Visa will no longer be buying fintech upstart Plaid, as the companies on Tuesday announced the “mutual termination” of the $5.3 billion agreement that was signed one year ago and opposed by U.S. antitrust regulators. From a report: This is more about the rising value of fintech companies than it is about the U.S. Justice Department. It also turns Plaid into…
Tag: split
New XPrize Challenge: Predicting Covid-19’s Spread and Prescribing Interventions
Slashdot reader the_newsbeagle shares an article from IEEE Spectrum:
Many associate XPrize with a $10-million award offered in 1996 to motivate a breakthrough in private space flight. But the organization has since held other competitions related to exploration, ecology, and education. And in November, they launched the Pandemic Response Challenge, which will culminate in a $500,000 award to be split between two…
What are degrees, arc minutes and arc seconds?
How do skywatchers measure distances in the night sky? Here’s how to understand it when they speak of objects as being several degrees (or several arc minutes or arc seconds) apart. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/sky-measurements-degrees-arc-minutes-arc-seconds…
New sunspot cycle could be among strongest on record
A study of oppositely charged magnetic field bands, moving in the sun’s northern and southern hemispheres, suggests the coming sunspot cycle – Cycle 25 – will be a particularly strong one. This result contradicts an earlier expert forecast, suggesting a weak Cycle 25. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/sunspot-cycle-25-among-strongest-on-record-says-ncar…
The world’s largest iceberg has just broken in two
A chunk of ice about the size of Queens and the Bronx combined has broken off what was, until this fracture, the world’s largest iceberg. Source: https://www.livescience.com/worlds-largest-iceberg-split-a68.html
Lockdown Gardening in Britain Leads To Archaeological Discoveries
Gardeners in Hampshire, a county in southeast England, were weeding their yard in April when they found 63 gold coins and one silver coin from King Henry VIII’s reign in the 16th century, with four of the coins inscribed with the initials of the king’s wives Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. From a report: The archaeological find was…
Why is the coronavirus pandemic so politically polarising?
Covid-19 continues to split some people along party lines. We are now beginning to work out why, writes Graham Lawton Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24833121-100-why-is-the-coronavirus-pandemic-so-politically-polarising/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Light-Based Quantum Computer Exceeds Fastest Classical Supercomputers
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Scientific American: For the first time, a quantum computer made from photons — particles of light — has outperformed even the fastest classical supercomputers. Physicists led by Chao-Yang Lu and Jian-Wei Pan of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Shanghai performed a technique called Gaussian boson sampling with their quantum…
Report Claims America’s CIA Also Controlled a Second Swiss Encryption Firm
Long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike brings this report from AFP:
Swiss politicians have voiced outrage and demanded an investigation after revelations that a second Swiss encryption company was allegedly used by the CIA and its German counterpart to spy on governments worldwide. “How can such a thing happen in a country that claims to be neutral like Switzerland?” co-head of Switzerland’s Socialist Party,…
Apple To Pay $113 Million Settlement Over Its iPhone ‘Batterygate’ Slowdowns
Apple is paying $113 million to settle an investigation by 34 states and the District of Columbia over the company’s practice of slowing down the performance of older iPhones when their batteries degrade. From a report: Apple’s moves weren’t announced by the company, but rather proven by internet sleuths. That led regulators and customers alike to criticize the company for not…