Rockstar Games, 2K games, and their parent company Take-Two Interactive announced on Thursday that they will shut down the servers for games such as Grand Theft Auto Online, Red Dead Online, and NBA 2K for two hours on Thursday afternoon “to honor the legacy of George Floyd.” Polygon reports: “Black Lives Matter,” said Rockstar Games on its official Twitter account. “To…
Tag: charity
‘Lord of the Rings’ Reunion Brings Actors, Director, Writers Together on Zoom
“Just about the entire cast of The Lord of the Rings gathered their Zoom screens together for a reunion nearly two decades after the end of the epic fantasy film trilogy,” reports CNET: io9 notes that it was comic actor-singer Josh Gad who “gathered the hobbits, the wizards, the elves, and the wicked menfolk to go to Isen — YouTube, where…
World Health Leaders Stress Need For Sharing of Vaccines
Long-time Slashdot reader tomtermite shares a report from The Guardian:
Ministers and officials from every nation will meet via video link on Monday for the annual world health assembly, which is expected to be dominated by efforts to stop rich countries monopolising drugs and future vaccines against Covid-19… The leaders of Italy, France, Germany and Norway, together with the European commission and…
Ask Slashdot: What Are You Doing To Help?
Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: With all the news stories about how the pandemic is impacting our world, some of us have been just plain lucky. As an information worker, I was already working from home, so I still have my full-time job — and my full-time income. So my question is, if we really are all “in this together,” then…
Using Apple CarPlay Impairs Driver Reaction More Than Alcohol, Study Shows
U.K. based road safety charity IAM RoadSmart has released a study showing how in-vehicle infotainment systems can substantially impair driver’s reaction times even more than alcohol and cannabis. AppleInsider reports: The test involved two experimental trials focusing on Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Twenty Android and twenty Apple users would be subjected to the same simulated test route. Each driver drove…
Report: Facebook’s Privacy Tools Are Actually ‘Riddled With Missing Data’
Bustle’s tech site Input reports on some research from the U.K.-based human rights charity Privacy International: Facebook wants you to think it’s consistently increasing transparency about how the company stores and uses your data. But the company still isn’t revealing everything to its users, according to an investigation by Privacy International. The obvious holes in Facebook’s privacy data exports paint a…
‘Electronic Nose’ Could Smell Breath To Warn About Higher Risk of Cancer
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: An electronic device that “sniffs” breath may offer a new way to identify people with a condition that can lead to cancer of the oesophagus, researchers have revealed. According to the charity Cancer Research UK, people diagnosed with Barrett’s oesophagus — a precancerous condition in which cells lining the food pipe change…
Amazon Is Collecting Donations For a Scientology-Linked Anti-Drug Charity
An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian:
Amazon has agreed to channel funds to a controversial drug rehabilitation charity linked to the Church of Scientology, the Guardian has learned. The web giant will make donations to Narconon — which runs programmes for drug addicts based on the teachings of the Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard — when supporters buy products through the site,…
City Planners Zero in on Cyclists Through Exercise App
With 47m global users Strava has the potential to generate big data for public development [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled]. From a report: When the UK capital built a “cycle superhighway” in 2016, Strava indicated where people had changed their route and showed that the number of cyclists increased by 60 per cent when a bike-only lane was built…
Free Software Foundation Offers Benefits and Merchandise In Its Annual Fundraiser
An anonymous reader writes:
The Free Software Foundation is holding its annual fundraiser, with a goal of attracting 600 new members by the end of December. (New members so far: 112.) “We are still fighting the oppressive nature of proprietary software,” explains the campaign’s web page. “We have made solid inroads, and the community is as passionate as ever.” As a 501(c)(3)…