Gold Rush, Mercury Legacy
With the popularity of the TV show, gold fever is still in vogue. But legacy concerns with Mercury still persist. Artisanal mining might sound quaint, but it is usually criminal activity and results in widespread environmental damage. It also is the largest source of mercury pollution in the world today, far exceeding other activities such as…
SpaceX Launch
Hopefully, the launch won’t be scrubbed. They are fueling it now and the escape system has been powered up. UPDATE – the launch was scrubbed. Rescheduled for Saturday. You can watch it live here.
An electric vehicle with only four moving parts?
The next time you might be considering an F-150, Silverado or Ram pickup, Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns wants you to know what they have up their sleeve. “This is a car without a gear, without a transmission and a drive axle, so there is nothing down the middle of the car. The only four moving parts…
GM Nears Million-Mile Battery
That’s not how long it can go on one charge 😉 GM has announced that it is making major strides and is “almost there” in developing a battery that will last a million miles. Teams at GM are also reportedly working on development of “zero-cobalt electrodes, solid state electrolytes and ultra-fast charging,” says Reuters. For…
Study Says Robots Incompetent, Unfunny
Was that ever in doubt? The team initially set out to test gender bias in robots. For example, did people find robots with a female persona to be less competent at jobs than robots with male personas? While the researchers couldn’t find any significant sexism, they did stumble onto a few new findings: robots are…
The one benefit of COVID-19? Pollution Reduction
According to researchers, Coronavirus lockdowns have caused a whopping 17% drop in global carbon emissions. The coronavirus lockdowns have had an “extreme” effect on daily carbon emissions, causing a whopping 17% drop globally during peak confinement measures by early April – levels last seen in 2006. However, it is unlikely to last, according to a…
Samsung has plans to launch a debit card
Samsung is bolstering its digital payments platform to offer users a debit card. The South Korean tech giant announced that it’s teaming up with the fintech company SoFi to launch a Samsung Pay debit card later this year. The move comes almost a year after Apple launched its Apple credit card in a partnership with…
Microsoft enables a feature to block ‘reply-all’ email storms
LOL…the bane of many offices, the “Reply All” function of email. Microsoft is rolling out a solution to the “reply-all” email problem that has plagued offices for more than a decade. The tech giant flipped the switch on a new Office 365 feature that enables customers to detect and halt “reply-all email storms” – situations…
Salvaged Tesla Parts Contained Owner Data
And another thing to worry about… CNBC recently reported that Teslas that were totaled in crashes still retained a lot of the valuable data being stored on their CPUs and that one hacker-slash-Tesla-enthusiast has uncovered some serious vulnerabilities after buying some used Tesla computer systems from auction sites. For more, check out this IEN story.
Unlocking iPhones with face masks on
A developer beta for next iOS update will help iPhone users unlock phones with face masks on. For iPhone users, using Face ID to unlock their phones was turning into a hassle now that face masks are necessary to perform essential tasks, but Apple will soon fix that problem. On Wednesday, Apple released the developer…