Google is laying the groundwork for a fiber-optic network that for the first time will connect through historical enemies Saudi Arabia and Israel while opening a new corridor for global internet traffic, according to people familiar with the plans. From a report: The project linking India to Europe is Google’s latest globe-crossing internet construction effort. The Alphabet subsidiary is vying with…
Tag: borders
The Pandemic Has Created a Middle Class Private Jet Boom
An anonymous reader shares a report: While the commercial airline industry has been largely grounded following various global lockdowns — with outbound international travel from the UK set to be banned on Thursday — private aviation has soared among new customers. Many of them are families. Once the preserve of millionaires and A-listers, business planes have been taken up by holidaying…
What astronauts think about life away from Earth
Axiom is an aerospace company making new possibilities accessible to humanity. Watch as astronauts retell their experience launching from Earth and living in space. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/axiom-video-roundtable-astronauts-talk-about-being-in-space…
Two planets found orbiting a red dwarf
Red dwarfs are the coolest kind of star. As such, they potentially allow liquid water to exist on planets that are quite close to them. In the search for habitable worlds beyond the borders of our solar system, this is a big advantage: the distance between an exoplanet and its star is a crucial factor for its detection. The closer the…
Are We Headed For 200 Separate Nationally-Controlled Internets?
Roger Cochetti directed internet public policy for IBM from 1994 through 2000 and later served as Senior Vice-President & Chief Policy Officer for VeriSign and Group Policy Director for CompTIA. This week he warned about signs “that the once open, global internet is slowly being replaced by 200, nationally-controlled, separate internets.” And, while these separate American, Chinese, Russian, Australian, European, British,…
With New Security and Free Internet Issues, What Did the TikTok Deal Really Achieve?
Though the U.S. government averted a shutdown of TikTok through a new Oracle/Walmart partnership, that leaves much bigger questions unresolved. The biggest issue may be that banning apps “defeats the original intent of the internet,” argues the New York TImes. “And that was to create a global communications network, unrestrained by national borders.” “The vision for a single, interconnected network around…
Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic.
Confronting a climate crisis that threatens the fossil fuel industry, oil companies are racing to make more plastic. But they face two problems: Many markets are already awash with plastic, and few countries are willing to be dumping grounds for the world’s plastic waste. The industry thinks it has found a solution to both problems in Africa. From a report: According…
Homeland Security Details New Tools For Extracting Device Data at US Borders
Travelers heading to the US have many reasons to be cautious about their devices when it comes to privacy. A report released Thursday from the Department of Homeland Security provides even more cause for concern about how much data border patrol agents can pull from your phones and computers. From a report: In a Privacy Impact Assessment dated July 30, the…
These dogs are trained to sniff out the coronavirus
Scientists have been working with professional trainers in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales to train dogs to sniff out Covid-19. Most of the dogs have a 100% success rate. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/dogs-trained-to-smell-detect-coronavirus-covid19…
The US may have the most to lose if Donald Trump bans TikTok
A US ban of the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok could see countries developing their own versions of popular US-owned services as the internet splinters across national borders Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250658-the-us-may-have-the-most-to-lose-if-donald-trump-bans-tiktok/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…