Comcast To Enforce 1.2TB Data Cap In Entire 39-State Territory In Early 2021

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast’s 1.2TB monthly data cap is coming to 12 more states and the District of Columbia starting January 2021. The unpopular policy was already enforced in most of Comcast’s 39-state US territory over the past few years, and the upcoming expansion will for the first time bring the cap to every market…

Astronomers find x-rays lingering years after landmark neutron star collision

It’s been three years since the landmark detection of a neutron star merger from gravitational waves. And since that day, an international team of researchers led by University of Maryland astronomer Eleonora Troja has been continuously monitoring the subsequent radiation emissions to provide the most complete picture of such an event. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-10-astronomers-x-rays-lingering-years-landmark.html…

IonQ announces development of next-generation quantum computer

IonQ, a College Park, Maryland-based quantum computing hardware and software company has announced that it has launched its next generation quantum computer. As part of its announcement, the company is claiming that its new machine is the most powerful quantum computer built to date based on IBM’s quantum volume metric. The company has also announced that the new computer will be…

Vaccine Maker Novavax Enters Final Large-Scale Testing of Its Covid-19 Vaccine

The New York Times reports:
Vaccine maker Novavax said Thursday that it would begin the final stages of testing its coronavirus vaccine in the United Kingdom and that another large trial was scheduled to begin next month in the United States. It is the fifth late-stage trial from a company supported by Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to speed a coronavirus…

Could Smart Technology Help Save the World’s Honey Bees?

CNN Business reports: Climate change, intensive agriculture, and the use of pesticides and fungicides in farming is ravaging the world’s bees. Commercial beekeepers in the United States lost 44% of their managed colonies in 2019, according to research from the University of Maryland. Now, technology startups are developing smart devices that give beekeepers access to detailed information about the state of…

Is Planet Nine a Black Hole?

“Astrophysicists have recently begun hatching plans to find out just how weird Planet Nine might be,” reports the New York Times. Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shares their report:
Although it is probably wishful thinking, some astronomers contend that a black hole may be lurking in the outer reaches of our solar system. All summer, they have been arguing over how to find…

The true polar wander of Jupiter’s moon Europa

Cracks in Europa’s surface indicate the moon’s outer ice shell has shifted by as much as 70 degrees over the past several million years. It’s the kind of movement you’d expect from a planetary crust floating on a subsurface ocean. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/europa-ice-shell-70-degree-shift-true-polar-wander…

These Five Learners Achieved Career Success after Earning a Professional IT Certificate from Google

COVID-19 has changed the world of work dramatically. Interviews and onboarding now happen virtually. Teams are distributed and working from home. Employee engagement is defined by on-screen interactions. For organizations of every size, across virtually every industry, adaptability and resilience are essential.   For people navigating this unfamiliar employment landscape, learning new skills and refreshing existing […]
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Some Scientists ‘Uneasy’ About the Race For a Covid-19 Vaccine

The Guardian ran an article by the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World looking at problems with our own race for a vaccine in 2020: On 2 August, Steven Salzberg, a computational biologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, suggested in Forbes magazine that a promising vaccine be rolled out to…

Should America Re-Open Its Movie Theatres?

70% of America’s movie theatres have now re-opened for business, reports NPR: “When our patrons come back, they’ll see the safe environment we’ve provided for them,” said John Fithian, president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners. Fithian invited two medical experts and the heads of the country’s biggest theater chains to launch a public awareness campaign dubbed “CinemaSafe,”…