so that police can intervene before it happens.
### Headline:
|
The Rise of Smart Camera Networks, and Why We Should Ban Them (12 minute read)
|
### Content:
A new type of ink developed by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is able to change the color or pattern of an object when exposed to UV light. PhotoChromeleon Ink is a mix of cyan, magenta, and yellow photochromatic dyes which can be applied to any object. UV light is used to activate or deactivate different colors, and the effects last in natural light. The whole process takes about 15 to 40 minutes for an object the size of a shoe or a model car. Ford has expressed interest in the ink, hoping that it may cut down the cost and time required to create automotive parts. It may be possible in the future to customize the look of a vehicle on a whim.
### Headline:
|
MIT’s color-changing ink could let you customize your shoes
|
### Content:
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel sent out a 6000 word memo to Snapchat employees detailing how they would turn the company around as Snapchat's stock hit an all-time low of $8 per share. He says that the redesign from earlier this year was a mistake, that the company needs to focus on being a chat app instead of a newsfeed app, and that Snapchat should beat Facebook by being about your best friends instead of your broader social graph. He also believes that the company needs to focus on users in older demographics and in developing markets. He gives the company, which lost $353 million last quarter, a goal to be profitable by the end of 2019.
### Headline:
|
9 highlights from Snapchat CEO's 6,000-word leaked memo on survival
|
### Content:
Chinese start-up Mobike revealed that 205,600 shared bikes were lost to theft and vandalism during 2019. Shared bikes have become commonplace in cities worldwide. Mobike has a credit score system that rewards and punishes users for good and bad behavior. Offenders may be charged for damage, banned from the service, or reported to the police. Shared bikes are meant for short trips across cities, but some users take them home or discard them in rivers and canals. Mobike has pulled its bikes out of Manchester, Newcastle, and Gateshead after a series of incidents, and Hong Kong-based rival Gobee has pulled out of Europe altogether due to mass destruction of its bike fleet.
### Headline:
|
Chinese start-up Mobike loses more than 200,000 bikes
|
### Content:
Google Search, Youtube, and Google Cloud all experienced intermittent downtime for about an hour, due to their traffic being misrouted to locations in China, Russia, and Nigeria. This incident was due to BGP's flawed design, BGP (the protocol that defines how internet packets are routed) was designed to be a chain of trust between well-meaning ISPs and universities that blindly believe the information they receive. However, malicious actors can sometimes take avantage of it to hijack traffic (hackers hijacked Amazon's Route 53 DNS traffic in April to steal a bunch of Bitcoin). All data was encrypted, and Google does not believe that this was the result of a malicious attack, but they are investigating the issue.
### Headline:
|
Google traffic misdirected to China & Russia today, resulted in downtime for some services
|
### Content:
New technologies such as drones, e-bikes, vapes, and 3d printing are beginning to receive varying amounts of regulatory attention, but many emerging technologies are still yet unregulated. Data laundering, obtaining datasets via crawling or other means and altering it to bypass copyrights, using it to clone websites/businesses, or for other purposes, is a common occurrence nowadays. Fitness devices, which are quickly developing in terms of their abilities, will soon be able to analyze blood samples. Programmers are able to write any code and run it on their personal computers. There are many more examples in this thread of unregulated technologies that may be regulated in the future as they can be dangerous or easily exploited.
### Headline:
|
Ask HN: Cool stuff that's still completely unregulated? (Hacker News Thread)
|
### Content:
Tomato plants take up a lot of space. Scientists have modified cherry tomatoes so they grow in tighter bunches and take up less space. CRISPR gene-editing technology was used to tweak three key genes within the plant's DNA. Two of the genes control when the plant stops growing and starts flowering and fruiting. The third gene controls the length of the plant's stems. One of the other benefits of the modified tomato plans is that they only take 40 days to grow. Creating new crops using this method could help feed more people using a reduced carbon footprint. NASA has been working to grow plants in space, as well as on the Moon and Mars. Martian soil is challenging to cultivate as it contains compounds that are harmful to humans.
### Headline:
|
Scientists Gene-Edited Tomatoes to Make Them Grow Like Grapes
|
### Content:
Astronomers have captured the first-ever image of a black hole, located in Messier 87, a galaxy around 55 million light-years away. The black hole is several billion times the size of our Sun and the picture shows it releasing a jet of energy 5,000 light-years into space. A telescope as big as Earth, combining data from radio telescopes located across the planet, was used to create the image. The data obtained was too large to transmit over the internet and needed to be physically transported by hard drives. From the image, scientists were able to calculate the size of the black hole. Observations of the black hole in Messier 87 will continue and the data will be used to confirm theories and hypotheses regarding black holes
### Headline:
|
Darkness Visible, Finally: Astronomers Capture First Ever Image of a Black Hole
|
### Content:
Elon Musk has offered Tesla's help in making ventilators for hospitals in the event of a shortage. The US is likely to have a mechanical ventilator shortage in the coming months as it deals with the COVID-19 outbreak. An estimated 960,000 people will need the roughly 200,000 ventilators currently in the US. While Musk has said he can make the ventilators, he noted that it will take some time to produce. The offer arose from a conversation discussing the partial closure of Tesla's Fremont factory due to shelter-in-place orders. Tesla is allowed to operate with a quarter of its workforce and no cars will be manufactured in the factory.
### Headline:
|
Elon Musk says Tesla will make ventilators for hospitals if needed
|
### Content:
A tweet promoting a TorrentFreak article regarding leaked episodes from unreleased shows was hit with a DMCA takedown, a move which the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) complained about. The EFF tweet complaining about the takedown was also served with a DMCA takedown request. In the original article, TorrentFreak used screenshots from the leaked shows to prove that they were screener copies of the shows. The EFF claimed that this was fair use and not copyright infringement, as TorrentFreak was only reporting on the infringement. Twitter receives around 10,000 DMCA requests per month, and this is an example of how the takedown system can be abused.
### Headline:
|
Tweet complaining about DMCA takedown abuse gets hit with DMCA takedown
|
### Content:
Apple has sent out invitations for its 'Hi, Speed' event on October 13th at 10 AM PT. The tagline is a clear reference at 5G connectivity and the A14 processor for the iPhone 12. A variety of reports suggest that 5G will be available for the entire iPhone 12 lineup. The rings displayed on the invite may be referencing one of several new possible products, including a smaller HomePod with Siri control, Apple's AirTag item trackers, or the new AirPods Studio over-ear headphones. The event may include news about the Apple Silicon transition for the Mac lineup, but those announcements might be delayed until sometime in November.
### Headline:
|
Apple’s ‘Hi, Speed’ iPhone 12 invite sparks speculation: Midnight Blue, 5G, AirTags, more
|
### Content:
Wing will be launching a test program in Virginia with Walgreens, FedEx, and Sugar Magnolia. It will deliver snacks, over-the-counter medicines, and other selected packages. Only 22,000 people in Montgomery County will be eligible as Wing continues to figure out what works and what doesn't. When customers place an order, Wing's delivery drones head to a specific delivery location, where a human operator hooks a package onto the drone. The drone cruises at about 60-70 mph to the delivery location, where it lowers the package to the ground to be released. Packages can be up to 3 lbs. Delivery during the test phase will be free, and the first delivery will begin next month.
