An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: The U.S. National Labor Relations Board has started a new investigation into Google’s labor practices. An agency spokesperson confirmed to CNBC Monday that the probe, which will include whether Google violated labor laws when it recently fired four employees, has officially commenced. It will also look at whether Google discouraged employees from engaging…
Tag: settlement
ESA studies human hibernation for space travel
In movies and books, fictional astronauts enter ‘suspended animation’ to cross the vastness of space. Recently ESA investigated how real-life crew hibernation would impact a space mission to Mars. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/esa-study-human-hibernation-trip-to-mars…
Walmart Reaches Settlement With Tesla Over Solar Panel Fires, Drops Lawsuit
Walmart has dropped a lawsuit that accused Tesla of breach of contract and gross negligence after rooftop solar panel systems on seven of the retailer’s stores allegedly caught fire. TechCrunch reports: A settlement has been reached and stipulation of dismissal has been filed with the court, a Walmart spokesperson said in an email. It is unclear what the settlement entails. TechCrunch…
Scientists Think They’ve Found ‘Mitochondrial Eve’s’ First Homeland
Using genetic data from 1,200 modern indigenous Africans, researchers believe they’ve pinpointed the location of the first permanent human settlement, which thrived 200,000 years ago. Source: https://www.livescience.com/mitochondrial-eve-first-human-homeland.html
America’s Trade Commission Accused of ‘Rewarding Bad Actors’ Posting Fake Online Reviews
Ars Technica quotes the CEO of a fraudulent-review tracking company who says that fake reviews online have now reached ‘epidemic proportions”. But two U.S. regulators say that’s just the beginning:
Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Slaughter of the Federal Trade Commission say it’s about to get a lot worse, and they know who to blame: their own agency. The FTC this week…
Samsung Owes Galaxy S4 Owners $10 For Cheating On Benchmarks
Three years after a class-action lawsuit was filed against Samsung for artificially boosting CPU and GPU performance to report inflated benchmark scores, a settlement has been reached to fine the company for its infraction. Android Police reports: Samsung finds itself on the hook for paying $13.4 million in damages, breaking down to $2.8 million for settlement costs and $10.6 million for…
Drought reveals a lost Spanish Stonehenge
Thanks to 2019’s record drought in Europe, a 7,000-year-old circle of 150 upright stones is back on dry land in western Spain, after 50 years underwater. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/drought-reveals-spanish-stonehenge-dolmen-guadalperal…
Google To Pay $1 Billion in France To Settle Fiscal Fraud Probe
Google agreed to pay close to 1 billion euros ($1.10 billion) to French authorities to settle a fiscal fraud probe that began four years ago in a deal that may create a legal precedent for other large tech companies present in the country. From a report: French investigators have been seeking to establish whether Google, whose European headquarters are based in…
YouTube’s Fine Criticized As Proof US Government Is ‘Not Serious’ About Big Tech Crackdown
YouTube’s $170 million fine for illegally collecting data on children “shows the US government is not serious about a Big Tech crackdown,” argues an article at CNBC: The FTC’s new settlement with YouTube over alleged violations of child privacy rules is just a fraction of the revenue its parent company generates in a single day. Shares of Google parent company Alphabet…
Silicon Valley Heavyweights Fire Up Plan For an Open Lunar Settlement
pacopico writes: Aerospace technology has gotten better. The price of rocket launches has come down. So much so that a group of space friends in Silicon Valley now think it’s possible to create their own settlement on the moon for less than $3 billion. They’ve formed a non-profit called the Open Lunar Foundation that looks to begin launching probes to the…