Coast

SpaceX ignored last-minute warnings from the FAA before December Starship launch

Elon Musk’s company was told SN8’s launch would violate its FAA license, but SpaceX launched anyway Minutes before liftoff, Elon Musk’s SpaceX ignored at least two warnings from the Federal Aviation Administration that launching its first high-altitude Starship prototype last December would violate the company’s launch license, confidential documents and letters obtained by The Verge… Read more

The latest tool in fighting wildfires is homes that won’t burn

A home Homebound Inc. is rebuilding stands under construction after it was destroyed in the Tubbs Fire in the Fountain Grove neighborhood of Santa Rosa, California, on September 16th, 2020.Photo by Michael Short / Bloomberg via Getty Images Building codes are on the frontlines of California’s fire fight With wildfires raging more uncontrollably in the… Read more

Windows 11: What We Know About Microsoft’s Likely Next OS

Microsoft is getting ready to announce the biggest update to Windows since Windows 10’s debut in 2015, and even though the company hasn’t officially revealed anything about this update, all signs point to it offering a significantly different experience for PC users. In fact, the update is supposed to be so radical that it could… Read more

Record Store Day 2021’s official beer is available today – and it’s for charity

Home News (Image credit: Meantime, Record Store Day) Record Store Day 2021, which brings together over 250 independent record shops across the UK, is gearing up for two big drops on Saturday 12th June and Saturday 17th July. And for the first time, Meantime Brewing Company is proud to become the ‘Official Beer Partner’ for… Read more

San Jose approves Google’s gigantic and controversial new downtown campus

After first proposing it in 2017, Google has received unanimous approval from the San Jose City Council to move forward with its Downtown West development plan, CNBC reports. The company and city have reached an agreement to develop around 80 acres of land in downtown San Jose, California that will also serve as a mixed-use… Read more

Government decides pipeline cybersecurity ought to be regulated

The hack of the Colonial Pipeline — which kneecapped oil availability on the East Coast for almost two weeks — was as disastrous as it was likely preventable. A branch of the Department of Homeland Security, however, is hoping to correct course by changing the rules on cybersecurity and disclosure for Colonial and other companies… Read more

Joe Biden opens up California coast to offshore wind

Offshore wind is headed west. The Biden administration announced today that it will open up parts of the Pacific coast to commercial-scale offshore renewable energy development for the first time. The geography of the West Coast poses huge technical challenges for wind energy. But rising to meet those challenges is a big opportunity for both… Read more

Colonial Pipeline CEO confirms company paid $4.4 million ransom it wasn’t supposed to pay

Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount has confirmed that his company did in fact pay $4.4 million to the hackers responsible for the ransomware attack on the pipeline system that transports around 45 percent of fuel used on the East Coast, The Wall Street Journal writes. Earlier reporting estimated Colonial Pipeline paid a ransom of nearly… Read more

From Texas to Hawaii: SpaceX plans first orbital Starship test

SpaceX plans to have its first Starship test flight to orbit launch from Texas and splash down off the coast of an island in Hawaii, according to a document the company filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday. The orbital flight test would mark the first time SpaceX stacks both elements of its massive… Read more

First commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the US gets federal approval

The first commercial-scale offshore wind project in the US just got the green light from the Biden administration. The approval has the potential to dramatically grow the nation’s wind energy sector after years of regulatory limbo for proposed offshore projects. The Interior Department (DOI) granted the Vineyard Wind project permission to install up to 84… Read more

The cybersecurity ‘pandemic’ that led to the Colonial Pipeline disaster

The cyberattack that forced the Colonial Pipeline offline is just one failure to address existing weaknesses and an escalating “ransomware pandemic,” experts tell The Verge. That leaves the nation’s energy infrastructure especially vulnerable, even though there are basic steps that could have been taken to prevent the crisis that’s unfolding now. “Honestly, I think for… Read more

Cyberattack prompts shutdown of major fuel pipeline in the US

One of the largest pipelines in the US has been taken offline by its operator following a cyberattack. First reported by the New York Times, Colonial Pipeline, which carries 45 percent of the fuel supplies for the eastern US, said in a statement late Friday that it took “certain systems offline to contain the threat,… Read more

SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience safely returns four astronauts to Earth

Four astronauts returned from the International Space Station early Sunday morning aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico nearly six months after arriving at the orbital laboratory in November last year as the first operational, long-duration crew under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon… Read more

Twitter appears to be having a partial outage Saturday morning

It looks like problems on Twitter that began Friday night are persisting Saturday morning. People on the east coast of the US were reporting that while the page would load, they were unable to send tweets and DMs. Twitter Support posted a brief message Friday night that it was looking into the matter Tweets may… Read more

Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings series to cost $465 million for first season

The first season of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV show is reported to cost the retail giant a frankly difficult to imagine $465 million to produce. Just to save you from having to re-read that, this price tag is for just one season, and that there is not a missing decimal in the… Read more