### Headline:
|
Wing will test drone delivery in the US with Walgreens and FedEx
|
### Content:
Fortnite has been removed from Apple's App Store after Epic Games implemented its own in-app payment system that bypassed Apple's standard 30 percent fee. Epic has responded by launching an antitrust lawsuit seeking to establish Apple's App Store as a monopoly and by posting a protest video. The video mocks Apple's iconic 1984 ad and is available in the article. Apple plans to work with Epic to resolve the issue but has no intentions of creating a special arrangement with the company. Google removed Fortnite from the Play Store for the same reason. Users who already downloaded the app can continue to use it and can access Epic's in-app payment system. Epic will need to have the game reinstated in the App Store before pushing substantial updates.
### Headline:
|
Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store
|
### Content:
Samsung's Galaxy S10's fingerprint reader can be fooled with a piece of transparent plastic. A user's wife discovered that she could unlock her husband's phone by putting a screen protector between her finger and the fingerprint sensor. Samsung is aware of the malfunctioning fingerprint recognition and will soon issue a software patch. The exploit also works on the Galaxy Note 10, which uses the same fingerprint technology. The phones use Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint reader technology, which was supposed to be more secure as it used sonic waves to take a 3D scan of your finger as well as to detect blood flow within the finger. The fingerprint reader was previously fooled with a $450 3D printer.
### Headline:
|
Anyone can fingerprint unlock a Galaxy S10—just grab a clear phone case
|
### Content:
Boeing's new Starliner capsule missed its target and ended up in the wrong orbit. NASA has canceled the Starliner's docking with the International Space Station. The Starliner will return to its landing site in the New Mexico desert on Sunday. Officials have confirmed the safety of the capsule. The problem was caused by the Starliner's mission clock. No harm would have been caused to any crew if the Starliner had passengers on board. This was a major setback for Boeing, who has been trying to catch up with SpaceX. SpaceX is about to launch a crewed test of its Dragon capsule. Boeing may have to push back the planned dates for its crewed test flights. It has been nearly nine years since NASA has launched astronauts from the US.
### Headline:
|
Boeing capsule launches to wrong orbit, skips space station
|
### Content:
MelodyVR, a startup that films and streams gigs that can be viewed with virtual reality headsets, has purchased Napster for $70m. Napster, which started as an illegal downloading platform in the 1990s, currently has 3 million users with a library of 90 million licensed tracks. MelodyVR has hosted acts such as The Chainsmokers and Cypress Hill. It has studios in London and Los Angeles for artists to perform at. Users can pay to watch the performances through the MelodyVR app. MelodyVR funded the deal through a combination of cash and shares. Napster made $1.8m in pre-tax profits last year after delivering 10.8 billion streams to its consumers and business partners.
### Headline:
|
Napster sold to London startup MelodyVR in surprise $70m deal
|
### Content:
Disney+ has already received more than 10 million subscriptions since its launch on Tuesday. There were some technical issues at launch, but that did not deter customers. Disney stock went up by 7.35 percent by Wednesday's close. There is a seven-day free trial, so not all the sign-ups represent paying customers. Verizon is also offering customers a free year of Disney+. Disney has made a significant move against its rivals only a day after its US launch. It will slowly roll out to the rest of the globe, with Australia and New Zealand receiving the service starting on November 19. Disney+ is $6.99 per month, or $69.99 per year in the US, which is significantly cheaper than competitors such as Netflix.
### Headline:
|
Disney+ surpasses 10 million sign-ups since launch
|
### Content:
The US Department of Defense had planned for a scenario involving a rebellion that used bitcoin to undermine and evade 'the establishment'. In the scenario, people born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s used cyberattacks to steal money and convert it to bitcoin. The Defense Force also wargamed scenarios involving Islamist militants and anti-capitalist extremists. Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz recently called for the government to freeze the money of demonstrators in an effort to quell political dissent. Bitcoin has received more interest recently due to the coronavirus pandemic, unprecedented levels of government borrowing, and the capacity for its use in censorship resistance.
### Headline:
|
Pentagon Documents Reveal The U.S. Has Planned For A Bitcoin Rebellion
|
### Content:
In 2015, Adam Wathan had an idea for a site where companies could share interesting links with their team and then outsiders could subscribe to see what teams were reading. Digest was born, and while the project was sidelined, the files from the project were used in many of Wathan's other projects. As Wathan worked on other things, he noticed that there was a need for a CSS framework that prioritized utilities rather than components. Eventually, Wathan decided to open-source his framework, which became Tailwind. Tailwind is a utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom designs. It was released in February 2020 and has almost generated $2m in revenue with 10 million total installs.
### Headline:
|
Tailwind CSS: From Side-Project Byproduct to Multi-Million Dollar Business (11 minute read)
|
### Content:
Currently, men can treat hair loss using minoxidil, finasteride, or hair transplant surgery, but these treatments do not always work for everyone or can be too expensive or painful. Stimulating the scalp with electric pulses has been shown to restore hair growth. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a wireless patch that sticks to the scalp and generates electric pulses by harnessing energy from random body movements. The patch is made of materials that produce electricity when they come into contact and separate again. It was successful in growing hair in rats, with faster growth and hair density than using just a minoxidil solution. The team has designed a baseball cap that uses this material and is currently seeking approval to test it in men in a clinical trial.
### Headline:
|
A hat that zaps the scalp with electricity helps reverse male balding
|
### Content:
Google removed a pro-Hong Kong protestor mobile game from the Google Play store, resulting in many of its employees posting messages of solidarity with Hong Kong protesters in internal mailing lists and message boards. The issue was addressed by leadership at the company's most recent TGIF meeting, where a debate occurred about Google's ethical responsibilities regarding supporting democratic movements. The Revolution of Our Times was a game that allowed players to participate in virtual recreations of the pro-democracy demonstrations. Proceeds from the game were donated to charity. Google claims that the game capitalized on sensitive events, which violated one of its policies. Other tech companies such as Blizzard and Apple have recently made controversial decisions related to the protests in Hong Kong.
### Headline:
|
Google employees are fighting over their company’s decision to ban a Hong Kong protest video game app
|
### Content:
Elon Musk has shown off some of the technology that his company Neuralink has been developing for the last few years. Neuralink’s goal is to develop devices that can be implanted in paralyzed humans, allowing them to control devices with their thoughts. The company has developed thread sensors that are thinner than a human hair and can provide high-resolution signals from the brain. A robot was created in order to implant this device, as the threads were difficult to implant with current technology. Neuralink is also developing a custom chip that can read, clean up, and amplify signals from the brain. The aim is to eventually create a wireless version that can be implanted in a safe and non-invasive procedure, similar to Lasik.
### Headline:
|
Elon Musk unveils Neuralink’s plans for brain-reading ‘threads’ and a robot to insert them
|
### Content:
Microsoft has released data on how people are using its Teams app. Video call usage went up by more than 1,000 percent in March. Microsoft engineers are challenged with the task of making sure that Teams' infrastructure has enough capacity for this increase in usage. New features have been prioritized, and Microsoft is working on increasing the number of participants allowed per meeting. Despite coronavirus restrictions lifting in China, Microsoft reports retaining many of its new customers, with a growing number of daily active users still. This indicates that we might start seeing a cultural change in the way we work, and working from home might become normal for many. Give feedback by replying here or messaging me on Twitter @tldrdan! If you don't want to receive future editions of TLDR, please click here.
