Giant sunspot doubled in size in 24 hours, and it’s pointing right at Earth | Live Science

June 30, 2022June 28, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A gigantic sunspot has swelled to twice Earth’s size, doubling its diameter in 24 hours, and it’s pointed right at us.

The sunspot, called AR3038, grew to 2.5 times Earth’s size — making the sunspot roughly 19,800 miles, or 31,900 kilometers, in diameter — from Sunday (June 19) to Monday night (June 20), according to Spaceweather.com, a website that tracks news about solar flares, geomagnetic storms and other cosmic weather events.

Sunspots are dark patches on the sun’s surface where powerful magnetic fields, created by the flow of electric charges from the sun’s plasma, knot before suddenly snapping. The resulting release of energy launches bursts of radiation called solar flares and generates explosive jets of solar material called coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Millions of children could soon lose access to free school meals | Fast Company

June 29, 2022June 28, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Hulu Kaopio-Camvel lives on the quiet, outer-Hawaiian island of Molokai, which is only 38 miles long and has a population of 7,000. All groceries come to the island via a barge. Since it’s the only option, residents often feel the shock of food prices, especially with inflation. And during the height of the pandemic and supply chain shortages, the boat sometimes didn’t even make it to shore. “Just to get a gallon of milk was crazy,” she says. What used to cost $8.99 has now surged to $12.99 with inflation. So, for her three school-age kids, the free breakfasts and lunches provided at school were a lifesaver.

The national school breakfast and lunch programs, administered by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and which have stringent income-eligibility criteria, are typically reserved for families at or below 130% of the federal poverty line. But in March 2020, Congress waived those qualification tests to provide families financial relief during the pandemic, and that allowed every child in America to access free breakfast and lunch—an estimated 30 million kids in total. Lawmakers have extended the waiver twice since. But after opposition from Republican lawmakers, members removed a provision from the latest federal budget that would have extended the program through the forthcoming school year. (It wasn’t until June 25, five days before the program was set to expire, that President Biden was able to sign a brief summer extension into law after Congress finally agreed on it.)

6 Tips On How To Use Technology To Improve Your Business | The Startup Magazine

June 24, 2022June 22, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Technology has come a long way, and there are now countless ways for businesses to use it to improve their operations. In this blog post, we will discuss six tips on how businesses can use technology to become more efficient and productive. Whether you are just starting out or you have been in business for years, these technology tool tips will help you take your business to the next level!

1. Use online tools to manage your calendar and schedule appointments

To-do lists can be helpful, but they can also be overwhelming. If you find yourself constantly putting things off until later, try using an online calendar to stay on top of your tasks. You can set reminders for yourself and

Use the calendar to plan your week. This will help you make sure that you’re using your time wisely and getting things done.

There are a number of different online tools that you can use for this, so find one that works best for you and your business. If you’re not sure where to start, try using Google Calendar or Asana. Both of these tools are free to use and easy to get started with.

Apple is finally getting serious about removing junk messages | TechCrunch

June 23, 2022June 22, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Apple has just rolled out the second developer beta for iOS 16, and the first thing that’s caught our eye is revamped message filtering. With this update, the company has signaled that it’s getting serious about streamlining your SMS-based messages.

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s being included in the new update:

The new update allows developers of filter extensions — like the one built by Truecaller, or Apple’s own SMS filter available in India and Brazil — to classify non-personal messages into 12 sub-categories within “Transactions” and “Promotions.” The Transactions category includes Finance, Reminders, Orders, Health, Public Services, Weather, Carrier, Rewards, and Others; the Promotions category includes Offers, Coupons, and Others.

The Ghost of Internet Explorer Will Haunt the Web for Years | WIRED

June 22, 2022June 20, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

AFTER YEARS OF decline and a final wind-down over the past 13 months, on Wednesday Microsoft confirmed the retirement of Internet Explorer, the company’s long-lived and increasingly notorious web browser. Launched in 1995, IE came preinstalled on Windows computers for almost two decades, and like Windows XP, Internet Explorer became a mainstay—to the point that when it was time for users to upgrade and move on, they often didn’t. And while last week’s milestone will push even more users off the historic browser, security researchers emphasize that IE and its many security vulnerabilities are far from gone.

SpaceX Breaks Two Major Records After Latest Flight in What Elon Musk Calls a ‘Flawless’ Mission | Entrepreneur

June 22, 2022June 20, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The impressive feat — most flights are spaced out at least a full day apart, with many averaging between five and seven days — made it the fastest three-flight series for orbital rockets in the history of space exploration.

The company’s Falcon 9 rocket is also breaking records, as it was used for the 13th time this weekend, making it SpaceX’s most launched spaceship.

SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida Friday, followed by a launch out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Saturday for the German military. The final mission was back in Florida Sunday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying a satellite to orbit for communications company Globalstar.

5 signs the housing market is starting to slow down | CNN

June 21, 2022June 20, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There is a shift happening in the housing market.

After more than a year of soaring demand, exploding home prices and increasing real estate sales, the market finally seems to be cooling off.

“The housing market isn’t crashing, but it is experiencing a hangover as it comes down from an unsustainable high,” said Taylor Marr, Redfin deputy chief economist.

Mortgage rates have increased more than two and a half percentage points this year. And the higher costs of financing a home have changed the calculations for many would-be homebuyers. As a result, year-over-year home sales have been dropping in recent months.

In a Fannie Mae survey on homebuyer sentiment, a record 79% of respondents said it’s a bad time to buy a home.

US House Passes 7 Small Business Bills – 2 for PPP and EIDL Loan Fraud | Small Business Trends

June 16, 2022June 14, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The slew of bills includes legislation to extend the statute of limitations on small business pandemic fraud cases, enhance workforce development offerings, and improve the procurement process for small businesses. Among the bills passed two would establish a ten-year statute of limitations for prosecutions related to fraud related to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL).

“These seven bills will help make key SBA programs more secure, accessible, and focused on the most pressing challenges for small firms”, said Chairwoman Nydia M. Velázquez of New York.

What are the resolutions?

The bills are designed to promote policies that encourage small business development, hold small business pandemic fraudsters accountable, develop the small business workforce, and support small contractors doing business with the federal government.

T-Mobile just achieved 3Gbps 5G speeds without mmWave | Digital Trends

June 15, 2022June 14, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

T-Mobile is setting out to prove that carriers don’t need to deploy extremely high-frequency mmWave technology to get blazing fast speeds. Thanks to Carrier Aggregation technology, the “Un-carrier” has demonstrated performance of 3Gbps download speeds on good old-fashioned low-band and mid-band 5G channels.

In a press release today, T-Mobile revealed that it has reached these unprecedented speeds for the first time ever on a commercial device; in this case, a Samsung Galaxy S22 powered by a Snapdragon X65 modem. “This test demonstrates the incredible power of mid-band spectrum and represents another huge step forward for stand-alone 5G,” said Neville Ray, President of Technology at T-Mobile.