According to a collection of internal emails recently released by lawmakers, as part of the House Judiciary Committee’s antirust probe into Apple, a series of Amazon advertisements prompted Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller to block in-app purchases of Kindle books on iOS. 9to5Mac reports: As it stands today, the Kindle app for iPhone and iPad does not allow users to purchase…
Tag: versa
US Adults Who Mostly Rely On Social Media For News Are Less Informed, Exposed To More Conspiracies: Study
According to a new report from Pew Research, U.S. adults who get their news largely from social media platforms tend to fllow the news less closely and end up less informed on several key subjects when compared to those who use other sources, like TV, radio, and news publications. TechCrunch reports: The firm first asked people how they most commonly get…
Earth’s magnetic field may change faster than we thought
A long-standing question has been how fast Earth’s magnetic field can change. The authors of a new study say they’ve uncovered some answers. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/earths-magnetic-field-change-faster-thought…
Police Surveilled Protests With Help From Twitter-Affiliated Startup Dataminr
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Intercept: Leveraging close ties to Twitter, controversial artificial intelligence startup Dataminr helped law enforcement digitally monitor the protests that swept the country following the killing of George Floyd, tipping off police to social media posts with the latest whereabouts and actions of demonstrators, according to documents reviewed by The Intercept and a source…
New Exotica Catalog will help guide search for ET
“What if extraterrestrial intelligences are not like us, but are found in the frigid reaches of the outer solar system, the extreme gravity of neutron stars, the brilliant cores of active galaxies, or the hearts of the richest galaxy clusters?” Source: https://earthsky.org/space/the-breakthrough-listen-exotic-target-catalog-seti-extraterrestrial-intelligence…
Plastic Rain In Protected Areas of the United States
Writing today in the journal Science, researchers report a startling discovery: After collecting rainwater and air samples for 14 months, they calculated that over 1,000 metric tons of microplastic particles fall into 11 protected areas in the western U.S. each year. That’s the equivalent of over 120 million plastic water bottles. Wired: To quantify just how bad the problem has become…
Middle of eclipse season June 20
When the lunar nodes point directly at the sun on June 20, 2020, the event will mark the middle of the eclipse season. Shortly thereafter, an annular eclipse of the sun will take place on June 21, 2020. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/middle-of-eclipse-season-june-20…
Parkinson’s disease may spread from brain to gut and vice versa
Research in baboons suggests that misfolded proteins linked to Parkinson’s disease can travel from the brain to gut and vice versa – with both routes causing equal amounts of brain cell death Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2244765-parkinsons-disease-may-spread-from-brain-to-gut-and-vice-versa/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Software Bug In Bombardier Airliner Made Planes Turn the Wrong Way
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: A very specific software bug made airliners turn the wrong way if their pilots adjusted a pre-set altitude limit. The bug, discovered on Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft fitted with Rockwell Collins Aerospace-made flight management systems (FMSes), led to airliners trying to follow certain missed approaches turning right instead of left — or vice…
Redox-Flow Cell Stores Renewable Energy As Hydrogen
An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: Hydrogen is a very good carrier for this type of work,” says Wei Wang, who is the chief scientist for stationary energy storage research at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington. It’s an efficient energy carrier, and can be easily stored in pressurized tanks. When needed, the gas can then be…