### Headline:
|
Microsoft thinks coronavirus will forever change the way we work and learn
|
### Content:
Dawn Aerospace has completed five test flights of its Mk-II Aurora spaceplane. The spaceplane is designed to fly up to 60 miles above the Earth's surface, although its test flights only reached altitudes of 3,400 feet. It can take off and land from conventional airports and potentially perform multiple flights to and from space every day. Mk-II is less than 16 feet long and weighs only 165 pounds empty. While Mk-II can only carry a payload of less than 8.8 pounds, Mk-III will be capable of carrying up to 551 pounds to orbit. Mk-III will be fitted with a rocket engine to enable supersonic performance and high-altitude testing.
### Headline:
|
Dawn Aerospace conducts five flights of its suborbital spaceplane
|
### Content:
New Zealand company Emrod has developed a method of safely and wirelessly transmitting electric power across long distances. Its technology appears to be able to move large amounts of electricity between any two points that can be joined with line-of-sight relays. Powerco, the second-biggest energy distributor in New Zealand, plans to use the technology to deliver electricity in remote places or across areas with challenging terrain. Emrod's initial prototype is only capable of delivering a few kilowatts of power, but it can be scaled up to transmit 100 times more power over much longer distances. The technology will work in any atmospheric conditions as long as the line of sight is maintained. A laser safety curtain is used to trigger a shut down if any object comes near the main beam.
### Headline:
|
NZ to trial world-first commercial long-range, wireless power transmission
|
### Content:
Researchers from MIT have developed a way to produce holograms nearly instantly using a deep-learning based method. Holograms require an extraordinary amount of data to create the illusion of depth in an image. The new convolutional neural network learns shortcuts to generating holograms, which reduces total operations by orders of magnitude. It can produce new holograms from images with depth information, which can be provided from a multi-camera setup or with lidar sensors. The system uses less than 620 kilobytes of memory. It can generate 60 1920x1080 color holograms per second on a single consumer-grade GPU. The system can run on an iPhone 11 Pro at the rate of 1.1 holograms per second.
### Headline:
|
Deep Learning Enables Real-Time 3D Holograms On a Smartphone
|
### Content:
Researchers from the University of Washington have mounted light-weight low-res cameras on the backs of flying beetles. The cameras stream footage using Bluetooth at around one to five frames per second at a resolution of 160 by 120 pixels. While the insects cannot be controlled, a swarm of camera-mounted insects would enable comprehensive monitoring or mapping of a large area. The camera is powered by a lithium-polymer battery that can stream for over an hour. It has an accelerometer so it can be programmed to only capture footage when the beetle is moving, potentially extending the battery life to up to six hours. Using live beetles is currently more practical than building tiny flying robots as mobility drains the battery a lot.
### Headline:
|
Wireless Tiny Cameras Can Be Mounted On Insects
|
### Content:
The SEC has filed a lawsuit against San Francisco-based payments company Ripple. It alleges that XRP has always been, and continues to be, an unregistered security. Ripple sold XRP into a market without filing a registration statement with the SEC, which meant that it never provided investors with information that companies are usually required to provide. This resulted in an information vacuum that benefited Ripple and the people with the most control over it. The case names Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen individually. Ripple had received legal advice about the matter as early as 2012 but it ignored the advice and elected to distribute XRP without registration.
### Headline:
|
SEC Officially Files Suit Against Ripple, Alleges XRP Is a Security to This Day
|
### Content:
Amie DD, a software engineer and self-described 'maker of things,' implanted the RFID tag from her Tesla Model 3 directly into her arm so that she could unlock and start her Model 3 without needing to remember her keys. The Model 3 can be unlocked with a smartphone, a car-shaped key fob, or a keycard. Amie removed the RFID tag from the keycard using acetone, encased it in a biopolymer, and went to a body-modification studio to have the chip implanted into her forearm. The implanted chip has a range of about an inch, and she hopes that the range will improve once the swelling in her arm goes down.
### Headline:
|
A Tesla owner implanted the RFID chip from her Model 3’s keycard into her arm
|
### Content:
Steam, the dominant game store, charges developers 30% of revenue. Epic Games, the studio behind Fortnite, is now launching its own game store, where it will take only a 12% cut, leaving 88% to developers. CEO Time Sweeney says "As a developer ourselves, we have always wanted a platform with great economics that connects us directly with our players. Thanks to the success of Fortnite, we now have this and are ready to share it with other developers." While it might be tough to lure away gamers who already have a library of games on Steam, Fortnite has attracted a lot of first-time gamers so Epic could potentially capture that next generation of gamers with this new store.
### Headline:
|
Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes just 12% of revenue
|
### Content:
Amazon Explore is Amazon's new tech platform and marketplace that offers access to live virtual experiences with people from around the world. The platform was in the works long before global travel restrictions took effect. A public beta of the service will launch soon for Amazon's US customers. Prices on the platform are set by the host and can be between US$10 to US$200 for a session that lasts around 35 minutes to an hour. Amazon uses its own tech platform for Amazon Explore. It displays audio and video and customers can easily save images from the experience and download them afterward. When the global pandemic finally ends, Amazon will have established relationships with tour guides around the world, allowing the company to expand its service into in-person tours and experiences.
### Headline:
|
Amazon jumps into virtual tourism, offering live one-on-one experiences around the world
|
### Content:
Facebook will start hiring journalists to curate content for its News Tab. News Tab is a new section inside the Facebook mobile application that will show recent and relevant stories to users. Facebook has been criticized for spreading misinformation to its users, with countries such as Russia and China using the platform to influence foreign public opinion. It has hired security researchers and third-party content reviewers to deal with bad content. News Tab is part of the effort to restore Facebook’s reputation as a place where people can find trusted sources of information. Publishers have been approached by Facebook for content-sharing deals. Tech companies like Facebook and Google have previously been accused of suppressing speech from political parties. However, an audit released by Facebook and conducted by former Republican Senator Jon Kyl found no evidence of bias.
### Headline:
|
In New Facebook Effort, Humans Will Help Curate Your News Stories
|
### Content:
A Tesla Model 3 has driven straight into an overturned truck on a highway in Taiwan. Video of the accident is available in the article, showing the Model 3 crashing right into the roof of the truck trailer. It appears that Tesla's Autopilot system didn't detect the large rectangular object in front of it in broad daylight and clear weather conditions. Detecting immobile objects for emergency automatic braking systems and autonomous vehicles is difficult. The systems could likely be improved with the use of LiDAR, a technology that Elon Musk famously rejected. Despite Tesla's Autopilot capabilities, drivers are still required to pay attention to the road when operating the vehicle.
### Headline:
|
Tesla Model 3 Drives Straight Into Overturned Truck In What Seems To Be Autopilot Failure
|
### Content:
Elon Musk announced that Tesla has received almost 150,000 orders for its new Cybertruck. Tesla shares had dropped 6.1 percent after the Cybertruck's unveiling due to an embarrassing hiccup. The windows of the truck were shattered while Musk was demonstrating its durability. Tesla has done no advertising or paid endorsements for the truck, with the demand coming only from its unveiling. No date has been given for Cybertruck's release. Its design has been a topic of concern for some analysts. The development of a pickup truck means that carrying heavier loads over long distances using battery technology is now practical.
