Charlotte Web shares a report from CNN: Apple, along with Amazon and Google, effectively kicked Parler off the internet in the wake of the January 6 US Capitol siege. Despite criticism that Big Tech wields too much power over speech, Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his decision. “We looked at the incitement to violence that was on there,” Apple CEO Tim…
Tag: host
Virgin Orbit Just Successfully Launched a 70-Foot Rocket From Its 747
CNN reports: A 70-foot rocket, riding beneath the wing of a retrofitted Boeing 747 aircraft, detached from the plane and fired itself into Earth’s orbit on Sunday — marking the first successful launch for the California-based rocket startup Virgin Orbit. Virgin Orbit’s 747, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off from California around 10:30 am PT with the rocket, called LauncherOne, nestled beneath…
6 space missions to look forward to in 2021
Here are some of the space missions to keep an eye out for in 2021. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/6-space-missions-2021-artemis-chandrayaa3-jameswebb…
EFF, Cory Doctorow Warn About the Dangers of De-Platforming and Censorship
Last week Cory Doctorow shared his own answer for what Apple and Google should’ve done about Parler:
They should remove it, and tell users, “We removed Parler because we think it is a politically odious attempt to foment violence. Our judgment is subjective and may be wielded against others in future. If you don’t like our judgment, you shouldn’t use our app…
Astronomers are still reeling from the loss of iconic Arecibo radio telescope
The collapse of the iconic radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico last month has left astronomers with a host of questions about what went wrong and what comes next. Source: https://www.livescience.com/arecibo-telescope-loss-astronomers.html
An Earth-like planet might orbit our closest single sun-like star
Tau Ceti is a star just 12 light years away – and it could host a planet called PXP-4 that sits as close to the star as Earth does to our sun and has years about as long as ours Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2264919-an-earth-like-planet-might-orbit-our-closest-single-sun-like-star/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
A new record for the most distant quasar
Astronomers have a new measurement for the distance of quasar J0313-1806, making it the new record-holder for the most distant quasar known. We’re seeing it just 670 million years after the Big Bang, or more than 13 billion light-years away. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-record-most-distant-quasar-black-hole-j0313-1806…
Final Episode Aired For American Quiz Show Host Alex Trebek
“More than two months after Alex Trebek’s death, fans of Jeopardy! finally got the chance to say goodbye,” reports CBS News:
A video tribute to the host closed Friday’s episode of the quiz show, the final one that Trebek taped before pancreatic cancer claimed his life on November 8. The 90-second montage, set to Hugh Jackman singing the Peter Allen song “Once…
Wasmer 1.0 Can Run WebAssembly ‘Universal Binaries’ on Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android, and iOS
The WebAssembly portable binary format will now have wider support from Wasmer, the server-side runtime which “allows universal binaries compiled from C++, Rust, Go, Python, and other languages to run on different operating systems and in web browsers without modification,” reports InfoWorld: Wasmer can run lightweight containers based on WebAssembly on a variety of platforms — Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android, iOS…
The Case Against Section 230: ‘The 1996 Law That Ruined the Internet’
Writing in the Atlantic, programmer/economics commentator Steve Randy Waldman explains “Why I changed my mind” about the Communication Decency Act’s Section 230: In the United States, you are free to speak, but you are not free of responsibility for what you say. If your speech is defamatory, you can be sued. If you are a publisher, you can be sued for…