First evidence of planet-wide groundwater system on Mars

Mars Express has revealed the first geological evidence of a system of ancient interconnected lakes that once lay deep beneath the Red Planet’s surface, five of which may contain minerals crucial to life. Mars appears to be an arid world, but its surface shows compelling signs that large amounts of water once existed across the planet.
Read more: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express/First_evidence_of_planet-wide_groundwater_system_on_Mars?source=Snapzu

Amazon’s Project Zero will let brands remove counterfeit listings of their products

Amazon wants to cut down on fake listings.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/28/18244603/amazon-project-zero-counterfeit-listing-remove-products?source=Snapzu

Why Startups Fail and How to Avoid It

Founding a startup in the modern world is becoming increasingly difficult. Between fierce competition for venture capital, market share and new challenges presented by an ever-changing business environment, entrepreneurs are regularly stepping headfirst into unclear waters when they decide to create their startup and naturally quite a lot of them fail. In this post, we will be exploring some of the reasons why.
Read more: https://startupstash.com/why-startups-fail/?source=Snapzu

Cultured meat seems gross? It's much better than animal agriculture

The world is in the grips of a food-tech revolution. One of the most compelling new developments is cultured meat, also known as clean, cell-based or slaughter-free meat. It’s grown from stem cells taken from a live animal without the need for slaughter. Proponents hail cultured meat as the long-awaited solution to the factory farming problem. If commercialized successfully, it could solve many of the environmental, animal welfare and public health issues of animal agriculture while giving consumers exactly what they’re used to eating.
Read more: https://theconversation.com/cultured-meat-seems-gross-its-much-better-than-animal-agriculture-109706?source=Snapzu

Age of Anxiety

Authors have many images to describe distorted mental states, but that of a glass enclosure, which warps vision and sound, is among the most common. In his searing essay on the loss of his daughter, Aleksandar Hemon uses the metaphor of an aquarium to describe the detached sensations caused by profound grief. Sylvia Plath’s titular bell jar is her symbol for the airless perceptions of suicidal depression.
Read more: https://newrepublic.com/article/153153/age-anxiety?source=Snapzu

Police in Canada Are Tracking People’s ‘Negative’ Behavior In a ‘Risk' Database

Police, social services, and health workers in Canada are using shared databases to track the behaviour of vulnerable people—including minors and people experiencing homelessness—with little oversight and often without consent. Documents obtained by Motherboard from Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) through an access to information request show that at least two provinces—Ontario and Saskatchewan—maintain a “Risk-driven Tracking Database” that is used to amass highly sensitive information about people’s lives.
Read more: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/kzdp5v/police-in-canada-are-tracking-peoples-negative-behavior-in-a-risk-database?source=Snapzu

The US Army wants to turn tanks into AI-powered killing machines

A new initiative by the US Army suggests “another significant step towards lethal autonomous weapons,” warns a leading artificial-intelligence researcher who has called for a ban on so-called “killer robots.” The Army Contracting Command has called on potential vendors in industry and academia to submit ideas to help build its Advanced Targeting and Lethality Automated System (ATLAS), which a Defense Department solicitation says will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to give ground-combat vehicles autonomous targeting capabilities.
Read more: https://qz.com/1558841/us-army-developing-ai-powered-autonomous-weapons/?source=Snapzu

Viral 'Momo challenge' is a malicious hoax, say charities

Groups say no evidence yet of self-harm from craze, but resulting hysteria poses a risk
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/28/viral-momo-challenge-is-a-malicious-hoax-say-charities?source=Snapzu

Flexible Smartphones Enter the Mass Market in 2019

Last 10 years, the design of smartphones virtually did not change. Only certain details were changed: the diagonal of the display, the size of the frames and the number of camera modules. But it seems that in 2019 the era of identical smartphones ended and global manufacturers decided to surprise us with new, futuristic products. In this article we will talk about the new trend called flexible smartphones, we will know what they are, how they can be used in practice and how much they cost.
Read more: https://thecoinshark.net/flexible-smartphones-enter-the-mass-market-in-2019/?source=Snapzu