### Headline:
|
Cybertruck: Tesla truck gets 150,000 orders despite launch gaffe
|
### Content:
Since 2003, people have used Myspace as a platform for uploading and sharing their music. As one of the most popular sites in 2006, it had helped launch the music careers of stars such as Lily Allen, the Arctic Monkeys, and Kate Nash. Since 2018, users have been finding that they could not access older music from the social media site. It has recently been revealed that due to a server migration, all photos, videos, and audio files uploaded before 2016 were lost and is no longer available. While MySpace claims it lost the files in an accident, skeptics say that the real reason was due to the cost and effort of migrating and hosting a large amount of old data and that the claims of incompetence were just for PR.
### Headline:
|
MySpace Says It Lost Years Of User-Uploaded Music
|
### Content:
Tumblr will be sold to Automattic Inc, the company that owns Wordpress, an online publishing tool. Verizon is rumored to have sold the blogging site for well below $20 million, with some sources saying that it was sold for under $10 million. Tumblr hosts more than 450 million blogs and was once a major player in the social media space. It was purchased by Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013 before Yahoo was acquired by Verizon. Verizon has been trying to sell the website for a while, but the only company that was publicly interested was Pornhub. Tumblr has faced controversy in the past over its lack of monitoring of pornographic content, which Verizon banned last year.
### Headline:
|
Verizon agrees to sell Tumblr to owner of Wordpress
|
### Content:
In 2015, SpaceX launched NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory on a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket's second stage didn't have enough fuel to return to Earth's atmosphere and it lacked the energy to escape the gravity of the Earth-Moon system, so it has been tumbling around in space for the last seven years. It is now on course to hit the far side of the Moon in early March. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and India's Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, which are both currently orbiting the Moon, will be able to observe the impact crater. It will be the first time a piece of space hardware unintentionally strikes the Moon.
### Headline:
|
After 7 years, a spent Falcon 9 rocket stage is on course to hit the Moon
|
### Content:
Affiliates of Francisco Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation have bought LogMeIn for $4.3 billion in an all-cash deal. LogMeIn had a yearly high of $96.87 and a low of $62.02. CEO of LogMeIn Bill Wagner is optimistic that the partnership will help the company going forward. LogMeIn bought Jive Communications in 2018 and GoToMeeting in 2016 in order to have a stronger hold on the unified communications market. The deal with Francisco and Evergreen is expected to close in 2020. As part of the deal, LogMeIn has 45 days to try to find a buyer that will offer a better price.
### Headline:
|
LogMeIn agrees to be acquired by Francisco Partners and Evergreen for $4.3B
|
### Content:
Iranian authorities are blaming bitcoin mining operations for power outages and worsening air pollution. Bitcoin farms use huge amounts of energy to supply their banks of high-powered computers. Iran eased its restrictions on cryptocurrencies in 2019 after facing US economic sanctions. This resulted in bitcoin operations becoming cheaper in Iran than in other countries. Thousands of illegal cryptocurrency farms have popped up around the country. Winter temperatures have added to the problem as the need for home heating rises. Road traffic has increased due to public transport closures, resulting in a visible rise in air pollution. The Iranian government has expanded its crackdowns on illegal cryptocurrency operations due to growing public outcry.
### Headline:
|
Outcry Over Power Outages, Smog Forces Iran To Act Against Bitcoin Miners
|
### Content:
This article is part of a series that discusses interview questions that have been asked at Google in the past, with the other articles discussing dynamic programming, matrix exponentiation, and query synonymity. Interview questions should be designed so employers can make a decision of whether a candidate is worth hiring. The Ratio Finder question was chosen because it was a little easier, but still showed the candidates' strengths and weaknesses. Candidates were asked to design a system to convert between two units, for example, hands to light-years. While many will start thinking of a solution to the problem, strong candidates would think about how the program could fail. The success of the candidates depends on their ability to plan forward for potential problems, how complete the solution is, and what ideas they have to improve the code design.
### Headline:
|
Google Interview Problems: Ratio Finder (26 minute read)
|
### Content:
Stretch is a robot mobile manipulator that is small, lightweight, capable, and affordable. Designed by Hello Robot, Stretch weighs 23kg and has a 34 cm square footprint. It costs $17,950 per unit, a fraction of what other mobile manipulators sell for. Stretch was designed to bring mobile manipulation into a home or workplace environment. It has an arm that is made from custom carbon fiber, driven by a single motor attached to the robot's vertical pole. The arm can extend over half a meter and hold up to 1.5kg. Stretch can both be teleoperated and autonomous. Several videos of Stretch are available in the article.
### Headline:
|
Ex-Googler's Startup Comes Out of Stealth With Beautifully Simple, Clever Robot Design (14 minute read)
|
### Content:
Chinese researchers recruited couples earlier this year for a gene-editing experiment. They used CRISPR to remove a gene called CCR5 in order to make children resistant to HIV, smallpox, and cholera. The embryos were edited with CRISPR in a lab before being transferred into the women's uteruses. Now, one couple in the trial has reportedly given birth to twin girls. If the reports are true, they would be the world's first gene edited babies. Some people have raised ethical concerns about genetically altering embryos, while others are concerned about unforeseen side effects and mutations. Currently, using a genetically engineered embryo to establish a pregnancy would be illegal in the United States and most of Europe.
### Headline:
|
Chinese scientists are creating CRISPR babies
|
### Content:
MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has created self-assembling robotic cubes that can climb over and around one another, leap through the air, and roll across the ground. Using radio signals or infrared to communicate can cause a lot of interference, especially at scale. M-Blocks are able to identify other blocks and faces using a barcode-like system. A fleet of blocks can currently accomplish simple tasks such as forming a line, following arrows, or tracking light. In the future, the blocks may be able to self-assemble into structures such as stairs. M-Blocks use a flywheel for movement and magnets for attachment. The blocks are inexpensive, robust, and can be easily scaled.
### Headline:
|
Self-transforming robot blocks jump, spin, flip, and identify each other
|
### Content:
All tech salaries are risk premiums in both directions. When you work at a company, they want to pay you as little as possible, which is fairly common across all industries. Companies will pay more to keep employees from leaving, and employees negotiate salaries to negate the risks of getting fired, going broke, or having to work for a FAANG company. Employees can use their demand with other companies to raise salaries as employers try to reduce the risk of them leaving. Even the hint of a chance of a job opportunity from a FAANG company can usually keep employers on their toes. If all high-paying companies suddenly stopped hiring, the asking salary of many developers with other companies would drop significantly. The success of big tech companies has a huge effect on the salary of all workers in the industry.
### Headline:
|
Tech salaries are risk premiums
|
### Content:
Around 300 full-time employees, an estimated 10% of the workforce, were fired from a warehouse in Baltimore between August 2017 and September 2018. A former worker disputed their termination, claiming that they were fired for participating in legally protected activity. In response, Amazon produced a report detailing its productivity measuring processes and termination rates. Amazon measures productivity in their warehouses using an automated tracking system, which categorizes employees according to productivity rates and suggests retraining or termination if an employee fails to meet requirements. Employees have criticized the system, claiming that it is too robotic and doesn’t take human factors into account. A redacted version of the report is available to read.
### Headline:
|
How Amazon automatically tracks and fires warehouse workers for ‘productivity’
|
### Content:
Japan routinely scores low when it comes to employee satisfaction in the developed world. Microsoft Japan started its Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019 project to attempt to address this problem. For the month of August, employees at Microsoft Japan had every Friday off, an extra day of vacation that did not come at the expense of any other vacation time. The extra day off resulted in employees taking 25.4 percent fewer days off and productivity rising by almost 40 percent. Most of the increase in productivity was attributed to a change in how meetings were held. Many meetings were cut, shortened, or changed to virtual meetings. Employees reacted well to the four-day workweek trial and Microsoft plans to repeat it again next summer.
