153726675
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phalse phace writes:
The dwindling populations of the American bumblebee and their complete disappearance from eight states has led to a call for the bee to be placed under the Endangered Species Act before they face extinction.
Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Idaho, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Oregon each have zero or close to zero American bumblebees left, according to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and Bombus Pollinators Association of Law Students.
Over the last two decades, the American bumblebee population has decreased by 89% across the U.S. New York had a decline of 99% and they disappeared from the northern part of Illinois that has seen a 74% decrease in population since 2004, the petition said.
Climate change, pesticides, disease, habitat loss and competition from honey bees are listed as driving the bee to extinction. The loss of the insect could cause serious repercussions to the environment and crop production due to them being essential pollinators in agriculture. If the American bumblebee is added to the endangered species list, it will join the rusty-patched bumblebee, and If granted federal protection, anyone found to have killed or harmed the bee could face up to $13,000 in fines.
153710921
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phalse phace writes:
"Facing a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China," Microsoft has decided to shut down LinkedIn.
The announcement follows the rebuke of LinkedIn executives by China’s internet regulator in March for failing to control political content and gave them 30 days to do so. In recent months, LinkedIn notified several China-focused human-right activists, academics and journalists that their profiles were being blocked in China, saying they contained prohibited content.
LinkedIn said it would replace its Chinese service, which restricts some content to comply with local government demands, with a job-board service lacking social-media features, such as the ability to share opinions and news stories.
153399567
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phalse phace writes:
During Tesla's shareholder meeting today, CEO Elon Musk announced that the company's headquarters will be moving from California to Texas, making good on his threat to do so after Alameda County officials blocked the full reopening of Tesla's Fremont plant.
Regardless of the move, Musk reiterated that Tesla would be increasing production at its California plant: “To be clear we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%. If you go to our Fremont factory it’s jammed.” He further added that “It’s tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away.... There’s a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area.”
The news comes almost a year after Musk revealed that he personally moved to Texas.
153392977
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phalse phace writes:
British Satellite broadcaster Sky is moving away from the satellite dishes that have defined its TV service for decades. Sky Glass is launching today, an ambitious effort to sell television sets that stream Sky TV content over Wi-Fi directly to consumers. There’s no external box, no satellite dish, and no need for a soundbar.
Although announced for the UK today, Sky has global aspirations for Glass TV “built on technology borne of the collaboration as part of the Comcast Corporation.” As such, we might be looking at the platform underpinning Comcast’s rumored XClass TVs for the US.
Sky Glass TVs will be available in three sizes: 43-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch. Each 4K TV will stream Sky’s TV channels, and integrates in voice control (Hello Sky) and 21 apps to access additional content like Netflix, Spotify, or Disney Plus. The price of a Sky Glass TV is designed to be baked into a monthly subscription to Sky’s TV service, known as Sky Ultimate TV, but you can also pay for the TV upfront if you want to lower the monthly costs.
152970667
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phalse phace writes:
Robert Leshner, the founder of Compound Labs, just sent out a tweet pleading its users to return the $90.1 million in COMP tokens it accidentally deposited to user accounts.
Users of the popular DeFi staking protocol received the platform's crypto tokens after a system upgrade went epically wrong.
As an incentive, Leshner told users to "keep 10% as a white-hat. Otherwise, it’s being reported as income to the IRS, and most of you are doxxed."
In another tweet Leshner explains what happened: "A few hours ago, Proposal 62 went into effect, updating the Comptroller contract, which distributes COMP to users of the protocol. The new Comptroller contract contains a bug, causing some users to receive far too much COMP. All supplied assets, borrowed assets, and positions are completely unaffected. Users don't have to worry about their funds; the only risk is that you (or another user) receives an unfairly large quantity of COMP."
152234735
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phalse phace writes:
Scientists at Purdue University have just created the whitest paint in the world. The scientists say that the paint is so white that it could eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning.
The paint reflects 98.1% of solar radiation while also emitting infrared heat. Because the paint absorbs less heat from the sun than it emits, a surface coated with this paint is cooled below the surrounding temperature without consuming power.