Hackers Made $300k in Bitcoin to Keep Dirty Online Secrets

A new type of scam has emerged in which fraudsters attempt to solicit a Bitcoin ransom from victims by claiming to have incriminating videos.Security experts warn about ‘Sextortion,’ a new form of crypto scam that was first reported in 2017 and gained popularity in 2018. Last week, a UK-based cybersecurity company Digital Shadows published research investigating this new phenomenon. The experts of digital risk protection detailed how cybercriminals have diversified their blackmailing methods.
Read more: https://beincrypto.com/hackers-want-bitcoin-to-keep-your-dirty-online-secrets/?source=Snapzu

Why it takes a supercomputer to map a mouse brain

Inside a 25,000 square foot room within Argonne National Laboratory one of the most formidable supercomputers in the world — Theta — is applying its incredible computing power to the largest batch of data ever recorded or analyzed. It’s information that researchers hope might one day contribute to our understanding of intelligence itself.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/27/18241492/brain-map-supercomputer-mouse-national-lab-chicago-theta?source=Snapzu

More than 6K suspension orders to go out to Waterloo region students over vaccines

More than 6,000 school suspension notices will go out to parents in Waterloo region this week — all over vaccination records. Region of Waterloo Public Health officials said a total of 6,129 suspension orders will go out and parents will have until March 26 to provide proof of immunization or a valid exemption to avoid suspension. Suspensions can last up to 20 days.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/vaccination-suspensions-waterloo-region-students-1.5034242?source=Snapzu

Microsoft will reportedly announce two next-gen Xbox consoles in June

The clearest indication yet that this console generation is winding down came last year when Sony revealed it would not be in attendance at E3 2019. This will mark the first time Sony has ever missed the show, and while that might put a damper on the excitement level for many gamers, it also creates an opening for Microsoft and Nintendo to steal the spotlight. And based on a new report, Microsoft will be taking full advantage of that opportunity.
Read more: https://bgr.com/2019/02/25/microsoft-xbox-2020-reveal-e3-2019-halo-infinte/?source=Snapzu

AI may replace today's jobs, but imagine a teacher for every student and no lines for the doctor

The president of Silicon Valley's most prominent start-up incubator says that artificial intelligence will probably replace most of the jobs people do today, but should pave the way for more personalized jobs and a massive increase in "material abundance" that could boost the size of the global GDP by 50 percent a year within decades. Sam Altman is the leader of Y Combinator, and has also been engaged with projects to predict and shape the long-term future of technology.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/26/sam-altman-on-ai-jobs-may-go-away-but-massive-abundance-likely.html?source=Snapzu

Chinese engineers look to graphene to drive deep space exploration

A two-dimensional form of carbon known as graphene might one day help power space exploration into the unknown universe, say Chinese space engineers. Graphene, which is just one atom thick, could enable light-powered propulsion technology leading to fuel-free spacecraft. Traditional spacecraft depend on chemical propellants, and the amount they carry determines how far they can fly, said Song Shengju, the research leader at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.
Read more: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinese_engineers_look_to_graphene_to_drive_deep_space_exploration_999.html?source=Snapzu

A major chemical company is building roads made of recycled plastic. They've already stopped 220,000 pounds of waste from ending up in landfills.