### Headline:
|
Microsoft Japan’s experiment with 3-day weekend boosts worker productivity by 40 percent
|
### Content:
The Android Earthquake Alerts System is an earthquake detection network that uses Google Play Android phones. All smartphones contain accelerometers that are sensitive enough to detect P-waves, the less damaging initial wave that comes out of an earthquake. When an Android phone detects something that could be an earthquake, it will send a signal to Google's earthquake detection center along with a general location. The server collaborates the information to detect earthquakes as they happen. The system can notify people of earthquakes up to one minute before the damaging S-wave of an earthquake arrives. It will be distributed through Google Play Services for every Android device running version 5.0 and up. Users will be able to toggle the feature through the Google Location Services switch in settings.
### Headline:
|
Android is now the world’s largest earthquake detection network
|
### Content:
Researchers from Tel Aviv University have successfully created the first fully personalized tissue implant made from a patient’s own biomaterials and cells. This research may eventually lead to the development of technology that can print any kind of organ implant from a single fatty tissue biopsy. The process involves taking fatty tissue from the patient, separating the cells and structures, reprogramming the cells, and then recombining the parts to create a hydrogel that acts as ink for the printer. Using the process, the scientists created a tiny heart that was complete in structure. There are still many obstacles to overcome before the technology will be viable for full human organ transplants, but scientists hope to be able to start animal trials within the next few years.
### Headline:
|
Israeli Scientists 3D-Print A Tiny, Live Heart Made With Human Tissue
|
### Content:
SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday morning from Florida. The rocket will break apart in midair just a few minutes after takeoff in order to demonstrate SpaceX's ability to handle a catastrophic failure of one of its vehicles. If the demonstration is successful, it will put SpaceX one step closer to putting real people in its Falcon 9 rocket for the first time. Crew Dragon is equipped with eight thrusters on the outer hull of its capsule. The thrusters are designed to carry the Crew Dragon away from a malfunctioning rocket to a place where it can safely deploy its parachutes. SpaceX will be working with NASA and the Air Force to conduct the test and to recover the capsule and resulting debris.
### Headline:
|
SpaceX will destroy one of its rockets in the pursuit of safety this weekend
|
### Content:
France has approved a three percent digital services tax for any digital company that generates more than €750m of revenue if €25m of the revenue is generated in France. The law will be retroactively applied from early 2019 and will generate an estimated €400m this year. While the US has threatened to impose tariffs in retaliation, France argues that these companies have a large presence in their country and benefit by not paying little or no tax, as most profits are claimed in the home country. The EU has previously proposed a similar tax but there were objections to the law. France will rescind the new laws if an international agreement is made in regards to taxing digital services, and hopes that the US will be incentivized to participate in talks.
### Headline:
|
France passes tax on tech giants despite US threats
|
### Content:
Oracle v. Google is a landmark case that will consider whether application-programming interfaces (APIs) can be protected by copyright. In 2014, Oracle sued Google for re-implementing APIs from the Java programming language. An appeals court ruled in Oracle's favor in 2018. Google continues to fight the case, claiming that restrictions on APIs would stifle software innovation. Every significant computer program uses APIs, so restricting them by copyright could create legal landmines for many companies. It could also give rise to API copyright trolls, who acquire copyrights to sue companies using older software. The case is now before the Supreme Court, and the results of the case will have a large impact on the software industry.
### Headline:
|
The Supreme Court hears Oracle v. Google tomorrow—here’s what’s at stake
|
### Content:
Scientists have confirmed that at least some of the heavier elements on the periodic table are created when neutron stars merge. Light elements such as hydrogen and helium were formed during the big bang. Elements up to iron are created by fusion in the cores of stars. Heavier elements such as gallium and bromine require a supernova. Gold, uranium, and other even heavier elements require a process called rapid neutron capture, where an atomic nucleus is bombarded with neutrons so quickly that it doesn't have time to split apart. Two years ago, the GW170817 neutron star merger was observed, resulting in the creation of a large amount of strontium. The observations also confirmed that neutron stars are really made of neutrons.
### Headline:
|
Some of the universe’s heavier elements are created by neutron star collisions
|
### Content:
Elon Musk has tweeted a series of tweets, saying that he would sell almost all of his physical possessions and that Tesla's share price was too high, among other things. Tesla's share price dropped in response. Tweeting about Tesla's share price could potentially be securities fraud. For the tweet to be securities fraud, the SEC or plaintiff would have to prove that Musk profited from the drop in stock price. Due to previous rulings by the SEC, Musk must have a company lawyer pre-approve tweets about Tesla's financial health, sales, or delivery numbers, and Musk did not receive approval for this tweet. Government agencies have not taken any action yet.
### Headline:
|
Was Elon’s Tesla Twitter meltdown illegal? An investigation
|
### Content:
Many tech interviews will require you to be good at algorithms as tech companies tend to treat algorithm knowledge as a proxy for general problem-solving ability. However, being good in a tech role requires a developer to know their standard libraries well. Having knowledge of standard libraries means developers spend less time recreating code, code is more likely to be correct, the software will be more performant, and the code is likely to be maintained well over years. The number of standard libraries can be large, but spending time to study them is highly beneficial. As an example, if a developer uses standard libraries to code, they will be easily able to transfer their skills directly from company to company as they aren't restricted to the particular style of coding that one company uses. The best way to learn standard libraries is to search for articles, and then actually use the libraries in code.
### Headline:
|
Learn your standard library
|
### Content:
A nuclear rocket engine would be twice as efficient as the chemical engines powering rockets today. Chemical propulsion to the moon and to Mars is possible, but it is much better to use nuclear propulsion if we want to go further than that. A spaceship that uses nuclear propulsion will first use regular chemically propelled rockets to launch into orbit before switching to using a nuclear reactor in space. The power obtained from the nuclear reactor can be used to sustain human outposts on other worlds. One of the biggest hurdles in building a nuclear rocket is making sure that the parts can withstand the heat required. Before a nuclear engine will be able to fly, NASA needs to change its regulations for launching nuclear materials. The first flight of a nuclear engine may be as soon as 2024.
### Headline:
|
NASA wants to send nuclear rockets to the Moon and Mars
|
### Content:
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, is a fungus that invades the skin cells of frogs, making the skin peel and causing death. In 2007, researchers speculated that Bd had caused a population decline in over 200 species of frogs worldwide. A recent study has found that populations of over 500 species of frogs have declined due to the fungus, including 90 species that may have gone extinct. The fungus thrives in cool, moist conditions, so frogs that live in cloud forests and mountainsides are particularly at risk. Frogs have a large impact on the ecosystem, so scientists are looking into ways to contain and control the Bd outbreak.
### Headline:
|
The Plague Killing Frogs Everywhere Is Far Worse Than Scientists Thought
|
### Content:
According to Pew Research, the shares of U.S. adults who say they use the internet, use social media, own a smartphone or own a tablet computer are all nearly identical to the shares who said so in 2016. 95% of people have cell phones, 89% have internet, and 69% use social media. The number of people who own a desktop or a laptop computer actually dropped from 78% in 2016 to 73% today, while the number of people with tablets increased from 51% in 2016 to 53% today. For better or worse, it appears that adoption of most of these internet technologies has plateaued in the United States.