Using this new paint to cover a roof area of about 1,000 square feet could result in a cooling power of 10 kilowatts. Typical commercial white paint gets warmer rather than cooler. Paints on the market that are designed to reject heat reflect only 80% to 90% of sunlight and can’t make surfaces cooler than their surroundings.
Two features make this paint ultra-white: a very high concentration of a chemical compound called barium sulfate – also used in photo paper and cosmetics – and different particle sizes of barium sulfate in the paint, scientists at Purdue said.
151860083
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phalse phace writes:
Most don’t have bank passwords. Few have credit scores yet. And still, parts of the internet are awash in the personal information of millions of schoolchildren.
The ongoing wave of ransomware attacks has cost companies and institutions billions of dollars and exposed personal information about everyone from hospital patients to police officers. It’s also swept up school districts, meaning files from thousands of schools are currently visible on those hackers’ sites.
NBC News collected and analyzed school files from those sites and found they’re littered with personal information of children. Some of the data is personal, like medical conditions or family financial statuses. Other pieces of data, such as Social Security numbers or birthdays, are permanent indicators of who they are, and their theft can set up a child for a lifetime of potential identity theft.Link to Original Source
150464793
submission
phalse phace writes:
Chinese regulators on Tuesday issued a lengthy set of draft regulations for the internet sector, banning unfair competition and restricting the use of user data, the latest move in a crackdown on the country's powerful tech companies.
According to a document published on China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) website, business operators should not use data, algorithms or other technical means to hijack traffic or influence users' choices. They may also not use technical means to illegally capture or use other business operators’ data.
The regulator also said firms cannot use technological means to maliciously impose incompatible barriers to other legal internet products and services. It added that in cases involving violations, third-party institutions may be hired to audit data.
The proposed regulations come after SAMR imposed various restrictions and punishments on tech giants in an effort to restrict anti-competitive or monopolistic behaviour.Link to Original Source
150454901
submission
phalse phace writes:
U.S. officials on Monday declared the first-ever water shortage from a river that serves 40 million people in the West, triggering cuts to some Arizona farmers next year amid a gripping drought.
Water levels at the largest reservoir on the Colorado River — Lake Mead — have fallen to record lows, underscoring the acute water challenges for a region facing a growing population and a drought that is being worsened by hotter, drier weather brought on by climate change. Federal officials said Monday’s declaration makes clear that conditions have intensified faster than scientists predicted in 2019.
Water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the river’s two largest reservoirs, have been falling for years and faster than experts predicted. Scorching temperatures and less melting snow in the spring have reduced the amount of water flowing from the Rocky Mountains, where the river originates before it snakes 1,450 miles (2,334 kilometers) southwest and into the Gulf of California.Link to Original Source
149957263
submission
phalse phace writes:
In a sign of the region’s worsening drought, state water officials announced Thursday the shutdown of a major hydroelectric power plant at Lake Oroville in Northern California, citing the lowest-ever recorded water level at the reservoir.
It marks the first time that officials have been forced to close the Edward Hyatt Powerplant, which was completed in 1967, on account of low water at the lake. The loss of the hydroelectric power source at Lake Oroville, about 75 miles north of Sacramento, could contribute to rolling blackouts in the state during heat waves in coming months.
Officials had warned that once the water level in Lake Oroville fell to 640 feet above sea level, the plant could no longer produce power; at that level, the water cannot reach the intake pipes that flow toward the underground hydroelectric facility.
On Thursday, Lake Oroville was at 641 feet with 863,516 acre-feet of storage, which is 24% of its overall capacity and 34% of its historical average for this time, according to the Department of Water Resources.
The Hyatt plant is designed to produce up to 750 megawatts of power but has often generated 100 to 400 megawatts, or slightly less than 1% of the state’s average daily peak usage.
149097705
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phalse phace writes:
Portions of the Amazon rainforest are now releasing more carbon dioxide than they absorb, disrupting an important balancing act that signals a worsening of the climate crisis, according to a new study.