Plastic gets a bad rap for clogging up landfills, polluting our oceans, and leaking toxic chemicals, but there may be ways to mitigate its damage. Beginning in 2017, one of the world's largest plastic producers, Dow Chemical, began building roads with recycled plastic as a way to reduce waste. Their combined efforts have saved 220,000 pounds of waste from ending up in landfills.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/dow-chemical-recycled-plastic-streets-2019-2?source=Snapzu

Rotten Tomatoes Is A Good Website (You're Just Using It Wrong)

Rotten Tomatoes announced on Monday that it will be making some big changes to its site in the coming months. At least some of it aimed at curbing online trolls who have been known to bombard certain big movies (especially films with female and/or minority leads) with copious negative audience reactions in order to tilt the media narrative. The first big change is that users will no longer be able to essentially "review" a movie or comment on a film before they open in theaters.
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/02/27/rotten-tomatoes-captain-marvel-star-wars-last-jedi-ghostbusters-disney-box-office/#2d4801f317aa?source=Snapzu

The most popular Porsche is going electric

Porsche is upping its bet on electric vehicles. The German luxury carmaker said Tuesday that it will release an electric version of the Macan SUV, its most popular model, in the next few years. Production of the "fully electric" Macan is set to start "early in the next decade," Porsche said in a statement. It will be manufactured at the company's existing plant for the Macan in Leipzig, Germany.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/26/business/porsche-macan-electric-car/index.html?source=Snapzu

Former FCC Chair Tom Wheeler Says the Internet Needs Regulation

Big telecom networks and platforms such as Google and Facebook are centralizing the internet, former FCC Chair Tom Wheeler says.
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/former-fcc-chair-tom-wheeler-says-internet-needs-regulation/?source=Snapzu

Critically-endangered Madagascan tortoises hatch at Chester Zoo

Two critically-endangered tortoises the size of golf balls have hatched at Chester Zoo. The infants, born to mum Smoothsides, 50, and dad Burt, who is 75, are the first of their kind to be bred at the zoo for seven years. The radiated tortoises are being cared for in a climate-controlled breeding facility. They will eventually grow up to half a metre long and could live to be 100.
Read more: https://news.sky.com/story/critically-endangered-madagascan-tortoises-hatch-at-chester-zoo-11648663?source=Snapzu

Yeast produce low-cost, high-quality cannabinoids

Scientists alter yeast metabolism to produce THC, CBD and other cannabis derivatives
Read more: https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/02/27/yeast-produce-low-cost-high-quality-cannabinoids/?source=Snapzu

Tobacco plants transformed into ‘green bioreactors’ to benefit human health

Researchers at Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute are using tobacco plants as ‘green bioreactors’ to produce an anti-inflammatory protein with powerful therapeutic potential. The plants are being used to produce large quantities of a human protein called Interleukin 37, or IL-37. The protein is naturally produced in the human kidney in very small quantities and has powerful anti-inflammatory and immune-suppressing properties, providing potential for treating a number of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders like type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and arthritis.
Read more: https://mediarelations.uwo.ca/2019/02/26/tobacco-plants-transformed-green-bioreactors-benefit-human-health/?source=Snapzu

Teaching scientists how to share code

Would it surprise you to learn that most of the world's scholarly research is not owned by the people who funded it or who created it? Rather it's owned by private corporations and locked up in proprietary systems, leading to problems around sharing, reuse, and reproducibility.
Read more: https://opensource.com/article/19/2/open-science-git?source=Snapzu

Honda owners fined by HOA because car left suggestive shape in parking lot

A Tennessee homeowner’s association (HOA) just tried to fine a couple US$100 for the phallic shape their Honda Insight left in a snowy parking lot after they moved their car. The Honda’s owner, Kathryn, explains on reddit’s /f***HOA subreddit how their condo complex’s HOA stuck her and her husband with the fine almost a week after their development was hit by the wintry weather.
Read more: https://driving.ca/honda/auto-news/news/honda-owners-fined-by-hoa-because-car-left-suggestive-shape-in-parking-lot?source=Snapzu

Elon Musk on Moon Bases, Mars, and How Not to Be Vaporized

In January, we ran an exclusive interview with Elon Musk in which he explained, for the first time, his full thinking—and the complex engineering questions—behind his decision to construct SpaceX’s Starship rocket and booster with stainless steel. The previous design for the rocket (which was then known as the BFR) had called for carbon fiber, but Musk recalculated and went with steel due to its durability, cost-effectiveness, and ductility.
Read more: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a26513651/elon-musk-interview-spacex-mars/?source=Snapzu

