An enormous swarm of locusts could descend on East Africa | Fast Company

June 9, 2020June 8, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As COVID-19 cases grow in East Africa, massive swarms of locusts are also growing—with a new wave of breeding insects poised to put nearly five million people in the area at risk of hunger and famine.

The locust outbreak began last year, likely driven in part by the fact that climate change is causing heavy rainfall and warmer temperatures that help the insects thrive. But it could soon become much worse. By the middle of June, according to a new report from the International Rescue Committee, a new round of hatching could result in swarms that are 8,000 times larger than swarms earlier this year.

Kitty Hawk Has Scrapped One of Its Flying-car Projects | Digital Trends

June 5, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Kitty Hawk is done with its Flyer single-person flying machine, saying this week that it’s learned all it can from the project.

Led by Google co-founder Larry Page and Sebastian Thrun, who helped to launch Google’s autonomous car unit (now Waymo), the California-based company said it will turn its attention to developing its more advanced — and more powerful — Heaviside electric aircraft.

Flyer first hit our radar in 2017, around the time that the idea of small “flying cars” for urban transportation really began to gain traction.

Coronavirus: ‘I may lose it all, but there’s no help for me’ | BBC News

June 4, 2020June 3, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Layla Barnes is one among many thousands of small business owners left financially and emotionally devastated by more than ten weeks of government-imposed lockdown.

She was forced to close her Doncaster-based beauty therapy and training business which was profitable in February before lockdown began.

Yet the government’s excluded Layla, 30, and her limited company from any form of crisis-related support, forcing her onto benefits of £408 per month.

University entrepreneurship — without the university | TechCrunch

June 3, 2020June 3, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Across the country, university campuses are in limbo.

The California State University system has committed to online classes in Fall 2020. Northeastern University is reopening as normal. UT Austin is taking a hybrid approach: in-person classes until Thanksgiving break, then online classes during flu season.

This presents a special set of circumstances for university entrepreneurs. The traditional resources and networks are nonoperational. But time and focus, historically the most scarce resources for ambitious students, is now at an all-time high.

Facebook and Twitter clash over fact-checking as Trump threats intensify | CNN

May 29, 2020May 28, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For years, Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB) have enjoyed a healthy rivalry: They’ve competed for acquisitions, talent and advertising dollars, and sometimes gone so far as to copy each others’ features in the never-ending pursuit to grow their audiences.

But the clash between the two tech companies appeared to take on new life this week after Twitter’s decision to place fact-check labels on some of President Donald Trump’s tweets sparked a series of threats, including an imminent executive order regulating social media companies.

The CEOs of the two companies traded criticisms in public. Former employees posted their own jabs on social media. And some legislators were quick to highlight the differences between the approach Twitter and Facebook took, potentially only adding to the tensions.

HBO Max vs. HBO Now: What if you use an unsupported device? | Fast Company

May 27, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Streaming TV, once heralded as a high-tech liberator that would save us from the headaches of big cable bundles, just got another big cable-like bundle yesterday with the launch of HBO Max.

WarnerMedia’s long-awaited rival to heavy hitters like Netflix and Disney Plus includes a broad mix of movies and TV shows from the Warner and HBO libraries, along with exclusive offerings you can find only on Max. It costs $14.99 a month and you can cancel it at any time.

Boeing Slashes Over 12,000 Jobs, With More Cuts Coming | Forbes

May 27, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Boeing announced Wednesday that the company is cutting over 12,000 jobs—most of those in the Seattle area—as the beleaguered air manufacturer deals with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic that’s at times seen air travel drop over 90% compared to 2019.

The company plans to lay off 6,770 U.S. workers this week, with another 5,520 workers being asked to take buyouts in coming weeks.

Biden wants Amazon to ‘start paying their taxes’ | CNN

May 22, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Amazon (AMZN) should “start paying their taxes” in a broader critique of large, successful businesses.

“I don’t think any company, I don’t give a damn how big they are, the Lord Almighty, should absolutely be in a position where they pay no tax and make billions and billions and billions of dollars,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said in an interview with CNBC on Friday.

For the 2017 and 2018 tax years, Amazon’s own financial filings showed that it expected to receive money back from the federal government, not that it owed money in income tax. For the 2019 tax year, Amazon said it owed more than $1 billion in federal income tax, a figure experts said amounted to little more than 1% of its profits.

The coronavirus ‘does not spread easily’ from touching surfaces or objects, CDC says | Live Science

May 22, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The new coronavirus “does not spread easily” from touching surfaces or objects, according to updated wording on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website.

This change was made on May 11 without an announcement from the organization, according to NBC News. The change, which was made during an internal review of their website, was meant to “clarify other types of spread beyond person to person,” CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund told NBC News.

But there doesn’t appear to be any new data on how infectious viral particles are on surfaces, according to NBC News.

Student Loan Servicers Are Dinging Credit Reports For The CARES Act Forbearance | Forbes

May 20, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Robert P., a student loan borrower from Queens, New York, was surprised to find out that this credit score had dropped by 100 points after his federal student loans serviced by Great Lakes Higher Education were automatically placed into a forbearance. This happened following passage of the CARES Act. Another borrower named Ashley Higgins experienced a credit score drop during the same time period and told a local news affiliate about what happened. Other borrowers (who wished to remain anonymous) have reported similar credit score hits, as well.