The Trump administration says that Chinese payment apps, including WeChat Pay, are a threat to national security. By Executive Order, all US transactions with these apps must cease within 45 days. AppleInsider reports: President Trump has issued an Executive Order banning US transactions with a range of Chinese payment platform apps from February 18, 2021. The order says this “aggressive action”…
Tag: property
‘Companies Are Fleeing California. Blame Bad Government.’
Bloomberg Editorial Board: Amid raging wildfires, rolling blackouts and a worsening coronavirus outbreak, it has not been a great year for California. Unfortunately, the state is also reeling from a manmade disaster: an exodus of thriving companies to other states. In just the past few months, Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it was leaving for Houston. Oracle said it would decamp for…
DHS Is Looking Into Backdoors In Smart TVs By China’s TCL
chicksdaddy shares a report from The Security Ledger: The acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the agency was assessing the cyber risk of smart TVs sold by the Chinese electronics giant TCL, following reports last month in The Security Ledger and elsewhere that the devices may give the company “back door” access to deployed sets, The Security…
AI Solves Schrodinger’s Equation
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: A team of scientists at Freie Universitat Berlin has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) method for calculating the ground state of the Schrodinger equation in quantum chemistry. The goal of quantum chemistry is to predict chemical and physical properties of molecules based solely on the arrangement of their atoms in space, avoiding the…
How Amazon Wins: By Steamrolling Rivals and Partners
The Wall Street Journal: To keep customers happy, which Mr. Bezos has long said is Amazon’s fixation and growth strategy, executives behind the scenes have methodically waged targeted campaigns against rivals and partners alike — an approach that has changed little through the years, from diapers to footwear. No competitor is too small to draw Amazon’s sights. It cloned a line…
How the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Fought the Pandemic
In a long article titled “Gates versus the Pandemic,” Fast Company looks at the many mitigation efforts launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. – It’s one of the largest funders of the World Health Organization. – It’s partnered with the governments of Norway and India, the World Economic Forum, and the research-charity Wellcome Trust to launch an important group…
Enhanced interactions through strong light-matter coupling
Why do two-dimensional exciton-polaritons interact? The exciton-polariton quasiparticle is part light (photon), and part matter (exciton). Their excitonic (matter) part confers them the ability to interact with other particles, a property lacking to bare photons. …
Plastic Pipes Are Polluting Drinking Water Systems After Wildfires
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Conversation: When wildfires swept through the hills near Santa Cruz, California, in 2020, they released toxic chemicals into the water supplies of at least two communities. One sample found benzene, a carcinogen, at 40 times the state’s drinking water standard. Our testing has now confirmed a source of these chemicals, and it’s clear…