During these unprecedented times of the COVID-19 lockdown, trying to work poses huge challenges for us all. For those that can, remote working is now pretty much the norm, but this is obviously not possible for everybody. One might assume that like many industries, the construction and testing of satellites has been put on hold, but engineers and scientists are finding…
Tag: unprecedented
How Kickstarter’s New Union Negotiated Terms For Pandemic-Related Layoffs
“The COVID crisis has led to a 35% drop in live projects” says Kickstarter communications officer David Gallagher — who points out that fees on those projects are the company’s sole source of income. This led Kickstarter’s CEO to announce “sweeping layoffs of up to 45 percent of employees,” the union of Kickstarter employees tells Gizmodo. (Though Gallagher says the final…
Canon’s New Software Will Turn Select EOS, PowerShot Cameras Into Webcams for Windows 10 PCs
An anonymous reader shares a report: As more and more people desire higher-quality video communication over internet while working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for webcams has increased dramatically, triggering incredibly high prices, sometimes three to four times over MSRP. And that’s if you can find one at all. To help bridge a growing gap, Canon has…
Facing Criticism, Germany Switches to Google/Apple’s Decentralized Contact Tracing
“Germany changed course on Sunday over which type of smartphone technology it wanted to use to trace coronavirus infections,” reports Reuters, “backing an approach supported by Apple and Google along with a growing number of other European countries.” Chancellery Minister Helge Braun and Health Minister Jens Spahn said in a joint statement that Berlin would adopt a “decentralised” approach to digital…
Air Pollution Falls By Unprecedented Levels In Major Global Cities During Coronavirus Lockdowns
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Lockdowns restricting travel and industry imposed to halt the spread of coronavirus have resulted in unprecedented reductions in deadly air pollution around the world, new analysis shows. Major cities that suffer from the world’s worst air pollution have seen reductions of deadly particulate matter by up to 60% from the previous year, during…
The Jury Is Still Out On Zoom Trials
As cities across the United States continue shelter-in-place orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some in-person court proceedings are now taking place over Zoom. “It’s an unprecedented moment for the justice system, which is typically slow to adapt to new technology,” writes Zoe Schiffer from The Verge. “No one is sure if that’s a good thing.” From the report: Critics worry…
Launching New Content As More Learners Move Online: 2 Degrees, 8 MasterTracks, and 100 Guided Projects
By Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO Coursera The profound impact of COVID-19 has forced us to rethink many aspects of our lives. Overnight, the global education system had to find ways to mitigate the impact of more than 1.5 billion students seeing their campuses closed. Since then, it has been heartwarming to witness the heroic efforts of […]
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Will Comic Books Survive Coronavirus?
As Marvel cuts staff and publishers stop selling new titles, artists, shop owners and writers worry for the future of an industry worth billions. From a report: There are no new comic books. Steve Geppi, head of Diamond Comic Distributors, which distributes nearly every comic sold in the anglophone world (or used to), announced this on 23 March, though senior industry…
Quantum entanglement offers unprecedented precision for GPS and more
Your phone’s GPS, the Wi-Fi in your house and communications on aircraft are all powered by radio-frequency, or RF, waves, which carry information from a transmitter at one point to a sensor at another. The sensors interpret this information in different ways. For example, a GPS sensor uses the angle at which it receives an RF wave to determine its own…
Mild Disney+ Censorship ‘Hides a Much Bigger Problem’
There’s a scene in the 1984 Tom Hanks movie Splash “showing a brief glimpse of a naked butt…” notes the Verge, “but people watching the movie on Disney Plus are greeted with an entirely different version of the scene.” And the Verge sees a larger issue: Disney used CGI hair to cover actress Daryl Hannah’s body. A Disney representative confirmed to…