### Headline:
|
Internet, social media use and device ownership in U.S. have plateaued after years of growth
|
### Content:
The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Edward Snowden as his new book violates nondisclosure agreements he signed with the federal government. If successful, all the book profits will belong to the US. The lawsuit also claims that the government is entitled to money Snowden has earned from speeches. Snowden failed to receive pre-publication approval from the NSA and CIA. According to Snowden's lawyer, the book doesn't contain any government secrets that weren't already publicly known, and the government wouldn't have reviewed the book in good faith if Snowden had submitted it for review. Snowden has lived in Russia for the past six years as he faces criminal charges in the US over allegations of espionage and theft of government property.
### Headline:
|
Justice Department Sues Edward Snowden, Seeking Profits From His Book
|
### Content:
This year's top YouTube earner was 8-year-old Ryan Kaji, with $26 million. Kaji's channel debuted in 2015 and has now grown to 23 million subscribers. Videos with children in them average almost three times as many views as other types of videos. 81 percent of parents with children 11 or younger let kids watch YouTube. YouTube's top ten earners brought in a total of $162 million last financial year. Stars can earn extra income through sponsorships and other media deals. YouTube is working to limit revenue possibilities for children's channels as part of an agreement with the FTC for allegedly violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.
### Headline:
|
The Highest-Paid YouTube Stars of 2019: The Kids Are Killing It
|
### Content:
Motorola has revealed its new Edge Plus flagship phone at $999. It features a 6.7-inch FHD+ OLED panel, a Snapdragon 865 processor, 5G support, a 90Hz refresh rate, 12GB RAM, 256GB internal storage, a 5,000mAh battery, and a headphone jack. The Edge Plus has a triple rear camera system with a 108-megapixel sensor and other advanced camera features. A regular Motorola Edge will also be released with the same base design but with lower specs. The Edge Plus will be exclusive to Verizon in the US for its entire lifespan. The regular Motorola Edge will be sold more broadly but will be released later in the year.
### Headline:
|
Motorola returns to flagship phones with the Edge Plus
|
### Content:
Nanomedic Technologies, an Israeli startup, has created a portable device that can create a temporary and transparent skin layer that can be applied to patients without touching the wound. The device uses a patented electrospinning technology which creates nanofibers by applying a strong electric field to polymer solutions which then knit together in layers to form a nanofibrous mat that mimics skin. The polymer solution can be combined with antibacterial creams, antibiotics, collagen, silicon, hydrogel, or cannabinoids, depending on the patient’s needs. Treatment is fast, and patients can take showers after only 2 days without the need to redress the wound. The device is set to launch in the second half of 2019.
### Headline:
|
Medical device creates temporary 'second skin' to treat wounds
|
### Content:
The Apple Heart Study, a joint effort between Apple and the Stanford University School of Medicine, released its results today both in a press release and at the American College of Cardiology’s 68th Annual Scientific Session and Expo. Of the over 400,000 participants, 0.5% received notifications alerting them of heart irregularities over the course of the study, at an 84% accuracy rate. The study showed that the Apple Watch wasn’t prone to ‘over-notification’, which was a growing concern with wearable devices. While the Apple Watch was shown to be a useful tool in the early detection of health issues, these devices have to be much more accurate before they can be relied on for health decisions.
### Headline:
|
Apple and Stanford’s Apple Watch study identified irregular heartbeats in over 2,000 patients
|
### Content:
China has built the world's largest air purifier, a 100 meter tall tower to fight their smog problem. It works by sucking in polluted air, heating it up with solar energy, then circulating it through multiple layers of cleaning filters. The purifier improves air quality over an area of 10 square kilometers, and produces more than 10 million cubic meters of clean air per day. A student who lives a few hundred meters from the tower says "I can't help looking at the tower each time I pass. It's very tall, very eye-catching, but it's also very quiet. I can't hear any wind going in or out. The air quality did improve. I have no doubt about that."
### Headline:
|
China built a tower that acts like 'the world's biggest air purifier,' and it actually works
|
### Content:
SpaceX has successfully launched and recovered its Falcon 9 rocket for the fifth time, deploying 60 satellites into orbit before landing back on the company's drone ship in the Atlantic. SpaceX has launched just over 480 Starlink satellites into orbit, a fraction of the 12,000 satellites that the company has permission to launch. The company aims to provide global internet coverage from space. One of the satellites on the launch was equipped with a visor that was designed to block light from the sun, keeping the light from reflecting off the shiniest parts of the satellite. The satellites' brightness has been a concern for the astronomy community. SpaceX is experimenting with different methods to fix the problem.
### Headline:
|
SpaceX launches latest batch of internet satellites, including one with a visor
|
### Content:
A group of conservationists have planted a new "super grove" of redwood trees cloned with DNA extracted from ancient redwood stumps that are larger than any trees currently in existence. One was 400 feet tall and over 3,000 years old when it was cut down in 1890. They also help filter water and soil and are resistant to wildfires, droughts, and pests. Group leader David Milarch says "These saplings have extraordinary potential to purify our air, water and soil for generations to come. We hope this 'super grove,' which has the capability to become an eternal forest, is allowed to grow unmolested by manmade or natural disasters and thus propagate forever."
### Headline:
|
Conservationists plant a 'super grove' of redwood trees cloned from ancient stumps
|
### Content:
A team of engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have created a solid-state LIDAR with 16,384 pixels integrated onto a 110-square-millimeter silicon photonic chip. It can cover a field of view of around 70 degrees at a range of 10 meters with a resolution of 1.7 centimeters. The engineers have plans for improving the sensor's performance. The device can be mass-produced using standard semiconductor processes in commercial CMOS foundries. High-resolution LIDAR will allow for better self-navigating cars and drones, more accurate 3D map generation, mobile 3D sensing for augmented reality, and more.
### Headline:
|
Tiny, Solid-State Lidar Raises Stakes in the Megapixel Race
|
### Content:
Tesla plans to introduce a new low-cost, long-life battery in its Model 3 sedan in China later this year. The battery will bring the cost of electric vehicles in line with gasoline models. It is designed to last for a million miles of use. The batteries rely on innovations such as low-cobalt and cobalt-free battery chemistries as well as the use of chemical additives, materials, and coatings. A new high-speed, heavily automated battery manufacturing process will be implemented to reduce labor costs and increase production in massive 'terafactories'. Tesla is working on recycling and recovery of expensive metals as well as 'second life' applications of electric vehicle batteries in grid storage systems.
### Headline:
|
Exclusive: Tesla's secret batteries aim to rework the math for electric cars and the grid
|
### Content:
On August 5 last year, the Indian government revoked a law that granted Jammu and Kashmir a measure of autonomy, splitting the state into two territories. The government then shut down all communications and arrested thousands of activists and academics in order to quell public opposition to the move. Over the last six months, communications such as landline phones, texting, and some access to government-approved websites has been restored, but the rest of the internet is still off-limits to citizens. People are calling the internet shut down a human rights violation and that it is a move to break the will of the Kashmiri people. The shutdown has caused life in the area to come to a standstill and people are struggling.
