How will the U.S. space program fare under Joe Biden?

Joe Biden is the United States presidential election winner, but his plans for NASA remain unclear. And while citizens digest the election results, the space industry is left wondering what comes next. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/how-will-the-u-s-space-program-fare-under-joe-biden…

Court Rules Deliveroo Used ‘Discriminatory’ Algorithm

An algorithm used by the popular European food delivery app Deliveroo to rank and offer shifts to riders is discriminatory, an Italian court ruled late last week, in what some experts are calling a historic decision for the gig economy. The case was brought by a group of Deliveroo riders backed by CGIL, Italy’s largest trade union. From a report: A…

Alphabet Unit Wing Blasts New US Drone ID Rule, Citing Privacy

Alphabet’s drone delivery unit Wing criticized Trump administration rules issued this week mandating broadcast-based remote identification of drones, saying they should be revised to allow for internet-based tracking. From a report: On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued rules that will allow small drones to fly over people and at night in the United States and mandate remote identification technology…

2020 Arctic Report Card: Sea ice loss, extreme wildfires

NOAA’s 2020 Arctic Report Card describes a region that is warming even more rapidly than scientists expected. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/arctic-report-card-2020-sea-ice-loss-extreme-wildfires…

Amazon Wants To Scan Your Body To Make Perfectly Fitting Shirts

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: For just $25, Amazon wants to make you a custom T-shirt. And a virtual body double. This week, the company unveiled a brand called “Made for You” that creates made-to-measure clothes. The initial product, a T-shirt, can be personalized to your taste and measurements, and more products are coming. This is Amazon’s…

All Three Monoliths Gone — Two Removed By Activist Vandals

A Reddit user found Google Earth photos showing the Utah monolith may have appeared in its canyon up to five years ago, according to The Daily Beast. But it’s gone now: Last week, a team of four people removed the Utah obelisk. One of them, a Utah adventure guide, explained their actions in an Instagram post. “We removed the Utah Monolith…

Chrome’s New ‘Cache Partitioning’ System Impacts Google Fonts Performance

A change made in the Google Chrome browser in October has impacted the performance of the Google Fonts service for millions of websites. From a report: The change is an update to Chrome’s internal cache system. A browser’s cache system works by serving as a temporary storage system for images, CSS, and JavaScript files used by websites. Files stored in the…

Health impacts of climate change have reached ‘worrying’ levels

The impacts of climate change on people’s health around the world, including deaths due to heatwaves, are at their “most worrying” since an international initiative began tracking them five years ago Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2261184-health-impacts-of-climate-change-have-reached-worrying-levels/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Raspberry Pi Used To Hack Tesla Model X SUV Key Fob

Pig Hogger (Slashdot reader #10,379) writes: According to this Tom’s Hardware story, a Belgian PhD student managed to wrest full control of a Tesla Model X SUV, by way of hijacking the Bluetooth keyfob and reprogramming it, using a Raspberry Pi. Tesla has since issued a software update to protect against that kind of attack Since the attack is done via…

Scientists predicted a large sunspot. Now it’s here

Last week, scientists from the National Solar Observatory predicted a large sunspot would emerge before Thanksgiving. Now the sunspot – AR2786 – is in view. Here’s how they did it. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nso-predicts-large-sunspot-thanksgiving-nov2020…