Death from above: Boeing unveils autonomous fighter jet

Military contractor Boeing announced Wednesday that it is developing an autonomous fighter jet plane that it plans to sell to customers around the world. The company plans to fly the pilot-free plane, dubbed the Boeing Airpower Teaming System, sometime in 2020. While the company says it can design the plane according to a given customers needs, the autonomous jet may be particularly well-suited for long-distance surveillance missions that a human pilot may not be able to perform, according to Reuters.
Read more: https://futurism.com/boeing-unveils-autonomous-fighter-jet?source=Snapzu

Canadian Dairy Farmers Forced To Remove Lying Adverts Claiming Milk Contains No Growth Hormones

Canadian dairy farmers have been forced to pull adverts which falsely claimed there are no growth hormones in their milk. The adverts, which had been running nationwide, prompted complaints to Advertising Standards Canada - the advertising industry's self-regulating body. According to the Plant Food Council, all dairy naturally contains growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which is intended to promote rapid growth in calves, as well as large amounts of estrogens and progesterone as cows on large farms are milked throughout pregnancies.
Read more: https://www.plantbasednews.org/post/canadian-dairy-farmers-remove-lying-adverts-milk-no-growth-hormones?source=Snapzu

New 'Dune' games are on their way after almost 20 years

It's a good time to be a Dune fan. Not only is the classic sci-fi novel getting a movie remake in 2020 courtesy of Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve, but it looks like there's a series of new games on the way, too. TechRadar reports that Legendary Studios -- which owns the film rights to the Dune franchise -- has signed a six-year deal with Funcom, the company responsible for Conan Exiles (and its questionable anatomy-based physics engine).
Read more: https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/27/new-dune-games-funcom-legendary/?source=Snapzu

99.9999 percent chance we're the cause of global warming, study says

There's a 99.9999 percent chance that humans are the cause of global warming, a new study reported Monday. This means we've reached the "gold standard" for certainty, a statistical measure typically used in particle physics. Humanity burns fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, which release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the Earth's atmosphere and oceans. CO2 is the greenhouse gas that's most responsible for warming.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/02/26/global-warming-99-9999-percent-chance-humans-cause/2994043002/?source=Snapzu

US reportedly took Russian trolls offline on Election Day in 2018

The US agency responsible for military cyber operations cut off internet connectivity at the Internet Research Agency in Russia on the day of the 2018 midterm elections, according to a report in The Washington Post on Tuesday. The US Cyber Command "basically took the IRA offline," according to an unnamed source that spoke with the Post.
Read more: https://www.cnet.com/news/us-reportedly-took-russian-trolls-offline-on-election-day-2018/?source=Snapzu

New Orleans reduced homelessness by 90% (and saved a fortune) by giving homeless people homes

Homelessness in New Orleans spiked after Hurricane Katrina, reaching 11,600 by 2007; today that number has been reduced by 90%, thanks to a "housing first" (previously) approach that starts by giving homeless people stable, permanent housing, and then addressing confounding factors like mental illness and substance addiction (on the grounds that these conditions are easier to treat when people have stable housing).
Read more: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/26/are-there-no-workhouses-7.html?source=Snapzu

New Jupiter photo from NASA’s Juno spacecraft is utterly gorgeous

Our Solar System is full of planets and moons that are quite interesting, varying from dusty rock worlds like Mars to frigid collections of methane lakes like on Saturn’s moon Titan. But of all the objects orbiting the Sun, Jupiter has to be the most interesting to look at. There’s just so much going on in its swirling clouds that you could stare forever and never get bored.
Read more: https://bgr.com/2019/02/26/jupiter-photo-juno-nasa-new/?source=Snapzu

Lake Erie just won the same legal rights as people

Ohio voters passed groundbreaking legislation that allows citizens to sue on behalf of the lake when it’s being polluted.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/2/26/18241904/lake-erie-legal-rights-personhood-nature-environment-toledo-ohio?source=Snapzu

Dave Bautista on Defending 'Guardians of the Galaxy Director' James Gunn: "If I'm Not the Guy Who Defends My Friends, Who Am I?"

