Asteroid dust in Chicxulub crater seals deal on dino extinction

Scientists examined rock cores taken from the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, site of the asteroid impact that triggered dinosaur extinction, and found iridium, a telltale sign of asteroids. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/asteroid-dust-iridium-chicxulub-crater-dinosaur-extinction…

Disney CEO Suggests There’s No ‘Going Back’ To Pre-COVID Film Releases

As Disney prepares to release “Raya and the Last Dragon” in theaters and as a premium on-demand title this Friday, CEO Bob Chapek says that he thinks the experimentation his studio and others in Hollywood are doing with releasing movies during the pandemic will permanently change the movie business. From a report “The consumer is probably more impatient than they’ve ever…

Volkswagen CEO Says He’s Not Scared of Apple

Volkswagen’s CEO Herbert Diess isn’t intimidated by Apple, even though the tech company potentially has an electric car on the way. From a report: “The car industry is not a typical tech sector that you could take over at a single stroke,” Diess said in an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Apple will not manage that overnight.” For years,…

Best Story Wins

Morgan Housel, on the art and power of storytelling: C. R. Hallpike is a respected anthropologist who once wrote a review of a young author’s recent book on the history of humans. It states: “It would be fair to say that whenever his facts are broadly correct they are not new, and whenever he tries to strike out on his own…

AI Is Being Used to Screen Job Applicants

The BBC reports on “the computers rejecting your job application,” noting that applicants are now being screened with AI-scored tests that involve counting dots in boxes and matching emotions to facial expressions: The questions, and your answers to them, are designed to evaluate several aspects of a jobseeker’s personality and intelligence, such as your risk tolerance and how quickly you respond…

The iPhone 12 Mini Was Apple’s 2020 Sales Flop

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Bad news for lovers of smaller phones: the iPhone 12 mini has sold poorly compared to other phones in the iPhone 12 lineup — poorly enough that analysts wonder whether Apple will remain committed to the smaller phone design moving forward. A data firm called Counterpoint Research found that the iPhone 12…

The DeLorean Might Be Coming Back As an Electric Car

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: The DMC DeLorean has been out of production for almost 40 years, but now we’ve learned that the iconic vehicle might be coming back as an electric car. In 1995, Stephen Wynne bought the company’s old inventory and trademark to relaunch the brand based in Texas. At first, the plan was to bring…

GM Reveals Electric Van and Delves Into Flying Cars

General Motors unveiled a new electric van and revealed potential plans to delve into flying cars, sending its stock soaring by as much as 8.8% to $48.95 a share. CNBC reports: The EV600 electric van is scheduled to go on sale later this year through a new commercial business unit of GM’s called BrightDrop. The division is planning a full portfolio…

Elon Musk Claims Full Recovery From Covid-19, Analyst Upgrades Tesla’s Stock Forecast

Slashdot reader Charlotte Web quote The Street: Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that he has “fully” recovered from his bout with a mild fever or cold about a week after he took to Twitter to say he tested positive for coronavirus… [T]his week, Musk took a more reliable PCR test that he said showed “unequivocal” evidence that he had Covid… On…

How C++ Programming Language Became the Invisible Foundation For Everything, and What’s Next

The origins of C++ date back 40 years, yet it remains one of the most widely used programming languages today. TechRepublic spoke to C++ creator, Bjarne Stroustrup, to find out why. An excerpt from the interview: Today, Stroustrup is a Technical Fellow at Morgan Stanley. His work with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the C++ standard and on the…