### Headline:
|
No Email. No WhatsApp. No Internet. This Is Now Normal Life In Kashmir (18 minute read)
|
### Content:
Jeff Bezos’s phone was hacked in 2018 after receiving an infected video file sent from the personal WhatsApp account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Bezos and the prince were reportedly having a friendly chat on the app when the video file was sent, resulting in large amounts of data being exfiltrated from Bezos' phone within hours. The move indicates that the prince may have had personal involvement in targeting the world's richest man, raising concerns for westerners looking to invest in Saudi Arabia. A Washington Post journalist was killed five months after the hack, and some of Bezos' intimate details and text messages were published nine months after the hack. Saudi Arabia denies all involvement with the hack or the killing.
### Headline:
|
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'
|
### Content:
When Joshua Left tried to send information about the coronavirus back to his family in China, he didn't expect to start receiving warnings from WeChat administrators and strange messages from contacts on his list. Left was concerned that his family in China was not getting accurate information about the virus within the country. Contacts on his list started asking for specific location details and other information soon after he sent the messages. When he refused to provide any information, the contacts urged him to return to China as soon as possible. It appears that the Chinese government is monitoring chat services and social media and moderating conversations amongst its citizens. People are being imprisoned for making posts on social media. China recently erased online protests after the death of the whistleblower doctor who tried to warn the world about the virus in December.
### Headline:
|
Here's How China Is Hunting Down Coronavirus Critics
|
### Content:
An investigation into what the US government knows about UFOs has confirmed that UFOs are undoubtedly real. The US Navy has captured footage of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, and the Pentagon has secretly funded research into UFOs. A report in 2009 covered plans for studying UAPs and any biological organisms recovered from one, plans to create a medical physiological UAP effects program, a possible UAP landing report, sighting and witness reports, and much more. One of the difficulties in finding information about the government's UAP programs is that each department is wrapped in layers of secrecy. There are many mysterious companies with large government research contracts. A quick summary timeline of publicly known UFO programs in the US is available.
### Headline:
|
Inside the Pentagon's Secret UFO Program (21 minute read)
|
### Content:
Scientists studied the activity patterns of zebrafish brains in order to predict the decisions that they make. Using the patterns found in the data they collected, the scientists were able to predict the timing and direction of a fish's movement with brain imaging techniques. Larval zebrafish have much simpler brain systems, so they are the best place to start to look for activity patterns that might be distributed and hard to connect. Brains do not execute the exact same responses every time, even for the same activity. The scientists monitored neural activity simultaneously from about 5,000 individual neurons in the brains of the fish during training. Results from the study suggested that the cerebellum was a major contributor to decision-making, despite its well-known role in motor control.
### Headline:
|
Scientists Predict Fish Behavior from Real-Time Brain Monitoring
|
### Content:
Wikipedia's English edition recently surpassed six million articles. The Cebuano edition is the second-largest edition of Wikipedia, with over 5.37 million articles. There are only approximately 16.5 million speakers of the language in the Philippines. The Cebuano edition was mostly written by a bot called Lsjbot. All but five of the edition's top 35 editors are bots, with no humans in the top 10. An analysis revealed that a majority of the articles written by the bot were well constructed. The automatic creation of articles is controversial as the software is not perfect and will generate mistakes. There is now a range of content creation bots, and some can work to augment writing, rather than just generate text.
### Headline:
|
The World's Second Largest Wikipedia Is Written Almost Entirely by One Bot
|
### Content:
Weather forecasting technology has improved to the point where three day forecasts are 90% accurate. This level of prediction requires input from many factors, one of which is water vapor levels, which reduces the error in weather forecast calculations by about 17%. Satellites monitor water vapor via the 23.8 GHz frequency, which means that they might pick up interference from 5G networks, which run at 24 GHz. Interference with weather forecast frequencies may have serious consequences as forecasts are needed for natural disaster planning. Despite warnings from scientists, the FCC has started the auctioning of 24 GHz licenses, with Chairman Ajit Pai stating that there was no technical basis for objections to the sale.
### Headline:
|
How 5g is Likely to Put Weather Forecasting at Risk
|
### Content:
A leaked memo by a Facebook executive, Andrew Bosworth, talks about how the social media platform was responsible for electing President Donald Trump in 2016, and warned employees against using the company's power to stop Trump's reelection in 2020. The memo discusses some of Facebook's high-profile scandals. Bosworth claims that the reason that Trump won the 2016 election was due to him running the best digital ad campaign Bosworth had ever seen. While Facebook has enormous power to influence the outcome of the next election, Bosworth believes that the company should remain impartial and not interfere with the results. The full memo is available to read in the article.
### Headline:
|
Facebook executive: we got Trump elected, and we shouldn’t stop him in 2020 (10 minute read)
|
### Content:
The next generation of Starlink satellites will be four times heavier than the current model, weighing in at roughly 1.25 tons. Elon Musk says that they will be almost an order of magnitude more capable than Starlink 1 satellites, but did not specify whether he was referring to bandwidth or throughput. SpaceX has sent more than 2,000 Starlink satellites into orbit so far, and more than 1,600 of those are still operational. Launching the next-gen satellites will likely require Starship, which is estimated to be able to lift payloads of 150 tons to low-earth orbit. Starship's maiden launch could happen this summer.
### Headline:
|
Elon Musk: Starlink 2.0 will be 'almost an order of magnitude more capable'
|
### Content:
A study has suggested that teenagers who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more likely to develop mental health problems. 6,600 12 to 15-year-old Americans self-reported on the time they spent on social media, as well as whether they had mental health issues. Those with three hours of social media had a high correlation with mental health problems, even after accounting for history. Teens who did not use social media did not exhibit aggressive behavior or antisocial behavior. Other studies on the subject show conflicting results, with some studies showing no correlation between screen time and mental health. Social media is changing faster than studies can catch up, with different platforms and formats appearing all the time, making it difficult to get an objective view on its effects.
### Headline:
|
Teens are anxious and depressed after three hours a day on social media
|
### Content:
Two revolutionary new interfaces, eBPF and io_uring, were added to Linux in 2019. The Linux kernel previously only offered blocking system calls to deal with file descriptors, but as devices have gotten faster, this became an increasingly urgent issue. io_uring is an interface that was designed to be truly flexible, extensible, asynchronous, and compatible with any kind of I/O. It offers some advanced features such as file and buffer registration, polling, and linked operations. eBPF allows users to execute arbitrary code in the Linux kernel, enabling advanced tooling and debugging. These two new features allow developers to design apps that can truly take advantage of large multicore multiprocessor systems and µsecond-scale storage I/O latencies.
### Headline:
|
How io_uring and eBPF Will Revolutionize Programming in Linux (20 minute read)
|
### Content:
OpenStreetMap is a project to build an open map of the world, with over 1.5 million individuals contributing data to the free web map since 2005. It is used by services such as Snap Maps, Apple Maps, and Bing Maps. The project receives significant funding from corporations, and corporate teams are responsible for 75% of road editing activity in areas where their companies operate. Some members of the OSM community feel that the project is being irreversibly adulterated by corporate actors. Companies are likely motivated to contribute to the project as an act of avoiding paying Google for their mapping services. While in some cases, corporate intrusion can be bad, in this situation, it seems that all parties are aiming for the same goal.
### Headline:
|
OpenStreetMap is Having a Moment (11 minute read)
|
### Content:
Researchers in China have designed a type of tiny wind turbine that can scavenge wind energy from small breezes, like those generated by walking. It is made of two plastic strips in a tube that flutter or clap together when there is airflow. It generates electricity through a phenomenon called the triboelectric effect. The device can generate power using a breeze as gentle as 1.6 m/s. It performs best when the wind velocity is between 4 to 8 m/s. With a high wind-to-energy conversion efficiency of 3.23%, the team hopes the device can bring wind power to areas where traditional wind turbines can't reach. Videos of the device are available in the article.