In a new interview, Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista has once again doubled down on his support for fired director James Gunn, saying essentially that there was really no other option. Bautista previously railed against Disney for firing the Guardians of the Galaxy director, threatening to walk away from his contract if the studio did not use Gunn's script for the third installment, which has been delayed indefinitely as they look for a new director.
Read more: https://comicbook.com/marvel/2019/02/27/david-bautista-james-gunn-defense-guardians/?source=Snapzu

Renewable energy policies actually work

For most of the industrial era, a nation's carbon emissions moved in lock step with its economy. Growth meant higher emissions. But over the past decade or so, that has changed. Even as the global economy continued to grow, carbon emissions remained flat or dropped a bit.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/renewable-energy-policies-actually-work/?source=Snapzu

Facebook’s Patreon competitor is a bad deal for creators

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audience is coming from. To find out more or to opt-out, please read our Cookie Policy. In addition, please read our Privacy Policy, which has also been updated and became effective May 23rd, 2018.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/2/26/18241756/facebook-fan-subscriptions-patreon-pages?source=Snapzu

Fiat Chrysler: $4.5B plan would add 6,500 Detroit-area jobs

Fiat Chrysler on Tuesday announced a $4.5 billion plan that includes building the first new auto assembly plant in Detroit in almost three decades and increasing its workforce in the area by about 6,500 jobs, an investment officials touted as an uncommon opportunity to revive the region’s economy.
Read more: https://apnews.com/07cf471f57234d3a8e4d1a729cd0347d?source=Snapzu

World's smallest baby boy returns home healthy: Japanese university

Keio University in Tokyo says a baby with a birth weight of 268 grams has returned home healthy from its hospital after increasing to a weight of 3,238 grams, becoming the smallest boy in the world to have survived.
Read more: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2019/02/0adad94078e3-worlds-smallest-baby-boy-returns-home-healthy-japanese-university.html?source=Snapzu

Fat rat stuck in manhole rescued by firefighters in Germany

A multi-agency rescue operation has taken place in the town of Bensheim in Germany after a tubby rat became stuck in a manhole cover. The rat, still plump with winterspeck – which translates literally as winter bacon and refers to extra pounds piled on in the colder months – became stuck after it tried to squeeze through a small gap in the sewer cover.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/27/fat-rat-stuck-in-manhole-rescued-by-firefighters-in-germany?source=Snapzu

The school climate change strikes are inspiring – but they should shame us

Such is the upside-down, topsy-turvy state of our world, that the children are now the adults and the adults are the children. In Westminster, our supposed leaders – men and women of mature vintage – keep stamping their feet and demanding what no one can give them.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/15/young-climate-change-greta-thunberg-children?CMP=share_btn_tw?source=Snapzu

Hellboy, The Kitchen and Shaft All Get R Ratings

Three anticipated movies received R ratings today. We’ll kick things off with Lionsgate’s Hellboy, which received an R rating for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, and language. That’s good news for fans looking forward to the April 12 release! In the Neil Marshall-directed film, based on the graphic novels by Mike Mignola, Hellboy, caught between the worlds of the supernatural and human, battles an ancient sorceress bent on revenge.
Read more: https://www.vitalthrills.com/2019/02/26/hellboy-the-kitchen-shaft-r-ratings/?source=Snapzu

‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Renewed For Two Seasons By Fox

Fox has ordered more helpings of Gordon Ramsay. The network said today that it has renewed Hell’s Kitchen for two seasons, which will be the cooking-competition series’ 19th and 20th.
Read more: https://deadline.com/2019/02/hells-kitchen-renewed-two-seasons-gordon-ramsay-fox-1202565839/?source=Snapzu

