Category: News and Views

Pier 1 files for bankruptcy | CNN

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Pier 1, the troubled home furnishings retailer that has closed hundreds of stores in recent years, filed for bankruptcy Monday.

The company, based in Fort Worth, Texas, released a statement saying that it reached a plan with lenders to provide it with $256 million. It will try to find a buyer for the company.

Pier 1 (PIR) previously announced it will close up to 450 stores, including all its locations in Canada. Around 400 stores have already closed or started going-out-of-business sales, according to the statement.

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Hackers could shut down satellites — or turn them into weapons | Live Science

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Last month, SpaceX became the operator of the world’s largest active satellite constellation. As of the end of January, the company had 242 satellites orbiting the planet with plans to launch 42,000 over the next decade. This is part of its ambitious project to provide internet access across the globe. The race to put satellites in space is on, with Amazon, U.K.-based OneWeb and other companies chomping at the bit to place thousands of satellites in orbit in the coming month.

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Reusable packaging delivery service Loop is expanding to stores | Fast Company

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A year ago, a coalition of some of the world’s biggest brands embarked on an experiment: If they started selling everyday products like shampoo in reusable, returnable packaging instead of single-use plastic, would customers buy it? Could a modern version of the milkman model—where customers shop online, and then return empty containers via UPS to be cleaned and refilled for a new customer—make business sense?

For brands, the new platform, called Loop, was a radical step to test fundamental changes to how they package and deliver products, driven by consumer pressure to deal with the problem of plastic pollution. The first pilots started in May 2019. The tests have been successful enough that the system is now rapidly expanding and will soon launch in retail stores.

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Trump Calls For End To Student Loan Forgiveness Program

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President Trump wants to end a popular student loan forgiveness program.

Here’s what you need to know.

End Student Loan Forgiveness

Trump’s new annual budget calls for several changes to student loans, which are part of a $5.6 billion cut in funding to the U.S. Education Department. As in previous years, Trump repeated his call to end public service loan forgiveness. Under Trump’s proposed budget, if passed by Congress, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program would be eliminated.

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Solar Orbiter Mission Will Capture Images of the Sun’s Poles | Digital Trends

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On Sunday, February 9, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are banding together to launch a new mission to study our sun up close: The Solar Orbiter, which will peer at previously unseen areas of the sun to learn about the complex inner life of our star.

The mission will go where no observer has gone before: Over the north and south poles of the sun. Imaging the poles is particularly important for modeling space weather, as this requires an accurate model of the entire magnetic field of the sun. Additionally, the poles are thought to play a role in the cycle of sunspots — dark blotches that appear on the surface of the sun and which come and go in an approximately 11-year cycle. Scientists still have no idea why this 11-year cycle exists, but looking at the magnetic fields of the poles could provide an answer.

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Uber sees path to profit despite $1.1bn loss | BBC News

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Uber’s business continues to grow, but so do its losses.

The firm lost $1.1bn (£851m) in the last three months of 2019, even as revenue jumped 37% to $4bn and the number of trips made on its platform rose by 28%.

Spending to expand its Uber Eats food delivery business hurt the firm’s bottom line.

Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi said he was “gratified” with the progress the firm is making toward profitability.

Adjusted for items such as taxes, the core “ride” part of the business turned a profit in the last three months of last year.

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Iowa Misinformation Spreads Online, Despite New Policies | WIRED

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Since 2016, social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have vowed to crack down on misinformation related to elections. Monday, they faced their first big test, when delayed results from the Iowa Democratic caucus gave rise to partisan infighting, rampant misinformation, and conspiracy theories. Unsurprisingly, things didn’t exactly go according to plan. Twitter struggled to contain viral electoral misinformation and unfounded accusations of vote rigging from Trump allies, while Facebook grappled with disinformation.

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Amazon’s Ring doorbell update allows opt out of all video requests | Mashable

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After a wave of bad press involving police partnerships, hacking, and other privacy violations, Amazon’s Ring doorbell has released an update.

On Friday, the smart device’s mobile app rolled out a new control center that grants users more authority over their privacy and security settings. You’ll now be able to add and remove shared users on an account, restrict third-party access, view two-factor authentication settings, and (perhaps, most importantly) opt out of all video request notifications from law enforcement.

Uncovered in reporting by Motherboard and Gizmodo in 2019, the scale of Amazon’s Neighbor Portal program is much larger than originally believed — and its various affiliations with law enforcement has raised alarming ethical questions.

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