Experian Challenged Over Massive Data Leak in Brazil

Experian may be in trouble again — this time in Brazil. ZDNet reports on “the emergence of a leak that exposed the personal data of more than 220 million citizens and companies, which is being offered for sale in the dark web.” After receiving feedback from Experian over a massive data leak in Brazil, São Paulo state consumer rights foundation Procon…

Tomorrow is New Year’s Day on Mars

Mars Year 36 begins on February 7, 2021. If you’re looking for a reason to celebrate, here’s to a Happy New Year … on Mars. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/mars-calendar-years-began-in-earth-year-1955…

Are We Experiencing a Great Software Stagnation?

Long-time programmer/researcher/former MIT research fellow Jonathan Edwards writes a blog called “Alarming Development: Dispatches from the User Liberation Front.” He began the new year by arguing that software “is eating the world. But progress in software technology itself largely stalled around 1996.” Slashdot reader tonique summarizes Edwards’ argument:
In 1996 there were “LISP, Algol, Basic, APL, Unix, C, Oracle, Smalltalk, Windows, C++,…

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…

China Rises as World’s Data Superpower as Internet Fractures

Back in 2001, the U.S. was the dominant country when it came to cross-border data flows. It was the early days of the internet boom, and America was where tech companies and tech-savvy consumers were. But the global data order is changing rapidly. From a report: China now accounts for 23% of cross-border data flows, nearly twice the share of the…

So How Good Is Edge on Linux?

“No one asked Microsoft to port its Edge browser to Linux,” writes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at ZDNet, adding “Indeed, very few people asked for Edge on Windows. “But, here it is. So, how good — or not — is it..?” The new release comes ready to run on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE Linux distributions… Since I’ve been benchmarking web browsers…

Top 10 things to know about asteroid Bennu

Take a video tour of asteroid Bennu’s remarkable terrain and read a list of 10 cool things scientists know about this pristine remnant from the early days of our solar system. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/top-10-things-to-know-about-asteroid-bennu-video-tour…

Are there active geysers at Enceladus’ north pole?

Water-vapor geysers erupt from cracks at the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Scientists using Cassini data now have evidence for fresh ice at the moon’s north pole, too. Could it be more geysers for this fascinating ice moon? Source: https://earthsky.org/space/fresh-ice-enceladus-north-pole-geologic-activity…

The detection of phosphine in Venus’ clouds is a big deal

Here’s how we can find out if it’s a sign of life. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/detection-phosphine-venus-clouds-sign-of-life…