Former Hacking Team Members Are Now Spying on the Blockchain for Coinbase

Last week, cryptocurrency industry giant Coinbase sparked outrage when it announced that it had purchased a small startup called Neutrino. Normally, such an acquisition wouldn’t make many waves, but Neutrino isn’t your average startup. The company was founded by three former employees of Hacking Team, a controversial Italian surveillance vendor that was caught several times selling spyware to governments with dubious human rights records, such as Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.
Read more: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3bn5e/coinbase-neutrino-former-hacking-team-members?source=Snapzu

Space agencies preparing for 3-year round-trip journey to Mars

Getting to Mars is a journey that could involve 140 million miles of travel. Astronauts on a Mars mission will be subjected to extreme conditions requiring problem-solving skills and creative thinking. How are we preparing for a Mars mission?
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/science/space-agencies-preparing-for-3-year-round-trip-journey-to-mars/article/543897?source=Snapzu

'Making a Murderer' Subject Steven Avery Wins Right to Appeal

Steven Avery, the subject of "Making a Murderer," is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach
Read more: https://www.thewrap.com/making-a-murderer-subject-steven-avery-wins-right-to-appeal/?source=Snapzu

Man buys $540 in cookies so Girl Scouts can get out of cold weather

According to WYFF, members of a Greenville, South Carolina, Girl Scout troop were selling cookies outside a grocery store last week when the generous stranger approached. "This man purchased 7 packs of cookies. Gave the girls $40, told them to keep the change.
Read more: https://www.wsbradio.com/news/national/man-buys-540-cookies-girl-scouts-can-get-out-cold-weather/NX3LQGBgIT3KrJuXLFlP3L/?source=Snapzu

Huawei: “The US security accusation of our 5G has no evidence. Nothing.”

Huawei’s rotating chairman Guo Ping kicked off a keynote speech this morning at the world’s biggest mobile industry tradeshow with a wry joke. “There has never been more interest in Huawei,” he told delegates at Mobile World Congress. “We must be doing something right!” The Chinese company is seeking to dispel suspicion around the security of its 5G network equipment which has been accelerated by U.S. president Trump who has been urging U.S. allies not to buy kit or services from Huawei. (And some, including Australia, have banned carriers from using Huawei kit.)
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/26/huawei-the-us-security-accusation-of-our-5g-has-no-evidence-nothing/?source=Snapzu

The Tiny Swiss Company That Thinks It Can Help Stop Climate Change

Just over a century ago in Ludwigshafen, Germany, a scientist named Carl Bosch assembled a team of engineers to exploit a new technique in chemistry. A year earlier, another German chemist, Fritz Haber, hit upon a process to pull nitrogen (N) from the air and combine it with hydrogen (H) to produce tiny amounts of ammonia (NH₃). But Haber’s process was delicate, requiring the maintenance of high temperatures and high pressure.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/magazine/climeworks-business-climate-change.html?source=Snapzu

America Is an Oligarchy. It Doesn’t Have to Be.

The United States is the richest society in human history. As is well-known by most of the people who live in it, it’s also a country of deep and abiding inequality. Just three billionaires own more wealth than the 160 million poorest Americans combined and the wealthiest of them — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — pockets more money every sixty seconds than the typical American household earns in a year and a half.
Read more: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/us-oligarchy-wealthy-billionaires-democracy?source=Snapzu

Why are millennials burned out? Capitalism.

“If Millennials are different, it’s not because we’re more or less evolved than our parents or grandparents, it’s because they’ve changed the world in ways that have produced people like us.” That’s how Malcolm Harris, an editor at the online magazine the New Inquiry, begins his book Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials. It’s a smart, contrarian look at the social and economic problems plaguing millennials — defined as people born between 1980 and 2000.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/2019/2/4/18185383/millennials-capitalism-burned-out-malcolm-harris?source=Snapzu