Tag: News

Science

A massive FAA glitch grounded all US flights today

 Naomi  0 12 

Flights are slowly resuming across the country following the Federal Aviation Administration’s nationwide grounding of all air travel early Wednesday morning, the first of its kind since 9/11. Experts indicate there is currently no evidence of cyberterrorism, with the FAA instead pointing towards what appears to be a widespread failure of its Notices to Air Missions (NOTAM) system. The internal service for flight personnel is used to convey timely, unclassified safety information regarding issues such as facility outages, airspace restrictions,…

Science

Saltwater is a lithium-ion battery’s worst enemy. This aqueous prototype embraces it.

 sykes  0 8 

Hurricane Ian caused billions of dollars in damage when it hit Florida in the fall of 2022. Along with $112 billion in damages, 152 fatalities, and countless uprooted lives, the fallout included at least 12 electric vehicle fires caused from lithium-ion batteries coming into contact with saltwater flooding in from the ocean. Unlike standard fires, however, these battery blazes require a significant amount more water to quell them due to their unique chemical reactions, with the International Association of Fire…

Science

A historic first satellite launch in the UK has failed

 sykes  0 27 

According to Virgin Orbit, yesterday’s historic orbital launch attempt from its Cornwall Spaceport— a first within the UK—made “numerous significant first-time achievements” and represented an “important step forward” for the small satellite launch service.  Many viewers of the private company’s launch livestream beg to differ, however, noting the LauncherOne rocket system’s wholesale failure to reach its low Earth orbital goal to deliver its nine payloads. In fact, Ars Technica described Virgin Orbit’s mishap as not only wholesale communications and logistical…

Science

John Deere finally agrees to let farmers fix their own equipment, but there’s a catch

 Naomi  0 23 

After years of unfulfilled promises, presidential pressure, and jailbreaking workarounds, it appears John Deere is finally opening up its high-tech farming equipment to farmers’ right to repair—with a major caveat. Per a joint announcement released Sunday alongside the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), the machinery maker has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOA) that opens up its software, documentation, and tools to farmers and third-party repair providers.  As The Wall Street Journal notes, however, the long sought-after concession can…

Science

Seattle schools sue social media companies over students’ worsening mental health

 Emma  0 23 

Seattle’s school district has announced an unprecedented lawsuit against Meta, Google, TikTok, ByteDance, and Snap, arguing that their social media platforms both facilitated and profited off of American adolescents’ and teens’ mental health crises for years. While families across the country have recently filed multiple, similar cases, the new complaint made public on January 6 is the first of its kind in claiming that students’ well-documented addictions to platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook “directly affects Seattle public schools’…

Science

Scientists just got one step closer to solar-powered recycling plants

 admin  0 29 

Wasting resources is a huge cause of environmental degradation. At our current rate, we’re on track to 3.4 billion metric tons of solid trash by 2050. This route is completely untenable for both civilization and the overall environment, but given that roughly only 20 percent of that is currently recycled annually, we’ll need to get really creative quickly to address this issue. Researchers at the University of Cambridge found a potential solution to this challenge by recently developing a novel…

Science

Hackers could be selling your Twitter data for the lowball price of $2

 Emma  0 25 

The latest dramatic twist to Twitter’s ongoing chaos under the tumultuous tenure of Elon Musk—a massive data breach of 235 million users’ email addresses, phone numbers, names, and other credentials. The information is now available to anyone on the dark web with a couple extra bucks to spend. The news, first brought to public attention by The Washington Post on Wednesday evening and subsequently covered by multiple outlets, traces the major security exploitation to 2021—which, admittedly, was well before Musk’s…

Science

Mercedes-Benz makes a hefty promise to install 2,500 EV fast chargers across the US

 admin  0 23 

One of the biggest issues holding back many drivers from making the switch to electric vehicles is the comparative lack of supportive infrastructure like public charging stations. After decades of fossil fuel guzzling cars traversing the country, the US now hosts an estimated 145,000 gas stations compared to around just 53,000 EV charging locales. But this week at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, Mercedes-Benz announced plans to provide a sizable boost to the grid over the next few years—drivers can…

Science

Amazon’s layoffs will cut nearly twice as deep as previously warned

 admin  0 33 

The tech sector’s ongoing economic woes continue to hammer Amazon, resulting in the largest round of layoffs in the e-commerce giant’s history. The company will eliminate an additional 8,000 positions this month alone, bringing the total up to 18,000 workers. That follows Amazon’s previous target, made public in November, to scale back 3 percent of its white-collar workers, or about 10,000 people. On Wednesday, CEO Andy Jassy published a statement about the company’s updated plans to reduce its labor force. According to…

Science

Apple introduces AI audiobook narrators, but the literary world is not too pleased

 Ingle  0 26 

Although computer programs have long been able to read text aloud, their performances aren’t exactly known to be compelling. As AI capabilities continue to rapidly advance, however, the potential for more nuanced and “human-like” narration is more possible than ever. That possibility received a major expansion this week from Apple with its announcement of a new AI service capable of generating realistic human narration for audiobooks. But while the company claims the program will benefit independent authors previously unable to…

Science

This AI chatbot will be playing attorney in a real US court

 admin  0 21 

In 2020, the average median income for a lawyer in the US was just under $127,000. All that money obviously has to come from somewhere—most often, the clients they represent. Unfortunately, many people neither have the budget for high-priced attorneys, nor the time to deal with the tedious red tape on their own. According to one startup, DoNotPay, often winnable appeals fall by the wayside, and they’re hoping to level the playing field a bit. Since 2015, DoNotPay has offered…

Science

Scientists may have solved an old Puebloan mystery by strapping giant logs to their foreheads

 Ingle  0 22 

New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon is home to some of the most impressive pre-Columbian architecture in the Western Hemisphere. Its wide roads, circular ritual sites called kivas, and sprawling complexes called great houses remain an engineering spectacle for modern society, given the tools anthropologists think were used to create them. It’s also home to a great mystery—large pieces of timber used as support beams all across the complex.  The ancestral Puebloans that called Chaco Canyon home a millennium ago used more…