$100 billion was spent building the International Space Station — including 42 different assembly flights, reports Recode. Yet “after two decades in orbit, the International Space Station will shut down,” as NASA re-focuses on sending humans back…
Radio Telescope Reveals How Lightning Begins
“Scientists have never been able to adequately explain where lightning comes from,” writes Quanta magazine, sharing a remarkable new animation of a lightning flash recorded by the LOFAR radio telescope network”
In a new paper that will soon be publish…
Linux 5.17 To Introduce A New Driver Just To Deal With Buggy x86 Tablets
Phoronix reports:
The Linux 5.17 kernel when it kicks off next month is slated to introduce a new driver “x86-android-tablets” just for dealing with all the quirky/buggy x86 tablets out there.
Longtime Linux developer Hans de Goede of Red Hat has bee…
DuckDuckGo Search Queries Grew 47% in 2021
“The privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo continues to grow rapidly, with the company now averaging over 100 million daily search queries and growing by almost 47% in 2021…” reports BleepingComputer:
In 2020, DuckDuckGo received 23.6 billion tot…
Concerns About Big Tech’s Next Potential Monopoly: Connected Cars
Politico reports:
When Ford announced that starting in 2023 its cars and trucks would come with Google Maps, Assistant and Play Store preinstalled, CEO Jim Farley called the partnership between his iconic U.S. automaker and the search giant a chance t…
X-ray Analysis Confirms Forged Date On Lincoln Pardon of Civil War Soldier
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln pardoned a soldier in the Civil War, and in 1998 that document was re-discovered. But “It was the date that made the document significant,” writes Ars Technica: April 14, 1865, “meaning the pardon was likely one of the la…
Habitat for Humanity Just Delivered Its First 3D Printed Home in the US
The nonprofit Habitat for Humanity uses volunteer labor to build homes with affordable mortgages for families in need (who also invest hundreds of hours of their own labor) — or to renovate or repair/improve existing homes.
But this week saw th…
Is the Video Game Industry Closer to Unionization Than Ever Before?
“Video game companies in North America have never successfully unionized,” reports the Washington Post. “That changed December 16, when a union at the indie developer Vodeo Games was recognized by management.”
While video game companies rake in bil…
Employee Background Check Errors Harm Thousands of Workers
Slashdot reader dcblogs writes: Criminal background checks that incorrectly identify an applicant as a thief or sex offender happen more often than many expect. This story reviewed more than 75 lawsuits against background checks firms, spoke with plain…
Google Scans Gmail and Drive For Cartoons of Child Sexual Abuse
A Forbes associate editor covering privacy, cybercrime, and security/surveillance reports on a recently-revealed search warrant.
Instead of investigating a photo, it asked Google to provide information on a suspect who allegedly owned graphic illegal…