Findings from the nearly decade-long research project, published Wednesday in the journal Nature , suggest that deforestation and fire, among other factors, have dramatically undercut the Amazon's ability to absorb heat-trapping carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
Researchers who routinely tested the atmosphere at four areas in Amazonia twice a month over a nine-year period found that not only are carbon emissions higher in the eastern areas of the rainforest than in the western areas, but that the southeastern area is putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than it absorbs. The eastern Amazon is a hotspot of deforestation to facilitate logging and agriculture, including cattle ranches.
In addition to deforestation and fires, the study says the rise in emissions from the Amazon has been accelerated by warming temperatures and "moisture stress" during the dry season. The eastern areas have less moisture than the west during already-difficult dry periods, which now have become drier and have lasted longer due to climate change.
149084247
submission
phalse phace writes:
During an analyst call for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd's quarterly earnings, TSMC chairman Mark Liu signaled that they are looking into building new factories in the United States and Japan.
"TSMC said it will expand production capacity in China and does not rule out the possibility of a 'second phase' expansion at its $12 billion factory in the U.S. state of Arizona."
Furthermore, "the CEO on Thursday revealed TSMC is currently conducting 'due diligence' on whether to build a fab in Japan, which would mark a strategically important geographic expansion for the chipmaker. Any Japan fab will be for “specialty technology” — a term that usually refers to mature node chips that serve specific or niche markets, Liu said, adding that there is no final decision yet."
149019449
submission
phalse phace writes:
A new production problem has surfaced with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, further delaying deliveries of the popular wide-body jets. The new problem surfaced on part of the aircraft known as the forward pressure bulkhead at the front of the plane, people familiar with the matter said. It involves the skin of the aircraft and is similar to a previously disclosed Dreamliner issue found elsewhere on the planes. It surfaced as part of the FAA’s review of Boeing’s quality checks on newly produced, undelivered planes. Engineers at Boeing and the FAA are trying to understand the defect’s potential to cause premature fatigue on a key part of the aircraft’s structure. The FAA said the newly discovered quality issue on certain 787s posed no immediate safety threat.
The current Dreamliner delivery halt follows a five-month delivery pause from last fall through this spring. That led to a pileup of around 100 planes by the end of April, many of which Boeing had hoped to deliver by year-end. Boeing said Tuesday it expected to deliver less than half its 787 inventory this year. It delivered 14 Dreamliners as of the end of June.
The delivery pause is another setback for the aerospace company, which has been grappling with various problems in its commercial, defense and space programs in recent years. It is also choking off an important source of cash as Boeing tries to overcome twin crises that resulted from two fatal crashes of its 737 MAX aircraft in late 2018 and early 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic’s hit to aircraft demand.
149019053
submission
phalse phace writes:
2021 is turning out to be an even strong year for vinyl album sales than in 2020.
In the first six months of 2021, 19.2 million vinyl albums were sold, outpacing CD volume of 18.9 million, according to MRC Data, an analytics firm that specializes in collecting data from the entertainment and music industries. That is a 108% increase from the 9.2 million that were sold during the same period in 2020.
And according to MRC Data, Record Store Day 2021 helped to sell 1.279 million vinyl albums in the U.S. in the week ending June 17, a record for a Record Store Day week and the third-largest week for vinyl album sales since MRC Data began electronically tracking sales in 1991. Further, with 942,000 vinyl albums sold at independent record stores in the week ending June 17, that marks the largest week ever for the format at the indie sector in MRC Data history.
148671750
submission
phalse phace writes:
A rupture in an underwater gas pipeline operated by Mexico's state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos caused a fire to erupt in the ocean west of the Yucatan Peninsula.
The fire took more than five hours to fully put out, according to Pemex. It began in an underwater pipeline that connects to a platform at Pemex’s flagship Ku Maloob Zaap oil development, the company’s most important, four sources told Reuters earlier. Ku Maloob Zaap is located just up from the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico.
Pemex, which has a long record of major industrial accidents at its facilities, added it also shut the valves of the 12-inch-diameter pipeline.
