Who’s Actually To Blame For the Texas Power Disaster?

With millions of Texans still without power in the wake of a winter storm and frigid temperatures, everyone is looking for someone to blame. From a report, shared by a reader: Many Democrats are blaming Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for failing to adequately prepare for the storm. Many conservatives are blaming the environmental movement — insisting that frozen wind turbines show…

Our interview with 5-time NBA All-Star Chris Webber about his Sports Activism online course, new on Coursera

By Shantelle Williams-Valadié, BOLD ERG Chair and Associate Director, University Partnerships, Coursera In the 1968 Olympics, medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos punched defiant fists into the summer air, decrying oppression of Black communities in the country whose colors they wore on their tracksuits. The act seized the world of sports and was widely condemned […]
The post Our interview with 5-time…

How Our Brutal Science System Almost Cost Us a Pioneer of mRNA Vaccines

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: As the first COVID-19 vaccines arrived at Penn Medicine last year, Penn Today reported with great pride, “It was mRNA research conducted at Penn—by Drew Weissman, a professor of Infectious Diseases, and Katalin Karikó, an adjunct associate professor—that helped pave the way for the development of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines.” While Weissman and Karikó…

What has Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission accomplished?

A small capsule from Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully landed in a sparsely populated desert in the Australian Outback on Sunday. After a preliminary inspection, it will be flown to Japan for research. The extremely high precision required to carry out the mission thrilled many in Japan, who said they took pride in its success. The project’s manager, Yuichi Tsuda of the…

Third Monolith Reappears, Fourth and Fifth Monoliths Discovered

“People taking a stroll on Sunday morning stumbled upon another mysterious monolith,” reports Insider.com. “This one was found in a northern province of the Netherlands.”
The monolith was covered in ice and surrounded by a small pool of water, according to local reports. The hikers told the Dutch paper Algemeen Dagblad that they’re not sure how the monolith got there. They said…

LA To Launch First ‘Transportation Technology Innovation Zone’

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced last week the city’s first Transportation Technology Innovation Zone, an area where innovators can test their transportation technology solutions. Archinect reports: Located in the West San Fernando Valley, the zone is the result of a partnership between Mayor Garcetti and City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, “designed to transform Warner Center into one of L.A.’s mobility innovation and workforce…

To Avoid Prison For Leaving Bad Hotel Reviews Online, An American in Thailand Must Apologize

The New York Times reports:
He’s very, very sorry. But the hotel in Thailand that threatened an American guest with prison for his bad reviews may end up with bigger regrets. Wesley Barnes, the American guest, publicly apologized on Friday for his blunt online reviews of the Sea View Koh Chang resort in Thailand. In exchange, the hotel promised it would drop…

Joe Biden’s Team Brings Digital Campaign Signs To ‘Animal Crossing’

Beginning today, Animal Crossing: New Horizons players can add official Biden-Harris campaign signs to their island yards. Engadget reports: At the moment, there are four sign designs — the official Biden-Harris logo, the Team Joe logo, a “Joe” Pride logo and an image of red, white and blue aviators. To add the signs to their yards, players will scan QR codes…

UAE Successfully Launches Hope Probe, Arab World’s First Mission To Mars

The first Arab space mission to Mars has blasted off aboard a rocket from Japan, with its unmanned probe — called Al-Amal, or Hope — successfully separating about an hour after liftoff. The Guardian reports: The Emirati project is one of three racing to Mars, including Tianwen-1 from China and Mars 2020 from the United States, taking advantage of a period…

Most Dedicated VPN IP-Addresses Are Not Anonymous

“Many VPN services advertise themselves as ideal tools to offer security, privacy, and anonymity. To ensure the latter, they often have no-logging policies to prevent individual users from being exposed,” writes Ernesto Van der Sar via TorrentFreak. “However, this is not necessarily true for the small group that use dedicated or static IP-addresses.” From the report: Today, most of the top…