### Headline:
|
Tiny Triboelectric Nanogenerator Can Harvest Energy From the Breeze You Make When You Walk
|
### Content:
Evidence of ancient viruses has been found deep within the glaciers atop the Tibetan Plateau. These viral records can help scientists gain data on Earth's evolutionary and climate history. Genomes from 33 groups of viruses were found in the ice, 28 that were completely new to science. Studying viruses from ice cores is difficult due to the extremely small size of the viruses and how easy it is to contaminate samples. Decontamination techniques are used to clean the samples. Warming temperatures are causing glaciers around the world to shrink and release trapped microbes and viruses. This has caused disease outbreaks in the past, and it is a concern for the future as the planet continues to warm up.
### Headline:
|
Scientists Found Ancient, Never-Before-Seen Viruses in a Glacier
|
### Content:
This video follows the Hacksmith team as they build a real plasma protosaber. A real lightsaber would require a tiny portable nuclear reactor to power it, which just isn't possible at the moment. The backpack uses LPG fuel due to its energy density, outputting 50 times more energy per kilogram than a Li-po battery. It uses an array of laminar flow nozzles to create the highly concentrated gas required for a plasma beam. The resulting beam burns at around 4000 degrees Fahrenheit. Its color can change depending on what salts are burned with the gas. The follow-up video showing the team using the protosaber to cut stuff is now available.
### Headline:
|
4000° PLASMA LIGHTSABER BUILD (RETRACTABLE BLADE!)
|
### Content:
Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will likely begin retrofitting its new, more powerful processing chip into older vehicles before the end of the year. Tesla claims that the new FSD chip, which was developed in-house, performs 21 times better than the previous Nvidia chips. The new chips cost 20 percent less than the Nvidia chips while only consuming a little more power. Newer Model S, X, and 3 cars have been shipping with the new chip since before its announcement. Around 500,000 existing cars are currently compatible with the new chip, and Tesla owners will receive the upgrade for free if they have purchased the Full Self-Driving add-on package.
### Headline:
|
Elon Musk says free self-driving chip upgrade could come to older Teslas this year
|
### Content:
Google has announced a $1 billion investment in housing across the Bay Area. Over the next 10 years, $750 million of Google’s existing lands will be repurposed from commercial space into residential housing, allowing the development of at least 15,000 new homes. The homes will cater to all income levels, including housing options for middle and low-income families. A $250 million investment fund will be established to enable developers to build at least 5,000 affording housing units across the market. In addition, $50 million will be donated to nonprofits focused on the issues of homelessness and displacement. Other projects are also underway to help communities succeed in the long term and to make sure that everyone has access to opportunity.
### Headline:
|
$1 billion for 20,000 Bay Area homes
|
### Content:
Chinese scientists have built a revolutionary plane engine for Mach 16 flight, enabling aircraft to reach anywhere in the world within two hours. A prototype of the engine was tested in a hypersonic wind tunnel in Beijing and the results suggested unprecedented performance in terms of thrust, fuel efficiency, and operational stability. Planes equipped with the engine can take off horizontally before accelerating into orbit around the Earth. The engine has a relatively simple design, consisting of a single-stage air inlet, a hydrogen fuel injector, and a combustion chamber. Existing hypersonic flight engines are too weak, fuel-hungry, and unstable for commercial flight. The new design offers the best hope so far in taking commercial flight to hypersonic speeds.
### Headline:
|
Chinese team test jet engine ‘able to reach anywhere on Earth within 2 hours’
|
### Content:
Instabeach is an exclusive, invite-only annual party hosted by Instagram for the top 500 creators along with plus-ones, talent representatives, managers, and press. The goal is to help influencers meet each other and form friendships. In the last few years, it has transformed into a 'who's who' of young Hollywood, showing that the photo-sharing platform has become a place where young stars can go to make a name for themselves. There is no longer any distinction between being an influencer and an entertainer. Influencers are using their social-media attention to land roles in the entertainment industry and their follower count has become a method of currency. Some actors have experienced auditions where their talent was less important than the number of followers on their Instagram account.
### Headline:
|
Where Everyone’s an Influencer
|
### Content:
Airbnb will house 20,000 Afghan refugees around the world in the properties listed on its platform. The stays will be funded by Airbnb, but the company has not specified how much it plans to spend or how long the refugees will be housed. The US has evacuated roughly 48,000 people from Afghanistan in recent days. The Taliban has set an airlift deadline of August 31, and thousands are still trying to escape. Brian Chesky, Airbnb's CEO, hopes that his company's actions will inspire other business leaders to help the refugees. Airbnb has hosted 75,000 people in times of crisis since 2012.
### Headline:
|
Airbnb says it plans to temporarily house 20,000 Afghan refugees
|
### Content:
The EU has created an AI called iBorderCtrl that will analyze travelers at four border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia and Greece with countries outside the European Union. Travelers will answer questions like "What's in your suitcase?" into a webcam so the system can analyze and rate dozens of micro-gestures to determine if they're being truthful. If they are they will get a QR code to pass through, otherwise they will have their biometric information taken and will be reviewed by a human agent. This is still highly experimental, and the last version only worked 76% of the time, they are claiming the latest version works 85% of the time. In its current form, it will not have the final say in stopping anyone from crossing the border.
### Headline:
|
The EU plans to test an AI lie detector at border points
|
### Content:
The world's first 3D-printed steel bridge debuted in Amsterdam last month. The almost 40-foot-long bridge was built by Dutch company MX3D for pedestrians and cyclists. Four robots with welding torches were used to 3D-print the structure out of 10,000 pounds of steel. Computer simulations were used to check the bridge's ability to withstand daily foot traffic and damaging weather forces. The bridge is monitored with a system of over a dozen sensors that report data on the bridge's movement, vibration, temperature, strain, and displacement to look for trends that might suggest modifications are in order. A video showing the bridge being installed is available in the article.
### Headline:
|
Feast Your Eyes Upon the World's First 3D-Printed Steel Bridge
|
### Content:
Tesla announced that it had delivered 95,200 vehicles in the last quarter, making it the best quarter on record for the company. The Model 3 was released in Europe and China halfway through the first quarter, resulting in 77,550 Model 3 deliveries worldwide. A total of 87,048 vehicles were produced in the second quarter. The company is set to increase production and deliveries in the third quarter. Tesla’s sales target for the year is 400,000 vehicles, but it has been cutting prices to reach sales targets, which could result in losses for the company. The federal tax credit available to Tesla customers fell by half at the start of the financial year, which effectively raised the price of the vehicles.
### Headline:
|
Tesla Says Deliveries in Quarter Set a Record
|
### Content:
Tesla has released a t-shirt for sale that has an image of shattered glass on the front and the Cybertruck logo on the back, referencing the mishap during the reveal of the Cybertruck in November. The t-shirt costs $45 and is expected to ship within two weeks. While Elon Musk has tweeted that the t-shirt is bulletproof, according to Tesla's website, it is 100% cotton and not made of any bulletproof material. Telsa received 250,000 preorders for the Cybertruck just days after the November reveal.
### Headline:
|
Tesla is now selling a $45 'bulletproof' t-shirt that pokes fun at the surprising moment when its Cybertruck launch event went off the rails
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.